Dark Solace (34 page)

Like any sane woman could hear that offer and
refuse. “Anything you’d like to do to bring me pleasure, go ahead
and do,” I answered, flashing a wicked smile. “Just watch the
teeth, Love.”

Devlin laughed. “It’s true my fangs make it
harder for me,” he said, kissing my neck, then pricking gently with
one fang. “They don’t hook backward, as Lash’s do. But I’ve had
centuries to practice, Sar. And I guarantee that my skill there has
not diminished. Lay back.”

I did as he asked, my heart racing in
anticipation. Devlin began kissing his way down my body, his cool
lips teasing my flesh. Soon I was crying out for him, the gentle
stroking of his hands and lips on my flesh a concert that drowned
all my senses in sweet, captivating music.

* * * *

I awoke sometime in the late, late morning.
Devlin was spooning me, snoring. I stretched contentedly, then
beamed happily. Getting laid was extra nice when it had been a few
weeks. Devlin had been fantastic, as expected. While the action had
been one-sided after all, seeing my eyes glaze over with desire had
done more to help our situation than any amount of orgasms could
have. When I was spent, he’d been so at ease that he had sung to
me.

I hadn’t recognized the song. The inflection
and rhythm made me think it was old, maybe an ancient poem that had
been first written in a language other than English. The gist was
two lovers meeting at night in a glade, the shadows and light of
the moon spilling across their skin as they made love. It was sung
from the man’s point of view, much of it his longing for his lover
to come back to him as he watched her walk away in the moonlight.
There was also deep contentment in the song, as the man was
confident that his lover would return, and that she loved him, too.
When he had finished, the last clear note fading in the darkness,
I’d turned to him expectantly, waiting for him to tell me the
author as he usually did after singing a song or quoting a poem
that he knew I wasn’t familiar with.

“I wrote it,” Devlin confessed, contented.
“Many years ago.”

“For Anna,” I added with dawning
understanding.

“Yes,” Devlin replied. “After that first
night she gave herself to me, and I knew I loved her, I composed
it. Did you like it?”

For the first time, there wasn’t pain in
Devlin’s voice when he talked of his lost love. While that made me
happy for him, I was jealous, too, wondering why he was singing me
her song. “It was beautiful,” I said finally. “I’m sure she loved
it very much.”

Devlin hugged me gently, and began to sing
again.

“You are the sun, the warmth and the
light,

I am the moon in the dark of the night,

Will you warm me, my love, will you give me
your kiss?

Do you desire me, want me, or is it just
this,

That you feel me watching and waiting for
you,

And as I longed for your touch, so you longed
for me, too.

Come to me, live with me; say you’ll be
mine,

Leave your others behind you for they shall
be fine

I need you with me; I would give you
forever,

Make my world yours; promise always to
never

Stop wanting my hands in your flax golden
hair,

Or my body beside yours, together and
bare.

For you are my loved one, my only you
are,

Your eyes are my emeralds and you are my
Sar.”

I was shaking a little by the time he
finished. Devlin gently kissed the tears away from my face. I
didn’t speak, not trusting my voice.

“I wrote it for you when I was in Rio. I
couldn’t stop thinking about you, no matter what I did. I finished
it just before I came back in January, but I couldn’t bring myself
to sing it to you then, when I wasn’t sure you wanted a life with
me.”

I hugged him, my eyes leaking again.

“It was easy for me to tell you I loved you
after the first time I said the words,” Devlin said hesitantly. “It
was much harder to bare my soul and sing you my creation.” It was
in his tone that he desperately hoped I liked it.

“It was beautiful,” I said, my inflection
wavering with emotion. “I loved it, Dev.”

“I’m glad,” he whispered in relief. “I liked
writing it for you.”

I looked into his molten golden eyes,
thinking again how surprised I was that someone so gorgeous could
love me, much less have gone to the lengths he had to take me for
his own.

“I do love you,” I said softly, touching his
cheek gently. “I’m glad we have Venus. She’s so beautiful,
Dev—”

“She is,” he said proudly, embracing me. “She
has the best of both of us. V will break some hearts for sure when
she’s older, before she finds someone worthy of her love.”

