“I have to tell you something.” The secret was supposed to stay in Remy’s family forever; no one must know that they were different. No one. That’s what their grandfather said, what their father said. Remy had always wondered how Leon had handled it in Afghanistan. Leon’s animal instincts must have let him scramble out of the way moments before that car bomb had exploded.
“Remy, you keep starting to say something, then stopping.”
Remy looked at Felicia. Her eyes were brown and soft, and he’d always liked them. He wanted to touch her face, to soothe away her worried expression.
“Felicia, I have to ask you to swear you will never, ever reveal to anyone what I’m about to do. It’s life and death—not just for me, but for my whole family.”
He had her full attention now. “What is it?”
Remy knew if he didn’t get on with it, he’d chicken out. Then he’d blow his chance at finding his tomb, making his name, having Felicia’s brown eyes glow with admiration. He had to trust her.
Remy started unbuttoning his shirt. He shucked it to the ground, then took off his boots and socks and started on his jeans.
“What are you doing?” Felicia asked, eyes wide.
“Sorry. This is going to be weird.”
“Weirder than you stripping in the middle of the desert?”
Remy deposited his pants on his spread-out shirt and pulled off his underwear. Naked, he straightened up and closed his eyes, shutting out Felicia’s shocked expression. He stilled his mind and called to the lion he’d been earlier tonight, the beast who’d reveled in running through the land of its ancestors.
Felicia screamed. Remy’s hands changed to paws, his legs curving as his back elongated. He landed on all fours as a mane sprouted around his head.
Felicia stared at him in terror. “Remy?” she whispered.
He couldn’t communicate in human words in his changed state. Remy slowly went to her and butted her legs with his head. He walked around her, rubbing his shoulder, flank, and tail against her as he passed.
She gasped a laugh. “Shit, I don’t believe this.” Daringly she put her hand on Remy’s head, sinking fingers into his warm mane. “How did you do that?”
He couldn’t tell her, of course. He closed his eyes as she started petting him, crooning at him like she would at a tabby cat.
Remy made himself back away. He shook himself then turned toward the outcroppings and sniffed the air, letting his lion senses stretch. His hearing and sense of smell had sharpened, and his paws remembered the feel of the earth.
After a few minutes, he spied the exact shape of the outcropping he was looking for. Of course. He started to bound toward it, then pulled himself up. Felicia would never keep up with the lion he’d become, and he couldn’t leave her out here alone.
Remy circled back to her, then without warning, playfully dove between her legs. Before she could shriek, he rose with her squarely on his back.
Felicia overbalanced, dug into his mane, and held on. “Oh wait, the water.”
Remy walked to it and picked up the pack in his mouth, holding it high. He turned and started trotting across the desert to his discovery with Felicia clinging desperately to his back.
16
DAMN,” Leon groaned. This was too good. Val had been sweet and tight, squeezing him as he drove into her, but Demitri clamped his cock like a vise.
Demitri’s broad, muscular back gleamed with sweat and oil. Leon slid inside him to the hilt, his hands splayed on Demitri’s hips.
“What do I do?” Leon asked. “How do you like it?”
“Just fuck me,” Demitri grated. “Do what feels good.”
The crack in his voice, his slip in control, spurred Leon on. He started to pump, slowly at first, then as his mind blanked, he moved faster.
Demitri bucked against him, growling and groaning. Leon threw his head back. The noises coming out of his own mouth surprised him, but then, everything about this encounter had surprised him. The beautiful Val, the strange quest to help her, and most of all Leon falling in love with a big dark-eyed man who could turn into a tiger.
“What am I going to do?” he murmured, his thoughts disjointed. Fire burned where he joined Demitri, this sexing like nothing he’d ever experienced.
“Come on,” Demitri said over his shoulder. Demitri’s face was drawn with passion, his eyes dark and heavy. “Come on, lover.”
He sounded like Valenarian, but without the frantic edge she had in her voice. Leon started to laugh. “I’m fucking as fast as I can.”
Leon closed his eyes again, surrendering to the feeling. There was no sound in the room but flesh against flesh, the gliding noise of the lube, and the grunts of the two men.
