Artistic Vision (11 page)

Shane let go of one of her horns and put his arm where she could easily reach it. She gripped him tightly as the orgasm spiraled through her. She took that energy and focused it, directed it into his arm before it overwhelmed her. She barely heard his roar of completion, his song complementing hers as together, in a flash of golden light, Shane and Akane became one.

Shane dropped to the mattress, so wrung out he could barely move. He’d never had sex like that in his damn life. If this was what being mated to a dragon was like, he only wished he’d found her sooner. “Akane?”

His only answer was a delicate snore. He stifled his laughter at the sight of his mate, ass still up in the air, passed out from pleasure. “Damn.” He adjusted her until her body relaxed into the mattress, covering her with her wings until nothing but her horns and her toes peeked out. It was the perfect living blanket, and he couldn’t understand why she didn’t sleep like that more often.

Shane stood up and went to the small bathroom, eager to finish his business and crawl back into bed with his newly Claimed fiancée. Now that he’d started the process he’d feel the need to finish the job more and more, giving her the Sidhe Vows and Binding their life forces together for all eternity. He had no doubts that this was a truebond, just like his sister and brother had found.
 

He switched on the light and blinked. He hadn’t realized how dim the light in his bedroom had gotten. He smiled as he glanced back at Akane. He’d have to get a bigger bed. Maybe he’d make the headboard and footboard himself, something dotted with precious gems for his dragon queen to lie on.

He turned to the mirror and lifted his hand to brush his hair back from his eyes. He was always startled to see his true form in the mirror. He’d gotten used to the…look…of…

Shane lowered his arm and stared at the dragon tattooed on the inside of his forearm. It was Akane, golden and dark, wings spread, her tail forming the symbol of infinity. Shane touched the mark and Akane shifted in her sleep.

His brows rose. “Well. What do we have here?” If Shane was a meaner man, he’d play with that tattoo and see what else he could do to his little mate. But Akane had to be exhausted. The gold poisoning mingled with their energetic Claiming meant his dragon would need her sleep.

He’d be a bastard another day, when she wasn’t working a case. For now, he’d let his love sleep. He finished his business and crawled back into bed, eager to share the warmth she’d denied him for so long.

Shane kissed Akane’s cheek, eager for his woman to wake up. He had something he wanted to give her, and he was tired of waiting.

One bleary gold eye opened before Akane groaned out a laugh. “Most people kiss the
facial
cheek.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Shane plopped down next to her, the puzzle box cupped in his hand. He held out the glittery object. “Happy birthday.”

He’d never seen a woman snatch something from him so fast before in his life. “For me?” Those amazing eyes blinked coquettishly, a roguish grin on her lips.

“Yup. Made with my own two hands.”

The playfulness departed to be replaced with puzzlement. “You made this? It doesn’t look like anything else you’ve made before.” She turned it in her hands. “The line carvings are nice, though.”

Damn, she sounded like someone desperately trying to say something nice. “It’s a puzzle box.”

She stiffened beside him. Her wings fluttered rapidly. “Puzzle box?” She eyed him warily. “Made by you?”

He nodded. “It’s pretty intricate. If you like, I can show you how to open it.”

She scrambled away from him, puzzle box clenched in her fist. “Mine!”

“Okay.” He lay back and put his arms behind his head. “But you need any help, Miz Akane, you come fetch me, y’hear?”

She growled low in her throat. “I think I can figure out a simple puzzle box.”

Shane shrugged. “If you say so.”

“Shove it, Jethro.”

“Name the place,
a ghrá
.” He patted his stomach, just above his erection. “I’ll shove it wherever you like.”

“Pig.”

His brows rose. “That’s
Lord
Pig, thank you.”
 

She huffed out a laugh. “Did you know your brother said almost the exact the same thing to Ruby once?”

“How did you…? No, never mind. Don’t tell me.” Her laughter was music to his ears. “Great minds and all that.” He sat up, letting her get a good look at his morning wood. “Wanna go for a ride, little girl?” He waggled his brows, delighted when she laughed.

“Well—” Her cell phone rang, ending any hopes that he’d be getting his preferred breakfast. “Hello?”

Shane lay back on the bed with a sigh. “Tell Robin I said hi.”

“Shane says hi.”

