Burned In Shadows (Shadow Unit) (17 page)

“You offend me again, I’ll show you exactly how sadistic.”

Zea looked over at Black who had the strangest expression on his face. He was emotionless and seemed to stare off into space. He didn’t even look or acknowledge her presence.

“Black, what’s eating you?”

He didn’t respond. Didn’t even bat an eyelash. What the hell was wrong with him? Enri turned her so that she was facing him and the look on his face would have made anyone scream, it was evil and beautiful, all at the same time. She hadn’t honestly looked at him before, and now she knew why. He was the most beautiful person in the entire universe. If that was even possible. So beautiful it hurt. It was the eyes that made you want to run screaming into the night. They were an otherworldly blue and full of so much despair and death, one could only see it as their death.

“I’m going to give you something
, and I want you to use it wisely because you only have one shot at this, do you understand?”

No, she didn’t understand, but if it bought her a few more minutes of her life, she’d do whatever he asked.

“I’m going to give you Draven back for five minutes, and in that time you will need to convince him of two things.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? And who is Draven?”

“Silly human,” he said to her in a deathly cold voice. “I know everything, Jesminda Zealand mate of Draven Stone.” He crossed his arms over his chest and raised a brow at her.

“Do we have a deal?”

A deal? She’d give her soul to have him back with her. She was about to nod her head yes, when he interrupted her again.

“You haven’t heard my terms. You’re going to want to hear them first.”

Jes was silent, she didn’t want to breathe, couldn’t believe that he was going to give her back her mate for five minutes. Would he remember after the fact? Or would he forget again so easily?

“What are the terms Enri?”

“Convince him that the he needs to return with you back to the Unit is my first request, second, once he agrees to go back with you, and he will, I will need you to kill Vivek’s son.”

That sounded
easy enough, who the hell was Vivek and why did that name sound familiar?

“And what happens if I don’t kill Vivek’s son?”

Enri smiled and instead of fangs he had a sharp row of teeth all jagged and grotesque. He was turning into a demon.

“I’ll
take your soul for my death squad and have my way with your body. I will do the vilest of things in ways even you couldn’t imagine.”

A
nanosecond past before her hands clawed at the demons face, kicking and screaming and trying to open him so she could pulverize his facial muscles. She wanted to wipe that look off his face as he’d said those words. Kill Vivek’s son, oh she’d do a lot more than that, but first she wanted to make Enri pay for his last statement. No one would ever put their hands on her without permission again. Ever.

Nothing she did to his face, affected him if anything he just laughed and that pissed her off. After what seemed like hours and her fists were bruised, swollen and
open to the knuckles, she stopped. There was no reason in trying to fight him any longer, she’d do what he asked. She’d kill Vivek’s son, and she’d get Draven to agree to come back to the Unit with her.

“Now that you’re done making a fool of yourself, your five minutes begin now.”

Chapter 17

S
omething warm was nuzzling Belinda’s neck, she tried to stretch, but the hard press of someone’s chest pinned her to the bed. Slowly, Bells opened her eyes to see Royce poised over her, his lazy gaze was playful and sexy. Dipping his head to hers he slowly traced her face with the tip of his nose. He was being playful, something she was used to. Waking up in his arms was strange, but not unwelcomed.

“Good evening.”

“Evening? All ready?” Bells asked. She was trying to stretch, but that brought her breast up into Royce’s rock hard chest. He didn’t have a single bit of hair on his chest. He was smooth there. She wanted to reach up and rub her entire body along his, but thought better of it. Ronin wasn’t in bed. The fact hadn’t escaped her notice. He hadn’t slept at all with them, and it hurt her feelings. More than she would have thought.

“What’s with the long face?”

Royce rested his body flush with hers and rolled them over, so she was on top.

“Ronin. Did he not sleep at all?”

She knew her face was giving away a little bit more than it should have. He could have stayed, he didn’t have to fuck and run. It made her feel used and unwanted.
There is nothing serious between the three of you.
Sex in any form was serious to her. She wasn’t accustomed to being frivolous with her body or her emotions. She didn’t like the turn of events. He’d admitted to feeling what she had. It had been deep and intense. There was no way to disguise their connection. So why wasn’t he here with her too?

“He’s not one to cuddle. But I,” Royce smiled and kissed the side of her neck. “
I’m a total snuggle bunny.”

He tried to
make her laugh. It wasn’t going to work. Exasperated and a little hurt she reached a leg over Royce and pulled herself out of bed searching for her clothes. Her eyes burned with tears. Anger made her hands shaky as she reached for her shorts and forcefully shoved her legs through.
This is what happens when you take on more than you can chew.
Well she wasn’t going to let it happen again.

“It’s not a problem trust me.”
Belinda said in a clipped tone. She said it out loud to reinforce her thoughts.

