Newport/Aftport #2: Danea

by Diroll-Nichols, Karen

  “Who’s been to visit?” Danea didn’t protest when Noah peeled off his outer shirt and draped it around her shoulders. “Oh, god, you’re warm…”

  “It’s safe now,” Wade shoved the sliding glass door aside and almost carried Danea into the heated room. “Get dressed…” He met the anger in Noah’s gaze. “Search. Under things…Mrs. Addison has been my housekeeper for five years. The only other person who’s been here is my student, Jessica Bently.”

  “The blonde from the market,” Danea met his look. “She was there today. Wanted to know why you wanted anything to do with me. I told her she was a spoiled brat…she stormed off.”

  “You told me about that,” Noah continued to check around and under pieces of furniture, leaning in and pulling a small book from beneath the sofa. “This yours?” He asked, looking from one to the other. Both shook their heads but Wade came forward and took the book, opening it and flipping pages.

  “Empty? A journal?”

  Without saying anything more, Wade tipped the glass protector from in front of the fire blazing in the fireplace. He tossed the book in and quickly closed the glass over the opening.

  Danea jumped and fell back onto the sofa when the flames ignited, sending out shoots of bright colors and loud bangs for several minutes. She hadn’t realized she’d scooted up into the corner of the sofa, her knees drawn up and arms around them as she stared.

  “What the fuck was that?” Noah growled, the gold flecking the edge of his eyes was back but this time, she knew what it meant.

  “Demon spell. Someone wanted us tearing each other apart,” Wade answered, dropping into his desk chair and draining the tea he had remaining there.

  “I didn’t feel anything,” Danea said when she was sure her voice would work.

  “It wasn’t aimed at you,” Wade said simply. “Someone wanted me and Noah out of the way.”

  “I…oh,” she said. “Why were you arguing? Something had to start it,” she looked patiently from one to the other, only this time she knew there was something they didn’t want to share. “You were talking to Seth Anderson,” she commented thoughtfully. “About me?”

  “We were disagreeing,” Noah admitted slowly.

  “It was aimed at me as the trigger,” Wade said carefully. “When I disagreed with you, it set it into motion.”

  “That blonde is a demon?” Danea demanded. “I knew I should have ripped her face off.”

  “Or someone used her,” Noah suggested with only a hint of a smile.

  “Why were you disagreeing?” Danea looked impatiently from one to the other. “Because of me? I know those expressions and if you think for a minute that I’ll tolerate being…being smothered…”

  “Keeping your cute ass safe is not smothering you,” Noah threw back flatly.

  “I have a right to make that choice…” she stopped and looked at Wade. “That’s why you were arguing? What happened that I missed?”

  “Seth Anderson called while you were under the headphones,” Wade said quietly. “Hold that thought a minute, would you?” He went into the back room where other books were stored and came out with one a minute later. He laid it on the surface of his desk without opening it. His head shook when Danea opened her mouth. Without waiting for a comment, he raised his arms, palms aimed up as he softly recited words long ago committed to memory.

  Danea went to his side as he lowered his arms, his body swaying slightly. She circled his waist and helped him to the chair.

  “What did you do?”

  “Threw up a shield. Something I should have done when we started this. But I didn’t know…” he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter now. It’s done.”

  “We didn’t know she was a hybrid,” Noah finished the sentence for him, crossing to the sofa and sinking back into the cushions. “We didn’t connect the dots between what’s going on with Breanna and what’s going on here. We didn’t have all the underground information.”

  Both of them turned when she started breathing too quickly and began pacing.

  “Dinner,” she announced without looking back and felt every bit like a coward, her bare feet on the tiles in the kitchen. She had plates out of the cupboard and was adding silver when she felt the hands on her waist. Another set of hands removed the table settings from her hands.

  “Put your clothes on, Danea,” Wade guided her to where she’d left her jeans and shirt. He lifted the shirt and removed the one Noah had given her, helping her into it and waiting while she pulled on her jeans. “Now sit down.”

