“She’s afraid,” said Andras.
“And she hates us right now.”
“She doesn’t hate us. Give her time. We dumped a lot on her all at once.”
“We had to.”
“I’m not disagreeing with you, Leo. Just back off for a while. Let her work this out in her own way. Oh, by the way, I just saw Hugh, who told me Sterling is back.”
Leo snorted. “Did he find his soul?”
“I don’t know. We need to tell the others what’s going on, but I don’t want to leave Blair alone. Are you okay with asking them all to come up here?”
Leo shrugged. “Sure, I guess so. It has to be done.”
* * * *
It was nearly lunchtime when the other owners began to file into the suite. Leo had food sent up, and the group gathered in the dining room. While they ate, Leo and Andras filled them in on everything that the Tribune had written about Blair. He and Andras had agreed earlier to keep the focus on Frankie and his men, not on their relationship with Blair. They recounted how Blair had found the jewelry in the alley and tried to pawn it then brought it here the day Frankie’s goons showed up at her home.
“So she is a thief, then.” Gregory smirked across the table at Leo.
“I beg your pardon?”
“You denied it in your office the other day, but I was right.”
Murmurs around the table and sideways glances greeted Gregory’s statement. Leo struggled to maintain his composure. “We aren’t talking about Mrs. Stanton and her disappearing necklace. We’re talking about something that occurred before Blair came here, over a month ago.”
“It’s the same thing, Leo. Once a thief, always a thief. At least she has good taste in jewelry.”
“Gregory, shut the fuck up,” said Andras. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. This isn’t about that damn necklace. It’s—”
“Wait a minute…you know about this, too? You both are protecting her? Are you both banging her, too?”
Several of the men turned on Gregory, and soon there was shouting back and forth. Leo stood up and whistled shrilly, silencing the group. “We aren’t accomplishing anything this way. This is a serious situation, and we need to figure out what to do about it. Gregory, forget the damn necklace. Elizabeth Stanton has it. End of story.” He glanced at each man in turn. “Anyone else have a problem with that?”
When no one answered him and Gregory’s sneer had turned into a sulky pout, Leo continued. “I have no idea if the Trib was just fishing or if Frankie knows Blair is here. But I’m certain he knows she took the satchel of jewelry from her father’s house. I don’t know if he or some of his men will be stupid enough to come here looking for the loot, but if they do, we need to be ready.”
“Regardless of what any of you believe,” said Andras, rising to stand next to Leo, “Blair Lorring is one of our staff, and we need to protect her, and this resort. We’ve all worked too hard and gone through too much to let it fall because of a crook like Frankie Fillipone. Are we agreed on that, at least?”
Murmurs of assent and nods went around the table.
“Okay then,” said Leo. “We need to carry on as before. We’re running a business here, and I don’t think any of us want to shut it down out of fear. Andras and I have moved Blair into one of the bedrooms in this suite.”
Emmett chuckled and shook his head.
“You have a problem with that?” asked Leo.
“No, it’s just that I can’t understand why you two won’t come clean and say you’re sleeping with her, that’s all. What’s the big deal? She’s a great-looking dame. Can’t say I blame you.”
“She’s staff,” said Zach. “You should have kept your dicks out of her, and you know that.”
“We’ve already told her what we are,” said Andras quietly.
“Without consulting us?” Zach was on his feet, glaring at Leo and Andras. “Who the hell do you two think you are?”
The general outcry in the room confirmed what Leo had feared most. The other owners agreed with Zach. Telling Blair their history had been a huge mistake. But he hadn’t seen any other way around it. She’d have bolted if they hadn’t convinced her she was safe here. Leo whistled again. “Keep your pants on. We had to convince her she was safe here. Would you rather she have run away again and Frankie found her?”
A few of the men only glared at him and Andras, but Leo saw the logic of what he’d just said had hit home with the others. “She’s terrified of these people. She grew up without a mother, her father is a bookie working for Frankie, and he’s already tried to force her into the life. Blair wants no part of it.”
