Chapter 13 #2
Yeah, sure you will. Chanel couldn’t help herself sometimes.
Kaso’s face flashed through my mind. I snarled.
Clearly Chanel cannot help herself. I’d left her back there with Beth to nerd-out over some gruesome injury.
But that was fine. Her opening costume didn’t take half as long as mine did to put on.
Which was entirely my fault. Chanel liked to be comfortable.
She insisted on it. No matter the occasion or the clothes, she refused to be miserable.
So while her opening costume of zip-up platform boots and a leotard took about thirty seconds to throw on, mine was much more complicated.
I was a glutton for punishment, it appeared.
She’d been smart to choose a leotard that had fancy cut-outs and laces on the sides, whereas I had to make things harder for myself by choosing a fucking corset.
A corset. Full lace-up corset. It was gorgeous, black suede and leather, but it took me forever just to lace it up.
Chanel sometimes forgot about that.
I hurried into our dressing room and raced over to where our opening costumes were hanging on the rack.
This was our big drama tour, so we opened with these massive ballgown skirts with hoops underneath that kept it wide, like something we used to wear a few centuries ago.
Luckily, the skirts were detachable, so I could throw it on at the last minute.
I’d just finished lacing up my corset when the door flew open. I rolled my eyes. “I thought for sure I’d be sending a rescue party.”
“You might have to now that I’ve seen you in that,” Andreas’s deep voice rumbled.
Heat rushed through my body. I looked up and found him dragging his amber gaze up and down every inch of my body.
Not that I blamed him. I stood there in only a corset and leather underwear.
My tits were practically pouring out of this top.
Andreas licked his lips, then pushed his glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose.
Memories flashed through my mind in rapid fire.
Him straining beneath me. His tongue on my neck and in my mouth.
My pulse quickened. Every limb in my body melted.
I squirmed a little and heat bloomed low in my stomach.
Damn it, Regan. Stop that.
I grabbed the hair brush off the counter beside me and threw it as hard as I could right at his face. “You better start talking or I’ll start chopping.” I tapped on the outsides of my thighs, triggering my magic to reveal my daggers strapped around each leg.
He grunted and rocked back on his heels. “Don’t tease me, sugar.”
“Gross.” I rolled my eyes and sat down on the chair next to my mirror.
It wasn’t gross, or at least it was not as gross as it should’ve been.
My mind was filling in all the blanks, which was not helping.
I grabbed my thigh-high, lace-up leather boots and started to put them on. “Why are you here, Andreas?”
“I had an idea—”
“Didn’t we just go over that?” I pulled the laces tight.
“Look, I’m not old enough that the sight of . . .” he gestured to me, “. . . all this doesn’t affect me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Men.”
He chuckled. “You are our weakness.”
“Unless you came here to tell me something I didn't know, then get out.” I tied the laces on my right boot into a pretty bow.
“We gotta work the right angle with them. Kaso isn’t the right angle. If Chanel tells him NO, he will listen. He’s respectful like that.” He shrugged. “So, alls I’m sayin’ is, we need to get her to move on to someone else. If she don’t want him, he won’t go for her.”
I paused with my other boot on and frowned. “What are you saying exactly?”
“Let’s set her up.” He wagged his eyebrows. “With another guy.”
“That’s the problem,” I said as I began lacing up the second boot. “Chanel doesn’t like people in the wild. She never likes anyone. That’s why your brother is such a problem.”
Andreas pursed his lips, but I didn’t miss the way his gaze slid over the curves of my legs. “So we pull the strings and help a guy out?”
I tied the second boot, then stood. “Like on a date with someone else?”
“Exactly that.” He pointed to himself. “I know a lot of guys. You know Chanel. We can make this happen.”
I frowned. It wasn’t a bad idea, actually. Probably improbable. Chanel was a force of nature when the rare crush came around. It always became an obsession. But swaying her attraction to another guy would be much kinder and easier than prying her from Kaso’s lap. Again.
The door flew open. Chanel’s long pink hair swayed in the doorway. She was still leaning out talking to someone though, so her back was to us.
I gasped and froze. Shit.
Andreas looked around in a panic for somewhere to hide but there was nowhere she wouldn’t see.
If she caught him in here, she’d be furious and our plan would be ruined.
And if she caught him in here, she’d run straight to Kaso’s bed, of that I was certain.
My disapproval was the only thing keeping her clothes on.
“There’s nowhere to hide!” Andreas silently mouthed with wide amber eyes.
In the mirror across from me, at Chanel’s table, I spotted my massive skirt hanging on the rack behind me. An idea popped to mind. I grabbed the skirt, whipping it around and snapping the waistband at my back. Andreas read my mind. He was behind me in a flash with his vampire speed.
“Get under,” I whispered just loud enough for his vampire ears to catch.
His eyebrows shot to the ceiling.
“Ya know, Regan,” Chanel began as she shut the door.
I felt the back of the skirt tug as Andreas slipped beneath the hem.
The heat of his breath on my bare skin sent goosebumps down my arms and legs.
I glanced back over my shoulder to check if he was visible, but I had to give him some credit, he was completely invisible under there.
Granted, the skirt poofed out a few feet in every direction, so that helped.
“For a Virtue, you have a strange repulsion to seeing blood and gore,” Chanel continued, not noticing at all that I had a grown male vampire tucked under my skirt. She kicked her combat boots off. “I mean, especially for how old we are. We were in literal wars, my guy. I don’t get it.”
