by ERIN BEDFORD
My eyes skittered to Bethany, who kept her eyes on her drink, not letting herself be sucked into this pissing contest. Lucky her. Jack, on the other hand, had no problem picking up what Darren was insinuating.
“You’re correct.” Jack sat his beer down and turned completely toward us. “I find it peculiar that Piper has worked as my receptionist for a year now and not once mentioned a boyfriend, let alone one she lives with.”
“As he said, we’re—” I tried to interrupt him, but Jack turned his accusations onto me.
“He’s not even your emergency contact. How can he be your boyfriend? You have your mother written down. That seems a bit off to me, doesn’t it, Bethany?”
Bethany waved a hand at the bartender. “Another please. And keep them coming.” To Jack, she shook her head. “Nope. Nothing seems off to me.”
“You are a suspicious man, Jack.” Darren stepped closer to me, his hands on my hips. If he were a dog, he’d be pissing on my leg to mark his territory.
“It comes with the job, Darren.” Jack stood, his six-foot frame giving him the advantage over Darren’s five-ten. “My nose can pick up a lie in seconds and you two reek of bullshit.”
I gaped at my boss. “Excuse me.” I jumped out of my seat and placed my glass down on the bar, putting myself between the two of them. “You might be my boss, but my personal life is none of your damn business. Nor who my emergency contact is. I came out with you guys against my better judgment and this is how you act?” I huffed and shoved my purse over my shoulder. “I’ve had enough employers pushing the limits of our work relationship, and I won’t be pushed by you. Now, if you’ll excuse me. I’m going home. I’ll see you Monday. If you still wish to keep me as your receptionist, that is.”
Jack gaped at me and then hurried to say, “Of course I do. I didn’t mean to—”
“Good,” I interjected, and grabbed Darren’s arm. “Let’s go. Bethany, I’ll see you later.”
“Bye.” She waved meekly before burying her face back into her drink. I bet she was regretting dragging me to drinks now. She could pay for our drinks then as an apology.
Marching us out of the bar, I clenched my teeth and held my anger until we were all the way home. A feat in itself for me.
However, the moment we stepped into the quaint, two-bedroom house we’d taken up residence in, I turned on Darren, shoving my finger in his face. “What the hell was that?”
Darren laced his hands behind his back, his expression dry and without emotion. “Your employer wants to bed you.”
“No fucking duh,” I growled, wanting to pull my hair out. “I think I could figure that bit out for myself without you antagonizing him. Why can’t you just be like you are with the vampires and not start shit?”
“We’re not with vampires now.” Darren took the few steps toward me until I was forced to back up as well. My back hit the wall and his arms caged me in on either side. “And it is my job to keep you safe. That includes from over interested lawyers, who think to take what doesn’t belong to them.”
My annoyance at Darren shifted at his nearness. My heart rate sped up and my nipples hardened as his chest brushed against my front. “And who exactly do I belong to?” I licked my lips, my mouth going dry from the intensity of his stare.
Darren leaned down, one hand brushing my blonde hair over my shoulder. “I think you know.”
I shivered as his fingers trailed along my cheek and cupped the back of my neck. The relationship dynamic between Darren and myself had shifted at some point over the last year. Of course, it had already been well on its way after the scene with Antoine in his office when he’d been trying to get me to back out of going to Club Dead. However, after a year of living together, make-believing we were playing house while we waited for the vampires in our lives to outrun or kill the hunters chasing them had somehow morphed into something real. I could almost pretend like we were a normal couple just living our lives, except for the monthly visits from one of the Durands.
“Stop worrying so much,” Darren murmured, brushing his lips against mine. “That’s my job.”
“And what’s mine?” I smiled against his lips, my fingers coming up to curl into the front of his shirt. I knew I was driving him crazy by wrinkling up the material. His analness was one of the things I loved about him. Every inch of me just itched to mess up his perfectly coiffed appearance and he might be annoyed by it, but he also loved every moment of it.
