by Mina Carter
“From here.” Thyme’s hip bumped mine. She was giving my sister a wide birth.
“And where do you live now? Billy didn’t say.” Her tone was laced with accusation. Maybe she thought Thyme had latched onto me for financial reasons.
“I have a condo near the river.” Thyme’s expression was fully neutral under her mask. I was sure only I could tell that she was getting uncomfortable.
“Listen, Cassidy,” I interrupted. “We’ve got to go. I’ll see you soon.” I leaned over to kiss Phoebe’s curls and tucked Thyme tighter to my side, waving goodbye to my parents before we went through the door. Thyme blew her Mamere a kiss.
Out in the hall, the hour was late, there were still lots of people milling about, some talking in groups, some stumbling drunkenly down the corridor.
Arm draped over Thyme’s shoulder, I slid out my cell with my other hand and called Lorraine. “Yes, we’re just leaving now…Which way to the car?...Ok, Thanks.”
I steered us to the VIP parking garage, event security shadowing us discretely as they’d been doing all night. While we waited next to the valet podium for our driver, Thyme took off her shoes. The delicate straps dangled from her fingertips as I played with her hair.
As soon as we were settled in the back seat, the glass partition separating us from the driver, I abandoned the cool act and asked the question that had been churning in my gut for hours. “You become a shade again in the morning?” My eyes were fixed on her face.
“Oui, Billy,” she confessed. “I wish we had longer. I didn’t mean to deceive you. I only thought one of us should enjoy our time together without that certainty looming over us.”
“Oh, Thyme.” I dropped my forehead to hers staying there for a moment wishing I could dive into those violet pools of hers and never leave. The world seemed to keep conspiring against me having what I wanted. I sat back in my seat and tucked her tightly to my side, the downtown streets of New Orleans flying by as fast as my time with her.
If I had known I would’ve whisked her away from the Bacchus event and everyone else hours ago. I didn’t let any of my angst show though when I tipped her chin up and kissed her full lips softly and slowly as if we had all the time in the world.
“We’ll just have to make sure every moment we have left lasts a lifetime,” I told her when I lifted my head.
I didn’t remember the details of the rest of the drive. I had no idea how the driver got around the Mardi Gras crowds and barricades to get us as close to the apartment as he did. I just knew that once there, I swung Thyme into my arms, really holding her this time, not like it had been when she was a shade. But instead of being ridiculously happy, I felt a deep sense of trepidation settling into my bones along with a growing sense of urgency.
I got my key in the door as she undid the buttons of my collar nuzzling my neck with her warm lips. I took the steps two at a time trying not to look at my watch when I opened the final door to let us inside.
“Billy.” She cradled my face with her delicate hands as soon as I set her bare feet on the floor, her violet eyes glowing softly.
The way she looked at me, the way she said my name, turned me on and turned me inside out like no woman ever had before. Grabbing her by the hips, I yanked her body into mine crushing my lips to hers.
She took the brunt of my passion willingly making low appreciative sounds in the back of her throat, her hands going underneath my blazer, untucking my shirt, seeking my skin.
I groaned into her mouth when I felt her urgent fingers exploring low on my back. My dick hard as granite in my jeans, I lashed my tongue almost brutally across hers. Needing her, wanting her, telling her without words how crazy I was about her.
*****
Thyme
I wanted more. I couldn’t get enough of him and what he was doing to me with his deep intoxicating kisses and his fingers flexing low on my hips. His lips danced hard and insistently over mine, and his tongue alternated between coaxing strokes and dark, delectable plunges.
When he lifted his head an indefinite amount of time later, I was gasping for air. He stared into my eyes, his face taut, and his gaze glowing with ardent purpose before moving his heated assault lower, conquering the column of my arched neck, breathing my name like a question over and over again.
“Yes, Billy,” I rasped in acquiescence. “Yes. Yes.”
His hands moved to the back zipper of my dress drawing it down and shoving the bodice aside so he could lick and suck along the outline of my collarbone. My hands were just as industrious, first gliding his blazer off his broad shoulders, then working my way quickly down the buttons of his shirt.
