Melted By The Vampires: A Paranormal Menage Romance (4 page)

As much as I hated Abbott for what he, Daniel, and their people had done to my coven family, I couldn't deny that everything I was being told was piquing my natural curiosity and making me want to ask further questions. I didn't want Abbott to know I was so intrigued by what he was saying, though, so I asked my next question in what I hoped was a fairly emotionless, almost bored-sounding voice.

"Well, how is it possible that you have so many children here already? And how did your people go from a tiny group to thirty thousand people, anyway?"

Abbott opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, Daniel cut him off, frowning.

"Hold up a second, here. Just wait a minute." Leaning forward with his hands on his long, muscular thighs, Daniel peered at me, frowning even harder. "Something's not right here. I don't think you've been completely honest with us, Harper."

*

The spacious living room, which had been filled with pale November sunshine, suddenly darkened, presumably because of clouds rolling across the sky. The room darkening might have just been my imagination, though. My imagination and my thinking that I'd soon be dead before I'd even had much of a chance to carry out my revenge mission. Hundreds of years frozen, and all for nothing. It wasn't even just the room that had seemed to have gone dark; everything had.

Because of what Daniel had said about me not being completely honest, I was sure I'd somehow been found out. I was sure that he and Abbott knew I was a spy of sorts and an assassin, working with The Saints to accomplish a common goal. I wasn't sure
how
they'd found out, but I felt in my bones that they had. Just the way Daniel was looking at me, frowning hard, dark brows furrowed, told me that it was all over for me.

He
knew
. And he and Abbott had probably just been acting like they
didn't
know in order to toy with me a while, to lull me into a false sense of safety before revealing that they knew exactly who I was, and what I'd been frozen to do. Then, they would try to kill me, and they'd surely succeed. Without my supernatural powers, I'd have no way to defend myself.

With my heart hammering in my ears, I just looked at Daniel, hardly even daring to breathe. I wondered if I should even attempt to deny the accusations he was surely about to level at me, or if I'd even get the chance to. Across the living room, a grandfather clock made of dark wood, mahogany maybe, chimed three o' clock, each low-toned chime seeming to officially declare my doom.

I hated the thought of dying. Once the shock of my coven family dying had worn off, I stopped having suicidal thoughts pretty quickly. I wanted to live to get revenge, yes, but I also just wanted to live, period. I still did. I even saw it as some sort of a duty to live out the rest of my life as happily as I could, considering that I'd lost my entire family, but it was precisely that loss that made me think I had a duty.

My coven mother, Amelia, and all my coven sisters had their lives brutally taken, and I knew they'd all want me to live mine as best as I could and as long as I could, because they hadn't had a chance to fully live theirs.

As much as I hated the thought of dying by being attacked by the two vampires who were currently sitting across from me, both of them frowning hard now, I almost hated something else even more. I hated the fact that even despite the peril I was in, the thought of how utterly, devastatingly handsome Abbott and Daniel were was still somewhere near the front of my mind.

Also, infuriatingly, I realized that because I'd been found out, I was now never going to get the chance to share a bed with either of them. I was astonished and sickened that I even wanted to. They'd been responsible for killing my coven, or at least giving orders to some of their vampires to do it, and I was disappointed that I wouldn't get to experience sharing a bed with them.

Maybe I deserved to die.

Once the grandfather clock went silent, I fully expected Daniel or Abbott, or both of them, to come flying up from the cream-colored couch and rip my throat out. I expected one of them to at least do something to scare me before revealing that they knew, then killing me.

But, to my astonishment again, Daniel slowly got up, crossed the distance to where I sat in my overstuffed chair, and knelt beside me. "You haven't been honest, Harper. I can see it in your eyes."

His voice was low, gentle. Not at all like the voice of a man about to kill me. I dared to hope that maybe I'd been wrong. Maybe what he
thought
I hadn't been honest about wasn't the
real
thing that I hadn't been honest about.

Willing my racing heartbeat to slow, I took a deep breath before responding to him. "I don't know what you're talking about. What do you think I haven't been honest about?"

