24
BECAUSE the battle had destroyed much of the interior of Leon’s houseboat, Val got to discover the joys of decorating. She and Leon’s mother went shopping the next afternoon, and Val learned how much fun it could be to pick out new furniture, curtains, pillows, towels, and other little bits to make Leon’s house a home. Leon, who’d been repairing the bedroom wall, looked on with a pained expression as they unloaded everything, but Demitri lounged on the back terrace in bathing trunks and left the women to it.
Lilianne seemed a bit pensive about the relationship between Leon, Demitri, and Val, but she softened as Val chattered about it like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“I just want you to be happy,” Lilianne told Leon.
“I am happy, Mom.”
Demitri rose languidly from the sunny porch and strolled back inside. His trunks clung to his muscular body, and he’d pulled his hair back into its sleek ponytail.
“I understand,” he said to Lilianne in a rumbling voice. “All mothers want their sons to be happy. And safe.”
Val arranged the mountain of cushions on the new sofa she’d bought and stepped back to admire her work. “Demitri’s very rich. He’s paying for all this. Does that help?”
“Money is not my biggest concern,” Lilianne said.
“The neighbors can think what they want,” Leon told her. He fetched two cold beers from the refrigerator and handed one bottle to Demitri.
“My neighbors aren’t my concern either. If they’re too nosy, they deserve to be shocked.”
“Then what?” Leon asked.
“I’m concerned about you.” Lilianne looked straight into her son’s green eyes. “I want you to be all right. Are you?”
Leon nodded. “I’m getting a lot better. I was lonely, Mom, even when I was home. Now I’m not.”
Demitri broke in. “Leon wants to be a doctor.”
Leon stared at him in amazement. “I do?”
“You rushed off to Egypt to nurse insect bites at Remy’s dig. You were drawn to medicine in the army, but you never had the money to go to school. As Val said, I’m quite well off. I am happy to fund your education.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that. If you want it.”
Leon studied him for a long time. “Let me think about it.”
Demitri shrugged his bare shoulders. “All right.”
Lilianne looked on with a strange expression on her face. “Well, don’t decide until after Remy’s wedding. I want the family to be together for that.”
Val smiled to herself. Remy had called this morning with the news that he’d asked Felicia to marry him. Val could cross that matchmaking chore off her list.
Leon chuckled. “Don’t worry. I want to be here for that, too. I want to make damn sure it happens.”
Lilianne hugged her son, then impulsively hugged Demitri. Demitri returned the hug, looking surprised.
“It’s unusual,” Lilianne said to Val as Val walked her out to her car. “But then, I had an unusual marriage myself. It’s not every girl who falls in love with a shape shifter.”
“And you had four sons, all of them shape shifters also.”
Lilianne laughed. “I did. It was a challenge, I won’t lie. But a happy one.”
Val waved her off and returned to the house. Leon had his arms around Demitri’s bare torso and was kissing him.
“I put brand new sheets on the bed,” Val said. “Want to try them out?”
Demitri gestured with his beer bottle, which was sweating in the humid air. “Lead the way.”
MUCH later, as the sun set, Val lay happily tangled with the two men she loved. Both were awake—Demitri lay stretched out full length on her right, while Leon hemmed her in on the left. Val liked being sandwiched.
Leon was lazily stroking her skin. The faience necklace still hung between her breasts, her reminder of what she’d gone through to find her way to love.
Demitri kissed her cheek, his hand coming up to play with her breast, his dark eyes sinful. “You never told us, Val,” he murmured. “What was the gift Aphrodite gave you?”
“Children.”
Both men’s eyes popped open. Val resisted the urge to laugh at them.
“Sometime in the future, you two will be fathers,” she explained. “They’ll be unusual children, certainly. Probably shape shifters, likely magical.”
“And a handful.” Leon started to grin. “Like me and my brothers.”
“What did your mother call it? A challenge, but a happy one.”
Leon’s laughter shook the bed. “That was a nice way to put it.”
Demitri’s eyes warmed. “When my friends Nico and Andreas left me to marry, I was lonely. They were like my family, and I thought I’d never have a family of my own. You both have given me so much.”
Val traced Demitri’s cheek with her hand. “You made me fall in love with you such a long time ago. I’ve never stopped. You saved my life by letting me love you.”
Leon propped himself on his elbow. “And I’ve been drifting around trying to figure out what I wanted and not finding it. Thank you for towing me to a safe harbor.”
“Anytime,” Val said. She ran her tongue across her lower lip. “I’d like to tow you somewhere now.”
“Haven’t had enough, have you?”
“I’ll never have enough of you two,” Val said.
Leon guided her hand down to his already erect cock. “Tow away, chere.”
Demitri rose, his big body filling the bed. “Ride him,” he instructed. “I’m going to enter you, too.”
Val shivered in delight. She’d been longing for this.
“Anything you say, lover,” she said, drawing her finger across Demitri’s cheek.
She kissed Demitri, then lowered herself onto Leon. She laughed in joy to feel Demitri’s chest against her back. His strong arms enclosed both Val and Leon as he entered her, holding them both safe.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Allyson James writes bestselling and award-winning romances, mysteries, and mainstream fiction under several pseudonyms. Her books have hit the USA Today bestseller list, and have won several Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice awards, and Romance Writers of America’s RITA award. She lives in the warm Southwest with her husband and cats, and spends most of her time in the world of her stories. More about Allyson’s books can be found on her website: www.allysonjames.com. Or contact Allyson via e-mail at [email protected].
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mortal Seductions Page 28
