M&L03 - SS (11 page)

~ Solomon ~

When the banquet ended, most
of us headed over to the Supernova dance club where the real party was already
in full swing. The bars and dance floors were packed but I eventually grabbed a
seat at the bar in front of the main stage. As I watched the dancers go through
their routines, I was thoroughly impressed with their skill and the
choreography. Renee had really outdone herself this time mixing just enough
classic dances with modern themes to come up with something entirely unique. As
always, her work was a reflection of her inner beauty and the vibrant energy
that surrounds her.

“You’re looking a little
peaked Solomon,” Gina remarked sliding onto the recently vacated barstool
beside me. “Care to have a drink on me?”

She brushed her long blonde
hair behind her shoulder as she tilted her head to the side, making it clear
she wasn’t offering to buy me a drink from the bar. Gina was a sex demon who
worked as a dancer in Mystique. Sex demons fed off lust, so she’d benefit from
the arrangement as much as I would. Gina wasn’t however, the most discreet
woman I knew so I thanked her for the offer and sent her on her way.

Several more women dropped
into the seat beside me with offers of their own before I finally decided to
look for Renee. Using the locator spell, I determined that she was most likely
backstage, which made sense when I thought about it. She was clearly still
avoiding me, but she wouldn’t want to miss all the excitement.

On my way to find Renee I ran
into Simone, a close friend of mine who transferred to Myths and Legends a few
months ago when I asked her to take over Clarissa’s old job. Clarissa had been
in charge of the dancers at Mystique until she was recently imprisoned for
treason. Simone was another sex demon but one I knew I could trust to keep my
business private.

Leaning in and practically
shouting in Simone’s ear, I tried to explain what I needed but had to give up
and lead her out of the club. It was just too loud this close to the dance
floor and far too crowded to have any kind of meaningful conversation. So with
my hand on the small of her back I led her through the crowd and out the main
entrance into the cool night air.

~ Renee ~

“Nothing ever changes does it
Renee?” Dimitri observed stepping up behind me. I was standing in the shadows
behind the curtain on the main stage watching Solomon leave with a curvy
brunette that I’d never seen before.

Dimitri eased my sweater off
my shoulder and I let him do it because I knew what he was looking for. “Even
with his mark stamped on your body he leaves you behind to fulfill his needs
with other women.”

His fingertips skated lightly
down my neck then over my bare shoulder. I shivered and his arms wrapped around
me, holding me against his hard body, comforting me with his warmth.

I knew from the very
beginning that Solomon would never be satisfied with one woman. In the two
months that we worked together back in Arthur’s studio, he slept with at least
twenty different women and the numbers only grew once I joined the supernatural
world. So many times I wanted to be one of those women, but I knew sex without
a commitment would never be enough for me. For thirty years I stayed by
Solomon’s side, all the while trying not to let myself fall for him, but
somewhere along the line he became the most important person in my life. That’s
why I had to protect him when I realized we were mates before he did.

Every second of the past six
months felt like an eternity, but I thought I was saving Solomon from a fate he
wouldn’t choose on his own. I figured after thirty years together if he hadn’t
chosen to give up all the other women for me then he never would. And if it took
magical intervention to make him mine, then I didn’t want him. 

Then I woke up this morning
and the mating marks were almost completely colored in. I knew what that meant
but I couldn’t let myself believe it. I needed more. I needed to feel his
emotions through the bond, but since the spell was still tattooed on my back
and the fox eye that should have been there was missing, I knew I needed
Solomon’s help to make that happen.

I came here tonight to ask
Solomon if he could remove the spell but then I was distracted by the endless
stream of women propositioning him. They were all beautiful and it was obvious
they were making themselves available for anything he had in mind, but he
politely turned each and every one of them away. For that short period of time,
I was happier than I’d ever been in my life.

Then he met up with the
walking wet dream and promptly left to get his rocks off.

Now I was so confused I
didn’t know if I was coming or going. Last night I told Solomon he should walk
away from me and the mating bond, and at the time, I meant it. Then he touched
me. With that one simple act he started a fire that I feared would never be
contained. Even now while I was furious with him, I ached to feel him inside me
again. I tried to tell myself it would pass, that with enough time and distance
the fire could be doused, but a growing part of me didn’t want to put out the
flames. A growing part of me wanted to track him down and make sure he never
looked at another woman again.

Then I remembered that he
lied to me. Last night he said a lot of things that obviously weren’t true
because if they were he wouldn’t have walked outside with Miss
I’m-too-sexy-for-my-dress.

“I have to go Dimitri,” I
said shrugging off his hold and pulling my sweater back in place.

Before I could get away, he
reached out and spun me around to face him. With his big hands gripping my
upper arms he growled, “What are you going to do, run and hide? Or worse yet,
chase after him? You’re too good for him Renee, come with me and leave all of this
behind. Let me show you how a real man treats his woman.” Red flames consumed
his blue eyes, searing me with their intensity.

I shook my head to clear it.
“Dimitri I have to settle this with Solomon. If I leave, I want him to know why
I’m doing it, and I want to make sure he won’t try to follow me.”

“Do you honestly think he’ll
let you go Renee?”

“It’s not his choice to
make,” I said, knowing I wasn’t fooling anyone but myself.

“If you won’t leave with me
then fight fire with fire. Show him you won’t sit idly by while he sates his
lust with everyone but you.”

He didn’t give me a chance to
respond before he grabbed my hand and started dragging me out onto the dance
floor. I struggled at first, digging in my heels and trying to free my hand,
but Dimitri just picked me up and carried me onto the dance floor. Once we were
surrounded by the heaving crowd of dancers, he set me down and wrapped his arms
tightly around my waist. His body moved to the music while I glared up at him.
When it became obvious that he wasn’t going to give up, I shook my head and
started dancing.

