by Eve Newton
I chuckle at him. “You tell him and if he makes a move, I’ll protect you.”
He frowns at me. “I don’t like the sound of that. It sounds wrong. I’m the one who should protect you.”
“Oh, get over yourself,” I tell him. “It is the way it is in our world.”
“Maybe so, but I still don’t like it. I want to be able to keep you safe from everything. Even him.”
“Just shut up and come here. I want to be here with you, not talking about him,” I say.
“Well, I’m not going to argue with that.” He jumps onto the bed next to me and I cuddle up to him.
“How do you feel about what’s about to happen?” he asks after a few moments of silence.
“Dreadful. As in full of dread. Worried, angry, heartbroken. The list goes on,” I reply.
“Hmm. It’s a weird situation, indeed. I can’t believe she forced him into this. What kind of a person would do something like that?”
“A crazy one,” I say, full of hatred for the stupid girl. “But I can’t say I’m not going to enjoy getting her in line,” I say wickedly. And not in the cheeky kind of way.
“You? Isn’t it Devon’s responsibility?”
“Technically, yes. But he doesn’t want to do it and quite frankly he isn’t ready or prepared for it. I will teach her; he just needs to be around.”
“Liv, are you sure you should be doing that?” he asks cautiously. “It’s a bit unorthodox.”
“Don’t interfere,” I tell him shortly and he glares at me but shuts it. He has a mood on now and I sigh.
“I’m sorry. I know you are only trying to help.”
“Don’t dismiss me just because I’m not one of you,” he sulks. “It’s hurtful.”
“Oh, baby. I don’t mean to dismiss you. I’m all over the place at the moment. Nothing is going the way it is supposed to.”
“Well, for you, maybe. I, on the other hand, have you to myself for a few minutes due to recent events and I plan on making the most of it,” he says and pulls me on top of him. I drop my mouth to his, the perfect distraction. I kiss him deeply until I can feel him pushing against me and I shiver inside, wanting him.
“Take me however you want me,” I murmur to him and he growls as he flips me onto my back. He pulls off my pajama bottoms as I get rid of the top and his eyes laser over me with such hunger. I love that look in his eyes. It tells me everything I need to know about how much he wants me. Still fully clothed, he crawls over me and kisses me, one hand going into my hair and the other trailing down my side. He reaches my thigh and pulls my leg up. I wrap it around him as I struggle to get his t-shirt off him, only breaking our kiss to get it over his head and then his mouth is on mine again. I run my hands down his back and he moans, “Oh, Liv. I want you so much. Do you want me?”
“Always, baby,” I murmur against his lips. “I want you inside me. I want you to feel how wet I am, how hot you make me.”
“Oh, fuck yes. I want to feel you,” he says. He plunges his fingers inside me, and I cry out as he withdraws them to rub over my clit and then thrusts them back in pussy. “So wet, so hot,” he murmurs.
“I need you, Linc. Please, I need you to fuck me. Please, baby, fuck me,” I beg him, and it is his undoing. He loves it when I beg and within seconds, he has his pants off and is spreading my legs wide. He enters me slowly. I gasp as he splits me open. He eases himself all the way inside me with a low growl and starts to move, pinning me to the bed with his weight. Almost straight away I can feel the pleasure starting to build.
“Oh, yes, baby. I love what you do to me. That’s it, Linc. Fuck me. Fuck me harder,” I pant as he pounds into me with ease now that I’m so slippery and used to his size.
“Oh, Liv. You feel so good. I don’t want to ever stop,” he breathes as he grips my hands on either side of my head.
“Don’t stop,” I tell him. “I’m so close.”
“Oh, god, Liv, I want to feel you. Let go, baby, so I can feel you,” he says as he kisses me again and I do let go. I let go of a mind-blowing orgasm that rips through me, causing me to buckle under him, pushing my breasts into his chest as he groans, “Fuck, yes. I love that I make you do that.”
Having enough of being submissive, I force us over, so that I’m riding his enormous cock. The change in position pushes him further inside me. I can feel the pressure deep inside. He pulls on my hips as I settle and move. I put my small hands on his broad chest, loving the feel of his muscles rippling underneath me.
