Hierarchy (19 page)

was brushing her teeth and spent the next half hour hovering over the toilet bowl. She felt so weak when she finally stopped retching, it was all she could do to drag herself back to the bed. She thought food might help her feelings, but she didn’t have anything in the house and she didn’t feel up to going shopping.

She dozed off again. When she woke the second time, she felt a little better—still weak, but not as nauseated. Deciding she’d best make a dash to town for food while she still had the strength, she locked up and headed out. Luke leapt from the hedges that formed a privacy fence between her yard and the one next door before she could whirl around and race to the house again.

Not she’d had the presence of mind to consider it.

Nausea washed over her when he grabbed her roughly against his length.

“Oh Luke!” she murmured in warning. “Don’t shake me! I’ll puke all over you!”

His gaze was suspicious when he eased her away from him, but that disappeared and was replaced by concern when he saw her face. After glancing around, he helped her to sit down on the curb and then crouched in front of her, studying her face with concern.

“That’s a really bad spot,” Bronwyn said warningly.

“I’m fast. If you hurl, I can leap out of the way,” he said with a touch of amusement. “Baby, you look like shit!”

“Thanks,” she said wryly, although her chin wobbled threateningly. “It needed only that.”

“Hell! I didn’t mean it like that. You should be in bed. You look like you’re about to faint.”

She sighed. “I
feel
like I’m about to faint. I was so sick this morning and I don’t have anything to eat in the house. I have to go grocery shopping.”

He looked thoughtful. “Why don’t you go back in and lie down. I’ll do the shopping.”

It was tempting. “You couldn’t bring them in.”

“Fuck! I forgot. I can still get them and bring them here.” He studied it over and fixed her with a hard look. “You haven’t eaten today, have you?”

She shook her head. “Nothing in the house—and I mean
nothing
.”

“Why don’t I go get something for you that’s already cooked? Then you can eat a little something right away and I’ll go get groceries so that you’re stocked up for a little while?”

She was so grateful for the suggestion she felt like crying. “I think if I just had something on my stomach I could manage to do the shopping,” she said tentatively.

“We’ll worry about that later. What do you want me to get?”

She was suddenly ravenous … and nauseated at the same time. “I don’t know what I could eat that would stay down,” she said plaintively.

“Come on. We’ll take my wheels.”

She didn’t even consider objecting. Thankfully, she discovered once he’d led her around the hedge that he’d driven a black van rather than the bike he’d come on before.

She settled in the passenger seat when he’d helped her in and closed the door, curling up and laying her head against the window. He slid in beside her, grabbed her seatbelt and fastened it. When he’d backed out of the driveway, he glanced over at her. “Why don’t you use my shoulder to prop your head? It can’t be harder than that door.”

“But the window’s here.”

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“So puke in my lap. I ain’t wearin’ nuthin’ that can’t be washed,” he said with a mixture of amusement and irritation.

She decided to take him up on the offer after jouncing down the road for a little bit. There were enough potholes to make using the door as a headrest hazardous. He began to name off various foods.

“We only have the diner and one fast-food joint.”

“Greasy and worse. Which?”

“I could get soup at the diner.”

“Alright then.”

He told the waitress to bring her a glass of water and crackers to nibble on while she was waiting for the soup. She began to feel a lot better just from munching on the crackers. By the time she’d eaten half the bowl of soup, she almost felt like a normal person. She decided not to push her luck, however.

Luke eyed the bowl disapprovingly when she pushed it away. “You didn’t eat much.”

“I don’t want to give my stomach too much ammunition.”

“Good point.”

When he’d paid the tab, he took her to the grocery store and pushed the buggy around for her. She was a little uncomfortable about it, especially since the few people they passed stared at both of them speculatively, but she was glad he’d been determined to take her. By the time they’d finished, she was feeling weak again. She grabbed a box of crackers and nibbled on them on the way back to her place. Luke carried the bags as close as the protection spell would allow him. He looked angry when he couldn’t go further, but he seemed to tamp his temper.

“Thanks,” Bronwyn said when she’d gathered up one of the bags, smiling her appreciation. “I don’t know how I would’ve managed without you.”

He nodded. “I’ll check on you tomorrow.”

She was on the point of telling him she was sure she’d be alright, but she tamped the urge. “Ok.”

