by Tina Folsom
Wes took a shower to let the water sluice away the tension that had been building up all day. He was just drying off, when he heard a sound in the bedroom. He wrapped a towel around his waist and walked out of the ensuite bathroom.
He wasn’t surprised to see his visitor, though he was surprised that she hadn’t slipped into something more comfortable. While Virginia seemed to have changed into a different set of clothes, her hair still damp at the tips, she was dressed as if she was ready for battle.
He noticed her running a look over his body.
“Virginia.”
She raised her gaze to meet his. “We have to talk.”
“I figured that much from your attitude today.”
She took in a breath. “My attitude?”
“Giving me the cold shoulder, calling me witch, you know, that kind of attitude. As if what happened in the motel never happened.”
“Well, you can’t exactly expect me to behave like some love-struck groupie in front of the others. They are my subordinates. I have to maintain a, a—”
“—stuck-up attitude?” he helped and took a step closer.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Well if you think that I’m such a stuck-up bitch, why did you sleep with me?”
“I never said you were a bitch. And you were the one who blew me in the shower.”
“I didn’t notice you resisting my advances.”
He crossed the remaining distance between them with one step. “It’s hard resisting a woman who’s so full of fire.” He ran his eyes over her heated face and slid his fingers through her hair, then rested his palm at her nape. “A woman who can turn me on with just one searing look. Damn it, Virginia, I was going to tell you that I don’t appreciate you treating me like a stranger in front of your colleagues, but I’ll settle for it, as long as you continue to share my bed.” He leaned in.
“I can’t do that.”
He pulled back a few inches. “What?”
“It’s never gonna work. We’re too different.”
“Different is good.”
“It’s against all the rules.”
“Yeah, so? Have you never broken any rules?”
An expression of horror flashed over her face, there one second, gone the next.
“I have to maintain my integrity,” she claimed.
“And by sleeping with me, you think you can’t? That’s a lot of bullshit. Why don’t you tell me what’s really wrong, huh?”
Her eyes shifted to the side, avoiding him.
“Damn it, Virginia, don’t I deserve an answer? We saved each others’ lives. We escaped the demons. We made love last night. Does that count for nothing?” He wrapped one arm around her and pulled her closer, so her breasts connected with his chest. “Babe, we’re good together. It feels so right.” He caressed her nape and noticed her eyelids flutter. Yes, she still responded to his touch, was still susceptible to it.
Virginia finally met his gaze. “But what if—”
“Shh. No what ifs.” Wes slanted his mouth over hers. “I want you. And you want me, too, or you wouldn’t have snuck into my room.”
Virginia sighed, but a moment later, her lips parted.
“That’s my girl,” he murmured.
A gasp behind him made him spin around. Enya stood in the room, holding his backpack. Her chin had dropped, and her eyes were wide as saucers.
“You left your backpack in the command center,” she said almost robotically, but she wasn’t looking at him. She was staring at Virginia, and slowly her expression changed from one of shock to one of glee.
“Uh, thanks, Enya,” Wes said. “Virginia was just making sure I had everything I needed for the night.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Enya said.
Virginia rubbed her palms over her thighs as if straightening out her clothes. “Yes, uh, well, seeing that you’re settled in, I’ll, uh, leave you to get some rest.”
Virginia’s attempt at looking professional was a major fail on all fronts. Her cheeks were as red as a tomato, her voice lacked strength and conviction, and her body language screamed of embarrassment.
“Virginia,” Enya said slowly and deliberately.
Virginia hesitated.
“I don’t think Wesley has everything he needs yet.” Enya tossed a deliberate glance at the towel around Wesley’s waist. “Why don’t you take care of that first, otherwise I doubt he’ll get much rest tonight.”
Enya had clearly noticed the bulge beneath the towel, and was enjoying watching Virginia squirm. They’d been avoiding each other since Virginia had attacked Enya in the kitchen. Apparently Enya was still a little bit miffed about that incident.
With a triumphant grin, Enya turned on her heel, tossed the backpack on a nearby chair and marched out through the door without opening it.
“Guess the cat’s out of the bag,” Wes said, shrugging and turning back to Virginia.
“Oh God, I should have never come to your room.”
She looked absolutely terrified and ready to bolt. But he wasn’t having any of it. Before she could flee, he grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Listen to me. This isn’t exactly how I wanted the others to find out about it, but what happened, happened. At least now we don’t have to hide it. So let’s not blow this thing out of proportion.”
“Blow this thing out of proportion?” She yanked herself free of his grip. “Wesley, you don’t understand. I’ve broken the rules. People die when I break the rules.”
“Don’t you think that’s a little over-dramatic?”
She looked into his eyes, and he suddenly noticed the wet sheen on her irises. “People have died, because I broke the rules and trusted the wrong person.”
At her admission, his heart stopped for a moment. He now recognized the pain and anguish that was in plain sight. He understood now that Virginia not trusting him had nothing to do with him, but everything to do with something that had happened in her past. For the first time since meeting her, he saw the vulnerable creature that hid behind a façade of rules and regulations, behind a wall of steel and determination. And he wanted nothing more than to protect her.