He grinned ruefully. It looked like his dragon had to go back to work. He watched, fascinated, as her wings disappeared in a golden shower of sparks. Her skin turned creamy, her horns disappearing below her hair. When she turned around, her human Seeming rested on her skin, dazzling but mundane now that he’d seen what she
really
looked like.
 

He blew her a kiss and wrapped himself in his own Seeming, loving the moue of disappointment on her face. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who liked the truth better than the fiction.

She hung up the phone and he realized he hadn’t caught a word she’d said. “When do you go?”

“I have to meet with Etienne, Jaden and Robin in an hour.” She shrugged. “Robin promised pastries if I made it in forty-five minutes.”

“Damn.” He stood and stretched, aware of her eyes drinking him in. He scratched his belly. “I’d ask for a good-bye kiss, but that might lead to you getting in trouble with your boss.”

She shook her head. “I’d risk it.”

Shane closed the distance between them and cupped her face. “Have a good day at work,
a ghrá
.” He poured all of his love into the kiss, hoping she felt even a fraction of what he did. He could work with fractions.

He’d always been good at math.

When he lifted his mouth from hers her eyes were dazed, her lips swollen. Her nipples poked his chest, begging for his touch. Instead, he stroked her cheek before pulling away. He couldn’t interfere in her work. She’d never allow him to. They’d both wind up miserable, and the distraction could cause her death.

Besides, it was hot as hell knowing his mate could kick serious ass.

“Shower here. It’ll be faster. I’ll go back to the main house and grab you some clothes.”

“And makeup.”

He nodded, dragging on his jeans.

“And my shampoo and conditioner, because I’m not using anything in a man’s shower.”

His brows rose, but he pulled on his sweater anyway.
 

“And my soap.”

“Anything else, Princess?”

“My brown boots with the gold buckles, my skinny jeans, underwear because I’m not going commando and my gold Michael Kors sweater. Oh, and my black overcoat, the one with all the pockets.” She turned to the bathroom but turned back again almost immediately. “And I need the black box under my bed, and the—
eep
!”

He’d flung her naked over his shoulder. There was no way in hell he’d remember that list. A gold Michael Kors sweater? She had to be kidding him. “Might as well cart you back to the house rather than cart all that stuff here.”

“I’m naked, Shane.”

He opened the door to the outside, her shriek of outrage as the cold blasted her naked flesh making him laugh. “So I noticed.”

She transformed in his arms to her full dragon form. Claws shredded the jeans covering his ass before she took off, pulling free as he instinctively covered his nakedness. “Asshole.”

“I love you too!” He blew her a kiss before entering the studio once more. He hoped he had another pair of jeans, or his butt would be a frozen block before he got to the house.

Shane eyed the flying form of his mate as she landed on the roof of the house with a triumphant yell. Maybe he should have asked for a ride.

Jaden was too busy laughing his ass off to hear her low growls of warning. Robin merely looked amused, Etienne disturbed at the vampire’s antics. “Goldschschläger,” Jaden gasped. “Oh god, that’s rich.” Jaden wiped tears of mirth from his eyes before straightening up in his chair. His black eyes twinkled, an echo of Robin’s eerie green flashing through them announcing their shared blood. “So. Were you well and truly fucked?”

Robin chuckled. Etienne looked pained.
 

Akane kept her expression deadpan. Toying with Jaden was fun, but only if he didn’t catch on. “Shane did an adequate job.”

Jaden’s gaze roamed over her, but whatever he was looking for he didn’t seem to find. “Remind me to have a little chat with him.”

“Remind me to kill Tristan when I see him again.” No one poisoned her with gold and got away with it.

“Any idea why he wanted us gone?” Etienne was frowning, ignoring the antics of Jaden, who’d picked up one of Duncan’s pens and begun twirling it between his fingers. It appeared he’d taken a severe dislike to the vampire, much to Jaden’s amusement.

They’d decided to hold this meeting at Jaden’s home. Moira and Duncan had graciously agreed to stay out of the way, but Akane wouldn’t be surprised if Jaden wasn’t mentally keeping them in the loop. They’d agreed way too easily for it to be any other way.

