How did he know about that? Devlin must have told him. I bit my lip.
“Are you sorry you saved me?” Lash continued. “That you said yes?”
I reached out and grabbed his face. “Never,” I said forcefully. “And don’t ever think that I am. If I had it to do over, I would still have gone to find you, knowing what would happen when I did. I may not be happy, Lash, but none of that is your fault. You gave me a choice, remember? And I’m doing what I can right now to see my way clear of this mess I’m in with Theo.”
Lash took my hand off his face, and held it in his callused one. “I’m not sorry, either.” He squeezed tightly. “I know Devlin offered you the option of including me, if you agree to his terms. I know you are going to give him another Oath, and that you’ll do it soon, at the latest by the end of the year.”
Oh shit. I went still.
“Don’t do it unless you can handle what he’ll ask of you,” Lash said sternly. “Dev is sure you’ll agree to whatever he asks, so long as he tells you we can be together, but I don’t want to be with you at the expense of you being unhappy. I know Dev. With him, nothing is ever free.”
Technically, Dev temporarily had already given permission, but to speak up about that would not be in my best interests. “Do you know what he’s planning to ask?”
“No,” Lash answered, uneasy. “I’d guess that he’d want me to give you times when you were just with him, maybe for me to not sleep with you in his bed at all, maybe for me not be with you without him there, participating. But it might be something worse, Sar, so just be careful. Don’t do it because you know how much I want to be with you, out of some sense of pity or something—”
I had to alleviate the tension of the moment. “If I did it out of affection for you, would that be okay?” I said lightly.
Lash lunged, pushing me to the truck seat beneath him as he bared his fangs, hissing. I went still beneath him, fear making my stomach churn. A drop of saliva fell from his left fang onto my cheek. I recoiled, shivering. “You don’t joke about this, Sarelle,” he hissed angrily. “Now say you understand what I said, that you won’t do it unless you are okay with his terms. Before you agree to anything, you ask him to list out those terms for you, all of them! Got it?”
I nodded, trembling.
“Say it!” he hissed angrily.
I repeated his words back to him, my tone uneven.
My sudden fear enraged him further. “I care about you!” he hissed. “Don’t sell yourself for me, Sar. You sold yourself to Dev back in January for the lives of Danial and Theo, and you saw how well that worked! Don’t do it again unless it’s what you really want!”
“All right,” I whispered. “Please let me up.”
Lash leaned in closer, his grasp tightening. “Serena told me yesterday I could come to her, that I was welcome in her bed. I could see by her eyes she didn’t want me, that she was still afraid of me! You put her up to it, Sar! Listen to me and listen well, because I am only going to tell you this once: don’t interfere in my sex life ever again! I don’t need your help to get laid!”
“I won’t,” I said, struggling beneath him. “Now let me go.”
Lash brushed my neck with his fang tips, stopping my struggles instantly. “Just one thing more, Sar. My appointment tonight is with a woman I know by the name of Gina. She’ll take care of my needs for me from now on. She’s very skilled. It’s been too long for me already without any sex, and I’m aching for the release of a woman’s touch. And she is all woman.”
My stomach really roiled then, imagining him with another woman, loving someone else. Hurt flooded me, then jealousy.
Lash moved off me abruptly. “Get out of my truck,” he hissed. “Before I say something I’ll regret later.”
I hustled out of the truck, slammed the door, and darted for the house. If I could only get inside the house I’d be okay. I needed to not see him, to not think about what he was going to do with her, about how it was making me feel...
The door of the truck opened behind me. Lash reached me in a few strides, then spun me around to face him. “For a woman who says she cares for me, you seem awfully upset to think I might get some relief,” he hissed, his dark eyes flashing. “Where do you get off being hurt and trying to make me feel guilty? Dev told me we could be together late last night. All today I waited for you to say something. You never said a word about it, not even in the truck just now, when I gave you the opportunity to come clean! You were happy to let me think you wanted me as much as I wanted you, because you didn’t have the guts to tell me you just didn’t want me anymore!”