His eyes sharpened on her face. “I’d kiss you if I could get my hands on you,” he muttered.

She studied him for a moment and finally set the bag down and met him on the sidewalk. Triumph gleamed in his eyes, but he merely gathered her close, nuzzling his face against her neck and finally kissed her until she was so dizzy she had to brace her knees to stand when he let her go. “Go on in and lie down,” he said gruffly.

He smacked her on the ass with the palm of his hand when she leaned over to pick up the bag. She jackknifed upright and whirled to look at him wide-eyed. Chuckling, he turned and headed back across her yard to the van he’d left parked in her drive. Shaking her head in bemusement, Bronwyn carried her groceries inside.

She was a little disappointed when he didn’t redeem that promise, but she felt ill enough that was pretty much the focus of her attention and it didn’t allow a lot of room for worrying about anything else. Crackers and water were the mainstay of her diet.

They seemed to calm the waters. Being too empty or too full resulted in disaster and she quickly developed the habit of nibbling.

Luke, looking excruciatingly uncomfortable, arrived the next time she headed out for groceries. She didn’t reproach him—what would be the point?

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“I was … tied up or I’ve would’ve been here,” he growled after they’d driven to the grocery store in uncomfortable silence.

“I’m not angry,” Bronwyn said tentatively. “I was disappointed, but I didn’t really expect it.”

He scrubbed a hand over his face, looked like he wanted to say more and finally dismissed it. “I found a doctor,” he announced instead.

Bronwyn was a little taken aback. “I don’t need a doctor.”

He sucked in an irritated breath. “You do if you’re pregnant, and I’m guessing you are.”

“Oh.” She thought it over. She really hated to mention it when he was already in a pissy mood, but …. “It isn’t a … veterinarian, is it?”

His face darkened. “Gods damn it!” He stopped, wrestled with his temper a moment and started over. “That was different … never mind! I just figured you’d want to know for sure and if it happens to be mine, you know … well, a human doctor might not be such a great idea.”

“Oh.
Oh!
I hadn’t thought of that!” Her stomach seemed to go weightless as it settled over her. “Oh my! I really hadn’t considered ….” She looked at him a little conscience stricken. “Don’t be angry with me. I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just that I hadn’t considered it would only be half …. It’s so sweet and thoughtful of you!”

“Then you’ll go?”

She studied him unhappily as it dawned on her that, if it was his, there really wouldn’t be any reason for him to hang around anymore. He seemed to read her thoughts. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said gruffly, then grinned at her. “I’m gonna be harder to scrape loose than a tick.”

Bronwyn uttered a snorting laugh that embarrassed her.

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Bronwyn wouldn’t have seen him if she hadn’t glanced out her window on the way back from one her many trips to the bathroom. Her heart skipped several beats in fright before recognition dawned and then executed a little leap of excitement. She didn’t think twice. She rushed from her apartment and across the back porch.

For a moment, she thought he’d either left or she’d simply imagined he was there, but he stepped from the shadows near her little potting shed as she opened the screen door.

She hadn’t thought she would see him again and she battled her wayward emotions until she’d conquered the urge to cry before she went down the steps. He waited for her near the shed and she wondered if that was the limit of the protection spell and that was why he’d didn’t move to meet her.

“Hello, ma belle,” he murmured when she neared him, his voice sounding strange.

“Constantine?” she said a little uneasily.

He stepped away from the shed and into the moonlight so that the beams gleamed in his pale hair. “You weren’t expecting me,” he said wryly.

Bronwyn swallowed with an effort. “I thought it was you, but I hadn’t seen you since right after ….”

He made a sound of disgust. “I’m not a day-walker,” he said bitterly.

She stared at him in dismay as the implications settled in her. “You came before.”

“Once or twice,” he said dryly. “I’d begun to think I’d have to resort to throwing pebbles at your window.”

Her relief was so profound she had to cover her mouth with her fingertips to stifle the urge to giggle. “I’m so sorry! I never thought about …. I just thought ….”

He grimaced. “The worse, no doubt encouraged by that hell spawned lycan.”

Bronwyn tried to hide a smile. “He hasn’t said anything, really. And I wouldn’t believe him if he did.”

“I would be amazed by his restraint … if he had any. I have to suppose he’s content enough to sabotage my limo at every turn.”

“He didn’t! Oh! The tires.”

