Darker Days (The Darker Agency #1)(68)

“They’re chalcedony stones. Keep them on you at all times. They will prevent you from becoming infected should the Sins target you.”

Mom closed her fingers around the stones and nodded once. “Thank you, Father.”

By the time we left the church, we had the box, another Sin, and were one step closer to putting the Sins—and Lukas—back.

…

“So how does it work?” We had the box, and we had a couple of Sins downstairs. I was eager to get cracking.

I leaned against Mom’s desk. We’d come home from the church to find Lukas leafing through one of the office magazines. He told us Dad left an hour earlier after getting a report from his boss that there was a disturbance at the mall on the edge of town.

“Only one way to find out.” Mom nodded to the basement stairs. “Shall we?”

I clapped my hands and shimmied in my seat. I was sure she’d make me stay upstairs. “Oh! I get to come, too?”

She rolled her eyes. “If you promise to behave.”

Lukas snorted and grabbed the door, holding it open. “Unlikely.”

Mom snickered and guided Ava toward the stairs. She paused for a moment, looking from Lukas to me. “I’ll give you two a few moments. Meet me downstairs.” She disappeared around the corner.

I took Lukas’ hand and led him around to Mom’s office. She had a separate space from the main room, but she never used it. She said it reminded her too much of her father. It made sense. Everything inside had been that way for as long as I could remember. All the pictures on the walls and the books on the shelves. She’d cleaned off the desk top, but I’d peeked in the drawers once. All of Grandpa’s stuff was still there.

I closed the door behind me. “So, I got something for you.”

Lukas looked genuinely surprised. “Oh?”

When we’d gotten back to the car after chasing Ava, the stuff I’d bought for Lukas was still there. I held it out to him. “Yeah. Supplies. Paper, pencils,…some paint. No big deal.”

His lips split with a smile that lit up the entire office as he took the bag and peered inside. “Really?”

“Thought you might like to mess around with them. You said painting gave you peace and stuff…”

He wasn’t saying anything and I started to feel stupid. He just kept looking from the bag to me. Me to the bag. Over and over again. Of course, a notebook and some stupid pencils weren’t going to make him feel better. He was hours away from being stuffed back into eternal torment.

I shrugged, trying to play it off. “It’s stupid, I know. I just thought—”

He took my hand and pressed it to his lips, then held it tight against his cheek. “It’s amazing.”

My heart kicked into high gear. “Really?”

He nodded, leaning close. “No one has ever given me anything so thoughtful.”

His smile, the way he smelled, the spark in his eyes…they gave me courage. Forgetting for an instant that I didn’t know how to flirt—much less be sexy—I closed the distance and kissed him briefly. “Is it better than this?” I kissed him again, this time winding my fingers through his hair.

I heard the bag thud softly as it hit the floor. A second later, both his arms encircled my waist, dragging me close. He pulled away for a moment, eyes on mine. “I doubt there’s anything in heaven and earth that could be better than this.”

And that was it. The conversation was over. His lips returned to mine with a vengeance, fingers digging into the skin above the waist of my jeans, trying to pull us closer together. Something tickled my brain. A thought that whispered this wasn’t the time or place for this, but I didn’t care. We didn’t have a time or place for this. Now was all there was.

All there would ever be.

Confidence bloomed in the pit of my stomach and I pushed forward, backing him up against the wall. A small chuckle escaped his lips as the kisses dipped lower. First he was tickling my bottom lip with his tongue, then his lips, warm and soft, were trailing eager, hungry kisses down the side of my jaw.

I gasped, my fingers clenching as he hit the hollow of my neck. Head tilting back, I closed my eyes and reveled in the sharp tingling sensation that spread through my entire body. Hell in a hailstorm. Why the hell had I avoided kissing if this is what it felt like?

A few moments later, he pulled away, breath ragged and face flushed. “I’m—I’m sorry. That was…”

I grabbed the side of his face and tilted it toward mine. “Totally awesome? Hot as hell? Why, yes. It was.”

He grinned. “I don’t wish to disrespect you in any way, Jessie. You are…”

“Amazing?” I said with a nervous giggle. His gaze warmed my skin and made the butterflies explode from my stomach.

“I could lose myself completely in you… Fall from grace and never once look back,” he whispered. Mouth covering mine, he kissed me again—but it didn’t last long. “You are the most amazing person I have ever come across—and that makes you dangerous.”

Something in his eyes made the butterflies still. “Dangerous?” Although, I knew exactly what he meant. I felt the same way about him. In a matter of days. Lukas Scott, with his dark hair and liquid chocolate eyes, had made me forget about every one of my rules.

He nodded, letting go of me. With a wide step back, he said, “I want this—you. So much so, that my heart wants nothing more than to find a way to stay here. Any way to stay here. Even if it means helping Meredith free the other Sins.”