Cunningham, Pat - Legacy [Sequel to Belonging] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Pat Cunningham

  Wallace bared his fangs. Jeremy neither moved nor flinched. For one crazy moment Colleen believed Wallace would strike him. Then the vampire moved in a blur up the stairs. The bedroom door slammed shut.

  Jeremy loosed the breath he’d been holding. “So far, so good. If we can get him through tonight, he might be okay.” He gathered her to him. “What about you?”

  “I’ll make it.” She leaned against him gratefully. “I’ve denied my childhood for so long, it’s almost a relief to face the truth. I wish…I just wish I could talk to Mom. I blocked her out, too.” She hid her face against his chest. “I want them stopped. For good. This has to end right now.”

  “We’ll take care of it,” Jeremy promised her. “Annie and Gus will track them down, and Wallace will take it from there.”

  “Wallace doesn’t think I’m human.”

  “Of course you’re human. What else would you be?” He kissed her softly. “You just had an unusual upbringing. So did I. No big deal.”

  His comfort eased her fears somewhat. “Did you know?”

  “About his girlfriend? Yeah. I didn’t know her name. I know what happened to…well, I know why he’s the way he is.” His gaze left her face to travel up the stairs. “I should—” He broke off to look back at her, clearly conflicted.

  Colleen made herself smile. “Go ahead. I’ll be fine. I need a little time to process anyway.”

  “Come with me.”

  She knew exactly what he meant and what he was asking of her. Dangerous Colleen found the idea appealing. More cautious Miss Colly shook her head.

  “I don’t think I’m ready for that just yet. Maybe next time, okay?”

  “Okay.” He kissed her again, this time on the forehead. “If you change your mind…” He left her with the offer hanging and quietly mounted the stairs.

  Colleen sank onto the nearest chair, the overstuffed recliner. Determinedly, she made herself review all she could remember. She couldn’t recall any instances of outright abuse, beyond what she now recognized as captivity. The vampires had never struck or beaten any of the girls, or even used harsh words. She and her friends had been allowed to run wild as long as they didn’t try to leave the compound.

  If anything, the vampires had treated them kindly, almost with reverence. They might even have loved the girls, in their chilly way. Yeah, Colleen thought bitterly, in the way Farmer Brown loves Elsie and Bessie. If anything happened to their stock, they’d have to go out and find others.

  She tried to recall if she’d ever seen a vampire feeding on the mommies. No such incident came to mind. It must have happened, and frequently—wasn’t that why they were kept in the first place?—but not within sight of the girls. No deaths had occurred at the Woods and the Waters until the slayers came. Maybe Mom did wear scarves and high collars a lot, but it got clammy out there in the woods. The men had been kind and polite to them, and the women had seemed content.

  Content, right. Try “drugged.” Her mother had never complained. About anything. When Colleen pictured her mother’s face, she saw a vague little smile and empty eyes. The craziness and the violent outbursts only started after she’d been rescued.

  A smart vampire treats his servants like gold.

  Stolen and locked away, to be taken out and greedily fondled and, when the need arose, spent.

  She cried then, a brief but torrential storm, for her mother and all the things she could and should have done for her had her own insistent denial not blinded her. The vampires had stolen Mom’s life and her blood and gotten her to bear a daughter as her own eventual replacement. Was it any wonder she’d gone insane and insisted her child was a monster?

  Colleen let her tears dry slowly, her cheek resting against the fabric of the chair. The rough twill had Wallace’s sea-breeze scent clinging to it. In a flash her memories thrust her into his arms again, with his mouth on hers and his fangs bruising her lips. The man she’d kissed was not the man who kept sniping at her. He couldn’t be more different from Jeremy, yet the feelings he roused in her were strikingly similar.

  Because he was a vampire, she told herself. The only kind of man she’d known in her formative years. She shivered violently.

  Her gaze drifted toward the ceiling, and the bedroom. It had grown awfully quiet up there.

  Colleen swallowed hard. She couldn’t stop her brain from throwing out pictures of Wallace with his fangs buried in Jeremy’s neck. She refused to accept the notion of Jeremy as Wallace’s slave. If vampires treated their slaves like gold, she imagined Wallace as a hoarder. She wanted a future with Jeremy. Suppose Wallace wouldn’t let go? Was she—were either of them—big enough to share?

