Lost (7 page)

He
looked down at it with so much sadness.

“
Please don’t cry for that useless man,” Loren whispered, and
brought my tear to his lips to taste it. I hadn’t realized I
started crying—again. Fuck, this was a habit I didn’t need, or
want.

I nodded
uselessly and took the phone.

“
Max?” I croaked, wincing at how weak I sounded.

Loren tugged me backwards to a chair in the corner of his
balcony. He settled me onto his lap, and gently pulled back my long
black and red hair from my face. I cuddled into his affectionate
embrace, feeling a little better because of it.

“
Hey baby girl, are you doing okay?” Max said with a wealth of
concern I hadn’t expected. I’d feared the opposite
reaction.

“
Not really.” I knew well enough there wasn’t any reason to
lie to Max about anything. He’d know every detail, whether it be
now, or the next time I was in his presence.

“
By the way, we’re not mad at you. Not one bit,” Max started,
anticipating my concerns. “That dumb fuck…”

“
Loren?” I asked with surprise.

“
No, Gene. Marcus woke both Corrine and I up
a little while ago, to tell us everything. Gene came home smashing
through the house with some blonde, and forced Marcus to use
other
methods to figure
out what happened.”

Which meant Gene wasn’t talking. And Marcus can be
pretty…persuasive when he wanted to be.

“
Are Marcus and Kelly mad at me?” I whispered my very worst
fear.

“
Would you like to speak with them?”

I didn’t
even have to answer. There was a slight shuffling on his side,
while he set it to speakerphone.

“
Hey, little one,” Marcus drawled in thick southern accent
with a French tilt that Kelly was addicted to hearing. It was her
kryptonite, and Marcus knew it.

It had
gotten him out of a fair bit of trouble.

“
Hi, Marc.”

“
Do you want me to break his kneecaps?” Marcus rumbled. “I
could threaten anyone with grave violence, to whoever thought to
heal him. We both know he sucks at any healing magic.”

An unwilling sob tried to work up my throat, but I ruthlessly
cut it off before it crested. Only a tiny squeak escaped, but my
best friend knew me too well.

“
No more of this crying business,” Kelly reprimanded, but I
didn’t miss the shock in her tone either.

“
I messed up.”

“
No, you didn’t. I’ve talked to Carl, and he was right there.
I’ve never seen him so pissed before. If he could’ve, he would be
breaking the kneecaps and not me,” Marcus spat. “Gene’s my best
friend, and so are you. I know who’s in the right, even if you
don’t. He fucked up. He knew the score of the life he chose, and he
broke it. You however, didn’t do anything differently than at any
other of those parties.”

“
But he was jealous…”

“
So? Then he should’ve said something to you, and not gone off
half-cocked. He knows how this world works, and there’s no excuse
for deliberately hurting you because of some stupid misconception,”
Marcus argued. “He should be a man and own up, but instead he’s
wallowing deeper.”

“
If I had handled it differently…”

“
And what about next time, baby girl?” Max
implored. “This was a war waiting to happen, and his turmoil has
been stewing for a while. He refused to talk to you about it before
it blew up in both of your faces. You just didn’t want to notice
it, not that I blame you for
that
. I expected far better from
him, and I shouldn’t have.”

“
I’m not any better,” I said softly.

“
You have to stop thinking that way. He's
acting
human
,”
Max snapped disdainfully, using it much like a dirty word. “And not
even a grown up human at that, but a child. If he didn’t want you
to be in this scene anymore or with anyone specifically, he should
have
said
something, anything. He did none of these
things.”

I couldn’t deny that was on the mark. I’d thought we had a
more open relationship than that, but just like Max said, I hadn’t
wanted to see it. I’d been so willingly blind…

Hanging onto a dead
horse
, Loren finished for me, and I
snorted.

“
Are you going to spend the night with Loren, or would you
like to come home?” Marcus asked.

“
I don’t want to see him right now.”

Until I sorted some of my feelings out, I couldn’t talk to
him. Time enough for that afterward.

“
Then you stay with Loren,” Marcus consoled,
softly.

“
Do you need me? Marcus and I could come out there, now or in
the morning, if you’d like,” Kelly piped up.

“
I’m pretty tired, but I’d love it if you came out tomorrow.”
I needed to see her.

“
Of course we will, little one. As soon as we roll out of bed,
we’ll head up there,” Marcus promised, “And know I already have a
shiny steel baseball bat, which Kelly affectionately wrote your
name all over with a jiffy marker. Just say the word, and it will
have a very intimate encounter with Gene’s legs.”

I laughed at his seriousness. He knew my petulance for
violence. “Max, I’m sorry.”

“
Baby girl, the only reason that sorry excuse for a man is a
vampire today, is because you commissioned it. Otherwise, he was
just an accountant for my wife. You’ve fought for this Coven, built
your name and reputation. Did you think dumping your boyfriend
would change any of that?”

“
Apparently not.”

Max
laughed.

Loren cuddled me in his arms, while he listened to the
goodbyes, and I hung up. They were my family still, and while it
didn’t make everything in my world right, it did make up for so
much.

“
I’m sorry for ruining your night,” I murmured.

“
You didn’t. You’re here with me, and under any circumstances,
that’s better than anything else. Stop apologizing. You’re the only
person who thinks you did anything wrong.”

“
Except for Gene.”

“
That mongrel doesn’t count.”

“
This sucks ass,” I grunted.

Loren rolled his eyes. “It’ll be okay, my love. I'll make
sure of it. Promise me, no more tears.” Loren brushed my hair back
again, pressing his lips to my temple. “Be the strong, heartless
woman I know only you can be. Those pureblood women don’t have
anything on you.”

