Tempest of Vengeance (16 page)

“That was so good,” Devlin groaned, turning
me towards him and settling his head again on my chest, in the same
position we had started the night. “I love to see you at that last
moment before orgasm, Sar.” He gave a satisfied sigh, and relaxed
against me.

Lash slipped one arm under my neck, and put
the other one on my shoulder. “You were just as I remembered,” Lash
said softly, giving me a kiss on the cheek as he nestled his body
in back of mine. “And it was worth it all these months, to wait for
you.” He kissed the nape of my neck gently. “Get some rest. I’ll be
right here, keeping you both safe.”

I snuggled down between them, and promptly
fell back asleep.

* * * *

It was late afternoon when Lash awoke me by
moving. “I need to get up, shower, and check on some things before
it gets much later,” he said, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Duty calls.”

I immediately thought about offering to
shower with him. “Um, I—?”

“I’ll shower later, when I come back,” Lash
amended, giving me a knowing smile that said he’d guessed at my
intended question. “If you’ll wait for me?”

“I will,” I said warmly, unable to contain my
happiness.

Lash gave me another kiss, this one eager. He
dressed rapidly, strapped on his weapons, and a moment later, he
was out the bedroom door, closing it softly behind him.

“You love him, don’t you, Sar? Tell me, if
you do.”

“Yes, I do,” I whispered. But all the
intensity of what I felt was there in my soft words.

“Give your Oath to me then,” Devlin
persuaded. “You don’t ever have to be without him again, Sar, if
you do. You never have to sleep again without his body beside
yours.”

I knew when I heard him say that, I was going
to do it. I wanted Lash too much not to be in his arms again, to
feel him loving me, to be with him, near him. The love I felt for
him was so deep I was drowning in it. And there would be no Lash
without Devlin as part of the deal. Even if my weresnake lover
didn’t need Dev’s blood right now, he would need it eventually to
keep from dying again. Further, Lash would never leave his best
friend, even if he didn’t need Dev’s powerful vampire blood to keep
living. Plus I needed Devlin myself, for protection if nothing
else. Most importantly, I wasn’t leaving Venus again while she was
so young, no matter what. Not after what had happened to Devon.

“What Oath do you want? When?”

“I want what you promised me before,” Devlin
purred with pleasure. “But also that you won’t run off with Lash. I
want your word you won’t marry him, now that Theo and you have
separated. I can take it from you tonight, if you like—”

I shook my head. “The divorce isn’t final
yet, Dev. Don’t you think we should wait until it is?”

“Love, Theo’s with one of his own kind now,”
Dev said gently. “You know Theo. I’m betting they are probably
already engaged, because I know him, and he’s going to want to
marry her. To do that, you and he are going to have to get
divorced, not just separated. He is not going to reconsider, from
what I have heard from Brian. I’d think that you wouldn’t want him
to anyway, after all that’s happened. Or do you want him to be your
lover still? Because if you do, you may not be able to have Lash,
too.”

I sighed. I didn’t want Theo to reconsider; I
didn’t want him anywhere near me, much less in bed with me. But how
to explain that, without admitting what he’d done? “You don’t
understand,” I said reluctantly. “I don’t want to be with Theo
again at all. In fact, you can put a provision in the Oath that
I’ll never be intimate with him again—”

“I’m not going to do that,” Devlin
interrupted, hugging me gently. “You may change your mind over the
years, Sar.”

“I’m not going to change my mind,” I
whispered. “Not about this.”

Devlin moved back from me, and turned my body
slightly, so he could look me full in the face. “Did something
happen that night you broke up?” he asked searchingly, his eyes
tinting red. “You sound almost as if you are afraid of him.”

“It wasn’t pleasant,” I mollified, trying to
downplay my true reaction. “He said some awful things to me.”

“Time may make you forget,” Devlin said
patiently. “But I understand your hurt feelings. In any case, I’m
asking only that you promise not to marry Lash.”

“Just for kicks, what makes you think he
would even want to marry me?” I responded. “He’s not the marrying
kind, I wouldn’t think.”

