by Amie Gibbons
Grant growled under his breath and nodded. “Where works for you?”
“I’d say the bed, but my energy was spent just walking in here,” Carvi said. “Can you sit in front of me?”
He was asking nicely. That so was not Carvi.
And his voice. Usually it was so thick and suggestive and powerful.
Now?
It was a nice voice, but the power was gone.
He was asking nicely because whatever power he exuded that made him sex on a stick wasn’t on right now.
Getting killed will do that to a guy, I guess.
I sat up as Grant kneeled in front of Carvi, then folded his legs and rested his hands on his knees, his back to the vamp.
For some reason, I kinda expected him to put up more of a fight.
But then again, him giving blood was part of the deal we’d struck with Carvi. He’d sweetened the pot to get me down to five favors from Carvi’s original demand of ten.
And Grant’s honor wouldn’t let him back out on a deal.
No matter how distasteful.
If Carvi’s bite was orgasmic, that meant it was for everyone he used it on, even guys who were as straight as a wooden ruler.
And having a guy turn him on like that had to be seriously wiggy for Grant.
“I appreciate this, Westley,” Carvi said with that same formal tone. “You are tremendously powerful and your blood will help me recover that much faster. Means we can get on that trail that much sooner. Thank you. I do not say this lightly.”
I half expected Grant to say something smart-assy or snap at Carvi to get it over with, but he just nodded.
Like he was… if not happy to help, not really pissed about it.
What had I missed last night?
Carvi pushed up to his knees and leaned against Grant’s back, half hanging on him.
If having a naked Carvi up against his back bugged Grant, he wasn’t gonna show it.
“Ariana,” Carvi said, “if you can move, can you sit in front of Grant?”
“What? Why?” I asked.
“Because he’s not going to like being turned on by me and at least if he has you to look at, he has something to focus on that he doesn’t mind being turned on by.”
“Um, Carvi,” I said, “I think he does mind. Remember that little scene… er, yesterday? Was that just yesterday?”
“Just get it over with, Carvagio,” Grant growled.
Ah, there was the Grant I knew.
Carvi turned his head slightly to look over at me and tossed me a wink before dropping to Grant’s neck and biting him fast as a snake.
“Ugh!” Grant grunted, making a small motion like he was gonna lunge away before the pleasure from the vamp’s bite hit and he moaned.
Lust flooded through me and I stared hard at the two guys.
Geez, who knew two guys could be so hot?
Grant moaned again, his hands flying out like he was searching for something and his legs uncrossed, sprawling out and kinda flopped on the floor.
Carvi straightened on his knees and I swear I saw muscles growing under his skin as I watched.
He was supporting Grant now as my boss leaned back into him, mouth sagging open.
“Sir?” I asked as Grant stopped moving and Carvi kept his mouth locked on his throat. “Are you okay? Carvi, do you need to stop?”
He hadn’t been on that long. You donated more blood at a Red Cross, unless it was going out real fast here.
Grant jerked, hand flying out and grabbing my robe.
I gasped and Grant grunted, eyes slitting open and locking on mine.
He moved his hips, straining against his slacks.
And if I’d had any energy, I don’t think I could’ve kept myself from climbing on top of him and giving him something to focus that energy on.
Except, I knew he wouldn’t want me to.
And that was enough to cool me off.
“Tell her if you want it, Grant,” came out of Carvi even as he stayed locked on Grant’s neck. “She’ll finish you if you ask.”
A wave of desire swept through me and I inched forward on my hands and knees, limbs shaking so bad I’m surprised they held me.
Grant’s eyes locked below mine and I realized my robe had slipped open, revealing my chest.
“No, not her. Won’t,” Grant said, straining out every word. “Won’t take advantage.”
“Same here, sir,” I said. “I’m not gonna even suggest it, cuz that’d be takin’ advantage of you.”
He grunted and jerked up with an anguished cry, clenching his hands.