Demitri’s groans turned to the growls of a tiger, and claws shot into the cushions of the sofa. Leon felt the change want to rise in him, and he fought it down.
“Fuck,” he whispered, then he said it louder as all control fled him.
What happened after that, he wasn’t sure. He was riding Demitri’s ass and laughing, Demitri swearing and shoving himself back against Leon. Leon felt his come shoot out of him, burying deep inside Demitri. Then Demitri turned around and grabbed Leon around the waist, pulling him down onto the sofa with him. They kissed and grappled, Demitri’s claws thankfully once again human fingers.
Demitri held Leon around the neck while Demitri’s mouth played in his. Leon surrendered himself, letting the other man kiss and stroke him, their lips and tongues frantic.
Demitri pushed Leon toward his still rampant cock, and Leon closed his mouth over it without thought. He suckled and played, swirling his tongue around the huge staff, until Demitri’s fists clenched hard. Demitri hissed words Leon didn’t understand, and then Leon’s mouth filled with Demitri’s semen.
Leon found himself cradled on Demitri’s broad chest, the two men tangled on the sofa, sleep hurtling at him. “Shit,” Leon murmured. “What the hell did I just do?”
“Made me damn happy,” Demitri said, then sleep took both of them.
FELICIA slid off Remy’s warm back as he halted in front of an outcropping several miles from where they’d started. There hadn’t been time to mark their trail, and she hoped Remy could find his way back to her last orange strip.
Her mind was fighting to get her to notice things—like that Remy had turned into a lion—but she suppressed it. The less she thought about what was happening, the better. She should be more worried about being in the middle of the desert in the middle of nowhere with dawn a few hours away and them not having nearly enough water to walk back to the Jeep. But such thoughts paled as Remy flowed back into his human form. He was stark naked.
Felicia stared in delight before she made herself avert her gaze. Remy was not as tall as his brother, but he was well built in the shoulders and chest department. Her fleeting glance took in hard biceps, narrow waist, strong thighs, and very nice, thick cock.
“It’s all right, you can look,” Remy said. When Felicia turned back, he was smiling, his eyes still lion gold instead of their usual green. “Are you all right?”
“I was just wondering if you were.”
“This is natural for me.” He reached out and touched her face—the Remy who didn’t seem to notice the difference between men and women was suddenly comfortable touching her. “I know it must be scary for you.”
“Confusing. But we can worry about it later. What about your tomb?”
Remy grinned. “That’s what I love about you, Felicia, you never forget the essentials. This is what I found.”
He took her to the pile of limestone chips strewn across the rocks, the lighter rubble shining under his flashlight’s beam. He didn’t seem to notice or be bothered by his nakedness, so Felicia pretended she didn’t notice either. Her senses were screaming that a beautiful man she’d been in love with since she’d first met him was kneeling naked beside her, but she’d tamp down her feelings and be professional. She was good at that.
Remy brus
hed dust and pebbles from a gap between the desert floor and the outcropping. “You can see marks of tools. Barely.”
Felicia forgot the strange night in a sudden rush of archaeological fever. “I think it is an opening. Nothing’s ever been found out here. Oh my God, Remy, you’re brilliant.”
“Lucky. Damn lucky.”
He was laughing. Felicia started laughing, too, and threw her arms around his neck. “You’ll be famous.”
“We will be. I can’t do this without you.”
Remy kissed her. He was still laughing. He pulled her to her feet and kept on kissing her. His lips were warm, silken, commanding. She did what she’d always longed to, ran her fingers through his hair as she kissed him back.
Remy suddenly stopped and pushed her away. He stared at her, his eyes reverting to their usual green.
“Felicia, I’m sorry.” He backed a step, looking dismayed. “I didn’t mean to push myself on you like that. It was—”
Felicia cut off his words by throwing her arms around his naked body and holding on. “Remy, just shut up,” she said, and kissed him.
VAL woke between two warm, naked men who had curled up on either side of her. Leon was like a warm wall, head cushioned on his tanned arm. She liked his face, hard rather than handsome, unshaven whiskers darkening his jaw.
