by Laken Cane
Their calloused fingertips whispered across my skin, leaving goosebumps in their wake, and my nerve endings woke up screaming with every warm breath, soft kiss, hard touch.
I didn’t close my eyes—I needed to see them. I watched them in the quiet, dim light, hot, then cold, hyperaware of every moment.
They slid down my body, and I buried my fingers in their hair as they each took a painfully stiff nipple into their warm mouths.
Hot, melting desire zinged through me and I arched my back, pressing my palms against their heads, holding them at my breasts. On my right, Shane was rough, his mouth causing pleasure that bordered on a perfect, promising pain, and on my left, Clayton flicked his tongue and sent streaks of pleasure like electricity from my nipple through my entire body.
My brain struggled to make sense of such different and equally pleasurable sensations, both overwhelming, both clamoring for attention. I opened my legs as they slid their hands over my stomach and to the center of my heat.
They took turns probing, massaging, caressing, and then both of them slid their fingers inside me. Shane bit, sucked, and kissed his way down my body as Clayton took my hand to his cock and bent my fingers around his hardness. I squeezed and slid my palm up and down the length of him, savoring his moans and his hoarse whispers, his throaty, rasping voice exciting me as much as any touch.
The sound of Clayton’s arousal would always be one of the best things I ever heard.
He leaned over to take my mouth in a long, deep kiss at the exact moment Shane forced my legs wide and flicked my clit with his tongue.
I groaned into Clayton’s mouth, my body throbbing, my heart racing, full of hot desire and fierce need.
Clayton’s tongue danced with mine, hot and deep, but then Shane took his mouth from between my legs and even as he began to kiss his way back up my body, Clayton pulled away from my mouth and slid his tongue and lips over my chin, my throat, my breasts. Tasting me, teasing me.
Shane bit my nipple and I cried out, taken for a moment by that sharp pleasure pain, then he soothed it with his tongue and gave me an entirely different sensation to dive into. To drown in.
I grabbed his hair and pulled his mouth to mine, needing the taste of him. I shuddered as Clayton crawled between my legs, and then I wrenched my lips from Shane’s so I could stare down my body at Clayton.
He knelt between my open thighs, his stare hot enough to burn me, his dick hard and long and beautiful, and mine.
All mine.
I unintentionally murmured the words aloud, and Clayton’s eyes narrowed, heavy-lidded and full of sex, his smile slow and dark.
“We’re yours, baby hunter,” Shane said, his voice thick.
And as Clayton positioned himself at my opening, probing, his stare glued to mine, Shane crawled up to the head of the bed, slipped his hand under my neck, and rubbed his cock across my closed lips.
I opened to take him.
I opened to take them both.
Shane’s fingers tightened on the back of my head and Clayton’s fingers tightened on my thighs, and both men fucked me.
Clayton pounded into me hard, almost brutally, and I screamed around Shane’s thrusting cock as I came. I wanted more. Needed more.
And they were happy to oblige.
I squirmed, whimpering, as another orgasm built, and I barely had time to recover from the first one before the second one washed over me. Clayton rammed himself into me, against me, filling me up.
I scraped Shane’s cock with my teeth and he groaned, holding my head as I sucked him, whispering words I couldn’t hear as he matched Clayton’s thrusts with his own.
Clayton pressed his thumb against my clit and sent me over the edge once again, then Shane muttered, “Fuck,” in a low, hot whisper, and spasmed inside my mouth, and he came, shooting hot, creamy ecstasy down my throat.
He pulled out with a groan and I flicked my tongue at the sticky head of him as he went, and still, Clayton thrust into me.
Shuddering, Shane stretched out beside me and slid his arm beneath my shoulders, cupping my breast as Clayton, his teeth clenched, his stare not leaving mine, shoved my knees to my chest and then, when he had all my attention, every single bit of it, he brought me again. He came with me, groaning, his fingers biting into my thighs, his gorgeous, scarred body covered with goosebumps.
