Retrieval (40 page)

“Fine. How’s
Maman
?” Sky asked him and hoped that Rover would let it go for now.

“She says to bring you home again, and she’ll make some alligator soup that will blow you ’way,” Rover said around a grin.

“Tell her she’s on.”

Sky’d spent a few days in the bayou where Rover and his family lived. It’d been quite an adventure, but in the end Rover had been too much of a reminder of Bastian, uh, Sebastian.

“Sky, I want you to meet my man, well, my primary one anyway. You’ll meet the other two later,” Sasha said and introduced her to Dray Bonner.

The man suited Sasha perfectly. Tall, large, and protective as hell, he looked like he could stand up to whatever her sister dished out. She remembered seeing him also enclosed in Aleksei’s protective shield at GenTech, and he reminded her of Sebastian, all except for the standing up part. Other introductions were made, though Sky didn’t pay much attention. She was still miles away inside her mind.

“Not now sister dear,” Kinsey said at her ear. “You’re bleeding over pretty bad, and we don’t want everyone knowing how vulnerable you are, okay? Lock it up tight, and we’ll deal with it later.” She finished by giving Sky a quick, hard hug.

“Soooo. Let me be the first to wish the hottest women on the planet a happy birthday.” This from Eric Dole who now had his arm around, wait—was that Dawn? From GenTech?

“Your face gives you away. Yeah, it’s me. My name’s Dawn Ryder and it’s nice to meet you under different circumstances. Happy Birthday, and welcome to Ray’s.” The woman smiled and offered her hand, which Sky took carefully, preparing herself for any backlash. The last time she’d touched this woman her link with Sebastian being reestablished.

Thankfully nothing happened, and Sky released the woman’s hand quickly after giving the perfunctory greeting in return.

“What’s with you?” Piper asked her when everyone had settled down.

“What do you mean?” Sky asked her curiously.

“You act like we all have the plague or something,” Piper said behind a smile.

“Nothing’s wrong, I just don’t like to be touched anymore,” Sky replied.

“Really?” Piper drawled knowingly.

“Yeah, really. So let it go all right? I don’t want to get into it with you tonight. Let’s just have a good birthday and not argue, ’k Pipe?” Sky pleaded.

“For now it’s okay, but trust me, you might change your mind later on,” Piper responded enigmatically before grabbing a drink from a passing waiter.

“So, Sky? Do you sing?” Sasha’s sister Hal asked her.

“Yes, a bit. We all do; why?”

“Just wondering.”

“Do you dance?” this from another sister, Devyn.

“Sometimes,” Sky answered carefully, not knowing where all these questions were leading.

“Yes!” a chorus of male voices shouted out from the other end of the table.

Sky sent out a question to Raina about who the males were and was told that they were members of Bonner’s team. Bonner’s twin brother and his wife, Bleak’s sister, hadn’t arrived yet, but apparently all of the men there had extensive knowledge of what happened when the Bennoit women went wild. And they all liked it … a lot.

“No!” this from Dray Bonner himself.

“Yes. Please?” the other men yelled over him, and this sent the women into a fit of laughter.

They turned questioning eyes to Sasha and watched as Devyn got up and made her way over to the DJ, who laughed and nodded his head at whatever she asked him.

Sasha noticed her confused look and said, “First we dance, and then we sing.” The last part was drowned out by the beginning strains of George Michael’s “Freedom! ’90.”

All the Bennoit women whooped and hollered, and the McKannon sisters all got up as well, dragging Sky right along with them out to the gorgeous dance floor that was filling quickly.

She wasn’t in the mood to dance, but her sisters were having such a good time, she didn’t have the heart to not join in. It’d been a while since she had cut a rug, but she remembered how, and she loved George Michael.

“Sasha does too. Must be in the DNA,” Kinsey said and snorted.

Her lines of communication were wide open with her sisters, but she was feeling a familiar presence somewhere close by. It was vague, but familiar in a way that she couldn’t understand. Whoever it was seemed to be searching for her but was unwilling to let her know they were doing it.

