Vengeance: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 3 (10 page)

Tentative footsteps sounded and his voice was closer when he spoke. “Maddy?”

“Why, Bay?”

“I don’t know.” He sounded confused and dejected and, when I finally opened my eyes, I found he looked the same. “I have snippets of that night, but it’s all colored with rage. It’s been more than a thousand years since I lost control of my dragon that way. If what you say is true, well, I…” He took a deep breath and blew it out. “I can only say I wasn’t rational and ask you to forgive me.”

“I need more than a mediocre apology,” I snapped.
 

Hellion’s hand settled on my shoulder, and the two men stared at each other. Lifting his hand, Hellion smoothed it down the back of my head, encouraging me to turn to him. “Consider accepting, Maddy.”

“You aren’t serious.”
 

“I’ve been thinking about this. You see,
a mhuirnín
, had the tables been turned and the outcome of that night been other than what it was, I don’t know if my reaction would have been so different than his.” He closed his eyes and pulled me close, but I was loath to go.

“You can’t mean it,” I whispered.

“Maddy?” Bahlin stepped closer.

I pulled back from Hellion and turned to him without a word.

Bahlin raked his fingers through his hair. “You know I love you—”

“You
think
you love me.”

“Don’t you dare,
dare
trivialize what I feel for you.” His shouted command made me jump.

Hellion stroked my hair again. “He’s right, Maddy. We must both respect his feelings in this.”

I hung my head and locked my hands together behind my neck, taking a minute to regroup even though I knew they were both right. And while it pissed me off, I wasn’t so self-important that I didn’t understand it was one thing to be righteously angry and another to just be a raging bitch. The first commanded respect. The second was embarrassingly petty and shallow. “You’re right.” I lifted my head and looked at both of them. “You’re both right, and I apologize.”

Bahlin nodded tersely. “I love you. That hasn’t changed. But my dragon, he’s a part of me and separate too. It took several hundred years for me to learn to think through the shift, though every now and then I’d still lose time while I was in dragon form. Seems like it happened again, and with disastrous consequences.” He threaded his fingers through his hair and laced his hands behind his head, closing his eyes and slowing his breathing, mirroring my previous movements. When he opened his eyes, they were back to the more familiar dark blue. He turned toward the other man. “Is there no way to undo what I’ve done?” he asked quietly, chewing on the inside of his cheek as he waited for an answer.

Hellion lifted a shoulder, a small move I almost missed. “She’s immortal now.”
 

It was striking to watch the play between the two men who, only days ago—hell,
hours
ago—resented each other beyond description. The decades of camaraderie and friendship had been destroyed by the prophecy, Odin’s word and my split affections. I’d had no viable reason to believe the friendship would ever recover, but I now had a kernel of hope that the mutual respect might survive.

Something passed between the two during my internal monologue, and I found myself nudged toward Bahlin. I stepped up to him but looked over my shoulder at Hellion, who nodded once.

Bahlin said something in rapid Gaelic—I missed the specifics but gathered that it was a prayer—then he surprised me by gathering me up in his arms and holding me with a tenderness that seemed both comfortable and equally unfamiliar. “I hope you’ll find it in your heart to forgive me after a time, Maddy,” he whispered into my hair and then he bent down to kiss my cheek.

Hellion remained silent through the exchange.

“I’d ask that you let me begin to work as your familiar, that you give me the opportunity to again earn your trust.” Moving me to the side but keeping his arm around me, he held out his hand to the other man. “And yours as well, Hellion. I have a long way to go with both of you, and I know things will never be the same again, but maybe we can set aside the animosity for the good of the supernatural and mundane worlds.”
 

Hellion looked at me and cautiously took Bahlin’s hand as I continued to stare at them both. “Everyone’s got to start somewhere when they make amends. I respect that. But don’t be confused about where her heart belongs.”

“I never stood much of a chance, but you should know I meant every word of what I said that night. If you falter with her, I’ll always be right here.” He looked down at me, a self-deprecating smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “Waiting out the lifetime of a prophecy.”

Hellion gave a brisk nod, reaching for me without taking his eyes from the other man.
 

Impossibly moved and feeling like I might just stand a chance of surviving beyond the coming weekend, I moved to take Hellion’s hand and held out my other to Bahlin.

“To fresh starts,” I murmured.

He took my hand and, with me in the middle yet again, repeated, “To fresh starts.”

I couldn’t help but wonder what we’d just set in motion.

Bahlin agreed to spend the night so we could work out the details of Micah’s predicament first thing in the morning. It was awkward for all of us, including Darius, as we discussed Bahlin’s sleeping arrangements. There were a couple of sharp words and hard looks between the men, but we ended up sorting it all out and saying goodnight before Hellion and I made our way up to the third floor master bedroom.
 

The room was just as we’d left it, with covers folded back, the curtains drawn and one closet light on. We moved around each other with uncommon tentativeness as we got ready for bed, and I contemplated actually wearing a T-shirt instead of sleeping in the nude, as was my norm, because of the volume of male houseguests we were hosting. I decided it wasn’t worth making a bigger deal out of than it was, so I shut off the bathroom light and walked to the bed, shedding my robe as I went.

Hellion’s eyes were fastened on me as I crawled between the sheets. He said nothing. I rolled onto my side and faced him. He lay down, propping himself up on one arm so he could look at me. He reached out and traced the shape of my face, his eyes following his fingertips as he moved around my face and over my neck, gently touching the upper curves of my breasts before coming to a stop above my heart. Without meeting my eyes, he leaned down and kissed me tenderly, his lips soft but demanding. He broke the kiss and left me breathing a little faster.

I started to smile and faltered at the look on his face. “Sweetheart? What’s wrong?”

He smiled at the endearment that was still new enough to garner his attention. “Nothing really,
a mhuirnín
.”

