Betrayal (The Forever Series) (22 page)

“What can I get you?” she asks.

“Bourbon, neat,” he says and leans on the bar, flashing her a sexy smile.

She hurries off to get it and he makes a decision. He needs to do something fun.
Something easy. He has had nothing but drama in his life since Liv met Cole. Everything just suddenly got so damn complicated. Everything had always come so easy to him. He drifted through life and his turning with the greatest of ease. He wanted something, he got it. Nothing was too insurmountable and no woman was un-mountable. He was making a choice right here, right now to be fun again. He will screw this girl. He will go home and tell his wife about it as he doesn’t want to keep any more secrets than he has to. She will accept it and he will reward her for being a good girl and she will shower affection and adoration on him and everything will be easy again. He will not see Other Liv again and he is determined to speak to his sire about making some changes. He has been putting this off, even with the coma he should have spoken to her before about his feelings for Cole. He knows she will get it and not be shocked or upset about it. He is sure she will let him come into their bed one night and he can at least in part act on it. Just one bite…

“Anything else?” the girl asks him, drawing his attention away from his erotic thoughts.

He leans forward and she copies his move. He whispers close to her lips, “Just you.” And the rest is easy.

Ten minutes later he is pounding her against the tile in a cubicle in the ladies room with his pants round his ankles.

Classy, no. Fun, most definitely.

He is enjoying this way more than he should be and so is she. She looks like a screamer so he clamps his mouth over hers and pushes his tongue against hers as he feels her body about to come. She does seconds later, her cries muffled in his mouth. He grips her ass tighter, burying himself even deeper into her. He isn’t ready for this to end yet. He wants to hammer away at her until every last feeling of guilt and disgust that he has for himself washes away. She gasps as he continues his efforts and her eyes go glassy as she realizes he isn’t going anywhere yet. She moans and he kisses her again. A swirl of tongues that makes his heart beat faster. He starts to feel the tension of the past year and a half drain away into this girl. She is just a quick fuck that he will walk away from and never think about again. There is no obsession here. No feelings of any kind, negative or positive. It just is easy. No drama, no history, no future.
Just fun.

He speeds up and wants her to come again before he lets himself go. He owes her a good time because she has helped him clear the fog from his head. He supposes he should also hurry up and finish this now in case someone comes in and calls the cops. That would be a total downer. They finish within seconds of each other and she is shaky as he gently lets her go and her feet drop to the floor.

“Fuck,” she says breathlessly as she bends to pull her panties up and he retrieves his pants. “Fuck,” she says again with a smile. He gives her a self-satisfied smile and leans down to kiss her. He knows what’s coming next when she asks, “Can I see you again? I’m off tomorrow.”

“Don’t live round here, baby,” he says.
“Flying back later.”

“Where?” she asks with a pout.

“L.A.,” he lies easily. It’s just simpler if he pretends to live thousands of miles away. He doesn’t want to see her again and she shouldn’t want to see him.

“Oh,” she says, disappointed.

He turns to leave and she says, “Well, if you are ever back in London, look me up.” She leans casually on the stall door and he smiles at her. She will be just fine.

“Definitely,” he said. “This was fun.” And with that he leaves her, exiting the ladies room without a care in the world.

Chapter 14

Buckinghamshire, England, September 2013 – Liv

I thought it best to go up to my bedroom after CK shut the door in my face. I can do nothing to stop this beating and even if I did, Cade seemed determined to show his atonement. If this is the way he wants to do it, who am I to argue? I am reassured by his “near-death” comment. At least he will survive this, although I dread to think what CK is doing to him right about now. I try not to think about and start to pace. As I walk past the mini fridge, I stop and decide it’s probably best to top myself up a bit. Cade is going to need to feed after this. I open it, glad that it is fully stocked and I chug back three bottles and wait. I eventually hear the door to the room next to mine being opened and I rush out. Lincoln has dumped Cade on the bed in a bloody, messy heap. I turn to Lincoln to yell at him for his part in this torture, but he drops to his knees and takes my hand with his head bowed. I close my mouth as he says, “Forgive me. I know you disapprove, but I had to do this for you, and for me.”

Err, okay. I wasn’t expecting this. He squeezes my hand and I stammer, “Of course. But, Linc next time just leave it, okay.”

“If there is a next time, I will kill him,” he says ferociously and stands with a nod of acceptance at my clemency.

“You know what I mean,” I mumble and he gives me a half smile.

He leans down to kiss my forehead and says, “Look after him and then I need to speak to you.”

I nod, as I need to speak to him too.
To all of them. No one knows yet about my trip tomorrow except Cade. I need to tell my husbands before this thing happens to me and Tiamat whisks me away. I feed Cade and then I get a basin and washcloth from the bathroom and wash his face. He is an absolute mess. He flinches as I clean his cuts and then I lift his shirt to check to see if his ribs are broken. He pushes my hands away and shoves his shirt back down.

I hold my hands up and say, “Fine, I won’t touch you.” Man, he really has a thing about this. “Are your ribs broken?”

“Yes,” he mumbles. “Just leave them, they’ll heal.” He passes out soon after that so I stand up and sigh at him. Stubborn fool.

My head goes a bit woozy and I need to feed again. I make my way down to the kitchen and find Jess there restocking the fridge with our supply. “Hey,” I say to her as she hands me one of my bottles.

“Hey,” she says back.

I haven’t had any chance to speak to her since I woke up, so I ask, “Everything okay?”

“All good,” she says with a smile.

Okay, awkward much. We were on our way to forming a friendship of sorts, but now it is just weird. I have nothing to say to her. Not even about work, because I don’t know
what’s been going on. I land on the only topic we currently have in common and ask, “Where’s Devon?” I swear, if I have to ask that one more time I am going to scream. Cade needs to get on this case and let me know what’s going on.

