Cherry Stem

by Sotia Lazu

  I could almost cackle.

  Alex had taken his second flight a bit better than the first one. No physical reaction this time, but his eyes were glazed over as he stood on Sheena’s other side and waited for the door to open. I reached around and squeezed his hand. “How are you doing?”

  “I’m fine. I may barf on your ex, but that’ll make up for most of my night.” His thin smile took away from his joke.

  As soon as we’d landed, I’d explained to him and Sheena that nobody would think to look for her at Constantine’s, since he was sleeping with one of the council members. Sadly neither of them was very convinced of his loyalty to me. I knew he hadn’t been, wasn’t, nor would ever be loyal as a boyfriend, but I was also one hundred percent certain he wouldn’t betray me when it came to something so important. He’d been there for me from the beginning, taught me, supported me. Even after we broke up, he wouldn’t stop checking in, making sure I was doing okay—when he wasn’t trying to get me to give him another chance.

  Most of all, though, he’d been the one who’d held me day after day while I wept over losing everything and everyone I’d loved. He’d helped me keep my humanity and not give in to the temptation of the easy way. For that alone, I trusted him.

  The door was finally answered, and Wesley appeared, his attire crisply ironed, in direct contrast to his wrinkled face. He gave us a little bow. “Ladies. Sir. May I help you?”

  “Hi!” I expected him to at least wince at the informality of my greeting, since he hadn’t at what Sheena and I were wearing, but his lips only quirked upward, so I went on. “Is Constantine around?”

  “I’m afraid not, Ms. Stem.” At least this time he remembered me. “If you wish, I can relay a message, however.”

  There went my evil plan down the drain. I couldn’t tell him what I wanted; Constantine would be warned and, therefore, have enough time to find a good excuse not to take Sheena in by the time I finally got in touch with him.

  Alex jumped in at exactly the right moment. “This is Ms. Herring, who’s wanted by some very bad people.” He pushed Sheena a bit forward. She batted her eyelashes, and I had to try hard not to giggle.

  “Yes. Very bad,” I said. “We were hoping Constantine could take her in for a few days, until we take care of them?” It was my turn to bat my eyelashes.

  Wesley chuckled. “You can tone the charm down, both of you.” I could tell my companions were as shocked as I was by his temporary slip in decorum. If he winked, I might faint. His face straightened again. “I will make sure Ms. Herring is made comfortable with us while you go about your business.” Gently taking Sheena’s hand, he ushered her inside. “Aren’t you freezing in those clothes?”

  It hadn’t even occurred to me to feel bad that I’d made her fly in nothing but her pj’s. Hey, I owed her for the frying pan to the head bit.

  “We must find you something warmer to wear,” Wesley said to her before turning to me. “I will tell Master Constantine to contact you as soon as he returns. And if those very bad men you mentioned are of your ”—he glanced briefly from me to Alex—“special circumstances, rest assured they cannot enter this property without my permission. The deeds to the house are in my name.”

  I muttered, “Thank you,” and Alex and I were left staring at the door closing in our faces.

  Alex wouldn’t even hear of flying again, so we used my cell to call a cab that drove us back to the Dark Sun to pick up his car. His color was back and so was his usual good mood, so we even stopped at a place he knew that was open all night and he really did buy the eggs to make me the promised dessert.

  By the time we parked in front of his mother’s house, I had on a face-splitting grin, which only got wider when my phone rang—out of the silent mode by then—and I saw Constantine was finally calling me. I didn’t answer in the most polite way possible. “I know she’s annoying, but you have to keep her safe for a while. Just for a few days.”

  “Hello to you too, Cherry. How was your night?”

  If he cared, he could have asked me that when I’d called him earlier, but he hadn’t, had he? He’d been too busy with what’s her name. “Went from fine to crappy to fine again, thank you. Did you hear back from the council?”

  He let out a tortured sigh. “Not exactly. Can we meet?”

  “What? Now you have time for me?” Oh shut up. I resent the implication that I’m petty.

