by Lexi Blake
“Sweetheart, I would feel so much better about this whole enterprise if I knew you were protected.” Dev slid a hand over mine. Dev was never content to just hold my hand. His thumb made sensual promises against my wrist. “We’re very close to an actual physical entrance to the Hell plane. It makes sense to have a bodyguard.”
“And a shopping buddy,” Neil pointed out. “Hey, Zoey, let’s get those big margaritas you can wear around your neck and then we can storm Prada.” Neil turned to Dev, his mouth turning down. “With the money Zoey and I have, we can probably buy a whole key chain.”
Dev was good-natured about being milked for cash. He pulled his wallet out of a pocket in his sport coat and extracted a jet black card. I thought for a moment Neil was going to cry. His hand whipped out, but Dev held back. “Neil, do you know what this is?”
“The key to my heart,” Neil replied with an adoring smile.
“This has no spending limit. When you flash this card, every salesperson within a two mile radius will come running. They will offer you champagne, caviar, hell, they’ll give you a foot massage in the middle of the store. They will do anything to get you to use this little piece of plastic.” Dev squeezed my hand. “So, what do you say, sweetheart? Should I give your bodyguard the keys to the kingdom?”
I rolled my eyes because I was so perfectly caught there wasn’t even a way to yell at him about it. “Bastard,” I managed to mutter, but it came out as an affectionate grumble. “I’ll shop.”
Neil kissed the card as Dev passed it to him. “I’m going to protect you with my life,” he whispered to the card lovingly. “You too, Z.”
Dev shot Daniel a look that said “See that’s how you handle a woman. You go through her gay husband.” And Daniel wordlessly replied with “Well played, dude with endless cash.” Neil was watching the two of them, and I had a suspicion in his version they were already kissing. I caught Neil’s attention, and he wagged his eyebrows lasciviously to let me know I was right. I couldn’t help but dissolve into laughter.
The boys shifted their eyes between me and Neil and then looked back at each other, trying to figure what we were laughing at. They seemed deeply confused, and it just made me laugh more.
The limo pulled up to the Palms, and Daniel got out, followed by Neil. I waited for Dev. He always got out of the car first and then opened the door for me. He even got pissed when a valet tried to help me out. It was something he enjoyed doing, so I didn’t scramble out of the limo after Neil, preferring to wait for Dev. Instead of getting out, he stopped Neil, tugging on his coat. Daniel was halfway in the building when he noticed no one was following him.
“Neil,” Dev began, completely losing the counselor’s smooth tones and sounding reckless again. “Spend whatever you want, and I mean whatever. Go crazy, buddy, but you have to do me two favors.”
“Anything.”
“One, lingerie,” Dev said. “I don’t mean that pretty Victoria’s Secret shit. I want slutty. I want to be able to eat it off her body, man. If it requires double A batteries, consider that a plus. Two, buy her shoes. She wears a seven and a half. Manolos, Jimmy Choos, good, high-end stuff. She’s going to try to talk you into a kitten heel. Screw that. I want a full-blown cat. Nothing under a four-and-a-half-inch stiletto. I look particularly good in jewel tones. Understood?”
Neil gave Dev a quick salute. “She’ll look like your wet dream by the time I’m done with her.”
Dev let him go and sat back. “You can’t imagine my wet dreams, little boy. Now, go tell your master I’ll have his queen back in plenty of time for the party. I have to debrief her, you understand.”
The limo door slammed shut. When he turned to me, I had to catch my breath. The last two days Dev had been very much in a professional mode. He’d been affectionate but circumspect out of respect for working closely with my husband. That cool, respectful man was gone, and in his place was one hungry boy.
“Drive until I tell you to stop,” Dev commanded over the intercom, and the limo pulled away.
“Jewel tones?” My heart rate tripled as he turned those gorgeous green eyes on me.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, sweetheart, but they complement my skin tone. Since those gorgeous shoes end up around my neck, I thought I should get something that looks good on me,” he drawled as he shrugged out of his coat. “I’ll tell you something else that looks good on me—your very naked body.” He reached across the limo and pulled me into his lap. “I need to make a few things clear to you, lover.”
