“Sexual energy and humans’ life forces,” Matteo answered. Brie’s eyes widened, but Matteo diverted her attention. “My specialty is a bit of a mixed bag. I set traps, I’m an herbologist and in combat I distract and evade, confuse and strike when the time is right.”
“That sounds exhausting,” I told him. “How am I supposed to learn all of that?”
“Patience, young grasshopper. We’ll guide you through it. One thing at a time,” Lach assured me.
“What’s today’s thing?” Brie inquired eagerly.
“Today,” Damon cracked his knuckles, “we’ll focus on showing Stevie how high she can jump, how fast she can run. After that, we’ll start with some basic evasion tactics and defense moves.”
“I can’t jump or run,” I protested, but the guys all shook their heads. “Unless there’s a hidden candy bar on a top shelf or a moving ice cream truck.”
“Maybe you couldn’t jump or run before, but you can now. You’ve just been cooped up inside and you haven’t really had an opportunity to let your body go,” Matteo said. I glanced at Rex, who remained stoic. I’d let my body go with Matteo and certainly with Rex, but that didn’t seem to be the point in belaboring the issue. “I promise you, you are sorely mistaken,” I informed them gravely. “I think that you managed to become the only protectors in history whose charge is useless at those things.”
Damon grinned. “Come with me, Stevie.”
He held out his hand and I placed mine tentatively in it. The others followed us to the far end of the training floor. There were floor to ceiling windows that looked out over the grounds and the ceilings were elevated to double the volume of the rest of the already high ceilings of the gym.
Damon bounced on the balls of his feet and shook out his arms. When he fisted the back of his shirt and pulled it cleanly off, both Brie and I stared. He let us gape for a few seconds and then snapped his fingers to gather my attention. “Eyes up here, ladies. Steve, watch me closely.”
He stretched out the muscles in his calves and arms, bounced a few more times and then pushed off, shoving his arms up almost like Superman. When he flew from the floor, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Up. Up. Up he went. Almost so high as to touch the roof high above our heads.
“You told me I couldn’t fly,” I breathed when he landed in a neat crouch at my feet.
“That’s not flying, it’s jumping,” he said flippantly. “Did you see what I did there?”
“You flew.”
“I didn’t, you should be able to get at least a quarter of that height straight off the bat,” Damon said.
Lachlan laughed at my incredulous expression. “He’s right, baby girl, you might be the one person on this team who will get higher than Damon.”
I seriously doubted that.
“Go on, love, try,” Lach urged.
Love. There it was again. I’d heard both Lach and Rex use it by now and I was trying not to read too much into it, but that didn’t stop my mind from boggling.
Almost purely to distract myself from overthinking a simple term of endearment, I agreed to give it a try. I toed off my sneakers and socks and followed Damon’s example of bouncing on my feet. I’d never been a huge fan of physical exercise, but this felt different somehow. Almost like I could feel the strength of every single one of my muscle fibers.
I focused on that, bouncing on the balls of my feet until it felt right to push off. When I did, it was to cheers and clapping and when I caught myself, I was eye level with the lower part of the ceiling of the main training floor. I yelped and went crashing down to the floor. My body braced itself for the hit without conscious thought and I landed almost as neatly as Damon had, even if I was a touch more wobbly.
“That’s awesome!” Brie exclaimed. “Show me more.”
And that they did. There were a few more jumps before Rex suggested that we race. In my mind’s eye, I thought back to the race in the pool and how Matteo had let me win.
“Fine, but only if no one lets me win,” I said. “If I’m to improve, I need you to push me.”
“This is training, babe. Everyone gives a hundred and ten percent in this room,” Damon said. My heart soared when he called me babe. I seriously had to learn to concentrate and let these things go, but that wasn’t happening today.
Lach handed Brie the red bandanna he had been wearing. “Do the honors?”
“Sure,” she said and raised it above her head. “On your marks, get set aaaaaaand. Go!”
