Switch (The Forever Series, Book 7) (13 page)

“No, first, I want to watch her give you pleasure.”

I nod and position the girl where I want her. She smiles
gratefully at me for having “saved her life” and I pat her hands in reassurance
that she will be fine.

I lie back and she is quite thorough in her attentions to
me, clearly wanting to keep me happy with her now, her protector. It is the
oldest trick in the book. One I have used many a time in my life to get people
to think they are indebted to me. It is cruel and beneath me now, but that
teeny, tiny part of me that I squash deep down every day enjoys it still and I
relax completely as she licks me and Cole kisses me, my lips, my neck, my
breasts, inching his hand closer to my clit where he plays with me while she
gives me a good seeing to with her fingers and tongue. I am all for this but
the idea of this was fun for Cole, so I sit up suddenly and guide her hand back
to him. He closes his eyes as she hesitantly touches him, afraid of him now. I
know he is loving the feeling of power and that is what I wanted to give him
(my own selfish reasons aside, of course). He said he didn’t want to fuck her
but I don’t have a problem with it, so I push her head to him to take him in
her mouth again. “Take her,” I whisper close to his ear as he gasps.

He shakes his head.

“Take her,” I say again more insistently. “You will be in
complete control of her.”

I see the flash in his eyes and I know he wants it, but
still he refuses.

“She already has you in her mouth,” I say. “Just turn her
around.” I grab her by her hair and pull her away from him, turning her around.
He grabs her hips, eyes never leaving mine and with a look of triumph that
turns to anguish almost instantly, he slides into her. I part my lips and pull
his head down to kiss him as he pushes himself further into her.

“No,” he murmurs. “This doesn’t feel right.”

“It’s okay, baby,” I tell him as I stand up behind him and
bend down, dropping my fangs. I sink them slowly into him and he groans. He
pulls her back onto him as he stays still while I feed and as soon as I release
him, he pounds into her unable to stop and with a cry of frustration, anger,
and regret--but most of all revenge--he comes inside her before she has even
had a chance to get warmed up.

He shoves her away in disgust and turns to me still standing
behind him and pulls my legs out from under me so I fall down to the bed and
before I can say anything, he is inside me, fucking me hard and fast as he
kisses me desperately, hands all over me as he mutters, “I love you” over and
over. We come together quickly, crying out into each other’s mouths as I wrap
my legs around him to force him deeper into me.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers. “I’m sorry.”

“No,” I say taking his face in my hands. “You have nothing
to be sorry for. You wanted her and you took her.”

“But she doesn’t mean anything to me,” he drops his forehead
to mine. “I have no bonds with her.” And I see he is trying to make a
distinction between what I do and what he did.

“Baby, I wanted you to take her. I wanted you to see that it
is okay. New male Vampires need this kind of release. I was here and you didn’t
do anything wrong.” I kiss him and then add with a slight smile, “I know you
feel vindicated somehow.”

He looks up at me startled, but as he can see I don’t mean
harm, he smiles as well, “Well maybe just a little.”

The girl clears her throat and we remember her then, having
forgotten while we had our private conversation.

The door opens and in comes Devon and Jess. “Told you it was
this one,” he says to her as Cole flicks the covers over us. Me and him, that is,
leaving the poor girl to her own devices.

“Do you mind?” Cole snaps. “Boundaries, remember?”

Devon closes the door and leans against it and shrugs,
“Fairly sure you aren’t up to anything I haven’t already seen. Or done.”

“How did you find us?” Cole asks.

“She’s my sire, I can sense her. Although it took a moment.
The sexual energy in this place is killer. Tends to block most other things
out.”

“What are you doing in here?” I ask, sitting up.

“Oh yeah, time to go. This isn’t exactly a legal set-up.
Cops are on their way.”