That frightened her a bit. Before she realized what she was doing she’d gathered energy to throw a shield. As quickly as she began, she stopped. She wasn’t her sisters’ protector any longer. Each of them had gifts, and they could all protect themselves, even Raina. She decided that whoever was close could damn well make themselves known to her. She wasn’t going to close her sisters off from the fun by shielding them.

“It’s okay Sky. Have fun. You are allowed to do that from time to time,” Piper said and danced off.

Sky was left standing in the middle of nine other women who were gyrating, laughing, and singing right along with good old George, and pretty soon she was caught up just as they were. For the first time in a long time, Sky let go and just had fun. It was amazing, and as song bled into song the sisters gave her room to let her do her thing while they did theirs. Men who were brave enough would try to join in from time to time, and as long as they didn’t put their hands on her she was fine.

*

“They are too damn hot to be let loose on society,” Rover said to his friends.

“Just wait till they sing, Cajun. Just you wait,” Bonner’s man, Itchy, replied to which the rest all agreed.

“He’s here,” Dray Bonner said leaning over to Rover in an effort to be heard. “You better go prepare him. He’ll hit the roof when he sees her dancing with another man.”

“Be good for him dontcha’ think?” Rover replied with a grin as he got up to go intercept his teammates.

“Be good for somebody, but not him and not right now. Trust me,” Bonner said with a knowing grimace.

“Nah, it’ll be just the thing to get his ass into shape and where he belongs … with her,” Rover said as he walked toward the stairs that would take him to the entrance of Ray’s.

*

There was determination on Rover’s face, and Sebastian knew that she was here, in Ray’s, possibly just feet away. He’d felt her presence the moment she’d stopped shielding, shortly after she’d landed in Georgia. But it was even stronger now. It was as if weights had been lifted off her, and she didn’t care if anyone she had a link with knew what she was feeling.

He’d made the decision a month ago that life without her was useless. He needed her like he needed the air to breathe, and he was tired of fighting his own stupid pride. It had taken him a little longer than it should’ve, but he wanted her back. And he wasn’t waiting another night to hold her, to love her. She’d taken the sun with her when she left his house in Idaho the last time, and even though he’d known he shouldn’t let her go, he had because of his damn stupid pride.

He’d wised up finally, but when he went looking for her he’d been unable to find her. It wasn’t until recently he’d even thought of looking for her in a hospital setting. He hadn’t thought to look for her where she was the most comfortable. Her sisters had been mute and still gave him hell for the way he’d treated her when she’d gone to apologize to him. He had no excuses for that; he could only hope that she was willing to give him another chance. And if he had to make her, so be it.

“Seb, man. Good to see you. This little hole in the ground is rocking tonight. You sure you can handle it yeah?” Rover asked him with a searching glance.

“Handle what?” Sebastian asked in a tight voice. Was she with someone?

All of the information his man Craven had given him suggested she did nothing but go to work, eat, and sleep. Had she found someone else?

No way. Not his Skylar. Her affections weren’t so easily given or taken away. She might be angry with him, but he intended to make the last four months of his hardheadedness up to her. Her sisters had called him yesterday to coyly drop the hint about their birthday, and how a certain sister just might show up. He’d immediately hopped a flight to Atlanta and stayed with the Bonner clan last night.

He’d felt her arrival like a lightning bolt down his spine. He’d wondered if she felt him as well? He’d been shielding like a mother to prevent her from knowing he was coming, but nothing with their link was foolproof. The fact that it was still there at all was proof of that.

“Handle her, man, what else were you thinking?” Rover read his face like a map and nodded knowingly before he said, “No, man, you’re lucky, she ain’t with no one …
yet
.”

“
Ever
, Rover. She won’t ever be with anyone but me,” he said.

“Well then, let’s go on down for a little dancing, shall we?” Rover laughed.

“Lead the way brother, I’m right behind you.” He followed Rover and in turn was followed by Morrissey and Bleak, both of whom had listened silently to the exchange.

Going down the spiral staircase, Sebastian could feel the pulse-pounding music. The darkness lit up intermittently by strobes of multicolored lights. Whoever the DJ was, he was really good, and Sebastian felt something loosen inside of him knowing that he was so close to her.

