by Lisa Alder
They both wanted Zepar. And they were both being denied.
THREE
Zepar stood, cloaked in glamour, still as the statue of Leraye, and watched Thalia get herself off against the frozen figure of his friend.
She knew he was there. How was that possible? And yet Zepar knew it to be true. Her gaze had skewered him as she'd caressed her own body. His cock rose to attention at her breathy moans and the erotic bounce of her generous breasts. He fisted his cock and pumped. Her actions aroused him far more than any of the human women he'd had lately.
A rosy flush covered her body and sweat sheened her features. Her lips were plump and reddened where she’d bitten them. Then she shifted so that she sat up and straddled Leraye’s body. Gods, Zepar wanted those legs wrapped around him.
With a soft, gentle caress, she kissed the statue’s lips.
Zepar blinked.
Had the pallor of Leraye’s marble countenance lessened?
Could it have been from her sexual attention? It seemed improbable. However, Gods knew, Demons were a sexual lot. After being denied for thousands of years, most Demons lusted after women.
Most, but not all.
Zepar knew his old friend better than Leraye thought. Zepar knew that a woman’s flesh was merely sport to Leraye.
Thalia stood abruptly. Her breasts swayed, the erect nipples and peach areola puckered tight and his mouth watered at the sight.
She faced the window where Zepar stood and paused as if waiting for him. Thalia bowed, revealing the shadowed valley between her generous breasts and tempting his mouth. “I will go find your next lamb now, Demon.”
“Wait.” Zepar uncloaked, his gaze momentarily distracted by her breasts and the odd urge to bury his face between them. Her thighs glistened with the juice from her sex and Zepar’s gaze was drawn inexorably to the damp spot on the statue of his friend.
He strode over to them.
“I think he changed color when you kissed him.” But when Zepar looked at Leraye again, the statue once more appeared cool and inanimate.
"That would be wonderful." Thalia rested a hand on Leraye’s shoulder as if protecting him. "But he feels and looks the same as before."
“From your pleasuring.” Zepar insisted, but his insistence waned as he looked at Leraye again. Frigid and insensate.
Her stance was as rigid as the form of his friend. “I sincerely doubt that my actions would have that effect on him.” Whether he was statue or not, was implied.
Zepar assessed her critically. Leraye’s sexual preferences were none of her business. “You do not give yourself enough credit, Grace.” He used the generic term to put distance between them and to distract her from Leraye's secret.
And it worked. “My thanks, my Lord.” She flushed and then she was gone.
Zepar was left alone with his old friend and his churning thoughts.
Zepar knelt in front of Leraye. His gaze was glued to that damp spot as the erotic image of Thalia pleasuring herself against his friend played over and over in his mind. He’d watched and wanted to lap up every bit of her juice so that it didn’t go to waste.
Zepar didn't want to leave his friend just yet. So he pulled over a chair from beside the bed and propped his feet up on Leraye’s knees.
"I'm in a quandry." Zepar slumped in the chair. His gaze darted around the room, anywhere but on that wet spot, and he poured out his troubles. He needed a human woman to fall in love with him and no one was taking him up on it. He couldn't understand it.
Leraye listened. Just like old times.
Leraye was an exceptionally good listener. Always had been an exceptionally good friend. They had been chained and trapped next to each other for a thousand years. Zepar knew Leraye almost as well as he knew himself. He had tutored the young Leraye in the art of sex and given him his first sexual experience. Their bond of friendship had stayed strong even after they ascended back to the surface and were no longer intimate.
Zepar finally let his gaze stray back to the that spot. "Thank you for the chat, old friend." The urge to taste her and to feel Leraye welled up within in Zepar.
Finally, he gave in and licked her essence from the statue’s stone cock.
***
An hour later, Thalia approached Zepar.
“I am ready to go to the village, my Lord.” She was dressed in a demure cotton gown and a fine velvet cloak. Her hair, a burnished ebony, shone in the flickering light from the fire Zepar had lit.
The musky flavor of her pussy still lingered on his tongue.
