Spartan Resistance (27 page)

“Really?” She could feel her eyes widening. “You’ve given everyone the impression you think Laszlo is the most superficial womanizer you’ve ever come across. Given that you’ve met more people in your lifetime than are probably alive today, that’s a profound statement. It’s the sort of thing people listen to.”

“That’s
exactly
what I thought of him. Except he
did
throw himself in front of the nut with the spike. Actions are everything.” He dismissed her objection with a flat wave of his hand. “Let’s not get distracted here. I wanted to talk to you about Laszlo—”

“Aren’t we talking about him now?”

“This isn’t what I wanted to say.”

“Then…?” She let her voice trail off and lifted her brow the way she had seen him do it, to coax people into saying more, often to their own detriment.

Brenden blew out his breath. “I don’t trust him.” He said it flatly.

Mariana laughed. “And that’s supposed to be a surprise to me?”

“No, you don’t understand. I don’t trust his motives.”

“What motives?” She was genuinely puzzled.

He actually looked uncomfortable. “I don’t trust his motives around you.”

A cold, hard block formed in the middle of her chest, its chill spreading into her belly. “Because I’m dumpy Mary and he’s the world’s most eligible bachelor, do you mean? A simple date couldn’t possibly be what Laszlo wants, not with someone like me. He
must
have an ulterior motive.”

Brenden’s lips parted, like he was surprised. Then he pressed them together. Hard. “No, that’s not it at all. You insist on always misinterpreting me—”

“How else am I supposed to interpret ‘I don’t trust him’? It’s a pretty straight forward accusation—”

“
There
, that is what I mean. Who said anything about accusing him? I just don’t trust him. I have my reasons.”

“What reasons?” she shot back. Her palms were hurting and she realized she was digging her nails into them and tried to loosen her fists, but she couldn’t. She was too angry.

He hesitated. “I can’t tell you. You’ll have to take my word for it—”

“You mean I should just trust you? Oh, that’s rich!”

“Mariana, for the sake of Artemis, will you just calm down for one sane moment?”

“I’m
perfectly
calm.”

“You’re not listening to me. You’re not hearing what I’m trying to tell you.”

What
was
he trying to say? Something other than he disapproved of her choice in men? She drew in a breath. Another. “Tell me,” she said flatly.

“I have reason to believe Laszlo has hidden reasons for coming to the agency. Reasons that have nothing to do with touring and nothing to do with you.”

Her body seemed to freeze, as she absorbed that. “You mean, I’m just a pawn?” Even her lips felt stiff.

Brenden pushed his hands through his hair again. Both hands this time. He let them drop with a sigh. “I don’t know,” he said. “It’s possible.”

Mariana swallowed. Even that felt difficult.

“It could be sheer coincidence,” Brenden added. “He’s here for his own reasons and just happened to meet you. At this point in time, I don’t know for sure why he’s here. But I wanted to warn you. I didn’t think it was fair to let you…see him. Not without knowing.”

Mariana realized that her fists had uncurled. Her palms were throbbing. The rest of her felt like a thick piece of plasteel, cold and solid. It was the degree of shock that told her something she hadn’t realized until now.

Laszlo had got under her skin.

She liked him. More than that. She had been starting to care for him.

Fool
! she raged at herself. She had honestly thought she was sophisticated enough to take a man to bed and keep her heart safely out of it. “I should have known better,” she said bitterly.

“I
don’t know
,” Brenden said with heavy emphasis. “He could be genuinely interested in you. Don’t look like that.”

“Look like what?”

“Like I just cut out your heart.”

Mariana straightened her shoulders. “I’m just disappointed,” she said briskly. “And that’s all. Laszlo was fun. I thought it might last a little longer.”

Brenden studied her closely. “That’s all?”

She shrugged and forced a smile to her numb lips. “It’s not like I’d be stupid enough to fall for the modern world’s Lothario and besides, I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”

“Why not?”

“I’m in love with someone else.”

Brenden had one of the most impenetrable poker faces Mariana had ever come across, but this time his shock was easier to read than screen text. His eyes widened. “You are?”