His frown softened into an expression that almost resembled one of sympathy, absolutely baffling me.

"You told the staff at the hospital, and then Brenda, that you feel completely fine, physically and mentally, but obviously, that's not the truth."

I took another deep breath, limp with relief at the realization that I was probably going to live to see another day. "And why do you say that?"

Daniel gave his head a slight shake, his expression still one resembling sympathy. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but you're acting in a way that many frozen women do. They're known for being tough, even after coming through the trauma of thawing, and even when they haven't quite gotten their mental bearings yet.

“I think this is what you're doing, because
you're
a tough woman, and you just don't want to admit that your mind is still a little scrambled from thawing. Because, see, Harper, if it wasn't, it seems like you would have asked Brenda a pretty obvious question this past week, and if not this past week, then you would have asked it today, right here and now, with Abbott and me. But you haven't, which leads me to think that you're
not
feeling completely back to normal yet, how you used to feel before being frozen. I can see it in your eyes, too.

“You're hiding something...and I think it's that you're not feeling completely well. At least not well enough yet to be thinking of certain questions that it seems like you probably would be if you were really feeling all completely back to normal. Abbott probably didn't help with all his pounding on your door. Even though I told him to go easy." Daniel glanced over his shoulder at Abbott. "Didn't I?" Looking at me again, Daniel gave me a small, sympathetic smile. "He's the stern leader. I'm more of a people person."

In total disbelief, I marveled over the fact that instead of Daniel knowing that I was "working" for The Saints in a sense, he just thought that I was still struggling with the after effects of thawing and was too tough to tell anyone about it. Which, I had to admit was partially true. I
was
dealing with one aftereffect, at least. My witch powers hadn't yet come back full strength. They hadn't even come back at all.

Realizing that I'd been terrified for nothing, I could have laughed out loud.
If
I wasn't still feeling so weak with relief, that is. I was relieved that I wasn't going to be immediately killed, and relived that I still had a shot at doing what I'd been frozen to do.

It was all so simple now. I just had to go along with what Daniel was saying in order to continue on with my assassination mission. So, trying to conceal my profound relief, I nodded with what I hoped was an expression of complete sincerity.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe I haven't felt completely back to normal in every single area, like with my thought processes. But I
am
tough, and I just didn't want to say anything. I was frozen and thawed to do a job, to provide a child for a community in need to help repopulate the world, and I'm still determined to do just that. So...well, I guess I just didn't want to act like a baby about not being completely recovered yet."

Daniel gave me another of his small smiles, curving the edges of his full lips just a few degrees. "It's okay. There is nothing babyish about not being completely recovered only a week or so after enduring the ordeal of being thawed. Nothing. In fact, I admire you for trying to be so strong.

“You don't have to be anymore, though. Abbott and I want to help you, in gratitude for what you're going to be doing for us. So, no more secrets, okay? We want you to be completely open and honest with us about everything you're feeling and experiencing, because all three of us are in this thing together. Deal?"

My relief had turned to revulsion while I'd been listening to his words. All three of us were certainly not in "this thing" together. Two of us were murderers, if not directly, then indirectly.

But, knowing that I needed to play along, I nodded, then forced myself to give Daniel a small smile in return. "Deal. I'll try to be more honest about everything I'm feeling and experiencing. I'll try not to be so tough. But, right now...please tell me. What's the obvious question that I should have been wondering about all week?"

I
was
kind of curious.

Full lips twitching, Daniel cocked one dark brow just a degree or two.

"Well...haven't you been the least bit curious about why vampires need to have children? Or why we can't just 'create' children by turning human children into vampires? Brenda said that when she told you that Abbott and I are vampires, you didn't ask either of those questions, and you didn't even ask how it's possible that we
could
impregnate a human woman."

Of course. I knew I
should
have asked those questions of Brenda right away. Clearly, I'd been focusing so much on how and when I was going to get my supernatural powers back that I hadn't been paying enough attention to my act of behaving like a regular frozen woman, and not an assassin who already knew most of the answers to questions that any other frozen woman might ask. But now I had a second chance to be convincing.

