The Thorndykes 1: Dispossessed (18 page)

“That’s it. Work her, fuck her with your tongue.”

Jay did as he was bid and speared his tongue inside her, greedily lapping at her clit to get as much of her as he could. He sucked hard, took down her essence.
“The best taste ever.”

“Fuck, yes.”
Nathan couldn’t share the flavor, but he could sense Jay’s satisfaction as Lucille gave it up to him. Gleaming as brightly as the best chef’s sauce, but with an intense, delicious flavor no chef, however many stars he had to his name, could get close to.

Jay let the sensation flow through him and opened the outer part of his mind fully so they could share his delight. The heart of her senses belonged to him. And her. Nobody else.

He licked and tickled, encouraging her to make more. Her clit was hard, pressing against his tongue, eager. She groaned, lifted her body up to his mouth, and he gave her all he had, pushing her to let go. He could feel her tension, preventing her from coming.

He spoke directly into her mind.
“Come on, sweetheart. Let go. Give it to me.”

With a cry of surrender, she did, her channel pulsing around his tongue, the tang of her flooding his senses—scent, taste, touch—overwhelming him. She gave a little scream, a yelp, and then a longer cry.

Nathan moaned and struggled to keep control. He spoke through gritted teeth. “Fuck, that’s hot.”

Jay knew how he felt. He raised his head and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, not troubling to hide the savage side of his nature. His fangs dropped down, pricking his lower lip when he closed his mouth.

She was safe with him, but he’d take her to the edge as far as she would go, and then he’d take her further. Every time a bit more until she discovered all she could be, the sensual creature waiting to burst forth from the shell of the shy creature she was now.

She could be so much, achieve so much.

A pang reminded him of what he’d nearly forgotten. Who was he to hold her back? What gave him the right?

Hastily he shoved his thought down, well away from where anyone could pick it up, praying it was fast enough.

Rising up, he took his cock in hand and stroked it down her cleft. Instead of entering her, he drew away and glanced at Nathan. “Do I do this?”

“Do what?”

“Fuck her?”

Nathan’s eyes were wild. Blue fire gaining an amber ring where the dragon was making its presence felt. The sigil on his leg pulsed with red fire. “Do it.”

Jay turned his attention to Lucille. “Are you with me, sweetheart?”

“All the way.” Her mouth was half-open, her lips full, her eyes dark. The pretty flush went as far as her breasts, and he bent to pay them tribute once more before he pushed his cock inside her welcoming body.

The joining came as relief, their coming together natural and much yearned for. He wanted it so badly, and she did too. The man in telepathic communication with them both could sense pleasure.

The smile on Nathan’s face was reflected in his mind—warmth and heat. “Fuck her,” he said roughly. “Put your hands under her ass, and take her fast and hard. No mercy.”

“I don’t want mercy,” she said. Her mind was a blaze of desire now, and the more Jay delayed, the more desperate she became. He loved that, wanted it, but he needed to have her.

His first thrust reminded him how utterly perfect she was inside and out. The second set up the rhythm, and his arousal grew into a primitive ache. He couldn’t have stopped, all artistry gone in a flurry of need.

Nathan wanted it too and added his raw desperation to Jay’s, so they fucked her together. Nathan worked his cock in earnest now as if he were really inside her.

Lucille watched him, clutched Jay’s shoulders, and hung on for the ride.

The crescendo loomed, as inevitable as the end of a symphony or the ribbon across the finish line in a race. A place where this would end. Until Jay was ready again. That might not last long. Nathan’s presence fueled him and added to what he wanted from her. The knowledge that Nathan was witnessing something he couldn’t have sent Jay higher. He could fuck this woman, and Nathan couldn’t, except by proxy, and the thought made him more excited than he could remember. This woman belonged to him in the most basic way. She was his. But he belonged to her as well.

He couldn’t let them see that. He shoved that away because she couldn’t know.

Then he gazed into her face. Nobody came between him and her. She stared up at him, her features bathed in trust and delight. He couldn’t hold back, God help him. Just before he orgasmed, as his seed gathered in his balls and shot up the length of his cock, he told her the truth. “I love you, Lucille.”