“I’m listening.” I sighed, leaning my head back against his shoulder.
I’d felt very neglected over the last two days. Dev spent much more time with Daniel than me, and I wasn’t secure enough to not be a little jealous. I wondered if I was going to lose both of the men I loved to power and politics. He’d come to bed late, and though he had pulled me into his arms, he’d kissed me and promptly fallen asleep. I wasn’t used to a Dev who didn’t try to get into my pants twice a night.
Now he was making up for lost time. He slipped his hand between my legs and up my skirt. With unerring accuracy, his long fingers started teasing their way inside my underwear.
I’d felt so alone the last few days. I worked with the Revelation and planned out my heist, but mostly I sat by myself and worried. I needed a few minutes where I didn’t think about worst-case scenarios.
“I would give anything to not send you into that welcoming party tonight,” he whispered. His tongue lightly traced the shell of my ear, sending shivers up and down my spine. His fingers played in my pussy, spreading my labia wide. I was already slick with desire. “It’s killing me that I can’t go with you.”
He was talking about the first party of the conference, one that was being hosted in his club. I’d expected that we all would go. I didn’t like the thought of being separated. There were too many things that could go wrong. It was getting hard to think though. He was teasing me, making me antsy and edgy. I wanted to force that finger inside me where it would do some good, but Dev held me tightly, unwilling to give up his game. “But it’s your club.”
“Not tonight it isn’t,” he explained. I caught my breath as one clever finger caressed that bundle of nerves that made me scream. Dev toyed with my clitoris, sliding his fingers along either side and twisting lightly. “Tonight it belongs to the vampires, and I’m not welcome. Vampires and companions only, with the exception of staff. I can go to the ball as part of Daniel’s retinue, but it’s still dangerous. I have to be prudent around you while we’re here. I don’t think you’re going to like that. I need you to understand that I hate this situation. I want to be somewhere fucking you, teasing you, pleasing you. The last thing I wanted was to get involved in a coup attempt.”
Dev’s hand pulled away. Before I could protest, I was flat on my back. Dev’s weight settled on top of me. I hated the clothes between us. Skin to skin. That was what I needed. His body nestled against mine like puzzle pieces that fit perfectly. “Then why are you doing this?”
His hair fell across his forehead, and he was so beautiful, my heart skipped a beat. His green eyes were intense and filled with something far beyond simple lust. He leaned over, his nose nuzzling mine. Since he’d given up being strictly my lover, he’d become more and more affectionate, his sweetness growing daily. “Blame yourself, Zoey. I might have been happy with a nice long affair until you climbed on that altar. I know I was high, but don’t think I can’t remember that moment. I’ll remember it as long as I live. I was going to enjoy you, lover, for as long as I could. Then I was going to respectfully allow you to go back to your husband because I thought that was what you would want in the end. Fuck that, Zoey. You blew that plan all to hell, and I’ll do anything to stay in your life. You should have run.”
I brought my hands up, cupping his face. We hadn’t really talked about that night. “I couldn’t leave you.”
“All of my life I have been the expendable one.” He lowered his forehead to mine, cuddling up
against me. “I was the spare, and after I proved too human, I wasn’t even that. Do you know how many people have told me they love me? I can get an ‘I love you’ out of a woman by looking at her. It’s meaningless. It’s a phrase designed to get me to do something. Even when you said it to me in the barn, I didn’t really believe it. I thought you wanted to keep your lover for a while longer. I was pleased that it wasn’t over, but I didn’t believe. You proved me wrong. You would have done anything to save me.”
I brought my hands up to hold his head to mine. “I love you.”
“You would have sacrificed yourself.”
“I love you,” I repeated because he needed to hear it. He needed to believe it. Despite his good looks and wealth, he was just a man with all a man’s insecurities. I loved him. I meant to be his safe harbor, as I once had been Daniel’s.
