Vengeance: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 3 (25 page)

Impossibly touched, I leaned forward and kissed him again. “I never thought you’d best the proposal, but damn if that didn’t come close.”

“But it’s all the same as what I said before.” Curiosity had him shaking his head. “I don’t understand women, but you? You’re the greatest enigma of them all.”

“May it always be so.” I tucked my robe around me and rolled off of him to stand. “I was caught off guard earlier—”

The patio door opened and Bahlin stepped out. Cool blue eyes wandered over my body and I shoved my hands in my robe pockets. His mocking sneer and tight jaw told me he’d seen the ring.
 

The dragon rocked back and forth on his boot-clad feet, looking Hellion over warily. He seemed to size the magus up and decide him a fair opponent because, in a gravelly voice, Bahlin said, “It’s hard enough to see the two of you together, and to watch you canoodling on the patio furniture even harder.” He picked at a loose seam on his shirt, eyes heavily lidded with angry indifference. “To see you propose, though? That seems to tread the line between simple punishment and sheer cruelty.” He gave a tight-lipped smile when I gasped.

“The shadow…” It had flown over earlier and scattered the birds, then again later as Hellion had pulled me into his arms. “I’m so sorry, Bahlin.”

Hellion stepped up beside me. “We were friends for too long for me to wish you heartache now, Bahlin Drago. I’d ask for your blessing, if not for the sake of the friendship that was, then for the sake of the woman we both love.” The formal words were laid at Bahlin’s feet, an offering of peace that he could do with as he would.

“Don’t ask this of me. Not now.” His harsh voice held the pain of centuries. He’d lived with the prophecy for lifetimes and had believed we’d somehow triumph. But the Fates had rejected our efforts, feeble as they were. Whether that was a matter of free will or destiny, no one knew.

I stepped toward Bahlin, the weight of the ring heavy on my hand. Not necessarily a burden, but less a joy now than it had been moments ago. “I wouldn’t have you hurt, Bay.”

“Then forsake your pledge to him and marry me.” His voice was hard, tinged with anger and desperation. “Change your mind, Maddy.” Bahlin looked up at Hellion, a grim smile on his face. “I loved her first, Hellion.
Me. I.
” He pounded his chest with his fist to punctuate the words. “She was my heart, and you’ve taken her from me. No friendship can survive this.”
 

Hellion only nodded. “It’s your choice.”

“Bahlin—”

“No, Maddy. Think it over before you answer, because I won’t ask again.” He backed away from me. He blinked slowly and his eyes shifted from deep to icy blue, and I knew the lower part of his thought process—his dragon’s mind—warred with the man for control. “The others are in the dining room eating breakfast. We need to talk about what we’re going to do about Agares. Even though my experience with demons is seriously limited, it’s reasonable to believe he’ll be back with a really bad attitude tonight.”

“That he will.” Hellion watched Bahlin for a moment before turning back to begin quietly gathering the blankets from our makeshift nest.

“Maddy.” Bahlin’s voice cracked and he cleared his throat. Staring at me, ignoring the man who he used to call friend, Bahlin took two deep breaths—in, hold it, out…in, hold it, out. “You have options. You don’t have to marry him. We’ll come up with something, anything, but it doesn’t have to be so permanent as marriage to him.”

“I don’t understand…” Marriage vows were a commitment, true, but they sadly weren’t a guarantee of forever anymore.

“You didn’t tell her?” Bahlin’s voice shook with rage. “I should kill you where you stand, but I believe I’ll leave it for her to do.” Crossing his arms over his chest, Bahlin took a wider stance and stared hard at Hellion’s back.

The magus stood and turned back to us.

“Hellion?”
 

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and opened them again. The whites were gone, that deep presence there again. I’d never seen it come on so quickly. “He’s right, Maddy. I intended to discuss this before we were interrupted this morning.” He shifted bottomless eyes to Bahlin. “Even so, I would have told you this long before any vows were exchanged. You are the Niteclif. Your oath cannot be foresworn. Once you’re wed, there’s no undoing it except by death.”

My stomach crashed.
Death.
“So no divorce?”

