Penn, Jenny - Chasing Lacie [Sea Island Wolves 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (10 page)

“I guess I could also point out that it’s none of your business and—”

“Baby, everything about you is our business. Now,” Chance leveled a hard look at her, “let’s talk about this ‘hottie.’”

“There’s nothing to tell.”

“We’ll start with did he introduce himself to you or you to him?”

“We’re not going to start anywhere.” Lacie refused to give in to intimidation, an easy feat given she knew Chance wouldn’t actually hurt her. “I’m not going to fuel your possessive egotism. TJ Carver doesn’t matter.”

“He does,” Chance snarled. “He could be—”

“What? A demon?” Lacie snorted. “I don’t think so.”

Davis caught her chin in a rough palm. Forcing her to meet his gaze, he quelled the words on her lips with the somber intensity in his eyes.

“Why? Because he was nice? Attractive? You can’t go by that. Minions might look normal, even be charming, but they’ll torture and butcher you just for fun. Acolytes like to offer their victims up in sacrifice, and disciples, they’re gifted with the ability to command hellfire.”

“Hellfire?” That didn’t sound good.

“It’s an eternal flame,” Davis explained. “It can’t be doused with water or smothered with a sheet. It consumes its victims all the way to their soul.”

Just the idea of being burned alive made her shiver in terror. Then again, all the options sounded horrible. That had to be farthest thing from what she’d sensed about TJ.

“I understand.” Lacie pulled her chin free of Davis’s grip but still held it high. “But I think you’re wrong about TJ.”

“Just answer one question,” Davis insisted. “At any point when you were with Carver, did you bleed?”

Lacie’s mouth opened instantly to shoot down that absurd question, but before she could start, her memory stopped her short. Snapping her jaw closed, she glared at Davis. “How did you know that?”

“Shit,” Chance muttered, drawing her gaze to his grim expression. “Did he keep any of your blood?”

“Of course not,” Lacie snapped. “You’re making it sound like he amputated a limb. I just scratched myself on his ring. It was barely a nick, a drop of blood, not a pumping geyser for him to fill a bucket with.”

“A ring? What did it look like?”

“I don’t know.” Lacie shrugged, not even bothering to try and remember. “Maybe it was gold?”

“Like a wedding band?” Davis taunted her.

“No.” Lacie shot him a dirty look for even suggesting such a thing. “I wouldn’t hit on a man wearing one of those.”

“So you admit you were trying to pick up a demon.”

“You haven’t convinced me that he was anything other than a cute, sweet, hot-as-sin man…wait, maybe that’s not the best comparison.” Lacie blinked innocently, taking a moment to appear to consider her words. “How about hot enough to make your grandma’s panties wet?”

“That’s disgusting.” Davis instantly drew back in revulsion.

“So hot even the most frigid woman would bend over and beg?”

“You just keep going, honey. Dig that grave deeper.”

“So hot he could seduce a lycan’s mate away and make sure she didn’t even remember his name?”

“And he’s that hot because he’s cute and sweet,” Chance interjected himself loudly into their argument, strangely enough not participating in it. At her look, he nodded like he was some kind of wise man. “See, I know how you women think. Sex appeal is based twenty-five percent on physical appeal. Another quarter goes to confidence, but half of it is all about personality.

“So tell me, did you think you found Mr. Right when he offered you a handkerchief to stop the bleeding?” Chance smiled as her mouth fell open. “Or did you realize he was perfect when he assured there was no need to have it cleaned for him? Or am I wrong and you didn’t try to insist that you’d have it laundered in a veiled attempt to see him again?”

No. He wasn’t. It was almost like he’d been there or talked to somebody Lacie had told all the details to. That would be her mother, from what Davis had said earlier. “Man, is there anything my mom didn’t tell you?”

“Your mom didn’t tell me about the handkerchief,” Chance corrected her. Straightening back onto his feet, he barely paused to round out that answer. “It’s an old trick. One well used.”

