Tales of the Djinn: The Double (35 page)

“That’s what Elyse does, not the saving part, necessarily, but she always wants to contribute. I don’t like her being in danger, but it’s not like I can stop her.”

“But you
could,
” Arcadius said. “You could lock her in a closet or tie her to a chair.”

“I guess it’s lucky I didn’t think of that tonight. She was pretty awesome with that shovel.”

“It’s wrong,” Arcadius insisted.

Cade laughed. “I really have changed since I was you.”

“You say that like you’re the new, improved version, and I’m defective!”

Cade’s humor receded. “I didn’t mean to imply that.”

“I’m not less than you.” Considering he’d been worried that he was within the last five minutes, the claim was ironic. He ignored his lack of logic and continued. “I’d also like to point out, you never were the me I am. I’ve changed since that moment Joseph split us in two. I’ve had my own experiences and perspective.”

“I suppose you have.” Cade was serious for a couple heartbeats, an effect he spoiled by snickering. “When you first woke up from being a statue, you were convinced
I
was defective.”

Arcadius missed the clarity of those days quite intensely for a moment. He let that go with a sigh. He was talking around the point, which he hoped wasn’t characteristic of either of their current selves. He pulled himself back on track.

“About sharing her,” he said. “You said you weren’t sure that would make you happy, but I can’t let go of the idea. I want to keep her in my life too.”

Cade didn’t look surprised. He propped the sole of one dress shoe against the wall, bracing his weight on it. “I suspected you were working around to that.”

“I understand it’s her decision to make—”

“At least you’ve figured out that much.” When Arcadius narrowed his eyes, Cade raised a hand in apology. “Sorry. You were saying?”

“It’s your decision too. I want to know if you plan to oppose me.”

“When you say
share
. . . ”

“I mean I’d commit myself to her as you have. I’d give her my affections and hope to receive hers. We wouldn’t always need to share her favors in bed. I’m interested in having her to myself sometimes. I assume you’d feel the same.”

Cade rubbed his thumb across the center of one eyebrow.

“We could try taking her together again,” Arcadius offered when Cade didn’t speak. “See if you still enjoy it.”

His double’s laugh was dry. “I suspect you know I would.”

This was true but Arcadius didn’t apologize. Playing fair shouldn’t rule out good strategy. If anyone knew that, it was the other him.

“Hell,” Cade said, pushing off the wall. “Let me talk to her.”

“Now?” Arcadius asked, disconcerted by this unexpected capitulation.

Cade shrugged. “We might as well find out what she’s thinking. Mind you, don’t interrupt. For now, this is between me and her.”

“Understood.” Sudden nerves made Arcadius’s palms go damp. He fought an urge to tell Cade he needn’t rush. Maybe the possibility of Elyse agreeing would be greater another day.

Cade snorted, having read every thought that crossed his face.

“Buck up,” he said, giving Arcadius’s shoulder a light punch. “If she says
no
, you’ll be spared learning to let her be her own woman.”

Somehow, Arcadius didn’t think he’d take solace in that outcome.

~

Elyse’s bathroom was one of her favorite places in the house. She’d renovated it herself in turn of the century repro style. The tiles were white with black accents, the fittings silvery brushed nickel. The steam shower was the exception to the historic theme. It was a futuristic glass cylinder with multiple jets and programmable temperature settings. She let it pound on her for five full minutes and didn’t feel guilty.

Sometimes that’s what it took for a shovel-wielding human to feel steady on her legs again.

When Cade stepped into the shower enclosure, she didn’t scold him for stealing half the spray. He was breathtakingly big and naked as he smiled down at her. He put his hands on her hips, his thumbs fanning the wet skin there.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” she answered. Her palms rested on his chest where his heart beat an even rhythm behind his ribs. The realization that she could have lost him washed over her. “Tonight was scary. I think I need a kiss.”

He understood how much she meant it. He pulled her to him, wrapped her in his arms, and gave her a nice deep one. He didn’t add his fears to hers; his kiss wasn’t frantic but just solid. She held him tight, soaking up how comforting he was. His big bare feet bracketed either side of her smaller ones, the juxtaposition oddly protective. Though his cock thickened against her, he didn’t turn the embrace sexual—or not any more sexual than kissing him always was. Elyse allowed herself to relax, enjoying the buzz he raised in her body without pushing it to be more.