I forced myself to give Daniel another little smile, at the same time fighting disgust at myself because the sun was streaming through the windows again, and it was making his pale blue eyes appear positively dazzling. And I couldn't seem to help myself from appreciating them.

"Oh, of course. I feel so stupid now that I didn't ask those questions earlier. To be honest, though, I
have
been kind of wondering how it's possible that a vampire could get a human woman pregnant, but...." I turned my gaze away from Daniel's face, really getting into my regular-frozen-woman act now. "Maybe I'm just a little shy when it comes to questions about reproduction and...and...."

"And sex?"

Daniel reached for one of my hands and gave it a squeeze, stunning me for the second time in as many moments. The first was when he'd just come right out and said
sex
, no euphemistic phrases like
sleeping
together
or
making love
. For some reason, his unabashed manner of speaking made a little heat rise to my cheeks, and I kept my gaze turned away from his face, now truly feeling a bit shy, or hesitant. Or something else I couldn't even identify.

Daniel gave my hand another squeeze before speaking again. "Harper, please don't ever feel shy about discussing sex with Abbott and me. You can discuss literally anything with us. Your wants, your desires...even your deepest, most secret erotic fantasies. Abbott and I don't want to just
use
your body to make a baby, you know. We both want to give you pleasure.

“We've both already discussed this in private and have agreed that because of...well, mutual tastes we share when it comes to women and bedroom activities, it will bring both of
us
pleasure to give
you
pleasure. We're the kind of men who truly enjoy doing that. Besides, it just seems like the nice thing to do. After all, you're going to have a baby with one of us; seems like the least we can do in return is give you a few dozen orgasms powerful enough to make you see stars."

CHAPTER THREE

         Daniel's comment about giving me orgasms powerful enough to make me see stars hung in the air for just a split-second. Then, face flaming, I suddenly choked a little, seemingly on thin air. Now that he'd said what he had, I definitely couldn't turn my gaze to his face for some reason. I couldn't have even if my life had depended on it. I felt somehow naked, exposed, even though I was fully clothed.

Without missing a beat, he gave my hand another gentle squeeze, then began slowly stroking the back of it with his thumb. "You, Abbott, and I...the three of us are going to be doing a lot of work on making a baby together. We need to become completely comfortable...all of us."

Having a sudden thought that instantly made my stomach do a flip, or maybe a
lurch
was more like it, I finally turned my face toward Daniel. "Do you mean...well, when you say that 'the three of us' are going to be doing a lot of work on making a baby...
together
...do you mean...."

With my mouth cotton-ball dry, I swallowed, completely unable to continue.

Daniel gave me a half-grin so sexy and enticing it could have only been described as
devastating
. "Yes. If you're guessing that the three of us are going to be doing baby-making work all together, at the same time, the three of us in the same bed at once, you're correct.

“See, Abbott and I came to the conclusion that trading off nights with you might lead to jealousy, or maybe to you picking a 'favorite,' and we both want an equal chance at having a baby with you. So, we've just decided to 'share' in the most equal way possible.
If
this is all right with you, of course. We figured this arrangement might even add to your pleasure. Maybe even greatly."

With my stomach doing a wild flip, as if I were on a roller coaster, I turned my gaze from Daniel's face to a plush, cream-colored rug on the floor again. And when I spoke, my voice came out in a cross between a whisper and a squeak.

"That's fine."

"So, you agree to it? You agree to allow Abbott and me both into your bed at once?"

With my face feeling as if it were engulfed in flames, I moved my head in the slightest of nods, sensing Daniel and Abbott both looking at me intently but determined not to look at
them
. "Yes. I agree to it. I guess so."

Daniel was still slowly stroking the back of my hand with his thumb, this lazy, sensuous caressing of my skin making me almost want to
yell
yes, that I agreed to it. Even more so when he picked up my hand and pressed his lips to it, planting a slow kiss on my bare skin that made me dizzy.

