by Lina Jubilee
He frowned. “Alanna? That elf woman who had like a bubble of negation around her?”
“You caught on quick to that,” I said. “Nice thinking with the water tower. Other than putting Chastity and Roulette and me in danger.”
Running a hand through his hair, he winced. “I wouldn’t have let any of you get hurt. Any more than you already were.”
Tsking, I filled him in on what we’d discovered about Alanna and her powers—even about Alarik. Well, minus all the come-hither vibes the elf had been throwing my way.
The enemy of my enemy was my friend and also my friend turned enemy and all that.
“You didn’t tell me any of that last night,” he said huskily.
Dammit. The vessels in my cheeks were about to burst. Had that really only been a night ago?
He shrugged and dangled the frilly towel back at me. “But we were otherwise occupied, I know.”
Kouta let out a “hoo-yah!” as something sizzled from the kitchen and the fire alarm started beeping.
“S’okay!” he shouted. “Just forgot to switch on the fan.”
Chuckling, Zander shook his head. “He’s a klutz, but he’s a good cook. Stay for dinner? Then I’ll give you a lift back myself… if that’s what you choose. It’ll give you time to get your powers back and boost your energy.”
Chewing on my bottom lip, I snatched the towel from him. Knowing Chastity was okay was a relief, but Roulette and Darien…
“You can’t find your friends in the next hour,” he said quietly. “Not if the elves took them.”
“Wade…”
“Is probably trying to figure out their portals, right?” He nudged me with his elbow. “And unless he lets you kiss or fuck him—which, stick in the mud that he is, I don’t picture him having evolved his position on—there’s not much you can do to help him. Besides, you can’t even do that right now.”
I took a deep breath and let it out, feeling all the exhaustion flooding out my body with it. I grabbed the towel from Zander and shuffled silently up the stairs, trying to ignore the smarmy look he shot me as I passed him.
When I stepped out of the shower, a new set of clothes was waiting for me, which I had to assume had come from Lila, either on Zander’s orders or on the very off-chance she felt like being obliging herself. My own outfit was ripped and dirtied beyond repair, but I might have preferred it to the way Lila’s navy-blue leggings and workout tank top clung to me like a second skin. Lila was taller than me—lither. And though the leggings stretched to accommodate my round ass and thicker thighs, my rack was half-spilling out of the front of the tank. It didn’t help that they had socks, but no bra or panties for me. I supposed I wouldn’t have fit in hers.
Zander could hardly take his eyes off the bulge at the top of the tank top all dinner—even Torynt and Kouta threw a look or two my way. Lila spared one glance and rolled her eyes, focusing instead on cradling a glass of red wine and sipping from it.
Kouta had put together a three-course meal culminating in maple-glazed chicken that left my full and satisfied stomach jealous that he’d ever left us and stuck us with Rice-A-Roni and Hungry-Man meals. As if having his cooking skills on the team was more important than him not committing crimes.
“I’m stuffed,” I said, patting my belly. My fullness was soon forgotten when a shot of fire raged upward from my groin when I caught sight of Zander slowly and methodically licking cake off the tongs of his fork, his tongue moving in circles in echo of the feather way his projected self had done to my nether regions the night before. I shivered.
“Oh, you’re back in my head,” he said over the bond. “Welcome home, darlin’.”
I bolted to my feet and started stacking my empty plates. “It was great, Kouta,” I said, a wary smile flitting across my lips.
Torynt stood, letting out a belch and scratching his scalp through his disheveled sandy-blond hair. “I got it,” he said, taking the plates from me. “My turn to clean, Sweet Lips.”
“It’s Succubus Lips,” corrected Zander. “I picked the name for her.”
My lips puckered.