As soon as she dropped the bandanna we shot forward. To my ever-loving surprise, I managed to draw ahead before Damon and Lach both overtook me right before our self-imposed finish line.
After a few more races, we moved on to the evasive and defensive moves. Brie actually went to make popcorn halfway through and was happily munching and clapping as she watched.
“Who knew you were super strong now?” she cheered. “It’s like I’m watching Wonder Woman!”
A few hours later, I had finally managed to throw Lachlan off me and I positively crowed with delight. I wiggled around in a victory dance and didn’t notice him hop to his feet. He tackled me to the ground, carefully shielding me from the fall with his body. But he kept me pinned once we landed, one of the training blades to my throat.
I peered up at him, gasping. The corners of his eyes crinkled as he winked and said, “Don’t get cocky, love, you still have a lot of work to do.”
Chapter 15
The rest of the day passed in a blur of activity.
Once we’d finished the day’s training, I was bathed in sweat but feeling amazingly powerful. After we’d all showered, we looked out the window to find that the snow plows had cleared the roads and I was forced to say goodbye to Brie, though, which momentarily sucked the wind out of my sails.
Our goodbyes were bittersweet.
Brie wished again that she could stay and help us more, and the guys and I all assured her that what she was already doing was plenty. It warmed my heart that their goodbyes to her were filled with genuine affection toward her. That all said, I was more than a little relieved when she finally left though. Knowing that she was out of harm's way gave me great motivation to get strong enough to make sure she stayed that way.
We waved goodbye as we watched her car disappear from the driveway and beyond the metal gates. One by one the guys turned and went back into the house until only Lachlan and I were left in the driveway.
He threaded my fingers through his and gave them a squeeze. "It will get easier. You'll see her again, I just can't give you a timeline."
"Yeah, I know." I didn't, but I was still trying my best to be strong. The snow started coming down again and I let Lach lead me inside.
“We’ve worked super hard today. You up for a little game, give our brains and bodies a break?” He cocked his head at me and pulled me close. So close that I could feel his heart beating steadily through his shirt and smell his beachy scent. It was intoxicating. “We need to stay alert, so no drinking, but a little distraction will be good for all of us.”
"Sure, what did you have in mind?" I didn't want to worry about my fighting skills, or lack thereof, anymore. I didn't want to think about sending Brie and Max away and I definitely didn't want to wonder when Luci might attack for a while. A game seemed like a great idea.
"Ladies’ choice. Poker or gin."
"I've never played poker," I said.
“Poker it is, then," Lachlan agreed. He gathered the boys from wherever they had scattered to with a sharp whistle.
"Poker wins," he told them. "Matty, grab the set, will you? You get the fire started, D?”
"I did,” Damon said.
"On it," Matteo confirmed.
Lach didn't let go of my hand as he led me to the living room where a fire was crackling. He pulled me onto a sofa with him and laughed as Damon and Rex jawed back and forth about whose skills were the most effective in battle.
Matteo appeared a moment later with a steel case and made
quick work of distributing chips and cards. The boys settled on the carpet around the table and Lach drew me to his side as we slid from the sofa.
“What’s it gonna be?" Damon asked.
"Texas hold 'em?" Matteo suggested.
Lachlan, Rex and Damon all raised their hands and I had a feeling it was a voting process they'd undertaken before.
"The motion carries," Matteo announced cheerfully.
For the next two hours, we played cards. The guys taught me the rules, and I picked it up with ease, although I apparently had a tell because my face flushed red every time I tried to bluff.
Not that it mattered. It was being around them, laughing and watching how they interacted, the deep and abiding affection that seemed to wrap around us all as we played that soothed my weary soul.
Lach was standing up, crowing as he tossed a pair of kings onto the table. “Suck it, losers.” He executed a little dance that had the rest of us cracking up.
When he sank into position next to me once more, I was warmed by his joyful, reassuring presence at my side and my body sang. An ache for him, the same one I had fought against that first night, started building between my thighs. My nipples puckered, but I hoped that the other guys were too distracted by the game to notice.
