Secrets (The Forever series, Book 8) (16 page)

“The way you are staring at that thing, you either have cold
feet or you think she is going to say no,” a voice says from across the table.
He hadn’t even noticed that someone had sat down. She peers over the top of the
lid and whistles, “I’m guessing cold feet because only a fool would say ‘no’ to
a rock like that and your pretty blue eyes.”

Devon glares at her, not in the mood for flirting or talking
for that matter. She smiles back at him and he studies her closer. Black hair,
brown eyes. Pretty enough, small rack, but it suits her. It’s the woman who
served him at the bar.

“Neither,” he says. “I’m asking her later and she won’t say
no.”

“Mm, confidence. I like it,” she says. “So why the angry
face? Did the diamond do something to piss you off?”

He snorts in amusement, “If only it were that simple.”

“Ah, another woman perhaps?” she asks with a raised eyebrow.

“How can you tell?” he asks sarcastically.

“Gee, the untouched beer, the brooding, the dark quiet
corner. Take your pick.” She drums her fingers on the table as he stays silent.
“Do you love her?”

“Which one?” he asks, and it’s her turn to snort in
amusement.

“The one you are going to ask. Obviously you are in love
with the other one.”

“Yes. To both,” he says shortly.

“I take it the other one is not in love with you?” she asks.

What is with the twenty questions? Nosey bitch. But he
answers her anyway.

“Yeah, she is.”

“Then what’s the problem? Did you get the other girl in
trouble?” she asks with a twinkle in her eye to take the sting out of her
words.

Devon smiles. “No, no trouble. And she is married.”

“Oh. Harsh,” she says.

“Yeah.” No kidding.

“Well she could always leave him. Did you ask her to?” she
presses.

Why is he talking to this woman? Yet he keeps answering her
questions.

“No. She is married to my sib…err…best friend.”

“Ah, I see. You should ask her though.”

He shakes his head, “No. She won’t leave him. I don’t want
her to.”

“So you settle?”

His eyes snap to hers in anger, “I am not settling. If you
knew anything about me you would know that I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t
love her and want to marry her.”

“Okay, keep your pants on,” she says with a quick glance
down. “We’ve all been in a love triangle at some point in our lives. Just
thought it would help to talk about it.”

“Sorry,” he mumbles.

She shrugs and says, “This other woman is your sire, isn’t
she?”

Devon’s eyes find hers again, “Excuse me?”

“You don’t have to pretend with me. We have our fair share
of Vampires,” she whispers the word, “around here.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” he says
haughtily.

“Sure you do,” she prods. “I can tell a Vamp from a human.
Like I said, we have our fair share coming through here. It’s all to do with
the legend.”

“Legend?” he asks her, confused.

She leans forward conspiratorially. “You know the legend.
Isn’t that why you are passing through?”

“No, I was born here,” he says, and then curses himself for
his slip-up.

“I’d remember you if you had been,” she says with narrowed
eyes. “Unless it was before my time?” she adds with a wink.

“What legend?” he asks then, curious in spite of himself. He
has never heard of any legend surrounding this area.

“The legend of the powerful Vampiress,” she begins and he
rolls his eyes at the cheesy term, but she ignores him and continues, “Who came
to this village centuries ago heartbroken from a lost love. She roamed the
streets in despair feeding from the weak and needy until a human found her and
fell in love with her as she did him.” She pauses and takes a sip of his
Guinness and he is staring at her with a look on his face that can only be
described as disbelief. This tale is starting to sound extremely familiar.
“They made plans to be together, to share blood and have eternal life together
under the full moon, but they were thwarted by the human’s parents. His mother
killed her own son so that the Vampiress couldn’t take him and change him into
a night-walking monster, but it didn’t work. The man was still alive as the
Vampiress dropped her blood into his mouth to save him, dooming him to a life
of darkness and blood drinking.”

Devon gulps and downs the remains of his pint in his
astonishment.

“The evil Vampiress took the man away after killing his
parents, slaughtering them in their own home, never to return here again.”

He stares at her as she finishes her story with a flourish.
“And that my friend, is the legend that brings creatures from far and wide to
see if they can catch a sight of the Vampire who has remained elusive for five
hundred years, staying away from his village in his torment and grief over his
murdered parents and lost chance at the bonding ritual that would have tied him
to his sire for all eternity. He’s kind of like the Loch Ness Monster. A few
have sworn they have seen him return and roam the hill at midnight, but I can’t
say that I ever have.”

Devon bursts out laughing and she smirks at him. “Are you
fucking serious?” he asks. He cannot believe there is a tale about him and Liz.
Who on Earth even knew what happened? Sure, some of the details are incorrect,
but the basic gist is definitely their story. Oh man, Lizzie is going to get a
kick out of this when he tells her. Evil Vampiress! That’s fucking hysterical.
And he can honestly say that he has never roamed a hill in torment at midnight
in his entire supernatural life. Over his slaughtered parents or not.

