by Eva Chase
“I’m really not—”
“No arguments, this once,” he said, and swept me off the sofa into his bulging arms as if I weighed no more than Pickle did.
“Thorn,” I protested, ineffectually trying to squirm out of his hold. Exerting just enough strength to stop me from bending at the torso and straining my wound again, the warrior marched me to the second bedroom without a word.
“Sleep tight!” Ruse called after us with audible amusement.
Thorn set me down gingerly on the bed. When he moved to leave, a more piercing resistance shot through me. My throat closed up, and my arm darted to grasp the side of his shirt before he could get very far.
“If you want me to rest, you’d better stick around and make sure I do.”
Thorn peered down at me. “Sorsha…”
I tugged on his shirt. “I’m not tired, just worried and upset and…” I had to pause to steady my voice. “I don’t really want to be alone right now.”
The firmness in the warrior’s expression vanished under a wash of tenderness. He sank down onto the edge of the bed next to me and managed to make only a small disgruntled sound when I pushed myself into a sitting position.
I tucked myself against Thorn’s broad, solid chest. His musky smell with its trace of smoke filled my nose, and when his arm came around my shoulders, his warmth enveloped me too.
Having him with me like this didn’t make up for Snap’s disappearance any more than the breakfast sandwich had, but in the power coiled through his brawny body, I could feel the certainty that he wouldn’t give up until the devourer was back with us where he belonged.
Thorn held cautiously still for a moment and then allowed his hand to stroke up and down my arm from shoulder to elbow. He tipped his head so his chin rested against my temple. “Snap was incredibly dedicated to our cause—and, from what I saw recently, to you. If he can make it back to us, I doubt he’ll stay away very long. And if those bastards have imprisoned him, we’ll get him back. They didn’t manage to break Omen in all those weeks.”
“I know,” I said. But Snap wasn’t Omen. He meant so well, and he felt things so deeply. “I was startled… and maybe a little scared when I saw his full form. With how horrible he feels about devouring already, he might have convinced himself I think he’s horrible.”
Thorn grunted. “He couldn’t believe that for very long if he’s been paying any attention at all. I’m no expert in affection, but I could see how much you cared for him. He means a lot to you.”
“You all do.” As the words spilled up, the truth of them swelled inside me. When the trio had shown up out of nowhere in my kitchen, I’d seen them as nothing but a hassle. Now, it was hard to imagine going on with regular human life once this was over and never seeing them again.
Thorn’s hesitance to accept the affection I was offering him even after I’d asked him to stay twisted me up inside even more. I raised my head to gaze up into his ruggedly handsome face. “You realize that, don’t you? That if something happened to you—if you left or the Company hurt you—I’d be just as upset as I am over Snap.”
He opened his mouth and closed it again as he appeared to gather his thoughts. His dark eyes held mine. “I don’t have the gentleness and joy the devourer exudes—I can’t offer the incubus’s skill with words or caresses. How could I expect to provoke the same fondness they do?”
I made a dismissive sound. My hand came up so I could trace my fingers over the faint lines of the scars that framed his face. “You know, they’re the outliers. I never really went for cheerful sweethearts or suave smooth-talkers before. Give me a strong silent type any day.”
He grunted doubtfully.
I tapped his cheek. “I’ve seen how much emotion you carry under that stoic front. I’ve never known anyone, human or shadowkind, half as resolute or loyal as you.”
“Only to make up for where I failed in the past.”
“I’m not convinced you actually screwed up so very badly back then in the first place, but believe me, an awful lot of human beings go through their much shorter lives totally disregarding the people they let down along the way.” Or even lashing out at those people as if they were to blame. Thorn—and Ruse and Snap, and maybe even Omen—was worth a thousand Lelands. When you compared him and his vengeful sabotage to them, how could you say the shadowkind were more monstrous?
My tastes might be unusual, but why the hell should I want a generic jerk when I could have a magnificent monster—or, you know, three?
