by Lexi Blake
He didn’t even look back. “Oh, yes, my mistress. There will likely be several of them. After what you put me through today, I will give you ultimatums all night long.”
Daniel grunted as Dev widened the hole on his leg made by the arrow and with a jerk pulled it out as fast as he could. The hole immediately started to heal. “Baby, calm down. We need to talk, but it isn’t going to get us anywhere if we start yelling at each other.”
But I wanted to yell. They’d been wrong. They’d spent months and months putting me in a corner, and I was so tired of being stuck. “I think I’d like to hear what Dev really has to say.”
“I don’t think you do.” Dev started on the next arrow sticking out of Daniel’s leg. “I don’t think you want to know what I think. Daniel and I have done our level best to protect you and you turn right around and make it hard on us. Do you honestly think this is the way to prove you give a shit about us?”
“Dev.” Daniel made his name an admonition.
Dev pulled the next arrow out, making Daniel groan. “I’m speaking the truth. She walked out on us. She did that.”
“Yes, and she’s got the pussy, dude. Maybe you can get pussy wherever you want, but I’m a dude who’s only wanted one pussy his whole life. You gotta deal with the pussy in a certain way.” A low groan came from Danny’s mouth. “Fuck. Don’t twist it, asshole.”
There was no headway to be made with him. I walked away through the grotto, making my way past the bedroom we shared and into the master bathroom, already planning my exit strategy. Dev didn’t need me. He had a whole harem. And Daniel had Dev now. Neither one of them needed me.
Anger thrummed through my system. Everything I’d gone through during the day served to feed my anger. He’d ignored my very real problems and then thought he could give me ultimatums.
Tossing off my clothes, I turned on the shower without bothering to wait for it to heat up. With short angry strokes, I washed every inch of my skin and then started in on my hair. I had to hold on to my anger or I would cry, and I really didn’t want to cry. As I rubbed the shampoo in, I made plans.
Staying with Sarah was an option, but that might be hard on her brand new marriage. The last thing a newlywed couple needed was a crying, depressed friend turning their couch into her own personal mourning space. I could stay with Dad, but the idea of listening to “I told you so” twenty-four seven was unpleasant. As I finished with my hair, I switched the shower off and knew I would do what I had always done when I was really lost. I would walk the bridges and hope I could forget them.
Adrenaline was still pumping through my system as I wrapped the fuzzy towel around me and walked out of the shower, already planning what I would pack. I didn’t need much, just some clothes and my gun. Halfer was still out there, and he wouldn’t care that Dev didn’t want me anymore.
“You look ready to run, my mistress.” Dev stood by the sink, his arms crossed over his chest. “Just who are you planning to run to?”
“I thought I’d spend some time with Ingrid and Halle.”
“Did you now?” He moved away from the sink, his whole being stern and authoritarian. “You thought you would just walk away and nothing else mattered except what you wanted.”
“You think I wanted to almost get my ass kicked by an undead piece of crap? You think I wanted to spend the day with your brother trying to get in my pants? You can go to hell, Dev. Oh, wait, we’ve already been there.”
I tried not to think about how much I loved him. Weariness was stamped on his face, and I wanted to smooth his hair down and kiss him until he smiled at me again. Instead, I walked past him and into the bedroom.
He followed close behind me. Daniel was stepping into sweats as I entered the room, his strong body showing no evidence of the damage it had taken. Declan hadn’t done anything Daniel couldn’t fix in a couple of minutes.
Dev gave him a caustic smile. “You win that bet, Dan. She thinks she’s running.”
Danny looked over at me, his lips a flat line. “Baby, don’t do this. You’re digging a hole.”
But it was my damn hole and there weren’t any bodyguards or people who wanted to hold me back down in my hole.
Dev didn’t seem to want to listen to Daniel any more than I did. “Before you attempt to leave, Zoey, I would like to ask you a few questions.”
Taking a deep breath, I moved to face him. “Fine, Dev, ask away.”
“What did you think you would gain by walking away today?”
