Present Tense: Pleasure Times Four (Out of the Fire Book 3)

by Candace Blevins

  “Does this mean you’ll allow me to go back? You’ll allow me to live with my men?”

  “Fabio was drawn to you originally because you’re a vampire, but it’s become more. James didn’t intend to like or dislike you, but he had some trust issues. What the two of you feel is real, and has little to do with supernatural magic.” He took a breath. “Eunice fell for you in spite of his hatred and distrust for vampires. I only allowed you into a house with someone who felt that way about vampires because I knew his loyalty to Aaron and Nathan wouldn’t let him kill you when you were dead to the world. Somehow, you charmed him. I never saw it as a possibility.”

  “We’re both nerds. I’ve learned how to fake not being one, but I can be myself with him. I don’t have to pretend.”

  “Yes, but that isn’t it entirely. You’re going to doubt it at some point. You’ll think it’s because mongoose is your animal, and that isn’t it.” He leaned forward in his chair, so he was looking straight down at her. “This kind of love doesn’t come along very often, and you’ve found it with three close friends. You’ve become part of their unit. Don’t fuck it up.” He took a breath and his energy changed to something a little scary. “I sentence you to two nights in the box. Not because you’ve done wrong, but because I haven’t punished you and you need to know I won’t hesitate to do so, should you displease me. I’m displeased by the situation, by the fact someone else’s commands overwrote mine, and it doesn’t matter that it wasn’t your fault. Life isn’t fair, and you’ll only piss me off if you start down that path.”

  “Thank you for explaining why I’ll spend time in the box, Master. You didn’t have to, and it’s appreciated.”

  He gave her a small nod, and reached to close the box.

  When she was once again plunged into total darkness, she heard him in her head.

  It wasn’t plugged in before. It will be now. Use this time to meditate and consider what kind of vampire you want to be. Submissive in bed, yes, but out of it? You’re stronger than you know.

  And then she was blocked from the rest of the world, and she understood how they were doing it, this time. She was in a Faraday cage, of sorts. It had to be plugged in for it to block her from any energy or magic or whatever outside the box.

  37

  Eunice thought he’d go crazy, but Aaron had told him this was between Kelsey and her Master, and he needed to let that happen and focus on his work.

  For two days, his job consisted of working security for Aaron’s wife in Faerie. In fucking Faerie.

  He helped her regular castle guard oversee the party to end all parties, and he completely understood why more help had been brought in when half of the castle guard joined the orgy at the end.

  By the time he was taken home, he’d been awake for thirty hours and he was exhausted, but nothing mattered because his beloved was in a damned box, dead to the world. It was no longer plugged in, but she was still in the fucking box. Someone had delivered it to Drake Security, and they were in the basement.

  “You mustn’t take her out,” Aaron told him, physically blocking him from doing so.

  “Why would they do that to her?! She’s starving. She’s so damned weak, and she’s bound into a fucking box.” He didn’t yell. Oh no. His voice was low. Calm.

  Someone was going to die for this. Aaron had told him she’d be okay, and she clearly was not okay.

  “This is standard punishment for a vampire. Two nights without food means’ she’ll be weak, but it won’t do permanent harm. She’s had worse, Eunice.”

  “She won’t wake up in the box under my watch.”

  “I will feed her, Eunice, but she isn’t old enough to trust unbound when she wakens after being punished. I’ll offer her my arm while she’s bound, but I won’t feed her if you take her out.”

  He glared at his boss, at the ancient dragon powerful enough to make your teeth hurt from hundreds of yards away. “You’re saying she’ll hurt us when she rises? I don’t believe that.”

  Aaron blew out a breath. “I once fed the man you knew as Abbott, when he’d been in a box. When he still had a Master. Etienne, as he was known at the time, nearly bled me dry, long before he was powerful enough to be called The Abbott.” He softened his voice. “He was my friend. He wouldn’t have hurt me for the world, but he came out of it a raving wild thing. Mindless. Until he’d fed, he wasn’t himself. It’s possible your girl will wake starved but clearheaded, but it’s also possible she wakes with only a thirst for blood, and with no memory of who she is. Until she rises, we won’t know.”