“He probably believed the two of you would be an obstacle to completing his mission.” Robin sat, one leg crossed over the other, and swung his foot lazily. He perched on the edge of Duncan’s desk and watched them indulgently. He seemed highly amused by the fact that Etienne stayed as far as he could from Jaden. The Gray Court Sidhe had a reputation for avoiding the vampires of Oberon’s court. Being forced into the position of working with one, and worse, one who held a higher rank than he did, had to be sticking in his upper-crust craw.

“If he really is Glorianna’s agent it would be better to get him to work
with
us rather than against us.” Jaden held up his hand to forestall Etienne’s instant rejection of the idea. “Look, don’t make me sing the Barney theme song. Moira hates it when I do that.” He leaned back in his chair, balancing on two legs. “I know you don’t love me, and I sure as hell don’t love you, okay?” Jaden grinned at Robin. “We could always have Akane try again to seduce Tristan to the dark side.”

“Won’t work. He said any Sidhe could tell I’d been Claimed.”

Jaden’s chair hit the carpet. “Ow.” He pushed up on his elbows, his brows in his hairline. “You mentioned sexual spelunking had happened. You left out the part about the fireworks. Hell, I wasn’t sure Shane was
capable
of fireworks.”

She shrugged and kept her voice even. “He took advantage of my weakened state.” She blinked slowly. “As I said, he was adequate.”

Jaden’s lips twitched. “Welcome to the family.” He leered at her. “You realize mating Shane puts you in my clan, under my rule, right?”

Shit. No, she hadn’t thought of that. She wrinkled her nose and dropped the Vulcan act. “I want a divorce.”

Robin threw his head back and laughed.

Etienne waved impatiently. “This is irrelevant. We have more important things to worry about than whose clan Akane belongs to.”
 

Considering she’d avoided joining a clan like the plague, Akane felt it was
very
relevant. Thanks to who her mother was, Clan Blackthorn might now be perceived as having an advantage most other clans would kill to have: unlimited access to the Seer. But Etienne had a point. She could hash out the details with Jaden later.
 

Besides, if she absolutely had to belong to a clan, Clan Blackthorn was the one she’d pick anyway. “There has to be another way to get Tristan to work with us.”

Jaden got up off the floor and righted his chair. “Maybe we can have Duncan talk to him? As former head of Clan Malmayne, he might be able to persuade him.”

Akane bit her lip. “Unless he feels the same way toward Duncan and his bond with you that most of the White Court Sidhe feel.”

Jaden growled. “Stuck-up, prickless bastards.” His head tilted, his expression distant, His mates had to be speaking to him. A shy smile crossed his lips before he snapped back into the present. “He’s willing, but he’s not sure it will work.”

Would she share the same kind of mental link with Shane? Was it a Sidhe thing or a vampire thing? Dragons didn’t share that sort of mental bond, and Seers… Well, her mother said she’d always known her love would be brief, but the love the Seer held for her fallen mate couldn’t be denied. Akane’s father had been killed by a member of the Black Court a long time ago, leaving his mate and infant daughter to the tender mercies of the Courts. She stared into Jaden’s eyes, that quirky little something that made them such good partners kicking in. “We could just break into his room—”
 

Jaden began to pace. “Have Red go through his computer files—”

“Sack the place—”

“Maybe even leave a little present for Henri.” Jaden rubbed his hands together gleefully. “Daddy likey.”

“It’s too risky. If Henri or Tristan discover what you’ve done they could move on Ruby before we’re ready, or worse, come up with a completely different plan.”
 

“Tristan is Glorianna’s agent, I’m almost positive of it.”
 

Etienne glared at Akane. “I’m not.” He turned to Robin. “I would suggest further investigation into Tristan’s background. Perhaps there’s something there that we can use against him or, even better, Henri.”

Robin hopped off the table, light as a cat. “You do that.” He turned to Jaden. “Are you ready to get back to work, Jaden?”

Jaden cracked his knuckles with an evil laugh.

Robin smiled serenely. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He turned to Akane. “You’ll be working with Jaden on this from here on out.” He patted her cheek, then Jaden’s. “Make me proud, children.”

With that Robin was gone in a swirl of wind and blowing papers.
 

“Shit.” Jaden sighed, his hands on his hips. “Duncan’s going to be pissed.”

“Over being assigned this job?” Akane reached down and picked up one of the papers Robin had accidentally blown to the floor.