My body stiffened as my orgasm pounded at the walls of my mind like a battering ram, and for an instant, an overwhelming instant, I drowned in that tidal wave of feeling, and there was nothing else. I fell into it, my eyes screwed shut, my body shaking with the fierceness of Clayton’s release, of my release. I felt his orgasm like it was mine.
Because he was mine.
He was part of me.
And when the hugeness of it finally began to recede, Clayton’s weight rested half on top of me, his lips buried at the side of my throat, his arm flung around my waist.
On my other side, Shane lay like the dead, heavy and still, his fingers covering my breast, his lips warm on my shoulder.
I continued to throb. I pressed my thighs against it, sore, wonderfully sore, and I was sure I’d carry that ache with me for the rest of the day.
I hoped I would. I’d need the sweetness, the comfort, the realization that sometimes things were perfect when darkness came and everything went to hell.
Chapter Sixteen
I’ve got this
My ringtone woke me up just a little after eight o’clock a.m. Shane reached across to the nightstand, grabbed the phone, and poked me with it, his eyes still closed, until I took it.
“Shit,” I muttered. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, then answered.
“Mayor Delaney is holding a press conference at ten a.m.,” Crawford said, sounding a little too sunny. “I thought you’d want to be there.”
“Yeah.” I yawned hard enough to crack my jaw. “I’ll be there, damn you.”
He laughed and hung up.
I lay back and snuggled against the two warm bodies between which I’d slept, unable to resist closing my eyes just for a minute.
Fifteen minutes later I was jarred out of a sound sleep when my phone, which I’d held on to, even in my sleep, began to ring again.
“Captain,” I said. “What? What is it?”
“You fell back to sleep, didn’t you?” he said, cheerfully.
“I’m up.”
“I’m going to murder that motherfucker,” Shane muttered.
I hung up, planted a kiss on Shane’s lips, then climbed over Clayton to get out of the bed. He slept on his stomach and I paused for a second to watch him, my gaze traveling from his tousled hair to his bare back, and then lower, to where the sheets barely clung to his perfect, naked ass.
Damn Mayor Delaney. And damn Frank Crawford.
Clayton opened an eye as I leaned over to kiss him goodbye. “I’ll come with you.”
“No. Get some sleep. I’m just going to City Hall. I’ll be fine.”
He was asleep before I’d finished speaking.
I let a cool shower wake me up and was out the door twenty minutes later.
The entire city was hysterical. People gathered in groups, loud and frantic, and the press was out in force.
Law enforcement drove slowly down the streets and walked the sidewalks, and it took me fifteen minutes to find a place to park near city hall. The many steps leading up to the building were crowded as half a dozen interviews were being conducted, but it didn’t take me long to spot the mayor and the entourage that surrounded him.
I pushed my way through the crowd and walked up the steps, then stood listening as he told people how to protect themselves—to remain inside from dusk to daylight until the curfew could be lifted, to wear their barrier glasses against the possibility of being mesmerized, and to double up on their silver. He made promises he’d never be able to keep about making the city safe again.
Asshole.
I knew Frank would have told him that the rifters were going uninvited into homes and that
they were immune to silver. But the mayor babbled on about silver and locked doors anyway. It was all he had.
He was very charismatic, our mayor. Slender, my height, perfect hair. Boyishly handsome, charming, quick brown eyes, a ready smile. He had a confident air about him that made people believe they could depend on him.
“We have it under control,” he lied. “I promise you.”
I crossed my arms and glared. “You don’t have anything under control, Mayor. Last night’s attacks were nothing compared with what’s coming.”
Reporters started shooting questions at me, the crowd began muttering, and I couldn’t hear a word the mayor said. I strode toward the bank of microphones in front of him, but two large men in suits immediately shoved me back.
“Hey,” I said, stumbling. “Keep your hands off me.”
“It’s all right,” the mayor said. “Let her come up. Come on up, Ms. Sinclair.”
