Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Elena walked into the kitchen and tried to will herself to walk normally. She hated that her left leg refused to move smoothly. It was like there was something preventing her range of motion and she had the overwhelming desire to tear the foreign object from her body.
“You did a good job fixing the back door,” Marisol said while she wiped down the counters that were already clean. “Were you a carpenter in another life?”
Standing next to her, she was surprised to find that Marisol was taller than both her and Zuri. Not by much, but just enough to notice.
“What you did today…” Elena moved into her space. “It was incredibly brave and unbelievably stupid. It’s becoming a pattern with you.”
Marisol tossed the rag on the counter, leaning with her hands braced against the ledge behind her and putting the cleavage peeking out of her loose tank top on display.
“I don’t know who is better at compliments, you or Zuri,” she joked.
Elena made a low, throaty sound that vibrated in the shrinking space between them. “Neither of us is known for our subtlety.” She leaned closer, her gaze tracing the delicate line of Marisol’s throat, the pulse point fluttering beneath her skin.
God, she broadcasted every single emotion in her beautiful body.
“But I meant what I said. Letting Zuri get so deep inside of you.” She inhaled the chemical reactions on her fragrant skin. They all wanted each other. There was no sense in so much self-denial. “And when you faced that vampire in the hospital… Putting yourself at risk to protect Zuri… It was reckless. Foolish. Admirable.”
Marisol’s breath hitched, her eyes widening. “I didn’t really think about it,” she admitted, her voice a hushed whisper, attention dropping to Elena’s mouth. “I just... reacted. I couldn’t let him hurt her.”
“And what about me?” Elena asked, lips hovering over her jaw and up to the shell of her ear. “Were you worried about me, too? A poor little monster.”
Marisol’s cheeks flushed, a delicate pink that spread down her neck, disappearing into the tempting swell of her cleavage. “I’d protect anyone who needed me.”
Fangs itching to lengthen, Elena held back. She reached out instead, her fingers brushing against Marisol’s cheek, tracing the line of her jaw. Marisol held her breath at the touch, her gaze snapping back to Elena’s, eyes wide and luminous.
“You’re still healing,” Marisol whispered, her voice husky with a mixture of concern and desire.
“Maybe I need a little... encouragement,” Elena murmured, her gaze dropping to Marisol’s lips. “A little... motivation... to speed up the process.”
Marisol’s breath quickened, her chest rising and falling in a ragged rhythm. She leaned closer, her lips parting slightly, her gaze locked with Elena’s.
Elena smirked, fangs exposed. She could taste Marisol’s arousal, a sweet, intoxicating scent that mingled with the lingering aroma of Zuri’s perfume. The combination was combustible. Nuclear fission. Heat radiated from Marisol’s skin, pulse throbbing in her neck. She was a feast waiting to be devoured. And Elena was starving.
She brushed her lips against Marisol’s mouth. When Marisol leaned in to close the gap, Elena held herself just out of reach. She needed Marisol to see just how much she wanted this. To give herself permission to take it.
“Are you teasing me?” Marisol whispered, eyes closing and body leaning back in a way that made Elena’s body ache with desire.
It was the smallest power move, but it ignited every part of Elena. With a growl in her chest, she wrapped her arm around Marisol’s waist and pulled her flush against her.
Meeting Marisol’s hungry mouth with too much force, the very tip of one fang caught on her lip. Blood, sweet with lust, trickled onto Elena’s tongue like the tiniest hit of a most powerful drug.
“Fuck,” Marisol sighed, offering her nicked bottom lip as a gift.
Starving, Elena ran her tongue along the wound just as it sealed. Chasing more, she swept into Marisol’s mouth, kissing her hard and earning a pained groan.
Marisol’s hands moved restlessly, her fingers tangling in Elena’s hair, pulling her closer, deepening the kiss. She was a woman thrashing against needless restraint.
Behind her, the sound of the shower stopped. They were hurling toward a decision point, and Elena was so sure it was going to go her way. There was too much right here.
Kissing her again, Elena pressed Marisol hard against the counter, her breath hitching when she parted her legs with her thigh. She was exactly where she wanted her, chest heaving and body aching with desire, when Zuri’s presence made Elena pull away from the kiss.
But she left Marisol pinned to the counter, wanting to show Zuri what Elena already knew. That Marisol was not timid. That she had the same ravaging passions, she just didn’t know it yet.
Eyes half lidded and lips parted, Marisol was thrumming with so much lust that Elena nearly doubted that two of them would be enough to quench it. As soon as Marisol registered Zuri’s presence in the kitchen, her eyes snapped open.
“How are you feeling?” she asked, voice husky before she cleared her throat. “Was your shower?—”
Zuri sauntering toward them in nothing but a blessedly skimpy tank top that landed at her mouthwatering thighs stopped Marisol mid-question.
“You talk too much, Bambi.” Zuri’s eyes were polished bronze, her gaze exuding heat when it landed on Elena’s fanged smirk before shifting to Marisol. Marisol, whose exhilaration was wrestling with her fear of the unknown.
When was she going to understand that Zuri was not jealous? That they both wanted her? That she didn’t have to do anything as boring as choosing?
“I’m so sick of talking,” Zuri said, but her voice wasn’t laced with weariness. It was husky and hot, revealing what she wanted before her lips moved again. “I’m sick of thinking and worrying about how the fuck I’m going to fix all this shit I don’t understand.” She ran her palm along Marisol’s side, sending a visible shiver over her body. “Do you want this, Bambi?”
Marisol opened her mouth then closed it again. She was trying to read between the lines, but she didn’t have to. It was all in the open, much to Elena’s delight.
“Yes,” Marisol whispered. She ran her hand over Zuri’s before grabbing her wrist and tugging her closer.
Without resistance, Zuri floated forward. With one hand on Marisol’s waist, Zuri pulled Elena in behind her. When she took Marisol’s parted lips between hers, she was yanking Elena in close.
The sight of Marisol yielding under Zuri’s touch set Elena’s skin on fire. She pressed into Zuri’s ass, pushing her between Marisol’s legs.
Fuck .
When Zuri leaned back into her, Elena’s heart yearned to race. Ached to remember what it was like the first time a woman looked at her with kiss-swollen lips and eyes dripping with lust. And then Zuri reached back and turned her head toward Elena, fingers scraping Elena’s scalp when she pulled her in.
Lips soft and concealing her bite, Zuri kissed Elena with the taste of Marisol on her tongue. Groaning, Elena reached out. One hand around Zuri’s thick waist and the other reaching for Marisol, finding the warm skin of her cheek before running her thumb over it.
“This is just sex,” Zuri said, voice too soft and eyes only on Elena. “We’re never getting back together,” she warned, and no part of Elena believed her. The lie was glowing in her expressive eyes. “And I’m definitely…” She made a fist in Elena’s hair, but it could never be hard enough. “Never ever going to fall in love with you again.”
Elena shouldn’t smile, but her body was full of a need so naked, concealing it was no fun. “Why didn’t you give that warning to her?”
Zuri looked away from her, moving as slow as dropped silk when she turned her face to Marisol. “Do I have to worry about you falling in love with me, Bambi?”
Green eyes widened with a yes so obvious, Elena was sure that it had already happened. That she was already hooked. And who could ever blame her?
Without waiting for her to answer, Zuri kissed Marisol again. Elena grinned. In her two lives, she couldn’t remember having been so delighted at being right.
Marisol’s response was lost in the heat of Zuri’s next kiss. Zuri wanted the sun and the moon. Marisol’s radiant warmth and Elena’s seductive darkness. And there was nothing Elena would deny her.