This was part of being a couple too: just being there for each other.

“Better?” he asked, his eyes creasing with affection when he drew back.

“Yes.” She knew her face was flushed as his hands smoothed up and down her spine. “I wanted to do that before, but it seemed mean to in front of Arcadius.”

“Ah.” He took one hand from her to scratch his cheek. His expression was interesting. “About that. Arcadius is who I came in to talk about.”

“What about him?” She had one bad second during which she wondered if his double had told him about their kiss.

I really need to come clean about that,
she thought.

Cade seemed to be having his own mental argument. Elyse waited for him to finish it. He drew breath before he spoke.

“Arcadius would like us to share you. Officially. I told him I’d bring it up with you.”

Her heart did a funny flip. “He asked you to bring it up?”

“Well, we both realize you have a say . . .” Cade trailed off to take a sharper look at her. “You’re less surprised by this than I expected.”

Okay, there’s your opening
, she thought.

“Arcadius kissed me,” she confessed, plunging in. “Yesterday, when you were across the hall with Dad. I stopped him before it went any farther. I told him I want to be loved by someone I can count on. He implied he’d give me back once he was done with me.”

Simply repeating that made her temper rise.

“That annoyed you,” Cade concluded.

She couldn’t deny it. “You know I like him. I can’t help it. It’s insulting to be told someone you care about would toss you over after he’s had you a couple times.”

“You might have misunderstood how serious his interest is. In fact, I suspect he’s only now realizing the extent of it himself. He told me he’d commit himself to you as I have.”

“He said that?”

Cade stroked her wet curls back from her face. “He said exactly that, and that he hoped you’d return his affection. I think we both know you already do.”

Elyse bit her lip. She saw he wasn’t upset, but she couldn’t tell what he was feeling exactly. “What about you?”

He smiled. “I definitely return your affection.”

She rolled her eyes. “You know that’s not what I’m asking. I need a serious answer. What’s your position on all this?”

His expression grew less teasing but not less fond. His steady sea blue gaze cut through the steam billowing in the shower. He didn’t speak right away. Was he going to insist she state her preference first? She didn’t think she could without knowing how he felt—maybe not even to herself.

She wouldn’t hurt Cade to please Arcadius.

“I think,” he said slowly, as if the answer were even then coming clear, “that he’s the only person in any dimension I could share you with. I think I want him to be happy, and I know I want you to. In a way, sharing you with him feels like giving you more of me. He’s not me precisely, but I trust him to appreciate you. I want you to have that. An amazing woman like you deserves to be loved twice over.”

Tears spilled over Elyse’s lower lashes, running down her cheeks along with the shower spray. The things she felt for Cade were too big to contain. “God, I’m lucky to be in love with you.”

The way his brows shot up took her by surprise. “You’re
in
love with me, are you?”

“Of course I am. You knew that.”

He shook his head. “You’ve admitted to loving me, but not to being in love. You made a point of it when we were in Sheikh Zayd’s camp. You said you didn’t know the difference between ‘love’ and ‘in love’ but you thought you could come to feel that way about me.”

The memory nudged at her. She had said that, hadn’t she? “I’d forgotten all about that. Sheesh, how insufferable of me!”

“I didn’t like hearing it, but I understood what you meant. You said love that lasts takes time.” His grin flashed out, his big hands chafing her shoulders. “I suppose this means you’ve had enough time to be certain.”

“I suppose it does.”

“Naturally you should take as long to fall in love with Cade as you did with me.”

“Oh, please,” she said. “It isn’t a competition.”

His face settled into peaceful lines that her own echoed. Evidently, saying she was in love did nice things for both of them.

“Are we doing this then?” he asked.

Were they? “It might not work out.”

“Do you want to try?”

She searched her heart. She felt . . . excited by the idea. Not just physically, but in her emotions. She wanted to love both men. The thought that Arcadius might love her too touched and humbled her. How many people had an opportunity like the one Cade was offering her? Was it impulsive to say
yes
or the only logical answer?