Without a word, he pulled Virginia back into his arms and gently rubbed his hands over her back.
~ ~ ~
Wesley’s gentle touch was soothing. Virginia rested her head against his chest and allowed herself to soak up his strength. But she knew she didn’t deserve it. Taking a shaky breath, she lifted her head and inched backward, but Wesley’s gaze held her back.
“Don’t,” he murmured. “Don’t shut me out. I can see you’re hurting. And that hurts me too.” He put his fingers under her chin and lifted it. “Help me understand why you can’t trust me. Tell me what happened.”
“Nobody knows. Nobody but my father. All the others are dead.” Dead, because of her mistake. She should be dead, too. She should have paid the highest price for her mistake.
“Come, talk to me,” he said and led her to the seating area in front of the fake fireplace.
She sank into the corner of the sofa, and Wes sat down next to her, his body half turned, one hand clutching hers. He lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss on the back of it.
Virginia forced a smile. Why did Wesley have to be so sweet, so nice to her? Why did he have to be so understanding? Or was it all an act? Like Jonathan’s affection toward her had been an act in the end.
“In the 1960s I was assigned to a compound in San Francisco. We were one big happy family, wiping out demons left and right, protecting humans. Then the Summer of Love happened. Flower Power and all that.” She let out a mirthless laugh. “I don’t know why, but I caught the bug, too. It was infectious, all that free love in the city. I couldn’t stay away, because suddenly the future looked so much brighter. There was hope everywhere.”
“I wasn’t even born yet,” Wes said with a gentle smile and combed his hand through her hair, a gesture she increasingly craved. “You’ve seen so much of history.”
&
nbsp; “Too much I wish I’d never seen.” And even more things she wished she’d done differently. “I met a man that summer. A human. I fell in love with him, though looking back, I think I was more in love with the idea of being in love than with him. But he represented everything that I thought love would be. And to a degree I can also blame rasen for how I acted, though I’m not making excuses. It was all my fault.”
“Rasen?” Wesley asked.
“The mating call we all experience around the time we turn two-hundred, some a little earlier, some a little later. It hit me too early. I wasn’t prepared, I guess.” She stopped herself and searched Wesley’s eyes. “But I have no excuse for what I did.”
He squeezed her hand and nodded in silence.
“I spent more and more time with Jonathan. I started to trust him. He seemed so innocent. Without guile. All he talked about was peace and love and hope. And how this world would be one day. How everybody would live in harmony. He seemed to be without a care in the world. My shoulders, on the other hand, felt weighted down by my duty to my kind. By my promise to defend my race.”
“It’s a lot to deal with. The demons, the constant battles,” Wes said, his eyes gleaming with understanding.
“Yes, but I was trained for it. Yet, when I was with Jonathan, I longed for an easier life. He told me he loved me and urged me to go away with him to some commune somewhere. That’s when I confessed to him what I was, that my duty wouldn’t let me leave. That I had obligations. I’m not sure he really understood fully what it meant. But he said he’d support me.”
She sighed.
“Back then, the drugs of choice were marijuana and LSD. I didn’t realize it at first, but LSD seemed to make it easier for demons to influence humans. I made Jonathan swear that he’d never take LSD. But even as he swore it, he’d already taken it. And he continued taking it whenever I wasn’t around. I don’t know when they got to him, but they did. The demons figured out very quickly that Jonathan and I were an item. They saw us together. And my aura gave me away. They influenced him. One day Jonathan said he wanted to see where I lived. And though it was against the rules, I took Jonathan to the compound. I broke the one rule I should have never broken, because I thought he was finally ready to embrace all of me, not just the fun-loving girl, but also the warrior, the woman who had responsibilities.”
A tear rolled down her cheek and she wiped it away.
“We were followed. That’s how the demons found our location. They attacked us a few hours later. The compound was unprepared. Every single one of my compound mates died in the attack. I should have died, too. But life isn’t fair, and I survived in the rubble of my compound.”
“And Jonathan?”
She shook her head. “Nobody ever saw him again. There was no body. Maybe the demons took his body with them. Maybe it burned in the explosion. I don’t know.”
Wesley sighed. “I’m so sorry, Virginia. I’m so sorry you had to go through this.”
“That’s not all.” Virginia sniffled. “I wanted to confess that it was my fault. That I was responsible for all those deaths. So I went to see my father. I told him everything. He was disappointed. And angry. I fully expected him to drag me in front of the Council of Nine himself to be punished and exiled, if not executed, but he didn’t. He told me that whatever I did, I could never tell anybody. It would not only disgrace my family, it would kill my mother. He didn’t care what I did to alleviate my guilt. I couldn’t hurt my family, my mother in particular. I’d already hurt so many people, so many families. So I did the only thing I could: I swore never to trust again, never to love again, and I signed up with the enforcers to undergo the most brutal training a warrior can survive. I made it my mission to enforce our rules. So that nobody else would die.” She swallowed and looked into Wesley’s baby-blue eyes. “And now I’m breaking the same rules I’ve sworn to enforce.”
A sob tore from her chest. And this time she couldn’t hold it in.
