“Ulysses has been watching everyone who leaves and comes to Danial’s. Elle’s been sneaking out since the week after Danial was drained. She met Violet at first a few days a week, in the daytime, because she was worried that someone would find out, and that she’d get in trouble. But when no one noticed, she stopped meeting only Violet, and began going out at night alone, not just in the daytime. Two weeks ago, she began doing it on weekends too, and sometimes staying out all night. Theo checked on her before she went to bed, but not after that, and she knew all she had to do was say she was going to bed, and she’d be left alone.”
“How did the bear know this?” I asked.
Lash cut his eyes to me. “He said he asked her, and she told him. She was proud of herself, that she was so crafty, so smart that she could sneak out and no one knew, or had any idea at all.”
I sighed. The folly of the young.
“Ulysses saw his opening as soon as she began to appear at the mall alone,” Lash continued, his eyes back on Devlin. “He sent an attractive werebear, Jordan, to make friends with Elle. It took a while for him to get close to her, because she was suspicious. But soon they were making out in the movies, and when he didn’t pressure her for more, she pushed him for more. He put her off, saying she was too young, that he didn’t want to rush her, she was too special, all the standard male bullshit, and that made her bolder.”
Shit. I’d been there myself, when I was younger.
“She told him she wanted him to...manipulate her. He did. He also taught her how to do oral sex on him, though he said she seemed to know a lot already.”
I let out a little gasp, and Lash again cut his eyes to me. “I hurt him bad for a few things he said about her, that among them,” he said angrily.
I wanted to thank him, but nodded instead, feeling heartsick.
“Go on,” Devlin intoned.
“Tonight, he told her he had a surprise for her, that he’d take her to a hotel, because he had decided he loved her, and he wanted her first time to be special, if she was ready to give herself to him. She said she was ready, and went with him willingly. But the surprise was he had three of his friends waiting, and when he got her to his van he hit her. Hard. He said he’d been instructed to rape her, and he knew if she was out cold, she wouldn’t fight him, or his friends, and they’d hurt her less, if she didn’t fight them.”
It was less horrible, in a way. At least Elle wouldn’t have any memories of the act itself.
“She was a virgin, he said,” Lash hissed, noticeably distraught. “He admitted he had her a few times, before we got there. But at least we stopped most of what was planned from happening. I’m not going to tell you the details, but suffice to say she was going to be killed, after they’d exhausted themselves, and her body left for Devlin to find.”
“Thank you,” I said heavily. “I didn’t, before. Thank you, Lash, for saving my daughter.”
“I wish I could have done more,” he hissed back at me, still upset. “If we’d been faster—”
“I’m grateful you were as fast as you were,” Devlin interrupted, putting his hand on Lash’s shoulder. “So is Theo. He will be here in the afternoon tomorrow, to take his pound of flesh.”
Lash nodded. “I’m going to bed,” he said tiredly. “I’m beat. Call out, if you need me, and I’ll hear you—”
“Don’t go. Stay here,” Devlin interrupted.
Chapter Five
My tired eyes shot open in surprise. Lash was also taken aback, studying Devlin as if he was waiting for the vampire to state some kind of condition. Devlin had been holding the edges of the door frame and now he let go of one, and stepped aside. Lash looked past him to me, lying there in Devlin’s bed. It was too dark for me to see what he was feeling by his eyes, and even then, he had become a lot better at hiding his emotions, now that his eyes weren’t always flat.
Lash stepped in the room. Devlin shut the door behind him, then came back, and got into bed. Lash came to the bottom of the bed and stopped, his face still unreadable.
“What are you waiting for? Go shower and get in here already,” Devlin ordered, grief still heavy in his words.
“Dev, why are you saying that this is okay now?” Lash hissed, annoyed.
“Because life is too short,” Dev said flatly. “Danial thought he had eternity. That he was going to see Elle and Theoron grow up. He may never get the chance to now. I may have lost him for good. And now my niece has been hurt badly...” Devlin paused, swallowed hard and began again. “I’ve been the cause of a lot of suffering. And I’m not causing any more, not for you or her, not if I can help it.”