“Quite serious,” she says. “A non-believer. You should
beware. He might come for you.” She laughs.

“Doubtful,” he says and pockets the ring box he had been
twirling in his hands. “But thank you. I needed a good laugh.”

“Anytime, blue eyes,” she says as they both stand. “She’s a
lucky girl to be landing a catch like you. If she does say no, you know where
to find me.” She winks at him again and walks back to the bar. Over her
shoulder she says, “Oh and tell your evil Vampiress of a sire that she is one
dumb chick for letting you get away.” She laughs as he gapes at her. How did
she know it was him? “Your secret is safe with me, but you had better get out
of here before someone else figures it out.”

He nods, dumbstruck, and beats it back to the car in a
hurry. Still shaking his head as he pulls back out onto the road, he calls Jess
and tells her he’ll be three hours and that she had better be waiting for him,
just as he likes her, which is naked and wet as Hell.

She is both when Devon strides into their bedroom exactly
three hours later and he feels himself go hard again. This time he gets to come
and no one is stopping him even if the Earth threatens to swallow them up. He
already has the ring in his fist, so when he hurriedly sheds his clothes, he
leaps straight onto the bed. “Hi,” he says as he kisses her.

“Hi,” she says back breathlessly, when he lets her up for
air.

“Jess,” he says holding up the ring. “Will you marry me?”

She stares at him, then the ring and then back to him with
her mouth wide open. “Really?” she asks hesitantly.

“Yes, really.” Devon says and smiles. “I love you, I want to
make you my wife.” Right before I ask you to bang my best friend when he needs
you, he adds silently to himself.

“Yes!” she screams at him and throws herself onto him,
kissing him fervently and sliding herself onto his cock, before he can push the
ring on her finger. He laughs at her excitement as she holds up her hand even
while she is riding him. She puts her hands on his chest and says, “I love you
so much. I will do anything for you.”

He smiles at her and thinks,
good, because I have
something I need you to do
.

“I love you too,” he murmurs as he comes inside her. She
gasps at his haste and he flips her over with a mumbled apology, twining their
fingers together and pushing her hands above her head as he kisses her. He
pulls back and lets go of her hands. He kneels back and pushes her legs up and
over so that her feet are touching the headboard. Fuck, he loves how flexible
she is. He sinks back into her, as he gets hard again seeing her that way and
pounds into her deep inside so that she comes quickly. She opens her legs wide,
so wide that she is doing a split before she wraps them around him. He drives
into her now with his mouth on hers, his hands on her huge tits, her nipples
taut under his palms and she moans as he tugs on them. He flips her back over
so she is riding him and he does what he has always wanted to do to Liv, but
she has never let him. He drops his fangs and bites into her nipple, suckling
from her as her orgasm rips through her. He knows Liv keeps this for her sire
only and now he will do the same with Jess. He will forbid her to let anyone
else do this to her. This is for him only. “Fuck,” she breathes. “I love it
when you do that.”

“I love it when you come all over my cock,” he murmurs as he
pulls on her hips to ride him faster. Her tits are bouncing in his face and he
wants his dick in between them. They are big enough to push together and slide
in between and it feels like heaven. He pulls out of her and inserts his
fingers, wiggling them around. He removes his fingers and slides them in
between her breasts and over her nipples, as her eyes go dark with hunger. She
knows what he wants to do to her and she is all for it. She is a saucy little
thing and he loves it. She pushes her breasts together as he looms over her and
pushes himself in between the mounds of flesh. She sticks her tongue out and as
he thrusts she catches the tip as it darts in and out of her wet, luscious
mouth. Devon groans as he looks down at her and he can’t hold back as she opens
her mouth to catch the cum as it spurts out of him. She wipes the bits that
missed and licks it off her fingers. There is nothing sexier than a woman who
swallows and he falls down on her, kissing her, tasting himself on her lips as
he slides back into her, ready to see only to her now. Her pleasure is all that
matters. He bites into her neck slowly, savoring her taste when that thought
pops in again that he has been trying to push away: He wants to know what Cole
tastes like. He has been with guys before, who hasn’t when you’ve been around
the block several hundred times with women? You get bored and curious. The
orgies in the old days were prime spots for trying out new things, when the
sexual energy rolling off that many Vampires was enough to drive you so wild
that you fucked the nearest thing to you whether it be woman or man. But he has
never sought out male company before and nor would he ever have thought he
would. Jess brings him back to his thoughts as she screams loudly as she comes in
intense throbs around him and he lets go again. Breathing deeply, he rolls off
her and stares at the ceiling as she snuggles into him, admiring the ring he
has given her. The thought of Cole joining him and Jess is most appealing and
he will suggest this to her. There is no way Cole is ready to take that next
step with him though. It will be several decades, if not longer, before he even
thinks about it, let alone acts on it, but when he does, Devon will be there.
With that thought making him hard all over again, he pulls Jess onto him and
she rides him slowly and sensually as she knows he likes after they have
fucked. She is eager to please him always and knows just what he wants, when he
wants it and he knows he has made the right choice in asking her to be his
wife. It is his turn to be worshipped and adored, and to have everything that
he wants. He is a sire now and he wants everything that entitles him to. He is
a sire now and he has to let his own go.

