Part 21 (1/2)
”In five seconds anyone that's still in bed with Lor is fired.”
In two seconds my bed is empty. None of these women are willing to lose such a highly valued commodity as a place to work, food, and shelter, not in times like these. Not even for the glory of my d.i.c.k.
I sigh then turn it into another weird-a.s.s moan. I don't moan. I f.u.c.king roar. This Pri-ya business is taxing.
I roll onto my side and give Jo my a.s.s, hoping she'll just say whatever she has to say and go away, send back my babes.
I try to summon a pathetic whimper but it comes out sounding too much like me: a p.i.s.sed off, s.e.xually frustrated grunt. My d.i.c.k was ready, almost home sweet home, and now it's been relegated to a cardboard box beneath a bridge, cold and alone. It's swollen and painfully compressed between the bed and my thigh.
I'm supposed to be a s.e.x slave, so I can hardly roll over and ask her what the f.u.c.k she's doing here.
I hear a rustling sound then feel her weight settle on the bed next to me.
Then there's the sound of a washcloth drizzling water as she wrings it out into the basin, and I think, what the h.e.l.l, Jo's gonna finish the bath the blondes were giving me?
When she settles a hand on my back, I jerk. This is Jo. This is Ryodan's territory. I don't mess with the boss's stuff. n.o.body does. It'd be nearly as stupid as p.i.s.sing off Barrons.
”Mac told me you're Pri-ya,” Jo says. ”She says she doesn't remember anything from that time. That it's all just a blur of s.e.x.”
I'm instantly defensive: she looking to cheat on the boss? Women don't cheat on Ryodan. f.u.c.k, they don't cheat on any of us. You don't give up the best.
She runs her hand over my back, down my a.s.s. I tense but stay perfectly still, thinking.
”G.o.d, you're beautiful,” she says softly.
Wait, I'm supposed to moan. I try but get another frustrated grunt. s.h.i.+t.
”I need a blur of s.e.x,” she continues, talking and touching.
Who doesn't? My d.i.c.k gets harder. She's not even my type. She's pet.i.te and brunette with huge eyes and a delicate face. She's exactly what I steer clear of.
But I'm supposedly Pri-ya.
I sigh. Looks like my game is ending sooner than I planned. I grunt with sheer frustration and roll over, look up at her to tell her to get her a.s.s back to the boss and we'll just forget all about this. My d.i.c.k snaps straight up pointing to heaven, expressing firm opposition.
I clamp my open mouth shut again, thinking, Aw, no, no, no, no, don't do that, honey, anything but that. She's staring down at me with big, beautiful eyes filled with tears.
”You're not really there, right?” She searches my face and I instantly make my eyes go gla.s.sy. I been doing it for days, it's second nature now. She looks down at my d.i.c.k and I try to will it limp but it doesn't work for s.h.i.+t. It's a simple beast. A woman is an occasion. My d.i.c.k rises to it.
”I couldn't stand it if I thought you'd remember this. It's just that I broke up with Ryodan-”
Aw, s.h.i.+t.
”-not that you can really even call it a breakup because I knew from the beginning we weren't really together-”
Sometimes the boss really p.i.s.ses me off. We never keep a woman more than a few weeks. Human women fall in love. It's just what they do, so you gotta be real clear from the get-go that things aren't permanent, and Ryodan did stupid things like sometimes putting his arm around her, and the fact is, I knew all along he was just doing it to keep better tabs on Dani, 'cause we'd pretty much all do anything to watch over that kid. We been watching her for years, keeping her alive, giving her the chance to grow up. It ain't been easy; the kid's a handful and we all kind of wonder what kind of woman she's gonna be one day. Can't help it. When you live as long as we do, you find yourself in bed with women you watched get born. It's weird and not at the same time. I know we gotta protect our own, by any means necessary, but when you're as addictive as we are, you gotta be careful who you let in the candy store and how far. And there's some candy you just don't put on the shelves. Not with humans.