  Eunice stood still as a statue, every muscle in his body taut. His hands squeezed into fists at his side. Concrete in his gut. “I can’t feel her, Aaron. I mean, I can sense the shape her body’s in, but I can’t feel her mind. Her soul.”

  “Can you usually feel her at one o’clock in the afternoon?”

  “No. Yes. I mean...” Fuck. “I begin to sense her, sometimes, before she rises. When she’s fed on lust, I’ll feel her this early.”

  “She hasn’t fed on anything in days. As young as she is, we may not see her until sunset.” He ran his hand through his hair. “We’re all safe here. I’m going to take a nap. I advise you to do the same.”

  They were deep under the offices of Drake Security. No one was going to get to them here, and the table with the casket-like box stood between two twin-sized beds. Aaron took his jeans and shirt off, and slid into bed in his boxer briefs. He’d been in a tuxedo the night before. Did he keep a closet full of clothes at the Swan Castle as well as his home in this realm?

  Eunice shook his head, removed the black suit jacket and pants, hung them in the small wardrobe at the foot of the bed on his side of the room. He slid the shoulder holster off without removing the guns or knives from it, and hung it in the closet as well. Next came the ankle holster, and he could finally take the black shirt and black tie off.

  He needed a shower, but his girl was going to want one when she rose. They could get clean together.

  She awakened all at once. Her hunger ate at her, and she was still trapped in the box, but she could see a ceiling. Two yanks at her feet and arms, and she screamed in frustration. Her two nights were up. Why was she still bound?

  An arm touched her lips. Dragon.

  “I need permission, Aaron.” She might be starved, but she wasn’t going to feed without being told she could.

  “You have it, Kelsey. Drink.”

  She heard Eunice speaking, and then Aaron speaking, but couldn’t focus on what was said. She could only focus on the blood going into her mouth, her stomach, her bloodstream. Nourishment. Life. Magic. Power.

  Kelsey didn’t know how many times the Dragon said, “Enough,” before it sank into her psyche, but when it finally did, she opened her mouth and let him pull it away.

  “I’m sorry, Sir. I lost track. I’m okay now. It’s safe to let me lick it, to heal the small wound.”

  The arm came back, she licked, and it went away.

  Eunice came into view, looking down at her. “I want to release you, but Aaron says I need to feed you like this. We can stop you when you’re in the box without having to hurt you. If you lose it outside of the box, we might need to hurt you, if you lose track.”

  She gave a curt nod. “He’s right. I’d like to tell you I’ll be okay, but I can’t guarantee it.”

  His arm rested on her lips, but not at the right place. Aaron had known where to put his arm, but Eunice didn’t.

  “Drink, Kels.”

  “No artery here. I can’t.”

  The arm pulled away a few seconds, and it returned with a finger touching it, and then was carefully placed at her chin, the finger removed, and the arm rolled down over her mouth. She slid her fangs into his arm, and drew Eunice’s wonderful mongoose-flavored blood into her. So savory. So good. So much punch.

  And she didn’t lose herself this time. When she’d taken nearly as much as she dared, she withdrew her fangs and licked the tiny wounds.

&n
bsp; “Where are James and Fabio?”

  “Still in Faerie,” Aaron told her. “Marco believed having all three of your men here, powering you, would’ve made you more dangerous if you’d been out of your mind when you rose.”

  “I’m okay.”

  “Yes, you are,” the Dragon King said, and he sounded impressed.

  Aaron removed her right foot and right arm while Eunice took care of her left side, and then Eunice put his arms under her and lifted her out as if she were an infant.

  “I need a shower.”

  “As do I, but not yet. You need more blood.”

  “I do, but it isn’t a crushing hunger. A shower will help with the dehydration, plus I’ll feel cleaner. Please.”

  Eunice looked to Aaron. “We’re gonna use the decon shower. Send our other two in when you can, please.”

