I clamped down on that need the same way I’d subsumed the cold man, finding ease through the pleasure of Lanu’s soft body and the spill of her blood across my tongue.
Devin found his boldness at the same time. He wrapped the queen’s hair around a fist and used the grip to guide her head as she suckled him. He flinched when her fangs struck, and gave a long, hoarse moan when she allowed the pleasure of her mouth to edge out the pain.
I rewarded her gentleness with sharp thrusts that pushed her close to her own release, then eased back. I didn’t want her to come. She hadn’t earned it yet.
But Devin had. I sent him an image of me in his ass, fucking him the way I was fucking the queen. He dropped back onto an elbow and thrust upward in short, sharp movements for long moments, then came on a low cry. Lanu nibbled him clean as she had me before letting his dick slide away.
I pulled out of her ass, flipped her over, and yanked her down the bed. Her flat, black eyes had gone soft and dreamy with need. I pinned her knees against her chest. “Tell me why you punished your pet and I’ll let you come.”
Her eyes fluttered closed. “You know the whys.”
“I want to hear them.”
A tear slid down her cheek as she turned her head away. “No one may place himself above the queen.”
I waited until she looked at me before saying, “That isn’t why.”
She shifted restlessly under me. Her arousal played along my senses, a sharp tang of woman with the underlying hint of blood, and enriched my own desire. “He makes me feel.”
“I know.” I held her gaze with my own. “Stop punishing him for doing what you want him to do.”
“Are you now my keeper, Eric Logan?”
I didn’t ask how she knew my surname. Only three people here were supposed to have that information, but I let it go. The queen had her own talents. I hadn’t learned how to defend against them yet.
Instead of answering, I pushed slowly into her ass, savoring the grip of her flesh on mine, and opened myself to her as my hips pumped, fed her images of what I had been and what I was becoming, showing her as plainly as I could how having me as an ally when I turned would be to her benefit.
She absorbed it all silently, her body still under the beat of mine. “We shall discuss this later, pet.”
“Yes, my queen.”
I exhaled a breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding and hardened my thrusts as my fingers found her clitoris, circling and teasing the sensitive bump in quick motions that pushed her high. She threw her head back on a long gasp as she came, the hard spasms of her orgasm pulling me into ecstasy behind her. I spilled into her ass, shuddering with each throb of her release and mine. Devin joined us, skimming his hands over both our bodies, and then we shared the queen, delighting her with our play until she was sated.
Hours after we’d led the queen to her blooding room, Dev and I made our way to his bedroom and showered together, too drained from our time with Lanu to do more than hold each other as we fell into bed and sank into sleep. I’d eased up on the domination after making my point about her pet, had to. My imagination wasn’t that vivid and some of the things she wanted me to do, the things she needed from me, I just couldn’t bring myself to act out.
So I wasn’t the badass I’d thought after my little foray into Zane’s mind, but I didn’t let it get me down. Everybody had limits.
At some point, Dev woke up and left, maybe to go to the bathroom. As long as he came back, I didn’t care where he went. A while later, the bed dipped and I rolled toward the weight with a sleepy smile. My grasping hand fell not on Devin, but on the slight, nude form of the queen.
“Lanu.” I sat up and groped for the switch on the bedside lamp. “What are you doing here?”
Her hand found mine and pulled it away from the lamp, leaving us in shadow. “Why did you release my pet?”
I dropped my head into the pillow. “His punishment was unjust.”
“You question my will?”
“Yeah, I do.” I scrubbed a hand over my face and sighed. Why did women always want to talk after sex? “At least come over here so we can be comfortable.”
“You dare much.” Her voice held a sharp chill, though she slid under the sheets and rested her head on my chest. “I should kill you now and be rid of you.”
“You could,” I agreed easily. “But you won’t.”
“You know this how?”
“Because you like me.”
Her laugh washed over me in soft waves, like rain on a bright spring day.
“Your pet loves you deeply. He’d do anything for you.” I shifted my hold on her, brushed her hair back from her face. “Your favorite is loyal, but not devoted.”