  It had to be late, and she’d had a long day, and she was done dealing for now. She’d just curl up right here in this chair, doze off, and forget about everything. Sweep it under the rug for a couple of hours. She’d become so adept at rug sweeping over the years, she figured she should have her own reality show on HGTV. Even though reality hadn’t been kind to her, especially in recent weeks.

  It was a sensible plan, like all her decisions, and would have worked if not for Mother Nature. That urgent call could not be ignored, and the house’s only bathroom lay upstairs. Darn. Shielding her eyes in advance, Colleen crept up the steps.

  Fortunately, the bedroom door had been firmly closed. Colleen darted into the bathroom. After attending to business, she dealt with tooth brushing and makeup removal. If the linen closet held an extra blanket, she could wrap herself in it and sleep in her undies downstairs and not have to bother her hosts.

  The first thing she saw when she stepped outside was the bedroom door, now standing slightly ajar. Hadn’t it been all the way shut before?

  No. Don’t look. Don’t even peek. Still smarting from her invasion of Wallace’s den, Colleen vowed this time to resist temptation. Forget about those gasps and hisses she could hear from within. Just walk right on by.

  Crap and a half. She cracked the door wider and glanced inside, hating her every move because it proved Wallace was right. Just one more nosy chick.

  It’s for Jeremy, she justified. If he’s lying in there bloodless, I need to know.

  No such awful tableau greeted her. The two men stood beside the window, washed in fluorescence and moonlight. Jeremy’s shirt hung open. Not a speck of blood marred his skin, neither on his neck nor anywhere else that her eyes could discern. Wallace was shirtless. Colleen’s stare was drawn to his naked chest, devouring every sculpted muscle, every ragged scar. His build both contrasted with and complemented Jeremy’s unmarred slenderness. Two complete opposites, yet somehow compatible.

  Her imagination had gotten the pose right, just not the players. It was Jeremy’s lips pressed to Wallace’s neck, not the other way around. His hands danced over Wallace’s torso in a visitation of well-known and well-loved territory. Every now and then he hit a spot that made Wallace hiss. The vampire’s fangs showed, and he tightened the arm curved around Jeremy’s waist.

  Colleen’s skin tingled in hungry sympathy with every touch Jeremy delivered to Wallace’s body, recalling similar heated caresses bestowed on her own. Her back arched along with Wallace’s when Jeremy trailed his fingers down the vampire’s spine. Her thighs quivered from the remembered pressure of Jeremy’s legs against them. Her nipples tightened when Jeremy lowered his head to suck along Wallace’s chest. Did Wallace shiver as she did when Jeremy’s scanty stubble scraped the sensitive skin over his ribs? Yes, she could see that he did.

  Heat suffused her face, and an alarming fire flowered in her groin. Okay, now she’d gone too far. She should do the decent thing, back off and run, not walk, down the stairs. The trouble was her feet just would not cooperate. She couldn’t tear herself away from the sight of them together. They were so tender with each other, so obviously deeply in love, and Lordy, was it ever hot.

  Her hand had gone to her breast to pinch her rock-hard nipple. Wallace didn’t have a woman’s breasts. He had a thick rod of a penis, as she’d seen f
or herself. It formed a massive bulge in his jeans as it strained at the leash to get to Jeremy’s. Colleen’s other hand crept to her own throbbing crotch. She bit her lower lip to keep from pressing down. Dangerous Colleen wanted in on the action. She hungered to feel lips claim her mouth, her throat. Jeremy’s, Wallace’s both at once. At this point she didn’t care.

  Oh God, she could smell them. Wallace smelled like the ocean at midnight, currently an ocean in storm. Jeremy had a spicier aroma, steaming coffee with cinnamon. A bracing cup of hot coffee on an unruly sea, that was the two of them together. She was convinced she could hear Jeremy’s blood blasting through his veins like lava. That had to be her imagination. She definitely heard his heartbeat clear across the room. It pounded in sync with her own, just as it did when he had entered her.

  Now Wallace made his move, a slow nuzzle along Jeremy’s jaw down to his neck and the mark he had placed there. His tongue stole out to wash across the mark. Colleen whimpered in concert with Jeremy. She remembered the sandpapery texture of Wallace’s tongue on her lips and longed to feel its roughness on her breasts and neck.

  Then Wallace growled, a low, ragged animal sound, and Colleen lost it completely.

