Page 34 of Siren Sins
I’d just have to meet up with him later. He had a whole civilization of hot-collared dragons to get under control and I had a whacked-out Muse on my hands surrounded by Sirens. Not to mention Nate was still out there and my runes blistered over, punishing me for letting him down.
One thing at a time. I decided first I was going to get a good, long wash under hot, fresh water that didn’t stick to my face, I felt a lot better after that and then rummaged through the guest supplies lined up on the marble counter. Apollo no doubt often had siren sleepovers and it seemed that he doted on them. There was everything I could possibly want; fancy toothbrushes, teeth whitener, waterproof mascara, and the expensive type of razors, not that I needed them. Sirens were originally human, so they kept mortal traits such as growing hair on their legs. As a succubus, I was built to be a sensual creature. The only hair that grew on me was eyelashes, eyebrows, and lush curls atop my head. Sarah had always teased me that one day my genetic makeup would get confused and I’d lose all my hair like a naked mole rat. I teased my fingers through the fresh comb of curls at my temples and sighed. Being so close to her, but not being able to touch her, was killing me.
Her scent lingered everywhere. Lilac and her favorite sweet perfume. I opened the closet, only to be greeted with a full array of outfits ready to pick from. I chose a red dress, perhaps a little formal, but I wanted to remind Sarah what she was missing. I liked to dress up when there was someone around to appreciate me.
“Wow,” Luke breathed as he waltzed into my room, not having bothered to knock. He hung on the door and looked me up and down. “What are you wearing?”
I glowered. “What are you doing barging into my room? I was naked a few seconds ago.”
He grinned and it was hard not to appreciate the masculine lines across his jaw. “I’m a few seconds too late,” he said without missing a beat. He came to me and slipped his hand around my waist with such familiarity that I just stood there and blinked at him like an idiot. “You seem tense, and I don’t think it’s just the near-death experience from a magic portal and dragonfire.” He stroked my face. “Are you worried about the others?”
He didn’t have to specify. Even if he didn’t know about Nate, his hand slipped to my stomach, pressing knowingly against my runes. I tried to keep a straight face. “What do you know about them?” I asked.
His lip quirked in a smile. “I know that Jet makes you orgasm literal fireballs, and I know there’s someone else out there you can’t live without. You worry about them. Tell me about them. Talk to me.”
I swayed on my feet. “I… They’re not the only ones I’m worried about.” I wasn’t ready to talk about my four, because that would be admitting a mystical bond that went deeper than I was ready to go. My gaze flew to the doorway. Even if Sarah wasn’t one of my four, she was one of my outlier runes that still twinged, its soft pink skin remembering her love and her touch.
He followed my gaze. “I know you care for Sarah, but that’s just because you have history.” He eased the door closed and came back to me, taking me into his arms as he cupped my face. “Maybe you’ll help her remember what you two had, but that won’t change how I feel about you.” I stiffened at the honest tenderness of his touch. “We’re bound by destiny, remember? I know you’re a succubus. I know I’ll always have to share you. I can be okay with that, but only with those who deserve you.”
I’d never been talked to that way. My relationships had always been intoxicating followed by the insanely jealous, whether the affections had been deserved or not. Sarah didn’t want me with anyone and she’d looked at me with such betrayal in her eyes when she’d found me with a new victim, no matter how many times I’d nearly died because of the guilt. I couldn’t help what I was. I couldn’t change that I needed to feed. Even with the Blood Stone, my cravings were more powerful than ever. The only thing it changed was that I didn’t have to kill my lovers. It was the only thing keeping me sane.
As Luke pressed a kiss to the top of my head, my eyelids fluttered closed. “I have to talk to Sarah,” I protested, but was unable to slip away from the warmth of his embrace.
“Stay with me for a little while,” he whispered.
My fingers curled around the soft shirt he’d found from his own secret closet. It seemed that Apollo had male guests as well. “Do you really want me?” I asked, forcing myself to pull away. “Or are you still under Derek’s influence?”
The Incubus King had forced Luke to want me. Before that, even though Luke and I were bound by destiny, he’d seemed only mildly interested. I knew the dark truth of his feelings. Luke had only wanted to unravel the secrets of his own tormented life, and I was someone capable of helping him to do that. In the end, answers were more important to Luke than anything he felt for me… or so I’d believed.
