Tied In Knots (Immortals Book 7)

by LJ Vickery

  She licked her palm and brought it back to his now erect cock. She eased it up and down, tracing the veins and reveling in the feel of him. One brown nipple stared her in the face, outlined in the moonlight that streamed in the window. Dare she lower her head? His legs had fallen apart in unconscious need, and her strokes had become longer, harder. He still wasn’t waking. She needed to send him over the edge. Leveraging herself up on one elbow, she leaned over his strong, muscled arm and nipped at his erect nub.

  There was a growl, then a lunge. Huge calloused hands surrounded the one she used on his prick, and her fingers were ripped away. She was rapidly flipped hard to her stomach, and wetness pooled instantly between Charlie’s legs. Yes! This was what she’d been waiting for, what she knew Absu was capable of. She cried out her joy. Finally.

  Rough legs wrenched hers apart, and Absu’s hot breath fell on her neck as he continued to growl. Was he asleep? Fantasizing? Charlie had never heard these animalistic noises coming from him before, and they made her hot and needy.

  Her hips were wrenched upward, and Absu poised behind her. Lust had her dripping and ready. He leaned over her body and grabbed one breast. With a tremendous plunge, he was deep inside her. At the same time, he sunk his teeth into her shoulder. Charlie cried out. Her mind exploded. This was more pain and pleasure than she’d ever experienced. Who was this Absu, and where had he been?

  “Yes. Absu, please. Please.” Charlie reached for an orgasm that was going to wrench her apart. It was going to be amazing.

  ****

  Absu heard Charlie as if from far away. What was she saying? Did it matter? He was taking, he was plundering. The animal side of him had seized control. Warm flesh, willing tightness. He plunged in deeper and deeper. He couldn’t get enough. The taste of blood in his mouth urged him on. Take. Take. Take.

  “Please,” Charlie screamed, and Absu’s head suddenly cleared.

  Gods. What was he doing? Was this a nightmare? No. This was real. Charlie was beneath him, held tight to his loins. He was riding her, driving into her with a force that shook him. His…claws. My gods, his claws were scraping one of her nipples, and the blood on her shoulder told him he was already dominating her like a wild beast. Must stop, he told himself forcibly. Must stop.

  Absu used the last of his human reserve to pull out and leap across the room. He dragged the blanket with him to cover any telltale fur that might have emerged.

  He looked to the bed. Charlie was writhing. Sobbing out his name and begging him over and over. “Please…please…”

  Guilt filled his chest like bile.

  How had he lost control? It must have been seeing the polar bear today. It had short circuited his brain, and he’d become the thing he’d managed to leave behind thousands of years before. But why did it happen with Charlie, the woman who was to be his Chosen? She would be terrified of him now. He’d lost all semblance of humanity and had treated her like a rutting bear. She would never accept a life with him after this.

  “Charlie.” His voice was deep and barely recognizable. It would take a few minutes for his vocal chords to return to normal. “Charlie, are you all right? Did I hurt you?” Absu was appalled at himself. He waited until the wracking cries on the bed wound down. Charlie slowly turned over and looked up at him, eyes shining in the dark.

  “You stopped…” she managed to gasp.

  “Yes. Of course, I stopped.” Absu didn’t dare go near to comfort her, his body was still highly agitated, and would need some time calming down and changing back. Gods help him if he went toward her again. “My gods, Charlie. As soon as I realized your distress…I stopped. I don’t know what overcame me. It had to have been a dream. I’m so sorry, my love. So sorry.” His voice ended on an agonizing whisper.

  Charlie groaned. “Again…” the word trembled on her lips.

  Absu straightened, nearly back to himself at her agonized cry. “Oh, Charlie. I promise. Never again. I’ll die before I use you so poorly another time.”

  He bundled the blanket around himself and kept his back against the wall, not trusting himself to go anywhere near her. He wanted to comfort his mate, but what if he lost control?

  “I’ll sleep on the sofa, and I’ll be gone before you awake in the morning.” He backed toward the door. “Try to forgive me, Charlie. I promise that an explanation will be forthcoming. A few days. I need a few days to figure things out. After the banquet. I’ll be back and we can discuss this.”

