Spirit

He closed his eyes. Focus. “I thought you were bluffing.”

She caught his earlobe with her lips, then her teeth, sucking it into her mouth.

He felt it all the way through his body. He gasped and had to catch her waist with both hands, still unsure whether he wanted to push her away—or pull her closer.

One of her hands sneaked under his jacket, stroking across his chest with her fingertips. Her lips moved to his neck, and she caught the skin there with her teeth.

He wasn’t going to be able to talk in a second. “Kate,” he said. “Kate—”

She arched into his hands, grabbing one of his wrists and forcing his hand higher on her body, until his palm was over her breast and his thumb was brushing intimate things through the fabric of her shirt.

Hunter hissed a breath through his teeth and had to shift on the bench. It felt like the Ferris wheel was spinning fiercely yet simultaneously standing still. He could only see lights and stars and the glowing halo of her hair.

This time when her mouth fell on his, he didn’t pull away at all. Her tongue slipped between his teeth, teasing at his until he sat up straighter, his free hand at the small of her back, just inside the waistband of her jeans, pulling her closer. He felt silk and lace and skin under his fingertips. All at once, clothes were an irritation, and he moaned into her mouth, drawing at her tongue until she was panting against him.

He was dangerously close to the farthest he’d ever gone with a girl, and here he barely knew her. Instead of that being a deterrent, he never wanted it to stop. The hell with the fires, the hell with his living situation—if he could spend the rest of his life in this Ferris wheel car, doing this exact thing, it would totally be fine.

And then she caught his wrist again, making his hand go still against her. “Easy,” she breathed.

He froze and moved his other hand to safer ground, too. “Sorry,” he said, his voice a whispered rasp of sound. God, he wanted to crack his head on the metal wall of this car. Five minutes ago he’d been pissed at her, and now he didn’t want to stop touching her. How had he lost control like that?

But her eyes were so close, sparking with light. “Are you imagining me na**d again?”

“Ah . . . only in the most respectful way.”

She smiled. Beyond her, the stars were still. They’d come to a stop at the top of the Ferris wheel.

She leaned in close, until her br**sts were against his chest and her breath was warm against his ear. Her hands went under his jacket again, sliding over his shoulders, and he wished that one of his abilities could make clothes disappear.

Then she spoke against his ear. “Touch me again.”

He hesitated, unsure. But then she kissed him again, thrusting her tongue into his mouth. When his palm slid up her side, she grabbed his hand and slid it under the low neckline of her shirt, until his fingers were inside her bra.

He almost came undone right there. His senses were firing like crazy, and all he could think about was apples and cinnamon and the wet addictive pull of her mouth and the softness of the skin under his fingertips.

Suddenly he was powerfully aware of the elements surrounding them. The sharp bite in the air, the electricity firing in the bulbs of the Ferris wheel, the sweat on her skin. A breeze swirled through the car, making her shiver and break the kiss. The lights on the fairgrounds blazed brighter.

Hunter shrugged out of his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. They were moving again, so she tucked in close to him and breathed against his neck.

He ducked his head and brushed a kiss against her temple, wondering how the night had conspired to put him in this position. Kate was a warm weight against him, thrilling and provocative and challenging—yet someone he wanted to wrap up in his arms and protect.

When she turned her head, he met her lips, kissing her slowly, without the fierce aggression that had gotten out of control so quickly. And even slow, kissing her was like setting a pot to simmer. All sizzle on the surface, searing heat on the inside.

Maybe Becca and the Merrick brothers had been right: maybe he just needed to relax and stop worrying about everyone’s angle.

Her phone buzzed, and he was so close that he felt the vibration through her body.

Ignore it, he thought. Ignore ignore ignore—

She sat up, straightened her shirt, and reached into her pocket, not meeting his eyes.

She sat back on his knees and kept the phone out of view.

Hunter looked past her, out at the night. He’d completely forgotten about “her friend.” All it took was a little skin, and he’d turned into the world’s biggest moron. God, he’d been such an idiot.

He didn’t know how to undo this. He felt hurt, but that was stupid. What did he expect? They’d just been talking about the other guy! How had he let it go so far? Thank god he hadn’t said anything about wanting to hold her forever or any of that other crap.

Now he wanted to bang his head against the wall of this car for an entirely different reason.

Kate was shoving the phone back into her jeans. Hunter didn’t even want to look at her.

She put her hands against his chest, but she must have felt the stiffness in his body.

He expected her to climb off his lap, but she didn’t. “Jealous of a text message? Already?”

“Don’t play with me.”

“You weren’t fighting me off a minute ago.”

“Now I wish I had.” He had things to do here. He needed to find his focus before he forgot all that.

He quickly scanned the grounds. No problems that he could see.

Kate was watching him, and the wicked look was off her face. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

That surprised him, and he met her eyes. “You don’t even know me.”

“I’d like to.”

