Sins of the Flesh (Half-Breed Series Book 2) (6 page)

Whoa. Off-limits. Even if I did want to make an exception and have sex with another woman, I didn’t want to be responsible for Kai breaking her own rules.

“Can I buy you a drink?”

I turned to find the blond sunbather had taken out his earbuds and was leaning his elbows against the bar. He gestured at my iced tea. “Maybe something a little more festive than what you’ve got there?”

Resting my chin on my palm, I let my eyes wander. Yes, definitely. This one would do nicely. “What did you have in mind?”

He gave a sharp inhale and stepped closer. Inches separated that beautiful golden body from mine. “Vodka, mango juice, and someplace a little more private?”

I shortened the distance, my lips almost touching his. The demon in me came alive, reading him and recognizing his fantasies. Bit of an exhibitionist, this guy wanted me on his deck overlooking the pool. Not a problem. Everyone at the pool had already seen my ass last night. Might as well really give them something to talk about this afternoon.

“Your room? Maybe have our drink on your balcony?”

“Hey, Amber, you left your cellphone in the Jeep! Whoops, sorry.” Kai’s awkward laugh rang out behind me. “This must be Irix. I’ll leave you two alone.”

I stared at her in dismay as she shoved the phone into my hand. Oh no, no, no! She’d eventually meet Irix and realize this most definitely was
not
my boyfriend. Shit, what was she going to think of me?

It went from bad to worse. Blondie turned his blue eyes to Kai and smiled. “Nah. I’m Rick. We’re going up to my room. Wanna join us?”

Kai recoiled like he’d struck her. “
No
, I don’t wanna... wait.” She turned to glare at me. “You... I can’t believe you. Your boyfriend gets back after a six-month deployment and
this
is how you treat him? He can’t be with you one afternoon, and you’re off to cheat on him with this... this Ken doll?”

“Hey!” Rick protested. I barely heard him. Nearly knocking him off the bar stool in my haste, I left my prospective quickie partner with my bill and dashed after Kai.

“Wait! Kai, wait. It’s not like that. Please, please let me explain.”

It wasn’t just that I’d smashed whatever budding friendship we had, that a week of paddleboarding lessons was now going to be more than frosty, It actually pained me to think that Kai saw me as a cheater, as a horrible, shallow person who was hurting her boyfriend.

Luckily she refused to break into a run, and I was elf-fast. I darted around her, hands outstretched as I blocked the path. “It’s not what you think.”

“I think you were picking up that guy,” she shot back. “Your boyfriend is due back any moment, and you’re going to screw some beach-bar pickup. That’s sick. What would he think if he found out?”

“It wouldn’t bother him.” Shit. I might as well tell her the truth — or at least as much of the truth as I reasonably could. “In fact, he’d be happy I did. I’d tell him all about it while we got ready for dinner. He
knows
.”

She backed a step away, still looking disgusted. “So you’re some kind of nympho with a sexual addiction, and you’re boyfriend is okay with it?”

Sort of, but not really. “I love him. I love Irix, but we both have sex with other people. We’re not exclusive.”

Her mouth opened wide. “You’re swingers? You and your boyfriend do other people, and that’s
okay
?”

Shit. Judging by her expression, being a swinger was a hair’s breadth from being a heartless cheater or a crazy sex-addicted nymphomaniac.

“I know it sounds weird. I don’t normally tell people because this is the kind of reaction I get. There’s what Irix and I share together, and there is just sex with other people.”

She frowned, scuffing a sneakered foot along the brick pathway. “I’ve had my share of one-night stands and bar pickups, but never when I’ve had a boyfriend or girlfriend.”

I seized on that thread. “Because exclusivity was part of your relationship. It’s not with ours. We’re okay with this. He and I both have sex with other people, and it doesn’t damage or threaten what we share at all. In fact, it adds to it.” Adds to it because we’re both alive, which we eventually wouldn’t be if we starved ourselves to death.

Kai took a breath and met my eyes. “You’re okay with this. The man you love is out right now having sex with other women, and you don’t feel hurt or jealous? Because I would.”

“I....” Damn, I was trying to be honest here. “I used to be, and every now and then I still am. Not about the sex but about his time and attention. I haven’t seen him in six months, and I want to spend every moment with him, but that’s not reasonable. That’s me being a clingy, weird girlfriend. Once he’s been back for a few weeks, we’ll settle into a routine, and it will all be okay. Really.”