“Just like you,” I teased.

Devlin pulled back to look me in the eyes. “I
am done breaking hearts,” he said seriously. “I’m in love with you.
I’m not going to break your heart again, Sar.”

I wanted to believe him, wanted him to be the
man I knew he could be. But I wasn’t sure if things would be
different with him this time, especially now he was off the meds.
So I had taken his heartfelt words with a sobering grain of
salt.

“I know you won’t. Go to sleep, Dev.”

Chapter
Twelve

The rest of the week passed quickly as
October’s last days drew near. Halloween was only a few weeks away,
which meant soon I’d need to discuss preparations for Danial’s
annual Hallow’s party for Elle and myself. Elle had mentioned that
Tatiana was making her a new dress to wear. So far, she was annoyed
that the cleavage was not lower. After seeing the dress on her, I
thought the cleavage was already far too much for a girl of her
age. But as Danial had still not mentioned the party to me at all,
I had put off talking to him about it, worried he might tell me I
was not invited this year. While the party was something I endured
rather than looked forward to annually, the possibility of being
told he didn’t want me there wasn’t something I wanted to face
until I had no other choice.

Danial had been avoiding me since our
discussion in his office, and I continued to avoid him as well,
working mornings on Solutions, Inc., and making sure I was outside
in the afternoons I stayed at his estate to visit with Elle, Devon,
and Theoron. It was easy enough; I threw myself into yard work and
had the kids help me.

Devon and Elle kept me company as I cut
bushes, raked, mulched, and pulled the last weeds of summer at
Danial’s home. Theoron was a lot like Danial, in that he didn’t
really like the outdoors much, except for occasional walks. But
Elle and Devon liked to be outside, and most of the time they lent
a hand where I needed one. Not that I really needed more help.
Danial was still attentive to what went on around him and he was
still courteous; the harder jobs, like clearing trees, digging
large holes, or cleaning up the garden for winter were always
somehow already finished by the time they made it to the top of my
list.

At home, I was also busy with work. While
Theo and I had plenty of wood for winter at home—thanks to the
trees I’d cut up at Hayden with Lash and the bears back in the late
summer—there were the usual leaves to mulch, branches to burn, and
machinery to put away. Devon alone kept me company there, playing
in the leaves, and pouncing on the occasional mouse he found. He
was far bigger than my cats Cavity and Jessica, but they were used
to him now and they no longer feared him.

By the end of the week, I finally finished up
most of the before-winter chores. That following Sunday, Theo
helped me run the chain saws dry and turn off the water to the
barn. Devon was being watched by Janice and Cia that afternoon,
because as much as Theo assured me that Devon wouldn’t come near
the running chain saws, I was much too afraid to risk him being
around when we were both cutting wood. He was too inquisitive,
always getting into things, from unpacked grocery bags to the lower
drawers of the kitchen to my sewing needles. One day last week, he
had even eaten some of my vitamins. Although they hadn’t hurt him,
I’d been so worried about him getting sick that I’d just sat and
watched him for signs of illness for hours, the cordless phone in
my hand. He was my baby, and I admitted secretly—if not to anyone
else—that I loved him best of all my children. He’d been the only
one I could feed, touch, and hug from the moment he took his first
breath.

After we locked the barn up for winter, Theo
and I celebrated with a meal out at the local diner, the Country
Kitchen. The food was very good, and we were worn out, our
conversation easy and unstilted. It had been a good day, and we
hadn’t argued as we sometimes did when we worked together. Theo was
used to giving orders, not following them, and he often thought his
ideas were the best—if not the only possible way—to do things. I
suspected that was a burden most wives suffered through with their
husbands.

“Do you want to maybe see a movie later
tonight?” Theo said suddenly, pointedly looking out the window.

I whipped my head around, my French fry in my
hand forgotten. He hadn’t asked me to spend time with him since I’d
saved Lash. Most nights he just watched TV and I read in the other
room, or in bed. When he crawled into bed beside me at night, we
didn’t talk or even touch. I’d been hesitant to approach him at all
since our episode in the truck.

“What did you have in mind?” I said
carefully.