Demitri was all that was sinful, with his black hair falling like satin over his face, equally black hair curling on his chest. He lay on his back, his face turned away from her, one arm overhead. Both men snored.
The windows were lightening with the dawn. The overhead fan turned slowly, wafting cool air over the three bodies on the bed. The entire room smelled of sex.
I love these men, she thought. Both of them. Her love for Demitri was well honed, a polished diamond she’d treasured for years. Her love for Leon was new, sharp like the knife-edged shadows in the desert. She didn’t know what they felt for her, but she loved them enough that she didn’t care.
Oh, please, Valenarian sneered. You’re not that selfless. You want them to be madly in love with you, to do anything for you. You don’t fool me.
Val put her hands over her face. Go away.
No. This is too good to pass up.
Valerie tried to scream as she felt Valenarian push her aside. She tried to hold the last tattered remains of her sanity, but felt herself forced to let go as Valenarian pried her clinging fingers away one by one.
Ooo, nice. Valenarian propped herself on one elbow and gazed at the lush body of Demitri stretched beside her. He was aroused in his sleep, his cock stretching up to his navel.
Val leaned down and licked his cock. She tasted the remnants of his come—he and Leon must have been playing without her.
Demitri jumped, half-awake. He said nothing, but sleepily stroked her hair. Val smiled. He had no idea which manifestation of her pleasured him; he only felt the pleasure.
She toyed with him for a while, then she raised herself on hands and knees and straddled him. Demitri’s half-closed eyes gleamed. He slid his hands to her hips and silently rocked up into her.
Val stroked her hands across his chest, letting her claws extend. Like she had in the meadow of Mount Olympus long ago, she marked him from neck to navel.
Demitri sucked in his breath and opened his eyes all the way. He grabbed her wrists in a strong grip, but he was too caught up in the sex to stop.
“That’s it, lover,” she whispered. “Do to me what you always wanted to.”
Demitri held her down on him, his hips and hers moving in hard rhythm. His fingers bit into her wrists, anger in his eyes.
The movement of the bed partially woke Leon, but he only mumbled in his sleep and turned over, giving them a view of his delectable backside.
Val arched her brows at Demitri. “You want him.”
“I had him,” Demitri said. “He had me.”
Val’s entire body squeezed. “And I missed it. Tell me what he did to you.”
Demitri complied. In a whisper of words from the language of old, he described how Leon had penetrated him and then gone down on him. He told her in graphic detail, using words modern humans had long ago abandoned.
It excited her. Val shuddered as Demitri spun out the tale, until she could clearly see Leon with every muscle tense, pushing and pushing between Demitri’s spread legs.
She screamed her excitement, feeling Demitri’s seed scalding her at the same time. She fell down on him, but Demitri wasn’t finished. He rolled her over and pushed her facedown in the blankets. “Let her come back.”
“No. You love me this way.”
“You both have to be here—you both have to do this, or we’re all lost.”
Leon was awake now, blinking like a sleepy bear. “What the hell?”
Demitri had his hand on Val’s neck. “Bring her back.”
Val laughed into the pillows. “If you wanted Valerie so much, she’d be here. You are the one keeping her away.”
She felt the weight of Demitri on top of her, his cock, hard once more, sliding inside her. He rode her furiously, his fingers in her hair, his body pinning hers. Dimly she heard Leon telling him to stop, swearing at him.
“She wants to be a demon, she can be,” Demitri snarled. “I’m a demigod. A demon is my enemy.”
“She’s a woman we’re trying to help,” Leon protested.
Demitri’s tiger’s growl sounded in her ear. “She doesn’t want help. She likes punishment. That’s what she’ll have.”
Faster, harder. Demitri rode her more furiously than he ever had before, his strength and power completely overwhelming her. Demitri could have mastered Val any second, any time he wanted to. He’d been holding back.
Leon sat up straight. “Damn you, Demitri, don’t make me stop you.”
