Sundown & Serena (12 page)

“—
I’d like to see you, if you want to
get together. Dinner, maybe? Call my cell, it’s always
on.”

Terian stated his cell number number, then
paused, and whatever he was going to say was lost, because he
paused too long this time and the machine hung up on him.

Shit. It’s now or
never.
I called, aging years from sheer tension as I waited
for each ring to go through. Then Terian came on the line. “Hi,” he
said awkwardly. “How’ve you been?”

Tears came to my eyes, hearing his voice
after more than a year. I couldn’t get any words out.

“Sun?”

“I’m here,” I rasped finally. “It’s just
really good to hear your voice.”

“I’m glad to hear yours, too,” he said
tenderly. “Are you free for dinner?”

“Yes,” I said immediately. “Where do you want
to meet?”

“How about our old diner? You know, the one
we always used to go to?”

“Sure. When?”

“I don’t get off work until eleven,” Terian
said, regretful. “And there have been a lot of problems here,
Sundown. Sarelle’s Oathed to Devlin now, and to Danial as
well.”

Holy Shit. That poor
girl.
“What about Theo?”

“He’s leaving her. There’s another
woman.”

I felt very guilty for wishing bad things on
my perceived rival, and didn’t know what to say. “That’s
awful.”

“I’ll tell you more about them when I see
you. Wait for me?”

“That’s okay. I’ll see you then.”

“You sure you don’t need a ride?”

“I’ve got a car.”

“Is it the one, um, you had before?”

He meant the one he’d helped me buy. “No. I
had to sell that more than a year ago. But I bought another one.
It’s pretty beat up, but it’s a pretty blue color—”
God, I’m rambling and sounding like an idiot.

“You can tell me shortly,” Terian interrupted
pointedly. “I mean I want to hear everything, Sun. I’ll see you
then. Take care.”

We hung up, my next concern what to do with
myself for hours. I watched a movie, and then went for a walk, and
was too restless to enjoy either. Finally, I decided to go get a
drink at the Tavern, hoping it would bring me luck.

When I got there in my car, I got another
surprise. Lash’s truck was there in the parking lot.

I sat there for a few minutes in utter shock,
staring at it. I decided to wait there, because unless I was sure I
wanted to talk to him, I couldn’t get out. He’d scent me.
Besides, what if he’s with someone?

I felt jealous suddenly and pushed it away.
We’d been together more than three months ago, and he’d never
called me once. Well, sure, he didn’t have my number. But he was
such a smart guy; he’d have found it, if he wanted it. He knew
where I lived; he could have stopped by when he’d gotten back in
town. He hadn’t.

Definitely better to stay
here.
For all I knew, he was killing someone in there.

In a half hour, Lash’s dark silhouette came
striding out of the bar, the telling clue a slight swagger always
present in his step. I couldn’t see his face, but I’d known him
long enough to know his singular walking style. He went to his
truck, got in, then backed up almost to my car. With a squeal of
tires, he drove off.

I waited until his taillights faded, then
went inside. When the bartender came to me, I ordered a scotch.

“You’re Sundown, aren’t you?”

I nodded, immediately ill at ease.

“Got something for you.” He reached under the
bar and handed me a folded sheet of paper.

I tucked it inside my shirt, trying to act
casual. “Thanks.”

He nodded. “That guy you used to meet for
drinks a while back showed up tonight, and asked if you still came
in here alone. I told him sure, sometimes,” the bartender said,
pouring my drink. “So he said next time I saw you, to give that to
you if you were alone. And if you weren’t, to toss it out.”

I nodded and sipped my drink nonchalantly,
trying not to give away my anxiety. In spite of my best efforts, I
inhaled my scotch in record time, then left a few minutes later.
While it was too early to meet Terian, I couldn’t stay there.

I drove for a while, wanting badly to read
the note, and also not wanting to.

What if it says Lash wants
to have a relationship with me, now that Devlin has the real Sar to
keep him occupied? Or maybe he just wants some sex, and since he’s
back in town, he thought he’d look me up?
It hadn’t been
just a friendly hello, or he wouldn’t have made being alone a
prerequisite to the bartender giving me the note.