  He left the room and closed the door firmly behind him.

  ****

  Every nerve in Charlie’s body hummed. If she didn’t have the physical signs of Absu’s possession, she’d think she imagined the whole thing. How could he leap out of bed and not finish? For either one of them? And where had he been hiding this incredible, amazing, and dominant sexual part of himself?

  Her body twitched, still feeling him inside her where he’d grown larger than any lover she’d ever had before…including him. What the hell?

  She got up and padded to the bathroom. She switched on the little night light. Even in the semidarkness, she looked like shit. She washed the bite on her shoulder, treating it with antibiotic cream, even though it wasn’t deep. She splashed her face with water, but there was no way she’d be going to sleep after that.

  Charlie crawled into bed and waited, wide-eyed, for her four o’clock alarm, which seemed like forever in coming.

  When she finished her shower and eventually emerged into the living room, the blanket was folded neatly on the couch, and true to his word, Absu was gone. Of course, he was. It was seven-thirty in Boston, and he had a long day of cooking ahead. Charlie didn’t know what she’d expected, but it hurt badly that he’d walked out without any discussion of what had happened between them.

  And it was her fault. Instead of solving their problems with her forwardness, apparently she’d created more. Well, at least he wouldn’t have to face her to explain. She’d follow through with her plans. Any future conversations to patch things up would be by phone. She’d probably need a few days before she could even allow that. After all, he’d been hiding some deep, dark, true nature from her, and that hurt almost as much as him leaving.

  Charlie strode back to her room and threw all she’d need into a small bag. She went into Maity’s room and did the same. Her daughter was asleep, and looked like she would remain that way until after the babysitter arrived, and long after she’d gone to work with Ken as her tail. She didn’t pack much. She was good at doing without. She stowed both suitcases in Maity’s closet, out of sight in case Ken came in to kiss the sleeping baby. It would be easy to grab them later.

  ****

  The day dragged on, as Charlie knew it would. It wasn’t helped by the lack-of-sleep headache she was sporting. Two aspirin out of the large bottle the head cook kept on the stainless-steel shelf above their cook station should do the trick. She downed them one hour before her intended departure.

  Her boss had been great about the whole thing. It was probably because she’d lasted longer than any other line cook he’d ever hired. She’d hated giving him no notice but, as luck would have it, he had a cousin in town who could fill in until he advertised the position. He wasn’t even resentful she was leaving an hour early. He just wished her luck as she called a cab and hung up her apron for the last time.

  She made her way out the back door into the early afternoon sunshine. Ken would still have his ass parked in a booth, waiting for her shift to be over and for her to greet him through the swinging doors of the main restaurant. It had been tough acting normal with him this morning, but apparently she’d pulled it off. All day, she’d kept an eye on him, and he didn’t look like he suspected a thing. Charlie breathed in. Her first step to freedom, she thought as she slid into the cab. Why then, did she feel so troubled?

  Twenty minutes later, with Maity strapped into her car seat, Charlie backed out of the driveway. It would be at least a half hour or more before Ken realized she’d left the diner. Another fif
teen or twenty until he searched the house and figured out she’d left. With luck, it would give her enough of a head start so she could be out of his reach before he called in reinforcements.

  Charlie hated to put him through all this, but it was time he let her find her own way, allowing her to stand on her own two feet. Now that she pondered it, she probably should have done this a long time ago.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Absu skinned the Chilean sea bass with a little more vigor than necessary. His mind―which should have been on the big banquet to welcome the warlock and the Lauernley―was trapped in an endless loop, replaying what had happened between him and Charlie the previous night. It had shaken him to the core. How many thousands of years had it been since his polar bear had emerged? Hell, it was actually the first time he’d ever changed over―understanding what he was―after Enten’s original discovery so many years before.

  It had been 1774. The gods had been invisible for more than a hundred years, but had established themselves well in the New World. They were on their way to amassing a fortune, thanks to a little acquiring and unacquiring, followed by major amounts of anonymous investing by the genius, Shamash. Newspapers and broadsides were always spread throughout the hidden home. The gods were determined to be up to date, should they ever regain their bodies.