“Yeah, thanks!” Lacie’s raised her voice as he sauntered off to the cab. “Great talking to you.”

“He’s got to make a call.” Davis drew her eyes in his direction with that helpful tidbit, as if she couldn’t see Chance pulling a cell phone out of the truck. “You hungry?”

As exhausted and sore as the morning’s activities had left her, Lacie should have been starving. The stress, though, of their conversation had killed her appetite, leaving her more interested in answers than food.

Ignoring Davis as he stretched back to snag a picnic basket strapped to the side of the bed, she pressed for more details. “It’s because of the handkerchief, right? Now you two are convinced TJ is a demon.”

“No way to know.” Davis paused, more focused on undoing the basket’s latch. “At least not until we kill him.”

Lacie shivered, fearing for the first time what he was capable of. “But you don’t even know—”

“Using the ring was a message. It made his allegiance quite clear.” Just as clear was that Davis would not even tolerate the possibility of a threat against her. “Peach?”

Lacie drew back from the sticky, sweet piece of fruit he held up to her lips. “This ring thing? Why do they use it?”

“Same reason we do, to verify our mates.”

Before Lacie could respond with another question the peach slice reappeared to brush a cool, wet kiss over her lips. Left with little choice but to accept the offering, she bit into the thin, rounded skin of the pinkish fruit, the sweet juices bleeding down her chin.

Before she could wipe away the sticky trail, Davis’s head dipped, and with one soft, teasing lick, he cleaned her like they were a pair of cats. Lacie would have loved to see his reaction to that comparison but forgot to speak when he offered her a lopsided smile that showed off a dimple. Amazed at how happy he appeared in that moment, she couldn’t help but stare as Davis’s teeth flashed white as he bit into a peach slice.

A second later it was back at her lips. Giving over to the moment, she took a bite. This time, though, her hand was already in position to pick up any juice. Davis smirked as he lifted it back toward his mouth.

“Spoilsport.”

He sounded just pouty enough to make her smile. So big and hard, but underneath it all Davis was pure sweetness. That personality trait stood in contrast to the golden-tan skin stretched taut enough over his chest muscles that she could see the faint indentions around his veins and tendons as his arm shifted.

“No more licking until you answer all my questions.” Her voice came out husky despite her determination not to be distracted by the lust thickening in her veins. “I want to know why you use the ring. I thought you guys used seers to find your mates?”

“Followed by a blood test to verify,” Davis added before popping a chunk of peach into his mouth. “Seers can be wrong.”

“I guess nobody’s infallible, huh?” Lacie eyed the jar of fruit, her hunger having returned with the first taste. Maybe she could satisfy two cravings at once.

“Not even us.” Davis offered her the next slice, appearing to almost read her mind.

Lacie took it as she considered Davis’s calm statement. His acceptance of the possibility of failure sent another cold tendril down Lacie’s spine. Desperately seeking assurance, she tried to remind him why he’d win.

“But you’re trained for this kind of thing.”

“No. Not for this kind of thing.” With a hand that trembled, Davis reached up to brush a drying lock of hair back from her face. “We never really had anything to lose before.”

That was as sweet as it was annoying. When she wanted him to be sensitive, he chased her through the fields. Now that she craved the reassurance of his cockiness, Davis was acting all besotted.

“But you have fought demons before, right?” Lacie pressed, as Davis began rooting through the basket again.

“You want turkey and Swiss or chicken and cheddar?”

Blindly snatching the closest tinfoil-wrapped sandwich, Lacie refused to allow Davis to ignore her question. “You know how to kill them and their minions, acolytes, disciples, and whatever other kind of creatures they have in their army. Right?”

Davis hesitated before agreeing, his hands stilling over the crumbled edge of foil. “Yes, but not in this world.”

“And that makes a difference?” Along with knowing nothing about demons, Lacie had a hard time comprehending what the other worlds would be like. Even in her wildest imagination, she’d always pictured places just like Earth. Apparently they weren’t.