“You love me,” he whispered, wonder in his voice. “Know this, Zoey, I will do my best to advise your husband. I will do everything I can to see you on a proper throne with all due rights as his queen. I will stand in the shadows. I will concede my place at your side. I will never concede my place in your bed, and I will not concede your heart. Love Daniel all you like as long as there is a place for me.”
When he kissed me, it was with everything he had. He didn’t bother to undress me, simply shifted a bit and pulled up my skirt before tugging my undies down. The situation was far too urgent. He fumbled, a word that almost never described Dev. He was smooth and silky but tonight he faltered.
I took charge for the first time. I unzipped his pants, reaching for his cock, stroking him until he groaned. I guided him to me and wrapped my legs around him, offering him everything I had. He kissed me as he strained to work his way inside me, slowly, inch by inch, teasing his way in, letting me get wet around him.
Dev groaned and pulled himself out.
“Condom,” he muttered with a grimace. He pulled one out and rolled the hated piece of latex over his cock, and then came back to me.
“I love you, Zoey,” he whispered as he started to glide his cock over that sweet spot he always found so quickly. “Remember that. No matter what you see tonight, no matter what you have to do, I love you.”
An hour later, the limo rolled back in front of the casino. Dev set down his drink and tried to smooth his clothes into something that resembled a presentable state. After the things we’d done in that limo, there was no way his clothes stayed perfectly pressed. My comfortable clothes had held up better, but it was time for me to get ready for the party.
The driver opened the car, and the first thing I saw was Daniel. He leaned against the side of the building, a hollow look on his face. When he glanced up and saw me, his face went blank and he made his way to the limo.
“It’s time, Zoey,” Dev said, picking up his drink again. He took a long swallow of vodka. “Go with your husband. I’m going to find a poker table and hope no one tries to righteously kill me.”
I leaned over to kiss him good-bye, but he put a hand between us. “No, Zoey. No more affection where anyone could see us. I told you you wouldn’t like it, sweetheart. Unless we are with Daniel and playing out our happy ménage, I will treat you with the courtesy of a servant. This game has started.”
Daniel held out his hand to help me out of the limo. His eyes were dark, but he swallowed his anger. “I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t do that again, Dev.”
Dev inclined his head slightly to show his agreement. He looked at me and his face was blank. I was staring at the face of a politician, not my lover. “Zoey, you do not dare enter that gathering without his mark on you. Do you understand?”
I understood. Tonight Daniel would be drinking straight from the tap.
“How long?” I demanded. “How long do we have to play this stupid game?”
Dev reached for the vodka bottle. “We play until we win or we die.”
I let Daniel help me out of the car. He shut the door and the limo took off.
“Zoey, people are watching.” Daniel pulled me close, and I let my arm go around him.
I was grateful for his strong arm around me because I didn’t like being the center of this attention. When Daniel said people, he meant vampires. I suddenly felt very ill equipped to do this part of the job. I was ready to slip into Hell and rescue my friend, but I wanted to hide at the thought of having to fit into vampire society.
“Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Donovan.” A well-dressed man approached us. He was a middle-aged man with a solid build.
“Roman.” Daniel shook the man’s hand. “Zoey, this is Roman. He runs Dev’s club here in Vegas. He’s been assigned to make sure we’re comfortable.”
“It is a great pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Donovan.” Roman bowed my way, a gallant gesture. “Know I stand ready to meet your every need. My employer was quite adamant about making sure you were comfortable. Please understand that credit has been guaranteed at any store you would like to shop at or any restaurant you care to dine at. There is a driver at your disposal twenty-four hours a day.”
“We get it,” Daniel said irritably. “He wants her taken care of.”
Roman stopped, his eyes slightly confused. “You do understand that he’s done the same for you, Mr. Donovan? My employer was quite adamant that you both be taken care of.”
That stopped Daniel for a moment. “Thank you. I appreciate it. Could you please show us to our room? We don’t have as much time as I thought we would.”