And he thought, not for the first time, he’d much rather stay here and enjoy the lush pleasure of Thalia’s body.
But unfortunately, duty called.
“Fine.” He lumbered to his feet with a heavy heart. He had to find a human mate. They needed all the power they could amass to continue to fight the Fae. “Let’s go.”
Two hours later, they sat in the former tavern of Vetis’ mate, Amara. This was the third establishment they’d checked out.
A trio of musicians played half-heartedly in the corner while the patrons ignored their music. Cigar smoke hung in the heavy air. What should have been soothing aromas, the earthy peat from the fire and the hops from home brewed beer, settled heavily in his head and made him grumpy.
“You should cloak yourself,” Thalia said crossly. Apparently the grumpiness was catching.
“Why?”
“You’re scaring away all the women that I’ve found for you.”
At the first two taverns, women who were clearly in league with the Fae had approached them. The stink of Fae on their bodies had overwhelmed him. Or they were too eager. Or unwilling.
With every prospect she’d selected, he’d fallen further into the doldrums. He just wasn’t interested. Zepar stared moodily at his feet. Gods, he was sick of having sex with strange women. Wait. What the hell was wrong with him? He lived for sex with strange women. He was the Demon of Seduction, for the Gods' sake.
The door blew open and the breeze carried the scent of Thalia to his nose. The subtly earthiness of her perfume stirred his cock. “I’ll wait outside.”
Within two minutes, she joined him. “We’re ready.”
Zepar didn’t even look at the women. He only sniffed the air for any scent of Fae upon their person. Thank Gods, they were clean. He wanted to get this over with. “Blindfold them and let’s go.”
Thalia quickly complied and their group was on its way.
Zepar searched the shadowed doorways on guard for any sort of attack. Almost hoped for some action. The atmosphere was heavy with anticipation. Something evil lingered in the air. Zepar pulled both iron knives from their sheaths, his grip tight.
As they approached the woods between the village and the Demon's castle, the Fae attacked. From the cover of the trees, a group of six Fir Bolg assassins swarmed their small party.
The two women screeched and cowered together. Thalia smoothly slid a knife from a sheath at her ankle and crouched low, prepared to fight.
Zepar grinned at Thalia and fell into a similar stance. But the Fae didn’t come after Zepar. They went straight for the women. In the shifting moonlight, one of the women’s hair seemed to shimmer gold. All of the Fae, except one, circled the women. Thalia swung her knife in an arc keeping the Fae away from the village women.
Zepar slashed his knives at the Fae defender and ignored the women’s whimpers. The Fir Bolg surrounded the three women and reached for them, but Thalia's defensive moves kept them from doing any real harm.
Zepar's blade clashed and rang against the Fir Bolg defender's in the silent midnight air.
Zepar drew power from the full moon and lunged toward the assassin. But the wily Fae twisted out of Zepar’s reach. They parried and blocked in a fierce, deadly dance.
The impact of the Fir Bolg's blade against his sang up Zepar's arm as their blades met again.
"You will not defeat me," Thalia hissed.
The sound of her voice distracted Zepar and a
larm zinged through him. In that moment of inattention, the Fae assassin swiped his blade across Zepar’s arm. The slash burned and numbness spread. The blade must have been tipped with some poison.
Thalia thrust her iron knife upward and into the chest of one of their attackers. With a muffled cry, he slumped.
Zepar roared and lunged again.
But, as if responding to a signal, the Fae fell back and dragged their fallen comrade away.
The two women still cowered on the ground. Thalia stood alone, her chest heaving and her gaze glassy. Her fist clenched around the iron hilt while the Fae blood dripped to the earth.
Each drop sizzled against the trampled grass.
Adrenaline pumped through his veins like a deep spring pulsing water to the surface as a sense of possession startled him with its fierceness. He wanted to roar but, unsure of her state, he kept his voice soft and non-threatening.
“Are you well?” Zepar suppressed his rage. She didn’t need more violence right now. She didn’t answer, but continued to stand there as if lost.
Thalia blinked. "I'm fine."