Deep down, I knew it wasn’t the latter or
just about casual sex. But I told myself it was anyway as I pulled
over to the side of the road. I took the note from my pocket, and
burned it unread in my car’s ashtray, blinking back tears as I did
it.

Then I went to meet Terian.

Chapter
Twelve

Terian was on time, like always. He told me
over dinner the whole story of what had happened the two years we’d
been apart, and of the new ongoing drama that was the
Theo/Sar/Danial/Devlin three-dimensional love triangle. It was hard
to believe some of what he said had happened, but I took his word
for it. In return, I told him what had happened with me and my
father, leaving out only Lash, and what had happened with Devlin.
While I felt bad not telling him everything, I justified that by
telling myself the cold truth could only hurt him, if not cause
more trouble if he either sought revenge against Devlin, or felt
jealous of Lash.

Afterward he followed me home for a drink. At
first, we were both reserved and kept our distance, careful of one
another and unsure. Then the alcohol kicked in. The moment we
accidentally touched, our passion ignited with a roar. Terian’s
lips met mine in a punishing kiss, his arms going around me,
pulling me close. I kissed him hungrily, all those lonely nights of
wanting him determined to be satisfied.

He made to get up, but I’d waited long enough
already. I pulled him back down on me, my hips rising to meet his,
my hands going down his back to cup his buttocks through his jeans.
Terian’s lips broke with mine, his head ducking to kiss my neck,
then moving lower as he pulled down my low cut top, exposing my
lace brassiere. With a tug, he pushed it down, revealing my breast,
his hungry mouth fastening on the left as his hand cupped the
right, squeezing possessively.

I moaned, my hands fumbling for his belt,
anxious to free him. With a snap, I popped the button, then tore
down the zipper. I reached in, my hand grasping his throbbing
erection. Terian stiffened his back with a cry, then moved back,
attacking my jeans. He tugged, but despite his efforts, they did
not come off.

Damn stretch jeans
.
“I’ll get them,” I panted, standing unsteadily. “You get
ready.”

We both stripped off our jeans, his taking
longer than mine. By the time I’d helped him get them off, he’d
finished putting on the condom. I pushed him back onto the couch,
straddling him. With a shift of my hips, I impaled myself, throwing
my head back with a groan.

Terian grasped my hips, chest heaving, and
began to move me. I grabbed his hands, then held them down to the
couch. I used my hips, moving him in and out of me with long
deliberate strokes. Terian groaned, then jerked, his blissful
expression delightful to watch as he strained upwards.

I kissed his neck, then took some skin in my
mouth, sucking hard. Terian broke loose of my hands, grasping my
breasts, squeezing. With a snarl, he pulled my upper body closer,
burying his head between my breasts, his hot tongue stroking. His
other hand grabbed my rear, pushing it down hard against him.

His stiff penis slid in another few inches. I
jerked, letting out a sharp cry. Terian took my nipple in his
mouth, sucking hard as he drove into me again and again.

I screamed, the climax washing over me like a
tidal wave. The pure feeling expanded, filling me completely,
freeing me utterly. Terian yelled, his lower body contracting again
and again as he clutched me tightly to him.

We held each other, sweaty and panting,
completely sated.

“Do you mind if I spend the night, Sun?”

Only he would ask, after
all our history together.
For the first time, my normal
sarcasm was absent in my reply. “No,” I said, kissing him lovingly
as I blinked my moist eyes rapidly. “I want you to stay.”

* * * *

The next morning, he asked me formally to
move in with him. I agreed immediately. To celebrate, we made love
again.

“Are you okay to keep going?” Terian asked
suddenly with concern, stopping his movements. “I don’t want to
hurt you. And we’ve been at it all night.”

“It’s okay. I’ve gone longer than this.”
Stupid!
I bit my lip, before I said
anything more.

“With who?” Terian growled. “No human man
could have lasted this long.”

“A were,” I whispered. “That’s how he
referred to himself.”

“What type?” he growled, his eyes glinting
red.

“I don’t know,” I lied. “I never saw him be
anything but human,” I added.

“Fine,” Terian said roughly. “You’ve known
the staying power of a were. But demons have the most staying power
of any being, and faeries are a close second. I could go for days,
and not stop.”

