Sins of the Undead Patriot (29 page)

“Are you armed or wearing a wire?” He shoved his hand into her jacket, searching supposedly, the mounds of her breasts.

“What the hell is wrong with you? I don’t own a gun. You have me under surveillance, wouldn’t you know if I was armed?” She pushed his hand.

He wouldn’t budge. “I do. I just enjoy feeling you up.”

Biting him would get him away from her, but she wasn’t sure if she’d catch something from it. “What do you want?”

“I’m wondering how you are going to fix things with Vaihan.” He leaned back. “Rowley’s only one part of your assignment.”

“I’m working on how to get back in Vaihan’s good book, but it’s going to take time.” Which she didn’t have. Part of her was stalling, maybe giving him time to deal with what she’d done to him.

“The one thing you don’t have. Word on the street is that Rowley’s is smuggling in items to put a bomb together in the capital. Have you forgotten the restaurant incident?”

Did Barton think Rowley was responsible for killing all those people?

“You need to keep your eyes and ears open and call me if you hear anything related to pickups and drop-offs. It would be sad if your newborn niece, Bethany, lost her father so soon.”

Cold terror gripped her. “I’m doing the best I can. Rowley has rites of passage, and I’m doing everything he’s asked of me, and still he hides stuff from me.”

“Maybe you need to put on the waterworks to speed things along. And no more fucking stunts with Vaihan, or I’ll put you out of your misery myself. Trust me when I say it will be far less painful on us both.”

Maybe that was a way out of this life. An option to consider, if she managed to ensure Peter didn’t go to jail. As long as she could keep Vaihan out of trouble.

Chapter 34

Vaihan hesitated to open the back door. Leera’s fragrance wafted in from the other side, and it carried two distinct males’ musk. One was McKie, the other he did not recognize. Pain collected in his throat, as he met her eyes. Every muscle in his body tensed. Jealousy, anger, hurt, betrayal. All jumbled up. He took a deep breath and released the emotions.

“May I come in a moment?” Leera asked. Dark liner sharpened her black eyes. The hood of her beige coat framed a thinning face. Less than two weeks had passed since he’d seen her lying on the bed at the hospital, weak, scared. He’d left her there, vulnerable, to be plucked by a volatile man. And Rowley hadn’t wasted his chance.

He stepped back. “My room will give us privacy. It’s the door at top of the stairs.”

She removed her boots on the mat and climbed the steps. With a push, he slammed the door shut. Hurt lingered inside him. Not two weeks, and she was screwing two other men.

The wood treads creaking beneath each footstep as they ascended the stairs were the only distraction between them. Once at the top, standing behind her, he reached around her. The cool breeze of her body danced over him. He opened the door for her to enter. With hesitant footsteps, she advanced into his room, stopped and turned toward him. He closed the door.

“You look well.” She lowered her hood and removed her gloves with a nervous smile.

In some ways, compared to her, his life was a picnic. “As always, you’re beautiful. You’re color is recovering. Has your appetite returned?” Nothing could be more hurtful than small talk.

She stuffed the gloves in her pocket and sat on the end of his bed. “I struggle to keep food down.” She crossed her long smooth legs.

Hunger stirred inside him, moving lower. “I hope that settles soon.” This couldn’t be happening to him. With any woman other than her, arousal was impossible. Being near her filled his cock with need.

“Thank you.” She smiled.

“Does McKie know you are here?” Why he’d bothered to ask when he was sure of the answer, he didn’t know. That was a lie. He wanted to know that coming to him meant more than closure, if that’s what this was.

She shook her head.

“You are together now, aren’t you?” He leaned his shoulder against the wall.

“Yes.” Looping the buttons, she opened her jacket.

So what was she doing there? What could they possibly have to talk about? Not even McKie got the whole truth from her. Was she capable of giving the person in her life complete honesty?

“Let me get to the purpose of my visit, so you may send me on my way.”

Even with the length of his life, he could not think of a single thing to help him ease the damage that his words at the hospital had caused her. But she hadn’t left him much choice.

“You have no reason to say yes to my request. Frankly, you have every reason to say no. Marty has discovered a positive side effect to our encounter.” She smoothed back her curls, exposing her neck.

“Go on.” Hard to believe anything good came from that night.

“Your toxin reduced the size of the abnormal growths on my uterus. He believes, in small doses, it could shrink the deterioration and provide me a chance to have a child.”

She stared up at him, her teary eyes filled with hope, as though he held the possibilities of joy in his hands.

If he couldn’t get aroused when he wasn’t with her, how could he provide her his ejaculate? There was no way out of the conversation without laying out the barrier. Or was there? “So, if I understand your request, you want me to provide you my semen to heal your uterus’s abnormalities, so that you may conceive a child with another man.” Pain would be one thing, but this was agony. The woman had just carved out his heart.

“Yes.” She met his gaze.

At least she gave him the truth on this. “You want something only I can provide, otherwise you would have explored other options. I’m inclined to give it to you if you...” She didn’t need to know it was the only way he could give it to her.

“If I what?” Pain reflected in her eyes.

“If you are in the room when I give my donation.” The memory of the feel of her soft skin on his lips caused his mouth to tingle.

“You want me in the room while you get off to provide the donation.”

“Yes.” His erection twitched at her words. “How badly do you want this, Leera?” As soon as she left, so would the hunger in his body.

“Why?” She wrapped her arms around her torso.

“Look, it’s my demand. Take or leave it.”

“If that’s what you want, then that is what I will do.”

“Good. We have an agreement, then.” Soon he wouldn’t be able to provide her what she needed.

“Marty asked that we go to the base laboratory and said you’d know where he meant.”