She gave me an odd look. “Did you want to pick up that guy at the bar, or did you feel like you had to, because your boyfriend expects you to?”

Here’s where the difficult part came in. Do I tell her that I have to do this, not because Irix expects me to, but because it’s my genetic imperative? Or do I lie and say how much I love banging strange guys?

I went with the truth. Sort of.

“I do this because I need to, not because of Irix. Even if he wasn’t my boyfriend, I would still be picking up guys. I can’t be monogamous in a relationship. Ever. It’s just the way I’m put together.”

Sorrow, that’s what I saw in the depths of Kai’s dark eyes. I felt it too. I didn’t want to be this way, but over the last six months, I’d learned to accept it. Maybe someday I’d actually be able to embrace it, as Irix did.

“I’m sorry you saw me picking up Ken, or Rick, or whatever his name is. Please don’t let it ruin our friendship,” I pleaded, my voice husky with emotion. I liked her, really liked her. Heck, if she didn’t have the no-guests policy, and I didn’t want to hurt her, I’d probably be rolling in the sheets with her right now. And that idea appealed a whole lot more to me than screwing that blond dude at the bar.

Kai took a jagged breath. “I don’t want to seem a prude. I mean, what happens between consenting adults and all that.... A friend of mine likes to be spanked, so I kind of see why this sort of thing is embarrassing for others to know.”

“Have dinner at the luau with Irix and me tonight, and you’ll see he’s completely okay with that. In fact, he encourages it. And you’ll see we’re both normal people.”

“Well....”

I seized on her indecision. “Kai, I swear I’m the same person you’ve been palling around with all morning. I won’t mention this again unless you bring it up, and I promise that neither of us will hit on you or make you feel embarrassed in any way. Join us for dinner, and you’ll see we’re just a regular couple. I promise.”

Her brown eyes were dark as they scanned mine. “Okay. I guess you want to get back to Ken?”

I’d be low on energy, especially with my promise not to pick up anyone tonight in front of her at the luau, but this was important. “No. I don’t want to go back to Ken. I want to go to that little tiki bar over there with my friend and talk about shoes or purses or something while we drink something alcoholic.”

A smile twitched across Kai’s lips. “Okay, but you’re buying. And shoes are awesome, but I don’t do purses. Just sayin’”.

***

“How long have you been back?” I was embarrassed to find Irix in our room, sitting on the porch reading a stack of papers.
My
papers. Good grief, he was reading my thesis draft. He leaned his chair back on two legs and gave me a heart-stopping smile.

“An hour. I saw you earlier but didn’t want to interrupt you. Nice choice, by the way.”

Huh? I forgot about Irix actually finding a hundred pages of downy mildew research interesting and scoured my memory. “Yeah. I love margaritas, but the ginger really takes it in a whole different direction. I’d have thought tequila too strong a flavor profile for ginger root, but they balance out nicely.”

“I mean your choice of partner. I know you tend to take the diet approach to your succubus desires, and I’m pleased you picked a quality candidate to bestow your affections upon this time.”

What was he talking about? I hadn’t managed to ‘get-er-done’ with Ken... errr Rick, but maybe he’d seen me when that waiter had given me the eye? “Umm, it didn’t exactly happen. I promise that tomorrow I’ll double up. Today just got a bit away from me, and I’d really like to spend the rest of it with you, not trolling for partners.”

I smiled to take the abruptness out of my words, but Irix’s hands tightened on the arms of his chair.

“Amber, that woman you were with was perfect, and she was very receptive. Why didn’t you have sex with her?”

Oh shit, he meant Kai. “Well, she’s a woman, and I don’t have sex with women. Plus
she
doesn’t have sex with guests at the resort. Kai is my paddleboarding instructor.”

Irix tilted his head to the side, eyebrows arching upward. “Let me get this straight; you took a lesson from her and either went on to spend the entire day with her or arrange to meet up later for drinks, and you somehow managed to find out she doesn’t have sex with guests even though you’re not attracted to women.”

Yeah, that summed it up. And made me sound like a complete hypocrite. I squirmed, plopping down in the seat across from him to hide my discomfort. “Okay, I’ll admit I thought about making an exception, but she’s made it clear she doesn’t want a one-night stand, and I don’t want to hurt her.”