Suited men and women stepped back, allowing me to stand beside Delaney, and he offered me a huge smile and a hearty handshake when I reached him.
I shook his hand. “Mayor. Did you get my message about tossing out the new supernatural regulations?”
“Now is not the time.” He turned to the microphones, the reporters, and the watching crowd. “I’m sure you all know our famous vampire hunter, but for those of you who have been living under a rock these last few months, allow me to introduce Ms. Trinity Sinclair.”
“Sir—”
He put his arm around my shoulders and squeezed my upper arm. “Play nice,” he murmured.
I shrugged his hand off my shoulder. “I’m not playing anything, Mayor.”
Reporters and onlookers alike were yelling questions—not only for the mayor, but for me.
“My wife was turned and then killed,” a man yelled. “The hunters killed her!” He clenched his fists and took a step closer to us, an older man with wrinkled clothes and red eyes, a man full of grief and devastation. “You killed her!”
“She killed my child. She killed my boy.” A woman stepped up beside him, and I remembered her. The mother of the teenaged boy Josh.
“No,” the mayor said, before anyone else could speak. “Trinity didn’t kill your loved ones. They were killed by the vampires. She simply ended their suffering.”
“What now?” someone called. “What about tonight? Will the vampires be back?”
“What kind of vampires are they?”
“Why are they attacking us?”
I leaned toward the microphones, interrupting the stream of questions thrown at me. “My hunters and I will do everything we can to protect you.” Were there things they could do to protect themselves from the coming rifters? Maybe. But I wasn’t going to be able to suggest anything while standing on the steps being yelled at by a hysterical crowd. “I need to talk to you in private,” I muttered to Delaney. “There are things you don’t know.”
Delaney stiffened but kept his smile firmly in place. “I can take care of my people. You shouldn’t be creating more hysteria. I’ve got it under control.”
“You can’t control these creatures, Mayor.” I didn’t bother keeping my voice down. “You can only hope I kill them before they kill you.”
Anxiety rippled through the crowd like a shaky wind, and Delaney turned to glare at me, the shine of anger in his eyes. “You can behave yourself, or I can have you removed. Your choice.”
“Shit,” I whispered. I looked out at the growing, noisy crowd, and saw Crawford standing at the edge, his body stiff, his lips pressed together in a line of displeasure. Whether at me, the crowd, or the mayor, I couldn’t have said.
He began to walk toward me, then pointed away from the crowd, silently urging me to join him. Maybe he was worried the people would turn on me.
“Mayor,” I said. “I need to talk with you privately about what happened last night. Those vampires weren’t—”
“Go back to Bay Town, Ms. Sinclair,” he interrupted. “I’ve got this.”
Finally, I backed away from him and the microphones and the frenzy of the crowd, and I went to join Crawford.
I needed to explain the situation to him. He could pass the information to the fucking mayor.
“He’s not willing to listen,” Crawford said, taking my arm. “You’ll have to call his office. Maybe they’ll get him to agree to a meeting.”
“Or I can talk to the press.” We walked back down the steps, and I took a deep, cleansing breath once we were away from City Hall.
“I’ve struggled with vampires my entire life. Those things last night…I’ve never seen fangs like those. And they were faster. Bigger.” He looked at me. “What were they, Sinclair?”
I blew out a tired breath. “I have a lot to tell you.”
He guided me into a tiny diner called Edna’s. “Let’s talk over breakfast.”
That was okay with me—I never felt full enough anymore.
The restaurant was one of those old tucked-away treasures that had somehow managed to stay the same over the years. The city had moved on, grown up, and changed, but the diner stayed stuck in the past.
The seat of my jeans caught on cracked upholstery as I slid into a booth, and the table rocked slightly when I put my elbows on it. Crawford waited until I was settled before sitting across from me, and I realized he looked like he belonged in that quaint, sweet place, despite the grim darkness of his work.