Thorn brushed a lock of my hair behind my ear, the skim of his fingers tingling over my skin. His voice dropped to a husky note that sent those tingles deeper. “You contain plenty of tenacity yourself, m’lady. A steely will and yet so much compassion as well. You were a worthy ally before we knew you had any unearthly power.”
“Only an ally?”
His hand teased along my jaw in answer, tipping up my chin so he could claim my lips. I hadn’t known how much I needed this until I was kissing him back, melting into the planes of his muscular frame.
His mouth branded mine, as determined as if he were pouring all the affection he had for me into that one kiss. His fingers trailed down my back, tucking me closer to him, and my knee slid up over his thigh. A rush of heat flooded me.
Yes. Yes. Just for this moment, I wanted to revel in what I still had instead of brooding over what I’d lost. I wanted to see that steely, compassionate woman Thorn took me for reflected in his eyes.
I shifted even closer, running my hand over his chest, and drew my lips from his just far enough to say in a voice so thick with need I barely recognized it, “Thorn, can we—”
The desire ringing through the words must have said enough before I even finished the question. Thorn grasped me and swung me right onto his lap, capturing anything else I might have said with another kiss. As I straddled him, he stroked my thigh while his other hand tangled in my hair.
I slid forward, and my sex settled against the substantial bulge of his groin. Even through the layers of fabric, the feel of that hardness was enough to make me groan.
I arched into him, extending the friction, and Thorn groaned too. His mouth plundered mine, but there was still a carefulness to the way he held me, even as the squeeze of his fingers around my thigh urged on my rocking against him.
He eased my face back an inch, still close enough that the heat of his breath flooded down my neck. His voice came out strained. “I don’t want to hurt you, Sorsha. This body is made for fighting, not love-making.”
I’d seen how large my warrior was in every area a few weeks ago when he’d sprung out of the shadows nude. The memory only spurred on the ache of need between my thighs. “I think it’s made for whatever you decide to do with it,” I murmured, splaying my hands against his abdomen. “Let me worry about how much I can handle. If anything’s too hard or too fast or too… large”—my palm slid over his erection—“I’ll let you know. But so far I have no complaints.”
“As m’lady wishes,” he breathed in return. It came out like a prayer, so different from the reluctant tones with which he’d once offered that term of respect that delight trembled through me.
I stripped off his tunic, eager to see all that sculpted flesh on display again, and he managed to tug my blouse open above the bandage on my stomach with surprising deftness, though his thick fingers fumbled with my bra. I unhooked it for him and gasped as his hands engulfed my breasts. The swivel of his calloused palms against my nipples raised them to points with a surge of bliss. The sensation shot to my sex, and the lingering pain of my wound hazed away in the wake of that pleasure.
I kissed Thorn again, still rocking against him, the heat between us turning searing. I’d waited too long to get this intimate with the last of my lovers—I had no patience left. My mouth skidded against his lips, a whimper tumbled from my throat at the powerful sweep of his thumbs over my breasts, and then I was groping at the ties of his trousers.
Sweet simmering symphonies,
medieval clothing was a devil to unravel. At my muttered curse, Thorn let out a chuckle and flicked the knot loose as if it were nothing—through some supernatural voodoo, I was sure. I didn’t spend much time worrying about it, because the next second I’d delved inside his underclothes to free that massive cock.
It was magnificent, thick and corded with veins and so fucking hard I thought he might explode as I gripped it. His erection twitched at my touch, and a ragged breath shuddered out of the warrior.
“M’lady,” he whispered, and that time it sounded like a plea. One I was all too happy to answer. We could play around with more possibilities some other time.
There would be other times. I swore it by whatever was still true in my soul.
I scrambled out of my jeans and panties, and Thorn pulled me to him, the strength even in that controlled gesture taking my breath away. I ran my fingers up and down his cock. He kissed me so hard his teeth nicked my tongue, and then I lowered myself onto him with as much haste as my body allowed.
