Powerful Awakening [L.U.S.T. 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (11 page)

Michael enjoyed fishing. It was one of the few constants he’d carried with him through the centuries. Whether it meant a few hours on the water or a night in his office, he had found many fishing expeditions that had brought him great delight.

Chrystal was doing it now. She had cast her line nearly the instant she had walked into his office and had been reeling it in with her bouncing questions and light flirtation. No doubt about it, the woman was up to something. Exactly what, he hadn’t yet put his finger on.

Likely because you are too busy controlling the urge to put that finger on her.

He didn’t bother to worry about such thoughts crossing his mind. He had shut off every mental connection when she had come into the room. He was sure he could pry into her thoughts, pluck the answer to his question right from her brain, but what would be the fun in that? The woman standing in front of him might be his Rebecca reincarnated, but Chrystal had a personality of her own. It was that part of her he wanted to learn, to get to know, and to embrace. He would never expect Chrystal to conform in every way to what his Rebecca had been.

Chrystal blinked at him now, confusion swirling with surprise in her mocha eyes. “Do I, what?”

“Get it?” Michael asked simply, watching her, reading her expressions and her movements. She didn’t show any sign of nervousness being alone in the office with him. If anything, he got the sense of a woman in full control and a clear mind. Power had sparked the moment she had opened the office door, thickened the closer she walked toward him, and settled in the scant feet of space left between them now. He knew she felt it, but she seemed to be riding on it rather than falling prey to it.

The confusion moved to her brows as she drew them together. “Lust?”

“Yes.” Michael pushed off the desk, deciding it was time to turn the tables on her. Andrew had sent her in here alone, likely of her own request. She was enough like Rebecca that he could feel certain in assuming that. After last night, she had her questions. She had been doing enough digging with her fishing pole since she walked in to get a few of them out. But was she only on a trip for information or was it more?

“Doesn’t everybody?”

Michael closed the distance between them in a single stride, catching her trim waist in his hands, and pressing his front to hers. He felt as much as heard her quick intake of breath as energy zinged through the air at their contact. Her hands closed around his biceps. Her eyes lifted and she stared up at him from beneath her long lashes before finally tipping her head back and leveling her gaze.

“It is a natural emotion, though one many do not care to admit feeling.”

“I’m not a prude, Michael. I’ll admit it if I feel it.”

Her bluntness made him smile. “And do you feel it? Are you feeling it now, my sweet?”

Her body moved against his as she took a deep breath and let it out on a sigh. “I don’t know what I’m feeling now. You, Andrew, both of you make my head all wonky and my body all horny, and every time I get near one of you, I feel like I can’t breathe for the sensations that seem to be closing off the oxygen in whatever room we’re in.”

“Do you wish me to back away?” He would do it if she asked it of him. He might race back to the darkness of his bedroom the instant she walked out of the office, throw himself down on his bed, and cry his heart out. The idea of performing such a childish act told him precisely how far gone he was over her. More than a century without her, the change of her to the woman she was now, and the depth of his feelings for her hadn’t changed at all.

Her eyes closed as she bowed her head, resting her forehead on his chest. Her muffled laughter sounded lightly delirious and he gazed down at the top of her head. “Andrew wants you. You know that, don’t you?” She lifted her head and met his gaze. A hint of hilarity and a whole lot of turmoil mixed a wild concoction in her eyes.

For the first time since she’d stepped into his office, Michael didn’t know how to respond. Yes, he knew Andrew still wanted him. His feelings for the man hadn’t changed any more over the last decades than his feelings had for her. Yet, if Andrew still wanted him so badly, why had he hidden? Why hadn’t he let Michael know he still lived rather than allowing Michael to believe he had been killed?

“The thing is, it’s not just you he wants. It’s the three of us.” She closed her eyes again but, this time, she didn’t bow her head. It gave Michael the opportunity to watch her cheeks turn a fantastical shade of pink as she said, “He actually gave me permission before I came in here tonight to walk into your office and jump you.”