Wesley’s arms were around her a moment later. He lifted her into his lap and cradled her to his chest, and she let it happen.
23
Wesley felt Virginia’s body shake under the force of her sobs, while he held her in his arms to comfort her. The strongest woman he’d ever met was cracking under pressure, and all he wanted to do was soothe her pain.
So much was clear to him now. She wasn’t the hard-nosed disciplinarian that the others at the compound would rather see the back of. She was a woman whose guilt was wearing her down, a guilt for which she’d been trying to atone for decades. And by her own admission, she’d never confided in anybody after telling her father, who by the sounds of it, hadn’t given her any comfort.
Wesley stroked his hand over her long hair, trying to calm her with his touch.
“You must have saved so many lives since,” he murmured softly.
“It’s not enough,” Virginia choked out.
“You’ve protected your kind ever since. You’ve done so much good. Don’t you think it’s time to forgive yourself?”
He put his fingers under her chin and lifted her head so he could look into her face. The skin around her eyes was red and puffy, her eyes still full of tears. Her lips quivered.
“You couldn’t know. We all make mistakes,” he said, grasping for anything that he hoped would make her feel better.
“But my mistake cost people’s lives.”
“How can you be sure of that?” He sighed. “The demons seeing you with Jonathan wasn’t your fault. Who knows how many demons are roaming out there, trying to ferret out a way to destroy your kind? It could have happened to anybody.”
“But it happened to me.”
“And it will happen again, to somebody else. You’re never safe from detection. Your aura identifies you as a preternatural. Demons can only be identified by their green eyes. What if they wear sunglasses? And it’s not like you can smell them. You’re at a disadvantage unless you’re invisible. And you said yourself that takes a lot of energy.” He rubbed his fingers over her cheeks to wipe away her remaining tears. “What I’m trying to say is, don’t let this guilt destroy you. You’re better than that. You’re strong, and you’re good.”
“But I have to be punished for this.”
“You’ve punished yourself enough. You continuing to beat yourself up isn’t going to bring your friends back. It isn’t going to help anybody. Put it out of your mind, and think of all the good you’ve done, the lives you’ve saved, the future you have ahead of you.”
She sniffled. “But what if I make the same mistake again? What if I’ve already repeated it?” Virginia met his gaze then, and he read the question in it. The question that had been there since the moment they’d met.
“I can’t force you to trust me. All I can do is tell you that I’ll never hurt you or your kind. But I understand that it’s hard for you to trust a stranger after what you’ve been through. Just know this: I won’t give up on you. I’ll do anything to prove to you that I’m worth your trust. No matter how long it takes. Because you’re worth it. And because I want you.”
She raised her hand and cupped his cheek. Wes turned his face to press a kiss into her palm. “Why are you so understanding? Why don’t you condemn me like my father did?”
“He should have never condemned you. He should have been there to help you through this. But I’m here now. I will remind you every single day if necessary that you don’t have to feel guilty anymore. You’ve atoned a hundred times over since then. You deserve to be happy. And if I can help you find a little happiness, then that’s what I’m gonna do.”
For the first time since Virginia had come to his room, a small smile formed on her lips. “You’re so good to me.”
He chuckled. “I can be even better, that is, if you want me to.”
She tilted her head to the side. “Are you trying to come on to me?”
“Is it working?”
“I don’t know, what do you think?” Virginia put her hand on his chest and r
an her soft fingers over his skin, making it tingle with anticipation.
“Maybe I should work a little harder on my powers of seduction.” He winked at her.
“Really?” She shifted on his lap and slid her hand to his groin, where his cock was starting to lift the towel. “Harder than that?”
“Oh, yeah, much harder than that.”
Virginia untucked the towel and peeled it away so she could stroke her hand over his erection. Wes groaned, and felt his cock jerk and pump full of even more blood.
“Babe, you’d better be careful with that.”
She slid off his lap and put her hands on his knees, spreading them apart. “Oh, yeah? Maybe in that case I should use something more gentle, like my mouth.” She dropped to her knees in front of him.
“Wait!” He took her head into his hands and stopped her.
“I thought every man liked that.”
“Oh, I love it.” He grinned. “But would you do me a favor and get naked for me first? I want to look at your sexy body while you suck me.”
She smiled up at him and rose. Then she peeled out of her clothes, shedding one item after the other, until she was down to her black bra and panties.
“Stop,” he demanded. “Like that is perfect. Absolutely perfect.” He reached for her hand and pulled her down between his legs. His pulse was racing now, and his cock was hard and heavy, curving against his stomach. Ready to explode.
He looked at Virginia in her skimpy lingerie, looking innocent and seductive all at once. He drew her head to him and pressed a long kiss on her red lips, before releasing her and looking deep into her hazel eyes. The green flecks in them seemed to shimmer.
“Suck me, babe, do what you want with me, but don’t let me come. ‘Cause I want to come inside your beautiful pussy when you’re ready for me. Can you promise me that?”
“I can’t promise anything,” Virginia murmured with a seductive smile. “Only that you’ll enjoy it.”
“I’ve never doubted that.”
And then the red-haired vixen lowered her head to his groin and licked over the tip of his cock, while her long hair caressed his thighs.