“You bringing a baby into the world is an excellent idea. Exactly what we need more than anything.”
“Her very existence would destroy our plans.”
“Well, yes, I imagine the Amadis will rally together at the news, despite orders.” Blossom put a hand on my arm, stopping me at the bottom of the steps. She looked directly into my eyes, her brow lifted. “But then we’ll make new plans. Drink, Alexis.”
I almost made a comment about her sounding like my mother, but the thought hurt too much. In fact, the ache in my heart exploded, and the only way I knew how to rein it in again was by distracting myself with other, different pain. So I held the mug to my lips and tilted my head back.
“Blech. That shit is nasty,” I said with a full body shudder before I gave the cup back to her.
“Good.” She gave me a smile, and I returned it with a glare. “The more potent it is, the better. Good night, Alexis.”
She turned and headed back toward the kitchen. I blurred my way up the steps, trying to outrun the disgusting taste in my mouth. I flew into our suite, right past Tristan, who lay on the bed reading, and into the bathroom to brush my teeth while the liquid settled in my belly and the warmth spread. I wondered if that meant the potion was working. Part of me hoped it wasn’t—that my ovaries and other girl parts couldn’t be primed for conception by magic or anything else. I meant what I’d said to Blossom: nobody should be bringing a baby into this world right now, especially not me. Not when we couldn’t promise a future for anyone, including the Amadis.
Minutes had gone by while I brushed my teeth and tongue, eradicating the gross flavor of the potion from every taste bud, and only now did I notice a bath had been drawn in the pool-sized tub. Candle flames bobbed and weaved around the bathroom. I stepped toward the door and leaned back to see Tristan sprawled out on the bed, wearing only black boxer briefs. He gave me a smile that made my bones melt and my thighs quiver.
“What’s going on?” I asked hesitantly, returning his smile because I had no choice. He made my body react in all kinds of ways I had no control over.
In a flash, he stood in front of me and his hands cupped my jaw. He tilted my head back and leaned in, close enough for me to feel his breath on my lips. Thank goodness I’d just brushed my teeth. Otherwise, I’d be assaulting him with horrible potion-breath.
“I thought you could use a relaxing soak,” he murmured before brushing his mouth across mine.
I slid my hands around his neck and up into his hair. “Oh. Is that all? I get to sit in a bath by myself?”
I pretended to pout, and he sucked my protruding bottom lip in between his. My knees nearly buckled.
“Most definitely not,” he said as his fingers flew through the tie of my leather corset and down the laces to loosen it. “I’ll be joining you. And there will certainly be more than sitting involved.”
“If only.” I let out a sigh as I closed my eyes while he pulled the corset away from my body, freeing my breasts. My fighting leathers, worn pretty much at all times now, felt like a second skin—until the moment my boobs were freed from the bustier. Only then did I realize just how confining the corsets were. And normal women complained about bras …
“Open your mind and tell me what you hear,” Tristan murmured before his lips explored my collarbone.
I didn’t need to count the mind signatures to know too many people were way too close for me to truly enjoy making love with him, and I couldn’t have counted even if I wanted to. Because now his tongue swiped over my breast and around my nipple and his hands gripped my hips, his fingers digging into my pants as he pulled me closer. Pleasure jolted in every direction across my body. I opened my eyes just enough to see him on his knees in front of me, his lips now skating over my chest to my other breast.
“You don’t hear anything do you?” he asked before rolling his tongue over the dark pink tip, his hazel eyes trained on my face, an eyebrow lifted.
What? He’d asked me a question, but I was already so turned on, I couldn’t focus. Mind signatures. That’s what he was talking about. Right. But I found none. I leaned back, pulling my breast away from his reach and missing the warmth already, but panic tried to slide its way into my peaceful and lovely moment.
“Where is everyone?” I demanded.
“Relax, my love,” he murmured as his arms snaked around my back and he pulled me to him. “There’s a super-duty muffling spell on our suite. And just in case, they all went to the village to search for any supplies they could find.”
