ClosertoFire (15 page)

“Dammit,” she said.

Darek raised an eyebrow. “Bane messing with your head?” She
nodded. “He does that. Sorry.”

“You don’t?” she asked.

“He’s the more powerful psychic,” Darek answered. “It comes
with age.” His voice lowered, a wicked look crinkling the edges of his eyes.
“But at the moment, Amazing Kreskin powers or no, right now I have something he
doesn’t.”

Lily had a second to notice that he was hardening in her
again before she was on her back on the cool sheets, covered and pinned by his
big body. She laughed.

“A boner?” she guessed. He growled, pinching her much-abused
butt hard.

“Ow!” She protested and then moaned and sighed as he buried
his fully erect cock in her. A few moments ago she’d been completely sated, so
the surge of need she felt surprised her. She reached eagerly for his teasing
mouth even as renewed waves of slick, wet heat bathed his cock in welcome. He
kissed her softly, his gentle lips a delightful contrast to the merciless
rhythm of his steel length pounding into her.

“Make that two things then,” he purred in her ear after he
broke the kiss. She wrapped her legs around him, urging him deeper. “A hard-on,
and you to fuck with it.” His gaze never left hers, holding her captive as he
took her. Lily watched the flickers of red in the depths of his dark eyes,
entranced, meeting him thrust for thrust.

She held out as long as she could, but something about his
dark, intense gaze made her wild. He brought her to climax quickly, her core
gripping him so hard that they both gasped. She relaxed beneath him, panting.
It took her a moment to realize that he was very still, his eyes closed in
concentration.

“Again,” he said at last, the single word a command. He drew
out of her slowly, giving her time to want, and then thrust forward, hilting in
her in a single stroke. At the same time, he drew his tongue across the mark at
the base of her neck. The speed and force of her climax left her shaking in his
arms.

“How did you—” He shook his head, pinning her with that
dark, uncanny gaze of his.

“My turn,” he said, drawing out of her. She waited,
breathing shallowly. “Come with me.” This time her climax began before his
tongue touched her mark. Even as it took her, bowing her spine and tearing a
shout from her throat, she felt him jerk and pulse in her, taking her in feral,
hungry strokes as he came.

She was trembling all over with fatigue beneath Darek when
Bane returned, bearing a tray with water and—and—
were those strawberries
?
He set it down at the foot of the bed and moved up beside them, stretching out
against Lily’s side. Darek lifted himself off her, lying down on her other
side.

“Water,” Lily said weakly. Bane chuckled and reached for the
tray. She sat up and took the glass he offered. In a moment, her thirst
satisfied, she turned an interested eye to the strawberries. “Where did those
come from?”

“My methods are my own,” he said, smiling.

She grinned back at him. She
loved
strawberries.
“Very well, Sherlock.”

“I see Darek has been experimenting with your mark,” Bane
said, his tone one of academic interest. “You know,” he continued, “some of the
older memoirs refer to it as ‘the lady’s friend’.” She munched a strawberry and
said nothing, peering at him impishly from beneath her lashes. “One young
twentieth-century male jokingly referred to his mate’s mark as her ‘O-Button’.
He said they could be doing anything at all and if he touched it a certain
way…” He trailed off, reaching up for her neck. Lily yelped and drew back,
covering her mark with her hand.

“Not now! I’ll choke!” she sputtered, covering her mouth to
avoid spitting strawberry on the bed. Bane and Darek laughed hard, their mixed
baritones a carefree, musical sound in the room.

Lily tried to share the strawberries with the men, but once
they saw her obvious relish, neither would accept one from her. She ate most of
the bowlful and Bane refilled her water glass several times from the pitcher
he’d brought. He’d also brought several hot, damp washcloths, which they
insisted on using to bathe her entire body. When they finished, she lay back on
the bed and they drew the covers around her. The lights in the room dimmed.

“Go to sleep, Lily,” Bane told her.

She frowned. “You guys aren’t staying?”

“Darek and I just want to plan for tomorrow. We’ll just be
in the grotto,” he replied, gesturing toward the hallway.

“Shouldn’t I help with that?” she asked, struggling to speak
clearly in the descending fog of sleep. She sensed them both in her mind,
nudging her toward unconsciousness.

“Nah,” Darek told her. “We won’t be long, love. Just sleep.”