That admission was simultaneously scary and
exciting. “Faerie?”

“I’m half-faerie,” Terian said, blushing
slightly. “Turns out my mother isn’t dead, and my father’s alive,
too. But that’s another can of worms, Sun.”

“It’s okay,” I consoled him, touching his
cheek gently. “I’ve learned a lot about accepting things I can’t
change, in the time we’ve been apart.”

“So have I,” Terian said in an old, slightly
bitter tone. “So have I.”

* * * *

I moved in with Terian the next day, and quit
my job. It was a nice change to not have to get up for work in the
afternoon, or stay up every night until after midnight. With that
simple change, there was a deeper feeling of me finally being on
track to a real life, not living on the fringes of one. That first
morning when I woke up and actually saw a sunrise as the first part
of my day instead of its end was the beginning of an awakening for
me.

My life had been a certain way for a long
time. I hadn’t been happy, but I hadn’t felt I could change my
direction. Maybe I thought I hadn’t deserved more than getting by.
But I did deserve more, a lot more. And so did Terian, for giving
me a third shot at some happiness. Determined, I turned my focus to
my new home and partner, and got busy.

I did a fair bit of cleaning that first week,
as Terian was messy and something of a book hoarder. His lab was
always neat, but his large bedroom—our room—was a mess, and so was
anywhere he spent time. But once I got that straightened out with
the help of some large bookshelves with metal shelving, plastic
bins, and upscale labels for the rest, keeping order was easy.

Meeting Sar was less time consuming, yet
still a lot harder. It didn’t help that Theo had mistaken me for
her when I was kissing Terian one morning in his lab and blown a
gasket. He’d come through the lab door shouting about betrayal,
breaking the door lock in the process. While he’d apologized over
and over after seeing I wasn’t Sar, and replaced the lock himself
that very afternoon, his sudden rage had made me wonder if all the
weres living there were as tightly wound as he was.

After all the time I’d cursed Sar for being a
bitch, she was...well, nice. She smiled when she saw me, and
welcomed me. It was in her tone that she meant what she said about
hoping we’d be friends. Still, that gold bear of ownership around
her neck gave me a chill. And along with friendliness, Sar’s tone
also had an intensity that told me she had already formed some
opinions about me, at least a few of them as negative as the ones I
harbored for her. That if I hurt Tears again—the nickname she and
everyone else here called him—she’d make me sorry.

That was understandable. I still wasn’t
willing to completely let go of my old negative opinions of her, no
matter how nice she seemed. Besides, I was happy living in Danial’s
guard quarters, talking with Cia and Janice, and keeping to myself.
I didn’t need to hang around with Sar, especially where I might run
into Devlin. Cia had told me when I’d inquired discreetly that he
almost never came to Danial’s compound. When he did, it was always
to the main house to visit Danial or Sar.

As the weeks passed, I even began sitting in
on some of Elle and Theoron’s lessons. I’d never cared about books,
never even finished high school. But I enjoyed learning about
history and art when there was no pressure on me to have to take a
test. Bill, the man tutoring Elle and Theoron, asked me finally if
I wanted private lessons. I agreed at once, arranging the next day
for a session three times a week. Everyone here was always talking
about books they’d read, or referencing something in history that
had once happened. Shit, Terian seemed to know about every battle
that had ever been fought, and was always going on about how
amazing some of the early commanders had been, even when they’d
been fighting with only bows and arrows. I wanted to be able to
join the conversation, to know what they were talking about, and to
be able to say something, when they asked me what I thought.

I walked into the kitchen that second week,
and Cia was baking some kind of cookies that smelled heavenly. When
I asked her if I could help, she just smiled and told me to pull up
a chair. That day we baked two kinds of cookies, mint chocolate
chip, and ginger molasses. In the weeks that followed, we became
closer, as she taught me how to cook and bake. I’d always bragged
that talent in the kitchen wasn’t necessary if you had talent in
the bedroom. Yet along with my new surroundings was a new sense of
not only wanting to fit in, but the desire to take a chance on some
of the things that I’d always sneered at as not being “my thing.” I
hadn’t been happy with who I was, not deep down. So why hold onto
that person’s beliefs and values?