Darren’s other arm moved down my back, cupping my ass before finding the edge of my skirt, dipping his hand beneath it until he found my center. I gasped and bucked my hips against his touch. “You are meant to be savored and adored. Worrying does not suit the goddess that you are.”
My cheeks ached with how wide I grinned. “You’re such a charmer. I can see why Antoine—” Darren flicked his thumb against my clit, making me groan.
“No more talking.” Darren captured my lips, devouring every inch of my mouth with his tongue. I dragged my nails through his hair and let out a grunt of annoyance as he removed his hand from between my thighs, pulling my leg up and over his hip. Rolling my hips, I ground myself against his hardness, seeking out some kind of release for the ache he had stirred in my core.
“Now, please,” I gasped into his mouth, reaching between us to pull down his zipper. My hand wrapped around Darren’s length, hot and hard in my grasp. He hissed at the contact. Grabbing me beneath both legs, Darren pulled me closer so my skirt bunched up at my waist. As he sank inside me, my head fell back against the wall.
In a town I didn’t want to be in, away from home and everyone I knew, helpless to save the men who I’d begun to refer to as family, this was the only thing that made sense. This right here. With Darren, who had started out a reluctant coworker, and had turned into a friend, a confidant, and now lover. Calling him my boyfriend had been putting it simply, but as Darren had once explained to me his relationship with Antoine, ours was so much…more. Boyfriend didn’t quite cut it. Especially when I technically had five others, if I could still call them that seeing as we only got to see each other once a month, and not even all of them together. Last time was Marcus’s turn. This time was…
I pulled my mouth away from Darren’s and blinked rapidly, barely able to think, let alone speak with him inside me. “What…what day is it?”
“What?” Darren grunted, his hips shifting to press even deeper inside me.
White spots formed behind my eyes and my fingers clenched into his hair as I cried out. For a moment, I lost my train of thought, absorbed by the feeling of Darren within me.
Forcing myself to think clearly, I grabbed Darren’s face between my hands. “What day is it?”
“Friday, you know that.” Darren cupped my ass so tightly I knew I’d have bruises tomorrow. For someone who bottomed for a vampire master, he had no issue in being the top in ours.
“No, no. The date.” I smacked his shoulder and felt myself clench around him. A wave of pleasure surged through me, fogging my mind and making me forget what I was even talking about. Darren seemed overcome with the same need as he drove into me faster. With one hand, he ripped my shirt open, exposing my bra, and I couldn’t get out of my clothes fast enough.
My bra went next, tossed with my shirt into the darkened house. My skirt stayed up around my waist as Darren dropped my legs and turned me around, backing me toward our couch. Bending me over the arm of the sofa, he pushed back inside me all at once. I cried out at the sudden intrusion, but then braced myself on the cushions. I didn’t question our sudden ferocity, my mind focused on one thing—finding my release.
With my clit pressed against the rigid material of the couch, it didn’t take long for my insides to tighten around Darren, and I screamed my release until my throat ached. Darren grunted shortly after, spilling himself inside me before slumping against my back.
While my body cooled, I took in slow, deep breaths. Having orgasmed, I could think again. What was it I was worried about again? It was then
that I felt the eyes on us.
My head slowly turned toward the armchair as the lamplight clicked on.
Ebony hair tumbled over wide shoulders, his piercing blue eyes staring straight into my soul as his luscious lips curled into a devilish grin. “Well, isn’t this interesting.”
Fuck.
Chapter 2
Wynn
I had thought of nothing more than to get back to see Piper after all this time. I’d only seen her once before over this last year, and it had been too short of a visit for anything other than a long night of passion mixed in with some tension between her and Darren.
At the time, I thought it had been the whole vampire hunter on the run situation. Piper hadn’t pretended to be okay with being shoved here while we were out running around. She had been more than vocal and none of us have been able to make her feel better about it. Not even Rayne.
Antoine said she will get over it. With time. After all, we had so much time. However, now I was less sure about her getting over it than her being too comfortable where she was. With Darren.