“The gods, Linc, you are so sexy,” I whisper to him, trailing my hands over his solid abs. “I can’t keep my hands off you.”
He sits up suddenly and I cry out as he buries himself even deeper inside me and there is nowhere left for him to go. His clear green eyes are full of desire as he pulls my head to his to kiss me. “Say it again,” he says huskily.
“You are so hot, so sexy. I can’t keep my hands off you,” I murmur obligingly as I run my hands down his back and his eyes light up with lust and...uh oh…I’ve seen that look a million times before. I put my hand to his mouth to stop him from saying it.
“I love you,” he mumbles into my hand. I shake my head at him. He takes my hand away, still pulling on me to ride him with his other. “I love you,” he says again. “You are so beautiful and so sexy. I wish you were mine. Just mine,” he whispers, and I cry out again as he makes me clench around his hard shaft. Then, he releases his load into me.
I stare into his gorgeous eyes, pushing my hands into his short spiky hair. He doesn’t say anything and neither do I, for a few minutes.
“I don’t expect you to say it back,” he says slowly. “But I wanted you to know.”
“I do love you,” I say to him to his surprise. “I do love you, Linc, but you can’t love me. You shouldn’t. I can’t give you any more of myself than I have. It isn’t fair to you.”
“I told you before that I don’t ask anything of you, and I won’t. I just want to be able to say it. To tell you how I feel.”
“Oh, Linc. You are so special to me. I couldn’t bear it if I hurt you,” I whisper.
“You won’t,” he says. “I accept you as you are. I understand and I accept it.” He pauses as if he has more to say but doesn’t want to.
“But what?” I say.
“Not a ‘but’ so much as a ‘will you?’”
“Will I what?” I ask warily.
I feel the tingle go up the back of my neck before I hear Constantine say, “If you ask her to marry you, you will have to get in line.”
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE
I spin my head around as Lincoln peers over my shoulder. “What the fuck?” I ask Constantine.
“I came looking for you. I can’t help it that my ability brings me exactly to wherever you are, and whoever you are with,” he says, casually leaning against the door jamb.
“Do you mind?” Lincoln snaps at him. “This is private.”
Constantine just looks at him mildly. “I need to talk to you,” he says to me.
“I don’t want to talk to you,” I sulk at him.
“In fact, she asked me to tell you to ‘piss off’ if you came here looking for her,” Lincoln says boldly, probably due to the fact that I’m still sitting on his lap, firmly in between the two of them.
“Did she now?” Constantine asks.
“How long exactly have you been lurking?” I ask suddenly.
“A few minutes,” he says with a shrug. “I didn’t want to interrupt. Seems like you were having a good time.”
I gape at him. He was here the whole time? The Peeping Tom.
“Not the whole time,” he says, affronted, apparently reading my expression-filled face that he finds so endearing. “I’m not a complete pervert.”
“I think you need to leave,” Lincoln growls at him, not happy to learn we have been peeped on.
“I’m not going anywhere without Aefre. This is, after all, my time. You are the one who is encroaching and should leave,”
Constantine corrects. He pushes off from the door jamb and goes into defensive mode. Oh, for fuck’s sake! Men are so pathetic.
“This is my hotel suite. I am not going anywhere. And speaking of encroaching, shouldn’t you be going all Roman Warrior on someone else’s ass right about now? I, at least, am allowed,” Linc says, using Devon’s term to piss Constantine off even further.
“He has been dealt with,” Constantine says shortly. “Aefre. Can we please speak?”
Dealt with? How? A tiny slap on the wrist followed by a friendly fist bump? Okay, not that my sire does fist bumps, but you get the point.
“Well, however you dealt with him, clearly wasn’t to the satisfaction of Liv. She was in tears when she came down here before,” Lincoln says, coming to my defense and wrapping his arms tighter around me, protectively.
A flash of pain goes across Constantine’s face at those words and he again asks, “Aefre. Please, can we go and talk?”