“Ah,” Carvi sighed, letting up and licking Grant’s neck wound closed before slumping against the wall and letting Grant go.
Grant slipped to the ground, inching to the side so he could lay down, bulge in his pants even more obvious.
“Sir,” I said, “I know how that feels and if you, um, wish to finish in private, bathroom.” I pointed over to it.
“I don’t think I can move right now, Ryder. Just give me a minute.”
Wow.
Considering Carvi’s bite was like a great lust swamp for me, I could only imagine how much it took for a guy to rise above that and hold himself back.
“Sir, if you would like help, I am offerin’,” I said.
“You offering to help drag me to the bathroom, or to help me get this down?” Grant half laughed.
“Really either, sir,” I said, “but after yesterday, kinda figured the second was no, so was offering more the first. But if you want me, I’m happy to… er, service.”
“Ryder, stop talking,” Grant burst out laughing. “I’m not… no.”
“I’m just sayin’.” I held up my hands. “I am willing and too tired to actually go myself, so it’d just be me gettin’ you off, purely to help.”
“When did I walk into a porno?” Grant asked. “Ryder, stop talking, because I don’t trust myself to say no if you keep it up.”
A picture of my mouth wrapping around Grant flashed through my mind and lust made me sag and gasp.
Grant groaned, mouth working.
“Carvi, what are you?” I asked, tryin’ not to stare at my gasping boss.
“Sorry, I can’t control it right now,” Carvi said, not sounding terribly sorry. “I’m spilling all over the place. Speaking of, Grant, it’s not going to go down on its own. Not with the amount of pheromones I’m leaking. You’ll have to handle yourself or let Ariana do it. She gives one hell of a blow job.”
“Stop. Talking,” Grant growled, all laughter gone.
He pushed himself up to sitting, drawing sharp breaths.
Was it painful to be that aroused when you were trapped in pants?
Grant lurched up and went back down and I inched over to him.
“Don’t.” Grant held up a hand as I reached out.
“Just gonna help you up, sir,” I said.
“No.” He laughed. “God, no. I am in a porno. Ryder, scooch away. I…” He laughed, shaking his head as he lurched again, actually making it to his feet.
I lifted to my knees, staring up at him.
He licked his lips.
I did too.
“Even if I did say yes,” Grant said slowly, “I don’t share, Ryder. And, more importantly, I do not have relations with coworkers, especially subordinates.”
“Yes, sir,” I said as he lurched to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him with a bit too much force.
My eyes stayed glued on the door.
He gave a strangled cry maybe ten seconds later.
I looked at Carvi and he smirked, still slumped against the wall, but obviously feeling a bit better because he was standing at half-mast.
My eyes went back to the door and Grant walked out, face perfectly straight.
His gaze landed on me and he cursed under his breath and walked backward, shutting the door again.
Carvi burst out laughing.
“Grant, can you up the volume?” Carvi said. “Put on a little show to g
et our girl’s juices flowing.”
I slapped his arm with as much force as I could muster.
He just grinned at me.
“You’re terrible,” I said. “He was helping you. Why are being a jerk?”
“I’m not. I’m being honest. My powers make people horny, so horny they can’t think. And instead of going down when I’m weak, as long as they are actually on, they’re worse, because I can’t control them and rein them in. So the poor guy has basically a dose of Viagra in him, and the sooner he gets it out of his system, the sooner we’ll be able to go. We still need to get more food in you and more blood in me though, so we do have time.”
“Meaning you’re being a jerk,” I said.
He shrugged. “Maybe a little.”
There was a knock on the door and Carvi called out the same who and the answer was something I couldn’t distinguish.
Carvi called for him to come in and he couldn’t.
Grant had put on the chain.
“Oh, for the love of,” Carvi huffed, pushing himself up on shaking legs. He walked out and opened the door for the girl.
She had another trolley and my stomach howled.
“Carvi, stop sucking energy outta me and just eat yourself,” I said, tightening my robe as she pushed the cart into the bedroom.