“Okay,” she murmured, turning on her side. She reached for
Bane, who was closest to her, and he took her hand. The last thing she
remembered before she slept was the velvet feel of his lips as he placed a kiss
in the center of her palm.

* * * * *

Sometime during the night, Lily roused from a vaguely
disturbing dream. She’d been running from something, she remembered, but the
details were already escaping her reach. She was trying in vain to chase them
down when she became aware of Bane’s tall, powerful form stretched against her
left side and Darek’s compact, muscular body on her right. The last remnants of
the nightmare faded at once. As she grew sleepy again, she thought distantly
that she’d never felt so safe and content as she did now, ensconced between the
two of them.

Lily woke, disoriented, to the sound of an unfamiliar female
voice.

“Oh look at them, Kai. How sweet. And I’d forgotten how
pretty this place is.” The sound came from somewhere just beyond the foot of
the bed. Too confused to be truly alarmed, she sat up, holding the covers just
above her breasts. Beside her, both men moved so quickly that she didn’t see it
happen. One second they were lying next to her and the next her eyes were
confronted with a bizarre tableau.

Darek was on the bed before her. Or at least, she assumed it
was Darek. He seemed to have partially shifted shape. Though his features were
the same, the rest of him looked like a demon from an old textbook. His mouth
was full of poisonous-looking fangs and a deep, threatening growl rumbled
continuously in his chest. His body was covered in shimmering red scales and
long, razor-like claws extended from his hands and feet, cutting into the
sheets beneath him as he crouched protectively in front of her.

Her gaze traveled to the source of the voice and the sight
that confronted her made her blink. Bane, his scarred chest coated in a smooth,
diamond-hard mosaic of blue scales, held a man she didn’t recognize by the
throat. The man, who equaled Bane’s unusual height, had lifted his hands in a
nonthreatening gesture.

Regarding the whole picture with mild scorn was a tall,
stunningly beautiful woman with raven hair and black-on-black eyes.
“Gentlemen,” she said in a silken voice, “you’re scaring your lady.” Her curves
shifted beneath her slinky red dress as she made her way smoothly to the side
of the bed.

Darek crouched lower, his dark eyes flashing red as he
watched her progress. Unfazed, she sat down on the bed. “Aren’t you a sight,
lovely girl,” she said gently. “You have Mara’s eyes.” The dark woman turned
her attention back to the men and rolled her own eyes.

“Bane, for the love of God, release my mate before you tear
each other to bits,” she told him. Bane backed away from the man, making a
gesture of apology. His body became fully human, as did Darek’s.

“Lily, is it?” the woman asked. Lily nodded, speechless,
accepting the woman’s proffered hand. Instead of shaking her hand though, the
woman drew her in for a hug that left her breathless.

“Savara,” the man said in an angry near-shout, “I told you
to sift us into the aerie…not directly into the ever-loving bedroom.”

She sniffed disdainfully, holding Lily at arm’s length and
looking her over as one does a child she has not seen in many years. “Oh you
grew up to be so
beautiful
. Pay my master no mind,” she purred. “He gets
all upset about the tiniest things.”

“Master, my ass,” Kai growled. He came around the edge of
the bed and lifted her to her feet, holding her shoulders firmly as if
preparing to deliver a stern lecture—which quickly morphed into an embrace so
passionate that Lily blushed and turned away. She turned her baffled gaze to
Bane, who stood naked at the foot of the bed, pinching the bridge of his nose
as if staving off a headache.

“Lily, meet my friend Kai and his… Uh…” He gestured
impatiently. “And Savara.”

Savara turned from a flushed, disoriented Kai to look at
Lily. “It’s complicated.”

Finding her voice at last, Lily replied, “I gathered.”

“Come, Savara,” Kai said, sounding as if he were striving
for an authoritative tone. “Let’s go to the main room and let these three get
dressed. We’ll make breakfast.” He put a hand at the small of her back and
guided her from the room. Savara turned, waved at Lily and winked. Kai smacked
her bottom soundly and she yelped, a high-pitched sound that descended rapidly
into a hellish growl that set Lily’s teeth on edge. Kai didn’t even blink,
leading her calmly from the room.

When they were both gone, Darek rounded on Bane. “I thought
you said we were meeting them elsewhere, not here in the goddam aerie,” he said
in a low, dangerous voice.

“That’s what I thought was going to happen. It’s also
probably what Kai thought. Savara must have guessed we’d be in here.”

“You think?” Darek said, standing and facing Bane.