“You suggest I switch their places.”
“I’m merely pointing out something you’ve overlooked because your heart’s involved.”
“It is indeed, though few have the wit to discern it.”
Her fingers found my nipple, circling it slowly. I was too tired to react, but not so tired I couldn’t enjoy her touch.
“Your house would be much stronger with this pet as your favorite.” I skimmed a hand down her back, rested it on her tiny waist, and squeezed gently. “Strong enough that few would dare challenge you. Those few could be crushed with me at your side.”
“So you showed me. It is a tempting offer, young Eric.”
“Just a practical one. Elizabet says I can’t stop the turn, only slow it. After that, I’ll need your protection to survive. I figure it’s a two-way street. You help me, I help you, and we’re both stronger for it.” I pressed a kiss to the top of her head, breathing in the lemony scent of her shampoo. “But you have to stop denying your heart. It weakens you, leaves you vulnerable and open. Strengthen your house, my queen, and allow me to be your devoted servant.”
The bathroom door opened, throwing a shaft of light into the bedroom. Devin stumbled out rubbing weary hands over his face. When he saw Lanu, he came to an abrupt halt. “What’s the queen doing in our bed?”
I bit the inside of my cheek to hold in a laugh. “Negotiating.”
“Right. Sorry.” He flipped off the light and made his way carefully to the bed. “If it involves sex, I’m out. She sucked me dry.”
I did laugh then, the sound mingling with Lanu’s soft huff. “Go to sleep, Dev. She’s not here for that.”
“Believe what you must, Eric.” Her voice was sly as her hand dipped below my waist and found my flaccid cock. “Perhaps I wish to seal our negotiation properly.”
“A kiss will do.” I captured her hand, holding it still. “You should save your appetite for the man who needs it.”
In the darkness, her eyes took on a soft glow. She pulled her hand from under mine and cupped my face. “You are much too young to be so wise, or so canny. I shall watch you carefully, pet.”
“You have nothing to fear from me, Lanu. This I swear.”
She nodded solemnly and pressed her lips to mine, an implicit approval of the informal deal we’d made. “Rest well, Eric Logan.”
“And you, my queen.”
She slipped from the bed and padded silently away. I rolled over and curled myself around Dev, absorbing his heat, and fell asleep surrounded by his scent.
Chapter Seven
Dev and I attended dinner at Elizabet’s every night of Lanu’s stay there, though the queen and I never spoke directly after our negotiation, nor did she betray our agreement by so much as a stray glance. She had taken my counsel and allowed her pet to go free. He followed along behind her, his adoration carefully concealed from all but the sharpest eye.
I peeked into his mind once and found a quiet gratitude. From the mind of Lanu’s favorite, I plucked relief. The favorite wished to retire and would have long ago. His only resentment was being passed to the stable of one of Lanu’s daughters instead of being allowed to remain within the queen’s household. His placement there was a strategic move on Lanu’s part, a way for her to cement the tie between hers
elf and her daughter through the loyalty of the soon-to-be-former favorite.
The pet understood this where the favorite did not, strengthening my own belief that Lanu would, indeed, be stronger for the switch and would, when my time came, stand behind me with her house fully in order.
I had my own work to do there.
The queen departed after four days at Elizabet’s, leaving behind an extravagant bonus for me and Dev, a token of her gratitude for my honesty, and for my help. That’s not why I’d given it to her, though. I was pretty sure she knew that, too.
As soon as I could after that, I texted Gianna and asked her to come over the next night for supper. She texted back almost immediately with a yes, and my heart lightened, easing the worry that had crept over me. If she’d refused, I’d have been up the creek, Jason, too, though I shied away from the whys of his need. I’d have to face them someday, but not yet, not until I sorted out the mess with the woman I loved.
The next afternoon, the knob on my front door rattled a moment before Jason entered. I looked up from my textbook and placed it on the table. His skin had leeched of color and was dotted with sweat. He moved stiffly, favoring his left side. I rose and helped him onto the couch, pulled his hand away from his ribs, and lifted the hem of his sweatshirt as gently as I could.