“I still want you,” I whispered, afraid of him and of how much I longed to touch him. “But I can’t be with you! We can’t—”
“Sure you can,” Lash hissed eagerly, each guttural word exploding with desire. “I’ll make it easy for you.” He kissed me deeply, molding his body to mine.
God, he felt so good... “Stop, please,” I said, breaking away from him.
“No,” Lash hissed, his grip on me tightening. “I tried to be respectful of your decision to be with Theo because I thought you deserved a choice. But Dev was right and I was wrong. You need a little force, for someone else to take control from you. Your body’s giving away your lie.” He kissed me again forcefully, backing me up towards his truck as his hands roamed my body. “I can smell your wanting—”
“Stop it!” I shouted. I tried to push him away. Lash easily grabbed my hands in his and held them out at my sides, bracing me against his truck. Kicking my legs apart, he ground his pelvis up into mine lightly, letting out eager hisses, his forked tongue stroking my neck.
My heart raced, the sensation of his erection teasing. Quickly, the rising heat became undeniable, making me go limp in his grasp. And the lust for him was all my own. God, he felt so good. He would feel even better inside me...
“You’ve got me hard as rock for you,” Lash hissed, lust heavy in his tone. “And it feels so good to you, doesn’t it? You know how much better I can make it for you, Sar. Just say the word, and I’ll take you to the nearest hotel. I’ll make love to you, I’ll go down on you, whatever you want, for as long as you want. You can have all of me, everything I have, everything I can give you. And whenever you’re ready for more, all you ever have to do is ask—”
I shivered eagerly in his grasp, images of my fantasy instantly replaying. I wanted to tell him yes...
“I won’t ever leave you less than satisfied.”
I blinked at him, uncomprehending. “What?”
Lash pulled back from me, breathing hard. “Dev’s not taking care of business,” he hissed, smirking knowingly. “None of your boys are. You smell so strongly of your lust it’s coming off you like waves, you’re needing to be fucked so bad!” He grasped my hips, letting out a groan as he leaned into me. “When I get done with you, you’ll be singing a different tune, if you’ve still got any voice left that is—”
I went from shock to instant rage, my eyes narrowing in fury. “Let me go, you son of a bitch! We’re done here.”
Lash drew back, his face a mask of rage. “Forget the hotel! How about I fuck you right here, against the truck?” he hissed sarcastically. “You wanted me to that night in the Everglades, just like you want me to now. Maybe we’ll even have an audience, if I’m hearing things right—”
I reached up and slapped him across the face. Lash snarled, baring his fangs, but didn’t hit me back. The front door was suddenly thrown open, crashing back against the side of the house.
Oh shit. Lash had said we had an audience. He’d meant...
“Get the fuck out of here, Lash!” Theo growled, pointing his gun at Lash. “Get your hands off my wife unless you want holes in you.”
Lash looked up at him, hissed, and then pulled me in front of him, blocking his body.
“Hey!” I said, more annoyed than scared. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Lash ran his tongue up the side of my neck, making Theo�
��s growl. “She still thinks about me inside her, Cat!” Lash said in a jovial tone, smirking. “How good each thrust felt going in, and how hard I made her come. But I’ll bet she doesn’t want to fuck you anymore!”
Theo roared, stepping off the deck and launching himself at Lash. Lash gave me a shove, pushing me out of the way as Theo barreled into him, knocking him off his feet. Then they were rolling over and over, punching each other, and snarling. Lash tried to bite Theo, but Theo grabbed him by the throat, holding his fangs out of reach of his body, as he smashed him in the face with his fist. I grabbed Theo’s gun, but they were both moving too fast for me to aim accurately.
“Stop it!” I screamed. “Lash! Theo! Stop it!”
Theo—easily the stronger one—pummeled Lash, holding him down with one hand, and smashing his face repeatedly with his other fist. Lash took a few punches, and then he quickly resorted to his knife, drawing it soundlessly and sliding it between Theo’s ribs to the hilt in a swift deft movement. Theo gasped and went limp when he felt it go in. Lash kneed him in the groin, and then rolled over on him, pushing the knife in deep and twisting it.