  “Dinner…”

  “Then come in here and we’ll help you get it on the table,” Noah carried the dinner settings to the table and laid them out in the places they’d been using. “But keep breathing, Dani…or we’ll take over and I’m sure it won’t be a good thing to have us in your kitchen.”

  “I know what happened to Brea…” she said quietly, moving the large casserole to the table and letting herself be pushed into a chair. “I’m alright,” she insisted, making a move to get up only to find one of them on either side of her. Danea sighed.

  “Ice water?”

  “Wine,” she answered, deliberately thumping her elbows on the table and holding her chin in her palms. “I put it in the cooler earlier. It’ll go well with the beef burgundy…and the bread is in the oven.”

  “Have you always been this stubborn?” Wade asked casually, using the mitts and carrying the covered plate of rolls to the table before returning for the other things she had on the counter waiting to be moved.

  “I still hear what you said,” she answered weakly, staring at the casserole lid and not moving. “They wanted Brea’s blood for spells. I don’t have magical blood. I don’t have magic at all. I’m not something…I’m a girl,” each word she whispered got softer and softer.

  “Danea…” Wade took both her hands in his and pulled them up, forcing her to look into his eyes. “We won’t let anything happen to you. Noah has every law agency around searching for the people responsible for this morning.”

  “What did Seth Anderson tell you?” She demanded, lifting her chin and pulling her hands free. Her gaze shot from one to the other. She saw something cross between them. “That’s what you were arguing about.”

  “I don’t want you worried or in a panic about this,” Noah said flatly. “And yes, it’s what we were arguing about. And before you go off on me, I definitely believe you’re an adult and wanting to shield you, is not a belief to the opposite, Danea. It’s our…fuck…it’s not a job…it’s our belief…our responsibility to take care of you. It’s as much built into our DNA as our other halves.” He sat down and took one of her hands.

  “He’s right about that, Danea,” Wade sat on her other side, taking her hand and forcing her to face the table. “Making this place into a home…making us feel like we have a safe place to fall when we want to tear the world apart…this is what you do for us…it’s what we have to protect, for ourselves as much as for you. Yes, I thought you should have all the information we’d been given. But…now I’m not so sure it’s always a good thing.”

  “People make decisions that they otherwise might not have made…and I don’t want you doing anything rash,” Noah pushed a breath out. “Dinner smells great…and I’m starving. How about you?”

  “You’ll be careful?” She asked, looking from Noah to Wade. “Please…promise me.”

  “It’s not something we have a choice over, angel,” Wade kissed the soft center of her palm. “Have some dinner…we can talk about it more later.”

  “No one knew about me,” Danea told them after they’d helped her clean the kitchen. Dinner had been a collection of every topic on the planet, except the vicious attack on her. She stretched out in the center of the bed, lying face down with her hands beneath her face. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “People knew about me, Danea,” Noah stepped from the shower and tossed the towel he’d been rubbing over his hair onto the chair to dry.

  “And
some know about me,” Wade added.

  “People knew you were a shifter,” she said quietly. “And they automatically assumed I must be, too?”

  “No…” Noah slid beneath the blankets.

  “You don’t want to tell me the theory,” Danea lowered her face into the pillow. “I can handle it, you know. I am lying here with one of you on either side of me. I think I can manage some information about why I’m a target.”

  “Mating theory has garnered a great deal of interest since the beginning,” Wade said carefully. “The males are the ones afflicted by the…”

  “Afflicted?” Danea giggled and pushed her face further into the pillow. “Oh, please…afflicted?”

  “Good choice of words,” Noah groaned at the continuing giggles.

  “The primary theory,” Wade continued in a flat, suffering tone. “Is that nature makes the selection because the pair are compatible for breeding.”

  Danea’s head popped up instantly, her gaze going from one to the other rapidly.