Understanding slammed into Michael with the speed of an out-of-control freight train. She was the link between them. Michael and Andrew had been lovers before their Rebecca, but she had become the solid tie that had bound the three of them together. Without their Rebecca, Andrew had gone into hiding and Michael had carried on, silently pining for the loves he had lost. Without Chrystal, he and Andrew wouldn’t be the same. Deep down, he had always known that, but he knew it now more than ever.

Chrystal’s eyes slowly fluttered open, her face contorted in a grimace. “I probably shouldn’t have told you that.”

Michael couldn’t keep his gaze from dropping to her mouth, from watching as she bit her bottom lip, her teeth leaving shallow, white indentions in the pale pink flesh. His mouth watered, his senses coming online on their own bidding, and suddenly he could smell the sweet, metallic scent of her blood and feel the warmth and ecstasy of it fill his mouth. His fangs started to extend and he ground his teeth in a battle for control.

“Okay, I definitely shouldn’t have told you that,” she said when he didn’t respond.

He pulled his gaze back to hers as the beast in him retracted its fangs. He allowed his eyes to fill with every ounce of the emotion tightening his chest. “I assure you I would not have argued if that is what you had decided to do.”

“What is this power the two of you have over me?” Her tone was barely a whisper and her words wobbled slightly.

“Does it feel as if you are being controlled?” He knew he wasn’t controlling her and didn’t believe Andrew held the power.

“No.” The whisper disappeared and that single word held a heavy certainty that erased Michael’s doubts. “I know my own mind. I know my own heart. I’m usually in pretty damn good control of my own body, too. I’m in your arms right now because I want to be. Not because you or Andrew or this…this…
power
around us put me here.”

Michael sighed inwardly with relief. “And now that you are in my arms, what do you wish to happen next?”

Her throat worked as she swallowed, then her voice dropped to a sultry whisper that flowed through Michael’s body like a satin ribbon and tied itself securely around Michael’s cock. “I wish you would kiss me.”

* * * *

Andrew knew he’d fucked up when he rounded the corner of a building and stepped onto a deserted street. He should’ve turned back several blocks ago, but he’d found himself mesmerized by the sights. He’d stayed away from Atlanta since the Civil War, knowing Michael would sense his presence if he dared to even visit the city. He’d relied on newspaper articles, television, and, later, the internet to familiarize himself with the changes of his homeland, but none of that had truly done as much justice as seeing it with his own two eyes.

His keen memory told him the area of the city he walked now had been nothing but woods in the 1860s. They had stretched on for several miles, opening up to a lavish plantation owned by the vampire Regulus Le Mort. The people of Atlanta hadn’t known Le Mort was a vampire, but Andrew and Michael had. They’d also been aware of his fixation with Rebecca, of his intent to claim her, and of the necklace he had gifted to her.

A necklace you allowed to be ripped from her throat just before she was killed.

Memories assailed him, sweeping him back to before that fateful time as he continued down the deserted street. Rebecca had come to him and Michael weeks before their lives had changed forever with the necklace in the box Le Mort had insisted she take. They had understood the energies of each stone upon sight as well as the smaller stones that flanked them. The tiger’s eye hugged by gemstones of jet meant to protect, the sodalite accented with like beads to offer wisdom, the moss agate dropped between aventurine stones to garner health, and the rose quartz flattered by beads of cherry quartz for love. Each piece had been intricately woven over a silver wire of delicate design. The four primary gemstone parts could be separated, but when all were fastened together by the silver toggles of an ancient flower shape, the respective powers combined to render the wearer true immortality.

Michael had insisted she wear it despite knowing it had come from Le Mort. Andrew had agreed. Their Rebecca had not been the believing type, immediately dismissing anything to do with witchcraft, creatures, and power as hogwash.

“Apparently some things do change from one life to the next,” Andrew muttered as he pulled his thoughts from the past. “I’ve got a good feeling our Chrystal is the believing type.”

“Would this Chrystal be the reason you haven’t acknowledged the summons our master has sent you?”

Andrew stopped in his tracks as the once-deserted sidewalk suddenly wasn’t empty anymore. He recognized the one who spoke in an instant, a were-bear named Marlo who belonged to Nikolas’s pack. He didn’t know the taller, lankier man with Marlo, but sensed him to be another of Nikolas’s shifters.