  It turned out, the decon shower had jets all over, coming at you from every direction. At first, it was too much, but Eunice fiddled with the controls until the water was a gentle shower and not like something out of a fire hydrant.

  Kelsey dropped to her knees and took Eunice into her mouth because she needed to submit to him. Needed to fix the order of things. He’d fed her. Nourished her. Served her. It was necessary, but she had to set things right. She’d been worried Eunice would stop her, but he put his hands to the back of her head and forced himself down her throat.

  “That’s it. Mine. My vampire. My girl. My nerd. Mine. Three holes and a brain, and I intend to use them all. Suck harder. We both know you can.”

  Eunice fucked her face hard, holding the back of head until he finally came down her throat. She needed fluids, she needed power. She drank in the lust from the room, but fought not to absorb any directly from him while he came down her throat, because he hadn’t given permission.

  Fabio and James came in, and Fabio stretched out on the floor where water from several places struck him at once. “Bite me and blow me, Cupcake. Groin. Blood only. No lust directly from the source until Eunice gives permission.”

  She dropped to her knees between his legs, licked a spot she intended to bite, and then struck. Fabio gasped, and then moaned, and she fed from his lust a few inches from his body — just past his aura. She’d had to take it from the room in general before, but she could sense it close to him now, and it was of better quality. Stronger. More intense.

  Heat stroked her ass cheek, and James’ oh-so-deep voice ordered, “Ass up, little girl. Arch your back. Show me your pretty little cunt.”

  It struck her that James was in an odd mood, and then his fat fingers invaded her, stretching her pussy without warning. Too many. Too fast. Too much. Too hard. She tried to open and let him in, but the stretch was too much, and he hit against bones that didn’t want to move. And then his cock was at her entrance. Pushing. Shoving. Opening.

  Three more intense pulls of Fabio’s blood, and she backed her fangs out, soaked the small wounds with her saliva, and then licked his nuts the way she knew he liked.

  “That’s nice, Cupcake, but I need your throat today.”

  As soon as she took his cock into her mouth, his hands were at the back of her head, pulling her down. Rough. Hard.

  And Kelsey relaxed and let the men have their way with her. She felt Eunice at her side, and then sharp, sharp pain on her right nipple. Then her left. She tried to gasp and scream, but Fabio’s hands were moving her head up and down on his cock as if she were a sex toy.

  Eunice’s demanding fingers moved her pussy lips away from her clit, and she tried to shake her head no. Tried to scream to let them know she couldn’t handle pain on her clit.

  But it didn’t matter. Her wants didn’t matter. They were claiming her. Making her theirs, as opposed to Kelsey making them belong to her.

  And she realized it was right. Steel teeth bit into her clit. Or perhaps they were plastic teeth. She didn’t know, and it didn’t matter. She wanted to be theirs. Wanted to belong to them. The pain was part of it — their right to hurt her. They owned her, and everything was as it should be.

  “That’s it,” Eunice said from her side, stroking her back. “Ours. You belong to Marco first because the supernatural rules insist, but that doesn’t mean you are any less ours.” One of his hands went away, the other stayed. “Guys, go in and hold a second, please.”

  They both did, and then her nipples and clit came alive with a million tiny fire ants biting and stinging and wiggling. Electricity. He’d hooked her up so he could shock her.

  “That was a three,” Eunice told her. “It goes to a ten. Just to give you an idea, here’s a shorter hit, but a five.”

  This time, the pain lasted two seconds. She knew because she counted. It’d probably lasted ten seconds the first time, and yet, the second time was so much worse. If she’d been human, she’d have peed and puked and possibly more.

  “A ten won’t kill you, since you aren’t human,” James said from behind her. “Come when I do, but not before.”

  “You may drink lust from all of us directly while you orgasm,” Eunice said from beside her.

  James sped up. His hips powering into her. Slamming. No human could’ve withstood it, but she was Vampire, and she’d quickly learned how much this body could handle.