“Let’s get the women to the castle and make sure they are unharmed.”
Her stone eyes were blank, empty. But as if the need to care for someone else shocked her out of her trance, her gaze finally cleared. She stared in horror at the blood flowing from his bicep. “You’re injured.”
“It’s a scratch.” A big scratch but he’d live.
FOUR
Thalia was still shaking.
She had stabbed someone. A Fae.
As soon as they’d returned to the castle, Thalia had dumped the two women on the other Graces, Cleta and Laia. The stink of Fae had coated them both and they needed to be cleansed before Zepar could have sex with them. Thalia couldn't seem to focus.
She couldn't go to her chamber since the women were there being prepared for Zepar. Thalia found herself back in Leraye's chamber, wandering aimlessly through the still room.
Her teeth chattered, clicking and clacking so hard her jaw ached from trying to keep them quiet. Thalia pulled the velvet duvet from the bed and wrapped the luxurious material around her shoulders.
"What the hell am I doing here?" she muttered.
But truly, she knew. Sadly, Leraye's cold embrace was the most comfort she had experienced in a long time. So Thalia limped to Leraye and settled herself in his lap. With the warm, sensual material enveloping her, she curled into his frozen arms.
"I killed someone," she said baldly. "It's probably no big deal to you, being the Demon of Battle but...." She couldn't even finish. Death was so final.
Thalia's shaking got worse as she kept seeing the scene over and over again in her head. The Fae's surprised face as her blade connected. The adrenaline had pumped through her and gave her the strength to push her iron, deadly to the Fae, into her attacker's flesh.
Horrifying and exhilarating. She had saved the women. And herself.
And then she'd seen Zepar's cut. Remembered the fear that gripped her until he'd dismissed the wound and hustled them all to the castle.
"And now, he's with them." Zepar couldn't even be bothered to see if she was okay. He was off having sex with a woman she procured for him. Probably amazing sex. "I've heard blood rage from adrenaline works like a heady aphrodisiac. You would know, I imagine."
Images of Zepar, muscled and sweaty, as he engaged in sex filled her mind.
And suddenly, her chill burned away.
Desire simmered, a pulse low in her core. Her breasts ached and her nipples puckered. All that adrenaline shot to her womanly regions zapping her nerve endings and heightening her senses. "Leraye, I'm horny as hell." She wiggled against his stone erection. "I want sex in the worst way."
But not with an inanimate object. Not like earlier. She wanted a lover.
She wanted Zepar.
But thanks to stupid, Gods' damned rules, he was forbidden. And he seemed determined to fuck every human woman in sight.
Despair blanketed her. Instead, she would have to find solace with her silent, stone statue.
Zepar barged into Leraye’s chamber. “There you are." He said baldly, "I need the other one.”
“What?” She glanced at the old-fashioned clock that hung on the wall, its ticking overly loud in the silent living tomb.
“The first one didn’t work out,” he grumped. “She was far too timid. She squeaked.”
“I beg your pardon.” Gods dammit, why couldn’t he take me instead?
“She squeaked every time I came near her. And then when I disrobed, she outright screamed in fright.”
Thalia's gaze roamed his body hungrily. She wanted him. Badly. “You can be quite intimidating.”
Zepar growled.
The rumble started a delicious tremor in her feminine core. The Demon practically oozed sex. Thalia squeezed her thighs together and hoped that Zepar hadn’t noticed. But of course he had.
Gods, she had to distract him before he commented on her forbidden attraction.Thalia sprang to her feet and flung the velvet comforter on the floor. “Good thing I anticipated something like this and got two.”
He stopped dead.
“You’ve been going through women like wine lately.” He was sure to notice the snipe in her voice. “I’ll go get her.”
Before she left, she brushed a tender kiss over Leraye’s lips.
“No.” Zepar placed his hand upon her forearm. The contact zinged all the way up her body, zapping her breasts with a jolt of energy but he hadn’t noticed. He was staring at the statue his friend. “I’ll have Figgins bring her here.”
Here? "I'll take my leave."
"No." But Zepar stopped her again. "Wait with me."