“Are you sure?” asked Hugh Fallon, his gray eyes narrow with suspicion. “What if she’s actually a moll? Frankie tried once to muscle in on this place.”
“We’re positive she’s not,” said Andras.
“How can you be so sure?” asked Sterling, his green eyes flashing with anger. “Is Zach right? Are you two sleeping with her?”
Leo sighed, cut his glance toward Andras, and nodded. “Yes.”
Chuckles and knowing smirks dotted the faces of most men. Zach shook his head and frowned.
“It’s not like that,” said Andras. “We both…we both care for her. It’s more than sex. Much more.”
* * * *
Blair took a deep breath and walked into the dining room. “I’m glad to hear that,” she said, keeping her gaze riveted to Andras’s face.
The silence was palpable. Twelve pairs of eyes watched her, with expressions ranging from mild curiosity to unadulterated lust. She tried to see past their human appearance as she remembered everything Leo and Andras had told her earlier. Were they truly all Nephilim—fallen angels? It just didn’t seem possible. And yet the air in this room was thick and heavy. Their combined scents assaulted her senses, making it impossible to distinguish one smell from another. Every one of them was more gorgeous than the next, and erotic images flashed through her mind, completely out of her control.
Everything Andras and Leo had said made perfect sense, more so now that she was in the same room with all twelve. She took a deep breath and swallowed. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. There was shouting, so I came out to see if everything was all right.”
Leo and Andras walked over and offered their arms, smiling tentatively. She smiled back. This wasn’t the time to show any personal feelings. She’d speak to both of them later. They led her to the head of the table, and Leo made introductions.
“Blair Lorring, the other owners of Lilith’s Playground. Zachary Neville you already know.” Blair nodded at Zach, struck as always by his intense pewter eyes. They reminded Blair of starlight.
“Emmett Fallon.” Emmett grinned at her in a knowing way. She remembered his words to her in the suite she was cleaning, after he’d boldly kissed a woman in front of her then told her if she was going to stay she had to join them.
“And I also believe you’ve already met Gregory Fallon.” Blair nodded in Gregory’s direction. He was a pompous ass. All the chambermaids hated him. His smirk made her feel naked and exposed, and even though he was quite handsome with his jet-black hair and green eyes, she couldn’t imagine ever feeling comfortable in his presence.
The next man Leo pointed to had had smoldering, dark eyes that burned right through her. Blair imagined he knew all her darkest desires in the space of three seconds, as long as it took for her to register his name—Reeve Neville. His hair was the color of roasted chestnuts.
“Reeve plays bass in the nightclub for us,” said Leo.
“I’d love to hear you play sometime.” Blair wasn’t sure why she said that. She’d never been to a nightclub in her life.
“Have Leo and Andras bring you in one night,” he said, smiling slightly.
After Reeve, Leo pointed out Nikolas Fallon, whose brown hair and blue eyes resembled Emmett’s looks, but his eyes were a darker blue, more like her own.
“Everyone calls me Niko,” he said, “and I play drums.
”
“Do you all have musical talent?” she asked.
Leo shook his head. “Not all of us. In addition to Reeve and Niko, Zach sings and plays the cello. But the rest of us have other talents.” Leo winked at her, and Blair averted her gaze. Next Leo introduced her to a blond-haired, green-eyed man named Sterling Neville. “Sterling has been gone for a couple of months and just returned today,” explained Leo.
Next to Sterling, Blair recognized Hugh Fallon’s gray eyes and dark hair before Leo told her his name. His eyes weren’t quite the same iridescent-gray as Zach’s, but they were just as hypnotic.