What had started out as nothing…a little tug of attraction, had built into an inferno, and suddenly, I was ravenous for him.
I didn’t know if he was pulling that mind-reading-but-not-really-mind-reading thing he did, but a minute later, he called for an end to the game.
“It’s been a long day and we’ve got to get back at it early tomorrow. Ready to hit the hay?”
To my eternal relief, no one argued with him.
"Yeah, I'm tired too,” Damon yawned, stretching his arms out behind his head.
"I'll walk you up,” Lach said, hooking an arm behind my knees and one around my shoulders.
He lifted me easily into his arms and carried me from the room. Despite his silence all the way up the stairs, I could feel the tension rolling off him in waves.
Could he feel mine?
I tucked my face into his chest, trying to stop myself from reaching down between his legs and seeing if he was thinking the same thing I was.
"You okay?" he asked softly as he laid me down on my bed.
"I'm fine, just worked up, I guess,” I admitted. I was really trying to suppress the urges growing in me more each day since that first night, but being mashed against Lachlan's chest all the way up the stairs hadn’t done anything to help me quell the urge to feel him moving inside me.
I was embarrassed that I needed a release again so soon. Rex had more than satisfied me the night before, but there was no denying that I was dying…aching…desperate for it.
"Worked up?" Lach arched a brow, that slow grin spreading over his face and his gaze going hotter. "Horny, you mean."
The way that he said it was so calm, so even, but his breathing grew labored and his nostrils flared as the bulge in his gym pants just a few inches from my hands grew even more pronounced.
"I guess, I'm just..." I squirmed on the bed. I was so ridiculously attracted to him that I couldn't help it. After feeling so invigorated during training, once we’d sat and the adrenaline had worn off, the energy I’d expended had left me feeling hollow. One minute I was up, the next down. It was like PMS only times a thousand, with very different symptoms. It was as confusing as trying to keep track of socks in a washing machine. “Yeah, horny.”
Impossible.
An electric storm started in Lach’s eyes, the perfect blue color for him. Not an electric shock that paralyzed you, but the kind that made your blood dance. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I, uh...” I trailed off. I wanted him so badly that my brain felt like it was on the fritz. My skin was burning and felt like it was on too tight. Yet somehow, I was still too embarrassed to ask for what I so clearly desperately needed.
Lach sank to his knees at the foot of my bed, his hands coming to my thighs and gripping them with the perfect amount of pressure. He drew me sharply to the edge of the bed and shucked off my pajama bottoms in one, smooth motion. “I know that this is all a bit new to you, love. So I’m going to let you off the hook this time, but you have to come to one of us when you’re feeling like this. The stronger you feel, the better we can fight her. Do it for us,” he said with a grin.
“I just feel like such a weirdo. Like something is wrong with me,” I blurted out. Lach’s eyes burned into mine, understanding clear as a bell in them.
“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you. This is who you are. How you were made. And you were made for me…for all of us. No one asks a bird why it sings. No one judges a cat for hunting mice.” His voice held a promise that I clung to like a life raft. “Now lie back and relax. Let me do what I was made to do…what you were made to want me to do.”
I nodded, my teeth sinking into my lower lip as he started massaging the sensitive skin on my thighs. He ran his fingers all the way to the line of my underwear and back down to my knees, setting every nerve in my body on fire. I couldn't bite back my moan any longer. It came out loud and desperate.
“That’s it, love. I’m going to make you feel so good.” He dipped his head forward and kissed my inner thigh, his lips soft and firm as his fingers curled into my underwear, momentarily closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He pressed his thumb to my clit.
“Ah, yes,” I gasped.
Lachlan groaned. “Damn, you’re soaking wet. You have no idea how hot that is. How fucking hard it makes me.”
In the back of my mind, I knew that I should be embarrassed, but I just wasn’t. It was going to take some getting used to, evidently. His fingers tucked into the sides of my panties and he pulled them clean off, leaving me bare to him.
