Page 13 of Pleasantly Undead in Dark River

The dichotomy of them was going to make my brain explode. Even as all this churned over in my head, I felt myself sinking into the kiss. His kiss was like a drug, like I was doing something bad for me but helpless to resist.

His free hand skimmed down my back, grabbing a handful of my ass as he pulled away. “Hmm, maybe it is this ass. It is delectable. I really would like to take a bite,” he purred against my lips, and then disappeared back into the night.

I stared out into the darkness, completely awestruck. Every time Lucius left, I was always left wondering what the fuck happened, and tonight was no different. I wandered back to the house, the sun beginning to light the very edges of the horizons. Tex and Brody would be home soon, and so would X. For the first time, I wondered if Walker would stop by, if Judge would come over to sleep curled around my body, with a leg thrown over Tex’s like he couldn’t even contemplate leaving while he slept.

If Judge cut and run, would Tex be heartbroken? Tex would never leave me, that was something I was more than sure about. It was my one foundation. My hearthstone. Tex loved me with enough passion that he followed me to Canada even when he thought I was dead. Although he was held with a different supernatural bond, that of the Mate Bond, I had no doubt that he had felt something for me before that. At least I hoped so. I needed to hang onto that one small certainty.

As if summoned by my thoughts, Judge was sitting at my breakfast bar as I walked back in. His beautiful midnight blue eyes softened when they saw me, and I resisted the urge to run into his arms and wrap myself around him the way he’d wrapped himself around my heart.

“Walker said to give you space to come to terms with everything, but I think we need to talk it out. I know you are going to be freakin’ out the most over me, because I was The Drifter. Can’t hold me down, a fucking floating vigilante. I was a parody of The Judge. We both know that if it hadn’t been for your blood, I would never have stayed.”

I had suspected it, but to hear him say it was like a knife to the heart. I prepared myself for what was going to come next, for him to tell me that it was over. He took a deep breath and gulped back his beer, his Adams apple bobbing as he swallowed. “I would like to keep seeing you and Tex, if that’s okay with you. I know you are freaking out as much as I am, if not more, because you are you. Sweet, but with morals that will do you no good in the supernatural world.”

As if it was now too much for him, he reached out and grabbed my hand, tugging me close to his body. “But what we have, no matter how it came about, is something good in a world that has always been a steaming pile of bad. What we have with the other guys, especially with Tex, is important to me.”

I pulled away, trying half-heartedly to escape his embrace.

“Regardless if you continue your relationship with me, I would never stop you from seeing Tex. He loves you as much as he loves me, and making him choose would break his heart. I would never do that to my mate.”

Judge kissed my cheek. “I know. That’s how I know what I feel for you isn’t some stupid obsession because of a tiny drop of succubus blood in your DNA.” He kissed me again, this time on the corner of my mouth. “Let’s forget Miranda ever visited. So you stopped me wandering from place to place, lost. So fucking what? I wasn’t happy.” He pulled me in close so I was pressed against his chest, and I let out the breath that I didn’t realize I’d been holding. “I went to bed alone last night, and I hated every second. Don’t make me sleep alone again tonight, Rainey Day.”

I rested my forehead on his chest. I might be the succubus, but I was just as helpless to resist these men.

“You never have to be alone unless you want to be.” I reached up and kissed him and he responded with a scorching passion that left me breathless, pulling me onto the kitchen counter with him. I wanted to be so close to him that we were basically one person, and I rolled my body against his, listening to him moan.

He pulled away slightly, groaning. “This is not what I had planned. I was going to take you to my apartment. I was going to spend some time alone with you, so we could do normal couple shit like watch a movie or make stir fry.”

I blinked and then blinked again. “Stir fry?”

He nodded. “That's what they always make in those rom-coms. Though maybe mac and cheese might be better.”

I looked him dead in the eye so he knew this was serious. “Mac and cheese is always better. Always. Repeat it back to me, Judge.”

He leaned in and kissed me again, obviously not taking me seriously at all. I reached down and tweaked his nipple.

“Ahh,” he laughed. “Okay, okay. Mac and cheese is always better. Jesus, woman!”

Chapter Seven

The next night I was bleary eyed and a little despondent. Walker hadn’t shown up at my house, probably giving me the space he’d ordered Judge to give me. It was a pity Judge didn’t believe in following anyone’s rules. Still, even though I logically knew this, Walker’s lack of presence felt like a betrayal. Damn Walker and his need to be the good guy.

As if sensing my bad mood, Tex made the wise decision to stay home for the day with Judge, and Brody had to go back to the Pack for a business meeting.

I kissed him goodbye before I went to work. “Come up to Nîso for a couple of days soon. I have an envoy of preternaturals coming at the end of the week to talk about setting up some school on the edge of the territory and it would be good to have my mate beside me,” he said as he snuggled my chest. “I was going to pass it by Nico. As a representative of Dark River, he might want to be there too. We’ll kill two birds with one stone then.”

I murmured something that might have been agreement, but then I kissed him like I'd miss him. Which I would, because being apart from him was always like chopping off a limb and sending it to a different state. When he roared away in his Impala, I turned to today’s walking companion. X had turned up at my house again after work, parked himself on my couch and fallen asleep. I was beginning to find his presence more soothing than disquieting, maybe because I was beginning to get to know the vampire beneath all the flash and reputation. He liked piping hot tea in the morning out of his favorite teacup. He peeled bananas from the bottom, and if that didn’t say psychopath nothing did. He made crude jokes at the guys’ expense, but there was a gentle way in which he teased me. He hadn’t pushed for more than watching our little sexploits, and I had a feeling he was biding his time. I just didn’t know for what.

Because I was a little pissy today, I turned to him as we walked. “Why haven’t we had sex? Do you not want me like that?” I kept the accusation out of my tone. Despite my succubus blood implying otherwise, I wasn’t under the misconception I was irresistible to everyone. X had made his interest known, but maybe it wasn’t me he was interested in? Maybe it was someone else amongst my lovers. Maybe Judge or Tex?

“Theres more to sex than just sticking my dick in your magical vagina, Love.”

I rolled my eyes even as I grinned. “I know that.” I had a very vivid flashback to being suspended from the ceiling. “Can I not, err, offer you what you need?”

X was a man of distinct tastes, that was obvious. Maybe he needed me to spank him and tell him how bad he was for him to get off? I mean, it wasn’t really my thing, but I’d try it if it would bring him pleasure. I mean, I could even buy a latex catsuit from the internet.

He was grinning when I looked over at him. “I desperately want to know what you were thinking right then. You had the funniest, perplexed look on your face,” he chuckled. We walked in silence for a little longer, and then he answered my question. “I don’t know why. I guess I could sense that there was something off about my attraction, even though outwardly there isn't anything different about you, not even in the taste of your blood. But I don’t fool myself often. My attraction for you was too instant for it to be natural. Plus, Judge was a fucking confirmed bachelor. I’d tried to get him into bed for years, then you came along, not his normal type but adorable all the same, and snared him? Seemed hinky.”

It did seem so obvious now. A man like Judge would never look at me normally. Hell even a man like Walker or Nico, both handsome and magnetic, wouldn’t have looked at me. Yet they fell into my bed like it was nothing.

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