Sins of the Undead Patriot (32 page)

Vaihan shook his head. Why would he go and do something silly like that? He was so deep into Leera, he didn’t know up from down.

“I knew you wouldn’t. Do you know how I’m certain of that?” He arched his eyebrow.

“No.” But he was interested in the man’s deductive abilities. Did two plus fucking two add up to four in his warped brain?

“Because you left her scared and ripe for the picking, after she derailed your career. Rowley took real good care of her that night, when he took her home from the hospital.” He smiled. “Let’s have a listen to the audio.” Barton pulled out his BlackBerry from his holster.

The feds had the location of where she was staying bugged. Part of him didn’t want to hear how well another man cared for his woman...his love. Yet, he was unable to tell Barton not to play the audio.

“I’ve nearly got it.” Barton scrolled through emails. “Here we go...” He clicked.

From the speaker came static.

“I’ll make sure this time that no other man will want you when I’m done.” Rowley’s tone held sexual hunger mixed with anger. The man was threatening her.

Vaihan didn’t like where the man seemed to be going with his comment. Would he hurt her? He claimed to love her. Leera hadn’t said anything about him abusing her. But would she tell him, given what had happened between them?

Rustling fabric. “Rowley.” Leera sniffled. “Stop.”

What the hell was he doing to her? Vaihan swallowed, as he slowed his breathing to hear what human ears wouldn’t pick up from the audio.

Movement and deep breathing. “What do you want me to stop? My need to have you or you wanting me?” Mattress springs creaked. Huffing and puffing. Fabric tore. Skin smacked skin. She gave a gasp laced with fear. A
thump
was followed by a
bang
.

“Why are you doing this?” Leera’s voice shook.

Vaihan held his breath, as tension crushed his chest.

“You’re mine.” Rowley’s voice rose. “I need to remind you of why you’d promised to love me forever.”

Leera whimpered. A zipper being undone echoed.

“What is this, some predatory male marking thing?” she screamed.

Rowley spat, then groaned. “I’m reclaiming what’s mine, Lee-lee, you.”

A wet fleshy sound followed, and it wasn’t hard to deduce he’d parted the folds of her sex. “Get off me!” she screamed.

Silence.

She never let on. How was he to have known? And what choice did he have? Rowley may hurt her but he couldn’t kill her, at least, not without intending to. But the poison in
his
body could kill her if he didn’t watch her like hawk.

“She is an assignment, that is all. The fact that she’s the wife of the man you killed doesn’t change that. No matter what misplaced guilt you carry over the events of that night.”

Even if he could never be with Leera, he had to help her escape Rowley.

“You’re right, of course.” No matter how she’d hurt him, she didn’t deserve the situation she was in. The feds didn’t care about her. She lay between them and getting their man. Collateral damage and expendable. But not to him, she wasn’t. From her behavior, she was headed down the road that women took who ended up dead in garbage bins in alleys.

If Barton had McKie’s place bugged, why did he need him to get close to Peter? What was he looking for? As he’d suspected from the beginning, something wasn’t adding up with Barton.

Chapter 40

Leera stretched against the male behind her and moaned. Now her t-shirt and panties were the barrier between her skin and the hands resting on her hips. Last night had been less uneasy. Slower. She’d also known what to expect.

“I need to head out,” Rowley said.

She opened her eyes.

He squatted next to the bed, dressed for the outdoors in his overcoat, his gaze fixed beyond her. “Bring Leera with you to the warehouse for a late lunch in my office.”

“Sure.” Devin pulled her close, tucked her body into him. He pressed his morning glory to her butt.

Heat pulsed between her thighs. She was becoming as bad as the two of them.

Rowley crushed her mouth with his, need in his kiss. “Lee-lee, you were incredible last night.” With a smile, he dropped a peck on her forehead, rose and left.

The front door slammed shut.