“You can’t stop me.” Demitri’s voice had deepened, the god in him taking over. He was burning Val from the inside out, and she loved every minute of it. She heard herself screaming, begging him to punish her, heard Leon trying to hold Demitri back and not succeeding.
Then she heard the rumbling roar of an animal in fury, and Demitri was ripped from her. Val cried out and rolled over to see a huge bear standing on its hind legs at the foot of the bed, its razor-like claws extended.
Demitri faced it, still in human form, but with white-hot power flowing from his body. The bear towered over Demitri, its head brushing the ceiling. It was tawny brown, its neck ruff enormous, its black eyes alight with fury. It had huge teeth in its red mouth, lips curled back to reveal three-inch-long canines.
Val scrambled from the bed. As terrifying as the bear was, Demitri was still a god, and he could flatten Leon with the flick of a finger.
“No.” Valenarian flung herself between the two, putting her back to the bear. “Don’t kill him, Demitri. It’s me you want to hurt. Don’t let him die for that.”
Demitri’s eyes blazed black in the middle of the white light surrounding him. The tiger superimposed itself on him briefly, then the white took over again. “Bring Valerie back,” he said in a terrible voice.
Damn it. She had to or Leon would attack Demitri, and Demitri would kill him.
“Fine, I’ll let the wussy girl come back. All right?” Her voice shook as she squeezed her eyes shut.
Come out, Valerie. She sneered the name. Your tame pets want you.
Silence. Valenarian opened her eyes to find Demitri’s power brighter.
Come back, you stupid bitch. Stop them from hurting each other.
Nothing happened.
“Shit,” Valenarian said out loud. Behind her, Leon growled, a sound that shook the room.
Demitri’s glow brightened. “Where is she?”
“I can’t bring her back. I’m sorry, lover, she’s gone.”
Demitri’s magic dampened with a suddenness that made Val’s ears pop. Behind her, Leon shrank and became an upright, out-of-breath, pissed off human male.
“What are you talking about?” Demitri asked, his voice surprisingly steady.
<
br /> “I can’t reach her. Valerie—I mean, your little Goody Two-shoes lover. It looks like you’re stuck with me.”
Demitri came for her, rage on his face. Leon stepped in front of her. “Leave her alone,” he said, his voice still holding the rumbling note of the bear. “The more you scare her, the more out of control she is.”
Demitri stopped. His anger blazed from him, but he folded his massive arms and looked Val up and down. “If you’re lying to me . . .”
“I’m not.” Val shivered, wondering why she was afraid. She was Valenarian, the vengeance demon. No one could best her. “I’m not lying, Demitri. I’m Valenarian.” She was powerful, and all men feared her. She folded her arms over her chest and started to cry.
WHEN Leon reached the dig that day, both Felicia and Remy looked exhausted but pleased with themselves. Sex? he wondered. Or some archaeological triumph?
Demitri and Val sat in the open-air tent on the site. They were sipping tea, and Demitri had hold of Val’s hand. To an outside observer, they appeared as calm and unruffled as ever, but Leon saw the tension between them. The same tension rolled between himself and Demitri.
Valenarian was there to stay. Before they’d left the hotel in Luxor this morning, she’d smiled sadly at Leon and kissed him lightly on the lips. “Thank you for trying to protect me,” she’d said. Her sadness made Leon feel worse than ever.
“Sorry I wasn’t around last night,” Leon said to Remy. “Anything missing today?”
“Missing?” Remy looked blank. “Oh, you mean from the storage room. I haven’t gone over the inventory this morning. Come with me while I do it.”
“Okay if Val and Demitri tag along?”
“Sure.” Remy frowned at him. “What’s up with you, anyway? Are you trying to get Val for yourself or keep them together?”
Leon answered evasively, guilt flushing him. He’d never lied to his brothers. “I’m trying to do what’s best for Val.”
“That’s nice of you.” Remy clapped Leon on the shoulder as Demitri and Val walked to them in response to Leon’s beckoning. Val had wrapped her loose white scarf around her head again, her sunglasses glinting in the sunlight.
Mortal Seductions Page 19