“In the middle of the night? And Dorian, too?”
“It’s the best time to hide from any Normans who may be watching the island, but Owen and Char have cloaked everyone anyway. Don’t worry. Please relax, Lexi, and let us have this night together. It might be our last good one in a long time.”
The idea of Owen muffling our suite so we could have uninhibited sex made my stomach twist with embarrassment, but I couldn’t resist the beautiful man in front of me or the thought of a blissful night of making mad love to him. It had been way too long since I’d really been able to enjoy our time together. My whole body suddenly flushed with excitement.
“Make it count,” I said, my voice already husky.
“Oh, I plan on it.”
His mouth clamped down on my breast again, and his tongue swirled around the hard tip of my nipple. He easily undid the button of my pants, and in a moment, they lay on the floor in a heap. His hands traveled all over my body, leaving a trail of electric sparks, as his mouth continued to work on my breast, sucking and biting, pulling a direct line of pleasure all the way from my core. By the time his fingers slid up the insides of my calves, then my thighs, to the pulsing junction in between, I was soaking wet and trembling with need. But he only gave me two teasing strokes of his fingers before he rose to his feet and took a step back to gaze appreciatively at me. His eyes may as well have been hands touching me everywhere with the way my body reacted.
“You look as though you’ve never seen me naked before,” I said, practically panting. Can he just touch me already?
“Your beauty astounds me every time, as if it is the first,” he murmured. “I still always have to wonder how you can be mine.”
He still didn’t move. Only his eyes, the gold sparkling as they swept over me and then lingered down low, and his tongue, as it slid tauntingly over his bottom lip. Intense need jolted through me.
“If you don’t come here and kiss me and touch me and make love to me fast, I will only be my own,” I growled, one of my hands reaching out for him as the other slid down my belly, ready to take care of things if he didn’t.
He chuckled as he came back in, and then crushed his mouth to mine. His lips moved hungrily with mine, our tongues licking and twisting together, tasting and consuming each other as though we were the other’s last meal. And then his mouth was gone again, traveling downward, over my chin, down my throat, to my chest. His hands slid down my sides to grip my waist, and he easily lifted me, setting me on the counter. I leaned back on my elbows, and he dove down.
Warm wetness engulfed each hardened nipple, one at a time, as his palms skated over my hips and thighs and to the backs of my knees. He pushed my legs up and out, opening me for him as he lowered himself to his knees again. His head dipped down, and mine fell backwards. I already hovered on the edge of an orgasm before his tongue made its first swipe. My body quaked uncontrollably with the second one. And I hovered on the edge, shaking and gripping the counter, as his tongue swirled and flicked at the pulsing bundle of nerves in that one small nub while his fingers stroked and entered.
“Let go, Lexi,” he murmured against me. “Be mine.”
He sucked then, and his fingers slid in deeper and curled upward. And I more than let go. I exploded, screaming his name over and over as his lips and tongue and fingers continued to lift me up, up, up until I burst again and again, lights popping before my eyes and my muscles seizing. His mouth pulled away, and all at once, I was gratefu
l for the relief yet still wanting more, more, more. He kissed the inside of one thigh, his tongue swirling against my skin, and I almost came again.
He stood, and I reached out for him, but he wouldn’t let me touch him. He lifted me by the waist again and carried me over to the tub, where he set me down. My legs gave in, too weak to hold me, and I slid into the warm water. My eyes never left his perfectly sculpted body as he pushed off his boxer briefs and stepped into the tub with me. I took hold of him before he could immerse himself completely in the water, and he groaned as I stroked the thick length a few times and then took him the way he’d just taken me.
“Lex … I can’t …” He moaned again, and his hooded eyes slid all the way closed.
“Don’t,” I said.
“Not yet. I want inside you.”
Before I could stop him, he sank all the way into the water. I glared at him, but he returned it with a smirk.