She went back to the table to pick up her reading board. “An old friend of mine, from the neural nets. He has no idea, of course, but….” She shrugged. “I figured out long ago that he barely even recognizes I exist. So I’ve tried to move on. Laszlo was part of that.” She was amazed at herself, at the easy way the story pulled together and how
convincing
it sounded. Of course, it was mostly the truth, so that made it easy to say without feeling like a fraud.

Brenden drew in a deep breath and let it out. “That makes things easier.”

“I’m fine,” she assured him. “I’ll cancel dinner tonight, of course. I don’t think I could stomach sitting across the table from him, now I know for sure he does have an agenda. But it’s not like I’m going to cut my wrists over him.”

“Good,” he said flatly.

“Were you worried that I might?”

“I had no idea what you might do,” he said frankly. “I just didn’t like the idea of not telling you about my suspicions.” He gave her a very small smile. “I know he stayed with you last night.”

Mariana nodded. “Thank you for telling me. I’m sorry I didn’t listen.”

Brenden headed for the doors. “It’s my job,” he said gruffly.

Mariana watched him go, then walked through the atriums to the kitchen, her body still numb.

Deonne found her there, fifteen minutes later, eating her second serving of chocolate ginger ice-cream. The blond woman sat next to her and dabbed her finger in the dregs of the first bowl and licked it. “Laszlo?” she asked gently.

Mariana nodded. The harsh truth she had faced in the last twenty minutes meant that she wasn’t even lying…except that Laszlo was only half of the reason she was sitting there. “How do you handle
two
men, Deonne? Just one of them on their own is enough to drive me insane.”

“I’m a glutton for punishment,” Deonne replied. “Is there another spoon somewhere?”

“As long as we can sit and eat and
not
talk,” Mariana said. “My ego is bruised enough that I can do without a second round of humiliation right now.”

* * * * *

Bourbon Street, New Orleans, 2003 A.D.

Brenden knocked on the studio door and waited impatiently.

Billy opened it and did an almost comical double-take, looking over his shoulder at the spot on the carpet from where Brenden had jumped. “But you were just here…”

“You’ll get used to thinking in objective time, instead of your own personal time line,” Brenden told him. “Can I come in?”

“Stupid fucking question,” Billy muttered and stepped out of the way.

Brenden shut the door and rested his hand on Billy’s shoulder. It was novel to do that with someone who was nearly his height. “I just buried the guilt. So if you’re still feeling the same way….”

Billy laughed. “The same way I was feeling thirty seconds ago? That
you
were feeling thirty seconds ago?”

“Two hours ago, on my timeline,” Brenden told him, “and I don’t feel the same as I did before I left.”

“No?” Billy’s eyes widened.

“I went back and cleared up some nagging issues,” Brenden told him. “I needed to get them out of the way, so I could do this.” He pressed his lips against Billy’s and felt the same whoosh of hot feelings that had rushed through him the first time Billy had kissed him. There had been a chance that the reaction was just surprise, but clearly, it wasn’t.

Billy grabbed the front of his shirt and drew him closer, until their bodies were pressed together. The kiss extended and deepened and Brenden let go of everything—every concern and worry and niggling issue he was dealing with. He let himself enjoy the kiss.

When Billy let him go and put enough distance between them that they could look at each other properly, he was smiling.

“This is such a bad idea,” Brenden muttered and reached for the buttons on Billy’s shirt.

“What’s bad about it?” Billy stood still and let him tackle the buttons.

“I still don’t have a clue why you—what Laszlo wants. Why he came back.” He pulled the shirt open and tugged it out of his jeans. Because it was oversized, it slid down Billy’s arms and fluttered to the floor.

“That’s Laszlo, not me.”

“But it
is
you, just somewhere ahead in time.” Brenden opened his jeans, struggling with the quaint zipper system, then pushed his hand inside. Billy’s cock was already stiff and upright and he curled his hand around it.

Billy drew in a sharp breath, his eyes closing.

“What sort of complications are we setting up here?” Brenden muttered.

“Who cares?” Billy’s voice was hoarse.

“Right now, not me.” Brenden let him go, then pushed his jeans down his hips impatiently.