Just the head of his cock penetrating my slit stretched me more than I’d ever experienced. I stopped there, adjusting. Pleasure pulsed through me as my channel relaxed to accommodate him.
The warrior was a perfect gentleman, as torturous as the wait must have been for him. He kissed the side of my neck and massaged my breasts, adding to the blissful sensations coursing through me.
I sank a little lower and a little lower still, each inch stretching me farther with a burn that was increasingly ecstatic. My head tipped against Thorn’s shoulder, sweat dampening my brow. “You feel so good,” I said, my lips brushing his skin. My fingers teased over his belly, his pecs, his pert nipples, any way I could pay him back for the intense pleasure he was offering me with his patience.
Another groan slipped out of him. “As do you.”
The impulse flitted through me to feel all of him pressing down on me, to lose myself in the surge of that massive body over and inside me, but I wasn’t sure I was quite ready for that yet. I settled for dropping even lower, a pleased sound reverberating from my chest.
I felt full to bursting in the most giddying sense. The only question left was how well we could move together.
I eased up and down, up and down, a little more each time. The bond between us turned slick with my expanding arousal. As I hit a rhythm, Thorn found the confidence to raise his hips to meet me, gently at first and then, when he saw how I whimpered at the additional motion, with more force.
I bit my lip, struggling to hold in the louder cries of pleasure that wanted to peal from my lungs. The walls in the RV weren’t thick enough to disguise those without Ruse’s soundproofing magic.
I didn’t have to hold them in very long. The ecstasy building inside me was spiking higher, racing me toward my peak with a momentum I couldn’t rein in. I bucked against Thorn, clutching his shoulder, his side, and he was right there to meet me. His lips crashed into mine, the thrust of his hips sent me spiraling even higher, and I came so hard my vision whited out with the flare of bliss.
As my sex clenched around him, the warrior’s fingers dug into my thigh. He jerked me to him, impaling me so deeply his cock set off a second orgasmic wave just as he spilled himself inside me.
I sagged into him, alight with the afterglow. Thorn cupped my cheek and kissed me with a softer determination. As I nestled against his broad chest, the doubts and self-recriminations that had gripped me earlier scattered into the distance.
I was strong—hell, yes, I was. Strong enough to take a legendary warrior as my lover. No shitty ex was going to beat me down.
Leland had used the conflict with the Company of Light to act out his resentment against me. Maybe it was time to turn the tables right around and see how we could use him.
28
Sorsha
Omen watched me climb onto the motorcycle behind Ruse with obvious reluctance. I gave him an optimistic thumbs-up. “Don’t worry! We’ll take care of Charlotte.”
“I don’t think you’d enjoy finding out what’ll happen if you don’t,” he retorted, but he turned away rather than continuing to stew about the situation. This plan required only Ruse and me, and as much as the hellhound shifter might have wanted to tag along to supervise from the shadows, it didn’t really make sense to put anyone else at risk. The Company people were a hell of a lot more likely to notice us in the city than way out here in the middle of nowhere.
In my attempt to avoid drawing their notice, I fit the helmet the incubus had been kind enough to obtain for me over my head, where a black knit hat already hid my red hair. Ruse sported a helmet himself, a situationally appropriate way to disguise his horns. He gave Omen’s retreating back a salute, patted my knee to confirm my position against him, and gunned the engine.
It was way easier to relax against the incubus’s lean back than when I’d been clinging to Omen yesterday. For one, Ruse didn’t drive the bike like a, well, demon. He might not have been the smoothest at lane changes, but he was concerned enough about keeping a low profile to stick to the same speed as the cars and avoid any flashy moves.
And considering how intimate we’d gotten on multiple occasions, I didn’t have a whole lot of modesty left when it came to having my arms wrapped around his chest or my thighs pressed against his hips.
He followed the directions I’d given him to Leland’s townhouse without a hitch. The sight of the narrow, gray building on the end of the row made my chest constrict.
