Under His Wings(27)

Tamar clutched the doorknob, her ear plastered to the door.

The frantic pace of her heart tripled as Nicolai’s heavy footsteps neared the bathroom and paused. She shut her eyes, pressed harder. If her ear came away painted a coat of powder-blue, she wouldn’t be surprised.

After several long seconds, the resonant tread moved again and, an instant later, her bedroom door opened and closed.

She expelled her pent-up breath, the whistle like the leak of a balloon.

Now to get the hell out of here.

Tamar wasted no time unscrewing the lock before twisting the knob and jerking the bathroom door open. Like a windup toy on speed, she darted around the room, yanking drawers free and snatching up clothes with no regard to whether they matched or not. Tank top, jeans and flip-flops. She tugged them on in record time, grabbed her keys off the dresser and crossed the bedroom. Cracking open the door, she listened then cautiously peeked around the door jamb.

No Nicolai.

Before she changed her mind, she charged down the staircase, again pausing when she reached the bottom. Her fingers curled around the railing as she crouched down on the last step and sucked in a breath, trying to hear over her pounding pulse.

Voices. Plural.

She couldn’t detect the words, but the deep timbre of male voices came from the direction of the back porch.

Now was her chance.

She didn’t think, didn’t slow down to give herself time to be afraid of Nicolai catching her. Wrenching open the front door, she flew over the threshold and scurried across the porch and down the stairs.

In seconds that felt like years, she was in the car turning the ignition. She cringed as the engine roared to life, but the grinding noise didn’t stop her from pulling the gear into drive and smashing her foot on the gas pedal.

The car bucked then shot out of the driveway.

Barely easing her foot off the accelerator, she jerked the steering wheel to the right and the vehicle veered onto the quiet deserted street. The houses went by in a blur and once she passed out of her neighborhood relief edged in, nudging out the panic.

The speedometer didn’t dip under sixty, but she sighed and released her death grip on the steering wheel.

“Shit!”

She slammed the brakes and yanked the wheel so hard a twinge spasmed across her shoulder blades. Tires screeched and the noxious odor of burning rubber penetrated the rolled up windows as the car skidded into a wide arc, her front tires coming to a jarring rest against the curb.

The hippogryph in the middle of the street glared at her through Nicolai’s purple eyes.

Its heavy brown-and-white body quivered and its large brown wings flared wide, the white tips easily reaching either side of the road.

Tamar stared at the beast outside the driver’s-side window, frozen.

“Wow,” she breathed. He was…wow.

A shimmer rippled the air like a massive heat wave that rose from the ground and covered the hippogryph in its power. In the next moment Nicolai strode toward her, long legs eating up the distance in seconds. She received a brief glimpse of a stunning naked man before blue denim encased his lower body, though that amazing chest with its primitive scroll of artwork remained bare.

The grim set of his mouth, the narrowed slits of his eyes, the fists balled at the sides of his tree trunk-sized thighs—those tell-tale signs of fury snapped her out of the awe-induced stupor and got her ass moving.

As she fumbled with the gear shift, a tiny voice of reason whispered, The man can freakin’ fly. Why do you think you can outrun him when the first time went so well?

But logic had escaped on the same boat as common sense.

Finally, her trembling ceased long enough for her to grip the shaft. But before she could put the car in gear, her door flew open and Nicolai destroyed any hope or thought of fleeing the scene.

“Move over,” he said.

Beneath the soft, carefully enunciated words simmered an anger that lashed out at her, its heat licking her exposed skin.

He didn’t wait for her to obey his command. Nicolai lowered his bulk into the Honda compact, shrinking the interior to a fraction of its original space. With a flick of his wrist, he released the lever and the seat jacked back several inches, granting him a little more space to fit his legs beneath the dashboard.

He looked like a clown stuffed into a circus car. All he needed was about eight more of his buddies to pile in with them.

Pressed against the passenger side door, Tamar clapped a palm over her mouth, stifling the hysterical giggle that bubbled up her throat.

Nicolai shot her a black look which she responded to with a helpless shrug. With another fierce scowl, he shifted the car into reverse and drove them back to her house.

After five tense minutes, they pulled up in her driveway. She didn’t wait for Nicolai to turn the engine off before she jumped out of the car and hurried across her lawn to the house. Not that her mad dash mattered. He was hot on her heels, his breath heavy on her neck.