Thalia waited in uneasy silence as Zepar stared intently at Leraye's statue. Thalia wanted to ask why Zepar wanted to have sex in Leraye's chamber, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer.
“Let’s turn him around.”
“Excuse me?” Surely she couldn't have heard correctly.
“Leraye.” Zepar clutched the statue’s shoulders in his large palms and shoved the throne chair around to face the bed. “I want him to watch.”
Thalia's heart beat in triple time. Zepar's actions had grown increasingly erratic over the past month. But before she could question him, Figgins arrived.
“Your friend, my Lord,” Figgins the castle butler, lead the new human into the room and then quickly left.
“Is it my turn?” The blowsy blond smiled at Thalia. Her puffy lips and easy sexuality were completely different from the human that Zepar had just rejected.
“If you would like.” Thalia refused to make a woman submit to Zepar unless she was willing. However, Zepar could always turn them into willing bed partners.
The blonde shifted her attention to Zepar, eyeing his broad shoulders and tapered waist. “I’d like,” she purred like a kitten and untied the wrap dress, letting the silky fabric fall to her feet. The move exposed small high breasts, a tiny waist and a completely bare pussy.
And that was Thalia’s cue to leave.
“You’re leaving?” The woman pouted, her lips pouffed into a moue of distress as she glanced between Thalia and Zepar.
Thalia blinked. Oops, she hadn’t seen that one coming. “Yes,” she said at the same time Zepar said, “No.”
***
Zepar stared at the exquisite specimen in front of him. She was the exact opposite of the lamb he’d just sent home. This woman would be a tiger in bed. She stood completely nude. His cock should be standing at attention and pulsing with need. Instead he remained softer than boiled pudding.
Thalia sputtered beside him. “My Lord?”
He was the Demon of Seduction, dammit. “I want you to stay and watch,” he said calmly as he removed his clothing. “With Leraye.”
He swore that his friend had gained some color earlier when Thalia kissed him. Zepar needed to see if sex somehow stimulated Leraye. Zepar didn't know if it was from Thalia's kiss or her carnal
attention.
But the way Thalia had slammed against Leraye's stone stomach would make any Demon cock surge to life. Just as his did now. Zepar shifted his hips to give his bulging erection a little more room and fixed his gaze on the blonde. But he only saw images of Thalia. Thalia's graceful arms wrapped around Demon flesh. Thalia's legs splayed wide for Demon cock. Thalia's breasts. Thalia's mouth. Thalia's sweet, slick pussy.
He was harder than ever. This was the real reason she needed to stay.
“Who is Leraye?” The woman ran her long blood red nail down the length of Zepar's bare forearm, studying his physique with a practiced eye.
“The statue.”
She shrugged, her nipples hardened in the night air, as she glanced between Zepar and Thalia.
“I can deal with kinky.” She licked her lips and her shadowed eyelids drooped as she stared at Thalia’s breasts. “Are you sure you don’t want to play?”
“I determine who plays,” Zepar said imperiously. The thought of this floozy touching Thalia caused something dangerous to rise within him. “And I want her to watch.”
Technically, Zepar was Thalia’s superior. He could command her to do anything he wished. He had the utmost respect for the Graces and he hated to force her to do something against her will. But his determinaton to attempt to reanimate Leraye took precendence over her reluctance.
“My Lord.” Thalia’s gaze implored him but he couldn't relent.
“I want you to monitor Leraye for any signs of life.”
She bowed deeply, her face an unhappy mask. “As you wish, my Lord.”
“Get on the bed,” he commanded the human woman.
“Whatever you say, sugar.” She sashayed toward the massive wrought iron bed and hopped up on the lush silk sheets. She leaned against the pile of pillows and cupped her breasts. Her blood red fingernails flicked the pert tips of her nipples as she waited.
Zepar felt his cock wilt.
He remembered Thalia banging the statue and his cock sprang back to attention. He shifted his focus to where Thalia stood preternaturally still. “Sit in Leraye’s lap. Face us.”
Thalia raised the graceful arch of one eyebrow.