“If I could eat myself, I wouldn’t need women who give excellent blow jobs, now would I?” Carvi said with a completely straight face.
My mouth worked as I looked between him and the server and she just giggled.
“And I am here to donate blood, sir,” she said, voice low and throaty as she ran her eyes up and down him. “And any other energies you require.”
Something surged through me and I was up on my feet next to the trolley before I realized what I was doing.
Carvi raised his eyebrows and smirked at me. “Yes, lea?”
“I ugh,” I stammered.
Was I jealous?
I didn’t really have the right to be, now did I?
And yet. Yep, that was jealousy.
“If you guys wouldn’t mind taking it out there,” I said. “I don’t think Grant wants to walk out on that.”
Carvi sighed theatrically and nailed me with his eyes. “You sure you don’t want to join us?”
His voice ran down my spine and my stomach lurched.
So he was getting his powers back.
“Um, no, need food,” I said as my stomach clenched.
“Sorry, I can’t control how much energy I’m taking yet,” he said, actually sounding sorry. “Please, eat.”
He walked into the living room and the girl followed.
I closed the doors with a hard click as he grabbed her hair and turned her around, shoving her against the wall.
I did not want to see the rest of that.
I grabbed the TV remote and turned on the TV as a squeal came from the other side of the door.
Didn’t want to hear it either.
Yep, definitely hypocritical of me, but I was jealous.
I switched through the channels until I found Supernatural on one of the cable channels and turned it up, kicking back on the bed with the trolley next to me.
“Ryder?” Grant asked as I poured another cup of coffee.
“Ah!” I hopped, spilling coffee again, this time on the duvet.
Geez, I was just makin’ a mess all over the place today, wasn’t I?
“Hi, sir,” I said. “I ugh, want some breakfast? Carvi has… a guest.”
His eyebrows went up as he looked at the door. “We’re trapped in here?”
“Unless you want to go through that,” I said. “I do not.”
Grant’s lips twitched and he shook his head. “Don’t go there, Ryder.”
“What? Where?”
I hadn’t been thinkin’ anything dirty. About him or Carvi.
“Jealousy, Ryder,” Grant said, little louder than usual to be heard over the commercial that just started, and pulled the chair up to the tray. “This is one reason relations in the workplace are bad. You’re distracted when you’re together, and jealous and distracted from that when you aren’t.”
“I have no right to be jealous, I know that, but I am,” I said, feeling very ugly.
“Guy like that will never be monogamous,” Grant said. “I don’t think this situation is what you want, but you are acting like you do, except when he’s showing interest in another girl. What does Quil have to say about all of this?”
“After him giving his permission for me to fool around with Carvi, I haven’t talked to him,” I said, lifting the first tray to a giant omelet packed with stuff that could feed four. “Oooooooo.”
Grant took off the other tray, showing more of the pastries, biscuits and jams.
“Dig in.” I grinned as he poured himself a cup of coffee with some of the cream.
We shared the omelet and had a few biscuits each, and he didn’t say anything more about it as we watched TV and downed the food.
I glanced at the door as the next commercial hit and Grant shook his head.
“You need to figure out what you want, Ryder. I think the reason things got so out of hand down here is because you don’t know. Figure out what you want, and don’t accept less.”
I sighed. “I think the problem is I want a lot, too much. I think I’m selfish.”
“You are,” he said. “Everyone is. You want to be able to have who you want, when you want, without them having the same.”
I flinched. “Kinda, yeah.”
“Find someone who can be your one, and is happy to have you be his.”
I looked at him
He stabbed the air with his fork in my direction. “Not. Me.”
I shrugged. “Quil could be the one. And now we know for sure Carvi’s been putting his pheromones out there the whole time, so it’s not like I’d be this… er.”
“You can say horny, Ryder,” Grant said.
“Yes, sir,” I said. “At least we have an excuse for bein’ so horny down here.”