I shivered as he pulled away and cupped my face; his touch seemed to protest my thoughts. “Sonya. I don’t know why I feel what I feel. You might think it’s Derek’s power over me. I’ll be honest with you. He wants me to empower your Blood Stone.” He caressed his fingertips lightly down my neck and rested his touch against my heart. My breasts seemed to swell with his hand so close to my hardening nipples and I bit my lip. “It doesn’t explain what I felt before,” he insisted. His blue eyes found mine and it was hard not to miss the tempest of emotion in them. He had suffered so much, but what he feared most was to be left alone. I recognized it because it was a reflection of my own worst fear. “Just stay with me for a little while. I’m not asking anything of you. I’m not telling you not to be with anyone else. I just want to be near you right now.”
It was so genuine that I wrapped my fingers around his wrist and pulled him to the bed. My thighs ached and my heart thundered in my ears, but I denied my basic impulses to take him. Luke was too sensitive and emotional. To use him for my own lust was wrong. I had always only fed when I had no other choice. With the power of the Blood Stone in my chest, I didn’t have the crippling hunger that threatened to end my life if not sated. There was only the cravings that came with what I was and I suppressed them… to an extent.
We lay across from each other on the bed, our hands roaming across each other’s bodies. It felt strange to be clothed, but to feel so much passion in a caress. His fingertips sent lightning and goosebumps across my skin and my senses swirled with delight as our breaths mingled. I closed my eyes and indulged in the sensation of being so close to him. It was only when his chest eased into a rhythmic rise and fall under my hand did I realize that he’d fallen asleep.
I didn’t want to sleep. I drifted into a half-lucid state as I watched him and memorized the lines of his face illuminated by moonlight that trickled in through the open window. The crash of the distant waves combined with faraway sirens’ songs and amplified my yearning for him, but I told myself to be happy with this moment. When he opened his eyes, having roused from a deep sleep, he smiled, and caressed my face. “Beautiful,” he whispered before he drifted off again.
It was the most romantic night of my life.
Fish Men and... Fish Parts
Sonya
Luke was still asleep when I got up in the morning. He’d been through so much. He’d finally escaped from Detective Anderson, unable to die even when his own heart had been ripped out of his chest. Because of me, he’d scarcely been free for a few months before Derek took him. I didn’t know what Derek had made him do in Shanghai, but I couldn’t imagine that it had been anything good. Guilt tugged at my heartstrings as I smoothed the wrinkles in my dress. I’d been hips-deep with the true Dragon King while Luke had been a prisoner. When I’d found him in Derek’s tunnels, he’d been under a spell, compelled to feed his power to the creation of a Blood Stone. Not only that, but he’d been a part of something that ripped at the veil between this world and another. Wherever demonspawn were trapped, Luke had been the dagger to pierce it and I feared what he was capable of if he ever truly learned to master the powers in his blood. His father was an angel, which meant that Luke was the first of his kind in known history. Angels weren’t meant to walk the earth. If they ever did, they were known as demons, a reduced, dark form of the greatness they’d once been.
I closed the door softly behind me and wandered the halls in the quiet of morning, the estate framed by the crashing of waves from the open windows everywhere I went. I followed the scent of lilac until I found Sarah sipping morning tea surrounded by white and pink hibiscus blooms. She glanced at me as I approached.
She looked back to the tablet she was reading and continued to scroll. So, she wouldn’t send me away. It was a start.
Then I noticed the tea set, a very British setup with the tiny cups my grandmother liked. I frowned at them as I eased onto the wicker chair. My grandmother had gone missing, along with Nate. According to Derek, Nate was serving penance by filling his many harem houses. I knew that my grandmother could take care of herself, but the fact that I still hadn’t heard from her had me worried.
“You seem to have a lot on your mind,” Sarah said with her familiar, melodic voice that made my thighs clench in reaction. An entire night of foreplay with Luke had gotten my blood pumping and it took every ounce of willpower I had not to straddle Sarah right there and devour her.
I gave her the sweetest smile I could manage and poured myself a cup of steaming tea. “You seem hospitable. I thought you hated me now.”
She leaned back into her chair and coddled her drink. She gazed out the window at the sea with a whisper of longing in her eyes to plunge back into the depths. “I don’t hate you. I don’t feel anything at all. That was part of the process to bring me back. I lost all love I had for anyone in this world.” She frowned. “It feels so strange. I was so angry with you.” Her gaze found mine and my skin crawled with the emptiness that lived in her eyes. “But now I don’t feel anything when I look at you. I would have thought to feel something. Even if it would just be an echo of what we once had and how you’d made me feel. But it’s like that part of me has died. It’s just gone.”
I suppressed the urge to growl. “Your new girlfriend did a real number on you.” I set my cup onto the glass table. It clinked harder than I’d intended it to and I grimaced at the fine glimmer of a crack that spidered across the porcelain.