Torynt snickered as he retreated to the kitchen and I clenched my suddenly-empty hands at my side. “Okay, well, it’s been real, but I think my powers are back by now, so I’m going to get going…”
Snorting, Lila pushed back from the table and danced her fingers over Kouta’s shoulders, her wine glass still in her other hand. “And here I thought we wouldn’t be the only ones filling these hallways with moans and groans tonight.” She took another sip of wine. “Meet me upstairs?” she said huskily in Kouta’s ear.
He didn’t have to be asked twice. Pushing his chair back and grabbing the wine glass from her hand, he set the glass down and embraced her, putting his lips to hers.
She giggled and slid her hand through his, dragging him toward the hallway and up the stairs.
Zander’s eyebrows arched as he put down his fork and wiped his fingers. “You have to excuse them,” he said. “They get rather worked up after a battle.”
Grunting, I nodded. It had been no surprise to me that they’d gone off with Zander as a pair. They’d been an item since their time with Veras.
As promised, the sound of Lila’s moans pierced through the air even from this distance, the only other sound the running of the faucet water from the kitchen and the clink of dishes being loaded into the dishwasher.
“You’re welcome to stay,” said Zander, pushing his chair back and standing. His smile grew mischievous. “Kouta doesn’t usually last that long from all auditory evidence,” he added. “Shouldn’t be long now before they grow quiet.”
Lila’s voice grew louder and she called out her lover’s name.
The skin on my palms grew clammy as I pictured the way I’d had to bite my tongue last night to keep from calling out myself.
“Yes, but would you have called my name or Jayden’s?” asked Zander, clearly having been in my head but voicing his response out loud. He tried to keep his tone playful, but his voice cracked at his former best friend’s name.
Torynt came back in from the kitchen, whistling. We didn’t speak as he picked up more of the plates, plunking utensils in glasses and pinching them together with a finger in each. He tittered as his eyes darted from me to Zander and back. “So have you, like, asked her yet?”
Zander shot him a withering look and Torynt shrugged his shoulders, as if to say “my bad,” and retreated back to the kitchen.
Lila let out one final, satisfied roar.
“Ask me what?” I demanded in the near-silence afterward—Torynt’s soft whistle and clanking notwithstanding.
Zander’s fingers moved over his mouth, drawing attention to the five-o’-clock shadow that looked amazing on him. “We’ve never done a full boost, you and I. Just kisses.”
“And?” I asked, putting my all into clearing my mind of all desires to follow through with that.
No dice. He chuckled, making my heart race.
“Just a kiss makes me able to hear thoughts from people I haven’t bonded with,” he said, ignoring the silent, wordless exchange between us. “And I can project clear across the world. What could I do with your full boost?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, but a thought struck me. “You could… project across worlds? Like to this Nelia place the elves say they come from?”
He gripped the back of the chair beside me. “Maybe,” he said. “It’s just a theory.”
My hand went shaky at his proximity. “And you could try speaking with Roulette or Darien?” I asked. “People you’ve never bonded with, across another dimension?”
“I could try,” he said, swallowing visibly. “Then maybe have Wade run tests on my mind while I’m talking to them or projecting there—see if he can find some way to breach the connection in physical space.”
Some of that went right over my head, but I got the gist of it. “Wade can never figure out when they’ll appear next,” I said, thinking aloud. “He says the portal
s are too volatile, always changing…” I spun to face Zander. “You’d call a truce for this?”
He let go of the chair and gestured at himself with both hands. “Hey, I’m always willing to have a truce with my fellow Natches. It’s you guys who’re the aggressors.”
I rolled my eyes and bit back a comment.
“But I don’t see the point in giving them false hope,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t want to drop you off and float the idea past Wade and Jayden—I sure as hell don’t want to float it past Jayden. He’ll shoot it down before we even try. Because he tries to hang his misbegotten principles on my shoulders.”
“So you’re saying—”
Before I could so much as blink, Zander had put both his arms on either side of me and stepped forward, guiding me backward until I was flush against the dining room wall. One hand rested above my head against the flowery wallpaper, the other traced a line around the edges of my too-small tank top, resting at the line where my breasts pressed together. “I say we should see if it works before I take you back to Veras HQ.” His voice practically rumbled, his breath tickling the top of my head. My knees were weakening, threatening to take me sliding all the way down to the floor.