“I don’t have a master, Marlo. Now, get out of my way.” Andrew pivoted with the intent of walking back down the sidewalk in the direction he’d come from, but the fucker with Marlo stepped in his way.

Tall Lanker snarled. “You swore your allegiance to Nikolas just as we did.”

“I swore my loyalty to a were-tiger with a noble cause, one where he provided training and a safe haven to ones like me without knowledge of what had been done to them or any place to go.” Andrew whirled on Marlo. “Just like you.”

Marlo bared his human teeth in a gruesome attempt at a smile. “Times have changed, my friend.”

“I’m not your friend,” Andrew said tightly. “I have made Nikolas the offer I am prepared to make.”

“Money.” Tall Lanker had started to circle Andrew, his pupils narrowing to slits in his bright blue eyes.

A were-cat, Andrew realized. Well, now that he knew what shifters he was up against, he could more easily plan which one to take out first if they started a brawl. He hated to fight, hadn’t done so in decades, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do it when he must. “It will be necessary for the plan Nikolas intends to carry out.”

“You think you can buy your way out of everything, don’t you?” Marlo sounded disgusted.

“No. I don’t even try. And I don’t bare my teeth and claws for a cause that is only meant to bring one shifter into more power. I’m not as stupid as Nikolas seems to think I am. If he were really out to rescue that were-lion, I would have his back in a heartbeat. That’s not what he’s planning. He’s using the kidnapping of that were-lion as an excuse to start a blood war between shifters, one he thinks will land him in the rule as king. That’s something I will not be a part of.”

The were-cat had circled behind Andrew again. He pushed hard at the back of Andrew’s shoulder. “You will be a part of it if the master says you will.”

Andrew lifted that shoulder as if he didn’t have a care in the world, inwardly preparing himself to let his beast free for the first time in decades. “Tell Nikolas to take the money. It’s all he’s going to get out of me.” Marlo stood in his way now and he sidestepped the were-bear with full intention of going around him.

Marlo sidestepped, too, right in his way and partially shifted, baring his large teeth and claws.

Andrew did one better, bringing out his fangs and claws.
Top that, you son of a bitch.
He felt a rush of power behind him and expected to be double-teamed as Marlo lunged for him. If the were-bear fully shifted, his size would be a challenge, but Andrew’s inner wolf could take him. He hoped. Hell, he was out of practice for this shit.

He launched himself in the air. Marlo stumbled off balance as his shoulder grazed the front of Andrew’s shirt. The were-bear recovered quickly, spinning around and catching Andrew off guard with a roundhouse kick that knocked him to the concrete.

The air whooshed from Andrew’s lungs as he landed flat on his back. Marlo leapt on top of him, the were-bear’s claws raking down his chest, taking material and flesh with it.

Andrew howled as pain sliced through him. He lifted his head, found Marlo’s shoulder to be the closest bit of flesh he could reach, and dug in his fangs.

Marlo’s roar split the silence of the night as effectively as his claws split Andrew’s side. Andrew’s world filled with pain, but he didn’t let up. He sank his fangs deeper into flesh, meeting bone, and shook his head like a dog as he drew back with a large portion of the were-bear’s shoulder still in his mouth.

He watched, blood and the desire for death clouding his vision, as Marlo suddenly went airborne. Barely able to turn his head to spit out the flesh, he retracted his claws and fangs, then simply lay there waiting to heal, hoping like hell Marlo’s sudden disappearance meant the fight was finished.

* * * *

Michael cupped Chrystal’s cheek in his hand and granted her wish. He brushed his lips lightly over her mouth, finding her lips to be a true delicacy, soft and sweet, warm and inviting, familiar and alien in equal parts. He knew her soul had once possessed Rebecca’s body, but Chrystal had improved it, made it stronger than ever, and more arresting than before.

He pulled back enough to look into her eyes and saw them spark with heated desire. He grazed the pad of his thumb lightly over her silken lips and they parted on a quiet moan. “Is that what you wish for, my sweet?”

“Yes.” She sighed the word, drawing out the
s
in a soft hiss of pleasure. “Do it again.”