Vampire Trinity (19 page)
Authors: Joey W. Hill
“I think I mean something to you, vampire hunter.” Daegan touched his arm, fingers curling over Gideon’s biceps. Gideon shrugged him off, sliding away, except Daegan was now in front of him, arm braced, effectively caging him between the wall and the door. He stared into the vampire’s dark eyes, tried not to get absorbed in the set of the firm mouth.
“Stop fucking with me,” he snapped.
“Your concern is misplaced. I will be fine.”
“Fine. When you get staked, I’ll say I told you so.” Gideon pushed off the wall and shoved at Daegan’s arm, intending to leave the room.
Before he could complete the motion, Daegan had pushed him back against the door, Gideon’s weight making it close with a resounding thud. The vampire had his hand beneath his throat, eyes and mouth so close to Gideon’s that he couldn’t think, though he automatically tried to break the hold, with no luck. Even when a run-of-the-mill vampire had a grip, a person was pretty much caught. With a vamp like Daegan, there was no “pretty much” to it.
“You have said I do not always have the attitude of a vampire. It doesn’t mean I’m not one. As much as I respect your abilities, Gideon, I only take human defiance for so long. Particularly when your defiance is a poorly disguised mating challenge.”
“Fuck off,” Gideon managed through gritted teeth, but groaned as Daegan put his knee against his stiff cock, rubbed with devilish knowledge over his balls. But the harder thing to resist was the mouth that brushed over his.
“Kiss me back, Gideon. Devour my mouth the way you’ve been devouring me with your eyes ever since I returned. Show me your hunger. Show me how much
you
missed me.”
you
missed me.”
It surged forth like fire, so that he almost knocked Daegan back a step. Gripping the collar of Daegan’s shirt, Gideon slammed against his mouth, so violently that the vampire’s fang cut his lip. Daegan’s tongue curled around the blood, then met Gideon’s, sliding, teasing, thrusting, a hard, openmouthed struggle and dance together. Daegan held him against the door, wouldn’t let him move or take it any further than that kiss. His arousal built, his cock cramped in his jeans, and Gideon ached shamefully as his mind shot right to a moment that had happened before the vampire had left. Daegan and Anwyn holding him between them, Anwyn kissing him, Daegan’s hand over his, on Gideon’s cock, the two of them making him helpless to their desires . . .
Shame couldn’t hold a candle to the explosive power of that memory. Gideon put everything into that kiss, his frustration and rage, his lust and need. He wanted to touch, but the only thing Daegan allowed was the hands on his shirt collar, clutching hard. The vampire gripped his head, his fingers in Gideon’s hair, body pressed up against his, so Gideon could feel his hard cock pressed just to the right of his. He could rub against it if he could just move. “Let me move, damn you,” he muttered against Daegan’s mouth.
“No,” came the maddening reply. “Put it all into the kiss, Gideon. Think about my tongue here, then think about it teasing your ass, getting you wet for me, then thrusting my cock in hard, making you groan. You crave the feel of it as you sink into Anwyn’s slick heat. You need more than even an incomparable Mistress like Anwyn. You need a Mistress and a Master to be complete.”
“No. No.” But he couldn’t stop kissing him, telling him with his lashing tongue and scraping teeth what he needed so badly.
“You know what Anwyn is doing?” Daegan whispered it, drawing back. “She has sensed our passion. She’s leaning on the other side of this door, touching her neck, her breasts, sliding her hand down to stroke her pussy, her legs opening up, her beautiful ass braced on the door, just below where yours is.”
Gideon sought her, and her mind opened like an orchid, rare, exotic, irresistible. He saw it, felt her desire flood his mind. Daegan shut up then, putting his full effort into the kiss, taking it over. Gideon was helpless to do anything but go along for the ride. Then Daegan went for an even more devastating tactic.