“Stop it!” I yelled, firing into the tree above them. The bullet’s explosion severed a few small branches that fell beside them. Neither of them even looked up.
Lash twisted the knife again, making Theo cry out. “You should use your brain, you jackass,” Lash hissed. Giving it one last twist, he pulled his knife out of Theo.
Theo grunted with pain, and lay there gasping, looking murderously at Lash, holding his bleeding chest, blood oozing steadily through his fingers. Lash cleaned off his blade in the dead grass, resheathed it with a click, and then looked up at me. His face was very bloody and bruised, but the wounds were already healing before my eyes, the bruises lightening, and disappearing.
He truly was in his prime. I’d never seen a were heal that fast, never. “Leave.”
“I didn’t start this. But I damn sure finished it. Keep your kitten on a leash, Sar.”
The fuck he hadn’t. “Go, Lash,” I said again. “And don’t come back unless you can promise not to fight with my husband.” I held the gun in my hand, but I didn’t aim it at him, because we both knew I wasn’t going to shoot him, despite what he had just done to Theo. I wasn’t going to provoke him, not with Theo on the ground hurt.
Lash’s eyes narrowed, but he nodded. “Remember what I said, Sar,” he hissed meaningfully, spitting blood out of his mouth onto the grass. “I meant it. Don’t take an Oath to Dev unless you can handle the consequences.” He turned, quickly walked to his truck, and then got in. Lash gunned the engine, spinning his wheels on the icy driveway once before they caught, and roared off.
Jesus. That had been close.
I went over to Theo and helped him to his feet. “Come inside, and I’ll bandage you up.”
“It’s healing already,” Theo said, obviously embarrassed that I’d seen him beaten again by Lash.
Like there was another way their fight could’ve ended. “All the same, it’s deep. Let me sew it closed.”
“Do you think about him, like he said?” Theo said pointedly. “He’s young again, and handsome—”
I sighed, flushing. “Sometimes, yes,” I admitted. “But that doesn’t mean anything. Let’s get inside.”
“It does matter,” Theo retorted. “It matters to me. I thought at first you wanted him. I saw you sitting together in the truck, but when you slapped him I felt like an idiot for not realizing sooner what was happening.”
Theo had been watching us the whole time. I flushed, wondering if he had seen how much I was fighting myself as well as Lash.
“I went to get my gun, but it took me a second—”
Why’d he grabbed the 9mm, not the explosive bullets gun? I pushed that thought out of my mind quickly. I didn’t like where it was heading. “I can guess what you might have thought. What happened is that Dev told Lash he had the green light with me. He thought that I was going to jump back in bed with him. I...well, I handled it badly. But that doesn’t matter. He knows I meant what I said now.”
I helped Theo to his feet, and we walked inside slowly. His wound was healing quickly, his flesh knitting together, but I still made him get onto the bed anyway. “Take off your shirt.”
Theo pulled it over his head slowly, grimacing in pain. After taking it into the laundry, I returned, trying hard not to look at his muscular chest, his tight abs, or his wide shoulders. “Not that I’m not grateful, but why are you home?” I asked, cleaning the blood off his side with antiseptic. “I thought you had guard duty tonight.”
“I do,” Theo said, wincing. “I’m supposed to be on the way there now.”
“I’ll call Danial, tell him you’re hurt—”
“I’m healing okay. Just lie here with me for a few minutes, and let me heal the rest. If you can teleport me in a half hour, I’ll be okay. It was a clean cut. Lash doesn’t usually use poison on his blades. If he had, I wouldn’t be healing as well as I am.”
Good to know, just in case. “I can do that,” I said, cradling his body close and stroking his hair. “I’m glad you’re okay—”
“You still smell like him,” Theo said under his breath.
Men were all assholes. “Look, I’ll go—”
Theo stopped me, wincing. “Stay here with me. It doesn’t matter.”
I eased back down next to him. “Since when?”
“You’re here with me,” Theo said softly. He stroked my arm. “You want to be here, don’t you?”
“You’re half naked in my arms and you have to ask me that?” I whispered, giving him a smile.