That was an easy one. “I thought I would figure out what was happening to me. You didn’t seem to give a crap.”
“I will admit I mishandled the situation last night. I am very sorry about it. I should have listened to you. I can only say that dealing with your father put me in a bad mood. This morning however, is a completely different matter. You didn’t call me. Didn’t think to talk to me.”
“Oh, I did. I talked to you. You just turned out to be Declan.”
He shook his head. “And you should have called me. The minute you realized what had happened, you should have called me or Daniel.”
“Because you would have believed me.” They wouldn’t have. They would have come up with twelve different ways I’d done the wrong thing, and I was so tired of being treated like an idiot.
Dev looked to me, his face a polite mask. “Please tell me what I have done to earn this. What have I failed to provide you with? I’ve given you a home. There’s an entire staff to wait on you. You need only ask for something and it’s provided.”
“You wanted me to move in here, Dev. It wasn’t like I didn’t have a place of my own,” I shot back because I’d been called property one too many times already. “I can certainly get another. I stopped working because the two of you wanted me to.”
Daniel sat down on the bed, watching Dev and I circle each other. “Zoey, that was for the best. We’ve got to concentrate on taking over the Council. We’re close to being able to do it.”
“That’s not the point, Dan,” Dev said, his emerald eyes on me. “Zoey broke trust with us today. We agreed to this arrangement. She agreed to her bodyguards, and the first time she finds it inconvenient, she takes off on her own without leaving so much as a note to let us know she’s still alive.”
Anger welled in my gut. He wanted to do this now? Oh, I could do this. He had no idea what it meant to be followed every minute of every day. “The first time? I assure you, Devinshea, I’ve found Zack to be entirely inconvenient from the day you hired him.”
“Well, you get your wish on that one, sweetheart, because I fired them both,” Dev said smoothly. “Zack will continue to work with Daniel, but I’ll be supplying Lee with a one-way ticket back to Nevada in the morning.”
“Don’t. I like Lee.” And I hated the fact that I’d gotten him in trouble.
Dev’s face went stony and stubborn. “He was supposed to bring you home. I will not be defied like that. I’ve already hired a security firm to handle you from here on out. You’ll have four guards on you at all times and three others watching from a distance. I doubt you’ll be able to shoot them all.”
It was everything I’d dreaded. And everything I couldn’t accept. I couldn’t live like that. I’d hated the last several months where I was never alone, always watched. It made me insane. I couldn’t work, couldn’t breathe.
“I’m not going to be a prisoner.” I walked over to my closet and pulled out a backpack. I threw it on the bed. “You and Daniel can come and go as you please, but I have to give up everything I am so the two of you can play your little games with the Council.”
Taking my arm in his hand, Dev whirled me around, and I was shocked at the anger I saw there. It made me try to take a step back. He crowded me, using every inch of his six and a half feet to invade my space. “This has nothing to do with the Council, Zoey, and everything to do with the killer who’s stalking you. I apologize that you’ve been forced to give up the more impulsive portions of your personality in order to stay alive.
And don’t you dare say I’ve given up nothing for you. You have no idea the sacrifices I’ve made in order to continue to remain at your side.”
“Oh, I have some idea,” I spat back, warming to my topic now. He’d kept a few things from me. “There was something about six priestesses. What’s wrong, Dev? You couldn’t find a seventh so you could screw a different girl every day of the week?”
“I knew she was going to find out about that one day,” Daniel said, staring at us with his arms crossed.
I was just about to ask how Danny knew about it when Dev’s demeanor changed, and I knew I’d pushed him past politeness. “Oh, sweetheart, I didn’t have one lover for each day of the week. I fucked all six of them every day of the week. I assure you, I took their pleasure seriously. It was my job, and I always do my job.”
“And the mistresses?” I asked because I just wanted it all out there. If we were going to break up, I wanted to know every minute detail. “I seem to remember you saying I was your only serious girlfriend. Guess that was a lie.”