How many times had I rung that doorbell ready for a quick jump in the sack—a dozen? Twenty? It had never felt like anything other than scratching an itch, and then even that enjoyment had turned sour with Leland’s caustic disappointment in me.
My current feelings toward him went well past sour and into “raze it to the ground” territory, but I wasn’t here to mess with his living space. At least, not yet. We’d see how this visit went first.
I knew my ex-friends-with-benefits’s schedule well enough to have anticipated that he’d be at the gym on a Sunday afternoon. We left the bike a couple of blocks over and slunk into Leland’s backyard, Ruse sticking to the shadows now. As I waited for him to slip inside and unlock the door for me, I set my shoulders, gathering my chutzpah.
We had a plan—one that should get us to Snap if the Company had grabbed him. No uncomfortable memories were going to shake me out of accomplishing that. Leland had no idea what he’d set himself up for.
Ruse opened the door with a little bow, and I marched inside.
Had the place always held this stale grease smell? Maybe I’d never been close enough to the kitchen before to notice it. Wrinkling my nose, I passed through the space with its tarnished steel appliances and into the living room off the front hall where I intended to wait.
I clearly hadn’t spent enough time on the first floor in general, or the framed photographs along the mantel would have been a tip-off that this guy wasn’t worth my time even as an easy lay. Each of those photographs was of Leland, on his own: posing at an amateur weight-lifting competition, leaning over beneath the open hood of a car I doubted he had the slightest idea how to fix, giving a victory sign on the deck of a speed boat. He might as well have built a little shrine to his ego—a testament to how much he thought the world should revolve around him alone.
Ruse ambled over to contemplate them closer up. “Such a catch,” he teased. “What a mistake you made in letting this fine specimen go. At least, he clearly thinks he’s the finest specimen around.”
“No kidding.” I socked him lightly in the shoulder. “No need to rub it in. I did find the good sense to move on to greener pastures.”
The incubus wiggled his eyebrows. “And I’ve been delighted to plow you.” As I choked on a laugh, one of those eyebrows arched higher. “Speaking of which… I take it you got something other than grumbles and glowers out of our Incredible Hulk.”
My interlude with Thorn. A faint flush crept up my neck. “We tried to be quiet.”
“Don’t worry your lov
ely head about that. I have especially keen senses when it comes to my area of expertise. I lent a little magic to give you the privacy I figured you’d want to have.”
“Oh. Thank you.” I paused. “That didn’t require you to be in the room, did it?”
Ruse held up his hands. “I enjoy participating in the act, not so much watching it from afar. Consider the favor my contribution to the public good. Thorn’s needed a good lay for at least a few centuries, I’d estimate.”
I socked him again, but his banter had helped distract me from my uneasiness in this place. When Snap and I had gotten close, the incubus had told me that he was happy for me to seek pleasure wherever I could find it. It sounded like that applied to the warrior as well, as much as their attitudes tended to clash.
The gaudy brass clock standing between the photos showed it was quarter past three. “Leland will be here soon,” I said. “You’d better stay out of sight until I give the signal that his badge is off.” I didn’t know whether he’d be wearing it just to walk around the city, but after screwing us over as badly as he had yesterday, I wouldn’t be surprised to find him extra cautious.
Ruse nodded and vanished. I prowled around the living room until I found an ideal spot where I could crouch beside a side table. The position gave me a clear view of the hall so I’d know what I was dealing with before I sprang into action, but should hide me from a casual glance. Then all I had to do was wait.
As the minutes ticked by, I twisted a lyric and sang softly into the silence. “Waiting for that final woe sent, you’ll say the words that lie and prey.” Leland would probably claim siccing our enemies on us had been a heroic act. Well, he’d lost any hope of screwing me months ago, and now he was going to lose any chance of screwing us over again.
Ruse blinked into the physical space just long enough to say, “He’s coming down the street,” and then vanished again. I tensed in my hunched pose. My fingers curled toward my palms.
