Black Dagger Brotherhood - Lover Eternal Part 29

"What's making me uncomfortable is you flopping around on that side of the bed. I feel like a tossed salad over here."

He would have chuckled at her reasonable tone, but the hot pump between his legs sucked the humor right out of him.

Ah, h.e.l.l, if he thought the getup he had on was going to keep him in check, he was out of his mind. He wanted her so badly that short of chain mail, what he was or was not wearing wasn't going to make a lick of difference.

Keeping his back to her, he stood up and stripped. With some finessing, he managed to get himself under the covers without flas.h.i.+ng her a glimpse of what the front of him was up to. That monstrous arousal was nothing she needed to know about.

He faced away from her, lying on his side.

"Can I touch it?" she asked.His erection jerked, as if volunteering to be the "it." "Touch what?"

"The tattoo. I'd like to... touch it."

G.o.d, she was so close to him, and that voice of hers-that sweet, beautiful voice-was magic. But the hum in his body made him feel like he had a paint mixer in his belly.

When he stayed quiet, she murmured, "Never mind. I don't-"

"No. It's just..." s.h.i.+t. He hated the distance in her tone. "Mary, it's okay. Do whatever you like."

He heard sheets brus.h.i.+ng against sheets. Felt the mattress move a little. And then her fingertips brushed his shoulder. He kept his flinch to himself as best he could.

"Where did you get it done?" she whispered, tracing the curse's outline. "The artwork is extraordinary."

His whole body tensed as he felt precisely where she was on the beast. She was going across its left foreleg now, and he knew it because he felt the corresponding tingle in his own limb.

Rhage closed his eyes, getting trapped between the pleasure of having her hand on him and the reality that he was flirting with disaster. The vibration, the burning-it was all rising, called out of darkest, most destructive core of him.

He inhaled through his teeth as she stroked the beast's flank.

"Your skin is so smooth," she said, running her palm down his spine.

Frozen in place, unable to breathe, he prayed for self-control.

"And... well, anyway." She pulled back. "I think it's beautiful."

He was on top of her before he knew he'd moved. And he wasn't a gentleman. He pushed his thigh between her legs, pinned her arms over her head, and found her mouth with his own. As she arched into him, he grabbed hold of her nightgown and yanked up hard. He was going to take her. At this very moment and in his bed, just as he'd wanted to.

And she was going to be perfect.

Her thighs yielded to him, opening wide, and she urged him on, his name a hoa.r.s.e moan leaving her lips. The sound lit off a violent shaking in him, one that dimmed his vision and sent pulses down his arms and legs. The taking of her consumed him, stripped him of whatever civilized lid there was on his instincts. He was raw, wild and...

On the verge of the scorching implosion that was the curse's calling card.

Terror gave him the strength he needed to leap off her and stumble across the room. He slammed into something. The wall.

"Rhage!"

Sinking down onto the floor, he put his trembling hands over his face, knowing his eyes were white. His body shook so badly his words came out in waves. "I'm out of my mind... This is... s.h.i.+t, I can't... I need to stay away from you."

"Why? I don't want you to stop-"

He talked right over her. "I'm starved for you, Mary. I'm so d.a.m.n... hungry, but I can't have you. I won't take... you."

"Rhage," she snapped, as if trying to get through to him. "Why not?""You don't want me. Trust me, you really don't want me like that."

"The h.e.l.l I don't."

He wasn't about to tell her he was a beast waiting to happen. So he chose to disgust her rather than scare her. "I've had eight different females this week alone."

There was a long pause. "Good... G.o.d."

"I don't want to lie to you. Ever. So let me be very clear. I've had a lot of anonymous s.e.x. I've been with so many females, none of whom I've cared about. And I don't want you to ever think I'd use you like that."

Now that his pupils felt as though they were black again, he looked over at her.

"Tell me you practice safe s.e.x," she muttered.

"When the females ask me to, I do."

Her eyes flared. "And when they don't?"

"I could no more get the common cold from one of them than I could HIV or hep C or any STD. And I'm not a carrier of those diseases, either. Human viruses don't affect us."

She pulled the sheets up around her shoulders. "How do you know you're not getting them pregnant? Or can't humans and vampires..."

"Half-breeds are rare, but it does happen. And it's obvious to me when the females are fertile. I can smell it. If they are, or are close, I don't have s.e.x with them, even using protection. My children, when I have them, will be born in safety in my world. And I will love their mother."

Mary's eyes skipped away, becoming fixed, haunted. He looked up to see what she was staring at. It was the Madonna and Child painting over the dresser.

"I'm glad you told me," she finally said. "But why does it have to be with strangers? Why can you be with someone you...

Actually, don't answer that. It's none of my business."

"I'd rather be with you, Mary. Not being inside of you is... torture. I want you so badly I can't stand it." He blew out his breath.

"But can you honestly tell me that you want me now? Although... h.e.l.l, even if you did, there's still something else. The way you go to my head, it's like I told you before. I'm scared of losing control. You affect me differently than other females do."

There was another long silence. She broke it.

"Tell me again that you're miserable we're not sleeping together," she said dryly.

"I am utterly miserable. Achy. Hard all the time. Distracted and p.i.s.sed off."