“Among other things,” he said dryly. “Then again, what goes around comes around.”

Bronwyn stared at him blankly. “He said he was tied up …?”

Constantine grinned abruptly. “Did he?”

“What did you do?”

He tried for a look of innocence. “Me? I wouldn’t stoop so low as to attempt any of the juvenile pranks he seems so fond of. You should be forewarned that any get from that direction is bound to a troublemaker.”

“And yours wouldn’t be, of course,” she said teasingly.

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He didn’t say anything for several moments. “I couldn’t begin to guess,” he said finally. “It isn’t likely that we’ll discover, though, is it?”

“Why would you say that? I might have been more than a little drunk, but I distinctly remember the night we were together.”

He grimaced. He seemed to wrestle with something and finally shook his head.

“I’d actually hoped your memory wasn’t too clear on that. I was promised it wouldn’t be. I’m as certain as I want to be that it was the next thing to disastrous. I suppose it will sound like the lamest of excuses, but I’d never actually … performed without any use of my powers. I liken it to a mortal trying to jack-off with his hands tied behind his back.”

Bronwyn blinked at him. “It was … the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me,” she said sincerely.

Up until that point, she mentally amended, but then he certainly didn’t need to hear
that
! In any case, it was just as wonderful, in a completely different way, being with him as it had been with Luke or Caleb.

His gaze flickered over her face assessingly. “You are wonderfully kind,” he said dryly.

Bronwyn frowned doubtfully, wondering abruptly if it was his own prowess he was worried about at all or if he’d just thought it went badly because it hadn’t been that great for him. “It wasn’t good for you?”

He released an impatient breath. “I’d almost forgotten that disconcerting habit you have of turning everything about and detecting insult when none was intended. I am only trying to discover if it was because I was so hopelessly inadequate as a lover that you didn’t come back to me. I researched, mind you, when I discovered that I was tied by your Nanna’s rules, but one cannot overcome such a handicap with only research. I am a true blood. I was never mortal and I have never experienced anything as a mortal.”

“You researched?” she echoed blankly.

“Certainly—although it maybe not have seemed like it.” He grimaced. “Marco, oddly enough, was virtually useless—the others not a great deal better. But, overall, they seemed to favor the intoxication method you obviously disapproved of.”

Bronwyn thought it over, trying to decide how she felt about his admission. “Is
that
why you got me drunk? To seduce me?”

He shrugged. “As I said. Marco in particular recommended it. He referred to it, rudely, as … uh … pussy lube.”

Horrified, Bronwyn uttered a choked, horrified laugh, then bit her lip. “It isn’t a very
ethical
way to seduce a woman and you didn’t need it.”

His brows lifted nearly to his hairline. “I didn’t?” He frowned. “I couldn’t enthrall you. You aren’t just saying that to be kind again?”

Bronwyn shook her head at him. Stepping closer, she lifted a hand to his cheek.

“You enthralled me without any supernatural means at all. That had nothing to do with my refusal to go back, Constantine. It had everything to do with how I feel about you, but not in the way you’re thinking. I just … know that it was better for me not to allow myself to get any more attached than I was already.”

He frowned. She could see he was having a hard time believing she would’ve left because she cared about him rather than because she didn’t. He was never going to understand because, as he’d said, he’d never been mortal. She didn’t know if he was simply incapable of feeling the things mortals did or if it was sort of a protection for
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himself that he distanced himself from others, but it didn’t matter which it was, whether he’d conditioned himself to feel nothing or he just didn’t. Either way she knew he would never be able to understand something he didn’t feel.

“I’m completely sober now,” she murmured, tipping her head back and lifting up on her tiptoes to nibble a row of kisses along his neck.

His hands went to her waist, tightened, and then he slid one upwards along her back and the other down to cup her buttocks and lift her higher as he tilted his head and found her lips. His mouth was cool, but the gentle suction of it on hers drew heat from her—not warmth—heat, a dizzying spiral of need she hadn’t even been aware of until the moment their mouths met and mated. She made a sound of pleasure in her throat when he thrust his tongue into her mouth and stroked it along hers, sucking on the taut muscle in a way that made erotic images spring into her mind of sucking his cock into her mouth.

Her belly clenched in response, flooded with moisture.

