Wicked Hunt (Dark Hearts Book 3) (6 page)

Zorie

Apart from Grimm’s meltdown over biting my neck, that’d been the most normal sex I’d ever had with a mesmer. I’d been willing, even if the orgasms had been wrung out of me until I nearly expired from climaxing. I may have teased them, but what woman wouldn’t appreciate
that
?

If it hadn’t been for Mavros’s plan to get out of Mumbai before tonight, I’d have offered myself up as their sacrificial bunny slash kitten, yet again. Which gave rise to thoughts. What was I doing, here, with them?

There was sex and there was sex that led to stuff... I couldn’t dodge the fact that Grimm wanted more than this. It would be cruel of me to ignore that.

Sure, they had been the ones to track me down, and put me in this room with them, and wait and watch, while I went from simmer to writhing hot to begging them. Mesmers this close to a susceptible woman meant sex. I was good at killing them, I could resist if I drew on my rage, but I was still susceptible.

My musing gave rise to a weird revelation. Sex as a normal would be like chewing cardboard after what I’d had.

I’d liked being screwed until senseless by Grimm and Mavros. No, wrong, I’d loved it. I was probably addicted to it.

Twisting that thought around in my head was disorientating. Here was yet more proof I wasn’t who I had once been.

The bathroom was one of those quirks of upmarket hotels – a big glassed-in square room that you could observe from the bedroom. That Grimm wanted to crowd into the shower with me and soap me all over while Mavros watched from the bed with a twisted smirk, meant the atmosphere grew steamy again, fast.

After we’d all showered, we ended up having breakfast in bed, mostly naked.

Again, voluntary. I could tell when a mesmer exerted power. I liked the ensuing sexual tension, the inherent voyeurism.

They stared at my breasts and I took in the visage of two hot shirtless men lounging, though Grimm was in boxers while Mavros wore long black pants. The very respectable pants were only emphasizing the nakedness of the rest of his body more. He wasn’t Grimm, who seemed to have filled out into world-wrestling proportions over the past months, but he was well made. Those abs, I could play them like a piano, with my tongue.

Not that I wanted to stay in this little ménage à trois. This was a temporary arrangement. All of us needed to expend some sexual energy then see what lay ahead.

Dressed only in the panties, I sat cross-legged on the quilt, snacking on toast and cold eggs and a cup of coffee that I’d perched on the little side table. Luckily the coffee had stayed hot.

We were discussing the future.

That the men were so fascinated by me was amusing and likely to be the end of my dream of moving on, if I didn’t set some ground rules. With Mavros, I’d only ever be a hobby – one among many.

Yet every second left me cherishing this moment more. Making love had brought me down from orbit.

I wasn’t going to cause anyone’s death anymore.

Least, I thought not, until Mavros gingerly mentioned Cherie’s owner.

My recent weariness returned to crush me. I’d lost that for several hours in the presence of these two men. It was as if that grotesque part of me had been excised. I’d been cocooned. Either I couldn’t feel every time they influenced me or simply being with them had lifted my mood.

Cherie though. Her owner.

I shook my head. “I never found him. I have a name from...” I took a steadying breath. “From Einar. I don’t know what he meant, but he said the man was a maimed sort of mesmer, as well as a long-term buyer.”

“I see.” Mavros pursed his lips. “I see.”

I nibbled on a corner of toast. It took some swallowing. My throat seemed glued together. Sadness was such a shit feeling.

“And my daughter?”

Was this starting again? Revenge. My stomach gnawed at my insides.

“She’s done with that,” Grimm interjected.

“Yes. But I need to know.”

I understood that feeling though I figured learning this would still hurt. “I killed him a while back. A Jacob Hander in Brussels. A normal. I traced him through a mesmer. He’s the only normal I’ve killed”

Mavros shot to pale so fast his face resembled a corpse’s.

“I’m sorry.”

“No. I’m okay.” He nodded, and seemed to see something in my face, but I had no clue what. “At least I know he is dead. I prefer that. You’re absolutely sure?”

I stared down at the bed, recalling the man’s living room. “He had pictures of his women on the wall. She was one of them. There was a date on each picture. Hers was October to March. Does that mean anything?”

“It matches.”

His gruff answer sent my thoughts whirling. Those months must match the time she was missing. I shivered. Macabre, that her owner had kept her picture as a trophy.

We fell silent for some minutes.

I needed to ask questions myself, though.

I rallied, put aside the coffee and the plate. Mavros had abandoned the bed and hauled over one of the armchairs so he could sip his coffee, though he rested his feet on the bed. No shoes. I frowned. Such a contradiction was Mavros. Stern, calculating, yet definitely caring. How he’d chased after his daughter’s killer spoke of his softer side. Though he
had
sculpted me into a killer with little thought as to consequences.

Caring, yet remorseless, and a lover to die for...in more ways than one.

Being half naked suddenly seemed wrong.

Grimm had finished eating and lain down behind me – between the headboard, where some pillows were propped, and my back. He put his hand on my hip. A frisson travelled inward and I had to gulp to settle myself as he stroked my skin. Mavros followed the movement of Grimm’s hand.

Fuck. I’d let them both past my defenses.

“I want to know what you intend to do with yourself now, Zorie.”

I twisted to look down at him, such a gorgeous man, and yet I could never erase what he’d done to Cherie.

He stilled his hand but kept it on my hip. “I want to be with you. Want you with me.”

Could I live with a man who’d killed my friend? I’d figured that he’d deliberately come with me to that hellhole mansion. He’d almost died, and not just by my hand. What he’d done to me was for so many reasons though, and the only reason that counted against him was a result of the mesmer infection.

And that, being infected, was his choice.