Could three people be happy together?

“Let’s try,” she said, her pulse fluttering wildly. “Let’s just be as careful as we can of each other.”

~

Arcadius paced Elyse’s living room back and forth. How long were Cade and Elyse going to discuss their decision? Admittedly, he didn’t want them to choose lightly. To try the arrangement and then have it blow up in their faces would be uncomfortable. He forked his hands into his hair and pulled. Maybe he’d been crazy to suggest this in the first place. Maybe he should tell them he’d changed his mind.

The shower finally shut off, jolting his heart up into his throat.

You’d have thought
he
was a teenager, the way he was reacting.

He forced himself to stand calmly where he was, in the center of the room. Half a minute later, he wished he were still pacing. What the hell were they doing now? Didn’t they realize he was waiting for an answer?

They’d been drying off, apparently. They returned to the living room in robes. Elyse’s was a bulky white thing and Cade’s djinn-style silk. Despite how unrevealing her garment was, Elyse looked adorable in it. Her feet were bare and her hair hung in wet ringlets. He couldn’t fail to note that she was blushing furiously. She halted at the edge of the rug he stood on.

“Arcadius,” she said, which he found exasperatingly uninformative.

“Have you decided?” he asked. “Are you agreeable to letting Cade share you?”

He didn’t mean to sound so brusque. He guessed this was what Elyse expected of him, because she smiled. “I’m agreeable, but I think we should—”

He couldn’t let her finish. His emotions and his urges were too pent-up, and maybe had been for longer than he realized. She said
agreeable
, and he crossed the carpet in two long strides, lifting her off her feet and into his arms. Her startled hands clutched his shoulders. He crashed his mouth down on hers.

He couldn’t just kiss her once. He slanted their faces this way and that, sucking her tongue against his, probing her, conquering her, clutching her terry-wrapped naked body tight to his. After the first few shy—or perhaps shocked—moments she kissed him back.
That
was pleasurable, to put it mildly. His moan of response was hoarse, her repeated little cries astoundingly erotic. He hardened to the point of pain and didn’t care.

He was never going to stop kissing her.

That thought startled him. He remembered Cade was watching. Though his awareness of his double’s presence sent an undeniable rush through him, it occurred to him that perhaps his eagerness was insensitive. He set Elyse back onto her feet. Flatteringly, her arms took a moment to release him. She pressed three fingertips to her lips. Possibly her mouth was buzzing as heatedly as his.

“Sorry,” he said. His human trousers were tight, his cock pounding like a drum inside their constriction. He cleared his throat. “I interrupted you.”

“What?” was Elyse’s dazed response.

His double chuckled in amusement. “You were going to remind Arcadius we need to be careful of each other’s feelings.”

“Right,” she said. “And, um, we should try not to lose the bonds we’ve already formed. Learning to like and admire each other has been really enjoyable. Risking that is—well, we need to be sure it’s worth it.”

“You like us being allies,” Arcadius said, wanting to be sure he understood.

Elyse nodded emphatically. “Yes. Allies and friends. Being lovers is good too, but being a team matters.”

Cade looked at her with his head cocked, as if he hadn’t known she was going to say this and was pleasantly surprised.

“I concur,” Arcadius said. “Being a team matters.”

Though he didn’t intend his words to be erotic, they caused Elyse to blush. That was interesting. And arousing. His confidence surged back to more normal levels as tingles spread through his groin. “I assume we’re activating our new team tonight.”

“Oh, yes,” Cade answered before Elyse found her voice. “No time like the present.”

Arcadius had one more important question for their lover. “Are you amenable to me being in charge?”

Elyse rolled her lips together and smiled at the same time. “I believe you’ve earned you turn at that.”

“Good,” he said, not really caring whether he’d earned it. He swung her up in his arms, breezing past Cade to carry her down the hall to her bedroom. Elyse’s jaw dropped, her hold on him automatic and not frightened. He didn’t study her face. He’d worry about what she felt when he was sliding into her.

“Come if you intend to,” he called to Cade over his shoulder.