“Oh, okay, gotcha. Sorry about that.” Torynt’s voice broke through the moment and he started whistling again as his footsteps carried him away.
My head turned on instinct to get a glance at the disturbance, but Zander’s fingers jumped from my breast to my chin, directing my face back to his.
Our eyes locked, and for once, despite thinking about him and how much I needed to jump him, my mind was utterly silent.
His lips pressed against mine—soft at first, then hungrier, more demanding.
I leaned up, knocking his hand off my chin so I could grab the back of his head between my fingers. He felt so solid, so real, the softness of his hair such a shock after being used to the spectral fraction of his touch.
It’d been too long.
I kept gasping for air too quickly, the moments our lips pressed together, his tongue exploring my mouth, not lasting long enough.
He pulled back, the smile on his face like a kid in a candy store. “The kisses definitely work again,” he said, his eyes fiery. “I feel like I could go for a stroll along the French Riviera.”
“Not without me, you’re not,” I said, pulling his head back for another kiss. “I’ve always wanted to go to Europe. Your projected form isn’t getting there before me.”
Chuckling, he pulled away from the wall and took my hand in his. I nodded, and though I expected him to lead me to a bedroom by the hand like Lila had with Kouta minutes earlier, he instead tugged me to him, bending to slip an arm under my knees and the other behind my back, cradling me like a bride on her wedding day.
It made my insides melt. “You’re not going to carry me up a flight of stairs safely—”
But we were off, him bounding up the stairs practically two at a time, seemingly effortlessly. I supposed he still worked out like a bodybuilder—his muscles were testament enough to that.
We arrived at a door at the end of the hall and I thought he’d put me down, but he kicked it down, causing me to both gasp and giggle.
“You’re going to damage this house,” I said as he carried me over the threshold. “And it’s not yours.”
“Thank you for the warning, Miss Building Inspector.” He kicked the door closed behind us, louder than he’d opened it, as if in purposeful defiance of my chastising.
I grinned. “I’m not the one paying.”
He carried me across the room and tossed me playfully atop the king-sized bed’s duvet. I bounced and laughed, though I cut myself short when a pang of guilt shot through me at the thought of Roulette and Darien out there, suffering.
“What’s wrong?” asked Zander, his hands frozen at the clasp of his pants.
“Rou,” I said. “I can’t—I shouldn’t enjoy this when she and Darien are out there—”
Zander leaned over me and placed a gentle finger over my lips. “This is to help them,” he said. “I won’t lie and say I didn’t want it otherwise, but this seriously could help.”
“Doesn’t mean I should enjoy it,” I said quietly.
He put his other hand down beside me and nibbled on my ear. “Don’t be like that,” he whispered as he pulled away.
My groin grew wetter, my body revving up with a shot of ecstasy moving up and outward, and I closed my eyes, letting him spread kisses along the side of my neck, my clavicle, down to my cleavage.
He paused and I heard rustling, the presence of his body leaving mine.
My eyes shot open, feeling his absence even before I knew what was going on. He wasn’t standing in front of me getting ready. He was walking away.
My hand reached out for him, grasping the air.
His lips curled up into a cocky smile as he glanced over his shoulder, his bare feet—he must have taken his socks off while my eyes had been closed—slapping into the bathroom. “Hang tight, darlin’. I have an idea.”
He vanished behind the open door leading to the bathroom and I jolted up on the bed. Then the sound of running water filled the air.
“Hang tight,” he called out, his voice resounding. “Let’s take a bath.”
Screw the bath, I tried sending over the bond. I want you inside me.
Laughter echoed over the mental bond between us.
A few minutes passed and, sure he wasn’t coming back, I sauntered over to the bathroom, cupping a hand around the edge of the door. I bit my lip as my stomach went weightless at the sight of a bare-naked Zander in front of me, his sculpted ass looking as fine as something chiseled out of marble.