  “The arrow was coated with a tranquilizer, Dani,” Noah said quietly. “Someone was intent on taking you from that beach.”

  Danea considered this, her throat suddenly dry. “They want me because they think I’m a viable breeding female,” she said in a voice that shook a little more with each word. She was very good at puzzles. And the pieces were too clear.

  “Now do you get why I thought it best she didn’t know?” Noah said sourly.

  “I fucking get that,” Wade responded with a very un-Wade like curse.

  “Please…” Danea hated the quiver in her lip. “Stop.” She pressed her face into the pillow for a long, silent minute. But she wasn’t alone. For the first time in her life, those words echoed inside her head, inside her heart.

  She was not alone. She had them to worry about just as strongly as they had her to be concerned for. It worked both ways.

  “We’re stronger together than apart,” she said as she inhaled a steadying breath. Each of them had been touching some part of her. Noah’s hand rubbed reassuringly over her lower back while Wade’s hand smoothed and tangled in her hair.

  “I promise not to run,” she began, putting herself in their place where their thoughts were regarding her safety. “I promise to do whatever you feel best for me. I promise that. I don’t want to leave you…either of you…”

  “That means you don’t go off to swim without one of us, angel,” Wade said softly, meeting Noah’s gaze over her shoulders.

  “I know. I suppose if you can tolerate me, I can handle being watched over until we get this straightened out,” she spoke with as much strength as she could pull from inside. “And I never break a promise. Ever.”

  “I think some sleep would be good,” Noah leaned in and kissed her temple. “Since you’re dragging us to the pumpkin patch in the morning.”

  “Torture…” Danea teased, snuggling back against Wade. “I hope you survive.”

  “Remind me again why we need all these pumpkins?” Noah ignored the laughter from Wade who just shook his head and flashed the pocket knife he had out and ready. He picked up the one she pointed to out on the vine and added it to the cart Noah was hauling.

  “Because you said I could have as many as I wanted,” Danea tossed a cheeky grin over her shoulder and continued to select smaller pumpkins for the daycare. “The older kids will get to pick one and make their faces with paint,” she explained happily. “We have stencils and the best paints and brushes! It’s the best time of the year!”

  By the end of the day, the front porch of the house was decked out with pumpkins, cornstalks and some cotton spider webbing that she’d bought from the local hobby store. She backed down the walkway, hands on her hips and head tilted as she smiled at the finished product.

  “Perfect!” Danea declared with a bright smile. The dinner was almost finished and she had the small pumpkins in her car, ready to take to the daycare in the morning. She realized how easy it was to stare at the two men reclining against the square columns of stone that held up the covering over the porch that surrounded the house. They’d made a point of talking about every topic imaginable. Except the attack on her at the beach. “Ten minutes for dinner,” she smiled as she passed them going into the house.

  The last bits of October sun was closing in on them. She’d planned an early dinner, wanting to soak in the tub after. She knew Noah was working on arranging one of the rooms with his workout equipment and Wade had a few more lingering papers to grade.

  Somehow, they’d settled into a comfortable routine.

  Drowsiness surrounded her in the large master bath. She’d set up a few candles and the fragrance of them and the oil she’d drizzled into the steamy water had done its job, completely relaxing her.

  They hadn’t tried to seduce her. Hadn’t done more than a few touches and an occasional kiss. Every time she turned around, though, one of them was there, offering help and companionship. They joked and laughed with her about the pumpkins and Wade worked to distract her when Noah walked off with his cell phone to his ear. But no one would offer information about what the topic was.

  She could guess. A long sigh broke from her lips as she flipped the toggle and the water began to drain. She was about to stand up, the long pale silver and blonde hair pinned into a neat bundle at the back of her head, when the door opened. Instinct had her arms crossing over her chest, even when she instantly knew it was Wade.

  He held up a thick towel for her.