THE WORLD CAME to a screeching halt. Had he said it? This experience, so wild, so different from anything she’d even dreamed of, culminated in the one thing she wanted to hear. Before she could reply, he howled, the sound unearthly, and his fangs emerged from the buds in his mouth, gleaming below the line of his upper lip. Not because he needed to feed, but it was a vampire’s instinctive response to extreme emotion.

At this moment she didn’t doubt that everything he said was the truth. His yell filled the room, and she had reason to be glad her brother couldn’t hear. She’d left him with headphones clamped on his head, listening to something loud.

She could scream all she liked, and he wouldn’t hear her.

Jay cradled her, as tender as he’d been fierce earlier when he’d demanded she satisfy him, so she had no choice. It had been delicious. She adored the way he’d taken her, following the instructions of the other man in the room as if they were performing for his pleasure. Like dolls or paid actors.

Wow. A fresh gush of liquid, not all of it from Jay, dampened her thighs.

“I felt that,” he murmured, softly stroking the hair away from her face. He kissed her, softly caressing her lips with his, cupping her cheek to guide her to the position he required.

Clothing rustled. When she glanced to one side, she saw Nathan had taken Jay’s jeans. “You guys stay here. I’ll get you some robes.” His face relaxed into a blissful smile. “It’s the least I can do.”

Although he left them alone, she dared not ask Jay about what he’d said before he came. That he loved her. It could have been the passion of the moment. He’d climaxed with a ferocity even he didn’t achieve often, and he might have been carried away. That had to be it. Not that she didn’t love him too, because she did, but if she told him now, she had the feeling he wouldn’t welcome it. After that lingering kiss, he tidied them—busywork, as if he wanted to break the almost painfully intimate time they had shared. She’d never forget it.

He loved her, but perhaps he needed time to get used to the idea. She didn’t. She’d be waiting when he finally accepted it, and they could decide what to do with the knowledge. It wouldn’t take him long.

A sense of joy filled her. This was the man she was meant for. True, she’d never met anyone as devastating to her mind and senses as Jay, but deep down she knew nobody, however powerful, however wealthy, would reach her like that. Nathan was probably Jay’s equal in that respect, but not in anything else. Not as handsome, not as strong, not as brave. Not to her.

“I’m sure too,” he said quietly.

She shouldn’t have been surprised. “You’re in my head?”

“Always, sweetheart, when we’re close enough.” He drew her nearer, the bar in his cock nudging her as she cuddled in.

“When I first met you I never imagined you were the snuggling type.”

He kissed her. “For you I make exceptions. Lots of them, and snuggling is one. I love to hold you, to look at you. It’s been my privilege to care for you.”

Her heart soared. Despite the trouble still facing them, she felt better than she had in her life before. “I love you, Jay.”

He touched his finger to her lips, and she nibbled, trying to suck it in, but he frowned. “This doesn’t alter anything. This can’t last.”

“Can we take it one day at a time?”

The tense lines around his mouth relaxed. “That’s a good plan. I like that. It’s how I’ve learned to live my life. Most of the predictions I’ve ever made haven’t worked out, so it’s probably the right way.”

Nathan entered the library to their shared laughter, but they barely spared him a glance. Jay helped Lucille into the white robe Nathan had brought and shrugged into the plainer dark blue one.

Nathan sighed. “I’d have fetched champagne, but you guys can’t indulge for a few hours.” He’d returned to his light American accent, slipping into it as he had the jeans. “We’ll do that later. Or, looking at you two, I’ll do it alone.”

“There’s some Scotch in the cabinet over there,” Jay said, nodding toward the piece. “Help yourself.”

Lucille went into Jay’s arms as if she belonged there, dreamy and wondering. “Is this normal for you two?”

Jay exchanged a flicker of a glance with Nathan.

Nathan sipped his whisky before he answered her. “It’s usual for me. I have clubs where I can indulge my fancy, but they’re not sleazy. Sleazy doesn’t usually do it for me, although it has its place. There’s a market for the classier place, and I’m working on one in Chicago. I don’t know if it’s normal for Jay. The last time I saw him for any significant length of time was nearly two hundred years ago.”

“We were close.”

“We were. Remember David Thorndyke? Used to be Lord Fullerton.” Jay nodded in response to Nathan’s question. Nathan went on. “I kept in touch with him. We’re still good friends. He’s Dalton Thorndyke now.”