S
he found her stretched out tank top discarded towards the end of the bed and reached to put it on when Royce’s hand came down lightly on her shoulders, pulling her into his chest.

“Bells
, don’ be difficult. It’s going to take him some time.” Royce whispered softly against her shoulder.

Bells tugged out of his
hold and walked over to the door. When she cracked it open, she could hear the sounds of some music channel playing a blues song. She’d heard the song a thousand times and loved the Thomas King version better. Whoever was playing, added more soul and emotion to it. The sound lulled and soothed her heart in a way music never had before. It was almost as if the guitarist could feel her pain.

She
shook the thoughts from her head and stepped over the threshold of the room she’d shared not that long ago with Ronin and Royce. It had been beautiful and terrifying all in the same moment, she still took that chance. She knew somehow it end up this way, a bigger part of her had hoped it wouldn’t. But it had, and there was nothing she could do about it. She wasn’t going to make it into some dramatic thing to expose her emotions even further. They still had an assignment to complete, and tomorrow they were going to her Enclave where she’d have to face Surelle and her brother Solon.

“I’m going to hop in the shower, I just need some time Royce.” She whispered over her shoulder as she shut the bedroom door. She didn’t want to
turn and look at him or the rumpled sheets. Didn’t want to be reminded of something she realized she’d been missing. The connection the three of them shared was infinitely deeper than anything she could have ever thought possible. She’d wanted to go so much further than they’d taken her tonight, but somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew it wasn’t something that she could do. Not with them, not with everything that was going on.

She was
thankful Royce didn’t try to stop her and make the situation lighter than what it was. Finding out you were in love with two men at the same time was way too much for one single woman to handle.

The funny thing about male
s, no matter if they were human or immortal, they hurt you, caused way too much drama, and were big ass babies the moment they thought a female was clingy. Ronin hadn’t even deemed it necessary to stay for some cuddle time.
Cuddle time?
It wasn’t clingy, nor was it whiny. She’d actually expected Royce to leave and for Ronin to stay. He’d seemed like the one who’d have commitment issues. Not Ronin.

Bel
ls reached into the shower stall and turned on the spray. She thought about everything that happened between her and the two exceedingly virile men that were presently out in the living area watching the television. She hadn’t taken care of Royce, but he’d taken care of her. He’d had been gentle, serious and caring all at the same time. If anything, she’d expected some snarky comments during their interlude. Not the dark sensual manner of a man that had a way to turn the crassest words into something so sexy, she’d turned to liquid. When she looked into his eyes she’d seen something sinister lurking just beneath the surface. She couldn’t place what he made her feel. Her emotions were jumbled. His amber gaze showed anticipation, mixed with desire. Her reaction had scared the shit out of her. Somehow, the tables had been turned. She was used to being weary of Ronin, now she wondered if somehow she’d gotten their personalities mixed up.

It was
Royce she needed to be weary of. Ronin was tame. His dark hunger had clashed with his slow, lazy demeanor, and she’d expected to be ravished, claimed. He’d taken her slowly, building her orgasm to the highest peak and crashing her down with slow, even strokes of his cock. Royce, had watched her, waited while his brother had fucked her slowly. He’d held her the entire time. He whispered things in her ear that she’d never dared to say out loud. Her body shivered at the memory. She wasn’t going to get worked up over something that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. After tomorrow everything would change anyway.

Belinda
stepped into the warm spray letting the warmth of the water calm her over analyzing brain. She wasn’t going to think about the incident in the bedroom. It hurt her more. Her body relaxed as the water cascaded over all the aches and pains her body sustained from Ronin’s lovemaking. She looked over her shoulder at her living tattoo and smiled. She wasn’t the only one affected by their actions. Royce’s tongue touched every inch of her tattoo. Her bird’s wings were now open, and spread wide hugging her back in a loving embrace. Bells placed her forehead on the cold tile and moved her hair over her shoulders so that she could let the water fully hit her back. She reached back with her hand seeking the shower gel when she touched a hard, wet chest. She hadn’t even heard him come in. When she spun around there stood Royce. Everything about him looked calm, everything except for the storm raging behind his eyes and the hard press of his flesh against her hip bone.

This is why she’d gotten up from the bed
. This is what she was trying to escape. Sometime between then and now, he’d decided that she was ready, ready for him. Ready for the real him.

