Dusk (13 page)

“You are tired. I’m taking your shoes off for you,” he murmured,
slipping her flats off her feet and setting them aside. He massaged her heels.

Lucy moaned with pleasure. “No one has ever done that for me
before,” she said softly. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to,” he said, sliding his hands up her calves.

Aches she didn’t know she had melted away as he worked. She
yawned, and then lay down on his bed. “I’m so sleepy.”

“Go to sleep,” he said, lifting her legs and putting them on the
bed. “I am here. You are safe.”

“You promise?” she asked, sinking down into his soft mattress. “Don’t
leave, Solomon.”

“I will not leave,” he said, nudging her hip. “Roll over.”

She did as he asked, snuggling into his pillow. It smelled like
him and she relaxed even more.
His sheets are so soft,
she thought.
Vaguely, she felt him sliding his hands under her shirt and she shifted so he
could remove her bra. The last thing she remembered was him covering her with something
soft.

****

Solomon woke slowly. He’d been dreaming about Constance. He’d had
the dream before. He stood in the doorway of the cabin he’d built with his own
hands, and she smiled at him from the kitchen where she was baking bread. In
every dream, he remembered smiling back, but this time, the scene changed.
Instead of him walking towards her and taking the bread she offered, she lifted
her hand and waved to him, then stepped backwards, disappearing into the wall.
He rushed forward, trying to find her, but suddenly there was no kitchen. No
cabin. He stood in the middle of the forest, alone, and he knew that decades
had passed. The cabin had fallen and trees had grown into the stones of the
foundation. For the first time since he’d lost her, he didn’t regret her
passing. He crouched down and touched the grass under his feet. The seeds
tickled his wrist. Above him, a wren scolded her mate and Solomon smiled and
woke up. He was no longer alone. Lucy’s dark curls tumbled over his arm and he
realized that he’d finally let go of his past.

“Thank you,” he whispered, tracing a finger down Lucy’s soft
cheek. She was so beautiful. And she needed him, even if she denied it. It felt
good to be needed. He would keep her safe at all costs.

I am not going to lose her,
he told himself. He kissed her lips, smiling when she wrinkled
her nose. He glanced outside. Clear skies greeted him, but the sickly green of
the corrupted shield tinged the blue a faint turquoise when he looked with his
power. He’d have to deal with the shield soon, but it could wait for now.

“What time is it?” Lucy murmured, rolling over. One side of her
face was pink from sleep and her eyes were only half open. The covers twisted
around her hips, drawing his eyes over her curves. The suddenness of his arousal
shocked him. “Is it morning?” She rubbed her face. “I can’t believe I didn’t
have any nightmares. I think that’s the first time I’ve slept through the night
in months.”

“I am happy you slept well,” Solomon said, sliding an arm around
her waist. She smelled like home. When he let his empathy unfold, he wasn’t
surprised to find her rested and happy. “It is midmorning. We have time.”

“Time for what?” she asked, and he grinned, kissing the side of
her neck.

She shivered. “I can feel what you’re thinking, Solomon.” Her
breath caught.

“Relax,” he told her, trailing his fingers down her arm. Her
arousal pushed his higher, and he moaned, slotting his erection between her
buttocks. “I am going to make love to you until you can’t remember your own
name.”

She huffed. “Oh? That’s a heck of a boast.” Even as she spoke, she
leaned into him, rolling her hips against his groin.

He bit the juncture of her neck and shoulder. “Mmmm, you taste
good.”

She rolled toward him and he untwisted the blankets, slipping them
down to her waist. Her breasts shifted under her shirt and he palmed them,
flicking his thumbs over her nipples until they pebbled.

“I do not boast unless I can deliver,” he said, leaning down. He
put his mouth on her right breast and just breathed, heating the fabric. She
squirmed, gasping, and he rolled between her legs. His cock pushed right up
against her core. Both of them groaned.

“I need you,” Lucy said.