Blair knew the next man, Demetrius Neville, by reputation. He was rumored to enjoy catching chambermaids in the hallways to pinch their asses, although Blair hadn’t yet had that experience. He was absolutely gorgeous, his olive-toned skin fitting perfectly with his dark-brown hair and hazel eyes. Like Leo’s eyes, Demetrius’s eyes reminded Blair of a sunset.
“Blade Fallon.” His blond hair and blue eyes reminded her of Andras, but his face was more angular and his features sharper.
“And last but not least, Cristian Neville.” His eyes were gray and iridescent, like Zach’s and Hugh’s.
“Are you hungry, Blair?”
She shook her head. Food was the furthest thing from her mind right now. “You all share the same two surnames, but if what you told me is true, you’re not exactly family. Is that right?
Leo looked flustered for just a moment, but then recovered. “Why don’t you have a seat and try to eat something. It’s been hours since you had breakfast.”
The men on one of side of the table moved so she could sit between Leo and Andras. Blair picked at the sandwich Andras placed in front of her, taking tiny bites. She couldn’t eat with all these men watching her. “I’ve heard rumors since I came here that you’re not really cousins.”
“The surnames are a play on two words,” said Andras, “Nephilim and fallen.”
Blair nodded. “Of course. You would have had to invent a story. I see. Does any of the staff know the truth?”
“You do,” said Zach.
Blair took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “I’m sorry you’re upset that Leo and Andras told me.” She glanced around the table. “You were all very kind to take me in and give me a room and a job. I never meant to bring this trouble along with me.”
“Don’t apologize,” said Reeve. “You didn’t know this would happen.”
“We can take care of Frankie Fillipone,” said Emmett. His heart-stopping grin was a welcome sight.
“You keep saying that,” she said, glancing at Andras. “You and Leo said that, too, but I don’t understand. Are you human or not? This is all very confusing.”
“We’re not human,” said Andras, turning his chair slightly so that he faced her directly. “Leo and I didn’t have a chance to tell you everything. We can’t live a mortal life unless we meet certain conditions. And even then, unless we’re all mistaken about Lilith’s curse, even if we choose to live mortal lives we can’t reproduce.”
Blair stared at him as understanding finally dawned on her. “That’s why you told me not to worry.” She said it as quietly as possible, but the soft murmurs around the table told her the others knew what she meant. Had Leo and Andras told these men everything while she slept? She began to wish she’d woken a bit earlier and had heard the entire conversation.
Andras nodded then he reached for her hands. This time she let him touch her, and the jolt that shot through her body was no less of a shock than the first time he’d touched her. How was she going to stick to her guns and not make love to him or Leo again? Almost every man in this room could seduce her right now.
“What are the conditions you mentioned?” she asked. Anything to keep him talking so she could concentrate on something other than his warm skin against hers.
Andras was silent for a few seconds before he spoke. “If we choose a mortal life, it has to be with one woman for two of us. To remind us of our sins.”
Blair blinked a few times, convinced she’d heard him wrong. “Bigamy?”
He shook his head. “No. We obviously can’t marry her, and as I said before, we can’t give her children.”
“But who would agree to such an arrangement?”
“Exactly.” Andras’s eyes filled with sadness, and a thought occurred to Blair that she hadn’t allowed to enter her consciousness before now. What if this wasn’t just a game? What if they cared for her? No, it wasn’t possible. That was wishful thinking on her part, nothing more. They were using their magic or whatever it was on her, that’s all.
Neither man had said anything about feeling remorse for what they’d done. Everything they’d told her up to this point centered on their sins and the punishment for it. They weren’t sorry for what they’d done, they were only sorry they’d been caught.
“What happens to all of you? I mean, do you just keep living like this?”
“Yes. We don’t age, we can’t become ill as you can, and we don’t even need to eat or drink if we don’t want to.”
“You already know we don’t really need to sleep,” said Leo, his voice full of humor.
Blair decided to ignore his obvious attempt to bring sex into the conversation. “And what happens when the staff starts to notice all these things? I mean, they already have, you know. They talk about…about the things you do with the female guests, and the scents each of you have, and other odd things that happen whenever one of you is around.”