He couldn’t think with her saying things like that while straddling him. He grabbed her waist and lifted her, setting her beside him on the bench. Then he ran his hands back through his hair. “I don’t know what’s real. I don’t know if you’re screwing with me, or if you really want to know me. You know what? Play it straight for a minute. Because I can’t do this.”

Her breathing was quick, and she looked troubled and doubtful.

He was glad, because that was exactly how he felt, too.

“I can’t tell you,” she whispered.

“Why?” he demanded.

Her lips parted.

And then, across the fairgrounds, generators started exploding.

CHAPTER 15

Hunter stood and grabbed at the bars of the car, feeling it rock with his motion. Two generators had exploded, and flames blazed against the sky. On the ground, people were screaming, forming panicked swarms moving in every direction.

He had a perfect view from up here, though the wheel was still turning on its axle, as if the fires were just another spectacle to see from up high.

Another generator exploded, off to his left.

More people screamed. The swarms shifted, moving in a new direction.

Kate was beside him, leaning out as well.

Then her phone chimed, and she looked at it.

What was up with her and this other guy?

Hunter leaned over the side, yelling for the ride operator to let them out—or at least to make the ride stop. He almost couldn’t hear himself over the pandemonium below, so he wasn’t surprised when the guy didn’t look up.

People from other cars were leaning out and screaming, too.

The panic in the air was almost enough to choke him.

Another generator exploded.

The kid running the Ferris wheel yanked a lever in his booth and bolted.

The ride lurched to a stop, so suddenly that Hunter lost his balance and clutched at the bar. The car swung wildly, stuck in the two o’clock position.

Fire was spreading now, leaping from one tent to the next, sending black smoke billowing into the air.

Another generator exploded, also off to his left. The entire carnival was surrounded by fire.

Five generators in a circle. Didn’t get much clearer than that.

Hunter looked for Gabriel, for any of the Merricks. The chaos on the ground was insane: he couldn’t recognize anyone, and the smoke was getting thicker. Several people lay crumpled on the ground, but he couldn’t make out any of them. Sirens screamed somewhere in the distance.

The rage in this fire was familiar: he’d felt it a week ago, during the inferno in the library.

Calla.

He’d been so stupid. He’d expected her to take out a house. One house.

There had to be hundreds of people here. He could feel the fire spreading, forming a true circle, preventing escape. She was going to kill them all.

And here he sat, fifty feet above the ground, unable to do a damn thing.

“We’re trapped,” said Kate.

Hunter looked at her. His head was clouded with too many complicated emotions, and he had to shut them down.

He studied the multicolored lights along the Ferris wheel supports. The whole thing was really just a big complicated wheel held together by steel bars and high tension wire.

The nearest support was in front of him, but lower, about ten feet away.

No, seven. Seven sounded better.

If he thought about this too long, he’d chicken out.

He climbed onto the safety bar, grabbing the steel frame and holding on.

“Holy crap,” Kate cried. “Are you insane?”

His hands were going to be making an impression in the steel in a second. He could feel sweat beginning to collect under his fingertips. “Don’t rock the car!” he shouted.

She went completely still.

Air whipped around him, excited by the frenzy of activity. He had nowhere near enough control to ask it to help him make this jump, but he tried anyway.

“You’re crazy,” said Kate.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he said.

And then he jumped.

He hit the supports hard. The entire frame rattled. The metal rails were narrower than he’d expected, wet and hard to grip. Blood streaked the white paint, and he realized the rusted metal had sliced into his hands.

It didn’t hurt yet.

That meant it would hurt a lot later.

He swung his legs until he found purchase, then looped an arm around the support to take the pressure off his palms.

He took a glance. His hands were a mess.

Then he heard another scream and realized there were a lot of people a lot worse off than he was.

Hunter started to climb. It was like this stupid Ferris wheel had been built precisely to frustrate him, because each support was about a foot too far from the next for him to reach. He had to climb in, toward the center, before he could start climbing down.

His hands were still bleeding. They kept slipping.

Something hit the Ferris wheel and sent a shudder through the frame. He swore and had to loop an arm to stay upright. Had some idiot tried to follow him?

Yes. Kate.

She’d taken the impact better than he had—or maybe she’d just learned from watching him. She’d caught the bars with her arms, and now sat braced in the corner where two supports met. Hunter felt a moment of panic, wondering if he should climb up to help her—or continue climbing down.

But then she started to move, and he realized he should be following her lead.

Kate moved like a frigging acrobat. She twisted between the supports as if they’d been assembled specifically for her use. She’d almost caught up to him in a quarter of the time it had taken him to cross the same distance.

She looked like she belonged in a movie, her blond hair and fair skin striking against the backdrop of the Ferris wheel lightbulbs and the smoky blaze behind her.

“Seriously,” she called. “The staring?”

He shook himself and kept climbing. His palms burned but he ignored it.

The ride had stopped between passengers, so no car sat by the booth. The wheel stopped about ten feet above the platform—which was a six-foot square with a tiny operator booth, sitting about ten feet above the ground.