She didn’t realize that those were precisely the words he most
wanted to hear. His erection leaped, and he growled, yanking her shirt above
her head.

“Whoa,” she said huskily. “Down, boy.”

“I am not a boy,” Solomon replied, yanking down her pants. When he
had her spread out nude, he slid down the bed and kissed her clit, needing to
hear her cry out. She didn’t make him wait. The moment his tongue flicked her
bud, she arched her back and gasped. He rubbed the flat of his tongue up over the
hood and then down again, over and over until his empathy told him she was
right on the brink. Then he knelt and stripped off his boxers.

“Solomon, please.” She held out her arms.

He shook his head. “No. Turn over.”

She frowned, so he reached down and flipped her onto her stomach,
shoving a pillow under her hips. She turned her head. “What are you doing?”

He bit his lip and slid the tip of his cock along her slit. She
was so pink and wet. He couldn’t get enough of her. She was perfect for him. “I
am driving you crazy.”

Her nostrils flared when he bumped her clit, so he did it again.
She trembled.

“You like that.” He moved back, then teased her again.

“God, yes,” she said brokenly. “I can feel your pleasure, in my
mind.”

He grinned at that. “Yes. And I can feel yours,” he told her, suddenly
fucking into her pussy with one hard thrust.

She groaned, clutching at the pillow. “What’s happening to us?”

He bent down over her body, sliding his prick in slowly this time.
“We are mated, Lucinda.”

“God.” She bucked, almost pushing him off.

He put a hand on her shoulders. “Don’t move.”

She writhed. “You must be joking.”

He knelt back up and slid his thumbs around her pussy, then used
her own wetness to lubricate her anus. “Hold still,” he said, teasing her with
his fingers.

She shuddered, but went still when he slid a thumb inside. “You
like that,” he breathed, sensing it in his own body. He added another finger.
She clamped her inner muscles down on his cock, nearly sending him over. He
froze, trying to catch his breath.

“Don’t stop,” she begged, moving her hips.

He gritted his teeth as the pleasure reverberated through them.
What she felt, so did he. He slid his fingers out, ignoring her protests, and
leaned over to the nightstand. He pulled open the drawer and took out a silver
wand about as long as his palm and thick as three of his fingers. It was part
of one of his experiments with the Others’ tech. It allowed him to tune the
Stronghold net more delicately, but it could also serve another purpose.

“What is that?” Lucy asked, twining her face around to see.

He grabbed his lube and flipped open the cap, then carefully
smoothed the slick liquid over the wand. “It is a stylus,” he said, dragging
the point down over her ass. His cock throbbed just thinking about putting this
in her.

She licked her lips. “And what are you going to do with it?”

Solomon smiled at her. “This,” he said, rubbing at her tiny
rosebud. She shivered and he carefully slid the tip into her body, sensing her
pleasure along his skin. “Good?”

She fisted his pillow. “Oh my God.”

He slid it in further, careful to go slow. When it was half
inside, he began to twist it. Lucy cried out, going up on her knees. Solomon
didn’t move as she began to fuck herself on his cock, spine arching. He couldn’t
move. He could barely think clearly as the pleasure she felt crashed down on
him. When he realized he couldn’t hold on any longer, he reached around with
his free hand and tapped her clit.

She groaned, shoving back again and again as she climaxed. Solomon
bit his lip but it was too much for him and he followed her over the edge. He
leaned forward, trying not to crush her as his cock jerked once, twice, then a
third time. He slid the wand from her ass and Lucy climaxed again as he pressed
her down into the mattress, hips moving hard enough to shove them both up
toward the head of the bed. Impossibly, another spine-cracking orgasm ripped through
him and he grabbed the sheets, crying his pleasure into her soft hair.

A long time later, he managed to roll onto his side, bringing her
with him. “I love you,” he murmured, smoothing her tangled curls over her
shoulder.