“I do. The trip there and back is a few hours.” How was she going to pass that one over on the new man–men–in her life? “When would we get started?”

“I was hoping we could start after New Year’s.”

“I see.” That pushed his timeframe forward. He risked that he might not be transformed by the date of the Ball for Undead Rights, where he wanted to reveal to the world that he was human again after the president signed off on the Bill.

“That’s not a good time for you?”

“Sooner would be better. I’m going to be out at my cabin for a while.” Unsure of the changes he’d go through, he didn’t want to leave himself vulnerable and would isolate himself.

“I’ll need to get back to you about timing. Rowley doesn’t enjoy me being places where he can’t keep an eye on me.”

“Don’t wait too long, as I intend to stick to my schedule.” To get his change started with any hope of resolving the distance between them, he couldn’t delay too much longer.

Chapter 35

Leera snuggled into Devin in the front seat, arms around his torso for warmth. She could listen to his Irish accent all night, and his stories of growing up in Ireland. The mix of his tone and words took hold of her. What was developing between them, she couldn’t be sure. However, she did know she enjoyed being with him. Despite the guns in the shoulder holsters on each side, she felt safe.

He pulled her to him. “Tired?” He adjusted the cover he’d wrapped her in and rested his hand on her shoulder.

Heat rushed inside her. “A little.”
A lot
was more accurate, but what did it matter?

Across the street, another zombie exited the rear of the rundown Victorian home. No interfering tonight, just outside backup, as girls were being pulled out and loaded into the van behind Devin’s car. Rowley didn’t let her venture too far without checking in on her. If she wanted to go somewhere, Devin or he offered to accompany her.

“You’re pissed at Rowley because of the lecture he gave you?” The lightest green eyes she’d ever seen lured her in. Since the other night, she struggled to meet his piercing gaze. If he’d left her alone, she wouldn’t have fallen to pieces.

She was angry, but not about the lecture. More, in her inability to do anything on her own. “I’m pissed because I don’t know what role Rowley wants me to play in his world.” Was she a playmate for him and his buddies? How many other of his coconspirators would she need to fuck?

“Give him time. He is also trying to figure that out, and since he doesn’t trust easy, he won’t decide overnight.” He squeezed her to his hard chest.

Her nipples hardened into peaks. The longer Rowley took to decide, the more she couldn’t wait to get away from this strange situation and the less she thought he should father her child. In the last few moments, Devin had showered her with more affection than Rowley had since he’d claimed he loved her a few weeks ago.

“
Cron sceimhiuil
.” He lowered his voice. Hunger laced his tone.

“You used those words the other day in the bathroom. What do they mean?” What game was Devin playing? Had Rowley put him up to it to test her loyalty?

“I’ve never been with a woman of your complexion. You may take my words the wrong way.” He shifted upright, pushing his back to the seat.

Her heart thumped. “What do they mean?” She pressed her lips together, swallowed and pulled back.

“Don’t be angry. When I think of what we shared the other night, I remember the folds between your thighs are tipped dark and grow pink toward your opening.” Hunger flushed his face.

What was he dancing around, some kind of degrading sexual term? “The words, Devin, what do they mean?”

“Dark beautiful. I mean it with great fondness. The words don’t translate well but I’m taken by you.” He trailed his thumb along her jaw line to her lips. “The softest I’ve had the pleasure of tasting.”

Her mouth tingled with flickering flames. “Devin.” Leera retreated.

“I understand if you took part in the threesome because of your feelings for Rowley–to please him.” He leaned away, into his spot on the seat. “I enjoyed what we shared, those moments I had with you,
a cron sceimhiuil
. And I hope I brought you pleasure too.” He stared out the window, a vacantness hollowing his usually warm eyes. “If you have no further interest in me than the threesomes to enhance your and Rowley’s sex life, I will respect that.”

“I won’t betray him.” Devin or Rowley or both, could be testing her loyalties.

“And you think us touching and exploring each other would be a betrayal to him when he watched us have sex?” He angled his upper body toward her.

Put that way, her point didn’t make sense. “I don’t know, maybe I’m not as comfortable as both of you are.”

“Did you not enjoy what we shared?” His gaze met hers. “Was that why you were crying then, afterward? Did you feel obligated to include me? Is that why you were sick to your stomach and needed to clean yourself?”

Everything she said tonight turned into a put down aimed at him. “Devin.”

“I have the right to know. I know how Rowley can be. He gets what he wants. So if you can’t turn down his request for me to join the two of you, for God’s sake, if you tell me it’s not what you want, I can spare us both.” He gripped the leather steering wheel and the fabric squealed beneath his hands.

Of course she’d done it for Rowley, and she couldn’t turn him down. Maybe she hadn’t wanted his touch to begin with, but she did enjoy it. “Spare us both?”

“You think men have no feelings, Leera.” He pointed to his heart. “I can’t sleep with a woman who isn’t into it–they call that rape where I come from.”

If only that night’s events were that simple. “It’s not like that.” She slid to the passenger door.

He scooted toward her. “What is it like, then?”

“I can’t tell you.” If she admitted that one on one with him had been enjoyable, even pleasurable, but both of them–Rowley joining in had taken away the intimacy between them, and Devin would think she didn’t care for Rowley. “You’ll think I’m horrible.”

“So you’d rather I think being with me made you sick–or that I was forcing myself on you.” He gathered her up by the shoulders.

Why was he pushing this? “God, no.”

“Then what?” The streetlight lit his face, tight with an expression of determination.

She jerked her shoulders. “Let this go.”

“I need to know.” He pressed his forehead to her temple.

“When you were touching me, I wanted you–only you.” She grabbed the car door handle.