“I’m not talking about traditional marriage,
Sar. Lash wants you to be his mate. And I don’t want there to be
jealously, like Theo had. If Lash doesn’t have his own separate
rights to you, he won’t be inclined to fight with me over my rights
to you. You saw what he did earlier, when he got between us. I
don’t mind him reminding me to treat you as you should be treated.
I do mind him getting in the way of me having you when and where I
want to.”

Ah, Dev, what a charmer you are. Sigh.
“All right.”

“I’d want you to Oath to Danial again, too,
when you give your promise to me,” Dev continued. “Like you, I
still have hope that he will recover, and if he does, I want him to
be able to be with you, for the both of us to be with you together,
like we were before. Lash will not mind that, Sar. He knows I’d ask
that of you.”

“That’s fine. I expected that, Dev.”

“And there are a few things more,” Devlin
went on, eliciting a look of disbelief from me that he still wasn’t
done.

“No one else,” Devlin said possessively. “Not
unless I agree for there to be someone else some night with us,
besides Lash and Danial and possibly Theo.”

“We have enough possible partners in bed with
us now, Dev. More than enough, really. And I just told you, I do
not
want to be with—”

“I will give you the unconditional right to
refuse any man I might suggest,” Devlin said. “You will always have
that right, except with me—”

Not a surprise.
I rolled my eyes.

“—
but there are two other men who visit
me regularly. I consider them both dear friends. One of them is
coming into town in a few weeks. He and I usually share a woman,
when he comes to visit. You don’t have to be the woman, Love, but I
like to do that with him. And if you don’t want to be the woman, I
would want your permission to still do that, when he visited. It
would be here, or in his hotel—”

“I’d rather not,” I replied with a grimace.
“I’m not a casual sex kind of person. The Lust was an
exception.”

“You haven’t seen him, Sar,” Devlin said
seductively. “Reserve judgment, if you would, until you do. He
wouldn’t hurt you. He is a lot like Danial was sexually, both in
body and technique, though he has some of my more
noticeable...attributes.”

TMI, Dev.
I rolled my eyes, but nodded
that I would consider it, though really, I wouldn’t. “Anything
else?”

“I’d want you to come here to live, with me,
permanently. I want you near me, Love, living here with me and V,
not miles away. Lash will want that, too.”

I blinked at him. “But what about my land? My
farm?”

“You love your land like I love mine. I
understand that. But your land isn’t protected as well as mine, or
large enough for all of my men. You should give the land and barn
to Theo, let him live there—”

“He wouldn’t want to,” I said stridently. “I
wouldn’t want him to, either, not with Jenny.”

Devlin was thoughtful and silent for a while,
holding me. Finally he spoke. “You know it’s not the money,” he
said, stroking my arm. “We can keep the barn, and the land, but if
no one lives there, the barn and land are going to fall into a
state of disrepair, like Hayden did when I was gone to Rio.” He
paused. “Your place is here with us, with the people who love you.
This is your home now, Love.”

“Let me ask around at Danial’s...Theoron’s,”
I quickly corrected. “You’re right, that it makes no point to keep
my home, if we aren’t moving back there. I hate to sell it, but
maybe Theoron can come up with some ideas of what to do so I don’t
have to.”

“So you’ll do it?” Devlin asked
excitedly.

“If I do, you are going to make me some
promises, too,” I stated flatly.

“I told you I’d always give you my blood, if
you needed it,” Devlin assured me. “I’ll always protect you, and
I’ll support you, too—”

“I know you will, though the last isn’t
necessary. But I have some conditions.”

“Such as?” Devlin said, his liquid golden
eyes expectant.

“No more other women,” I said pointedly. “No
sharing them with your friends, no—”

“Sar, I told you before, there are some
things I like to do that will hurt you.”

“If you want rough oral sex with...whomever
you went to last time for that, fine. But nothing else. Find
something else to do with your friends who visit.”

“We like to do that, Sar! We always
have!”

“Then save us all some time and heartache,
and don’t promise yourself to me! I don’t have to sleep in your
bed, or be your lover, if you miss being with other women that
badly. I’ll ask Lash if I can bunk with him from now on.”

Devlin gave me a terrified look, and pulled
me into his arms. “Okay!” he said quickly. “I won’t be with anyone
but you, save oral sex, and if you give me permission sometimes,
for special occasions.”

“Dev, it’s a fine line you are walking on,” I
said frostily. “Can you walk that line? Last time it ended badly.
And I am not going to give you another chance if you mess up
again.”