“
I’m not really heartless. I just want people to see me that
way.” I felt severely trampled and exhausted, ready to fall into
bed and have this night be officially over.

“
I know, but no one else has to.” He hauled my legs onto his
lap, but made no move to get up.

We
didn’t talk anymore. Loren hummed an unfamiliar, but comforting
tune while I let my mind wander, unwilling to let it touch Gene
again.

At least for tonight. Tomorrow was another day, and with it,
a new fate would begin.

Chapter Five

When I
went to sleep at night, the pillow was always beneath my head. But
when I woke up, I was always under a shield of darkness and
feathers.

Though this morning, all I could smell was Loren, everywhere,
it went a long way in keeping my despair and uncertainty at bay,
where it should be.

I tried to stretch my sore legs, which probably hadn’t moved
an inch since I'd passed out, but something warm and solid
prevented that. A soft sweet tongue ran up my inner thigh, and my
eyes popped painfully open.

I lifted
the pillow from my head, and before last night could even begin to
crash down on me, enthralling espresso eyes met mine. With his long
black hair trailing over my thighs, I wondered why Loren hadn’t
ever gone Goth. He would be so totally hot dressed in black and
leather. Not that he didn’t look delectable shrouded in his alter
human ego; the well-dressed rich CEO of Foxworth
Shipping.

His tongue mind-numbingly swirled over my mound, hands
pushing my thighs over his shoulders. I watched the play of muscle
beneath his smooth unblemished skin, the ripple of steel under my
palms addicting to touch.

Flames
danced brightly in his eyes. He was a predator, and it didn’t
matter what he was doing, I saw that first. Each and every movement
was slow, carnally libidinous. And to finally have him this way
after so long was nearly inconceivable.

A soft,
playful smile flirted with his lush lips. My fingers trailed down
his cheek, and his head turned to kiss my palm, catching one of my
fingers into his mouth. Canines grazed the tip, and sent a
bone-deep primal reaction through me.

An
instant ache and eagerness matured in my mind. Instead of waking me
up, my body melted into the mattress, and he hadn’t even done
anything yet. How could he induce such a devastating response from
me?

“
Morning,” I mumbled.

“
It is,” he answered. “Finally. I waited all night for you to
wake up.”

I
laughed. “Are you having fun?”

“
My love, you’re naked in
my
bed. It doesn’t get
much more fun than this.” He gently caressed me, and I liquefied.
It normally took a lot more roughness and friction to get me this
excited, but my body tuned itself for him. I could feel him in my
head, sharing this with me.

Loren took his time, not in any hurry. He licked me slowly,
sucking my delicate flesh into his mouth, until the warm tingling
in my abdomen spread and the fire caught. His finger delved and
teased until I whimpered.

When I
came, it began as sparks of bliss, but Loren continued to torture
me. It engulfed me until my back arched right off the bed, and he
was forced to pin me by throwing an arm over my stomach.

The roughness of the action, the savage need in him made
everything spiral out of control. He finally broke, and his mouth
picked up speed as the sensations didn’t stop, just proliferated.
The urgency was utterly delicious.

My love, this can be sweet and slow, and be just as
pleasurable as what we normally do. I want to taste you, to
overcome you with sensations. I want to show you something new,
something you don’t believe you can have.

He was
merciless as my cries grew in frequency and severity. He played
with my body like he owned it, knowing every single nuance. Even
the ones I didn’t know myself.

And I
never wanted him to stop.

Then I
remembered my visitors who were due…Swearing in my head, I knew I
should’ve had more foresight.

He
purred against me, and kissed my thigh.

“
They’re already here, my love. Marcus is making Kelly watch
him play videogames,” he disclosed as the last of extinguishing
sensations fled my pleasantly lazy body.

Put
Marcus in a room with an Xbox, and it wouldn’t be long before he
became glued to it. There wasn’t much any of us could do about it.
The rest of my brothers were just as bad. Mind you, so was I. Give
me a good, bloody zombie game any day, and I’d be content to blow
them away until something better and more high-tech came
out.

“
I’m not letting you go, until after
I
am
done with
you,” he said harshly.

I made a show of thinking that over.
“I
guess
I could
permit that.”

“
Permit me?” He rested his chin on my mound, and stared up at
me quizzically. “Hmmm.”

“
Yes, permit.” I struggled to keep a straight face and a clear
mind, but it was harder than I would’ve thought. “As in,
allow.”

“
Well, maybe I don’t want to anymore.”

Yeah, right. I believed that, really I did.

He
barked out a boisterous laugh. “You got me.”

“
Oh, I know.”

“
I want to make love to you, Sara. To take you softly, slowly
and show you rough sex isn’t the only thing to get you off. I’m
perfectly capable of coaxing your body to climax with nothing more
than that.”

“
That’s an admirable goal, but you’ve just proven that quite
effectively.”

“
I don’t think I’ve made my point quite thoroughly enough
yet.”

His
luscious muscular arms bulged as he pulled his weight on top of me.
Every time he pressed his lips to my body, my heart did a sickening
little flip that was way far out in left field for me.

When he
reached my mouth, he tasted of mint and coffee. I wondered how long
he’d been up before waking me. Did he even sleep at all last
night?

Practically of its own accord, my hand trailed down his
stomach to grip his cock, already thick and ready for
me.

I groaned when the image filled my mind, of what he’d looked
like to me the night before, when he demanded I take his shaft into
my mouth, the feel of his cock caressing up and down my throat,
hands fisted in my hair. It made me uncontrollably horny just to
think about it.