Then she was there. Everything else faded. He stopped dead still on the stairs. Morrissey cursed when he almost tripped over him, but he couldn’t move. She was so fucking beautiful that it hurt to look at her. Her black-fire hair hung in soft waves to the middle of her back now, and hadn’t it just been four months since he had seen her? Who knew hair grew that fast?

Her body was encased in tight black jeans, knee-high heeled boots, and she was wearing a body-hugging black, sleeveless sweater that showcased her phenomenal bosom. She was laughing, her slim arms waving to and fro as she frolicked on the dance floor to some currently popular song. He stiffened as he watched a man approach her and try to grab her from behind, but she turned effortlessly and shook her head before turning back to her sisters and continuing to dance.

He didn’t realize he’d stopped breathing until the air filled his lungs as the other man left her alone.

She moved like the most fluid of dancers. Her hair shone in its fiery abundance as she moved hither and yon then suddenly she stopped and began looking around her as if confused.

Then she zeroed in on the stairs, and the hair on the back of his neck rose when their eyes met. Everything but her ceased to exist for him, and before he knew it he was moving down the stairs, not breaking eye contact with her.

She began to move toward him as well, and they met somewhere in the middle. All around them people stopped dancing and stared at them. The DJ stopped the music, and silence reigned in the club, nothing to be heard, but his own heartbeat.

It was time for him to beg.

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

They both spoke at the same time. Maybe it wasn’t going to be as hard as he’d thought. Maybe she was more forgiving than he was.

“I am, but that’s not why I rushed to meet you halfway,” she said, and both her voice and her face were somber.

“I don’t care why you did it, I’m just glad you did. I’m sorry, Skylar, so damn sorry. If my head hadn’t been so far up my own ass, I would’ve realized what I was doing. I should’ve never sent you away baby.” Sebastian moved the last foot toward her and reached to cup her precious face in his big hands.

Is this really happening?
Her thought trickled into his brain, and his heart sped up.

“Yes,” a chorus of affirmations boomed from behind them, and her sisters giggled. She raised an eyebrow in their direction.

“It doesn’t matter, Sebastian. All that matters is right here and right now. Why did you come here tonight?” she asked him, her whiskey eyes peering inside to the heart of him.

“For you. I knew you were coming, and I had to see you, to tell you…”

“Tell me what?” she asked him in a whisper.

“You’re my everything. There hasn’t been one day since you left me in Idaho that it hasn’t rained inside my soul. I love you, Sky, and I want you with me forever. Will you forgive me?”

He didn’t care that everyone and their mama watched them. He only cared about Skylar. If she rejected him now as he had done to her in Idaho those months ago, he’d deserve it, but it would crush him.

“I would never hurt you intentionally,” she told him solemnly.

Her hands rose and rested on his wrists. She held him tight as she said the next words.

“Sebastian Graham, I love you. I will always be yours.”

That was all he needed; he pulled her into his body and wrapped his arms around her, holding onto her in the tempest of their storm. He was shaking, or maybe she was shaking, and then it didn’t matter because he was kissing her, and their fire raged.

They were so focused on one another that even when the DJ started playing “Gin and Juice” by Snoop Dogg, they didn’t break apart.

“I’ve got to get you out of here,” he whispered against her ear.

“Yes.”

He inhaled sharply as her thoughts once again sifted through his mind.
Naughty woman.

“I couldn’t agree more, baby. Stick with me, and we’re so gone.”

She laughed, and the sound lightened his heart. He picked her up and began making his way out of the club.

“Hey!” Sebastian heard Bonner yell.

He stopped and turned to the man, impatience, he knew, written all over his face.

“Here’s the key to the cottage. Skylar? Try not to destroy it.” Dray laughed and then rubbed his arm where Sasha punched him.

“Don’t bet on it,” she called out, and then they were making their way out of the club.

“I bet you can’t make it all the way back to the cottage without stopping on the side of the road,” she teased him.

*

Not even thirty minutes ago she’d been morose thinking about a long life without him, and now she was in his arms.

“I bet you can’t make it all the way back to the cottage without making me stop on the side of the road,” he taunted right back.

He punctuated that remark by setting her down beside an enormous 4x4 Chevy Silverado truck and bending down to lick a hot path up the side of her neck.