  “I always have time for you, Cherry. Some things are just beyond my control.”

  Right. Like whom he fucked and how he talked to me when he was with her.

  “I’m deeply sorry if I offended you.” His apology was belied by his now irate tone. He hated apologizing, but I wouldn’t listen to anything else he had to say unless he did so. “Please believe that I had my reasons. I called you as soon as I became available.”

  “I bet you did. What’s up?” My legs were crossed in a very unladylike manner, with my right ankle resting atop my left knee, and I was tapping my foot against the dashboard. Alex clasped a hand over its top and held it immobile.

  “Now see who’s impatient,” Constantine said. “I called you first, if you recall. You didn’t pick up. I haven’t been home in forty-eight hours because of you, and when I finally get here, I find an insufferable woman waiting for me. She’s been my guest for a little over an hour, and she’s already emptied half my liquor cabinet, Cherry. You owe me, and you’ll repay me by waiting. Tonight I’ll come to where your human lives. After sunset all right with you?”

  I glanced at Alex, who wasn’t looking at me but had made no move to get out of the car, either. “You’re not showing up here!”

  Constantine was unperturbed. “Will you tell me where he lives, or will I have to find out by myself?”

  Even if my brain was still jumbled where things between Alex and me were concerned, and even if I ended up going with the leaving-him-for-his-own-good scenario after all, I didn’t want Constantine to know more about him than he absolutely needed to. “Will you shut up and listen to me? I’ll meet you if I have to, but somewhere else. I can come by your place.” I doubted Alex would appreciate the alternative I was offering my ex, but the first option was worse.

  “I guess that means I’ll have to follow my nose,” Constantine said. “Be warned that this will probably make me testy when I finally meet him, so you two lovebirds better keep displays of affection to a minimum.”

  He hung up before I could protest.

  I doubted he could really find us by himself; his sense of smell was enhanced, all right, but he couldn’t go roaming the city, nose in the air. He could always ask Rowland where he’d dropped me off the other night after the council meeting, however, and I didn’t want to have to test that “testy” thing, no pun intended. If his meeting Alex was unavoidable, I wanted things to go down as smoothly as possible.

  Beside me, Alex said, “I’m guessing he didn’t shut up and listen, huh?”

  Texting Constantine with the address and making it explicit I thought he was a giant ass, I said, “He didn’t. He’ll be by at sunset.” Phone stuffed in cleavage once more, I opened the passenger door.

  I was out of the car when I noticed Alex hadn’t moved from his seat. I walked to the driver’s side and threw his door open. “Come on, there’s plenty of time until then,” I said, thinking none of the badness could touch us for a little while longer. “Let’s make it count.” I needed to be lost in him once again, needed to feel his touch, to connect with him one more time before whatever it was the next day might bring.

  “He’ll be by? Here? How does he know where here is?”

  There was no use in lying. “I let him know where we’re staying.” Before the red flush I could see creeping up Alex’s face had time to translate into yelling, I added, “Not that I think it was necessary. He smelled you on me last time we met. If he’s half as possessive as he used to be, he’s already followed your scent here.”

  “Possessive? Are you his?” His face betrayed nothing; if it weren�
�t for his heartbeat rising, I’d think he was making idle chitchat.

  I should have been honest and owned up to how I felt about Alex. I should have told him there was no reason for him to be jealous of my past. I didn’t tell him that, however. It was bad enough that I knew. Saying it aloud would make my choice even harder. Instead I threw back my head and laughed.

  It wasn’t nice of me.

  I can totally admit that I loved every minute of his jealousy, just as I loved every minute of Constantine’s chasing me. Yes, that moment I was absolutely convinced Constantine’s interest in me had nothing to do with actual feelings. He cared about me but wasn’t in love with me. He only wanted me because he’d lost me and he wasn’t used to losing. That didn’t make the passion of his pursuit any less flattering, however. It was simple mathematics: one Cherry plus two gorgeous men equaled one giggly Cherry with a heavily petted ego.