She glanced around the table. “What happens when someone notices you’ve never aged while everyone else has? How will you explain that?”
“We haven’t really come up with a plan,” said Zach, “but it has been discussed before.”
“Okay. But you still haven’t told me how you plan to keep Frankie from waltzing in here and killing me.” Blair hadn’t wanted to ask the question out loud, but it just came out, as if she hadn’t had a choice.
“You are safe here,” said Andras, squeezing her hands.
She looked into his beautiful blue eyes, and the familiar sense of them being a deep pool of water into which she could fall and never emerge stole over her, but Blair fought it this time. Angels—or whatever they claimed they were—couldn’t fix this. Frankie was real. His goons were real. Somewhere in this resort was a satchel full of jewelry that he was searching for. He knew she had it, and he wouldn’t be satisfied with anything but her death.
“What if I choose not to believe that, Andras? What then? You said you’d prove it to me, but I haven’t seen any evidence. How can you protect me from Frankie or his men? Show me.”
Andras lowered his gaze, and when he lifted it again Blair held her breath. His face held an expression somewhere between anger and resignation. Before Blair could analyze his reaction, he stood and moved a couple of feet away from her. As she watched, his skin glowed like diamonds and his hair stood on end, even though it was cut close to his head to begin with.
His clothing appeared to fade away, and in its place revealed a body that shone like starlight, covered in something that wasn’t quite human skin. She couldn’t have said exactly what covered it if she’d been pressed to do so. It was beautiful and terrifying at the same time.
But what made her place a hand over her mouth and tremble in fear were the appendages that suddenly materialized from his shoulder blades. She shook her head, unwilling to believe what her senses told her was true. They were wings. Huge, iridescent wings, and they swayed softly as though there were a breeze in the room. But Blair knew there was no breeze indoors. The air movement came from Andras.
Blair struggled for breath. Her heart pounded, and her palms were damp. She tried to wipe them on her jeans, but she couldn’t feel them. Her entire body was numb. Someone shouted her name then the world went dark.
Chapter Fourteen
Leo was on his fourth glass of wine when Andras finally came back to the suite. He’d left with the other owners after Blair fainted, after
assuring Leo he would make this right somehow.
Leo waited until Andras had poured himself a generous helping of Jack Daniel’s and had taken a seat before asking, “Well? How many of them are now perpetually pissed off at us?”
“None. They all agreed that although my proof was a bit dramatic, I’d made my point. Blair can’t deny the truth any longer. Oh, and I told them everything.”
“Everything.” It wasn’t a question. Leo had known Andras would spill his guts. After that wing stunt he really had no choice.
“Everything. The night I spent with her, the fact she’s been here with you since yesterday morning, everything.”
“What’s the verdict? Are we banished from the resort? Will they call down Lilith on us? Plead our case again to the archangels?”
Andras put down his glass and met Leo’s gaze. “They want to see if it will work.”
“What?” Leo knew what he meant, but he wasn’t ready for a commitment like that.
“They want to see if it will work. They want us to convince Blair to choose both of us, and then wait to see if we, in turn, will begin to age like mortals.”
“Just like that. We have no say-so in this at all?”
“Leo, let’s be straight with each other. We made our choice a month ago when she first walked in the front doors.”
“Maybe you did. I didn’t.” Leo rose and opened another bottle of wine. He wasn’t going to admit to Andras or to any of them the depth of his feelings for Blair. It was lust, nothing more. He’d never let a woman get under his skin, and he wasn’t about to start now, simply because Andras had gotten carried away to prove something to her. He wasn’t going to be forced into choosing a mortal life.
“Aren’t you tired of it?”
“Tired of what?” Leo kept his back to Andras. He knew exactly what he meant, but he wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
Seducing the Chambermaid [Notorious Nephilim 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 11