# # #

There were plenty of reasons why this was not a bright idea, and normally he’d listen.
What the hell are you babbling about, you never listen to your own wisdom.
True, there was that. He’d gone into the living room with the intention of beating the crap out of his older sibling for hurting Bells’ feelings. That was the plan, but when he’d walked in on his brother sitting on the couch playing his guitar and belting out some blues song, he hadn’t wanted to interrupt. Which was never a true Royce thing to do. They were both reeling from their encounter with her. She was theirs, and that was fucking amazing. Which was why he now found himself in the shower, hard as hell and ready to put dents in the shower walls with her beautiful body. It could get
that
violent. His dominant hungers hadn’t run this deep in well, like forever, and he didn’t want to scare her off, by asking her to drop to her knees and attach her beautiful mouth to his cock. He could, and if she were any other woman he’d be able to get away with demanding her submission, but Belinda changed all the rules.

The question he needed to ask himself was, should he let her?
Ronin was always the less dominant lover of the two of them. He usually did all the clean-up and the caring, but somehow the roles had been switched. Royce wasn’t going to intrude on his brother’s time, not now anyway. There was a hot, wet, beautiful bird he’d been dying to get into. Literally.

“Fancy seeing you here.” He opted for
sarcasm because everything else was too damned serious right now. He didn’t want her to know how much she’d affected him.

“There’s the Royce we all know and love to ignore.”

Belinda gave him her back, and that was fine, only her bird was no longer visible. The tattoo had changed. It shielded itself behind wings of fire and appeared to be, sleeping?
Living tattoos?

“Your
bird is sleeping,” was all he could say.

“She’s tired
. The two of you have worn her out, and she needs to rest.”

“Does she have a name?”
Reasonable question to ask.
Wasn’t it?

“She does,
it's Bena.”

Why was he making small talk in the shower? He was ready to
do severe orgasmic damage to her body.
Stop being cocky.
The atmosphere in the shower was slowly simmering down to where become awkward. He didn’t do awkward. Ever. He needed to be serious about this, couldn’t fuck this up. Everything else he could be stupid about, but not in this.

Royce reached over her shoulder and gently placed his fingers under her
chin. He tugged on her slowly, trying to coax her to face him again. When she didn’t hesitate, he threw a silent prayer of thanks to his Goddess. She was tall but shorter than him. She only came to his shoulder. They’d started down a path where there were no winding roads, and no hidden doors. It was just one straight shot to an inevitable ending. Him inside of her. She still wasn’t ready yet, for what he had in mind. The shower wasn’t large enough to accommodate them anyway, but he’d make the best of the situation.

He
bent his head forward but stopped midway. He wanted her to follow his lead, meet him halfway. If she were willing to go the short distance to him, then he could take her the rest of the way. She was hesitant at first. Violet eyes meet his hesitantly. She must have seen something there that coaxed her the rest of the way. Whatever his expression showed, he didn’t care. He was glad her soft, warm lips were now touching his. He leisurely kissed her at first, a light firm brushing of his mouth against hers. He wanted her to be sure this was something she wanted. Something she needed just as much as he did. What he wasn’t prepared for was her sudden hunger and urgency that crushed him to her when she wound her arms around his neck. He’d tried to for calm and collected, but the kiss had spun out of control sending a rush of sensation that wrapped around his cock and squeezed.

“Dammit,” he breathed against
her mouth. “Give me a moment to catch up.

She threw her head back and laughed exposing her throat.
The moment had come and gone. But Royce didn’t waste any more time. He kissed the beautiful column of her neck, sucking on the wet skin as his arms held her tighter. Their bodies were wet and slick. The water hot and soothing. Still, he held tighter to her, afraid that she would slip away. She was moaning again, and the frantic beat of her heart against his chest made him want inside her more.

“Wrap your legs around me.” He said
against her neck, taking his fangs and scrapping them down her throat. Neither he nor his brother had tasted her blood, and he couldn’t wait until she agreed. He wanted to bite deep into her flesh. Any part of her body would do at this point. Her legs came up in a rush and tangle as she repeatedly attempted to wrap her legs around him. They almost fell to the floor, but Royce kept a tight grip on her waist and braced his legs further apart. They were laughing by the time she was no longer squirming in his arms.

“There, that’s better.”

She’d
wiggled until his cock was in between her thighs. He was right where he wanted to be. Right next to the hot moist depths of her pussy. Bells started nibbling on his ear. That was one of his erotic spots. There was something about a woman nibbling on his ear that was more than sexy to Royce. It always gave him the chills.

“That’s my spot sweetheart.” He groaned against her skin.

Her breasts were in perfect position for him to have fun with her. He dipped his head and took one of her nipples into his mouth and sucked hard. She cried out and released his ear. Her breath hitched as she returned to his ear, only to bit harder. They were touching, kissing and making out like two teenagers starved for sex. The plan was simple, shower, sex, shower again, and then more sex. But seeing her, wet, eyes wide with want, and shivering under his touch, turned him inside out. He was the aggressor, never the other way around. She was anomaly. How did the seducee become the seducer?