Cora's Secret: A Vampire Ménage Urban Fantasy Romance (9 page)

Then Lindal bent his knees and before she could see his boots leave the floor, they were gone, leaving Cora alone with Rhys and Aidan.

The silence in the room forced Cora to speak. “I need you to leave. Both of you.”

Rhys looked shocked but Aithan gave a wise, knowing smile. “You’re going to deny the bonding.”

“I deny there’s any bonding at all.”

“Because you already wanted him before it started,” Aithan shot back.

Cora shut her eyes, humiliation making it too difficult to look at either of them. “Because the idea of sex with a…a thing like you makes me feel sick.”

“Liar.” Aithan’s voice was very soft. “If there’s no bond, how do you explain your sudden ability to teleport?”

Cora glared at him.

Rhys held up a hand. “Stop!”

Cora pressed her lips together to silence herself. Aithan leaned back against the counter and crossed his arms once more, his leather jacket creaking as the shoulders strained it. There were scuff marks on the bottom of the sleeves from where she had sent him skidding across the parking lot. There was even a small tear, but there were no wounds on his hands or wrists.

“Aithan, can I drop you somewhere?” Rhys said.

“You’re leaving?” Cora had been braced for an argument.

“I think we all need a little time to adjust.”

“Speak for yourself,” Aithan said.

Rhys sighed. “Very well, Cora and I need time. So let’s leave the lady’s house, just like she asked. We’ll agree to meet later.” He glanced out the window. “It’s past noon. Let’s meet for dinner. There’s a diner out by the highway that is cheap and good. Agreed?” He looked at them both.

Aithan seemed amused. “If that’s what you think you need.”

“I do.”

Cora held her breath as they both glanced at her then headed to the front door. She didn’t release her breath until she hurried to shut the door behind them and put the chain on it.

She went back to the kitchen and into the butler’s pantry and pulled out her cleaning supplies. She kept tight control on her thoughts, not allowing anything but the job at hand to enter. She went upstairs and pulled all the towels and mats out of the bathroom and began to scrub it, starting at the ceiling.

While she was the only person in the house she could move as fast as she wanted to. She was down to scrubbing the floor on her hands and knees when the front door bell chimed, twenty minutes later.

She dropped the sponge in the bucket and got to her feet. By concentrating on the next step and the one after that, she could block out everything. So she focused on walking downstairs and putting her boots back on so she didn’t answer the door barefoot. She pushed her hair back into place with automatic movements, without bothering to look in a mirror. She went to the door, already listing out the steps after that—getting rid of the caller, then returning to the bathroom and finishing the scrubbing, then washing the mats, then….

Rhys stood on the concrete step, leaning with one hand against the doorframe. He straightened up as she opened the door.

Cora drew in an unsteady breath as her concentration broke and all the unwelcome thoughts barreled back into her mind. “I don’t want you here.”

His blue eyes were grave. “I couldn’t stay away. Let me in, Cora. I don’t like being exposed out here.”

She couldn’t refute that. So she stepped aside and shut the door after him.

Rhys didn’t step into the room. He stayed right where he was—in front of her and far too close.

Cora stepped back out of the way, until her ass came up against the back of the wingchair.

“I don’t get it,” Rhys said, pushing his jacket aside and propping his fist on his hip, close to the badge on his belt. “I can’t put it together properly.”

“Put what together?”

“It makes sense that Aithan would have no objections to this.”

Her laugh caught her by surprise. “Free sex, forever. Of course he would like it.”

“It probably isn’t a shock that the idea of being shoved around by some all-powerful and invisible force doesn’t thrill me, either. What I don’t get is why
you
have such strong objections.”

Cora dropped her gaze to the carpet as her chest tightened unpleasantly and realized that the movement told Rhys more than she had intended. He was a lawman, used to watching people for tell-tale signs. So she lifted her head again and looked him in the eye.

“You’re not going to tell me,” he interpreted. “You still don’t trust me. But these are your people, Cora. Your clansmen.”

“No, they’re not.”

“Okay, fine. I don’t know much about anything, but at least I
know
I don’t know. You’re not even trying to figure it out, are you?”

She thought of the bathroom upstairs. She could smell the cleaning solution from here. “There’s nothing to work out. I won’t go through with this. That’s all I’m gonna say on the matter.”

Rhys let out a heavy breath. “Very well. But before I go, can I kiss you?”

Her heart jumped. It was a purely human reaction. She only ever seemed to experience human reactions when Rhys was near.

“I know you’ve wanted me to, ever since we’ve met. I even know why you wouldn’t let it happen.” His voice was low, curling around the base of her spine and walking along her back. “I think by now you know that I’ve always wanted to, right from day one. So now I want to kiss you before this bonding thing grows any stronger. I want to know what it might have been like.”

“Perhaps it’s already too late.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in the bonding?”

Her pulse jumped, because Rhys was drawing nearer. It was almost sneaky, the way he was gradually moving closer. He was watching her closely.

Looking at his eyes was a mistake. She could feel how
something
seemed to grab her attention and hold it—his willpower, the bonding (that didn’t exist, of course), or just plain ol’ horny feelings—and she couldn’t look away. Her breath emerged in a shaky sigh.

Rhys reached out slowly and put his hands around her face. His flesh was hot against hers. Human hot. His scent was rich, layered. He tilted her head up. His eyes were
so
blue and from this close, she could see that they were flawless, without fleck or mark.

She was right back to wanting him again, just like at the casino. This time, though, the feeling didn’t rise up inside her. It burst over her like a shower, saturating her with hot need. Cora leaned forward and met his lips, unable to wait.

It was heaven. It was everything she thought it might be. Her already roused body tightened with almost painful wanting. It had been so long….