“Doesn’t look like ‘nothing’.” I gently traced the lines of tension that were more and more common on his face these days.

He kissed my forehead and slid under the covers. I scooted closer, and he glanced at me in doubt before opening his arms to me.

But I’d seen that look. “What?” It came out a bit more firmly than I’d meant so I asked again, more gently, “What?”

“I suppose with all the events of the day, I’m feeling insecure. It’s an unfamiliar feeling.” A rueful smile curled his lips, and he rubbed a hand over his chest. “I’m no good at this emotional nonsense.” He reached to turn the light out, but I grabbed his arm and stopped him.

“If you’re feeling it, it’s not nonsense. Is this about Bahlin?”
 

“Aye, I suppose in part it is. I admit to you I was sodomized and forced to play whore as a lad, gave you cause to crack my cheek, watched something unfamiliar yet recognizable pass between you and Darius, then welcomed yer old lover and the thief of yer mortality into the hoose like it was a bluidy bed an’ breakfast, Madeleine!” he hissed. “And why would I no’ be a bit fashed in all o’ that?” He closed his eyes, his chest heaving, and shook his head, shifting so I either sat up or face-planted it into his armpit. I sat up, freeing his hands so he could press on his temples. “Lord and Lady, I’ve aboot reached me limit.” His brogue, which always thickened when he was upset, was heavy enough that he needn’t have warned me.

Flopping back on my pillow, I considered a hundred different things I might say or do to comfort him. Two options seemed most reasonable. I decided to start with one and finish with the other, putting both into play.

I flipped the covers off him and he didn’t even bother looking at me. Fine by me. I slipped down his side and sucked his limp cock straight into my mouth.

“Holy gods!” he shouted, sitting up.

I pushed on his chest blindly, encouraging him to lie back down. He did, though he stayed propped on his elbows, watching. His breathing switched from shocked gasping to deep and steady as I worked him. With two fingers, I massaged the ridge behind his testicles and was thrilled as it swelled and grew firmer. It was easy to follow the motion and trace the line from the base of his erection around his testicles and to the back of the ridge, all the while ignoring him as he tried to shift away. With my mouth, tongue and free hand I sucked and stroked his erection, working every bit of my limited skill, trying desperately not to gag and—as usual—hoping I didn’t somehow become the first woman on the face of the planet to screw up fellatio.
 

After several minutes, Hellion’s breathing evolved to hard panting and I felt his balls draw up even tighter. “Maddy,” he ground out, “ye need tae…oh, Heaven’s breath, ye need to quit now, lover.”

I drew back slowly, dragging my teeth gently up and over the cap, and he thrust his hips upward involuntarily. He slipped out of my mouth with a soft
pop
. I crawled up his body and swung a leg over his hips, sitting back so I centered myself over him. He shifted his hips and rubbed against my opening, the head of his cock stroking back and forth over my clitoris. My entire focus shifted south, and I timed my movements to complement his.

“What do ye want, Madeleine?” His voice was low and hoarse.

Sliding up his slickened erection, I reached down and tried to adjust him so he’d enter me, but the angle was off.
 

“What do ye
want
, Madeleine?” he asked again.

“You, Hellion. I want you.”

“Ah, but ye have me, love. What would ye like
now
?”

I rolled onto a knee and accommodated the angle, holding him upright so I could work my way down. He grunted as I sank down on him, withdrawing and sinking on him again and again, taking more of him in each time.
 

“This. I want this,” I nearly pleaded.
 

Grasping my hips so I wouldn’t be displaced, Hellion shifted around so he was flat on his back and the angle was perfect. I sank down on him and whimpered, the friction heating me up as he held my hips still and slowly pumped in and out.

We moved together rhythmically, taking our time and feeling our way with each other. He slipped a thumb down and began circling my clit in a lazy manner, never quite giving me what I wanted.

“Please.”

“Please what,
a mhuirnín
?”

I gasped as he brushed directly over the little bundle of nerves. “Please
that
.” I shuddered as he did it again and sat down on his length hard as I tried to follow his retreating thumb.
 

He began to drive me with that pressure, pushing up and pulling away, increasing the tempo of our lovemaking. “Put your hands on my shoulders,” he whispered.

I looked down at him in near confusion.
His shoulders?
He removed his thumb and I growled in protest. He directed my hands forward, planting them one to each side of his collarbones. This changed the angle entirely and I wasn’t sure about it until he bent his knees and began to drive into me with authority, the noises of flesh meeting flesh sounding out an erotic beat.

“Hellion,” I groaned.

He slid a hand from my hip back to my core and began manipulating me so effectively that the orgasm I’d felt building was suddenly there.
 

I was reaching for it when he said, “Kiss me.”

Our lips met in opposition. I was frantic, he controlled.
 

Pinching my clit and sliding the little hood back, he bared the nerve bundle to the scrape of his hair and the stroking of his fingers.
 

My orgasm hit hard, and I lost the focus to maintain the kiss, gasping as I pushed against him and took him even deeper. He faltered in his own rhythm as I bore down on him.
 

His response was to drive into me harder, the rapid slap of flesh changing from a rhythmic beat to a harsher sound punctuated by erotic verbalizations.

“Holy shit, Maddy.” Hellion grunted before thrusting into me so hard he would have unseated me had he not been holding on to my hips.
 

He pushed hard enough that when he reached the end of my channel, I felt him come.
 

We watched each other as he worked through his climax and the small aftershocks until, finally, he pulled me down on his chest and wrapped me in his arms.
 

I lay there feeling him grow soft inside me. The pulse in his neck slowed, returning to a predictable rhythm. Leaning over, I followed the line of that large vein and licked him, enjoying the salty taste of his skin and the little shivers it wrought from him. I smiled and bit him, and his penis pulsed inside me.