  That’s when she noticed he was wearing nothing but his jeans. In the candle light, he had the evening shadow going on his face that scratched in a sexy way seemed even more sexy.

  “I…I thought you had papers to finish?” Danea asked, uncertain why she felt exposed suddenly. Since he wasn’t moving she sighed and climbed to her feet, freezing in place when he moved forward and began patting her down with the towel.

  “All done. Time for bed now,” he answered, offering his hand after he’d finished absorbing most of the water. “You smell good…sexy and fresh…”

  “Thank you…” She took the towel and wrapped up in it, tucking it beneath her arm and using his hand to hold as she stepped from the large soaking tub. “This is a wonderful tub.”

  “I’m glad you like it. Never used it myself…”

  “What are you two up to?” Danea stared at the bedroom, candles over the surface of the bureau and dresser.

  “Can’t guys get romantic with their girl?” Noah crossed his arms in front of him and pulled his tee shirt over his head.

  Danea giggled and for some reason felt a surge of nerves.

  “Romantic?” The word gurgled from her lips in a cross between slight panic and a nervous giggle. Then it shifted to full panic when her towel was snatched from her in one quick move. She spun toward Wade only to find herself backed toward the bed.

  Too many things were going on at once. She heard Noah behind her but was afraid to take her eyes off Wade. And it helped focus her gaze when his hands went to the front of his jeans. The snap parted and the zipper slid down without a touch. Her eyes widened and she knew she was staring at the solid outline of his erection slowly coming into view.

  Since when did he start going without boxers? That was Noah’s habit.

  Danea swallowed at the same time she backed up and tumbled onto the bed. She tried righting herself and scooting to the other side, only to find herself trapped when she bumped into Noah.

  “She’s not seeing the romance?” Noah asked with a chuckle, leaning on one elbow after taking the hand closest to him and pinning it beneath his arm. He raised his top leg and quickly snagged one of her legs, trapping her in place. While she was busy working on whether to glare or panic, Wade moved to her other side and repeated his actions.

  “I’m pretty sure the veiled hints that she wasn’t breakable…were a sign that we’d been neglecting her,” Wade commented, using his free hand to stroke lightly over her face and onto her throat before trailing his fingers around th
e firm mound of her breast.

  Danea looked down her body. They each had one side of her to themselves. And she was literally pinned to the bed like a spread out butterfly. Very exposed and getting quite warm. Now the panic edged into arousal. Wade had lowered his head, his tongue dragging around the wrinkled areola before to pulled her nipple between his teeth.

  “I never…oh…” her breath caught in her chest. “I never said I’d been neglected. Not at all…I wasn’t…oh…god, I can’t think straight…”

  Noah chuckled and began his assault with his palm at her knee, fingers trailing very slowly up the inside of her thigh. He looked over at Wade and raised himself from the bed, carefully moving Danea’s arm and placing her wrist in a hand that Wade held up expectantly.

  For an instant, her eyes widened, thick lashes blinking and her gaze flitting from one to the other. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, her back arching against Wade’s mouth when he bit down on her nipple and demanded her focus.

  Noah moved between the spread thighs, his hands beginning at her ankles and stroking ever so slowly up the long length of her legs. He leaned closer, nipping and licking along the softly scented flesh. He would have been happy to nuzzle her thighs longer, but when his face lay inches from her pussy, her hips bucked a little in invitation. Never one to turn down a lady, Noah slid his tongue between her folds and gave one long lick of pure appreciation and anticipation up the damp slit.

  He smiled as he buried his face between her legs, lapping and sucking at her juicy clit. He tasted her and knew never had one been so delicious. Sweet and salty, wet and warm, his mate was a treat. He licked and nibbled at her swollen flesh, making her writhe ever faster. Her legs closed in on him, her heels dug into his back, urging him to go faster, harder. Keening moans filled the room. She pressed her body so tightly into his face he could hardly breathe. And, yet he stayed firm, taking her clit between his lips and sucking the climax out of her.