“Just some popcorn, and an action or horror
movie,” Theo said, looking now at the table. “I don’t know what’s
on TV, but we can rent one on Pay-Per-View, if you want—”

“That would be nice,” I said quickly.

Theo looked up at me and smiled, relief in
his eyes.

Had he actually been thinking I would
refuse him? He had. Why?
I pondered that as we had some dessert,
but couldn’t come up with anything that made sense.

After I paid the bill, Theo drove us home.
Theo reached over and grabbed my hand in his as he drove. I was
surprised but pleased, and squeezed his hand in mine, though
neither of us said anything to the other.

By the time Theo had walked the dogs, and I
had done a little housecleaning, it was dark. We had just decided
on a newer Russell Crowe movie and placed the order when the phone
rang.

Theo got up to answer it. “It’s likely
Danial.”

But this time, it wasn’t Danial.

“Your loverboy for you, Sar,” Theo
growled.

I knew who it had to be. What I couldn’t
fathom was why he was calling. “What—?”

Theo handed me the phone and stalked off,
slamming the front door behind him.

So much for our plans. “Hi, Lash.”

“You asked me about coming to therapy with
you,” Lash hissed angrily. “You didn’t say which day, but I deduced
from what you did say, it would be tomorrow or the next day—?”

He’d heard Theo’s sniping. “Tuesday, October
twenty-fifth, the day after tomorrow, at twelve o’clock. Carol had
to change the time, she just called today. I was going to call you
tomorrow, as I hadn’t heard from you—”

“That’s fine,” Lash hissed, all business.
“I’ll meet you there, if you’ll tell me directions.”

I gave him the directions. “See you
there.”

“Goodnight.”

I put the phone back in its cradle, sat back
down on the couch, and tried to watch the movie, but my heart
wasn’t in it. Setting the TiVo to record it, I began making dinner.
Pasta was easy enough. Popcorn would have to wait for another
night, too.

I put in some time on the treadmill, and was
just getting off when Theo came in, still angry.

“What did he want?” he growled. “Was he
arranging a hot date for you both?”

Could he be more of an asshole? “He wanted to
get directions for meeting me for therapy tomorrow,” I said
coolly.

“That’s all?” Theo replied, disbelief heavy
in his tone.

“That’s all,” I said flatly. “Are you
hungry?”

“Yes,” Theo said, remorseful. “Thanks for
making some for me.”

I handed him a dish and didn’t reply, angry
that he’d immediately suspected me of something. I hadn’t done
anything wrong, not this time, anyway.

We ate in silence, until Theo spoke.

“Why’d you ask him to go with you first? I
mentioned to Danial about how Carol wanted Devlin, Lash, and him to
come, and he said you hadn’t mentioned anything to him about it
yet.”

Make it sound like I’m using any excuse to
see him, Theo. “I haven’t mentioned anything to Dev yet, either.
He’s still dealing with his injuries, and Danial isn’t really
speaking to me. The Hallows party is coming up quickly, and
Danial’s occupied exclusively with that. Besides, Lash will
probably only go to the one session with me, where Dev and Danial
will need to go to more than one. I don’t know why Carol even wants
him to come.”

“I don’t envy you,” Theo said, looking out of
the corner of his eye at me. “I wouldn’t have wanted to go with
Aspen.”

I rolled my eyes at that comparison. “Maybe
it will be a catastrophe. I’ll keep you posted.”

* * * *

Therapy with Lash was pretty much a complete
disaster. Carol was afraid of him from the moment he walked into
her office and looked at her with his reptilian eyes. When he took
off his long coat before sitting down, putting his weapons in plain
sight, her eyes got even bigger. I was thankful he wasn’t wearing a
visible gun, too. Likely, he’d left that in his truck.

Carol welcomed him in hesitantly. Lash and I
sat down on the couch, and Carol sat down in her chair.

“Lash, do you know why I asked Sar to bring
you with her today?” Carol began pleasantly.

“I haven’t a fucking clue,” Lash hissed
sharply.

Carol recoiled, visibly at a loss for
words.

“Lash, it’s okay,” I reassured.