Chase, Zara - Tigers' Temptation [Impulse 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (12 page)

But he could see that he’d lost Layla’s attention. The sadness was back in her eyes and it was obvious that she was thinking about her daughter again.

“It’s late, babe,” he said. “I promise to look at Amy’s records in the morning, and if there’s anything we can do for her, we will.”

“No promises,” Philo added, sending Mikael a warning glare.

“If we can help her, obviously you’ll have to go back to Boston and bring her here. That being the case, we’ll need to send someone with you for protection.”

“Why?”

“Because our enemies will probably have picked up on your presence here and the reasons for it.”

“How on earth would they do that?”

“We can…er, communicate mentally—”

“Oh, is that what you’re doing when you go all quiet and stare at each other?”

“Pretty much. We frequently share conflicting thoughts that way. Saves on all that shouting and hollering when we disagree about something,” Philo told her, grinning. “But the thing about you is that our foes have never had advance warning of a possible patient before.”

“It’ll be too good an opportunity for them to pass up. They’re always trying new ways to sneak past our guards, and if they know we have a personal interest—”

“Why don’t they just stroll into Impulse in numbers and take over?”

“We put up a mental barrier around the place,” Philo said.

“You can do that?”

“Sure.” Mikael shrugged. “We know immediately if anyone with ill intent sets foot in the place. Vadim also has people out on permanent patrol.”

“All the comings and goings earlier in the Cat’s Whiskers
.
” She nodded. “Now it’s all starting to make sense.”

“Exactly, we can’t afford to drop our guard for a moment,” Mikael said. “We have to assume that they might try and grab you and Amy, just to get at us.”

“Well, the good news is that I won’t have to go back to Boston. Amy’s in Orlando this week on one of those excursions organized for terminally ill kids.”

“That’s nice,” Philo said. “Is she having a good time?”

“Yes, she’s loving it.” Her radiant smile went straight to Mikael’s groin. He’d give twenty of his Impulse years just to have her smile at him that way. “She’s going through a spell of not feeling too bad right now, so she’s getting a lot of fun. One of the nurses from our local hospital is there with her, which is why I was able to go and interview Billy’s mom.”

“I thought your own mom would be with her.”

“No.” Layla smiled. “She’s finally found a man she likes, or rather she found him just before Amy got sick. Since then she’s put him on hold. It just so happened he invited her on a cruise and the dates coincided with Amy’s trip to Orlando. I joined forces with her man and bullied her into going. She deserves to have some fun, too.”

“Orlando will make things easier, but you’re still not going to get her unprotected,” Mikael said, making it clear from his tone that the subject wasn’t up for debate.

“If there’s any point in going to get her,” Philo reminded him.

“Yeah, sure, if there is.”

Mikael stood up, stretched, and beckoned to Layla. “We didn’t get off on the right foot, you and I,” he said. “That’s my fault. I can be grouchy and suspicious sometimes.”

Philo elevated a brow. “Only sometimes?”

Mikael shot him the finger and returned his attention to Layla. “How about we kiss and make up?”

Chapter Nine

Layla scampered from the couch, straight into his outstretched arms.

“Sounds like a plan,” she said.

On both sensory and emotional overload, she’d never been more grateful for the support of a pair of strong arms. Mikael’s closed around her firmly, causing her to collide with his hard, taut body. She felt his muscles rippling as he tightened his hold and was compelled by his powerful aura of not entirely civilized male potency. Being in his arms made her feel safe, which was kinda weird. After everything she’d just learned, she ought to be scared shitless and run a mile. Instead, she rested her head on his broad shoulder, thinking she’d be happy to stay precisely where she was for the rest of her days. The electric charge created by the physical contact with him whipped through her bloodstream with almost indecent haste, making her head spin and her pussy throb. Layla was ashamed of her deep awareness of him, of her own physical and emotional needs, when all her thoughts ought to be focused on Amy.

She hardly dared hope that Mikael might actually agree to help her precious daughter. How could fate and a little inventive journalistic research have directed her here if he wouldn’t do so? Surely life couldn’t be that cruel, dangling a cure beneath her nose and then snatching it away again? He seemed willing to give it his best shot. Philo seemed equally determined that he shouldn’t do it for fear of the damage it would do to his powers.

Layla bit her lip, torn by indecision. She was tempted to try and…well, tempt him, using the oldest method in the book.
Nothing
,
absolutely nothing, mattered more to Layla than her daughter’s well-being. It had been so since the pink, wrinkled little bundle had been placed in her arms after an exhausting fourteen-hour labor. She had fallen deeply and desperately in love with her squealing daughter the moment she set eyes on her and had vowed to protect her in any which way she could. Obviously, she hadn’t known at the time that leukemia would make it impossible to keep that vow. Hadn’t known how impotent it would make her feel when she saw her brave little girl withering before her eyes and she could do absolutely nothing to ease her suffering.

Mikael could, but in spite of her desperation, Layla dismissed thoughts of persuading him before they could take hold. If Mikael and Philo wanted to take her to their bed, she’d happily go, no strings attached. The decision regarding Amy was theirs to make and she absolutely wouldn’t try to influence it.

She wouldn’t!