Chapter 7

Buckinghamshire, England, 2013 – Lincoln

He likes it here. He would like to stay. He wonders if Liv
would stay? It raises a Pack problem though. He wonders if they would move
here? Seems a bit too much to ask of them. But he likes it here. The grounds
are extensive and the woods are ideal. Lincoln has been jogging around the
estate for over an hour now. He likes taking the time to exercise. It’s great
thinking time. He stops outside the terrace and bends over, hands on his knees
as his breathing slows. He wants to stay here, he thinks again as he drops to
the floor. Two hundred push-ups, followed by two hundred sit-ups. And he’s
done. He knows she is watching him from inside the house. She always watches
him. It’s a little unnerving, but flattering, he supposes. She’s a pretty
enough girl, but she is just a girl. And she is no Liv. Lincoln never thought
he had a type before, but he definitely does now, and busty, blue-eyed
brunette, newbie Vampires is
not
it. He flops back to the damp grass and
squints up at the weak early morning sun. He hopes that Liv is okay. She said
she would be back tomorrow, but he is worried about her being somewhere where
he can’t get to her. He only sided with her sire because he knew it is what she
would have wanted him to do: to trust her. She relies on him to be supportive
of her crazy ideas and he will always support her no matter what. All the
others treat her like a little China doll and it is doing her no favors. He
knows her sire only agreed to her request, much as he did, because she asked
him to and not because he wanted to. Is it the same thing? Lincoln doesn’t
really know. He doesn’t get Vampire relationships for the most part and most
especially theirs. It is all a bit too weird for his liking, but he goes along
with it because if he doesn’t, then basically he doesn’t get to be with her and
that is unacceptable. He does try to make her life easier. She has so many
people demanding so much of her. He has every right to make the same demands,
maybe even more so, and yet he never does. He never throws his weight around
because it would just cause her problems. It has worked nicely in his favor
though, he has to admit, as she sees him as the reasonable one. The one that
she can rely on and trust with everything. There are things that she has told
only him and he likes that. He loves it, in fact, that she can be completely
open with him and she knows he won’t judge her or get mad at her or be
disappointed in her like the others would. He’d like to take credit for having
set it up this way, but he can’t. The cards just fell that way and now he
wouldn’t change it for the world. Her secret-keeper, she calls him. It makes
him feel special and loved. She makes him feel special and loved in a way that
no one else has or ever will. Even though he doesn’t get her full time, the
time they share more than makes up for it, quality over quantity in a big way.
He knew it was a risky move making her his Alpha, but there was this driving
force behind the split second decision that they made. Well, that he made and
she accepted. He thinks it was fate, or destiny or some other such thing. All
he knows is that she was there in that forest because of him. All the other
reasons aside, it was because she was meant to be with him. Be with him. He
wishes she was with him all of the time. The other days in the clearing in the
woods with her were probably about the best days of his life. He never wanted
them to end. When he walked her back to the house on Saturday night, he knew
that everyone was inside the billiards room, which leads out to the terrace. He
noticed, but she was preoccupied. He wanted the others to see them together. He
knows it caused her a problem with her husband when he kissed her and suckled
her on the terrace, but he doesn’t care. They needed to see them together as he
always seems to get dismissed, which is only because it comes back to the fact
that he doesn’t throw his weight around. He is caught up in a never ending
fight with himself over whether he should remain as he is, with her trusting
him and being able to be herself, or step up and take what is rightfully his.
There isn’t a Shifter in the world that would deny him his true place by her
side. Her Vampire relationships don’t mean anything to them. There is no claim.
He knows they speak about their “bonds” but there is nothing to prove it. As
far as he can tell, it is just heightened emotions. But the two of them have a
proper connection. He knows it was all her when she contacted Cole that way
before. It had nothing to do with them as a couple or as a Vampire thing. It
was her and her magick, which is probably heavily influenced by the bond she
has with him. He closes his eyes and concentrates. He wants to speak to her
now, make sure she is okay.