Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Awkward silence stretches between the four of us. I can’t tell if it’s because of their shared delusions or if there’s a part of them that wants more.
There’s a part of me that wants more and I’m not talking about tonight.
I could get used to this. To them. To having a man pamper me all the time. At my beck and call. For life. Through sickness and in health.
Except the logical part of me whispers, this isn’t sustainable.
Because a relationship with three men who think they’re vampires? I should have set them up with Callie, who also believes in things that go bump in the night.
But I dismiss that thought as quickly as it arises.
“Just for tonight?” Leif stands close to us, his hand resting on Enzo’s shoulder. For a moment I wonder if they too are lovers. But they’re not. Just an innate feeling I get. Almost like there is nothing between them in that sexually charged way.
But there is something there. A thing I can’t really name. A connection that goes deeper than love. It’s obvious and I’m not sure they can even see it.
When Davi stands behind Enzo, the room turns. Three sets of eyes watch me carefully.
A thrill of power pulses just beneath my skin. The kind where a woman first understands just what it means to feel desired.
Sure, I’ve had men look at me before. In passing, walking through a grocery store. Down a street where catcalls echo off the buildings. And my favorite, the drunken grind just past midnight at the club.
Men desire me.
Men don’t desire me like they do.
This is something else entirely. This is a desire that feels different even if from the outside it looks the same. A one-night stand turned foursome in the basement of the Penn.
But they don’t look at me like I’m just another woman to discard.
They look at me like this is the prologue. The opening act of something so much more complicated that I may never recover from.
Maybe that’s why I slowly stand, letting Enzo’s cum drip down my legs.
Barefoot, I walk across the locker room.
Their gazes burn through my back as my bare feet slap on the tile floor. And when I get to the locker room door, I don’t spare them a glance back.
Of course I know they’re going to follow.
But this newfound desire is ruining me. Driving me toward something unknown. Something new, something I could crave daily.
Which is why I have to stick to just this night.
I round the corner into Mosaic Hall and Leif is already there.
He didn’t pass me. He didn’t take a different hallway.
There is no different hallway, I know this building, I have walked these floors since I was six years old.
He is just here. Waiting. Like he knew which corner I would round and got there first.
He’s fast. That’s all it is. Not vampire fast.
He uses that speed to grab me and set me on the edge of a forgotten table. His lips crushing mine like he’s starved for only the air I exhale.
And I kiss him back, my nails raking down his back and my legs locking him in, like the spider monkey I am.
“Did you think you were going to get far?” he nips at my lips.
“No.” I nip back. “I hoped you’d come for me.”
He pauses, his eyes flicking between mine.
“What? Did I say something wrong?”
“You said everything right.” His lips are back on mine in the next moment, kissing me with every ounce of him. His tongue tangles with mine and not in that sloppy way.
No, no, no.
Leif Dagon can kiss. He knows exactly what he’s doing with his tongue too. Soft as it scrapes against mine. His hands in my hair tug it out of the updo I painstakingly did in an attempt to tame the strands.
“So much hair.” He tosses the pins. “I’ve dreamt of running my fingers through these strands.” I swear he shudders as he does just that.
I love when a man reacts to me. Just touching me, existing with me, breathing beside me.
“You dreamt of me?” I blink up at him, almost desperate at the question. As though I’m letting him know too much of just how much I want him.
“Oh, Hadley.” He presses kisses to my neck, his one hand gripping my ribs, his thumb rubs devastatingly slow circles under my breast. “I’ve dreamt so much of you.” Then I swear under his breath he whispers, “I just didn’t know I could have you.”
“Why?” I pull back, resting on my elbows behind me. Unashamed that I’m naked at the Penn likely on the security cameras. Legs splayed. Wait. Maybe I should…
“No one can see you.”
“How did you know?”
“You looked at the camera.”
“Did you take them out?” The unspoken second half sits behind my teeth. Like you took Callie out. Except I know she’s okay.
Otherwise why would I be here, with him. I have to believe that.
“Yes.” He doesn’t even bother to lie. One palm presses to my chest, pushing me back onto the table. Then he grips my ankles, setting them on the edge of the table and he pushes my knees apart.
Why that yes settles me is a question I know will keep me awake long into the night. Maybe tomorrow when I have time to reflect on this.
He licks his lips, his eyes doing that sparkling thing as he looks at me like a feast.