He spun around, smirking. “You came early.”
Running my free hand down my thigh, I tried not to go with the pun and tell him I was in danger of just that. His penis hung flaccidly—thick, long, and in need of my lips around it—and at that thought, his face colored and it started getting stiff.
“Okay,” he said, breathing out hard and turning to flip off the faucet. He dipped a hand in the water and shook it out, nodding. “It’s ready.”
I walked in and started peeling off the tank top.
“Uh-uh,” he said, meeting me halfway. His hand shot out to cover mine. “You just relax. Let me do everything.”
“Even undress me…?”
“Especially undress you.”
A flutter soared through my chest and I let my hands go limp. The sweet smell of lavender hung in the steamy air.
Zander lifted me by the waist and placed me on the edge of the Jacuzzi tub, droplets of water from the bath soaking through the thin layer between the ceramic and my ass. He grabbed my tank top from the bottom, slowly rolling it up, his knuckles grazing pointedly along my skin, lingering at my abdomen, at the sides of my breasts.
“Lift your arms,” he said—commanding, leaving no room for objections.
I obeyed. He tore the shirt up over my head, ruffling my hair with the movement. He tossed it on the floor behind him and kissed me once more, cradling my face. “Beautiful,” he breathed as my powers kicked in and made my toes tingle. His hands roved down my chest and his palms pawed at my breasts, squeezing with want—need—just short of causing me pain.
I cried out and his fingers loosened just slightly, but his cock went stiffer and he peppered kisses along my jaw, bending down to reach the top of my breasts.
I started slipping, gripping on to his back to steady myself, but it only worked so much.
My butt dipped into the warm, soothing water, despite my pants still being on. I laughed, holding on to him for dear life.
“It’s okay,” he growled. “It’s a pretty deep tub.”
He moved his hands to my back and gently lay me down in the water, my rear end sinking until it settled on a seat inside the tub.
He tugged on my leg and brought my foot up to his mouth, gripping the toe of my sock between his teeth.
>
I couldn’t stop giggling, but then he ripped it off, moving his hand down my leg, reaching up my calf and to my thigh.
I gasped as his other hand moved in massaging motions over the arch of my foot.
A mewl escaped from my throat.
“That’s it,” he said. “Relax. Come for me.”
He released my leg and grabbed the other one, repeating the whole maneuver with the other sock.
Nash and I rarely spent this much time on foreplay. Time was always of the essence—and thinking about Roulette, it was now, too.
Zander growled. “Me,” he said. “Right now, you’re mine. I want thoughts of me flooding your mind until you’re about ready to burst.”
Then he tugged on the pant leg, causing me to jump up and send my other leg floating upward in the water. He took advantage and grabbed the pant leg on that one, too, pulling the sopping pants off in one, long motion.
A smile worked its way onto my lips as he tossed the pants on the bathroom floor.
“No,” he barked, putting one of his legs and then the other into the tub. “I want you quaking too much to even think about laughing.” He crossed the short distance and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me to him. The warm water lapping at my thighs might have soothed some of the soreness, but it did little to relax the raging blood collecting at my apex. I stood on tiptoes in the water and moved my lips toward his.
He pulled back and put a finger between our lips.
“I do the work today,” he said. “Just surrender to me.”
I felt my knees going weak, but he held me tighter with one arm, his lips trailing down my neck as his hand moved lower. A finger ran between my labia, rubbing up and down, circling my clitoris.
A squeak escaped my lips.
“Come,” he whispered in my ear. His finger moved down and pushed up inside me, finding little resistance as it opened the entryway.
I moaned again and started to stumble, but he squeezed me tighter against him.
“Beg me,” he whispered.
“What…?” I breathed.
“Beg, darlin’,” he said. “Beg and you shall receive.” A second finger pried my pussy wider and went inside.