“My brother was a busy boy today,” Dev pointed out. “He’s been telling tales. Let’s clear this up, then. I haven’t had any human girlfriends except you, and I’ve been absolutely monogamous since the moment we began dating, even when you returned to Daniel. I apologize for having a life before you, Zoey. We can’t all be as pure as Daniel over there.”
“Don’t you bring me into this, Dev,” Daniel warned. “I told you we were pushing her too hard. I told you she was going to wake up and want to be herself again and we would have to deal with it.”
Dev frowned Daniel’s way. “Well, of course. You know everything, Dan. I’m sure you’re planning on leaving with her.”
“I was planning on not letting her leave at all,” Daniel replied, looking fed up with both of us.
“You’re avoiding the point.” I wanted to get back to the fight. “Did you or did you not keep a bunch of women? I want to know if I’m just the latest in a long line of women Devinshea Quinn paid for and got rid of when he got bored.”
“You should know I was extremely generous with each of them when I was done,” Dev drawled with a bad-boy smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “My mother once asked if I planned to empty the royal coffers with payouts to my women. If it makes you feel better, lover, you’re absolutely the most expensive woman I’ve ever paid to fuck.”
My hand shot out, instinct leading me, and I slapped him with everything I had. I couldn’t stop my face from flushing with rage.
Dev shook his head to let me know my little attempt at violence had been somewhat pathetic. “You’re also the most trouble I’ve ever gone to for a piece of ass.”
“Stop it.” Daniel stood up, his voice stern. “Damn it, Dev. If I ever want to get rid of you, all I have to do is wait and let you do the work for me. Do you ever think about the shit that comes out of that mouth of yours? You don’t mean a word of it but it just keeps coming.”
Backing away from me, Dev sat down on the bed and let his head fall into his hands. “I was good at this once. I was good at handling women. I never yelled at a female until I met Zoey. I certainly never pushed one to strike me.”
“You never loved one before, man,” Daniel said quietly, and I knew this wasn’t the first conversation they’d had about me. It caught me off guard as I’d never considered they discussed me in anything more than a casual way. I knew they spent time together working and playing video games but not talking about their lives. Daniel obviously knew things about Dev he’d never chosen to discuss with me.
Dev was silent on the subject, and all those doubts Declan had placed in me came raging back to the surface. I looked down at Dev, who was obviously trying to get himself under control, and gave him an out. “If you’re tired of me, Dev, all you have to do is say so. I won’t cause you any trouble. I’ll just leave.”
“Tire of you?” His head came up, and I saw the tears he was trying hard not to shed. “I could never tire of you. I can love you. I can hate you sometimes. I can miss you when you leave the room for as little as five minutes. I can worship you. I can curse you because my life was easier before you invaded every inch of my soul, but I will never tire of you.”
I knelt between his legs and stared up at his face, touching the roughness of his dark beard. I wasn’t exactly innocent in this fight. “I am so sorry about last night. I should never have said that to you. It was awful, and I didn’t mean a word of it. I’m also sorry about today. I didn’t do it to hurt you. I love you, Dev. I love you and Danny, but I can’t live like this. I need you to trust me. I need to be more than just your mistress.”
“You died,” Dev whispered, leaning into my hand. “I still see it when I close my eyes. I fell to the floor and knew I was going to die and it hadn’t meant a damn thing because I could hear him killing you. Daniel can protect you. What the hell can I do? I’m utterly useless when it comes to Halfer. The only thing I can do is pay a phalanx of stronger men to keep you safe. Do you have any idea how that feels?”
“No,” I admitted. “Though I have nightmares about that night, too, and I know Danny does. We have to get past it. What does keeping me alive mean if I’m not me anymore?”
“I just wish I wasn’t so soft sometimes,” he said quietly.
“That’s why we train,” Daniel said, sitting down beside Dev. “You’re much stronger than you were before. It didn’t feel soft when you pulled me into the ground last year with all those freaking plants. We were on the Hell plane. There was nothing alive for you to work with. You have to forgive yourself. We have to move on. I’ve loved Z most of my life, and let me tell you, this is not the last time she’s going to pull this crap.”