  Once, it’s possible the cock down her throat along with the gigantic one pounding her from behind, combined with the pain to her nipples and clit — years before, an orgasm wouldn’t have been possible. Today, however, the sensory overload had her riding the knife edge of ecstasy, holding everything back until James finally slammed home and growled through his release.

  Fabio came down her throat a second later, and then Eunice ordered, “Come, Kelsey, and feed from all of us.”

  Kelsey’s body spasmed, her hips jerked, her inner muscles clenched and released. Clenched and released.

  And she drank down the heat and lust of all three of her men — from the cock in her throat, the dick in her cunt, and the hands squeezing and twisting her breasts and trapped nipples. She counted to twelve in her head, and stopped when she reached it. Within seconds, the three clamps were removed, and she was cradled in James’s arms, focused on his oh-so-blue eyes.

  “You’re glowing.” James was seated with her on the floor, holding her, in a spot where the water hit her stomach but not her face. He looked to the other men, who were both flat on their backs, eyes closed, still under the water.

  Eunice rolled up to a sit, and then stood. Tired or not, he moved like his animal — smooth and graceful and impossibly beautiful.

  “Your eyes are blue again,” Eunice told her, standing over them. He walked to the wall and turned the water off.

  James stood with her. Part of her wanted to tell him she could walk, but she didn’t. His arms felt too damned good.

  She hadn’t expected both Aaron and Nathan to be waiting for them in the outer room, but she met their gazes and didn’t turn away. She knew without looking in their heads that they’d watched, but she couldn’t find a reason to be pissed. This was a security company made up of supernaturals. Of course they’d want to understand the dynamics of a new foursome made up of some of their top people.

  No one spoke until the foursome had dried off and donned the sweatpants provided. Kelsey had sweats and a shirt, but the men were shirtless.

  “You have my blessing,” Nathan said, and he turned and walked out.

  Aaron shook his head. “It seems our Amakhosi has become a bit of a romantic. I can’t give you a blessing without restrictions. Need-to-know access will still be observed, which means Kelsey will sometimes know things the rest of you cannot, and I don’t care what your power exchange situation is, that’s the way it’ll have to be. There will also be times the three of you will have information you can’t give Kelsey, and I’ll expect you to figure out how to keep it secure despite the fact she can see into your heads.” He blew out a breath. “However, other than work-related issues, which we’ll deal with as they arise, the four of you have my blessing as well.”

>   He pulled a small little satin bag from his pocket, handed it to Eunice, and walked out.

  Eunice held the bag in his hands and looked to Fabio. “Now that it comes to it, I wonder if we shouldn’t have planned this better. Dressed up and gone somewhere special.”

  “No,” James said. “Here. Well, maybe not the locker room. Perhaps the conference room down the hall. A secure room without a video feed into it. There’s nothing more private or secure, so we can all let our guards down.”

  “What are we doing?” Kelsey didn’t figure they’d answer, but she had to ask.

  Eunice touched the towel Kelsey still had on top of her head, wound around to hold her wet hair until she could do something with it. “We’re going to walk a short way down the hall, for starters.”

  When they were all in the conference room, James sat her on the table, and the three men climbed on with her. When they were all sitting facing each other in a small circle, Eunice dumped four rings on the table. They looked silver, but she knew they weren’t. At first, she thought they were a simple band, but each had a recessed row of blue diamonds in it, going all the way around.

  A giant one for James, and the smallest for her. The two-middle sized rings were similar sizes.

  “We aren’t just asking you to wear our ring,” Fabio said.

  “We’re saying we want everyone to know we’re a unit,” Collosa added. “You belong to us. We all belong to each other.”

  Eunice lifted the smallest ring. “Will you wear a ring that shows we’re a family?”

  Kelsey kept trying to swallow her tears down, but she finally gave it up and let them flow. She didn’t trust her voice, so she telepathed to them all.

  I love all of you. It’s different, for each of you, but it’s there. My biggest fear, before Marco gave his pronouncement, wasn’t that I’d be punished, but that I’d be sent away, and that I’d never see any of you again. She held her hand out and stopped her ring finger a few inches in front of the ring.