The skin over his ribs wore mottled shades of blue and purple. I skimmed a trembling hand over them, using the connection to delve into his internal structure and probe the damage mentally. “What happened?”
“Fell at practice.” His breath wheezed out on a hoarse gasp. “Accident.”
I plucked the images from his mind. The ball arching high toward the net. Jumping to slap it away. Another player jumping at the same time. The floor rising swiftly upward. A tangle of elbows and knees, and then the infinitesimally small crack of ribs bending farther than they were meant to.
“Why aren’t your ribs wrapped?”
“Can’t play. Shit.” He dropped his head back onto the arm of the couch and squeezed his eyes shut. “Tournaments soon. Coach’ll bench me.”
“So you didn’t tell anybody you were hurt. Are you nuts? No, don’t answer that.”
I didn’t know what to do for him, other than to let him rest…
My thoughts petered out as a light bulb went off in my head. Of course. If I could control Zane’s heart, maybe I could give Jason’s ribs a little nudge. It would hurt, though. I racked my brain, scrambled through memories of the hated biology classes I’d taken. God, required courses were the worst. What could I…? Right. Endorphins. Make him happy to ease the pain while I healed him, which with Jason meant two things: Sex and basketball. If he had another interest, he hadn’t told me.
Unfortunately, both of those were out. He wasn’t physically capable of either one at that moment. I projected instead, gave him something I knew he’d like. Hell, I wasn’t even creative, didn’t have the wits to be with my heart pounding in my chest and my nerves fluttering in my gut. I retrieved the image he’d sent me a couple of weeks before, of him in his uniform with the top pulled up and me on my knees in front of him, exploring the beautiful hills and valleys of his abs with my mouth.
He panted out a low, shallow moan and rolled his head against the couch.
“Easy there,” I said
I held that image for him with one part of my mind. With another, I explored the damage done to his ribs, the hairline cracks that ached with every expansion of his lungs. I concentrated hard, trying to force them to close, and blew out a sharp, shaky breath when they refused. What was I doing wrong?
Jason moaned again, from the pain or the image in his mind, I didn’t know, but the sound pressed against me, urging me to find a solution.
Think.
Think!
What would help him heal?
I nearly smacked my forehead at my own stupidity. Blood. Of course. A vampire’s blood had healing properties, of a sort, though the side effects were steep, as I’d learned the hard way. Even as far along in the turn as I was, my blood wasn’t that strong. I was just too young. Still, it would do the trick here. If I could get enough into him, I might be able to direct it right to his broken ribs and use it to heal them.
I pushed up the sleeve of my sweater, ripped into my wrist with the point of one fang, ignoring the throbbing pain as my skin tore, and placed the bloody wound to his lips. “Drink for me, Jase.”
He turned his head, licked, and then his hand came up, holding my arm in place as his mouth latched onto my skin, drawing deeply.
I inhaled slowly and exhaled even slower, willed my heart to calm and my mind to still. As my blood poured into his mouth in dribbles and dabs, I eased it through his system, focusing on each minute portion and directing it to exactly where I wanted it to go. Eventually, it made it there and I started the process all over again, dividing my mind between accumulating blood, holding it against his ribs in readiness, and pleasing him.
It wasn’t enough. Pain ripped through him with every shallow breath, echoing through our bond and the connection between my mind and his body. Why had it been so easy for me to manipulate Zane, a man I cared less than nothing about? Jason needed me. My pet, my friend, my lover.
My heart tripped in my chest and leapt into a gallop. I tried again, focusing on the images, and swallowed the scream building in my throat when Jason hissed from the pain.
Why couldn’t I help him?
An echo of chilly laughter nudged through my guard and I froze. My control was teetering on the brink of collapse, must be for the cold man to have slipped out of his cage. I closed my eyes and reined everything in, the nausea roiling in my stomach, the helpless flutter of fear squeezing my chest, the fear of failure, the fear of hurting him even worse. I let it all slip away, and what refused to go, I tamped down. I closed a tight fist over the cold man and consigned him to a dim and distant corner of my mind, and gradually slowed the beats of my heart and stilled my breath until a cool calm settled over me.