“I know,” Jay said. “He helped me set up the station. Persuaded me to do it, really. He said the ranch was perfect if I could devise a way to keep it hidden. The parties cover the activities beautifully. The family who owned it before me was around a long time. But they went bankrupt, and I always wanted to be a cowboy.”

Lucille snorted, and Jay turned to her in mock indignation, lifting her chin with a laughing query. “What?”

“Cowboys don’t own ranches. The original cowboys were criminals. All of them.”

“Sounds like me.” He dropped a kiss on her lips. “I stand by what I said.”

Nathan was studying them, not a trace of amusement on his face.

“Something wrong?” Jay asked.

“I don’t know. I have to think about something. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” With a sudden motion, he tossed back his drink. “I have to be up early in the morning. Some of us have to work.” He regained the smile, but it wasn’t as sincere as before, and his mind was carefully controlled. It didn’t take a genius to know he was hiding something. “See you, kids. Thanks for the play. You were both amazing, and I appreciate it.”

He left, striding jauntily out of the room without looking back.

Chapter Eleven

“What?”

Late the next afternoon, Jay confronted Nathan at his place of work. He’d just sent two giggling city women on their way with a drawled joke and a smile guaranteed to warm more than their hearts. He was a slick bastard, but then he always had been.

“What’s wrong?”

“In what way?”

“You clammed up last night, right after our little scene.” Jay would throw him through the nearest barn, powers or not, if Nathan didn’t tell him soon.

Nathan tipped his hat back with one finger. He was grubby with a day’s ranch dust. If Jay were gay, he’d be dragging him off to the closest convenient spot or just bending him over the log set by the side of the stables.

Nathan glanced around. “If the Wheelers discover you’re here, they’ll kick you off their land. Violently.”

“Oh, you talked to them about me, did you?”

He shrugged. “I might have. They hate your guts, and it’s personal.”

“Any sense of anything else?”
“Like a sense that I’m a Talent?”

“Nope.”
“I’ll shield you, you bastard. They’ll think I’m talking to a guest.”

“Thanks, but I can handle myself.”

“No point riling them. Not yet, anyhow.”

Since the sight of two men staring at each other in silence might give an onlooker a clue, Jay turned back to vocal speech. Unless the stable behind them was wired, nobody would overhear them. “Found anything?”

Nathan shook his head. “No more than yesterday.” He looked relieved.

Jay returned to the first point. “What were you hiding? Do you know something?”

Nathan gazed at the clear blue sky as if it would give him inspiration. “Nothing you really want to know. But yeah, I do. I knew her mother. In the biblical sense.”

“What?” Jay’s turn to look away. “You fucked her? When?”

“Last month.”

“Fuck, man, are you kidding me?” Not possible. “Lucille’s mother is one of the…people we’re looking for. I assumed she was dead, killed by the cell.”

“You can give that up. She’s as alive as we are.”

“How do you know for sure?” He was clutching at straws now.

Nathan grimaced. “When I saw that gorgeous bush for the first time. Lucille’s mother keeps a tuft at the front. Sure, she’s not the only woman in the world with blazing-red hair, so I didn’t think anything of it. There are other similarities.” He paused and waved a hand dismissively. “Never mind that. They have the same family sigil.”

“And you’re telling me you only recognized that last night?”

Nathan jerked a nod. “I never read Lucille before then.”

“You should have stopped it, man.” He’d take a swing at the shithead if he said any more about last night.

Nathan shrugged. “I didn’t put it all together until it was too late. I didn’t check the sigil until then.”

Jay held his temper in with an effort. “Tell me about Lucille’s mother.” He needed to know. He’d assumed the cell had murdered her mother and father. Their disappearance, so quickly, and with no contact, wasn’t down to the Thorndykes; he’d already ascertained that. Was her father alive too?

“Trixie Allardyce she calls herself. She told me she’d gotten bored with the country. She didn’t say which country.” His mouth settled into a straight line. “Fuck, I didn’t realize until well into our scene, and by then I couldn’t have stopped if you’d cut my dick off.”

Jay was coming down from his fury. He really needed to know this. How the fuck could he tell Lucille about this? “Go on.”