“Look at you. You look like my favorite meal,” he mutters, that one palm sliding down to press on my lower stomach. “Has anyone fucked you like this?” he asks, pushing harder.
“On a table at the Penn?”
“No.” He frees his cock again, the hard shaft dripping precum as he lines himself up. He pushes slowly inside me, his eyes never leaving my face as he watches every sound I make. Every gasp. Every quickened exhale. “See, if I press like this.” He pushes on my lower abdomen then thrusts forward.
My scream echoes all around us. Bouncing off the museum walls. My back arches on the table. My hands try to find somewhere to hold. But there’s only him.
So I hold onto him, my nails digging into his flesh.
“Mmm.” He hums. “See, I can feel my cock.” He withdraws slowly.
“I feel.” Thrust. “Oh.” The sensation is indescribable and words fail me.
He spits on my clit, his other hand moving in so he can run circles on the sensitive nub.
My whole body vibrates with pleasure. Words become nothing but an incoherent accessory. All I can do is let the hurricane that is Leif sweep me away and hope like hell that when this is all over, there are some pieces of me left.
I’m already not so sure there will be any pieces of me left.
He leans over me, his mouth sucking on my ear lobe.
“Look at you twitch and squirm.” Thrust. “I want to see Enzo fuck this tight ass, while I fuck your pussy. Maybe Davi in your mouth. You think you can handle that, Hadley?”
“Oh,” summa cum laude. Graduating college class and every word in the English dictionary disappears with the visual he just gave me.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“Leif,” I gasp as his hips snap forward again, the pressure of his palm on my lower abdomen making me feel every inch of him inside me. My head falls back against the table, hair spilling around me like a halo.
“You like that?” he whispers against my throat, his tongue tracing the vein that pulses there. “I can feel your heartbeat. Like a hummingbird trapped in your chest.” Again he whispers under his breath, “My hummingbird.”
I can’t form words, can only moan as his thumb continues its devastating circles on my clit. The pleasure is so intense it borders on pain, and I’m suddenly aware of the cold marble beneath my bare back, the museum’s shadows stretching around us.
“Stop thinking,” he commands, his voice dropping to a growl that reverberates through my body. “Your pulse is in my mouth. It’s telling me you’re somewhere else.”
“How did you—” He thrusts harder, cutting off my question.
“Because I’m paying attention to every part of you.” His eyes meet mine, and for a moment, they flash, actually flash, with something that can’t possibly be real. “The way your breath catches when you’re thinking too much. The way your fingers twitch when you’re trying to analyze.”
He’s right. Even now, some part of me is cataloging this experience, trying to understand the magnetic pull these three men have on me. The danger they might pose. The way they move too fast, speak too cryptically. And of course Callie.
“You’re doing it again,” he murmurs, slowing his pace to an almost torturous rhythm. “What are you afraid of, Hadley?”
“I’m…” Am I afraid?
When was the last time I let go? When I felt safe enough to ride the waves of pleasure for longer than the three seconds it takes for my vibrator, Barnaby, to get me off.
The question hangs in the air between us, unanswered. Because I don’t know the answer. I’ve spent so much time building walls, keeping everyone at arm’s length, that I’ve forgotten what it feels like to simply exist without analyzing.
Leif’s eyes soften, reading something in my expression that I haven’t voiced. He kisses me again, this time with a gentleness that makes my chest ache. His thrusts slow, becoming almost reverent.
“Belong to us,” he whispers against my lips. The words strike me, because it feels like he is hinting at so much more. “Just for tonight,” he adds after my hesitation.
Just for tonight. The phrase echoes in my mind, but it feels like a lie, to both of us. Because something tells me that even if I walk away tomorrow, nothing will ever be the same.
So just for tonight, I surrender to the sensation, letting my hands roam his body, memorizing the contours of his muscles, the warmth of his skin. My fingers trace the scars on his back, strange patterns that look almost like… no, that’s impossible.
“Right there. There. There,” I murmur as he hits a spot inside me that makes my vision blur. “Leif, I…”
“Shh,” he silences me with another kiss. “Look at me. That’s all you have to do.”
He pulls out suddenly, leaving me gasping and empty. Before I can protest, Leif lifts me from the table and sets me on my feet, spinning me around so my palms press against the cool surface.
“Now we wait for the others,” he whispers against my ear, his breath hot on my neck. “They won’t be far behind.”