  Both men looked over at her cry. Jeremy appeared startled, but pleased. Wallace didn’t look at all surprised. His wide grin bordered on smirky. Too late, Colleen remembered his vampire senses and the fact he never dropped his guard. He would have heard her heartbeat or smelled her blood or something. He would have known the second she’d paused by the door and how long she’d been standing there, watching them.

  If only people really could die of embarrassment or sink through the floor or something. Colleen prayed for such a swift escape. The universal forces chose to ignore her. Thanks for nothing, universal forces.

  “I’ll leave you two alone,” she croaked and tugged clumsily at the door.

  This time when Wallace moved, he didn’t blur. He approached at human speed. She could have fled downstairs. She could have ducked into the bathroom. Colleen did neither. Wallace’s hand closed over hers on the knob. Her stare met steamy jungle eyes smoldering with arousal.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” he said.

  “I can’t,” she said. They’d looked so right together. How could she even think to intrude on that?

  “Sure you can.” That was Jeremy, appearing at her side as quickly and silently as a vampire himself. His big hand carded through her hair. “Join us.”

  Neither tried to restrain her. The stairs were right at her back. She could still pull away and bolt down them to safety. Wallace’s eyes, Jeremy’s touch, and her own insistent desires held her in place.

  She couldn’t deny it. After her various shocks tonight, she ached for the ultimate human comfort. Or inhuman, she thought, staring at Wallace. She let her hand fall away from the knob and took the single step that admitted her into their bedroom, and their lives.

  Jeremy shut the door. The gentle click triggered a host of uncertainties. Jeremy she trusted completely. Wallace was a whole other animal. Maybe literally. Her stare went automatically to his mouth and the fangs currently concealed behind those plump, enticing lips. How often did his lovemaking end in bloodshed?

  No bitey whispered across her thoughts, with a rumble of vampire laughter. “I don’t eat and fuck at the same time,” Wallace assured her aloud. “Your neck is safe tonight. The rest of you, I can’t make any promises.”

  “I can.” Jeremy kissed her cheek beside her ear. “If you get uncomfortable, or scared, just say so, and we’ll stop.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Wallace growled. “I don’t stop for anything.”

  She temporized by glancing at the bed. “Is there room?”

  “Hey, if it gets crowded, we’ll just kick Mr. Sprawly out.”

  “Kiss my ass,” Jeremy said. “But first, I want to see you kiss Colleen.”

  “You pervy bastard,” Wallace said, but he didn’t hesitate to obey.

  Colleen opened her mouth to his bold, probing tongue and the teasing scrape of his fangs. He tasted of coffee, roast beef, and Jeremy. If any hint of blood lingered, she couldn’t find it.

  Two pairs of arms encircled her. Two hard male bodies captured her between them. Wallace’s teeth played with the thin stretch of skin over her jugular. Jeremy’s breath stirred the hair at the nape of her neck. His heartbeat thudded in her ears. A second—it had to be Wallace’s—pounded beneath it, one sporadic thump at a time.

  Wallace’s mouth left her neck for her cheek, then her ear. His hands toyed with her breasts through the thin fabric of her dress. Jeremy eased the zipper down its entire length and devoted his fingers and mouth to the exposed skin of her back, setting her on fire. Her hands kneaded first the back of one and then the ass of the other, unable to settle on a single target.

  Jeremy lifted his lips from her shoulder. “Undress her,” he ordered Wallace.

  “Hey, ease off. I know what I’m doing. I’ve been with a woman before. It’s just been a while. A really, really, really long while.” Wallace tweaked her cotton-shielded nipple. “This is—wait, it’ll come to me—a tit. Right?”

  Colleen giggled into his neck. She knew he was trying to set her at ease in his sledgehammer way. “Do you need any help?”

  “No, I got this.” With more finesse than she’d expected from him, he eased her dress off her shoulders. The garment slid to the floor. Jeremy bent his knees and peeled off her panties. She stepped out of them and her pumps. Meanwhile, Wallace scrutinized her bra and its front clasp.

  “Maybe you better deal with that. I’m liable to just rip it off you.”

  “That’s what Jeremy does.”

  “I do not.” Jeremy’s lips moved against the small of her back.

  “You do so,” Wallace said. “I go through a ton of boxers thanks to you. Show some respect for the lady’s undergarments.” He brushed his thumb over the clasp, bringing a shiver from Colleen’s already-tortured nerves. “Would you do the honors?”