  Enten, the one god who had seen Absu morph in the far past, had rushed to the solarium, on a fine and sunny April first―All Fools Day―brandishing the Boston paper. “You must sit down,” the god of winter said. “Everything we believed is false.”

  Absu had looked askew at Enten and tentatively taken a seat. “Everything we’ve believed about what?” he’d asked politely. The gods had a lot of fucked-up things on their plates.

  “You. You,” he’d repeated, shaking the paper in Absu’s direction.

  When the newsprint had finally come to rest in front of Absu’s nose, the first thing he’d seen was the picture. Of himself as Enten had described him.

  Holding his breath, he’d fumbled for the paper and brought it close, studying the drawing of…ursus maritimus, the caption read. Bear of the water? He’d looked closer. It wasn’t a picture of him as a god, but of the beast who resided within him. Subtle differences remained between the creature Enten had drawn to depict him and the one in the paper, but there was no mistaking that they were of the same species.

  “They call it a polar bear.” Enten had been beside himself. “All this time, we believed you an anomaly; that there was nothing else like you on the planet, and now we find that you are this.” He’d jabbed his finger at the rendering. “Although, how and why you were in the Himalaya’s when I found you instead of with others of your ilk in the Arctic is a conundrum.” He’d talked on, only holding part of Absu’s attention as Absu read the accompanying text.

  A man named Constantine John Phipps had discovered the large bear-beasts in the far Arctic. They lived on land and sea, were carnivorous, and weighed eight to nine hundred pounds on average. When standing erect, they could reach over nine feet in height. As far as he knew―as Enten had explained―he didn’t approach those gargantuan proportions, but was still impressively large when he morphed.

  “…don’t you see?” Enten had continued. “It means it might not have been you. I’ve long suspected that your nature wouldn’t have allowed it. But now, we can find proof.”

  Absu had shaken him off. What good could it possibly do to relive a past that he wanted nothing more than to keep locked away? It wouldn’t help those who had died. But Enten had not relented.

  Even as rumors―in the early twentieth century―emerged of a strange, man/beast that roamed the Himalayas, with ancient purported drawings of the beast slashing and killing innocent human prey, Enten had always believed it wasn’t Absu who caused the carnage.

  Absu was not so sure, and he never wanted to test Enten’s beliefs. He’d simply locked away the part of himself that might inadvertently transform, and continued the tight reign he’d always held over every aspect of his life. His god friends might laugh, but no one besides Enten understood why he continued to use such proper speech. It was one of many ways he had learned to keep himself rigidly in control. It was why, in his sex life, he was more comfortable being dominant. He could control every single thing that went on, and keep himself in check.

  He needed to talk to Enten now.

  When you have a lull in your duties to the warlock, would you join me in the kitchen? he asked.

  Enten showed up ten seconds later.

  “You never call, and you never ask for help. What’s going on?” Enten regarded Absu with cold eyes. It was nothing personal. He was the god of winter.

  Absu looked around nervously. Nobody could hear this.

  “I changed,” he growled, scrubbing a hand down his face.

  Enten’s face remained blank.

  “Into my polar bear…sort of.” Absu kept his voice low, a rumbling whisper. He didn’t know what reaction to expect from his friend.

  “Dammit. I should have warned you.” Enten grimaced, seemingly not at all surprised.

  “You what?” Absu’s voice rose of its own volition.

  “I didn’t think.” The winter god closed his eyes and rolled his shoulders. “Okay. I’m laying it out for you.” He blew air out his nose. “I nearly killed Glory when I was frozen over.”

  “Stop being a prime asshole.” Absu was appalled his friend would make up a story to ease his pain. As if Enten would ever have hurt Glory. “You don’t have to pretend for me.”

  Enten continued as if he hadn’t even spoken. “I was wearing the collar, which is what the rest of us have had to do with our mates until we learned to control our beasts, because we don’t have your normally buttoned-up abilities,” he huffed. “Glory didn’t believe I would harm her, and while under the collar’s influence―which I was compelled to obey―she told me to act out my nature; to treat her the way I wanted.” He made a noise of disgust. “My nature is cold and wintry. It was my lowest moment. I had her run like prey and I followed her half naked form out into the snowy night.”