It was the most intimate thing I had ever experienced, allowing someone to come so up close and personal like that.
“Beautiful,” he declared. “Pretty and plump and pink. Tell me…how do you want it, Stevie?”
His voice was growing raspy and I was momentarily dumbstruck. He didn’t wait for an answer before he gave me a wicked smile, spread me apart with his fingers and lapped at my core.
My back nearly came off the bed as shockwaves of pleasure coursed through me. “Holy crap.”
His tongue swirled around my clit and one of his fingers slid inside me. A whirlwind of exquisite pleasure swept through me.
“You taste so much better than I ever imagined,” he murmured against my skin.
“Y-You’ve imagined this?” I gasped.
“Every damn day since I met you,” he assured me. “Now tell me how you like it. Long and slow? Hard and quick?”
Sparks invaded behind my eyelids as he licked me in another long stroke of his tongue, nudging that perfect spot with the tip in a way that had my knees quaking.
“I- I don’t know,” I finally managed. My chest heaved, the tension in me was already so tight I could barely breathe. “But it feels incredible.”
He lifted his gorgeous head. His brow furrowed, then he blinked as realization set in. “You’ve never had anyone go down on you?”
My teeth sank into my bottom lip. I shook my head and his smile grew to epic proportions.
“Well, hang on to your hat, woman. You’re going to like this.”
I gripped at the material, following his instructions. He licked through my folds, his tongue slick and sure.
Lachlan took his time exploring me, learning what made me moan and gasp and lingering there. Repeating his motions over and over again. It was driving me wild. My hands flew to his hair, tugging at the thick strands as pure sensation overtook me.
His tongue thrust into me as my hips bucked against him. I cried out loud. I was writhing under his mouth, my hips moving with a life of their own as I tried to get closer to him. The tension was winding so tight I felt like I was about to snap.
My thighs started shaking and another loud moan escaped. I couldn’
t seem to hold it back as my hips began to flutter.
“That’s right, love, let me hear you,” Lach whispered, setting his mouth back on me and sucking my clit between his lips. Drawing gently at first and then harder, more rhythmically. Ecstasy shivered up my spine and I felt like I was walking on a tightrope. One more stroke of his fingers…just one more—
“Lachlan! Oh, Lach.” His name fell like a prayer from my lips and the tension unwound in waves of euphoria as I came hard against his magic mouth.
He sucked my clit in gentle pulls, tapping it lightly with his tongue, holding me through my orgasm. When he sat up, his face was a mask of need and the breath sawed in and out of his lungs like he’d run five miles. Every line of his hard body was tense, his muscles locked.
“I’d say we figured out how you like it, I can’t wait to do it again.” The beads of sweat that dotted his forehead told me that he was as desperate to be inside of me as I was to have him there. My body should’ve been sated, but it still sang with need for him.
“You okay?” he asked tenderly, crawling onto the bed to me, his delicious weight settling on me and pressing my back into the bed. “Talk to me, love.”
My hips bucked up in the only form of communication that I could manage in that moment. Lachlan hissed when the movement brought his thick head to my entrance. His throat worked as he stilled.
“Tell me what you want. With words,” he said, teeth gritted. His biceps quivered with restraint.
“Please,” I breathed. “Slide your cock into me. Now.”
“Fuck yeah.” He quickly shucked his pants and then cupped my face to kiss me. I melted into him, winding my legs around his hips to give him better access. His thumbs stroked over my nipples and I moaned into his mouth as the fire kindled in my stomach again. I rocked against him as he inched into me, a deep growl ripping from his chest.
I moved my hips against his and he began to move with sure, steady strokes. Each one hit me exactly where I needed it, filling me in the most perfect way. It felt like a ball of light was passed from him to me, seeping into my veins and lighting me up from the inside out.
Her Demon Harem: Reverse Harem Duology 1 (The Succubus Chronicles) Page 12