“You’re sure?” Lash hissed in a malicious tone. “Don’t offer me this and then change your mind, Dev, like you have before. It’s yes or no, tonight and from now on. Because if she wants me, I’m not giving her up because you tell me to, not ever again.”
I wanted to say “what about Gina?”, but decided to hold my tongue. I was feeling too happy just knowing he wanted me, that he still cared for me as he had months ago.
“I want you here. She wants you here. Stay.” Devlin said.
Lash came to the other side of the bed from Devlin, and unfastened his weapons, setting them by the edge of the bed. They he took off his clothes, save his underwear, and put them in a pile. He looked as he had months ago, though maybe a little thinner, his body just as lean and hard as I remembered. An electric charge ran through my body, just from looking at him.
“I’m going to shower,” he said softly. “Five minutes.”
Five minutes to the dot, Lash was back wearing a new pair of underwear that he’d gotten from Dev’s drawer, his hair still wet from the shower.
I felt Lash shaking slightly, as he climbed in beside me. I was trembling myself, the closer I felt him move. He’d wanted and missed me as much as I had him. Slowly he put his arms around me, pulling me to him, the feel of his scales smooth against the small of my back.
Devlin put his arms around my waist, casting a look at Lash over my shoulder. “Are you going to freak out, if I touch you in the night?” Devlin asked, his tone purposefully casual.
I gave him a look that said in sixty years, he had to have shared a woman with Lash, that I knew him too well to think he hadn’t.
Devlin shook his head almost imperceptibly. “We’ve been with women together before, Sar, even slept in the same bed, but we’ve never done this, because I never trusted a woman to sleep next to me before. Even with Lash in the room, in the same bed.”
Lash hugged me tighter, his skin and scales warm against my flesh. I leaned back into him, sighing gently. “Touch me however you want,” Lash said to Devlin, all trace of his snake fangs suddenly gone. “I’m not afraid of you, that you’re going to make a move on me; I know you too well. You have never liked to bed men. My virtue is safe.”
“You reptile, you don’t have any virtue left,” Devlin muttered.
“Be nice,” I whispered softly, kissing Devlin’s forehead. “No teasing, not tonight. Please.”
“Here,” Devlin said, as he reached over on his nightstand and handed me a sleeping pill. I took it without saying anything, knowing I wouldn’t be sleeping tonight without it. He hugged me hard, and then moved a little lower to lay his head on my chest, wrapping his arms around my middle again.
I was still upset, but Lash was warm behind me, and Devlin’s arms wrapped around me were familiar and comforting. And the pills always worked fast. In a few minutes, I fell asleep.
* * * *
I awoke in midmorning, the watch on my wrist a reminder of normalcy. At least Theo had returned it, and not stomped it into shards... Drop it Sar. Forget Theo, you’ll just get angry again.
My position hadn’t changed in the night. Devlin was still on my chest, still sleeping, his arms curled around me. Lash was still in back of me, but I felt only one of his hands gently caressing my side. I craned my neck sideways with effort and looked at him.
“Good morning,” he said softly, hi
s eyes riveted on me. He was leaning on his elbow, and his other hand was smoothing my hair, where it lay on our pillow.
“Good morning,” I said, giving him a welcoming smile. Then it hit me, all of it, Danial, and Elle. Tears flooded my eyes.
Lash moved closer to me in a smooth motion, slipping an arm under my neck, and the other over my upper arm. “Shh,” he hissed softly, holding me close. “Danial’s not dead, Sar. Dev will figure out a way to make him how he was. And Elle will recover, too, though she’ll need your help. She’s breathing today because you noticed her last night in a crowded mall, and that’s all that matters. She’s okay, she’s alive, and she’ll get through this.”
God, I wanted to believe that so much! But so much had gone wrong this fall. I let out a sniffle, trying to get control of myself.
Lash moved his head closer, and kissed my tears away. “You know Dev’s a master at subterfuge and strategy. If it can be done, he’ll find a way to make Danial okay again. And Ulysses’ days are numbered, now I’m out of jail. It shouldn’t take me more than a month to find his lair and stake him, if that.”