Roman led the way into the casino. Daniel and I walked behind him. I’m sure I looked like a gawky tourist, but I didn’t care. Vegas was completely new to me, and I was kind of awed by the decadence of it.
Daniel leaned over and whispered in my ear. “This place is full of vampires, baby. Be very careful. That one over there is a Council member named Niko. He knew Socrates on a personal level. He’s looking forward to meeting you, Z. Everyone is very curious about us.”
I started toward the elevators but Roman diverted us.
“Your rooms have a private elevator, Mrs. Donovan.” He indicated a lovely glass elevator off to the side of the lobby. He punched in a code and the elevator began to slide down toward us. “They’re going to be curious, Mr. Donovan, because it has been a very long time since the Council designated a Nex Apparatus. It scares the hell out of everyone. As for you, Mrs. Donovan, they’re likely wondering what kind of woman shares a bed with such a man. A companion is used to a certain hardness in the vampire she serves. Mr. Donovan is believed to be on a whole new level. The other companions, they pity you.”
The elevator opened and Roman entered, but I grabbed Daniel’s hand. His eyes were downcast, his mouth a tight line. I looked around and, sure enough, there were at least ten pairs of eyes looking at us. Three women looked at me with great sympathy.
I could be angry with Daniel, but I wasn’t letting anyone pity me for being married to him. I smiled and with great tenderness, lifted my lips to his. There was no mad lust in my intent. This was affection and caring, and Daniel responded in kind. His lips touched mine, sweetly saying so much more than passion could. I laid my head on his shoulder, and he wrapped me in a protective circle. We stayed there for a moment and then entered the elevator. I watched as they gawked at us. Daniel leaned down and set his chin on the top of my head, watching the lobby as well.
“Thank you, Z,” he said quietly.
“They don’t know you, Danny.” If they did, they would think I was lucky. At that moment, I was thinking I was insane. I’d just left the arms of one man I loved and promptly found myself wrapped up in another. And my heart was just as content here.
“Maybe you don’t know me,” he said, pulling away.
I rolled my eyes. “Is this your ‘rail against fate’ time or are you brooding? And what the hell is a Nex Apparatus?”
Roman piped up. “It means Death Machine. Daniel Donovan is the Council’s Death Machine.”
Daniel looked down again with a sort of shame that made my heart ache.
Still,
I snorted. I couldn’t help it. “That is the worst super villain name I ever heard. No one knows what Nex Apparatus means. What’s up with all the Latin? When you show up to kill someone and give them your name, they’re supposed to quake in fear, baby, not ask you for a translation.”
Daniel laughed, and I was happy to get that look off his face. I didn’t blame him for anything he’d done while working for the Council. He’d done it to survive. “I’ll try to come up with something more suitable for you, Z.”
“Good.” I looked back down at that lobby. I would have to face those people soon enough. “And I’ll try to find you some spandex.”
“Neil will be thrilled,” Daniel admitted, and he squeezed my hand. I got the feeling we’d be doing a lot of hand holding in the next couple of hours.
Whether I was ready or not, Dev was right. This game was on.
Chapter Eighteen
When I stepped out of the shower, Daniel was sitting on the bed, slacks on, shirt off. I stopped, my feet planted to the ground. Intimacy. Even at home, we’d been careful of not catching each other in moments like this. Moments that felt like before, when it would have been perfectly normal for him to see me wrapped in a fluffy robe.
We were stuck in this suite together, pretending to be lovers for days. What would it feel like when Dev was here, too? When we were all thrown together, forced into a fake intimacy?
“Zoey, I’m sorry.” His hands were shaking slightly, evidence of his need. “We should get this over with.”
“All right,” I said, loosening the belt of my robe. “Where do you want me?”
It was awkward. I was thinking about the fight we’d had and all the horrible things we’d said to each other. And I was thinking about the good times, too. I was thinking that we’d always talked about getting married in Vegas and avoiding a big wedding because it seemed silly when my father was our only family.
Of course, our little elopement wouldn’t have included an entourage and a fabulous suite, and those fangs in Daniel’s mouth.