“Oh fuck,” I scramble off the bed and pull my dress over my
head. I throw Cole his clothes and he gets dressed quickly in spite of Jess
staring at him as he does so. Her eyes widen as I kiss the girl, letting it
linger for a few moments longer than necessary and I tilt my head to Cole, who
does the same as Devon’s eyes go wider. He looks at me in question and I shrug.
It’s not for me to say anything about what went on in here. The girl flinches
as his lips touch hers and he grabs her by the throat to hold her in place. She
is still afraid of him and I know he is loving it. He pulls back with a wicked
smile and I grab his hand and run down the stairs. If we got caught in here it
would be bad. I think briefly of Astralling us out but I have never taken three
passengers before and it is always best to go back the way we came. If we run
out of time, then I will fall on Plan B. We all tumble into the limo and
Grayson has us on the road before we have even shut the door. Panting with the
excitement and thrill of nearly being caught, Jess is clinging to Devon and I
am intrigued about what they got up to. She has clearly fed on fresh human
blood as her eyes are sparkling, but I refrain from asking as it isn’t my
business. She catches my eye and smiles at me and lets go of Devon to climb
onto the seat next to me, eager to share her experience. I go with it as I can
sense that Cole is eager to share his own experience with Devon. It warms my
heart that they have such a friendship. Jess whispers to me and we end up
giggling like two teenage girls (well, I suppose we are two teenage girls) as
she tells me what she and Devon did. I don’t share mine and Cole’s story with
her as it is too personal and she doesn’t ask.

Cole leaves for work at the crack of dawn on Friday morning
in high spirits after our adventure yesterday. “I love you,” he whispers to me
as he kisses me goodbye and I snuggle further under the duvet. “Thank you.”

“I love you. What for?” I ask.

“For being the best wife ever,” he chuckles and I snort in
amusement. “No really,” he says. “Last night, you gave me something I was
craving. Power.”

“Don’t let it go to your head,” I mock frown at him and he
grins.

“I’ll try not to, but I need now more than ever to go out,”
he says seriously.

And this is what I was afraid of. My hasty decision to give
him what he wanted ended up being exactly what I didn’t want for him. I sigh
and mutter, “Speak to Devon about it later.”

He nods, “I’ll ring you later.”

“I’ll be in The Underworld. No cell reception.”

“Oh yeah. I forgot about that,” he doesn’t look best pleased
but smiles at me anyway. “I guess then I will just see you tonight.”

“I still need to fill everyone in on what other me said. I
guess it’s another Friday night meeting. Seems to be a regular thing now. Oh by
the way, we need to leave here on Sunday night,” I say, suddenly remembering
the full moon on Monday night.

“Okay, I’m not needed until Tuesday though.”

“I know, but I promised I would run with Lincoln on the next
full moon and that would be Monday night.”

“Oh. You are going to Shift into a Wolf?” he asks,
surprised. “Have you ever done that before?”

“Once. I have to embrace it, especially as we have a Pack
now. Sort of.”

“Sort of? I thought it was a done deal?”

“It is, but they are all in L.A. and I am still a bit
nervous about this whole fighting over it thing.”

“You said that Lincoln said it won’t be a problem because of
your Queen status.” He frowns at me and says, “You think it might be?”

I shrug, “I don’t know. I hope not.”

“I’m sure it won’t be, but I am equally sure you can kick
all of their asses if you do have to fight them.”

“Thank you, baby,” I say.

“I have to go now. Take care later. I worry about those
Demons. They seem far too invested in you. I fear they will kidnap you and
adopt you by force,” he says it with a smile but I know he is concerned. I was
only half joking when I told him about Xerxes and Xanthe’s reaction to Xerxei,
but he clearly is worried about it.

“I will be fine. Now kiss me and go so I can go back to
sleep for an hour.”

He kisses me on my forehead and says as he leaves, “Do not
ignore Ramon when he comes up at 6:30. I will be pissed if I find out you
didn’t feed and get Constantine to kick your ass.”

I chuckle at him and as he closes the door. I drift back off
and get startled out of my slumber by my sire leaning down over me to kiss me.

“Morning,” he says with a smile.

“Hi.” I look at the clock. It’s 6:00 AM. “You are too
early.”

“I’m not here with Ramon. He will join us promptly at half
past. I need to talk to you about something.”

“Shoot,” I say as I curl up on my side and put my hand on
his leg. He takes my hand and frowns at me.

“Aefre. Is there anything you need to tell me? Something I
should know?”

“About what?” I ask with a yawn.

“You,” he says.