He’d taken that path to be with me. If he hadn’t taken that path? I’d likely be a sex slave somewhere, or again, dead.

I thought some more, chose some words. I put my finger on his chest where his heart might be. “Every so often, you make me remember what you did. It’s a memory that pops up and I see you killing her.” He only studied my face and waited. “If I’d had a knife that day, I’d have stuck it in you, here. I can never forget.”

Grimm let out a long breath. “I know. I get that. That day, they gave me a choice. I did her, or they’d do it to you. The same thing. String you up, kill you. They had a contract to kill her and they wanted me to do worse. The best thing I could do for her was to do it fast.”

“Okay.” I clamped my eyelids together, swallowed down nausea. “Okay. Horrible, but it does help. I figured as much.”

He had indeed gifted me with something good by explaining. He was a man who deserved my forgiveness.

“Then thank you for assuming I wasn’t a monster.”

“You’ve changed, Grimm.”

His grip tightened on my hip. “So have you.”

Mavros interrupted. “I have to finalize the flights out of here. I’m getting us back to Australia. We should talk about this more when events are less fresh in our minds. When we are somewhere safer.”

We.

His expression was steady, yet I was learning to read him. This discussion was bothering him. That wasn’t surprising. The man was possessive, like Grimm, but I’d never known him to go deeper emotionally than that.

If I stayed with Grimm, would that anger him?

And that I was even thinking about staying with Grimm...I looked at my lap, still thinking.

“You’re right,” Grimm said. “Let’s wait.”

“Yes. All I will say is this. It’s a pity you never found the man who took Cherie. I may not have anything except what people called closure, with regards to my daughter, but it means a lot to me. Thank you for that, Zorie.”

I raised my head, surprised to find tears blurring my vision. “I’m glad. My last word on this. Perhaps you know the name I was told? The man who bought Cherie, the crippled mesmer, was called Johann.”

His brow creased. “No. I’m sorry. I haven’t heard of him.”

Then he walked away to the door into the adjoining room and I heard him unzipping something, maybe a suitcase.

“So,” Grimm drawled. “I guess we’re waiting to decide on the future. So all I’ll do is recite some facts.”

I glanced down at him and raised a skeptical eyebrow. He grinned broadly. “Seriously?”

“Yup. I need to get my bid in early.”

“Bid?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not sure –”

Then he swung up onto his knees and pounced on me, toppling me to the bed. “I’m going to sit on you again since you’re so antsy and a deadly killer.”

He didn’t sit, though, he sprawled atop me, pinning me down, gently, with his full length. My arms were free and he rested his forearms either side of my head and began to play with my face, thumbing across my cheek.

The mere feel of him, a full mesmer, a muscular man, holding me as he did, was enough to make me want to fuck.

I rustled up a modicum of anger and scowled. “Grimm.”

My rage was figuratively lashing its tail, deep within my mind.

“Shhh. Here’s my list. One.” He kissed me soft and slow. “I love you, always have. Two, dammit, you’re sexy.” Then he kissed me again and I found myself smiling. “Ahhh, a smile, I can tell when you’re annoyed. Three. Fuck what was three? I don’t know...I’m the only man, pretty much, who you both like
and
who can make you come? That has to mean something, right?”

I did a mock-frown then shook my head. “Keep going.”

For once, he was melting more than my pussy. My heart was realigning or something. It wasn’t the logic, his determination, his body, his powers, who he’d been before all this shit...it was everything about him. Everything.

“I would move heaven, the sun, the stars, bring them down and make them into jewelry for you Zorie, if I had to, to win your heart. I want you as my partner in love and life. I want to protect you from the bad things. I want...”

I waited, enraptured. Words did mean the world, it seemed.

“I would kill any man who tried to take you away from me. Because.” His hands found my wrists and held them to the quilt. His eyes lit with some internal ferocity that faded as he spoke. “Because you are mine.”

I licked my lips. The definitive statement at the end had taken away some of the impact. I wanted room to decide this, no matter how much the idea appealed.

“Did I say too much? Let me clarify.” The following kiss where he caressed my hair while applying his lips to mine did a lot to make up for the blunder. I moaned and squirmed under him, and he kissed me remorselessly, toying with every part of my mouth, my tongue, even my nose, though that made me giggle again. He breathed as I breathed, infusing himself into my very soul.

Oh, it was good.

I floated, sighed, and succumbed to his assault. When he raised his mouth from mine and looked down at me, I found my smile was back.

“Beautiful girl, keep my words in mind.”

“I will.”

I checked him out, while twisting my mouth in judgment. Curious and tempted, I put my thumb and two fingers on his barely there beard. I needed to feel him. It was a foray into territory I’d not been tempted to explore before – a lover’s exploration, not a fuck toy’s. I’d been one of those so often.

This was freedom. My world being swept clean and fresh. I caught him watching me and put my tongue on my lip, almost smiling.

“I like your hair shorter, but I’d love to see it long again too. Tied back, with a bit more scruff on your chin.”

It was a very intimate assessment, and we both knew it.

I ran my fingers over the stubble, feeling each little hair flick back. Some pricked me. If I spread my legs, would he do anything?

From the hardness of his erection, yes.

“If...” I whispered.

Footsteps warned us of Mavros returning.

Slowly, Grimm rolled off me.

“You two should go buy some clothes for Zorie while I do the last bit of organizing. Be quick and take two guards. Use cash.”

He dropped a roll of Indian notes on the bed.

Not a hair was out of place. Mavros had buttoned on a clean white shirt and had a phone in one hand. He gave away little in his demeanor, yet I sensed a deep annoyance. He would have noticed our tête-à-tête. Annoyance didn’t win my heart.