He slowed their movements, so their tongues were doing a slow, twisting, stroking fuck together. A thrust and dragging retreat by that agile, moist muscle, a nuzzle of the lips, a tease of a sharp fang. Like the turning of eddies in a lazy pond, beneath bright sunshine. Then, at long last, when Gideon was lying against the door, both more aroused and more lethargic than he’d ever been, Daegan pulled back a few inches, stared into his eyes silently as Anwyn’s erratic breaths, her cries, filled their ears. She brought herself to completion, knowing they were listening, their bodies taut and hard against each other.
“Go see James about that tux,” Daegan murmured at last. He pushed away from Gideon, gave him an even look. “And next time, vampire hunter, knock before you come into my room. You need my permission to enter, or I’ll finish what I started here, to remind you of your manners.”
Gideon thought about blowing the whole thing off, disappearing until it was over. But he couldn’t ignore how Anwyn’s face had brightened like a new sun at the idea of an evening out. Or how she’d just as quickly needed absolute reassurance that they were both attending and everything would be fine. He couldn’t ignore the obvious fact she was rebuilding her confidence on the basis of a tripod. Not a seesaw, with Daegan alone on one end. It made Gideon want to believe, too much, that he was a vital, irreplaceable corner of it.
It was getting harder to convince himself that he was merely a temp, and even harder to accept that whatever the hell he’d become, he wanted it to stay that way forever. Had it been only a month? Or had it started with that one night where he and Jacob had shared Lyssa, under her command, and every step since then had been a journey to Anwyn? And Daegan.
The hell with it. Here he was. He’d been relieved by James’s unperturbed acceptance of the request for his tux as something perfectly normal. Now he stood, dressed up in a monkey suit, waiting in the living room. It occurred to him that he didn’t really have his own room. When Anwyn didn’t want him in her bed, he slept on the couch.
It didn’t matter. He didn’t need a damn bed.
No, you don’t. You belong to me, Gideon. I don’t want you to have your own room until you accept that. My bed is your bed, when I give you permission to use it.
An unexpected, silky threat and promise in her mind-voice, one that unfurled heat in his lower belly and an even stronger reaction in his chest. He, a person who’d resisted and scorned any form of authority all his life, reacted with hot need and deep pleasure every time she exerted a claim on him. It was too fucked-up.
He cleared his throat.
Shouldn’t you be putting on makeup and curling your hair, doing girly stuff?
Shouldn’t you be putting on makeup and curling your hair, doing girly stuff?
I consider doing you girly stuff
. Her sexy laugh, but then she put that curtain back in place again.
. Her sexy laugh, but then she put that curtain back in place again.
Daegan came out of his room then, wearing a tuxedo perfectly tailored for his perfect body and perfect face. Fucking perfect. Even from here, Gideon could tell how good he smelled, because of how the servant’s mark heightened his senses. He’d been smelling that particular musk all day, thanks to that never-ending kiss while shoved against Daegan’s door.
Yeah, he was totally fucked-up. Before he could figure out how to absent himself until Anwyn had joined them, he noticed the man’s cuff links. Gideon raised a brow, recognizing the shape. “You’re kidding, right?”
Daegan lifted one wrist to better display the tiny silver and diamond bats. “A gift from Anwyn, a couple of years ago. Her charming wit.”
Fortunately, the door to her room slid open then. Typically female, she’d timed her entrance last, and it was well worth the wait. While Gideon wasn’t surprised that she rendered him temporarily speechless, it was something to see Daegan’s overwhelmed expression.
During the week, she wore some enticing and attractive outfits, determined not to slum around their apartment like some pathetic psych case—her own words—as well as to practice getting dressed without the benefit of a mirror. He remembered the very first night in Atlantis, how she’d come to him as a Mistress, pure sex in latex and lace. But this . . .
His soul rolled out in front of her, a coat he’d willingly throw over any mud hole to keep her from soiling her feet.