"Good. I don't think you'll regret agreeing to this, Harper."

I still couldn't look at him, or Abbott. I could, however, see the outline of Abbott's long, lean, muscular body in my peripheral vision, and the sight of it was serving to increase my dizziness.

Daniel lowered my hand and resumed stroking the back of it with his thumb. "Maybe after Abbott and I finish answering your questions, we can leave you for a while, then come back with a special dinner for you later, along with a bottle or two of wine we can all share. That's another unusual thing about us Darkness Coven vampires, besides our healthy-hued skin. Unlike some other vampires,
we
can drink liquids if we like, even alcohol.

“And we don't
need
to, but we sometimes like to. Especially when there's an opportunity to have a drink with a beautiful woman like you. So, how does that all sound? Question answering, maybe with you sitting between Abbott and me on the couch now, then later, dinner for you and drinks for us all. And then...whatever else might happen."

Daniel's words, combined with his caressing of my hand, had me under such a sensuous spell that I couldn't remember exactly how I was supposed to be acting, or even why I was supposed to be acting. All I knew was that I wanted to say yes. I wanted dinner and drinks with Daniel and Abbott, and then I wanted them to undress me, and then take turns ravishing me, bringing me to the powerful orgasms Daniel had promised.

I'd actually never had an orgasm I would have described as "powerful." Maybe "satisfactory." Clark had been a decent enough lover, I supposed, but I'd certainly never seen stars with him before. Sometimes I'd even had to make myself issue a faux moan here and there, just so that his ego wouldn't be bruised by complete silence on my end during some of our lovemaking sessions.

During the entire course of our relationship, he'd never once asked me if I was happy and satisfied in bed. Although I'd never asked
him
, either. I'd always just figured that since he always climaxed, even when I didn't, he must have been at least fairly happy.

Before I could respond to Daniel by saying that the evening's plans sounded good to me, his and Abbott's phones began going off near-simultaneously. Daniel didn't make any moved to answer his, just went back to kissing and stroking my hand, but Abbott answered his right away. He listened for just a few seconds, then said all right, and be right there, then hung up.

"We have to go, Dan. A Saint spy was able to get by the northern guard, and there may be others along with him. We're going to have to do a sweep of the city."

Abbott stood up from the couch, pocketing his phone. With a riot of butterflies erupting in my still-flipping stomach, I saw that something was kind of tenting the front of his jeans. This something was large, bulging. Realizing that Abbott had started to become erect just from the nature of Daniel's and my conversation, I presumed, and maybe from my responses to that conversation, I had to work hard not to let my jaw drop.

I couldn't prevent my rate of breathing from accelerating, though, and it hit me all at once that I was no longer even remotely acting. I wanted both of the men in the room badly, so badly that my desire for them had pushed all thoughts of my murdered coven to the back of my mind. Which was shameful, I knew. It was beyond shameful. But I could tell that fighting my body's urges was going to be an uphill battle.

Not like I actually had a choice whether to fight them or not. I knew that completing the mission I'd been frozen to do was going to require me to literally sleep with the enemy.
Maybe many, many times,
I thought, as I stifled a sigh while allowing my gaze to linger on the bulge in the front of Abbott's jeans for just a second longer.

If just a little provocative talking had caused his male member to stiffen noticeably, I couldn't imagine how large and hard it might be when he was fully aroused. I wondered if Daniel's member might also be large.

Still crouched at the side of my overstuffed chair, Daniel seemed hesitant to leave, but Abbott began walking out of the living room and gesturing to him to follow.

"Come on, Dan. Business before pleasure."

With a look of clear irritation, Daniel glanced back at Abbott. "Just one second. I have one last thing to say to our sweet Miss North."

"Well, please...make it quick. We do need to go. Our city patrol is waiting for their leaders."

After turning back to me, Daniel just looked deeply into my eyes for a moment with his own eyes holding a little twinkle. "Do you know how else I can tell that you're maybe still mentally recovering from being thawed?"