I’d just parted the fabric and gotten my palms on the smooth hard wall of his chest when his lips closed around one of my nipples.
I moaned in ecstasy, feeling each subsequent lick, nip and tug of his mouth much lower, the unbearable ache to be filled growing as he turned his head and worked over each breast, back and forth as if he couldn’t decide which one he liked better.
My nipples puckered, the contrast between the rough stubble on his cheeks and chin and the velvety smoothness of his wet tongue heightening the hot sensations rocketing through me. My breath was ragged and my hands shook as I slid his shirt off completely baring his muscular upper torso to my touch.
He lowered my dress the rest of the way off and suddenly hefted me up, as if sensing my knees had grown too weak to hold me. I wrapped my legs around his waist, his belt buckle cold and hard against the very center of me.
Before I could ask where we were going, we were on the move, his mouth on mine again, even more frenzied than before, each purposeful stride he took accentuating the message. Cradling my head carefully he laid me out on the mattress. The sheets were tangled beneath me. He hadn’t made the bed in my absence. I thought about teasing him but I got distracted watching him hastily remove the rest of his clothes. Belt, jeans, boxers, until nothing else remained but a primal male and his desire for me and mine for him as he climbed into the bed, throwing his hard thigh over me.
“If I had you all to myself for a week on a deserted island it wouldn’t be enough.” Bracing on one arm, he stared down at me, stroking a thumb across my forehead and down over the mask before cupping the side of my face in his strong hand. “It’ll never be enough, Ty.” He leaned down kissing me again long and languidly, the evidence of his desire hot and hard between us. I undulated wantonly beneath him. He lifted his head leaning back. “You’re so beautiful. So precious to me.”
He started in on my breasts again, tongue tracing the curves, lapping at the valley between, pausing to stare at me with glowing blue eyes. “I’m going to memorize every single inch of your body. I’m going to make you come so hard you’ll scream. Then I’m going to take you again slow just to hear your soft sigh. I’m going to have you over and over again tonight, Thyme. Every way I can think of.” He grinned down at me, that mischievous up to no good smile that I loved. “And that’s just for starters. After that, we’re going to get creative.”
Then there was no more imagining or pretending like there had been in my bedroom back when I was a shade. This was definitely the ultimate. Experiencing and expressing our love. So far beyond my expectations. And even though we both knew time was limited, there was nothing hurried in the way he touched me or I touched him.
Our lips lingered, our breaths were slow and deep as we breathed each other in and our tongues savored. Slow languid licks. Soft shallow sips.
“Oh, Billy.” I sighed as his mouth moved down the arched column of my neck. Warm and firm, trailing kisses until he reached my breasts again where he loitered a good long while. Tracing the valley between, rolling over the curves and latching onto the peaks. Sucking and licking every inch of my flesh as if he were being graded on thoroughness.
I wasn’t a passive participant. My fingers trailed and traced taut male tendons and straining muscles from the bulging biceps of his arms to the ridges of his abs. I reveled in the restraint I felt i
n him. The control it took for him to hold back his passion, to keep from rushing to the culmination we both wanted.
I moaned when his lips closed around my nipple. My fingers sifted deeply into his thick hair, nails scraping his scalp as I felt the scoring of his teeth and the lap of his tongue on me.
“Thyme,” he breathed my name against a sensitive peak placing his palm over my racing heart as if to calm its frantic beats.
I opened my eyes and gazed into his glowing blue orbs. “Billy. Billy.” I reached trembling hands up to frame his strong jaw. “Don’t stop. Please. I need…”
“I know,” he growled. “I can see it in your body, hear what you need in my mind. And there’s nothing I want more than to give it to you.” He lowered his head, mouth fastening on the other breast, a perfect fit, warmth, wetness and pressure. Just what I needed. I could feel the ache between my legs building. I wanted him more than I wanted my next breath.
I grabbed his ass, fingers shaping and digging into him conveying my urgent need.