“Don’t get . . .” I started but paused when I felt all ten of Andreas’s fingertips press into my hips, “. . . what?”
“Why does blood gross you out so much?” She pulled her sweater off, tossed it on the chair, then walked over to grab her black pleather leotard.
Fortunately, Andreas was under a non-transparent skirt so he couldn’t see my cousin strip down naked in front of me.
“I mean, you’ve killed things,” she continued, seeming to not notice that I hadn’t spoken yet.
“Lots of things. We’re hunters at our core.
” She narrowed her green eyes at me and I gasped.
“You like killing, too. As much as I do. Don’t bother lying.
Murder is fun. That’s why we’re the Virtues who survived. ”
Andreas slid his hands down the sides of my thighs, leaving a trail of lava in his wake.
When he got halfway up my thigh, he slid his thumbs over the backs of my legs and burned a path all the way up to my ass.
When his thumb-tips slipped between my legs, I let out a little gasp of surprise, rotating my hips in just the way that I felt his fingers slide beneath my panty-line.
My body lit like an inferno. He was melting me from the inside out.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Chanel pointed a finger at me with an arched eyebrow. “I’m just preparing you for when the girls return. There’s gonna be questions . . . from one in particular.”
“Yeah—” my words cut off when Andreas dragged the tips of his fangs across my ass. “I know.”
He tapped one finger on the inside of my thigh, so I spread my legs to give him room.
He muffled his laugh by burying his face between my legs, his hot breath making me squirm.
One hand gripped my waist like he was trying to hold me in place while the other hand went on a little adventure.
Two fingers slipped beneath my underwear.
The heat of his bare skin between my legs made me moan a little.
Which I had to hide with a fake cough.
Thankfully, Chanel hadn’t caught on. “I mean, tell me if I’m wrong. You like what’s happening, right?”
“Yeah, I like what’s happening,” I said under my breath as heat flushed through my body. It was a good thing I had a corset on so she couldn’t see the daggers I was sporting.
Andreas growled against my skin.
I was melting for him. I knew I needed to stop him, to drag him out from under there and kill him for daring to touch me. Yet instead I spread my legs farther apart.
Chanel pushed her chair closer to me so she could lean forward and freshen up her makeup in the mirror. “I mean, I don’t get why seeing injuries caused by literally anything other than us grosses you out. Do you?”
Between my legs, I felt Andreas turn around even before his fingers pulled my underwear down and he licked me.
I sucked in a ragged breath and gripped the back of Chanel’s chair.
My fingers dug into the metal as his tongue swirled around that sweet spot.
My whole body trembled. “No . . . I . . . don’t . . . understand.”
“Maybe we should talk to Bodhi about it.” Chanel smacked her lips together as Andreas thrust his fingers between my legs. “If you’re ready for it?”
I swiveled my hips, grinding against his tongue and his fingers deep inside of me. “I’m just about ready.”
“Good.” Chanel gave me a smug, ignorant smile as she spun away and bounced over to the wall where her boots were sitting. “Ya know, you can simplify your costume whenever you wanna admit defeat. It looks horribly uncomfortable.”
“Oh, it doesn’t feel . . . too bad,” I said with a little chuckle in a pathetic attempt to conceal the tremble in my voice. I swiveled my hips again and a moan slipped out. “I’m about . . . ready to admit . . . defeat.”
“Excellent.” Chanel giggled and zipped up her boots. She grabbed her poofy skirt off her rack and wrapped it around her waist, snapping it on in seconds. “Because I’m going to beat you onto the stage.”
“Go for it,” I groaned. “Talk to the band.”
“You sure?” She walked to the door. “I can wait for you?”
I opened my mouth to speak just as my body roared and exploded on Andreas’s tongue.
I clenched my teeth and shook my head, then gestured for her to go ahead.
The world was spinning. My legs were trembling.
Andreas licked and licked, sending me over the edge again and again in rapid fire.
I leaned into the chair to support my weight.
“See? That corset is already miserable.” Chanel laughed obliviously. “Suck it up and get out there, dude.”
The door shut behind her.
A moan ripped up my throat. I closed my eyes and rode the wave until the world stopped spinning.
The moment I caught my breath, I jumped back and kicked Andreas out from under my skirt.
He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand while looking up at me over the rim of his glasses and through thick, dark eyelashes.
His amber eyes looked like honey. He wagged his eyebrows.
“You!” I half-screamed, half-growled. “What the fuck was that?”
“It’s called pleasure. Are you that unfamiliar?”
I let out a little growl and shoved him, sending him falling backwards, but he caught himself with his vampire reflexes before he fell to the ground. “What were you thinking?”
“It was in my face—”
“You still have to ask permission!”
“Well, you did spread your legs, so . . .” He laughed and shrugged.
“Get out.” I pulled my dagger off my thigh and pointed it at him. “Out. Now. I have to work.”
“And I bet you’ll be . . . thinking of me while you’re dancing on stage.” He licked his lips and rubbed his hands together. “Won’t you?”
“Shut up.” My face heated.
“So ya gonna meet me or not?” He motioned to the dressing room. “Or I could just show up again and we can start over from there.”
I stomped my foot and narrowed my eyes. “Friday night at O’Boyl’s. Ten o’clock. Don’t make me regret this.”