“Yes, I can walk it now,” Devlin said
seriously. “I’m not going to be the idiot that I was before. I
suppose I can think of other ways to entertain guests.”

“Are you sure?” I said sharply. “Don’t waste
my time getting a promise unless you are.”

“I’m sure,” he said resolutely.

“Then keep your extracurricular activities to
Hillary and Tiffany.”

His eyes went wide with shock. “How do you
know their names? I never—”

“Never mind,” I said coolly, enjoying a
private thrill of triumph. “Promise you’ll keep it to just them.
Don’t ever do it here, at Hayden. Nowhere here, not even outside on
the grounds. If this is going to be my home, if I am going to be
Mistress here, I’m going to be the only mistress here. Get my
drift?”

“I can do that,” Dev said, after a
moment.

“I also want you to promise me that you’ll
let me go to Lash as a snake,” I said hesitantly. “To let me be
alone with him sometimes, to coil with him, as often as he needs me
to do that.”

Devlin’s eyes went wide again. “You would do
that for him?”

I nodded. “He needs it. He explained to me
months ago how it is for weres, that they need sex in both forms.
He probably won’t ask me to do it for him. But I want to try
it.”

“I don’t want you to become weresnake,”
Devlin said slowly. “It would have to be only temporary, Sar.”

“I’ll ask Terian for a potion,” I explained.
“Lash told me once that there was magic that could make me cougar
for Theo. There must be one that can make me a snake, too. Tears
keeps reminding me he owes me one.”

Devlin looked over at me. I’d expected to see
jealousy, or perhaps annoyance. But instead, there was intent
curiosity. “Have you fantasized about having Lash as a snake?”

“No,” I said, feeling more and more
trepidations. “But I know he’s fantasized about having me that way,
and I want to do that with him, for him. Because if I can be with
him both ways, I won’t have to let him go to someone else for sex
in his other form, like I did Theo.”

“You’ll have to promise to tell me how it is
afterwards,” Devlin said animatedly. “I never thought about
becoming an animal, changing form to have sex as one. I might want
to try it with you sometime. Maybe as eagles, or coyotes, or
bobcats...there are so many possibilities...”

Great.
I wasn’t sure whether to laugh
or throw my hands up in exasperation. I settled for biting my lip
and staying quiet.
Maybe he’ll forget he suggested it.

“That is the last thing I’d ask you,” Devlin
said cautiously. “I would want you to swear you wouldn’t become
weresnake. Your blood is still not as it was, but I still have hope
that in time, it will go back to tasting of summer. When that
happens, I want to begin exchanging blood again with you in limited
amounts, until you get back to the point where you won’t age.”

I let out a sigh. Dev’s list was long. Lash
had been right, that nothing was ever free with my golden-god of a
vampire king. But was any of this so bad? I didn’t want to die, I
was going to be absurdly rich, I had two men that loved me (well,
one who for certainly did), and I didn’t want to be wereanything,
anyway. The only problem was my land, but I’d figure something out
with that.

“Lash will be with us, part of what we are,
as Theo would never have been,” Devlin added. “He’s still going to
age slowly, Sar, there isn’t any stopping it, but with my blood and
Titus’s magic, he’ll last hundreds of years. And he’s maybe twenty,
twenty-two now in terms of physical age, so he probably won’t even
need to begin taking the potion again for maybe another fifteen
years, depending on when he wants to start taking it, how old he
wants to look.”

Devlin ran a fang over my bare shoulder, and
I shivered in his arms.

“Will you do it?” Devlin whispered
seductively in my ear. “Only say ‘yes’ to me, and you can have him,
Love. I see how much you desire him, how much you’re in love with
him. It’s a mirror for what I feel for you. And I give you my word,
here and now, that if you but give your promise to me, that so long
as we three live, I will do everything in my power to see that no
one will ever separate you from him again.”

I was quiet, considering his words. There was
truth in them, but Dev was also painting me a picture of the best
case scenario, because he badly wanted me to say yes. Yet that
didn’t matter, because I wanted Lash too much to refuse, even
though I felt a chill at giving Devlin power over me again. I had
faith in Lash, that he would step in on my side if things got even
a little out of hand, as he had last night.