“Fine,” I say briefly. I look back at Lincoln and breathe in deeply. “Hold that thought and we will talk more later.” He nods and I give him a lingering kiss, much to his delight and Constantine’s annoyance. I climb off him and make a show of putting my pajamas back on the old-fashioned way, just to make him wait a bit longer. “Bye, Linc,” I say before I Astral off back upstairs, ignoring Constantine’s furious look.
He is a second behind me as I plop myself on the sofa, waiting.
“Well?” I snap when he doesn’t say anything. I know he is keeping his distance for a variety of reasons, but one of them is obviously that I’m covered in Lincoln’s scent and that has his knickers in a twist – even more so because Lincoln is a Shifter. Under normal circumstances, I would have had this discussion after a shower, but I am so pissed off with him right now, I sit basking in his discomfort and anger.
“Would you prefer to shower first?” he asks bluntly.
“No,” I say, just as bluntly.
“Fine,” he says and clears his throat. “I know how angry you are with me. I want to explain.”
Angry doesn’t quite cover it but go on.
He blinks as I say nothing and continues. “I will start with: I didn’t let him walk off into the sunset, as you put it. He will suffer the consequences, trust me,” he says quietly.
I gulp at that and wonder how but have the good sense not to ask. The silence starts to grow uncomfortable as we both just sit there not looking at each other.
“Constantine,” I say, getting a bit sick of the lack of conversation, “I don’t understand. You will have to explain it to me how you forgave him and what his reasons were for doing what he did. You used the word ‘misguided’ earlier. You use that term to describe charges’ stupidity when protecting their sires. What was he trying to protect you from? Me?” My voice wavers slightly and he looks up, pain in his eyes caused by my pain.
“In short, yes,” he says, knowing there is no point in lying to me.
“I see. He doesn’t think I am good enough for you. He clearly has a very bad opinion of me,” I say, remembering the ‘wanton little whore’ comment.
“He doesn’t think that. He only said it to rile you up and hurt you. And no, that is not the reason.” He pauses and runs his hand through his hair in a clear sign of agitation.
“Then what?” I press.
“He was trying to orchestrate a plan whereby you left Cole and you then belonged to me,” he says with a sigh of magnitude.
I just stare at him because I have no words.
“Part of his gift, Aefre, is the power of suggestion. He used it on you to get what he wanted you to do and then planted the guilt there as well. I’m not saying that you don’t feel guilty,” he adds hastily as he sees my expression turn thunderous, “but the volume of it, the self-loathing. That was Sebastian. Unfortunately for him, you are strong, and it didn’t work exactly according to plan.”
“Meaning?” I snap.
“When he uses his ability, you aren’t supposed to know what is happening. You said before that you didn’t want to do it but had no choice? You weren’t supposed to feel that way. You were supposed to want it and then feel guilty about it afterwards. Bit by bit, he was going to use you and plant the idea in your head that you wanted to leave Cole and be with me. It is a stupid plan. But sadly, one that works. I have seen him play this game with couples for his own amusement too many times,” he adds. “I’m sorry, Aefre. It is all my fault. But I wish you had told me. I told you secrets come out and they hurt twice as much when they do.”
I can’t believe what my ears have just heard. He was trying to break up me and Cole so I could be with our sire. A stupid plan indeed, but one that probably would have worked, as Constantine says. All it would take is one of us leaving the other and he would come in and claim me. It doesn’t matter if it’s a day or a hundred years. If Cole is gone, he is gone.
“I assume that I was spelled to not tell you, either,” I say to that.
He shakes his head. “No, that was all you,” he says, somewhat smug but trying not to show it.
“Humph,” I say rudely. “How did you make him suffer?” I ask, now wanting to know.
“It is not your concern. Just know that he will never do it again.”
“Fine. I accept your explanation. But I want an apology from him. A proper one with over-the-top anguish and gifts,” I say, standing. “I am his Queen and he will not treat me like some kind of toy to play with.”
“I will tell him,” Constantine says, now also standing.