“If you’re going into a marriage already thinking of an out, you’re marrying the wrong man.” Bahlin grinned fiercely at Hellion, his shape shimmering slightly, as if the haze of the dragon was superimposed over the physical form standing in front of me. “She’s accepted, but you’ve not exchanged vows. Don’t expect me to let this go until it’s done.” Turning on his heel, he slammed the door behind him as he headed back into the house.

I watched him stalk through the study and disappear around the corner. A kernel of distrust flared, and I couldn’t help but wonder what else Hellion hadn’t disclosed. Turning back to him, I found he’d discarded the blankets and stood squared for confrontation. There would be none—at least not until I’d sorted this out in my head and, more importantly, my heart. I wrapped my arms around my cramping stomach and took a step away to steady myself.

Misunderstanding, Hellion said, “Maddy, wait.”

With a shuddering breath, I turned back to him. “What?”

He stepped toward me, steps slow, body tense. “It’s worse when he says it that way. Do ye no’ see that?” The familiar, heavy brogue decorated his words. “What would ye have me do, then? Provide ye a disclosure that says ‘Here, here are all the negatives tae marryin’ me?’” Frustrated, he shoved his hands through his hair for what seemed like the hundredth time in only a handful of days. “Ye make it impossible tae make the right choice sometimes, Madeleine.” He scooped the blankets up from where he’d dropped them and made to move around me.
 

I shoved his shoulder so it was either face me or stumble. He chose to face me, though he growled low in his throat and his eyes pulsed black.

“What did I just say to you?” I asked calmly.

His brow furrowed and he shook his head, cascades of hair moving around his shoulders.
 

“What did I just say, Hellion?” The demand was there, stony.

“Nothing but ‘what’.”

“Exactly.” My hand landed on my hip involuntarily. “So stop putting words in my mouth and making me out to be some irrational, illogical imbecile. Bahlin just said he was going to fight to have me. Yes, what he said might be true, and yes, you should have told me before he did. But did he give you the chance?”

His eyes, still moving with an energy of their own, narrowed. “He didn’t.”

“Then let it go. The ring stays on my finger and the answer doesn’t change. I can’t help the doubt it creates, no matter how insignificant, but you can. Help me dispel the doubt. Help me, Hellion.”

Blankets hit the stone yet again as he tossed them in order to draw me into his arms. His lips crushed mine in a kiss meant to drive out the memories of every other man who ever attempted to stake his claim. I breathed his air, tasted the lingering hint of Irish coffee he’d had at some point this morning and allowed my body to respond in whole to his insinuations. Mere moments later his engorged erection thumped against my belly, my hands tracing down his chest to thrum the head. Hellion moaned into my mouth and I swallowed the sound, hand working to his benefit.

Dropping his mouth to the juncture of my neck and shoulder, he bit me, hard, and I gasped, arching into him, animalistic. “Ye’ve got three minutes to get upstairs and get those clothes off yerself before I catch ye and take them off wherever ye are.” Spinning me around to face the house, he pulled me back into his chest, caressing my nipples with broad strokes and little tweaks before he licked the bite on my neck. “Three minutes, love. Startin’ now.”

I stood on wobbly legs, caught my breath and dashed into the house. Micah called out a greeting as I sprinted by the dining room, and Bahlin called out for me to wait. The study door was a muted boom as it slammed shut and I knew he was after me. I pushed harder, reaching the stairs and taking them two at a time. I grabbed the handle to the bedroom door before his hands grabbed me around the waist. My thrilled scream was cut off when he clapped a hand over my mouth and pressed me face-first into the wall.

“I told ye what would happen,” he growled. Hot breath danced across my ear, my nipples so distended they ached. The plaster was uneven and scratched at them through the thin silk of my robe. Hellion’s hands snaked to my hips, fingers digging into the soft flesh in front of the bone and my hips shot forward. He chuckled darkly, pressing his weight into my back even more firmly and grinding his erection into my ass.

“Oh shit.” I couldn’t stop the epithet murmured against his hand any more than I could help the moisture that pooled between my legs. Cool air hit my bared cheeks and I whimpered at the feel of Hellion’s furious cock rubbing against me, satin and steel.