Last night bought her Brownie points. For what reason, she didn’t know the answer. Nor could she spend time trying to figure it out. The man wasn’t easy to understand. And her job was to sleep with him, not provide a report on how he ticked. She was beginning to wonder if she was a distraction or a Trojan horse.

“If you’re hungry, I can make you breakfast.” Devin got out of bed, his semierect cock curved to his leg.

With Rowley gone, she didn’t feel right seeing him naked. Especially given what she’d said the other night and how he’d reacted. Silly on her part, maybe. Okay, more than silly. She rolled onto her back and stared at the unevenly plastered ceiling. Her body ached in places she didn’t know existed from the positions they’d bent her into to fill her with both of them. Moisture rushed between her thighs.

“Can’t seem to bring yourself to look at me when he isn’t here? Are you that afraid of your attraction to me?” He chuckled warmly.

Was that what she feared, or was it what he wanted from her? “No.” What did he want from her? Sex... Or something else? Something she wasn’t able to give.

“What, then?” He cocked an eyebrow.

It didn’t matter. “Why didn’t you tell Rowley about what I said to you in the car?”

He huffed and sat at the edge of the bed with his back to her. A black Celtic Cross tattoo started at his hairline, ended vertically at his ass and stretched horizontally from one shoulder tip to the other. She wanted to trace the edges with her finger.

“I’ve been wondering the same thing.” A sideways glance from him heated her insides with fire. “Maybe, I like knowing you want me. Just me, even if you don’t intend to act on it. When you and I started our sexual encounter, you’d asked Rowley to take part. By the end, you wanted just me. That’s a sizable shift.”

Didn’t she know it. A tender quality about him drew her in. “Am I some type of strange surrogate between the two of you? I’ve heard of this before on some talk show. Men who want to sleep together concoct a sexual scenario to fuck a woman together, but really, it’s about the two men wanting to bang.”

“Now there’s some psychobabble if I’ve ever heard any.” He laughed. “Rowley and I don’t have those types of sexual hang-ups. If the mood strikes us, then we’ll fuck, as you put it. Of course, neither of us would jeopardize a monogamous relationship for a romp.”

Was he making this up to shock her? “Have you? I mean, have you two slept together?” It was doubtful they had any hang-ups, given what they were open to.

“Yes, but that was a very long time ago.”

Hard to imagine Devin or Rowley being a bottom. “How long?”

“Six or seven years. It was on and off before that, but I got involved with a woman, Maria, and she was very religious–repressed. I worshiped her.” He got up, grabbed shorts from the dresser, pulled them up over his penis and tied the string. “She and Rowley didn’t get on.”

“What happened? Why did you break up?”

“Fatigue mostly. Nothing was ever good enough for her. I don’t claim to be perfect, far from it. I got tired of trying to be something and someone I’m not to please her. I’m a fairly simple man. I enjoy pretty women. Good whisky. Old cars. I also happen to want to rid the world of the undead. Nothing religious, as in the cleansing of the earth. Simple survival. Nothing fancy.”

From the outside, Devin didn’t appear like the kind of man who wanted more than a good lover. But he was kind and loyal. She could see Devin as very devoted to his partner. “Maybe Rowley wants you back in his bed.”

“He doesn’t need an elaborate scheme for that.” He flicked his bangs back.

The front door opened and Rowley rushed into the bedroom. “Forgot the keys to the building.” He picked them up from the nightstand. “No morning relief?”

Was that what he wanted, to catch them? “Fuck you.” She rushed past him, ran into the bathroom and locked the door.

“Lee-lee. Don’t be like this.” He raised his voice and turned the knob.

Rowley’s thugs hung out at the warehouse. Someone would be there to open the door for him. He didn’t need the keys. “Is it not enough that I do this for you? Why do you need to push me?”

“I’m an ass. I don’t mean to push.” He huffed. “I’ve got a meeting. I’ll see you at my office for lunch.”

Footsteps paused at the bedroom. “Don’t give me that fucking look,” came from Rowley.