I nod and brushing past him I head, much to his relief, to the bathroom. I need a good long soak and I’m aching to get rid of these pajamas. They are so not my thing. Stepping into the bath, I turn the taps on and add my favorite lavender bubble bath and let it soak into my skin as the bath fills up. I duck under as it gets deep enough and just stay under the water for a while. When I surface, Constantine is sitting there staring at me. I blink the water out of my eyes and stare back at him.
“How come you never talk to me like that?” he asks so quietly I almost don’t hear him.
Completely at a loss, I ask, “Like what?”
“Like you do with your Wolf,” he mutters almost as if he doesn’t want to.
Geez, how long was he listening to us? I chew my lip thoughtfully, mostly in an effort not to burst out laughing. “I wasn’t aware that you had a need for validation, my love,” I say, now completely over my anger as he shows me his vulnerable side.
He stares down his nose at me, eyes narrowed. “I do not need validation, my sweet. But it might be nice, once in a while, to have you say some of those things to me.” He pauses as an unsavory thought crosses his mind, “Unless you don’t feel that way.”
I do chuckle out loud now and say, “Of course I feel that way. I love you, you idiot.”
He looks pleased as I say that but asks, “Then why don’t you ever say those things to me?”
“What, that I find you incredibly sexy and so gorgeous, my hands ache if they aren’t touching you?” I say with a wicked glint in my eye.
He peers at me with a slightly amused expression. “I ache if I’m not touching you,” he whispers. He trails his hand in the bath water and I take great delight in grabbing him by his t-shirt and pull him into the gigantic tub with me with a splash. I flip him over and push him under the water. He comes up spluttering and looking mad as a snake, until I grab his face and kiss him, running my hands into his wet hair. “Christ, Constantine. I love it when you are wet,” I murmur against his lips. “You are irresistible.”
He looks pleased as punch and says, “Oh, really? How come you have never told me that before?”
“I thought it fairly obvious,” I say as I free him of his clingy wet t-shirt, throwing it onto the bathroom floor with a loud splat. I run my hands down his chest and back up again, savoring the feel of him, smooth and rock hard. “So sexy,” I say before I trail butterfly kisses down his body, sloshing through the bath water as I move further down.
; “Oh, Aefre,” he says with a sigh as my hands reach the waistband of the sweats he is still wearing. I pull them down and with a difficulty that makes us both laugh uncontrollably, I relieve him of the soggy bottoms and they too end up in a large splat on the floor.
“Oh, my darling. I do love you,” I say to him before I crawl back over him and with no care for the water slopping over the side of the tub and onto the floor, I ride him until we both come.
“Is there any place in the whole world that you two haven’t defiled yet?” Sebastian asks from the doorway.
I grimace at him. “Don’t you fucking know how to knock?”
“I didn’t come via the door,” he says offhandedly. “Besides, seeing as this is all you seem to do, it’s hard to catch you not doing it,” he adds, and my fury returns.
“’Bastian,” CK warns and Sebastian looks contrite.
“I meant you plural. Not just you,” he says, looking at me.
Oh, well, that makes it better then. Not.
“What do you want that couldn’t wait?”
“I came to apologize to you,” he says.
I glare at him. “I don’t see anguish or gifts.”
He tilts his head at me. “I was supposed to bring gifts?”
“Yes, many of them,” I say, then looking at CK, I admonish, “You were supposed to tell him.”
“I didn’t get the chance before you pulled me fully clothed into the bathtub. Seems he is here of his own volition,” he comments dryly.
“Humph, well go away and come back with gifts. And anguish,” I say to Sebastian, who is looking a bit startled.
“You pulled him into the bathtub fully clothed?” he asks in disbelief as his eyes land on the soggy pile of clothing. Honestly, he should know by now that I get away with these things that no one else would dare do.
“She did indeed. I do love her fun side,” CK says looking only at me.
“You are so hot,” I say before I kiss him again as he chuckles.
Sebastian is still staring at us, so I pull away from CK and say to him again, “Go away. I am still so mad with you I could stake you.”