Jess’s eyes frost over and she says, “Why do you keep asking about him? He is not your concern now.”

Come again? I blink at her and she lifts her chin up defiantly at me and it works that last nerve of mine into a ball of oh-you-are-so-dead-missy. I step forward and place the blood bottle on the counter. “Not my concern? He is
my
charge. He will always be my concern.”

It lights a fire in her eyes and she steps forward as well. She clearly isn’t afraid of me and that pisses me off even more.

“He is
my
sire,” she says. “And my husband,” she adds with a look of triumph. “His whereabouts are nothing to do with you.”

“So that means you have no idea yourself where he is?” I ask her cockily and I hit the nail on the head.

“Stay away from him,” she suddenly hisses at me. “He is mine and I don’t want him anywhere near
you
.”

“Yours?”
I mock her, putting my hands on my hips. I have had enough of this little upstart and I am going to give her a lesson in going up against me. “He isn’t yours, he will never be yours. He is mine. Forever. We have a bond that you can only dream about. He has nothing with you. He feels sorry for you so he pretends. He will cut you loose before the end of the year,” I sneer at her.

“You have no idea what we have,” she screeches at me. “He loves me, we will be together forever.”

I smile condescendingly at her. She knows that isn’t true and she knows that I know it too. “Please,” I say. “You have no idea of the concept of forever. He would come to me in a heartbeat if I asked him to.” I am goading her into a state of madness. She looks like she would try to kill me if she could, but as CK says, I always play the advantage.

“He wouldn’t choose you,” she says. “Not now. I am his wife and his charge. He will choose me.”

“You seem quite confident of that,” I say.

She comes right up to me and we are nose to nose as she says, “I am. I will prove it.
When he gets back you will see, he will choose me. He will always choose me.”

“Don’t count on it,” I snarl at her. My Vampire mojo is coming back from the brink and I can sense Devon a few feet away on the other side of the door.

“Don’t count on what?” he asks as he pushes the door open and sees us going at it. I give her a triumphant smile and use every ounce of Power I can muster to Shift (actually it didn’t take that much at all) and then I am standing before him as Elizabeth. His mouth drops open and Jess gasps at me. She knows she has lost now. She was banking on me not being able to give him his true sire, but sorry, girlie. I had this ability long before I became Queen so it is ingrained in me as much as the Vampire is.

“What is going on here?” he asks in confusion as he looks between the two of us.

“I was just asking Jess where you were because I wanted to spend some proper time with you,” I say, stepping closer to him and taking his hand. He stares at our linked fingers for a moment and then he looks back up at me and then to Jess. I think he sees what is going on here, he never was an idiot, there would be no reason in the world why I would Shift into Elizabeth in front of Jess unless it was to prove a point. But I know him better than he knows himself and he squeezes my hand and says, “I’d like that.” I flash a wicked smile at Jess and she glares back at me in absolute hatred. I see now that this girl was never my friend. Keep your enemies closer. Well little girl, you have completely lost this one and now you have made a serious enemy out of me. If she thinks for one minute I will let this go, she has another thing coming to her. I lead him away and he follows closely. She tries a last ditch effort and says, “Devon, wait. I haven’t seen you all day. I wanted to spend time with you.”

“Yeah, I’ll come and find you later,” he says dismissively and her face falls.

Let this be a lesson: Never, ever mess with our relationship. You won’t win.

I take him upstairs to one of the guest bedrooms. Not so sure that Cole and CK would be very happy about me going to our bedroom. He doesn’t hesitate to pull me close and kiss me.
Nipping at my lips and muttering, “God, it’s you, really you.” Over and over. I put it down to me looking like Elizabeth because it is a strange thing to say, but forget about it as his hands go into my hair and his tongue completely takes over my mouth. I am beyond aroused now, even from just a few kisses. Not only because of Devon, but because it has been a lifetime, well it seems like a lifetime, since I made love. The time with Cole earlier doesn’t count. This counts in a big way and I am going to be in so much trouble with my husbands that Devon got here first, but tough. I will take it on the chin as there is no other place I want to be. He pushes me back to the bed and then falls back to look at me. There is a mixture of sadness and lust coursing through his features.

“You are so beautiful,” he murmurs, his eyes lingering on my breasts. This vest top was already tight on me when I was Liv, so when I
Shifted and my boobs tripled in size, I am practically busting out at the seams. “So beautiful,” he says again and removes the vest top from me with a brutal rip, rendering it a useless rag on the floor. My breasts tumble free and they are in his hands in the next second. I arch my back to get him closer to me and he squeezes me tightly, making me yelp with desire and a puddle to form in my knickers. He drops to his knees and undoes the button on my jeans and slowly lowers the zipper. They are like a second skin after the Shift and he carefully peels them off me, pausing to kiss me through the scanty lace of my underwear. He breathes in deeply at my arousal and that causes me to ripple with excitement. He sits me down to remove the jeans from me and then slides his hands up my thighs and into the thin straps holding my knickers together. The material bites into my flesh as he tears them from me, the sides snapping easily under the pressure. He lets out a sound of raw lust as he drops his head into my lap. I push my hands into his hair as he opens my legs wide for him. He kisses me softly at first, teasing me with his tongue. All of my pent-up, unreleased-for-three-months sexual frustration bubbles over into a rippling orgasm that catches him by surprise.

“Oh yes,” he says as he laps away at me.
“So perfect. This is so perfect.”

Oh it really is. I wiggle on the bed to get his mouth closer to my aching clit. I need to do that again, now! He obliges me one more time and then he stands up to get rid of his own clothes. I scoot up to the middle of the bed and he crawls up me slowly, his lips barely touching my skin as he makes his way from my feet to my hips, to my nipples that are as big as grapes waiting for his attention.