I gave Lash a surprised look, not because he had said that about Devlin, but because he’d used a word like subterfuge.
Lash gave me a grumpy look, narrowing his eyes, because he knew what I was thinking. “I’m more than a good body with killing skills, Sar,” he said irritably. “I do read more than weapons magazines, and Penthouse. Or did you forget which wereman you were in bed with?”
I felt terrible. I hadn’t meant to make him think that. I took one hand off Devlin, and reached back for Lash. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I know you read as much as I do. I was just surprised, because you usually don’t say—”
He caught my hand easily in his, and then he was pushing it down between us, hissing softly. He slid my hand down his tight abs, and onto his manhood, and I felt him throbbing through his underwear. I reached inside the cloth, and closed my hand around the head of his penis, prompting a sharp hiss. Releasing him, I tugged at the top of his underwear, trying for better access. He slid them off, then pressed himself tight against me, rubbing gently on me with his hard cock as his rough callused hands slid up under my nightgown, gently moving over the bare skin of my back.
“Your skin is so soft,” he hissed longingly, running his hands over me. “I never get tired of feeling it under my hands.”
It was there in his voice how much he had missed me, how much he had wanted to have me touch him again. I’d wanted to touch and kiss him just as much. Devlin was right. Life was too short to waste any more time. I wasn’t going to waste one more second. I reached back again, down between us, and closed my hand around Lash’s penis, squeezing gently.
Lash let out a loud hiss, and jerked under my roaming hands. I stroked him skillfully and he moved in my hand, the tip of his cock already slick. “Are you safe?” he whispered, his tone uneven with desire. “Have you been taking what I got for you? Otherwise—”
“Yes,” I whispered. “I’ve been on them for a month.” In case you still wanted me. “But are you?”
“Yes. Please!” Lash hissed softly. “I give you my word I’m clean. Tell me it’s okay, Sar. Please!”
Lash was kissing me very gently on my neck, but his entire body was shaking slightly now with pent up excitement. It was raw need, a lake of it. Lash was acting as if he hadn’t been with anyone for weeks...
“You told me you went to Gina,” I said in wonder. “That she took care of you. You had conjugal visits, in jail.”
“I lied,” Lash hissed, cupping my face with his hand. “I only wanted you, Sar. I did go to her, and she did relax me, and ease my tension. But it was through acupuncture, not sex. That’s what she did for me on those conjugal visits. And after the tension was gone, she gave me massages, nothing sexual.”
“Why would you—?” I began, turning my head to look fully at him. Lash cut off my words with a passionate kiss, his tongue slipping through my parted lips. I lost myself in the sensation of it. We hadn’t kissed in so long like this, and I whimpered slightly, feeling his tongue stroking mine.
Lash drew back from me then, his eyes black as hot tar. “It mattered that if you decided to Oath to Dev, that I could tell you I hadn’t been with anyone else, that I was safe to be with.” He paused. “For all of the things about me you have accepted, I wanted to do this in return, to show you the lengths I was willing to go to for you. It wasn’t easy these past months, like it was before you changed me, when I was older. It’s been downright hellish. But I told you once that all I was, it was all for you, if you wanted it. I meant that, just as I mean it now.”
Tears came to my eyes, remembering our shared time in the Everglades, when I had healed him with my blood, the gift healing not only his dying body but also rejuvenating his youth. “You didn’t have to do that for me.”
“I did,” he hissed softly, kissing my face gently. “I keep my promises, Sar.”
What did he mean? He hadn’t made me any promises...
“Will you let me make love to you?” he hissed insistently. “Please?”
I wanted him, and it was true Dev was a heavy sleeper. Maybe this was doable. “I don’t want to wake Dev. He’s still sleeping. You’d have to be very quiet.”