“Frank,” the waitress greeted, pouring his coffee. “The usual?”
“Yes, thank you, Sue.”
She looked at me. “What’ll you have?”
“What’s Frank’s usual?” I asked. “I might have that.”
“Eggs, bacon, hash browns, and some of the best biscuits you’ll ever eat,” the captain answered.
“Yeah, and you’ll push your food around and drink a pot of coffee,” the waitress said, “like you always do.” She tried for a smile, but her eyes were dull and fixed, her face pale, and a spark of…fear, maybe, lingered in her stare.
Frank frowned up at her. “You okay, Sue?”
“I sure am. How are you this morning?” She looked at me without waiting for him to answer. “You want Frank’s usual, then?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Sure. And some orange juice. Thanks.”
“Last night kicked all our asses,” Frank said, after Sue walked away with our orders. “She’s usually an annoyingly cheerful morning person, no matter what’s going on in the world.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Don’t you just hate people like that?”
He laughed. “I apologize for waking you this morning.”
“You should apologize for being so happy about it.” But I smiled. It was good to forget the mayor for a few minutes.
My phone vibrated and I glanced at the screen.
Check in.
I tapped a quick I’m fine, Angus, then placed the phone on the table.
Sue said little when she returned with our food, and Frank watched her the entire time with a line of worry between his brows.
I dug into my eggs and finished off my meal and two glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice before I considered broaching the subject of the rifters. I needed to fortify myself. And the subject matter would have spoiled my appetite.
Something had spoiled his. He drank four cups of black coffee and picked at his food, just as Sue had predicted, shoving his plate toward me after I’d finished mine and looked longingly at his untouched hash browns.
“You should eat more.” I finally sat back in my chair and rubbed my full belly. “Running on caffeine and stress will make you old.”
He snorted. “I am old.”
“No, you’re not.”
Our gazes bumped into each other, then slid away almost apologetically. The resulting awkwardness was both understandable and confusing.
I took a quick sip of the warm dregs of juice that remained, then plunked the heavy glass down on the table a little too hard. “Those things last night,” I started. And then I told him everything
I knew.
He listened without interrupting once, his stare never wavering. And when I was finished, he blew out a hard breath and sat in silence for a good five minutes, mulling it over. Finally, he spoke, but he didn’t say anything I thought he’d say. “The mayor might try to take you, Trinity. If he holds you, he believes he can force the vampire master to give himself up. He believes he can force Amias to control the attacking vampires if he controls Amias, therefore making himself the hero of Red Valley—and the master of us all.”
I gaped at him. “He’s a power-hungry asshole.”
He nodded. “Yeah. And he can be a dangerous one.”
“And when he takes Amias and releases me, does he think Amias will stay put and I won’t fight back?”
He met my stare, his eyes steady. “He’s not planning on releasing you. You’re the key to all this. If he holds you, he holds control of the supernaturals, the vampires, their money, their power. Everything.” He leaned forward, his quiet voice dropping to a murmur. “Including you and your…abilities. You have to be on guard. He’ll use anyone to get what he wants. He’ll send someone after you if he decides he can do so without hurting himself.”
“You?” I asked. “Is that how you know, because he’d mentioned sending you to arrest me?”
“Yes.”
“And who does he think will fight the attacking vampires if I’m in jail?”
“Like I said, he thinks they’ll be controlled once he controls the master. He’s impulsive and a little crazy, but he’s a smart man. He doesn’t think he’ll face consequences for anything he does because he never has.”
“He’s not the type to get his hands dirty, though.”
“He doesn’t have to. He has people to do that for him.” He took a drink of coffee. “But now, with these new attackers coming, he’s going to see he’s not in control of anything.”
“Can you talk to him? Tell him about the rifters?”
“Absolutely. But I can’t guarantee he’ll believe the story. I can’t guarantee he won’t go ahead with his plan to take you.”
“You should be the mayor,” I said. “The city would be a better place.”