“Wynn.” Piper scowled, shifting out from under Darren and grabbing Darren’s discarded shirt to cover herself. “That was fucked up, even for you. What are you doing here?”
I let my lips quirk up as I skimmed my gaze over her bare legs, the scent of arousal still filling the air. “I do believe that I have answered the question you have been asking the entire time that our attractive young Darren was, how do the young folk say it nowadays?” I held back a chuckle as Piper narrowed her eyes on me. “Taking you to pound town?”
Piper’s nose scrunched up. “No one says that...like, at all.”
Darren made a sound in his throat that was close to a laugh. Something I rarely heard from the stoic, well-mannered man. In fact, seeing him so uninhibited with Piper was like seeing a unicorn. He was never so willing to be mussed up by anyone, even Antoine. Piper, though, had been all over him, her hands in his hair, ripping at his clothes, and he didn’t even seem to care. In fact, it seemed to get him off faster.
It was very…interesting.
“Still, I am surprised that you don’t have our visits on your phone.” I lifted mine up and showed where I had noted today’s visit. “Are you so content with your life here,” I gestured around the small but welcoming house, holding back a sniff of distaste, “working as a puffed up lawyer’s assistant that you have forgotten all about us, my pet?”
Piper’s back stiffened and her arms crossed over her chest as she glowered at me. Those eyes were so fierce and lethal that had I not been immortal, I might have feared for my life. My kitten had claws after all.
With heavy steps, she sauntered over to me, kicking me in the shin with a barefoot. “I’m not the one who ditched us here to go off vampire hunter…hunting.”
I grinned as she flushed from her words.
Propping my arm up on the chair, I leaned my face into my palm. I could feel the wickedness sliding up my face as I contemplated the ordeal we were in. My brothers and I were unable to stand still while our loyal butler seduced the girl we were all in love with. It was indeed a plot twist none of us saw coming.
“I apologize if you have been forlorn since we have been running for our lives. If I had known how aggrieved you would be, I would have insisted we bring you along. Or at least visit more often.” I uncrossed my legs, and in a single quick movement, pulled Piper into my lap. Darren, who had put on his pants—more for Piper’s benefit, I was sure, than mine—gave us a once over before discretely leaving the room. I sometimes wished Piper had the same kind of decorum. Then again, I wouldn’t want to sleep with her and her smart mouth if that were the case.
“You’re an asshole.” Piper smacked my chest with a frown and tried to stand up, but I held her in place. “You can’t just walk into our house.” She tried to stand up again. I tugged her back to me. With an aggravated sigh, she threw her hands up. “You don’t live here. Darren and I do.”
“Ah.” I pinched her chin between my fingers and drew her face close. “But we own it.”
This time Piper gave me a wicked grin. “No. Actually, you don’t.”
My lips dropped into a frown. “What do you mean?”
Pushing out of my arms—I was so dumbfounded, I allowed it—Piper marched over to a desk by one of the walls. She dug through some papers before pulling a stapled stack out and marched it back over to me. She unceremoniously dropped it into my lap.
Eyes dropping to the stack of papers, I saw that it was the deed to the house here in Seabrick. I had a sinking feeling as I flipped through the pages and saw that not once was the Durand name mentioned in the deed. In fact, the whole thing was under Piper’s name. Darren wasn’t even mentioned once.
“See?” Piper tapped her finger on top of the papers. “This is my house. Not yours.”
For the first time in over a hundred years, I was speechless. “Uh, how…how did you manage this? I thought your finances were—”
“A mess?” Piper beamed and lifted her chin with pride. “Surprising what having a steady income can do to your credit score and your debt. Plus, since I was hoarding your guilt payments this last year, I had plenty of money to put a sizeable down payment on it.”
“They were not guilt payments,” I argued in mock offense, handing her the papers. “But I do have to say, I am impressed. And should I say proud?”
Piper smiled down at me and then pushed it down, making a sad attempt at being forceful. “So get out of my house.” She pointed a finger at the door as if I were a dog that might do as she commanded.