“Then stop pushing her.” Devin’s tone remained even.

“Don’t tell me how to deal with her!” Rowley shouted.

Were they going to get into it? Fuck, she didn’t want them to fight.

The front door slammed closed.

Rowley expected her to be Devin’s lover too, when Rowley wasn’t there. For what reason?

Pots and dishes clanked in the kitchen. “He’s gone.”

She smiled at Devin’s words. She wasn’t going to spend the entire day in the bathroom.

When she entered the kitchen, Devin chopped vegetables on the counter, bare-chested. “I love him, but he doesn’t deserve you,” he said.

Butter sizzled in a frying pan on the stove.

“I wouldn’t wish me on my worst enemy.” Maybe in another life something intense could have been between the two of them. “What are you making?” In this life, their worlds were oceans apart.

“That’s not what I meant, and switching the topic won’t change that.” He twisted his lips. “Breakfast, you hungry?”

It might not change his opinion, but it helped keep her mind off the mess she was in. With all the sex and running around, she needed more food. “Famished.”

From head to toe, his gaze traveled over her, and again. He shook his head, then put his back to her.

She didn’t take pleasure in pushing away from his pull. Did he intend on making her feel bad? “What?” It wasn’t like she didn’t want him.

“I know the feeling.” The tent in his shorts explained his meaning.

Why Rowley insisted on giving the man the impression they should slip between the sheets without him confused her. “Devin.”

“I heard. However, my body isn’t persuaded by logic my mind doesn’t want to buy into.” He pointed to his temple. “Omelet? Eggs, scrambled or sunny side up...”

“Same as you, please.”

“Spinach, feta and jalapeno omelet it is.” Devin’s kitchen skills were a nice bonus.

For once, she didn’t have to do all the cooking. Leera turned the radio on. Militant hip-hop bass vibrated the speakers hanging on each side of the window above the sink.

His head bobbed to the beat. “What?” Devin’s lips parted in a broad grin.

She added dish soap to the sink and cranked on the hot water. “I just didn’t peg you as the underground hip hop type.”

“I can krump with the best of ’em.” He whipped up eggs in a bowl. “I lived on the streets after my mum died. I was fifteen. To pass time, street kids battled at the community center. I, however, always did better with a female to play off.”

Bet that was what they all said. “Right.” She turned the water off, pumped up the music. Hands in the suds and warm water, she swayed her hips while washing the surface of the plate with the sponge and setting the dish on the tray.

Devin slid behind her, dunking his hands in the soapy water. With his face tucked next to hers, he pressed his lips to her ear. Molded to her form, he matched the rhythm as she moved to the beat.

“Beautiful.” He lifted her hands together over her head. As he trailed his fingers over her skin, water and suds ran down her arms. He cupped her breasts, palms pressed to the hard buds of her nipples. The rise and fall of his torso quickened. “My body craves you more each time he lets me taste you.” As his fingers moved down her midriff, he pushed his erection into her ass.

She pumped her bottom to his crotch, lowering with him. A little bumping and grinding couldn’t hurt. It wasn’t like she didn’t want him. Quite the opposite, she wanted him more each time too.

He descended with her to the floor, grinding into her. Slipping his hand beneath the lace fabric between her thighs, he pushed her into his cock. He glided his fingers to her throbbing clit. With slow circles, he gave and withdrew his delicious touch.

She gasped, releasing her weight into him and arched her back. “Mmm.”

“You make me crazy hot for you.” He popped, cranking his pelvis, lifting her inch by inch as his digits massaged her nub with her own juices. Muscles rippled as they contracted and released with each precise movement of his chest.

Liquid heat coated her inner labia. “Please, don’t stop.”

With his lips, he smeared a path of need up the nape of her neck. “I can relieve you–us.” He pressed his fingers to her opening.

She wanted to be filled with him. Just her and him. This was that line in her mind she shouldn’t cross. Devin wasn’t part of her job to keep Peter out of jail.