Billy pulled them off, along with his shoes. His body was tanned, the muscles well-developed, but not artificially large. He’d acquired his strength the honest way. His height made him look lean, but he wasn’t nearly as slender as his clothes suggested. His cock jutted, red and thick with veins.

Billy plucked at Brenden’s tee-shirt, pulling it up his torso. “Let me…”

“No, I’m faster,” Brenden said. “I know my way around this stuff.”

“I’m not in a hurry,” Billy pointed out.

“I am.” Brenden almost tore his clothing off, only just holding back from ripping the seams apart. Authentic clothing in his size was hard to acquire and that made him remove each garment the normal way.

Now that he made his mind up, he was seething with impatience and he realized that he had been drawn to Billy since they had sat across from each other in the courtyard and Billy had frankly admitted his life was a mess because of his own mistakes. But he had subsumed the attraction, like he had so many other attractions over the years. The agency came first, as it had ever since Ryan had outlined his ideas for a vampire-run time travel business and how it would change their lives.

It had been a very long while since Brenden had indulged himself purely because he wanted to. Society wives were fun to be with and a momentary distraction, but he had stepped into that world in the first place as a PR exercise. Mixing with influential humans would enhance the agency’s reputation and make vampires sympathetic, instead of the unknown monsters humans had perceived them to be for far too long. The unavailability of those women that Mariana had seemed to find so objectionable was actually a positive in his mind.

But this time, right now, this would be for no other reason except that he liked Billy. They had much in common, despite being born centuries apart and his old warrior soul recognized the similarities.

Naked, he picked up Billy’s hand and drew him over to the bed. Billy’s lips quirked upwards. “Very hurried,” he remarked.

Brenden pushed at his shoulder, forcing him to sink onto the covers. “I could hurry myself to the point you get no fun out of it at all.”

“Too late. I already have.” Billy reached up and pulled him down onto the bed with him. He kissed him, short and hard. “Do your worst.”

Brenden swept his hand along Billy’s heated cock. They were both human, both vulnerable to physical reactions, emotions and more. His pleasure leapt as he anticipated how good this would feel. He stroked the shaft, teasing the head and smiling as it leapt under his touch. His own body was tightening, his arousal increasing with every passing second.

Billy hissed in pleasure, his hips shifting as Brenden teased. His breath became hurried. They were both watching what Brenden was doing, until Billy stirred and knocked his hand away. “Enough,” he said shortly, reaching for him.

Brenden shook his head. “Not nearly enough.” He grabbed Billy around the waist, picked him up and turned him, then dropped him onto his hands and knees on the mattress.

Billy swore and reared up onto his knees. “Impatient.”

“Hurried,” Brenden admitted. “Later, we can play. For now….” He opened the drawer in the nightstand and pulled out the pot of lubricant he’d left behind.

Billy raised a brow. “For someone so hurried, that shows a remarkable degree of preparedness.”

“In this timeline, I left this here about five hours ago.” Brenden unscrewed the lid. “From my subjective perspective, it’s been nearly two years.”

“Ah.”

Brenden pushed on his shoulder, bending him back over and this time, Billy complied. He cupped his ass, feeling the good heat, the human heat that always felt so delicious to touch and stroke, even when he was human himself.

Billy hung his head. “Now he teases….”

Brenden growled and thrust his hand between his cheeks, finding the aperture with his slippery fingertips. He worked his fingers deeper, Billy’s groans making his heart thunder and his cock to throb in anticipation.

He gripped his hip and pushed his aching cock up against him and felt the flesh and muscles give. Billy drew in a long slow breath as Brenden slid deeper, easing his way inside. His flesh tightened around him.

Brenden breathed out, trying to control his arousal, to contain the climax that was building. It was going
too
fast. He was never this hurried, even when he was human. He came to rest, almost completely inside him.

Billy was breathing fast, his fingers hooked into claws that were digging into the bedcovers. His muscles were taut.

Brenden withdrew and thrust again. Slowly. His pleasure leapt at that simple movement and his balls tightened. Sweat popped at his temples. He began to thrust in hard, short strokes, already too close to coming. He reached beneath Billy’s hip and stroked his cock, encouraging him to join him.