“Um…guys…” Lily interjected, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but
can we get dressed and go talk to them? They can help us, right?”

Bane nodded, still looking dazed.

Darek grunted. “In theory,” he mumbled grumpily, heading for
the bathroom. In a moment, she heard the water running. Bane picked up the
duffel and set it on the bed, rooting around in its contents, presumably for
clothes.

Lily dressed quickly, her fingers shaking so badly from
nerves that it took her three tries to button her shirt properly. So much was
riding on the next twenty-four hours. Savara interested her, but after all
she’d heard and what she’d just seen, Lily wasn’t sure she trusted her.

Part of Lily wanted to spend time with her, get to know her,
ask her a billion questions. The rest of her wanted to run the other way. Good
God, was
she
going to be like Savara if she embraced her idana blood?
Lily tugged on a pair of denim shorts, buttoning the fly with fumbling fingers.
The shorts were new, the denim tough and she had trouble with the top button.

She was growling at it, cursing under her breath, when
Bane’s hands pushed hers away. He buttoned it smoothly and tugged the hem of
her shirt straight. She looked up to meet his cool, assessing gaze. He had
shrugged on a white Oxford shirt. The front of the shirt was open, revealing
his bare chest down to the waist of the black slacks he wore.

He buttoned the cuffs, not taking his gaze off hers. “It’s
going to be fine, Lily,” he said gently.

She wasn’t so sure, but she appreciated the gesture.
“Thanks.” She laid her palms on his bare chest and bit her lip, trying to find
the right words. “Bane, I don’t know Anthony Ciruelo and I don’t know how this
Inquiry will go. Before we go in there and get involved in strategy talk, I
need you guys to know how much you mean to me—”

“Lily—” he began, but she shook her head.

“No, I mean it. I’m going to tell Darek too. You guys are so
important to me…” He smiled down at her, blue light flickering in the backs of
his eyes. A little thrill of electric warmth went through her at the sight. It
occurred to her that she’d never seen Darek’s dragon form, not in the flesh,
and she decided to ask if he would shift for her before the Inquiry.

She bit her lower lip anxiously. “Bane, what happens if your
sovereign—”

“Anthony,” he corrected her. “But don’t call him that when
you first meet him, okay?

“Okay, okay. But what happens if he doesn’t believe us?
Would he separate us?” Her eyes felt damp. The thought of losing Bane and
Darek, of being condemned to a life without them… Her stomach flipped.

Bane shook her shoulders. “Lily, you’re not listening to me.
Hush. Stop it.
Listen.
” His smile was gone, his expression fierce. She
pressed her lips together tightly.

He opened the collar of her shirt, placing his finger in the
center of her mark, pressing down. She tried to reach up for him but she
couldn’t move. He’d caught her with a simple touch as surely as if he were
pinning her body with his full weight. She stared at him, dumbfounded.

“This isn’t decoration, Lily. I don’t think you understand
what it really means. Do you know why Darek and I have hunted the idani for so
long?” She tried to speak but couldn’t.

“We have hunted them because they killed the wyrmates of
dracambri. Their other halves,” he said. His voice softened a little and he
asked, “Do you know what happens to a male when his wyrmate dies?” He lifted
his finger from her mark, releasing her.

She sat down on the edge of the bed, her limbs weak. Damn,
what had he just done to her? “You said you knew some warriors who’d lost their
mates,” she murmured, wrapping her arms around herself.

He sat down beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders.
The warmth that surrounded her came from him. She looked up gratefully. “Yes, I
do know a few who lost their mates and survived. A handful. Out of
hundreds
.
Once formed, the bond is beyond profound, both spiritually and biologically.
The
náladon
discovered and exploited that fact. They were losing the war
until they realized they could target our wyrmates
instead of
our
warriors. They drew out the warriors with an attack on a human city, and while
we were out fighting that battle, they attacked the home aeries of all four
sovráns
.
We lost hundreds of wyrmates that day. Within hours, their warriors followed
them into death. Even death does not part us.
That
,” he said, tapping
her mark, “is what this means.”

Lily clutched his hand, gasping for breath. “Please don’t do
that right now.”

“Sorry.” He withdrew his hand. “My point is, it doesn’t
matter what Anthony says. We’re seeing him only in hopes that he’ll make our
lives easier.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Lily, if I truly thought Anthony would do something
foolish, I wouldn’t have agreed to do this. I know him very well.”