“Turn around,” he whispered, leaving me no choice but to obey as his hands again gripped me and turned me so my back faced him.
He pulled me in between his legs, then slid his wet, bubbly hands up my spine and pushed my hair over my shoulder. His mouth and tongue tickled the nape of my neck as he scooped warm water over my skin. His erection pressed against my butt and up the small of my back. I curled my legs underneath me and rocked forward slightly onto my knees, teasing his tip as his hands and mouth continued to caress my shoulders and back. Anticipation built again, pulling my breasts tight and pulsing between my legs. I leaned forward further and lifted up. His hands grasped my butt and squeezed right before I moved down and over him, pulling him inside me. We both let out a quiet cry.
His hands gripped my hips as I slid up and down, both of us moaning and groaning as the friction sent spikes of pleasure up through my belly and out across my body. Then his palm slid forward and up over my breast, while the other slid down my front, causing chills to sweep over my skin. I leaned back against him, arching my head over his shoulder as his fingers stroked and my hips rocked and his breaths came hot on my ear, sending wave after wave of pleasure until my insides exploded again. I screamed his name and he yelled out mine as we both came together, quaking and convulsing and losing ourselves into the other, becoming one soul, one body, one entity of love.
I’d nearly forgotten how beautiful and primal we could be together when I didn’t have to hold back. The sense of freedom overcame my mind, body, and soul now that the mental wall had fallen, and our lovemaking became so much more through the night as we slammed our bodies against walls and into the ceiling, doing all those things we couldn’t do when others were around.
And I no longer cared that everyone knew what we were doing even if they couldn’t hear us. Because Tristan was right—we needed this night together. It would be our last for a long time. Maybe forever.
Chapter 8
The time to move out arrived quickly. News on the television and the web became unreliable as governments and the Daemoni censored the media. We couldn’t even access any networks in some countries, and others contradicted each other’s reports. The world was quickly descending into Lucas’s orchestrated chaos.
We spent a few days consulting with our generals, so to speak, ensuring they were capable of handling the Daemoni and the Normans on their own within their regions. Our intelligence teams began to report back that the Daemoni believed the Amadis was falling apart. As soon as rumors began that I was no longer in control, we started packing up and making plans. Solomon had a few places for us to visit in Europe to try to secretly align with some Normans, although he warned us that he couldn’t guarantee anyone would come through.
“We’re leaving in eight hours,” I called through Dorian’s door while knocking on it at the same time. “Are you packed?”
The door flew open, and my son stood there with wide eyes, taller than me but looking like a frightened child.
“You’re not making me go with the others, are you?” he asked, panic lacing his voice. Sasha stood next to him, the size of a Husky instead of a toy dog. Her stripes vaguely showed through her thick white coat. Dorian’s anxiety had her on edge.
“No, little—” I paused. He wasn’t exactly a little man any more. “No, Dorian. Of course not. You’ll be with Dad and me.”
He looked away, at some point over my shoulder, and nodded, but I couldn’t help but notice how his bottom lip trembled in the most minute way.
“Dorian.” I stepped closer to him and put a hand on his upper arm. Sheesh. It was thicker with muscle than it should have been at his age. “What’s wrong?”
“I … I just don’t want you guys to leave me,” he said. He averted his eyes for a moment, and then threw himself at me, like the little boy he should have been. “Don’t leave me again, Mom. Please.”
I kicked the door closed, wrapped my arms around him, and held him tightly. “No, never, Dorian. I could never leave you. They took you, remember?”
“Because you left! What if they come back again?” His body shook in my arms, and fear weighed heavily in his words as he sobbed against me.
I gripped his shoulders and gently pushed him away from me, then walked him over to his bed. We both sat down, and I held him again.
“Dad and I will keep you safe,” I promised.