He got the message. He lifted his head, eyes half-masted and blazing blue. “Baby.” The low vibration of his voice was a dark caress that made me throb. His warm lips nipped at my waist. “I can’t wait…”
“Don’t wait. Please don’t.” I rocked against the hot steel rod of him, swiping a thumb over the crown, spreading the evidence of his need over the most sensitive part of him. Knowing what he wanted, seeing it in my own mind.
“Thyme. Oh, Thyme,” he praised as I guided him. He did the rest, surging forward, filling me, satisfying me and taking me higher and higher with each measured thrust.
Our eyes locked on each other until the summit of ecstasy closed them, our shuddering and our mutual cries of shared pleasure. His groans. My moans.
Nothing. Nothing I had ever experienced compared.
I wrapped my limbs tighter around him
He collapsed his weight atop me whispering his adoration in my ear.
Please, I whispered a silent prayer. Please don’t take him away from me.
Chapter 51
All brave men love; for he only is brave who has affections to fight for, whether in the daily battle of life, or in physical contests. - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Billy
Sitting on the edge of the mattress I stared down at her beautiful face, softly tracing the smooth spot between her brows. She’d drifted off after the fourth time we’d made love. I had worn her out. She looked so peaceful but I would have to wake her soon.
It was just a short walk to the French Market. But I knew she’d want to get dressed and have plenty of time with her father. And I had something to show her on the way, and something I needed to tell her right now.
I skimmed the back of my hand down her body over the tempting curves of her breasts, across the slight round of her abdomen and down her shapely leg.
“Billy.” She yawned sleepily. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” She brushed tangled hair out of her eyes and came up on her elbows. “What time is it?” Her brow creased.
“It’s almost time, Ty.” The cute sleepy sated look vanished, panic flooding her features in a rush. She turned her face away trying to hide it but I knew her too well now. Every single inch. I knew her tender heart as if it were my own. I gathered her onto my lap, finger under her chin so she had to look at me.
“You’re already dressed,” she observed.
“Yeah. I’ve got some things to say before we leave.” I tucked a wayward tendril behind her ear. “First of all, I love you.”
“I know,” she replied. “I love you, too.”
“And that’s a gift greater than any other I’ll ever receive,” I told her honestly. “But I wanted to tell you how I feel. I’m not as good with words as those dusty old poets you love, but when a man meets a woman like you who makes him feel the way you make me feel there are things that should be said. If I had a ring right now I’d put it on your finger. To me you are mine. Irrevocably. I couldn’t have dreamed up a more perfect partner. I want you to know that my life started for real the moment I met you, and that I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you. Fight. Cheat. Steal. Anything. I’d die for you, for a future with you. And it very well may come to that with us because of the Code. I’m not letting you go out that door until you tell me you won’t give up on us. That you’ll stand by my side. That you’re in this with me.”
She nodded numbly, lips trembling, the wetness in her eyes making them seem as if they glowed brighter than I’d ever seen them. “Before I met you,” she whispered. “These past ten years I’ve been so lonely. Pain and loss had reshaped me into a hollow furtive creature I didn’t recognize anymore. You came along and filled me up with light. You made me feel alive again, even as a shade. You’ve given my life purpose and meaning.”
I leaned in to kiss her sweet lips softly and tenderly, sealing the vows between us in my mind.
“But, Billy.” A chill colder than any I’d ever felt shot straight through me like an ice encased arrow. “If it doesn’t work out the way we want it to...” She sucked in a breath noticing the glow in my eyes. “I know you will do everything in your power, and I will truly do everything in mine.” She buried her face in my chest, feminine arms tightening around me with surprising strength. “But if something goes wrong, I want you to promise me that you’ll go on with your life…for me. Don’t stop living just because I couldn’t. My soul couldn’t bear it. Knowing you might shut down because of me. That would hurt me worse than dying. Believe me I know. I’m not afraid of that anymore.”