She wanted to do that to him with sudden desperation, to wrap herself up in him completely, to feel his naked body against her own and explore him all over with her hands and her lips as she hadn’t been able to before.

Constantine’s grip on her tightened. His kiss became more fevered. He rocked his erection against her as he pulled her lower body more tightly to his. In a few moments, he broke from her lips, gasping for breath as he glanced around a little desperately. No comfortable bed magically appeared. Finally, he hauled her against the wall of her shed, bracing her between it and his body as he stroked shaking hands over her, exploring her through her thin nightgown.

She shoved her hands beneath his jacket, searching for the opening of his shirt as he massaged her breasts and feathered open mouthed kisses along her cheek and jaw and neck. Bending, he suckled her unfettered breasts through the gown she wore, driving her need higher even while she chafed at the fabric that prevented her from feeling his touch as fully as she wanted.

Her nipples, ultrasensitive since she’d become pregnant, ached from the fullness and a twinge of pain went through her when he lightly bit at them with the edge of his teeth, but it was good ache, a marvelous ache that produced a matching itch low in her belly. He lifted his head when she groaned, meeting her mouth once more, kissing her with a desperate sort of longing as he rhythmically pressed against her with his engorged shaft. She lifted a leg to curl it around his narrow hips, trying to lift herself to feel him where she needed him most.

Constantine slipped his hands beneath her gown, cupping her buttocks and abruptly lifting her upward along the wall, bracing her. Bronwyn grabbed his shoulders for balance and wrapped her legs around his hips, opening herself to him, arching to meet his rhythmic thrusts. His thick member pressed almost bruisingly against the tender lips of her sex and it still wasn’t enough. She wanted to envelop him with her body, wanted to feel his flesh pressing against the walls of her channel.

He seemed to catch her impatience for penetration. Reaching between them, he unfastened his trousers, caught his cock in his hand and sought her opening. Pushing the leg of her panties aside, he found the mouth of her sex and thrust into her. She caught her breath as she felt him, tilted her head to fasten her mouth along the side of his neck. A shudder went through him as she sucked at his flesh. His hands tightened on her, holding her for his thrusts as he fought the resistance of her flesh and finally impaled her root
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deep.

A dizzying rush went through Bronwyn. She tightened her grip on him, urging him to set the pace she needed to find completion. He released a pained grunt of a breath, withdrew slowly and then entered her again. Abruptly, he reached between them and tore her panties at the crotch, removing the impediment. When he had, he began to drive into her faster. She clung to him, her eyes tightly closed to better enjoy the friction of his flesh along her passage.

She cried out when the bubble of tension inside of her reached its maximum capacity and exploded in an upheaval of mind-blowing proportions. A tremor traveled through him. Driving deeply, he held himself there as he pumped his seed into her.

They leaned together shuddering with the aftershocks, struggling to catch their breath.

“Next time,” Constantine muttered thickly, “we’ll find a bed.”

Bronwyn uttered a husky chuckle and bit his neck. It sent another shudder through him.

She lifted her head and met his slumberous gaze. “Was it good for you?”

He bent his head to press his nose to hers. “I should be the one asking.”

She tilted her head to nibble at his lips. “You shouldn’t … unless you were too busy enjoying yourself to notice.”

“I might have been,” he hedged.

He smiled a crooked smile when she leaned back to study him and carefully removed his flaccid member from her, then lowered her until her feet touched the ground.

“There might be something to be said for doing it your way,” he murmured.

She chuckled. “You think?”

He sighed. “If I could use my powers with you, you might never want it another way.”

She touched his lean cheek. “I liked being aware of every touch, every kiss, and the feel of you inside of me. Nothing could be better than that—only different.”

He looked unconvinced, but he pulled her close for a light kiss.

She murmured a sound of contentment, smiling at him wickedly when he pulled away to look down at her again. “This was so romantic! Just you and me in my moonlit garden … and all the neighbors with their noses pressed against the glass to watch.”

He uttered a snort of contemptuous amusement and glanced around. “They missed the show tonight. Go inside. I’ve kept you out in the damp night long enough.”

She smiled up at him. “Next time you come, just throw pebbles at my window. I have to warn you, though, I sleep like the dead when I’m really tired.”

To her surprise, he chuckled. “You shouldn’t believe everything you read in books about vampires, my love.”

“No?”

“No. I might never have been mortal, but I was born of one.”