“Not that I can think of. Why?” I ask, suspicious now.

He studies me for a few moments but then shrugs and says, “I
have missed you. I have missed being with you and talking with you.”

“Well you haven’t missed much,” I say, scooting over and
patting the bed for him to lie down next to me.

“I have missed so much,” he says, going all melancholy on me
as he lies down. “I am so sorry for being such a stubborn fool. We lost out on
six months’ worth of being together because I was an idiot.”

“It was hard,” I say softly. “Promise me that you won’t ever
be like that with me again. I couldn’t bear it.”

“I can, with absolute certainty, promise you that,” he says
and pulls me to him and we lie in silence for a few minutes. “Have you thought
any more about trying to find out who your father is?” he asks casually as he
strokes my back. I go still and I remember the dream I had before The Thirteen
showed up. He keeps insisting it is a vision of things, but I know that CK
wouldn’t hurt me by getting Sebastian to spell me and I know that Sebastian
wouldn’t betray me, even to our sire. Or do I? Yes, I do know. The Thirteen is
playing with me, causing me to doubt those I love and I won’t do it. I won’t
play into its hands. Sebastian didn’t rat me out, it was just a dream.

“Not really, no,” I say carefully, playing with his tie.

“Oh,” he says flatly. “I think perhaps you should leave it
alone.”

Curious. Does he know something? I shrug, “I have bigger
issues to deal with anyway.”

“Indeed,” he mutters. “Sebastian and I worked out what we
are going to do next week.”

I look up at him, “What did you decide?”

He sighs, “He will follow us to
Ponte
on Tuesday
morning and have you for two hours. Then he will leave.”

Wait. That sounds exactly like what they decided in my
dream. No. Stop it, I scold myself. There is nothing in it.

“Okay,” I say sitting up, and unable to stop myself I add,
“Better to get it out of the way, I suppose.”

His eyes snap to mine and he adopts that impassive look that
I wish I could master. “Precisely,” he says carefully. “Also, you must feed
before you come back to me. The Vampire way,” he adds.

This is just spooky. If my dream was real, then he is
betraying me. I just can’t think that he is, he swore to me that he would wait,
but this is the second time I have dreamed this: that he is getting Sebastian
to spell me so I will leave Cole. No, I won’t believe it. That damn creature is
probably laughing at me as I struggle with this. I change the subject to
something that has me curious.

“CK, why did you start calling me ‘my sweet’?”

He looks at me, bewildered. “Of all the questions I thought
you might ask me, that was nowhere near the top of the list. Why on earth do
you ask?”

“I’m just curious,” I say offhandedly but I think I already
know the answer: because of the first rose he gave me and I muttered “so sweet”
after I thought he had left. The other me and other him never met under the
bell tower, because she was already turned and on her way to Normandy by then.
That’s why he never called me that when I was over there.

“Because of the first rose I gave you. You sniffed it and
said ‘so sweet.’ That is exactly what I thought about you. My sweet Aefre,” he
says and smiles at the memory and I lean forward to kiss him. He kisses me back
briefly but then gently pushes me away, taking it no further as not only am I
in my marital bed, such as it is, but also that I have Cole’s scent all over
me. And probably the girl’s as well, which no doubt has him confounded as he
won’t recognize it. “Your plans for the day?” he asks.

“Underworld, Grimoire…in fact, I should get up and get
ready. Xane will be here at 6:30.”

“As will Ramon,” he says sternly and I smile at him as I
head to the shower.

I find him seated right where I left him a few minutes
later, which intrigues me but not for long.

“You brought a human to your bed last night?” he asks idly,
brushing imaginary lint from his suit pants.

“Yes. A girl,” I say, hiding my smile.

“Oh,” he says, relieved. “Oh,” he says again in realization.
“I thought that wasn’t something he was open to?”

“He is more open-minded than you give him credit for. He
accepts Devon in our bed. It is only fair he should get to play too,” I say,
only a bit uncomfortable discussing this.

“Devon? The three of you share a bed?” he croaks out before
he clears his throat.

“Yes,” I say slowly but then remember that he wouldn’t know
so I add, “Since after we got back from Castle Black.”

“I see. So he has accepted the way of life?”