I felt a little dis-euphoric standing out of her way as she scooted out of the bed, chin tucked to her chest, hair brushing her breasts, hips swaying softly, but avoiding my eyes as she put her clothes on. “Thyme, honey,” I began after moving close to help with the zipper of her dress. “Is there something you’re not telling me? Some reason you think our relationship is doomed to fail?”
Back to me, she whispered, “Because of what Leon said…”
“Apollyon doesn’t know shit!” I refused to let her go on.
“But what if he’s right?” She turned and peered up at me through damp lashes. “What if the changes my shade form is undergoing are unsustainable? You can’t fight what’s inevitable.”
“Bullshit! He’s the Father of Lies, Ty. Don’t trust him. Don’t let him rob us of what we have together.” I leaned down and kissed her lips, reaching for her hand. I was ready to get this meeting over with. I wanted to talk to Bacchus and my brother. Find a way to remedy this situation with Thyme fast, and Apollyon had better watch his sorry ass.
Chapter 52
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. - Alfred Lord Tennyson
Thyme
Hand in hand I followed Billy up the dark wood and faux brick adorned stairwell to the reserved second level trying to keep up with his faster strides in my heels. My lips maintained their bemused smile. I hadn’t thought there was anything he could possibly have done to make me love him more, but then he had proved me wrong on the walk over to the French Market surprising me with a Baskin Robbins shop that he had purchased and planned to reopen as Chantelle Glace.
“A deposit on our future,” he had said for when I regained my life.
I had a terrible feeling that it wasn’t when, but if, and that the if was more improbable than either of us wanted to admit.
My fingers tightened on his hand. I didn’t want to let go of him. He was the best thing that had ever happened to me. His high sense of honor. The way he treated me like an equal. He was extravagant in his love and so determined to make me happy. He was exactly right for me.
“Don’t be afraid, Thyme.” He misinterpreted my grip change as anxiety. “Things will work out.”
I hoped they would. But hope had been my daily sustenance for ten lonely years. I didn’t trust it. Maybe it had been a mistake what I had done with the mask. Maybe I should have waited on Billy and Morpheus. Maybe there was a more permanent solution. Some kind of way
to bring me back that I hadn’t considered. But I feared there wasn’t. No matter what Billy believed. There was usually an element of truth in anything the Destroyer said. That’s why his lies were so effective.
“I’ve got this,” Billy added pausing in front of a closed wood and glass door. The room behind it was in shadow, but I could make out that a bar ran the length of it on one side, and that twenty or thirty pub sized tables were scattered throughout the rest of it. On the far end, the wall of windows and set of French doors leading onto the second story deck revealed that the sky was lightening. The dawn was on its way. My pulse skittered, my panic rising faster than approaching sunrise.
“I think we’re early. We’ll talk to your father first,” Billy turned me to face him. “You can wait at the bar while we talk to Zeus and Hades about the Code.” He seemed to sense my uneasiness. “It’ll be ok, Thyme.” He moved his hands to my shoulders. His warmth was so welcome against my chilled skin. “You can’t get rid of me, and I won’t lose you. Are we together on this?”
I nodded turning my face toward the deck windows as we stepped down into the room. I didn’t want him to see my doubts. That was when I noticed figures already out on the deck. Had the meeting started?
“What the hell?” Billy took my hand again and we moved closer.
The Heirs.
Zeus and Hades.
Two of the Creator’s sons. Nearly exactly alike. Twins. The only notable difference the contrast of Zeus’ white blond hair to Hades black mane. Both otherworldly handsome, their bodies as perfectly formed as their features. I could feel the gravity of their allure even though we had stopped in the center of the room fifteen feet away from the balcony.
The glow of the Creator’s power was not restricted to their eyes like the rest of us. It surrounded them like a force field. One indescribably bright. The other the pure black of the void. I could imagine that if either turned and focused his attention on me that I might very well drop to one knee and swear my allegiance. It was a near thing even now but my loyalty was to the man at my side. Completely. Which made me think maybe the Progeny were wise to fear the power of a Fated couple. Maybe together, Billy and I were strong enough to defy even an Heir.