Carnal sensations ripped through her when Mikael lowered his head, his breath peppering her face as he claimed her lips in a drugging kiss. She felt triumphant when she caught sight of his eyes and realized he wanted to kiss her every bit as much as she wanted to be kissed. He’d been taciturn the entire time she’d been here, mistrusting her motives. She could understand why now that she knew the truth about him. To have won his trust was a defining moment—a privilege she refused to abuse.

Her lips parted beneath his, allowing him access to her mouth with his magical tiger tongue. Practiced and persuasive, his lips played against hers, his tongue working its magic and causing havoc with her emotions. It tickled the corners of her mouth, velvety, smooth, and sensuous as it darted deep inside and then withdrew, parodying the love act. She unconsciously rubbed herself against him, doing what she’d vowed not to do, but not with any thought other than satisfying her rapidly escalating passion.

Layla caught his wicked tongue on its next assault and sucked it further into her mouth, holding him captive with her desire and determination to get what she wanted from him. Once again, she wasn’t referring to Amy. Mikael’s large hands moved to her ass and pulled her tightly against his throbbing erection. She was wearing nothing beneath her T-shirt, which had ridden up so her bare pussy rubbed against his cock. It felt like heaven, and she managed to emit a sigh of pleasure even though she was still being comprehensively kissed by a master of the art.

Something tapped at her shoulder. Mikael grunted around the kiss, broke it, and released her—straight into Philo’s waiting arms.

“My turn,” he said, kissing her with every bit as much mastery as Mikael had managed.

Their mouths fused as his tongue took its turn to cut a path down her throat, warm and mobile, sending a fine tremor spiraling through her with his gossamer-light touch.

“Come and play with us,” Mikael invited when Philo finally came up for air. “You probably gathered by now that we like to share.”

Layla was swept into Philo’s arms and carried to the bed. He deposited her on it, and she found herself looking up into two impossibly handsome faces wearing identical expectant smiles. The fact that Mikael had replaced the scowls she’d grown to expect from him with smiles was another cause for celebration. She sensed that his trust wasn’t easily given, and it meant a lot to her to have broken through his reserve. Whatever they had in mind for her, she wasn’t about to turn them down.

The mattress dipped as Mikael sat on the edge of it, bracing his arms on either side of her body, but not touching her.

“We really do like to play sex games,” he said in a rasping, midnight voice that made her insides melt with desire. “You ready to relax and have some fun with us?”

Am I ready!
“What do I have to do?”

“You have to trust us, absolutely. Can you do that?”

“Of course.” She wallowed in the warmth of his unimpeded gaze. “What do you need me to do?”

“Lose the T-shirt, babe,” Philo said from her other side. “That would be a good way to start.”

She sat up, pulled it over her head, and tossed it on the floor. Both guys appeared to drink in the sight of her nakedness, like they’d never seen a woman without her clothes on before. They stared for so long with their piercing tiger eyes that she began to think they didn’t like what they saw. It had been a while since she’d gotten naked for anyone, but she’d never had any complaints about the way she looked in the past. She felt uncomfortable as the silence lengthened and they continued to look at her with…well, with feral intensity.

“What is it?” she asked, unable to bear the silence for a moment longer. “Do I disappoint you?”

“Honey, you’re just perfect,” Philo said, dropping a flurry of hot, wet kisses down the length of her neck, rasping with his tongue as he went, finishing up at one of her nipples and staying right where he was.

“You’re too tense, babe,” Mikael purred. “We know you’ve got things on your mind, but right now we’re gonna help you relax and forget about them for a while. You up for that?”

“Yes.”
But you’ll never put Amy out of my head, not even for a second.

“Yes, we will, trust us.”

“You just read my mind, didn’t you?” she asked, turning to Mikael and frowning. “Has anyone ever told you that that’s a rude and intrusive thing to do?”

“Sorry,” Mikael replied meekly. “Force of habit. It won’t happen again.”

“He was just showing off, sweetheart. Don’t mind him.”

“Okay, darlin’, the first thing you need to understand is that we’re in complete control and you have to do everything we ask of you, without question.”

“All right.”

“The second is that we’re not going to penetrate you.”

“Hey, hang on a minute.”

“Flash back to condition one.” Mikael smiled at her. “Trust me, you’re gonna have a ball.”

“Just not our balls, unfortunately,” Philo said, pouting.

“Get the lights, Philo.”

“I’m on it.”

“As a doctor,” Mikael said, stretching out to his full length beside Layla and running the fingers of one hand indolently down the length of her, “I can tell you that the right sort of lighting is essential when it comes to sexual gratification. Did you know that women’s fertility and men’s virility are influenced by circadian rhythms?”

She shook her head. “No, I wasn’t aware of that.”

“Research has shown that an absence of light throws this system off its regular cycles. Eskimo women don’t menstruate or ovulate during the Alaskan winters, for example. And their men have a decreased amount of spermatozoa, too.” Her breath caught in her throat when his finger reached one of her tits and circulated the areola so delicately that he almost wasn’t touching her. Even so, it was enough to send fire lancing through her veins and for her nipple to solidify. “And so, you see, the type of light selected for romantic foreplay is very important.”