“That’s not an answer,” Theo said, growling slightly.
“I’ll answer, if you’ll tell me the truth about why Lash bothers you so much. And don’t say it’s because of me, because you hated him long before.”
Theo was quiet for a minute. “Because he’s a snake, that’s some of it: his very scent bothers me. As for the rest, some of it is his association with Devlin, and the things I heard that he’s done, or saw him do. There’s you. There was Neoline, years ago, and another woman I...um...thought was attractive. Some of it’s just the way he’s rubbed my face in the dirt so many times, always saying he’s better than I am. And it’s true that he is—”
And here I’d thought he’d resist expounding. “You have to stop attacking him,” I interrupted. “You just end up injured. And one of these days he’s going to hurt you badly, even if he doesn’t kill you.”
“I know,” Theo said ruefully. “He knows what buttons to push. I know I have a temper, and with him it’s worse. I have almost no control with him. Just seeing his smirking face, hearing his hissing voice infuriates me. And every time I think of him fucking you, his naked body on yours, I want to beat him into pulp.”
I beat down the quick flush of desire. “Promise me you’ll stay away from him, Theo.”
“I’ll stop provoking him, I promise. I’ll avoid him whenever I can. Good?”
“Good,” I replied, relaxing back into his arms.
“Are you going to answer me or not, Sar?” Theo said, his blue-grey eyes serious and guarded
“Of course I think about you and me,” I answered, giving him an incredulous look. “I’ve thought about us every day for weeks now. I was daydreaming about us about thirty seconds ago—”
“Do you want me?” Theo interrupted. “Here and now?”
I blinked, caught off guard. “You said that you—”
“Yes or no, Sar,” Theo growled, his tone rough with base need.
“Yes,” I said hoarsely. “I want you very much, Theo.”
Chapter Thirteen
Theo kissed me deeply, pulling my body against his. The instant I felt him stiffen against me, my head went back and my eyes closed, savoring his arousal.
But Theo wanted far more than a little stroking. He pulled off my top and unhooked my bra, throwing it aside. A half second later, Theo was on me, suckling my breasts, drawing a sh
arp gasp of abandon from my parted lips. Together we slid off my jeans, our movements hurried. Instantly, his hands roamed my naked body, touching me as he hadn’t touched me for weeks. I writhed, glorying in the feel of his powerful hands sliding over my hot skin. Eagerly, I reached for his jeans to free him, but Theo pushed me back on the bed. He got up and moved to the dresser. Sliding off his jeans to puddle at his feet, he began putting on a condom.
Watching him, my fiery lust fizzled. Theo obviously believed Lash had given me something. There was no other plausible reason, now that I was fixed. Uncomfortable, I stretched out on the bed, pretending I hadn’t seen. I’d believed Lash when he’d told me that he hadn’t been with anyone else but me. Maybe this was a mistake...
Theo carefully eased his body down on mine as he kissed me, his tongue darting into my mouth as he slipped his finger into me. He stroked my clit gently, making me murmur as I pushed up with my hips, eager to be filled. The sensations burst within, my breaths coming fast.
“Ah!” I cried, arching my back. “Please...”
Theo’s fingers stroked my sudden slickness. “Sar, I’ve never felt you so wet for me,” he said lustily, his blue eyes dark with desire. “Not ever—”
“Stop talking,” I said in desperation, reaching down to squeeze his organ eagerly. I moved beneath him, trying to impale myself as I rubbed the slick head of him between my legs. Theo moved into position above me, and with a quick press of his hips, he slid himself inside.
“God, yes!” I moaned, pulling his lips to mine, as I pushed my body tight to his. “Please take me—”
Theo began thrusting gently. Each motion felt exquisite as paradise. I wanted only to feel each thrust and yet I had to move, desperate for the friction, the sheer joy of taking all he had to give with each plunge. This was heaven; what I had been longing for, dying for. Just coming last night hadn’t been nearly enough, no matter that Devlin had been good with his mouth and hands. I’d wanted to feel a man inside me, feel him taking me for all I was worth...
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