“It matters.” Davis nodded at the sandwich lying forgotten in her lap. “You going to eat that?”

“I’m not exactly hungry. About the differences bet
we
en
worl
d
s—”

“You were all upset with us earlier for not being considerate. And here I thought I had an ace in the hole because I went out of my way to pack this thoughtful picnic for my mate.”

“You didn’t pack the picnic.” Chance reappeared alongside the bed. “Betty packed the picnic.”

“And I asked her to do it.”

“Who’s Betty?” Getting sidetracked by the feminine name, she couldn’t help but give in to the temptation to ask that question.

“My dad’s cook,” Chance answered, his attention focused on checking out the contents of the basket. “Which is why you shouldn’t be all blown over by Davis’s thoughtfulness.”

“Yes, she should.” Davis shot Chance a glare, pausing before taking a bite of his food. “It wasn’t even on your stupid list. Sustenance, the first thing a good man provides his mate.”

“Only if he’s a wuss.” Chance shot her a smirk and a wink. “Otherwise, the first thing a
real
man gives his mate is the kind of pleasure that makes her glow for hours. And I must say, you look radiant, baby.”

Lacie rolled her eyes at his lecherous perusal. Chance might be amusing her, but he had Davis all flushed and looking ready for battle.

“Say, where are the peaches?” Chance scowled as he started pulling things out and dumping them on the quilt. “I told Betty to put a jar in.”

“Already eaten.”

“What? Damnit, Davis. Those were my peaches.”

“See,” Davis shot her a conspiratorial look as he nodded at Chance, “thinking only of himself.”

“No, I—” Chance stopped abruptly, appearing to reconsider whatever he’d been about to say. “I brought them for Lacie.”

“And she ate them.”

“And now she’s waiting to hear why fighting a demon in this world would be different than another one,” Lacie stated sharply enough to have both men giving her grumpy looks.

“It’s not really relevant, baby. All you need to know is we’ll take care of you.” Chance plucked a sandwich out of the pile and gave it his full focus.

“No,” Lacie disagreed. “What I need to know is how you plan on taking care of this situation. That starts with you explaining what’s so different about this world.”

“I can’t explain it all, because I never studied the whys behind world formations.” Davis shot Chance a look, clearly inviting his friend to step up. When Chance just shrugged, Davis turned back to give her what little insight he apparently had.

“What I do know is not all worlds are created equally. Earth,” Davis used his second sandwich to gesture at the pastures, “is a highly ordered world. Not a lot of room for magic. That limits our power just as it does our enemies.”

“I see,” Lacie whispered even though she really didn’t. What she did understand was the handicap would be shared. That had to be a good thing, especially considering the demon had hellfire on his side. Hopefully they could tip the scales in their favor with a good plan.

“So, what do we do now?” She looked expectantly at her mates. “I mean besides eat lunch.”

“Well, now you tell me everything you remember about TJ.”

“And then,” Lacie prodded, wanting a bigger picture answer.

“Then we have sex.” Chance smiled at her, his eyes taking on that special sparkle. “Lots of sex.”

“Sex?” He had to be kidding, only he didn’t look like it. “How can you think about sex when we’re talking about demons?”

“You’re not wearing any clothes,” Davis retorted instantly. “Besides, what else are we going to do to pass time while we hide?”

“
Hide
?” That had to be a joke because Chance and Davis didn’t strike her as the type to hide in the closet. “You two big, bad, ‘we got perimeter guards and fought demons before’ are going to tuck your tails between your legs and go
hide
?”

“Yep.” Chance nodded, looking completely unfazed by her anger.

“Are you insane?” Lacie had to ask because if not, then maybe she was. “Haven’t you ever heard the expression the best defense is a good offense?”

“And we got one,” Davis assured her. “We call it the pack. Everybody has their job. Your job is to stay alive. Ours is to make sure you stay alive.”

“And everybody else fights.” That didn’t make Lacie feel any better. Actually it kind of made her feel worse. “Why are we so special?”