“You can’t forever, though.” He drew in a jagged breath, then pulled away and scrubbed his eyes as if I didn’t already know he’d been crying. He scooted away on the bed until his back pressed against the wall, then he tucked his legs up with his knees under his chin. He stared at the wall across the room, but his mind was elsewhere, and I looked to see where. There. At the DoD building, where Kali and Lucas had been holding him. Threads of panic ran through this mind, although I could grasp no coherent thoughts.
“Dorian, what did they do to you?” I asked, not for the first time. He’d never given me an answer before, but he’d never been as open as this either. Maybe he’d tell me this time.
“Nothing,” he muttered, his voice rough.
And maybe he wouldn’t.
I scooched my way back to sit next to him and placed my hand on his leg. “I think they did. You know you can tell me.”
He shifted away from me. “They didn’t do anything. Just told me stuff.”
“Like what?”
When several moments passed and no answer came, I looked into his mind again while watching his face. His jaw muscle popped.
“Get out of my head,” he growled. Well, that was new. He could sense me in his mind now. “How come when you want to, you can just let yourself into my head, but when I needed you, when I tried to warn you about them coming, you ignored me?”
I sighed at his accusatory tone. “I’m sorry. The way it works is weird. I was focused on the meeting, and I felt you, but didn’t realize it was you or what you were saying until it was too late. I have to have my mind open to you all the time to be able to hear you whenever.”
“And it’s not?” he sneered.
“No, Dorian, it’s not. I try to give you privacy.”
“Except just now.”
“Except when you have me freaking out about how you’re doing and you won’t talk to me, yes.” I cocked my head to the side to look at him. “I’m so worried about you, Dorian. And I don’t know how to help you if you won’t talk to me.”
“I’m fine,” he mumbled.
“No, you’re not. And how could you be? They’re horrible, evil people who kidnapped you!”
He rolled his eyes. “Uncle Owen kidnapped me, and he took care of me. He made sure nobody hurt me.”
“Just being away from us had to have been traumatic.” I placed my hand on his shoulder and squeezed.
“Yeah. It sucked. But I’m fine. Don’t worry about me, Mom.”
“I can’t help it. You’re still my baby.”
He snorted. “Right.”
I watched him for a long moment, feeling the sadness emanating from his body as though it leaked out of his soul.
“What did they do to you?” I asked again. “And don’t tell me nothing because you came back half-a-foot taller and half grown up.”
He shrugged. “That pretty redhead asked what I wanted more than anything in the world. When I said to go home, she said it had to be something else, so I said to be big and strong like my dad. And she said okay.”
Bile rose in my throat. That “pretty redhead” had been Kali, possessing a young witch’s body. And of course she’d put a spell on him to make him grow—the sooner Dorian went through puberty and gained his powers, the sooner the Daemoni would have him. That was their plan anyway. I’d do anything in my power to stop that plan.
“What else?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
“Dorian …”
“Seriously, Mom. Nothing. Just told me stuff, but it was stupid. I don’t believe it. A lot of it, anyway.”
I studied him again and peeked into his mind, but he concentrated on the ranks of characters in his favorite video game so he wouldn’t think about the stuff they told him. He’d already figured out how to keep me from accessing his memories and thoughts.
“Well, don’t believe any of it,” I finally said. “They lie. They don’t know how to tell the truth.”
“Right,” he said. “Except it’s true that Dad used to be one of them, and your own father leads them? The jerkoff who murdered my mimi?”
“Watch your mouth,” I said automatically.
His eyes cut sideways at me. The look in them caused me to pull back. He had the same hazel irises as Tristan, and I swore I could almost see flames in the pupils now.
“Yes, that’s true,” I admitted quietly.
“So not everything they said is a lie.”
“Tell me what they told you, and I can tell you which ones aren’t true.”
He blew out an angry breath, and then sprang across the bed and to his feet, as if a switch had been flipped, making him suddenly irate. “Just forget it, Mom! I don’t want to talk about it.”
Torment (Soul Savers Book 6) Page 10