“Hey,” Devon says as he walks into the billiards room, much to her relief. Other Liv must have flittered off home after all.
“Hi,” she says and runs into his arms. “I have missed you.”
“Hmm,” he murmurs to her and lets her kiss him.
She sighs. She wishes he would, at the very least, be as attracted to her as he was before he turned her.
“Come now,” he demands her, grabbing her hand. She knows he is using her, but she loves him and wants to please him. She wishes she could go right this second. But she has that one little job to do before she can go with him.
“Give me one minute, I just need to finish something up and then I will be up and ready to please you, sir.” She lowers her eyes, giving him submission to outweigh that she can’t go with him right now.
He growls at her, low and sexy, and she feels her nipples harden. “One minute,” he says. “Or there will be punishment.” He stalks off and she quickly scoops the bottle up and runs to the kitchens. She yanks the fridge open and grabs one of the bottles set aside for Liv. Only she and Cole use these blood bottles, everyone else choosing the fresh route, but she knows Cole won’t touch Liv’s because she has Esther throw a splash of Scotch into hers, and Cole despises the stuff. Jess knows that firsthand and feels somewhat pleased by that. She empties the poison into the bottle after a quick sniff. It doesn’t smell like anything so hopefully it won’t taste like anything either. She quickly recaps the bottle and after wrapping the vial up several times in paper towel, she discards it in the trash. She really should put it outside, but she doesn’t have time now. She will remember to come back and do it later. She runs up the stairs and bursts into Devon’s bedroom, but it is empty. Her heart sinks as she sees a hastily scrawled note on the bed. It reads: “Sorry. Something came up.”
She scrunches the note up in her fist, the tears streaming down her face. There are only two things that would have made him leave her like this and one of them is still in the library downstairs. “Fuck!” she yells and throws the balled-up note at the wall. Completely ineffective, so she grabs a vase and sends that flying as well. It crashes into a million pieces and she finds it ironic because her heart feels the same. She slumps on to the bed and weeps loudly. She kind of forgot in her anger and upset that Cade is now living in that room next to Devon’s. Crap, she probably disturbed him.
This is confirmed when there is a gentle knock on the door and she sniffles, “Come in,” into her tissue.
“Everything okay in here?” Cade asks her.
“No,” she says, but then shrugs. She can’t tell him about Other Liv and Devon being together.
“Want to talk about it?” he asks.
She stares at him for a while. He looks like utter crap. “Why aren’t you healing?” she asks bluntly.
He grimaces at her and hunches his shoulders. “Don’t want to talk about it,” he says petulantly.
“Fair enough. Me either,” she responds, and they sit in silence for a few minutes. He pats her hand in a comforting gesture and she loses it again, crying into her soggy tissue. He puts his arm around her, a bit stiffly, but she appreciates the gesture and clings to him. She looks up into his battered face and, for no reason that she can fathom, she leans up to kiss him on the mouth, working her tongue against his, and to her surprise, he kisses her back.
Chapter 18
Buckinghamshire, England, September 2013 – Lincoln
“Look!” he snaps, getting highly pissed off with this argument. “We are going and that is final.” He takes Liv’s hand and marches her over to the door. She follows meekly and he knows she is worried about her husbands’ reactions, but right now she is his. He was promised this months ago and he is not letting anyone take it away from him. He needs her. He needs to be close to her and talk to her and touch her. His insides have been torn apart by their absence from each other for so long, he needs her to heal him.
“Fine,” Constantine says suddenly. “Go and have your little date, but as it seems you are re-negotiating our terms, I have some points of my own that I want to address with you when you return.”
Cole glares at him and gets on board with that. “Me too,” he says defiantly.
“Okay,” Liv says quietly. “In fact, there is something that I wish to discuss with each of you, privately.”
Lincoln notes that they both look pleased that they are getting private time with her. He was shocked to his core when he found out about this three-way marriage of theirs. It makes absolutely no sense to him and he doesn’t understand how it works. He is dying to ask, but does he really want to hear the ins and outs? Probably not, he decides, and keeps his mouth tightly closed.
Finally, in agreement, they are left to leave in peace and Liv changes her clothes in the foyer. She is back to the outfit she started with in the bathroom that he made her change out of. She looks absolutely gorgeous, especially with her long black hair with a purple shine to it and her violet eyes. Only one small problem.
“I hate to keep saying this to you, but you are going to have to change,” he says.
“Why now?” she complains, looking down at herself.
“The idea of you Shifting was so we could go out as a couple. At the moment, your Dragon and Faerie markings are on display and they are quite unique, my love.”
“Oh,” she says a bit sheepishly. She swaps her top for something with a back and long sleeves, but with a nice low-cut neckline so he can still see her skin.
“Perfect,” he says with a smile and holds his arm out for her to take. He is driving them the short five miles to the restaurant, and he opens the car door for her. She giggles at his act of chivalry and kisses him soundly as he settles himself into the driver’s seat. He feels more at peace now, especially as they are in an enclosed space and she is taking over his senses. It has been a long, hard three months. Well, actually, amend that to six months. Her whole embargo after the rape was torture enough, but her coma was absolute Hell. The Pack was on his case every second about where she was, but if he had told them she was unconscious, she would have been voted out immediately, regardless of her status. As it was the rumors were rife as to her absence and among them was her being injured somehow. He knows that the Pack, as most of the Underworld, don’t realize her true Power and what she is capable of. He, as their Alpha, has control over them, sure, but a unanimous decision to oust her would have been difficult to overturn, and one that he was dreading. She had made him so proud, though, earlier. He knew she would do. He didn’t doubt it for a second once she was back to fighting form, and she had surprised him with her leniency. Although, it really shouldn’t hav
e, she is far too merciful for her own good sometimes.
“Penny for them?” she asks, sliding her hand up his thigh.