She tipped her head back. Her brown eyes glimmered with silver. “I
know. I can feel your emotions, in here.” She put her hand to her breast. “And
you must know how I feel about you.”

He nodded slowly. “I was not sure, at first. I was afraid to let
myself open up like that again, after everything. When you ran away, it felt
like you had torn my heart in half. That is when I was certain.” He smiled
wryly. “Not that it mattered. You were already part of me.”

“I know and I’m happy that you finally let me in,” she whispered,
tucking his arm around her. She rested her face on his shoulder. “We’re in this
together. You’re not disrespecting Constance’s memory, Solomon. I promise.”

He sighed and held her tightly. “I know, my darling Lucinda.”

She smiled against his skin. “How ever did you find out that was
my full name? I never tell anybody.”

“Eva, of course.” He stroked her hair. “You don’t like that name?”

“I like it when
you
say it. Not so much when other people
do.” Lucy huffed. “I’m going to have to kill Eva now.”

Solomon chuckled. “I think my brother would probably object to
that.”

“Too bad,” she teased. “Eva broke the girlfriend code. Now she has
to pay.”

Solomon was about to reply, when a flare of greenish light washed
over them. His skin prickled with static.

“What—?” Lucy started to ask, but Solomon was already rolling her
off the bed to the floor. She squeaked, but he huddled on top of her, wedging
them both against the bed for protection. Abruptly, a shock wave crashed
through the tower, rocking it in its foundation. Heat washed over his senses
and he flinched as it burned, holding Lucy tighter.

“Do not move,” he said, waiting out the energy surge. “It should
pass soon. I designed it to collapse like this when stressed.” He held her
tighter.
The shield must have failed under the load,
he thought,
worried.
How did they damage it?

“Oh my God, Solomon, it hurt like we were standing too close to a
fire,” Lucy breathed after the worst had passed. Her hands tightened around his
arms. “What was that?”

Solomon lifted his face and looked outside. Blue sky stared back
at him. The camouflage shield was completely, utterly gone.

Chapter Ten

“That was what happens when something trips the self-destruct,”
Solomon said, staring through the windows. He turned back to her and cupped her
face. His silver-specked brown eyes were worried. “Are you all right?”

Lucy forced herself to let go of his arms. “I’m okay,” she said,
flexing her fingers. “I didn’t hurt you, did I? I’m sorry I grabbed you so
tightly.”

He half-smiled. “You could not injure me. You are tiny.”

Lucy choked on a laugh. “I’m not tiny.”
Far from it,
she thought.

Solomon lifted an eyebrow. “Yes, you are.” His hands circled her
waist. “Do not fret. You are beautiful.” He shifted away, glancing again at the
glass. “Are you certain you are unhurt?” he asked her, still protecting her
with his body.

Lucy took inventory of her body. The tingles through her spine and
skin were fading. “I think so.” She licked her lips, worried more about his
home. “Please tell me your tower isn’t going to collapse.”

He snorted softly. “My tower isn’t going to collapse.”

Lucy sensed his amusement, but also his surety that what he’d said
was true. “Okay, then. Let me up.”

He slowly unfolded himself from her, going to his knees.

Lucy rolled over, groaning. The stone floor was very hard, but at
least she was alive. “Was it the Spiders?”

He shook his head. “The camouflage shield collapsed. I designed it
to do that under certain specific conditions.”

“Like what?”

He grimaced. “Too much energy going in or coming out. Corrupted framework.
Things that are highly unlikely to happen, unless the tech has been tampered
with.”

“That’s not good,” she said, worried. They were vulnerable without
that shield.

“No, it is not, for many reasons. I need to get it working again
as soon as possible,” he said, standing up.

Lucy blushed as she watched the muscles in his thighs flex. He
raised his eyebrows at her, but she ignored the question on his face.
He can
sense my attraction to him. No need to admit it out loud,
she thought,
flushing more. When he reached a hand down to help her up, she took it,
pretending she wasn’t stark naked and just a bit uncomfortable about it.