“Does that make it better?”
“Makes me feel better about it, like at least it’s not my fault, but at the same time, kinda worse because I’m being taken advantage of. I want to be mad at him, but I’m just so darned happy he’s alive. I’m very confused.”
“Sex confuses things,” Grant said. “Take it out of the equation.”
“Yes, sir. Hey, do you know what happened to the vamps and people injured last night?”
“They turned one of the conference rooms into an infirmary. The vamps are being treated with human blood, and the humans were cured with vampire blood and went to bed.”
I nodded.
So at least they were okay.
We snacked on the remains of the pastries and sipped coffee while we watched TV till Carvi came back in maybe an hour and a half later.
He looked a lot better.
As alive and pumped up as he’d always been.
“How much blood did you take from her?” I yelped, climbing outta bed only a bit slower than I’d normally be due to the adrenaline helpin’.
I couldn’t really dash, but I fast walked into the living room.
Three women and a guy lay around, all with the half-drunk look of good sex and low blood I recognized from seeing it in the mirror.
The coffee table was tossed to the side and the couch was pushed to the far corner.
A girl lay face down on the couch with her pants and panties around her ankles, she was so pale I worried she was dead for a second before she snorted in her sleep.
Her neck looked like a wild animal had savaged it.
The other new girl was on the living room floor spread-eagled, with all four limbs tied up between the bottom of the couch and the entertainment center. She wore a button-down dress that was fully open, and if she’d been wearing panties or a bra, they were long gone, and she had a bite on her thigh still leaking lightly.
The man lay next to her, buck naked with a satisfied look on his
face. He was too hard lookin’ to be cute, but he was a certain kind of handsome with his buzzed short hair and chin dimple.
The girl who’d come in first was slumped against the couch and looked like she’d been ravished, like Carvi’d thrown her down and pumped and bit her till she passed out from too many orgasms.
Scars littered her thighs and breasts, saying she did this a lot, and there were jumper cables next to her.
Wait, what?
I didn’t want to know.
And was a little nauseous.
I looked back at the guy. He didn’t seem to have any marks.
It took me a moment to see it, and I kinda wished I hadn’t.
The guy was a shower and a pretty big one if his flaccid, um him, was any indication.
And it was bleeding onto his thigh from the side.
I backed up and Carvi jumped outta the way as I walked backwards and pulled the doors closed.
“Is he okay?” I asked. “He was bleedin’ from his, um, penis.”
“Yeah.” Carvi grinned. “I call it a blood cream pie. The guy has to be big enough but you have another go down on him and when he’s about to go, you bite on the side, right along that vein in-”
“I didn’t ask!” I squeaked, tossing my hands up. “I’m… I can’t… I’m a little slutty, and I’ve considered a threesome, but Carvi.” I waved at the door. “What… what… I can’t even.”
“You should’ve joined,” Carvi said
“I’m surprised I didn’t hear it.”
“I put up a shield,” Grant said. “How bad?”
“Four people, one tied up, and there were jumper cables. Why were there… No!” I put up a hand when Carvi opened his mouth. “I do not actually want to know why there were jumper cables.”
“I feel better,” Carvi said.
“Just tell me they’re all alive,” Grant said.
“They’ll be fine,” Carvi said. “Just need some rest and food. And water. Maybe some iron supplements. We can leave them here while we’re out.”
“Where are we going?” Grant asked.
Carvi looked at me, smiling big and shark-like. “We got a lead while I was playing ghost.”
“Yeah,” I snorted. “I saw. Ohhhhh, you meant when you were dead, yeah, got it.”
“Huh?” Carvi asked.
“Book reference. There’s… bad scenes. I like some of that author’s stuff, but Ghost was not for me. Too rapey rapey. But, hey, right up your alley. Ummmm, I am happy you’re alive and all, and I was about ready to ya know, raze the village to take revenge, but some of that may have been your spirit hitchhiking in me anyway, but I um-”