“It’s not,” I agreed because Danny was right. I wished I was a different person sometimes. I wished I was simpler because most of the time when I got into real trouble, there was no one to blame but myself, but I knew I wasn’t going to be changing.
“She’s complicated and obnoxious, and she’ll make you completely insane,” Daniel explained. “And we’ll never get bored. We had a good six months of pretending to be in charge of this relationship. Well, the boss is back.”
Dev laughed and finally kissed me. “I have missed her.”
I pushed myself up against his lips, so happy to have them pressed to mine. They could complain about me all they liked as long as they kept me. I needed them so much.
“I really missed you, Z,” Daniel said with a sarcastic sigh. “I can’t tell you how happy I was you finally broke out of your funk. It’s been damn hard being the only guy in this relationship.”
“Danny,” I scolded him because the last thing Dev needed was that kind of teasing. He really could be sensitive about it.
“Oh, no, Daniel. I disagree.” Dev’s eyes took in the fact that I was only wearing a towel. “I don’t think anyone could look at those tits of hers and think boy. If being properly organized and giving a crap about the way I present myself to the world makes me feminine in your eyes, then so be it. But let me assure you, if I’m female, I’ll be coming out of the closet because I’m definitely a lesbian.”
Dev reached out and suddenly I was no longer wearing that towel. Cool air caressed my skin, but I was heating up because of the way they were both staring. He tossed the towel aside and took a moment to let his eyes roam my body. “I believe we had an arrangement before, lover. Do you remember it? I was more than willing to concede the reins of our relationship to you as long as I maintained a certain level of dominance in one very specific place.”
Dev liked to be in control in the bedroom. He liked to play certain games, and we hadn’t done anything like that since bringing my husband into the relationship. I have to admit everything female in me tightened at the thought of Dev taking control again. Sex had been good the last six months, but Dev had allowed Daniel and me to explore what we were willing to do together. The boundaries had yet to really be pushed. As I gazed into those green eyes, I realized he was done with going with t
he flow.
Dev was going to take charge.
Dev stood up and before I could protest, I was in his arms. He tossed me on the bed. I tried to scramble up but found myself tangled in green vines that shot out from the walls to hold my arms. Another pair of snaking vines appeared at the end of the bed, wrapping themselves around my ankles. The lush ivy held me tight, and I couldn’t stop the startled cry that sprang from my lips as I was spread in a wanton fashion across the bed.
“Now, my goddess,” Dev drawled as he and Daniel looked down at my body. Dev’s eyes were hot, and there was no mistaking the erection he sported. “You were a bad girl today. You caused an enormous amount of trouble. Did you think you could get away with it? It’s time to discuss your punishment.”
Chapter Ten
“God, she looks hot.” An expectant grin lit Daniel’s face as he stared down at me.
“She does indeed.” Dev watched me struggle against the bonds. They caused me absolutely no pain but held me tightly. I wouldn’t be going anywhere. My skin was already getting hot under the boys’ scrutiny.
My arms were held over my head. Cool green ivy rolled over my skin, gently forcing my hands toward the headboard of our enormous bed. Vines had sprouted from somewhere under the bed and wrapped themselves around my ankles, spreading my legs wide.
“I’ve always liked this room.” Daniel winked down at me. “Now I know why.”
I knew why. Because we shared it. Because it was ours. All of ours. The last seven months had been the best of my life in some ways. In others ways it had been difficult, but I knew now that I wouldn’t have really walked out the door. I couldn’t have. I loved these men. I would fight for myself, but I didn’t think I could leave them for any reason.
From my right side, a marigold snaked its way across the bed. It was gold and yellow, the bloom as big as my palm. Dev’s control had grown over the last year. Since that night in Vegas, his control of his magic had grown in leaps and bounds. The marigold was from the front hall. Dev had drawn it in, pulling the flower from the pots that lined the entryway. Soft petals caressed my skin. Dev flicked his hand and the marigold brushed across my breast.