I pushed back the grin fighting its way up my face and gave Piper my best smolder. “Now, love, you don’t really mean that, do you?” I played with the hemline of her/Darren’s shirt. “Haven’t you missed me?”
Piper smacked my hand and pretended to think about it before saying, “Nope,” popping her P as she cocked her hip to one side. “I’m completely satisfied with Darren and my little receptionist job with my overly flirtatious boss.” She bumped my knee with her barefoot and I caught it between my hands, massaging it gently as I pulled it into my lap.
“Wynn,” Piper protested, halfheartedly trying to pull her leg away from me. “Stop it. I’m mad at you. All of you.”
“Are you now?” I leaned forward and placed a kiss on the inside of her knee and then just above it, causing Piper’s breath to catch. “What can I possibly do to help ease your ire? Hmm?”
As I worked my mouth up the inside of Piper’s thigh, her arousal flaring each inch upward, I noticed a difference in the woman before me. I hadn’t noticed it before, not from the way Darren had her bent over the couch or against the wall, but the softness in Piper’s body I had come to adore was practically gone. In its place, but no less sexy, were lean and defined muscles. So much strength behind these legs that I wanted to devour every inch of her.
“Why’d you stop?” Piper pouted, her coffee-colored eyes staring down at me.
“I thought you wanted me to leave?” I hummed, my lips curling up in a coy grin.
Piper seemed to catch herself, pulling her leg away from me and crossing her arms with a forced frown on her lips. “I did. I do. I mean, fuck, Wynn.” She dragged a hand through her blonde hair and sat down on the coffee table behind her. “I don’t know. I’m so mad at you all right now. All year you’ve been gone, only popping in once a month and then popping back out of my life.” She gestured her arms out wildly. “I don’t even get to see all of you, only one of you at a time. I feel like my life has been shoved into a standstill while you are all doing whatever the fuck you are doing to avoid or find the hunters.” She wiggled her hands with so much frustration I wanted to kiss the furrow out of her brows. “And then something happened between me and Darren…and I mean, it’s not like we are hearing wedding bells or anything but…”
“You want to be with him,” I supplied for her, my heart feeling heavy in my chest.
I wasn’t angry. I thought I might be. Jealous even.
But if anything, I was sad in a bittersweet kind of way.
If I had to lose Piper to someone, I suppose it could be worse than Darren. He was one of our closest and most loyal employees and friends. He was a part of the family. He was also a human servant and knew exactly how Piper was feeling. He could give her children, if that was what she wanted. He could marry her and go out in the sun with her. I supposed we’d have to let them go sometime. I couldn’t imagine that having my brothers and I around would help them. It would only make it awkward for all of us. Not to mention the hunters were still on our asses, so we couldn’t exactly stay in one place to be with them anyway.
“…and like I said, I don’t know how Antoine is going to feel about it, but I’m already seeing, dating, whatever,” Piper waved her hands in front of her, “the five of you. I don’t think adding one more is really going to be a big deal. I just don’t want—”
“Wait.” I held my hand up, confusion making my face pinch. “You aren’t running away with Darren?”
Piper’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped. Then she laughed. Loud and long. So much so that I was worried she wasn’t breathing. She slapped her leg and let out a long sigh. “Oh, God. I haven’t laughed like that in a long time. I mean, I absolutely love Darren. I do.” She turned her head toward the back of the house. “You hear that, stick in the mud? I love your sexy ass.”
Darren chuckled from what sounded like the kitchen before the sound of his footsteps came toward us. He stopped in the doorway of the living room wearing a new shirt buttoned up and looking pristine. “I love you too. Don’t shout across the house. We aren’t barbarians.”
Wagging her brows in his direction, Piper pulled her lower lip between her teeth before saying, “Your actions when we walked in said differently.”
Darren smiled a genuine smile before his eyes dipped to me. He bowed slightly before walking back to the kitchen.