He watched me for a moment, and I felt as though he could see right down inside my soul. “She doesn’t want meaningless sex.”

“Yes, exactly.” I was so relieved Irix got it.

“Amber, what we do doesn’t have to be meaningless. In fact, it
shouldn’t
be meaningless. That’s what I mean about your fast-food diet. That sort of thing is okay when you’re in a hurry or it’s all that’s available, but when there are quality partners right in front of you, don’t choose the greasy hamburger.”

“It’s not about me; it’s about her. I don’t want to hurt her. I can tell there’s something between us, and I don’t want to take advantage of that and leave someone nice, someone I actually like, pining over me and filled with desire they can never truly quench, or hurt by my love ‘em and leave ‘em ways.”

Irix studied me a while longer. “Longing, memories that fill a person with emotion and stir their heart aren’t always bad things. With finesse, with a spirit of true affection, what we do is a beautiful thing. I just wish you saw it that way instead of some dirty chore you needed to do each day.”

I felt horrible, like I’d let him down somehow, like I was disrespecting who and what he was. He was right, though. It was a dirty chore to me, like taking out the garbage or eating my spinach. And I just couldn’t see it any other way.

“I don’t want things to be awkward between Kai and me. I like her as a friend, and I don’t want to lose that.”

For the second time today, I was getting that sorrowful look. It hurt as much as the first time I’d gotten it.

“A few things,” I said softly. There was no way to transition this conversation gracefully, so I was going for the rally-car-style U-turn. “We’re meeting Kai for dinner tonight. Can you not hit on her?”

His eyebrows rose, and suddenly there was a smirk gathering around the corner of his mouth. “Amber, I’m not about to take prey from you. If you’ve got your sights set on this woman, she’s safe from me. I’m always open to a threesome, or more, with you, but I’m not going to step on your toes.”

“It’s not that.” Feeling my face redden, I explained the situation — how Kai thought I was either some monster sleeping around on her military boyfriend or in a weird, kinky relationship.

“So you need to reassure her we’re a regular couple, and that we’re not going to drug her and rape her behind the hibiscus?”

He understood. What a relief. “Yes, exactly. I need you to keep the pheromones in check and not pick up any partners tonight. Oh, tomorrow morning, too. We’re meeting her at four to go see the fires in the cane fields. Then off to see the sunrise on the beach and grab some breakfast.”

“Four? As in four o’clock in the morning?” Irix sighed, rocking back and forward slightly in the chair. “Amber, I just want to be with you this week, to stay with you as much as possible before something happens and I need to dash for a gate to Hel. Anything that brings you joy I’m happy to partake in. I love a good sunrise, and breakfast is always welcome. I’ll live with getting up that early as long as someone has a good supply of caffeinated beverage handy.”

My heart warmed at the thought he felt the same way about me that I did about him. “So, no hitting on anyone while we’re around Kai, and no hitting on her either?”

Impossibly, Irix’s eyebrows rose even further. “Okay. I vow that I will not ‘hit on’ your girlfriend or anyone else while she’s within a twenty-foot radius.” He shook his head. “Just promise me you’ll find someone tomorrow afternoon? I want you to be at full strength, just in case....”

In case elves surged through the gates of Hel, which they had refused to do in over two-million years, just to hunt me down. In case elves paid a bunch of demons to scour the planet to hunt me down. In case a family of vampires found that my demon blood was tainted with vile elf and decided to hunt me down. Or I ran into Bigfoot or was abducted by aliens or chupacabras. I’d been paralyzed with these fears when I’d first learned I wasn’t human less than a year ago, but I now refused to live my life like every shadow held a threat. Yes, I had a contract out on me. Yes, there would eventually be demons who tracked me down to haul in my head for a bounty. But that wasn’t going to rule my life.

Still, Irix was right. I should keep myself at one-hundred percent.

“I promise.”

He dropped all chair legs back onto the ground and smiled. I felt my heart lurch. “You know, when you ask a favor of a demon, it’s tradition to offer one in return.”

The look on his face nearly made my blood boil. “Please accept my favor in return.”

His lips curled up in a slow, sexy smile that sent a jolt of electricity right down between my legs. “Two favors. One I would like to cash in now, and the other I will reserve for later.”