I knew Solomon would be
furious if he saw me dancing with Dimitri, but I told myself I shouldn’t care.
Dimitri was a big boy, he knew he was openly challenging Solomon and if he
didn’t care why should I? And why should I feel guilty when Dimitri’s hand
moved up to squeeze my breast, or when his lips came down on mine and his
tongue slid into my mouth? Mating obviously wasn’t synonymous with monogamy in
Solomon’s mind so why should it be in mine?

I felt someone tap my
shoulder and turned to see Rook standing beside us.

He leaned in and shouted over
the music. “I need you to come with me Renee.”

Dimitri started to push me
behind him but then everything froze. The blaring music was suddenly gone and
in the silence, I was surrounded by lifelike mannequins that had been bumping
and grinding only seconds before.

“Holy shit,” I gasped looking
around. “I heard you’d gained some new powers but damn, I had no idea you could
freeze time like this.”

“Do you know what you’re
doing Renee?” Rook asked.

I raised my chin and looked
him in the eyes. “I’m dancing with my friend Dimitri.”

Rook shook his head. “If you
want to play this game that’s up to you, but I must insist that you come with
me now. After you’ve talked to Solomon, you can pick up right where you left
off and I won’t interfere again, but you should know that if you do, this will
only end when one of them is dead. Think about that Renee before you make any
more impulsive decisions based on hurt feelings or anger.”

“What if I don’t want to go
with you now?”

“I can hold this indefinitely
Renee. Solomon is in the back hallway near the service elevators. Doyle is
keeping him there. Once Doyle comes out to tell me you’re with Solomon I’ll
restart time for everyone else.”

I knew by the set of his jaw
that Rook was serious, and if I ever wanted to get back to my life I’d have to
talk to Solomon first.

“Fine. I’ll go talk to
Solomon.”

As I wove my way through the
club, I laughed at some of the comical expressions frozen on the faces around
me, and by the time I stepped through the door to the back hallway, I was
shaking my head at the number of people caught in the midst of orgasm.

When Doyle saw me coming he
whispered something to Solomon who was leaning back against the wall, then he
walked past me towards the club.

When I was only a few feet
away from him Solomon pushed off from the wall and got right up in my face.
“What the hell were you doing out there Renee?”

“Me?” I growled, putting my
hands on my hips. “I’m not the one who left with the Brunette Bimbo. What the
hell were
you
doing Solomon?”

I was so angry with him but
at the same time I wanted to cry. Why couldn’t I be enough for him? I felt
tears welling in my eyes and looked away before he could see them. I couldn’t
bear the thought of letting him see me cry again.

“Look at me Renee,” he
demanded. When I only shook my head, he grabbed my arms and shook me. “I said
look at me Renee.”

This time I did meet his eyes
with fury blazing in my own and hissed, “Let go of me and don’t you ever touch
me like that again Solomon.”

He released my arms and I
took a few steps back.

“Look at me Renee,” he said
again.

“I am,” I shouted back at
him, the tears rolling down my cheeks now.

“No you’re not, you’re eyes
are pointed in my direction but you’re not seeing me at all. Now please, just
look at me and tell me what you see.”

I started to ask what he was
going on about but then I realized what he wanted me to see. The dark circles
under his eyes were back and so was the sickly pallor that I’d been so worried
about just yesterday morning. Normally we only needed to feed once or twice a
week but the storm must have taken more out of him than I thought.

When he knew I’d finally
caught on he said, “I took Simone outside because it was just too loud inside
to have a conversation. I wanted her to know that we’ve recently mated and I
didn’t feel comfortable feeding from anyone without you being present. She said
she understood and had no problem with that. We came back in to find you but
then I saw you on the dance floor with the fire demon. Why would you do that
Renee knowing how I would react?”

“What was I supposed to think
Solomon? I watched you walk outside with a sex demon.”

He closed his eyes and seemed
to be counting to ten. Finally, when his eyes opened again he asked, “What do I
have to do to convince you that I don’t want any other women? I have no
intentions to have sex with Simone or anyone other than you. I need blood and
Simone is willing to donate it. I want you to be there while I feed because I
don’t want to experience sexual pleasure without you. I know Simone’s presence
might make you uncomfortable, but this is something we will have to work out.
I’m sorry it can’t wait a few more days but I need to get my strength back
before the tournament begins tomorrow.”

Looking into his nearly black
eyes, I knew I needed to make a choice. Either I was going to walk away now or
I was going to jump in with both feet and see where this mating thing takes us.

I licked my lips, my mouth
suddenly very dry. “If we take this step there’s no going back Solomon. We
could part now as friends, but if we go our separate ways later we won’t even
have that.”

Ever so slowly he closed the
distance I’d put between us. Then with one hand going around my waist and the
other threading through my hair to the back of my head he pulled me close and
whispered, “I made my choice three decades ago when I asked you to follow me
through that portal to Liberty Island. The only thing holding me back was not
knowing if the fox would accept you. Now that he has, there will never be
another woman for me.”

His lips pressed gently
against mine and I molded myself to him with a sigh. Tightening his hold on me,
his tongue swept into my mouth, teasing and tempting me with slow, swirling
licks that stole my breath and made my heart skip a beat. I went up on my toes,
deepening the kiss, holding his face between my hands.

This kiss was so different
from the one we shared last night when nothing mattered but the throbbing need
between my legs. I still couldn’t feel his emotions coming through the bond but
this was better. What I felt now was raw human emotions. It was normal, and it
was honest and there was nothing supernatural about it. I felt his love for me
with the soft caress of his lips, with the gentle slide of his tongue against
mine, and with the way he held me close savoring the feel of my body pressed
against his.