“I won’t make a sound. You know how quiet I can be,” Lash hissed eagerly. He carefully aligned my hips with his, still kissing me urgently. I felt him as he stroked me gently with his hand, and when he felt that I was slick for him, he let out an eager hiss as he slowly pushed inside me, fighting to move very, very slowly. Finally, he was all the way inside me, and I felt him take hold of my hips firmly, so he wouldn’t jostle Devlin when he began thrusting.
Lash was kissing me feverishly, tremors going through him, and very slowly, he began to move. My lips parted before I could stop myself, and I let out a moan. Lash stopped quickly, putting his hand over my mouth. “You have to be quiet, too,” he hissed softly, smiling. “I need both my hands.”
“You don’t have to be quiet,” Devlin murmured.
Lash and I went still as we both looked toward him.
“I might be a heavy sleeper, but I’m not utterly deaf,” Devlin said, rolling his eyes at us. “Especially when I hear a woman I’m being held by moan like that.”
I gave a relieved smile, though Lash said nothing. He was still inside me, his body shaking.
Devlin sat up, and looked down at the two of us. “Do you mind if I stay, and watch you two, Lash?” he said lustfully. “I know Sar won’t mind.”
Actually, I did mind a little, but I didn’t feel comfortable kicking him out of his own bedroom, not with everything that had happened.
Lash pulled out of me, and sat up, his arms still around me, so I sat up with him. “Dev, you didn’t want me to even kiss her, before last night,” he hissed possessively “Now you want to watch me have her? Why?”
“I was wrong,” Devlin admitted, looking down at the sheets. “I was jealous, and I shouldn’t have been. I knew how you both felt, and I should have let you be together. But I’ve never been jealous of you before, Lash, though I know over the years you were often jealous of me.”
“Sar, do you mind, if he watches us?” Lash hissed, looking at me carefully. “I don’t.”
“If you don’t, I don’t,” I said softly, then kissed him.
“Okay,” Lash said with a shrug, and then he rolled me over to straddle him. He slid inside me easily, bringing a gasp from me. I slid my hands up his chest, feeling his scales forming beneath my hands, and then he pulled me down with his arms, kissing me passionately, his tongue stroking mine almost frantically as he began to move in me.
I groaned loudly. I’d wanted him again like this so much, for so many months. And he felt so good to me, because I didn’t just desire him, I loved him.
I gently pulled his hands off me, and took them in mine. Lash gave me a confused look, and stopped kissing me, and moving in me.
“You know what I like.” I brought hi
s hands to my breasts, and Lash gripped them, squeezing hard as his tongue slid beneath my nightgown to tease one breast, then the other. My head fell back as I let out a whimper, my lips parting. Lash released me abruptly, his hands leaving me, and I felt a whisper of cloth, as he lifted the nightgown over my head. I looked to see Devlin tossing it to the side, and then his eyes were all for us again. His eyes were molten, glowing. Seeing us together like this was turning him on.
Lash grabbed my head and brought it down to him again, kissing me roughly, his hips moving rhythmically under mine. I grabbed his hands, sliding them down to my hips. “Move me,” I moaned softly, and his eyes went darker still, remembering that night with me, when he’d said those words as he touched me. He was shaking hard now, even as he moved in gentle rhythm, and it suddenly occurred to me that he was trying hard to hold back long enough for me to come first.
But I didn’t want him to hold back, not after telling me how much I meant to him. He deserved more. I leaned down close, whispering in his ear. “Come for me, my dark-eyed lover. Don’t wait. Sheathe your body in mine the way we’ve both wanted you to for months.”
Lash gripped my hips with his hands, and thrust madly into me, letting out sharp cries of pleasure every time he buried himself in me. I swayed above him, stroking his scales lovingly.
It was over in a few seconds. Lash came moaning loudly, pumping into me, and I arched my back, wanting him as deep inside me as he could get. He clutched me to him, his arms holding me close, as he emptied himself into me, jerking hard. I collapsed on him gasping, and he hugged me to him, kissing me on my face, and my neck.
“I’ll be slower with you, in a few minutes,” Lash said between breaths, deep satisfaction in his words. “It was because it had been so long for me, Sar, and you felt so good. God!”
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