The bathroom door opened and Darek emerged in a cloud of
steam, a towel wrapped loosely around his hips.

“What if you’re wrong? You said there would be others at the
Inquiry. You’ll be outnumbered.”

Darek shook his head. “Lily, Anthony’s family didn’t become
powerful by being stupid. Bane is
on
the Council of warriors who conduct
these things. He knows them too.”

“Oh.” Well, that did put things in perspective.

Darek strode to the bed, tossing his towel aside.

Lily’s blood heated—she couldn’t help it. “Why didn’t you
say something earlier?” she asked, trying hard to focus her thoughts as Darek
hunted, naked, for clothes in the duffel bag.

He ran a hand through his hair, spiking the damp strands.
Noticing the direction of her gaze, he grinned wolfishly.

“Sorry,” Lily mumbled, feeling awkward in spite of herself.
Beside her, Bane chuckled.

“It’s okay, Lily,” he said softly, tipping up her chin with
his knuckle. “Look all you want. He’s yours, and so am I.” He spoke the words
so close to her mouth that her lips parted in a reflexive invitation. He
accepted, kissing her and drawing her carefully onto his lap.

“And I’m yours,” she murmured, sitting up in his lap to
button his shirt.

A cough came from the doorway, making Lily jump.

Kai was leaning against the jamb, looking calmer, his
clothing slightly rumpled. “I was just going to say that breakfast is ready,
unless you’re going to be busy awhile.”

When they came into the great room, Kai had dragged a large
picnic table nearer the fireplace. Bane and Darek bracketed Lily on one side of
the table. Kai sat down across from them. Savara brought plates of food in from
the kitchen. Lily offered to help her but she refused, insisting that they sit
and talk.

“She’s a superb cook,” Kai said, watching Savara with
obvious affection as she brought various dishes to the table. Lily hadn’t
realized how hungry she was until she saw the feast Savara had prepared emerge,
dish by dish, from the kitchen. When the table was set, Savara settled down in
Kai’s lap. He didn’t object until she began feeding him bites of food from her
plate. Lily tried not to gawk at the brief, tempestuous interchange that
ensued, which Kai won.

At first the conversation primarily centered around the fact
that Savara was not, as Darek and most of Anthony’s council thought, holding
Kai captive—nor, obviously, had she murdered him.

As the story unfolded, Lily reflected that Savara had been
right about one thing—it
was
complicated. Even after hearing the entire
story, Lily was still fuzzy on many of the details. It seemed as though there
were some things the couple deliberately left out, but she didn’t want to ask
questions.

At one time, Savara had been a part of
la vedova
’s
breeding program. Like all idani in the program, she’d had her pick from a
stable of dracambri males. Most idani changed partners almost nightly, but
Savara had claimed Kai for her own early on. She’d never let another female
near him.

Eventually, Savara helped Kai escape and even defected with
him, but she had never gained Anthony’s trust. Shortly after Kai’s escape,
Savara led a group of dracambri to the facility where Kai and other captives
were being held. Anthony’s new wyrmate, Chloe, had been a part of the rescue
party. They had freed the captives but things had gotten complicated in the
fray and Chloe was caught fighting a
náladon
alone. It was at this
moment that Savara took Kai and vanished. It was this decision that sealed
Anthony’s mistrust of her.

Anthony and most of his Council had assumed that she’d
either killed Kai or taken him captive. For fear of what Anthony might do to
Savara for putting his mate in danger, Kai had insisted they go into hiding.

Lily ate then listened quietly, feeling secure between Bane
and Darek. She noticed Savara watching her with interest and wondered at its
source. Was Savara hoping to find a kindred spirit in Lily, did she want to
know about Lily’s mother, or did she have other motives?

“So,” Kai said at last, turning his unnerving silver gaze on
Lily. “Your mother was Mara?”

“Mara Sinclair, yes.” Unsure what else to say, she squared
her shoulders and tried not to feel small.

He nodded thoughtfully. “Savara speaks highly of her. I
imagine the two of you have a lot of catching up to do when there’s time for
such a thing.” Lily nodded, catching Savara’s eager smile.

“There’s something else you should know,” Bane said, pushing
back his plate and steepling his fingers. “When we spoke on the phone
yesterday, I asked you to help us make a case before the Council for Lily’s
freedom.”

Kai raised an eyebrow. “Yes, you did.”