  Alex naturally didn’t see the situation in the same positive light. He grabbed what little fabric was covering my breasts, pulled me down, and crushed his lips to mine for a kiss much more possessive than Constantine’s attitude could have ever been.

  I didn’t stop laughing immediately. Not until his hand found its way between my legs and got rid first of the stake and then of my panties.

  By the time our lips parted, I had finally made my choice. Not about whom I wanted to be with; there had been no doubt there. I’d decided what I was willing to sacrifice for him. Now it was all up to fate.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The front seat was cramped, but I am nothing if not flexible, so I did my best to pass one of my legs over Alex’s thighs until I could make myself comfortable in his lap. Ignoring the steering wheel digging into my back was difficult but not impossible. My efforts had just panned out and I was more than enjoying myself when he whispered, “Call him back and tell him not to come.”

  “Come? Who?” There was only one person in whose coming I was interested at that moment: me!

  I had to sit there and watch my chances of coming fly out the window as Alex withdrew his hand from my pussy and used it to push at my shoulder so he could look into my eyes. “Call Constantine,” he said slowly, pinching one nipple over my dress, “and tell him not to come here. We don’t need more vampires with invitations to this place.”

  His voice was as close to enthralling as any human’s could be, but I didn’t appreciate the fact that he was trying to use my sexual attraction to him, our sexual connection, like a mind-altering tool.

  I got off him as awkwardly as I’d straddled him, which was embarrassing for a vampire, really, and was out of the car straightening my dress in a heartbeat. “Constantine is not a threat,” I said. “But I get it if you don’t want him inside your mother’s place, so I will meet him out here. Is that okay?” Not waiting for his response, I turned toward the house.

  “I don’t want you meeting him at all. It could be a trap.” He came out after me.

  “It’s not a trap.” I let out an exasperated sigh and sat on the hood of his car, elbows on my knees and feet perched on his bumper. “It’s Constantine. I’ve known him for years, and he’s not going to double-cross me.”

  Alex stood right in front of me. Every muscle of his body was tense, and his lips, usually wide and generous, were drawn into a thin line. Even though nothing could make him unattractive, I didn’t like the look of distrust on him. “You said yourself you hadn’t seen him in years.” The distrust in his voice wasn’t any less annoying. “His maker is in the council. For fuck’s sake, Cherry, think!”

  There was no doubt he made some valid points. It made perfect sense that Constantine would be in on all the badness. He had the ins with the council and had sort of kept in touch with me via the phone, even after our breakup, so he knew where I lived. If we were to go further back, it had been really convenient that I’d gotten such a studly mentor, whom I couldn’t resist and with whom I had developed a romantic relationship. Assuming he’d been involved with Ádísa the entire time and that she and Willoughby were on the same team, it could all have been a plan. A plan to keep me under his thumb or to keep tabs on me.

  Except I knew in my heart that it hadn’t been one.

  Constantine had his share of flaws—hell, he had several people’s shares of flaws—but he was nobody’s pawn. I could see him going above and beyond if the whole scheme had been his idea, but not because someone else had put him up to it. And I could definitely not see the whole “let’ s turn someone people would recognize so we can overthrow the council and install a new one” being his idea, since it hadn’t resulted in his being part of the new council.

  Unless he was the brains of the operation, and Ádísa was his pawn, a front… Hmmm. That might be worth looking into.

  No! I knew Constantine. He was the man who’d helped me mend a bird’s broken wing so that I’d stop crying. I refused to let myself be pulled into conspiracy theories other than the one we were currently trying to tackle. There were definitely bad guys among the ones ruling our kind, and they were out to get me and Alex—who was still rambling, by the way—but my former lover wasn’t one of them. Despite everything, for the brief time we’d been together, Constantine had loved me, in his own way.

  Alex’s grip on my arm brought me back to the here and now. “He could be how they’re keeping track of you, how Willoughby knew where you lived and where to find Dotty.”