I touched a single finger to Jason’s side and opened myself to him, taking in everything. The affection in his heart for me and Gianna, the roughness of the ball in his hand. His first solo ride on a bicycle with the wind blowing in his face and the sun shining down on him. I followed the trail of happy memories through his brain, using them as bread crumbs to pinpoint the exact area I needed, then stimulated it to produce a flood of endorphins. Almost immediately, Jason’s muscles relaxed and the pulls on my wrist slowed as his breath eased.
Oh, thank God.
I turned my attention to his wounds. My blood was still there, waiting for me as if it had known I’d be back. I directed it with a laser sharp focus, moving as quickly as I dared to rebuild the bone one cell at a time from the inside out until those, at least, were healed. I left the bruises. They would heal on their own and wouldn’t hinder him too much.
I removed my finger from Jason’s skin, breaking the deep connection, and used it to pop the seal between his mouth and my wrist. He let go and rolled his head against the couch, moaning softly as he arched and stretched. The color had returned to his cheeks. I frowned at the red flush, stroked his cheek with the backs of my fingers. He was a little too warm. Fever? I touched his forehead, and sighed at the cool feel of his skin there.
His hands came to my waist, digging into my flesh through my sweater, and his eyes popped open. They’d taken on the preternatural glow of a pet in the middle of a storm of lust. I glanced down his body, spotted the hard length of his erection punching his workout shorts into a tent, and closed my eyes. In my inexperience, I’d sent him into a sexual thrall.
Whoops.
Too much blood and way too many happy hormones, and he was still in no shape to do anything about it. I laughed shakily as relief stuttered through me. He’d be ok. Of course, he would. A couple of cracked ribs weren’t life-threatening, nor were my fumbling attempts to help him. Jesus. I rubbed a trembling hand over my face, evaded Jason’s grasping hands, and made my way on unsteady legs to the kitchen
for a couple of bottles of water.
It took me a while to calm him down enough to get the water into him, and a while longer to coax him into telling me which contact on his phone would lead to someone who could take him back to his dorm. Twenty minutes later, I opened the door on the stoic African American teammate who’d stood near Jason at the last game I’d seen, one of the ones whose body I’d admired but not been tempted by. He was maybe an inch shorter than Jason, rangy with it under the loose sweatshirt and jeans he wore, and handsome enough with sharply defined cheekbones and exotic, dark chocolate eyes.
I invited him in, stuck my hand out for a polite shake. “Eric Logan.”
“Gregory Dumont,” he said in a soft voice as he took my hand.
I held it a little longer than was polite, surprised at the odd ripple flowing between us. The cold man screamed at the touch and vanished into a narrow point of filth and decay in my mind.
Interesting.
I let go of Gregory’s hand. “He’s over here.”
In the short time since I’d left his side, Jason had managed to push himself upright and was sprawled across the couch wearing a silly, happy grin. “Gregory, my man,” he said as he lifted his hand in a sloppy wave and let it flop back to the couch.
Gregory’s stoic expression hardened. “Is he on drugs?”
“Nope. Endorphins. Natural ones, right from his brain.” I stuffed my hands into the front pockets of my jeans and gave him a bland stare. “He cracked his ribs at practice today.”
“I saw the fall.” Gregory eyed me suspiciously. “What did you do to him?”
“Nothing time wouldn’t have done, if he’d been willing to wait.”
“That’s all you’re going to tell me?” His gaze flicked between me and Jason, who had a dreamy look on his face. “I can’t take him back to the dorm like this. Nobody will believe he’s not high.”
I sighed. That much was true. “Want to wait it out?”
He pulled back a sleeve and checked his watch. “Yes. We’ve got time before curfew.”
The Vampire's Pet (The Vampyr Book 1) Page 20