“Ye’ll take it here, in the hallway, where I caught you, because ye weren’t fast enough.” He shifted, lifting one of my legs so my inner thigh pressed against the wall and my knee was bent at a ninety-degree angle. It left me pinned against the wall, exposed, helpless. “You’ll remember me claiming you here, Madeleine Niteclif, and you’ll remember to whom your heart belongs.” He sheathed himself in one aggressive move and I cried out as the thrust lifted me to the toes of the one foot I had on the ground. His hand slipped from my mouth to gently grip me by the throat. “You’ll remember. Always.”

Hellion’s motions were rough, bordering on violent, as he took me. The slap of skin on skin, the sounds of our harsh breathing and mingled curses fouled the silence in the hallway. He smelled of the morning air and sex. I couldn’t stop the mewling that grew in the back of my throat. Houseguests be damned—they could all hear us no matter where we were, so this was as private as anything. Or so I thought as I turned my head and found Micah standing in the middle of the hallway. I struggled some and Hellion bit the back of my neck, humming into the muscles along my spine.

Micah’s eyes blazed to life at the same time I felt my orgasm building.
No
, I shook my head, fighting, but Hellion hadn’t seen our observer. My magus slid his free hand around and found that bundle of nerves at the apex of my cleft and pinched it hard, flicking the end of it as he powered into me. I screamed and my eyes fell to half-lidded wonder as the orgasm crashed through me. Powerless to stop it, I rode it out in front of Micah, my own moisture slicking the insides of our thighs. Hellion roared and shook, his release crashing into him with the same force mine had taken me. It went on and on, seemingly unstoppable, a vortex of pleasure dragging us to our knees, my cheek scraping down the rough wall.

Micah’s fury was evident, as was his erection. A faint light emanated from him and he grew larger. Turning, he faded into the doorway of an open room before Hellion realized our act had been witnessed.

Hellion and I showered and dressed for the day, our movements around each other tentative and careful. He’d touch me gently, to which I’d readily blush. It was embarrassing. I had flashbacks to Darius watching Hellion and I get our groove on, but it was nothing like meeting Micah’s rage head-on.
 

Hellion seemed to think my reaction was to him chasing me down and fucking me senseless in the hallway. While that definitely hadn’t hurt, being watched hadn’t helped. Seemingly aware that I was stalling the confrontation with our houseguests, he quietly hung out in the bedroom while I toyed with a little makeup and dried my hair. The sound of the door snicking shut let me know he’d finally given up and left me to my dark thoughts, even if he didn’t understand the true reason behind them.

With a deep breath, I gathered the little bit of courage I had and wrapped it around me in lieu of my battered sense of propriety and started downstairs.
 

I should have paid more attention to the niggling feeling in the back of my mind that said this wouldn’t end well.

Chapter Fourteen

Breakfast was clearly finished for everyone but Hellion and me. He sat at the table eating placidly, watching people come and go from the kitchen and the study. Hellion acted as if there wasn’t any need to be embarrassed about what had happened an hour ago, ignoring the covert glances of some and open hostility of others.

I slid tiredly into the chair that had fast become my normal place at the table. Mark set a plate of fresh fruit in front of me. I grabbed a croissant from the bread basket and began tearing it up, eyes on Hellion. Small, nibbling bites to his slow, large ones, and suddenly breakfast felt like a seduction.

“For Grenla’s sake, Hellion. Can’t you keep it in your pants for a blasted
meal
?” Bahlin bitched.

“You have no idea, cinder breath.” Micah’s slow drawl was a lie if you looked at him. Fury bled from him like he’d been cut a thousand times.
 

I choked on my embarrassed laughter, while Hellion continued to chew slowly, watching me with those midnight eyes.
 

He sipped his coffee. “Clearly something’s happened between the two of you.” When neither of us answered, he continued. “Do we stay the course with Micah or cut him loose at this point?” He set down his fork with exaggerated care before turning black eyes on the fallen angel. “I’m truly indifferent after the loss of life last night. It seems a waste to put more lives on the line if he’s abusing the generosity of his host and hostess.”