  Okay, I hadn’t reacted when he’d implied I wasn’t thinking, but bringing Dotty into this was a low blow, especially when he’d tried to convince me her kidnapping wasn’t my fault.

  I poked his chest with my forefinger, only not really hard ’cause that would have either sent him flying toward the house or broken his rib cage. “I trust Constantine.” I emphasized each syllable with one more poke. “He’s lousy when it comes to fidelity, but I trust him not to hand us to Willoughby or the council. If that was what he had in mind, he could have done so when I’d told him I suspected there was a rogue among us. He could have killed me before I ever left his place.” Kicking at his car would be childish, so I refrained. Barely. “I’m meeting him whether you like it or not.”

  Alex grabbed my wrist and loomed over me. “I don’t like it. Still, if you’re meeting him anyway, he’s coming inside. He may wanna grab you and fly you to the council, for all I know.” Brilliant. Typical male. He’d managed to take a predetermined thing, twist it around in his brain a couple hundred times, return it to its initial shape, and serve it up like it had been his idea to begin with.

  I filled my lungs with air I didn’t need and let it whoosh out. “Sure. If you insist.” No sense pointing out to him that had been the plan in the first place.

  “I want to be able to keep an eye on him,” he said, as though I still needed convincing.

  I just shrugged. Whatever. If Constantine moved fast enough, Alex wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on him, but whatever! I was too tired to get into something that would lead to another argument. Mentioning Constantine’s vampiric powers would no doubt make Alex think I was putting his humanity down. Male ego, when faced with any perceived threat, can lash out in all directions, and the first collateral damage is usually rational thinking.

  I started to stand, but Alex planted one fist on either side of my thighs. “I wanna keep an eye on you with him.”

  “I told you, there’s nothing going on between him and me.”

  “You told me. But there’s also nothing going on between me and you, is there?” Really? After having been patient for this long, he wanted us to have the talk now? Out in the open?

  “Alex,” I said, feathering my fingers over his cheek, “we said we’d figure this out later.”

  Instead of replying, he snaked one hand between my thighs and ran his fingers along my flimsy thong. “Do you want me?” he asked. I barely had time to raise an eyebrow in question before he pushed two fingers inside me. “Do you want me, Cherry?”

  I swallowed. “You know I do, but—” We were outside his mom’s
house, on top of his car. Even I knew that wasn’t right.

  “Because I want you. All the time.” He withdrew his fingers slowly and made a show of licking them clean.

  Hell, it wasn’t my neighborhood. “Show me,” I whispered, pushing my hips upward. I wanted more of him. I tried to sit up, reached for him, but he held me down.

  “Sit back.”

  I did, and waited for his next move.

  It didn’t disappoint.

  He grabbed my thighs and pulled me to the edge of the hood. The hem of my dress slid up and bunched around my hips, making me feel more exposed than ever. I leaned back, propped on my elbows.

  “I want you wanting only me,” he said. “Thinking only of me.” He traced his fingers along my collarbone and slipped down one strap of my dress. “I want you always trembling under my touch.” The second strap caressed my shoulder on its way down, raising goose bumps. He cupped one of my breasts, his palm warm against my skin. I pressed against him, and he pinched my nipple until it was hard and aching. “Like you are now.”

  I was trembling, I realized.

  Alex leaned over me and took my other nipple in his mouth, in turn flicking his tongue over it and grazing it with his teeth. Alternating between warm, wet softness and sharpness kept me on the edge. I pushed against his mouth and whimpered when his hand stopped caressing my other breast to trail lower, over my stomach, down my belly, and finally between my thighs, setting each spot he touched on fire.

  He raised his head to look into my eyes. “And I want to be the only one touching you here.” He stroked my pussy over the tiny triangle of fabric. My arms quivered, and I tensed in anticipation of more. “Watching you squirm.” He pushed the thong aside and used two fingers to circle my clit again and again.

  The pressure was just right, but his fingers moved too slowly. An ache in my core screamed for more. I was wet and light-headed, and I had to have his fingers or his cock inside my pussy before I combusted with need.