I gave my head a little shake, curious.

Daniel smiled. "You answered the door wearing only one sock. And the entire time the three of us have been visiting, you haven't even seemed to notice. Your feet are adorable, by the way."

Having rendered me thoroughly flustered, embarrassed, and speechless, Daniel smiled again, gave my hand one final kiss, and then stood. "I'd like to plant a kiss along one of your delicate little arches the next time I see you. That will be just my starting point."

With that, he turned and strode away to join Abbott, leaving me sitting in my chair with a feeling of something electric racing through me from my head to my toes. But that feeling of electricity suddenly stopped when Abbott spoke to me over his shoulder as he left the living room.

"I don't think we'll be back tonight, Harper. Unfortunately."

I mentally swore in frustration at The Saints. If one of their damned spies hadn't gotten caught, I would have soon been enjoying what I had a feeling would be the most sexually satisfying night of my life.

But then I remembered that The Saints weren't my enemies. The two men I was so eager to hop in the sack with were.
They
were the ones responsible for killing my coven family. Dedrick had even suggested that it
had
likely been them personally. Clark hadn't said that he thought it had or hadn't been them personally, but he
had
said that he was sure that the slaughter hadn't happened without the two leaders' direction or at least approval.

Once I heard my apartment door close behind Abbott and Daniel, I all but flew up from my chair and began pacing, irate with myself. It was one thing if I basically
had
to sleep with the two of them to get them to trust me in order for me to accomplish my mission, but
wanting
to sleep with them was a different thing entirely. I couldn't believe I'd allowed myself to
want
to.

All I could think of in my defense was that maybe Daniel had cast some kind of a spell over me that had made me especially susceptible to the feel of his fingers on my skin. I knew that was a stretch, though. Other than possessing superhuman strength that gave them the ability to, among other things, hurl each other hundreds of feet in the air, vampires typically didn't possess any skills as far as spells and wizardry. It seemed much more likely that I had just
let
myself fall prey to some very human, very sensual feelings.

After pacing around the living room for a few minutes with my anger at myself only increasing, I opened the glass French doors in the middle of a wide row of windows and stepped out onto the balcony, hoping that some bracing late-autumn air might cool me off a bit.

And cool me off a bit in more ways than one. To my extreme irritation, images of the large bulge in Abbott's jeans had been stubbornly flashing through my mind the entire time I'd been pacing.

Placing my hands on the high, wrought-iron railing surrounding the balcony, I looked down on the city, trusting that the view from the thirty-ninth floor would be enough to distract me from the unwanted thoughts spinning around in my head. I wasn't the kind of person who was absolutely terrified of heights and looking down from high places, but I
was
the kind of person who felt plenty enough rattled by it, usually just enough to get my mind focused on the distance between me and the ground, and nothing else.

It was now late afternoon, and because it was November, the sun was already sinking low, painting the few dozen skyscrapers around me in shades of brilliant orange and gold. The skyscrapers were all on the shorter side, each of them being anywhere from thirty to fifty stories tall. In "my" day, some of them might have even been considered high-rises rather than skyscrapers, but since these buildings were probably the tallest buildings for hundreds of miles around, and since they constituted the entirety of the city skyline, the definition seemed to fit.

The majority of them were made from gleaming steel and glass, which made them all appear silvery in the dim light just before dawn. I'd taken to having my coffee outside around that time every day, just to see the beautiful sight. And also because I'd been having difficulty sleeping since I'd been thawed, or staying asleep, rather, despite the fact that my bed was gigantic and just the right level of firm and soft.

After tossing and turning all night, my routine had been to enjoy my coffee out on the balcony, and then flip through a paperback until mid-morning, when I'd take a long nap before lunch. Confined to the apartment, it wasn't like there was a lot else I could do.

Across the street from my building, the tallest skyscraper in the city stood proud and shining, with a steel-framed wide base and three progressively narrower levels ascending to the top, where an enormous black-white-and-red flag, the flag of the city-state of New Detroit, flapped in a stiff breeze.