A shout followed by a drunken laugh stirred Marcus. He blinked his eyes open, confused at first as to where he was. It was the head resting on his chest and the warm body on his legs that brought his memory back to him. Damn . . . he’d just experienced his first bout with life mate sex . . . and it had been . . .
Damn, he thought. There was no way to describe it. He’d heard it called mind-blowing and incredible and it had certainly been both those things, but that was like calling a tornado a light breeze, or saying a tsunami was the tide coming in. What he’d experienced had been mind-bending and life altering and he definitely never wanted to let it go.
Another laugh, this one closer, claimed his attention again and Marcus glanced around, quickly taking in their situation. They’d passed out and were outside, lying on the ground next to her RV . . . and someone was coming, stumbling drunkenly toward them . . . more than one someone.
Marcus swept the area in both directions, but didn’t yet see whoever was approaching. Marcus then briefly debated just waiting there and trying to control the person or people when they got close enough for him to see them. He could take control, ensure they didn’t see him and Divine, and send them in another direction . . . if there weren’t more than two. Two would be tricky, but more than that would be pretty much impossible.
He’d just had the thought when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced to the side and down. He was lying on his back between the two RVs with his feet toward the back of the RVs and the midway, and his head toward the front of the RVs and the back lot where the bunkhouses were. The movement he’d glimpsed was several pairs of feet, maybe a half a dozen, walking along the back of the RV. Within half a dozen steps the owners of those feet would be at the opening of the space between the two RVs and able to see them.
Marcus moved quickly then, shifting to the side to slide under the RV that Divine was supposed to use, and dragging her with him through the dirt. He tried not to think about what the action must be doing to her new clothes, more concerned with getting them both under the cover of the vehicle before they could be spotted. And they would have been spotted for certain, he thought grimly as the six pairs of feet turned down the row between the RVs to make their way to the back lot.
“These are new,” someone said, the words slightly slurred.
A group of the young carnies returning from celebrating the end of a long workday, Marcus thought and didn’t doubt that was the case. He didn’t know where they got the energy though. They worked like dogs all day in the heat and should have been sacked out, exhausted in their beds when midnight came and the carnival closed.
“Maybe Divine got a new trailer and is back,” another voice suggested. The first had been female. This one was male.
“That’d be awesome,” another male voice said. “Divine’s hot.”
“Hot?” another female demanded in sulky tones. “She’s old. She has to be at least twenty-five.”
“Yeah? Well, I’m twenty-four, so I guess I’m old too. Too old for you at least. What are you anyway? Twelve?” he taunted as they passed the spot where Marcus and Divine lay.
“Eighteen,” the girl snapped with irritation. “Bob and Madge would hardly hire a twelve-year-old.”
“Whatever,” the fellow laughed, his voice growing fainter.
Marcus tipped his head to watch the group reach the front of the RV and turn left to walk along the back lot. He waited a moment, and then glanced around, checking under the RVs in all directions to be sure no one else was approaching. Only then did he slide out from under the RV, taking Divine with him again. Once he had them both in the lane between vehicles, Marcus quickly stood and then stooped to scoop up Divine.
She wasn’t sleeping. Divine didn’t even stir. She was definitely unconscious, which was another sign of life mates; they usually passed out during or after life mate sex. The thought made him cuddle her closer against his chest. She was his. His life mate, his partner, the light that would stave off the darkness over the next two millennia or more of his life. She would be his reason for rising in the morning and she would be why he went to bed at night at peace with his world . . . so long as she wasn’t Basha Argeneau.