"Good." She laughed a little. "Boy, I'm a b.i.t.c.h, aren't I?"

"Not at all."

The room grew quiet. Eventually he lay down and curled onto his side, resting his head on his arm.

She sighed. "I don't expect you to sleep on the floor now."

"It's better this way.""For chrissakes, Rhage, get up here."

His voice dropped to a low growl. "If I come back to that bed, there's no way I'm not going for that sweet spot between your legs. And it wouldn't be just my hands and my tongue this time. It would be right back to where we were. My body on top of yours, every thick inch of me desperate to get into you."

As he caught the luscious scent of her arousal, the air between them surged with s.e.x. And inside his body, he turned back into a live wire.

"Mary, I'd better go. I'll come back after you're asleep."

He left before she could utter another word. As the door shut behind him, he sagged against the wall in the corridor. Being out of the room helped. It was harder to catch her scent that way.

He heard a laugh and looked over to see Phury sauntering down the corridor.

"You look strung out, Hollywood. As well as really G.o.dd.a.m.ned naked."

Rhage covered himself with his hands. "I don't know how you can take it."

The brother stopped, swirling the mug of hot cider he carried. "Take what?"

"The celibacy."

"Don't tell me your female won't have you?"

"That's not the problem."

"So why you out in this hall standing at full attention?"

"I, ah, don't want to hurt her."

Phury looked taken aback. "You're a big one, but you've never injured a female. At least not that I've known."

"No, it's just... I want her so badly, I'm... I'm juiced, man."

Phury's yellow eyes narrowed. "You talking about your beast?"

Rhage looked away. "Yeah."

The whistle that came out of the brother was grim. "Well... h.e.l.l, you'd better take care of yourself. You want to pay her respect, that's fine. But you keep yourself on the level or you're really going to hurt her, you feel me? Find a fight, find some other females if you have to, but you make sure you're calm. And if you need some red smoke, you come to me. I'll give you some of my O-Zs, no problem."

Rhage took a deep breath. "I'll pa.s.s on the smokes right now. But can I borrow some sweats and a pair of Nikes? I'm going to try to run myself into exhaustion."

Phury clapped him on the back. "Come on, my brother. I'm more than happy to cover your a.s.s."

Chapter Twenty-five.

As the afternoon's light waned through the forest, O backed the Toro up, avoiding the pile of earth he'd created with it.

"You ready for the pipes?" U yelled out.

"Yeah. Drop one down. Let's see how it fits."

A composite-metal corrugated sewer pipe about three feet in diameter and seven feet long was lowered into the hole so it stood on its end. The thing fit perfectly.

"Let's get the other two in there," O said.

Twenty minutes later the three pipe sections were lined up. Using the Dingo, O pushed the dirt in while two other lessers held the pipes in place.

"Looking good," U said, walking around. "Looking d.a.m.n good. But how do we get the civilians in and out?"

"Harness system." O shut off the Dingo and went over to peer inside one of the pipes. "You can buy them for rock climbing at d.i.c.k's Sporting Goods. We're strong enough to lift the civilians even if they're deadweight, and they'll be drugged, in pain, or exhausted, so they won't fight much."

"This was a great idea," U murmured. "But how do we cap them?"

"The lids will be metal mesh with a weight on the center."

O glanced up, seeing blue sky. "How long do you think until the roof's on?"

"We'll get the last wall up right now. Then all we have to do is erect the rafters and drop in the skylights. The s.h.i.+ngling won't take long, and the clapboards are already on the three walls we have now. I'll move the tools in here, get a table, and we're rolling tomorrow night."

"We'll have the shades for the skylights by then?"

"Yeah. And they're retractable so you'll be able to open and lower them."

Man, those things were going to be handy. A little sunlight was the best maid a lesser could have. She comes in, flashes through the s.p.a.ce, and presto!, no more vampire debris.

O nodded to his truck. "I'll take the Toro back to the rental place. You need anything from town?"

"Nope. We're good."

On the way into Caldwell, with the piece of machinery in the bed of the F-150, O should have been in a good mood. The building was going well. His squadron was accepting his leaders.h.i.+p. Mr. X hadn't brought up the Betas again. But instead he just felt...

dead. And wasn't that ironic as h.e.l.l for someone who hadn't been alive for three years?

He'd been like this once before.

Back in Sioux City, before he'd become a lesser, he'd hated his life. He'd squeaked through high school, and there'd been no money to send him to even a community college, so his career options had been limited. Working as a bouncer had called into service his size and mean streak, but it was only moderately amusing: The drunks didn't tend to fight back, and coldc.o.c.king the unconscious was no more engaging than beating a cow.

The only good thing had been meeting Jennifer. She'd saved him from the mindless tedium, and he'd loved her for it. She was drama, excitement, and unpredictability in the flat landscape of life. And whenever he'd go into one of his rages, she'd hit him right back, even though she was smaller and bled easier than he did. He'd never figured out whether she threw her punches because she was too dumb to know he'd always win in the end or if it was because she was so used to being beaten by her father. Either way, stupidity or habit, he took everything she could give him and then pounded her into the ground. Tending to her afterward, when his fire was out, had given him the most tender moments of his life.