Then thought faded and the delight the kiss generated turned to a slow, deep torpor, sending liquid heat through her veins and nerves.

She wound her arms around his neck and clung to him. It wasn’t close enough, even though her breasts were against his chest and her hips against his. His hands pressed against her back, holding her still, holding her against him.

His lips were warm against hers and tasted…she wasn’t sure what the taste was. She had forgotten so many tastes already. But she could taste him and it was such a pleasure!

But there was something not quite right.

The thought intruded despite the thrill of his kiss. Something was wrong. Something was missing. It tapped at her mind persistently, making her focus on it.

As soon as she examined the thought, she felt the same jolt she had experienced when she had jumped away to the fire tower.

“Well, hello.”

Cora tore her lips away from Rhys’ and looked around, horror filtering through the thick, syrupy need, diluting and dispersing it.

Aithan was sitting up on a bed with a coverlet on it that screamed “hotel”, his back against the headboard. “I see you got things started without me.”

Cora pushed herself away from Rhys as the horror bloomed into a churning soup of guilt, embarrassment and confusion.

Rhys turned to face Aithan. “Are you ever going to stop being a dick?”

“Are you ever going to stop trying to be the hero?”

Cora closed her eyes and sank onto the single armless chair that sat in front of a table holding a lamp and hotel stationery. Why had she brought them here? How had she even known where to jump them? “I felt your frustration,” she said slowly and looked up at Aithan. “I
felt
it.”

Aithan gave a slow nod. “I felt your arousal.” He looked at Rhys. “Both of you.”

Rhys rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s part of it, then. Feeling each other.”

Cora shook her head. “No.”

Aithan laughed. “You’re both in full-blown denial. It would be laughable, if it wasn’t so pathetic.”

Rhys’ tone was defensive. “I’m not denying anything.”

“No?” Aithan leaned back and crossed his arms. “You snuck back to kiss the girl after you delivered me here. Did you even try to go back to your office, like you said you were?”

Rhys’ gaze flickered toward Cora. “That’s different. I couldn’t stay away.”

“Not once you had me out of the picture.” Aithan’s smile was drier than the Sahara. It was almost a grimace. “You’re happy enough over the idea of bonding with Cora. What you’re trying to duck, with every fiber of your soul, is the idea of bonding with
me
.”

Rhys swallowed. His jaw worked. But he didn’t speak.

Aithan slid down the length of the bed, then swiveled so his feet were on the floor. It put him almost directly opposite Rhys, where he stood with his back against the wall. “You’re scared,” Aithan said flatly.

Rhys tried to shake his head, but the movement was stiff.

“It’s time for truth. The other trinities must have reached this same conclusion. Whatever happens between us, whatever is said, whatever vulnerability is exposed, it must stay between us, or the trinity will be weaker through exposure.”

Cora silently agreed with him. Aithan had put his finger on the very core of the problem.

“So now we can luxuriate in the prickly truth,” Aithan said. “You’re afraid of what I represent.”

“You’re a demon.” Rhys’ voice was hoarse.

“Of a sort. But your mother was fae and witches like her have been given worse names throughout history. It’s just a name. That’s not what you fear.” He got to his feet, which put him bare inches away from Rhys. “You’re recoiling from the idea of sex with a man.”

Rhys flinched. His throat worked. “I…I’ve never….”

Aithan nodded, but this time, there was empathy in his eyes. “I know.” He moved a half inch closer and Cora’s heart gave a heavy lurch as she realized how close he was to Rhys. Aithan wasn’t quite as tall as Rhys, but he was bigger in build. “But no one outside this room need ever know what goes on between us.” He was looking Rhys in the eye and Rhys wasn’t moving a muscle. He was watching every move Aithan made. There was a pulse in the side of his neck, throbbing heavily.

Cora shifted on her chair, tension heavy in her limbs, stirring the embers of her need back to life.

Aithan’s voice was low. Soft. “You couldn’t stay away from Cora. Was that the bond?”

“I think…yes,” Rhys whispered.

“Then you agree that it is powerful, already?”

Rhys nodded.

“Let me show you something,” Aithan said. “Close your eyes.”

Rhys stared at him. “Why?”

“You know why. Close your eyes. Let the bond do its work.”

Cora gripped her hands together, her fingers pressing in on each other and digging into the backs of her hands. Her breathing had stopped, but her heart was racing as she watched the two of them standing eye to eye, their bodies almost touching. She didn’t want this to work. She didn’t want Aithan to be right. But a lethargy kept her in her seat, to see what would happen. Then she realized that it wasn’t lethargy at all. It was anticipation.

As Rhys closed his eyes and Aithan leaned forward, she drew in a sharp breath, excitement spilling through her.

Aithan didn’t draw him closer. He didn’t touch Rhys at all, except for his mouth, which he pressed against Rhys’ with growing firmness.

Cora held her knees together as her clit throbbed and gripped her hands even tighter.

Then Rhys gave out a deep groan. He curled his hand around the back of Aithan’s head and their bodies met, from chest to knee. Rhys was kissing Aithan now. His eyes were still closed but the lines of his body were taut with excitement.

Rhys pulled his lips from Aithan’s. He was almost gasping for breath as he studied Aithan with a slightly puzzled air. His hand was still cupping the back of his head and his fingers moved restlessly in his hair. “Damn,” he said, almost soundlessly. He sounded dazed.

Aithan smiled. “Agreed.”

Cora shot to her feet and moved fast, heading for the door. But Aithan was just as fast. He lunged forward and grabbed her wrist, anchoring her. “No.” His hand was warm against her skin.

Cora tugged. Uselessly. “You don’t understand. I don’t want this.”