The dress was a teal sheath that glittered as she moved, a handful of tiny sparkle points like stars in the night sky. It clung from breast to midthigh and had no sleeves. She’d draped a transparent silver wrap over her arms. It picked up the topaz-and-diamond set at her throat. Her hair was twisted up on her head, all those little feminine tendrils artfully arranged on her slim neck.
Suddenly, he was greedy, wanting to jump forward in time to see her at the end of the night, when she’d let it tumble down. She’d step out of her elegant heels, accept his and Daegan’s embrace as they worshipped her body with mouths and hands, bringing cries of pleasure from those wet, glossy lips. They were frosted a kiss-me deep rose and she’d sprinkled some kind of glitter dust across her breasts. A temporary tattoo of a blue-green fairy was high on one ankle, a further accent for her killer legs that her high heels made it impossible to ignore.
Of course Daegan was the first to recover. Crossing the floor, he lifted her hand to his mouth, giving her fingers a kiss that included a secret caress of his tongue between two of the digits. Gideon registered it because he saw her reaction to it in her mind.
He was so out of his league. He should be driving the car, or staying home to watch cable in a bathrobe, like a sitter waiting up for the parents to return.
“Oh my God, Gideon. Look at you.”
Anwyn was so overwhelmed by the sight of her vampire hunter, she missed his reaction to her and Daegan entirely. For once he was smoothly shaven, the hard jaw clean and handsome. Despite Daegan’s teasing, his hair had been brushed so it feathered over his forehead and lay gleaming on his broad shoulders. He looked as devastating in a tuxedo as only a handsome, rugged man could. His midnight blue eyes were gratifyingly riveted on her. She felt Daegan’s amusement with the male, mixed with something else, something she herself was feeling. Moving to Gideon, she realized with a combination of joy and sweet sorrow why he was rooted to the spot. Reaching up to touch his face, she passed her thumb over his lips before he could speak.
“Daegan received a kiss from this mouth earlier today, but my servant didn’t give me the same pleasure. I think you owe me that now.”
She’d noted that he responded to the formally worded commands far better than he realized. They were a trigger, as if they made something deep in that chivalrous soul leap over his usual cynicism and self-deprecation. They were pushed aside, and he desired nothing more than to serve her every wish. Pressing against him, she slid her fingers up into that silky hair. Blissfully, that was all it took. When she took his mind out of the equation, things were far simpler for him.
His arms banded around her, bringing her even closer, so close she stepped out of one shoe and curled a bare foot around his calf as he cupped the base of her skull and kissed her deep and desperate, letting her feel the delicious desire race through every inch of his hard body. He was trying to be a gentleman, but his hands crept down, and at her sound of encouragement, he closed them over the thin, stretchy fabric to find she wore nothing beneath it. His cock leaped against her belly.
While Gideon gripped her buttocks, Daegan’s fingers whispered over the bare skin revealed by the dress’s low back. When he traced her spine, he dropped a kiss between her shoulder blades, making her shiver.
“Okay, enough.” She pulled free, laughing. “You two
are
taking me to dinner. Keep that up and we won’t leave this room. Really, I’m totally bored with both of you. I’ve had all the sex I can stand.”
are
taking me to dinner. Keep that up and we won’t leave this room. Really, I’m totally bored with both of you. I’ve had all the sex I can stand.”
“Her mouth says one thing, but her body . . .” Daegan tried to dip under the short skirt and she spun away from him, grabbing hold of Gideon to thrust him in front of her.
“Protect me from this insatiable pervert, Gideon.”
“What’s he going to do, hit me with that enormous hard-on you’ve given him?” Daegan scoffed.
The banter loosened the tightness in Gideon’s chest. It had been nearly a month of life-and-death situations, tears and denial, anger and unexpected rages, but this moment was perfect. They’d done the right thing. Maybe Anwyn wasn’t the only one who’d needed this. Her lightheartedness was infectious.
Also, he’d helped make this happen. So maybe, at least for tonight, he
did
deserve to be here.
did
deserve to be here.
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