  Colleen quickly obliged. Like Jeremy, he didn’t seem to mind her lack of spillage. His tongue flicked over his lower lip. “Yeah,” he murmured, “it’s all coming back.”

  He applied his lips to the tops of her breasts while Jeremy devoted himself to her thighs, her butt cheeks, and her lower spine. Between the two of them, she quickly lost any hope of resistance. Her heart pounded for them, her skin hummed at their twin touch, and the heated core of her pussy ached to be filled.

  When they’d started, she’d figured Jeremy would be the one. He was the man with the living dick. Now, with Wallace in front of her and his huge throbbing cock bumping her belly through his jeans, she wasn’t so sure any more.

  At some unspoken signal they switched direction. Wallace kissed his way down her belly while Jeremy kissed his way up her back. Wallace paused with his nose in her bush. “Let’s see if I remember how this works,” he muttered. The next thing she knew, he was tonguing her clit.

  Oh God. That tongue. That tongue had a life of its own. Rough as a cat’s, it hit every nerve in her most sensitive spot and found a few new ones to boot. No man, not even Jeremy, had ever brought her to the brink so quickly.

  Colleen cried out and would have buckled if not for Jeremy’s solid support at her back. He held her hips and nuzzled her neck while Wallace completed his sweep. Colleen rocked against Wallace’s mouth and dug her hands into his crew cut.

  “Still got it.” Wallace licked his lips while Colleen rode out the last delicious shudders of her orgasm. The tongue that had just spun her over the edge teased at her open mouth to share her own taste with her. Her eyelids fluttered shut. Too soon he took it away. She peeked through slitted eyes and saw Wallace kissing Jeremy over her shoulder. “You selfish shit,” Wallace growled when the kiss ended. “Keeping her all to yourself.” He pecked another kiss on Jeremy’s lips, then one on hers, then reached for his belt.

  Jeremy stopped him. He removed Wallace’s hand from the buckle and replaced it with Colleen�
��s. “Let Colleen do it.”

  “Aren’t you the bossy bitch.”

  “And you’re an impatient jerk. Slow down. I’m sick of wham-bam bat sex. We’re going to make this last.”

  “How many of us? I notice you’ve still got your pants on.”

  Jeremy rested his chin on Colleen’s shoulder to gaze into Wallace’s eyes. The hungry rumble in his voice made her shiver all over again. “I’ll get my turn.”

  “Bossy bitch,” Wallace repeated. He looked Colleen full in the eyes with that unblinking jungle stare. “Any time you’re ready.”

  She got his belt undone with fingers that only shook a little. Unbidden and unwanted, her revulsion of vampires threatened to butt in and derail her need. How did one make love to the undead? Obviously, Jeremy had no complaints, but Colleen was used to living men. While she didn’t object to the occasional kink, necrophilia lay way outside her comfort zone.

  Her trepidations vanished when his jeans fell away, and his blunt, thick cock bolted up to say howdy. Nothing undead about that. She stared at it, then into Wallace’s eyes. The same rough hunger she’d heard in Jeremy’s voice glittered in their green. Her timid question, and his eager answer, flitted between their minds. Steeling herself, Colleen took his dick in her hand.

  Not dead. No way, no how dead. Nor cold and clammy as she’d feared. His penis was as hot as a poker and throbbed in her hand. Its tip wept for joy at her touch. Wallace sucked in a breath he didn’t need and hissed it out again. Jeremy hissed against her neck in concert.

  Yes pounded inside her as strong as her heartbeat. Yes to both of them. She didn’t need to say it aloud. It passed between them through their hands and lips and burned in three sets of eyes. Yes. Forever yes.

  Afterwards, Colleen was never quite sure just how she wound up on the bed or which of them placed her there. Perhaps she jumped into bed herself. She was fairly sure it was Wallace who maneuvered her onto her back since he was the one on top of her. Her hands explored his warm-as-living skin, memorizing every crease and scar.

  The bed creaked and the mattress dipped when Jeremy, now as naked as they, climbed aboard. He alternated his caresses between Colleen and Wallace. She did the same. Her palms compared the curve of shoulders and jut of hips and found both to her liking. Her fingers traced the inked outline of Wallace’s axe tattoo then moved upward to perform a similar scan on Jeremy’s jaunty scarecrow.