”I knew all along he was just keeping an eye on Dani and the abbey,” she surprises me by saying. ”At first I was doing the same. Watching your back, trying to divine your secrets, decide if you were friend or foe. At least that's what I told myself. Kat wanted someone on the inside at Chester's and it made me feel special that she'd asked me. That he wanted me in his bed. I thought about it for all of one minute. There was no way I was going to pa.s.s up that kind of chance. Great s.e.x on top of spying? I felt like a female James Bond.”
She gives a soft, sad laugh that ends on a sob. ”I didn't get a sidhe-seer talent like the others. I don't have a superpower. Just this d.a.m.n sticky memory that doesn't even work because I imprint everything I see and end up with so much useless detritus in my head that I can never find anything useful. I have the meaning of every word stored up there but I don't know the filing system. Who am I? Jo, the busy researcher. Want a fact? I can't remember where to find it in my mind, but I can recall where I saw it well enough to know where to look.”
She flicks herself lightly in the forehead with a finger. ”I don't understand the point of my gift. It's useless. Everyone else is out saving the world while I hole up with books and hunt for answers. I wanted to feel extraordinary. Like I was doing something for a change. I didn't realize how hard it would be to go back to ordinary. Nothing changed at all. I just got hurt.”
She starts crying harder and I'm f.u.c.king horrified. I can't stand tears. Not from a woman. I only know one thing to do. Kiss them away.
She's not my type.
She places her small hands on my face and bends over me, her mouth a few inches away. ”Erase him for me, Lor. Make me forget him. Take the taste of him out of my mouth. Fill it up with you. You'll never remember that you helped me forget. Please, Lor, make love to me.”
Ahhhh! I f.u.c.king hate that phrase. I don't make love. I f.u.c.k. That's it. Plain and simple. f.u.c.k. Clearly defined. No strings attached. As in rut and grunt and get my rocks off. I'm the caveman. I'm the s.e.xual barbarian. I open my mouth to tell her that but all the sudden she pulls back from me and yanks her s.h.i.+rt off over her head and these positively f.u.c.king perfect small b.r.e.a.s.t.s pop out.
Don't know the last time I saw little t.i.ts. I forgot what they looked like. I stare and feel my eyes going gla.s.sy all on their own. Tiny waist, creamy skin flushed with embarra.s.sment and desire, and pretty pink nipples that-Aw, s.h.i.+t, here I go.
d.a.m.n nipples. They get me every time.
”Lor, please,” she says, hot tears falling like rain on my skin. ”Make love to me, make me forget.”
Slow and sweet, she bends over me and traces my lips with her tongue, breath warm, smelling faintly of peppermint.
I don't do this kind of woman.
Never this kind of woman.
And sure as f.u.c.k not the way she wants it.
Next thing I know I'm hiking that sweet, short skirt up over her sweet round a.s.s, breaking my own rules, gonna screw a brunette, on the highway to h.e.l.l.
20.
”Mama, I'm coming home”
MAC.
Situated on one thousand acres of prime farmland about two hours from Dublin, Arlington Abbey is a self-sustaining fortress with multiple artesian wells, a dairy, beef cattle, orchard, and acres of vegetable gardens.
Whether Rowena performed powerful spells to protect it or the Shades simply chose to go in another direction when they decamped the city en ma.s.se a few months ago, about thirty minutes from the ancient mother house, the countryside was left untouched by their voracious appet.i.tes.
It's difficult to believe I haven't been out this way since mid-May, the night we sealed the Sinsar Dubh in the vast, heavily runed underground chamber beneath the fortress.
Time flies.
Especially when you keep losing it inside the Silvers.
After we defeated the Sinsar Dubh, Barrons and I retreated to his lair beneath the garage, leaving bed only when near-starvation forced us out.
A few days later we laid his son to rest, finally freeing the father from a small eternity of torment, and began discussing plans to return to the mother house and take further measures to protect the world from the great-winged prince beneath the abbey that has stood as a prison, in one form or another, in the middle of a gra.s.sy Irish field since the unlucky day the king selected our planet for that purpose.