  “Oh my gods. What happened?” Absu could barely breathe. He’d kept himself so aloof from the daily goings on in the household that he’d heard nothing of any immortals having issues with morphing while bedding their Chosen.

  Enten gave an incredulous chuckle. “Our women are amazing, Absu. Somehow, she knew just what to do. She reached up and undid my collar, and told me she loved me.”

  Enten’s eyes shone with water, not ice, as Absu watched in fascination.

  “She warmed me from the inside out with her love. And just like that, I was no longer a danger.” His watery gaze turned twinkly. “From that point on, she had me firmly in hand, and subsequently, we’ve harnessed and used my cold for fun.” He smiled a rich, warm smile that would have been impossible pre-Glory. “And fun it is, my man.” He clapped Absu on the back. “Every mated god has gone through the same thing. You know the ugly ass serpents that Anshar and Dagon channel? Lenore and Holly have them completely tamed.”

  This was all news to Absu. “You mean that none of you have to maintain rigid control at all times during the sexual act?” he pondered.

  “Well, duh. We maintain rigidity, but not necessarily control.” Enten winked. “The ladies love it, especially since not one of them is a shrinking violet. Haven’t you noticed? Being kickass seems like a pre-req for being a Chosen.”

  Absu scowled. “But you’ve met Charlie.” He was floundering, way out of his depth, which wasn’t the norm for a polar bear. “She’s very young, so sweet, and completely unassuming. All our goddesses seem very worldly compared to her.”

  “Okay.” Enten looked him hard in the face. “I’ve heard whispers that maybe you should know about. Ishkur held a meeting with Marduk to discuss Charlie, and then Marduk confided in his wife. Small tidbits of Charlie’s previous lifestyle have made their way from Tess to Glory and the other ladies, who in turn have told their husbands. Charlie’s not a
s innocent as you think, Absu. Anshar, the prick bastard, even started a pool, betting on whether you can get with the program and keep her satisfied.”

  Absu felt a sudden surge of hope. “This lifestyle of which you speak,” Absu shook his head as if he could clear it, “Tell me its particulars.”

  “Listen.” Enten clapped him on the shoulder. “I don’t think it’s my place to spread rumors, so after the meal is over, I suggest you have a talk with Ishkur. He’s related to Charlie, and he’s where the first-hand info will come from.”

  An argument hovered on Absu’s lips, and Enten seemed to know what he was about to say.

  “No. You don’t have to tell him about your polar bear, although with everyone else’s animal-selves making appearances, I don’t know why you don’t just come out of the igloo. They all know you turn into something, they just don’t know what. And nobody will give a shit, I promise.”

  Absu’s posture stiffened. Letting go would take something very special, he’d held his secret so long. Maybe Charlie would push him in that direction.

  “Listen. Just go to Ishkur with an open mind, and hear what he has to say. Okay?” Enten urged. “Promise me that?”

  “Fine. I bow to your superior knowledge on the subject of Chosen.” Absu blew out a breath and conceded, “I will seek out Ishkur after the meal, which there will not be any of unless I attend to it right away. Without haste, there will be no repast with which to celebrate.”

  Being invisible again, working in the kitchen, was more of a hardship now that he’d tasted corporeality. Having to flip food and utensils from visible to invisible to accomplish his tasks, now seemed ridiculously time consuming.

  Once Enten disappeared, Absu went back to the Chilean sea bass almost able to put his mind fully into cooking. But even letting the conundrum of Charlie go, he contemplated how different the compound had become in the past several days. A warlock was here. Lauernley.

  And speaking of the men from the sea, Dagon and Anshar were still off-compound getting the last of that party settled. He knew this because Marduk, in constant contact with the two gods, had found that the blue immortals could tune into the same communications frequencies as the god’s group, which put them all in head-contact with each other. It would certainly make things easier in their future dealings together.