must come down, and that was what we did.
“Zara,” he said, shocked. He was wearing his customary business suit
today completed with a purple tie that heightened the violet of his eyes.
All of my anger over the dress melted away. In a span of seconds, I was a
sixteen-year-old lovestruck girl whose heart had just been shattered.
“Why did you leave?” I whispered.
How could you leave? I wanted to add. He had been my world, and I
never could’ve left him. Leaving him would’ve been the equivalent of losing
my soul. My other half. My best friend.
He swallowed, his normally impassive eyes pained.
“Come inside.” He stepped aside to allow me entrance, and I entered his
sparsely furnished room. There was a bed against the wall, neatly made, with
a nightstand adjacent to it. On it, was a framed photo and a stack of books.
Aside from a black, leather couch and a television screen, the room was
devoid of anything else.
It was the nightstand I walked to first. You could tell a lot about a person
by the books they read. Tentatively trailing my fingers down the spines, I
read the titles.
Nightmare and Human Relations.
The Mate Bond.
Politics of a Genie.
“I want to be a just and fair leader,” Devlin said from behind me,
allowing me to continue my perusal of his belongings. I glanced at him over
my shoulder.
“You have always been a good liar. That skill would make you an even
better politician.”
My searching fingers touched the gold-rimmed edge of the frame. I
wondered who Devlin cared about enough to keep a picture beside his bed.
Himself, probably.
But the person staring back at me wasn’t him, though it was someone I
recognized. My hair had been shorter then, just past my shoulders, and had
hung in loose blond curls. Chocolate ice cream was smeared across my face
as I laughed into the camera, my young, innocent eyes unaware of the
torment we would inevitably face. I remembered when this picture was taken.
Devlin had snuck me an ice cream cone from a Nightmare only store. It was
unlike anything I had ever tasted before, and a moan had unintentionally
escaped my lips. Devlin had begun kissing me, but I had swatted him away
with a laugh. In retaliation, he shoved his own cone of ice cream into my face
and then had insisted that we take a picture to show our future kids.
It was one of my favorite memories.
“Lin…” I whispered, stunned. Garnering courage, I finally turned to meet
his eyes. In them, I saw a vast loneliness and helplessness. I also saw an
overwhelming amount of love. “Devlin.”
“I left because my father discovered who you were to me. I left because
he threatened to hurt you if I didn’t leave. I left because I would’ve rather
been away from you than see you dead or even hurt. I left even though it
broke my heart to do so. I didn’t leave because I stopped loving you. I have
never stopped loving you, and I never will stop.”
He paused, staring at something over my shoulder. I wondered where his
mind had gone. There was so much despondency in his normally apathetic
expression; the mask he wore so easily had been ripped into two.
“Have I ever told you about the first time I learned how to be a Genie?
The time I shadowed my dad at work?” He didn’t wait for me to respond.
“The rules are simple: the person who finds the Genie’s lamp gets three
wishes. They can ask for anything besides unlimited wishes. The first one I
witnessed was of a young man. He was hopelessly in love with a girl, but he
was shy and awkward. He wished first to be beautiful. Second, to be talented,
and third, to have the girl’s heart.
“I watched the sly smile morph my father’s face into something that was
unrecognizable. And then he granted the man’s wish. The man did become
beautiful and talented. My father didn’t fuck with him on those wishes. But
the girl’s heart? I watched my dad carve the heart physically out of her body
and deliver it to him. The young man killed himself shortly after. Don’t you
see? We’re evil. He would’ve hurt you, my father, and I would’ve been
helpless to save you. I had to make a choice between our happiness and your
life, but it was no contest. I would always choose you, even if you hate me
because of it.”
Too much. Too soon.
Stop.
Keep talking.
“Lin…”
“Those years we were apart were the worst of my life. Sure, I was able to
survive, but I wasn’t living. I was a machine going through the motions.”
He jerkily took a step forward, arms extended, and I allowed him to place
his hands on my shoulders. For years, I had wanted him to say exactly that.
For years, I had dreamt of this moment.
“You can’t love me,” I whispered, my vision blurring. “You don’t know
me anymore.”
“But I do,” he said sadly. His finger captured one of my tears. “I never
left you, baby girl. I watched over you. Always.” He swallowed yet again, his
Adam’s apple bobbing. “I watched you fall in love again.”
“And then he died.” There was no inflection in my voice. I was merely
stating a fact.
Devlin’s eyes turned haunted.
“I was called away for a conference in Vampire,” he said, referring to the
country that was, obviously, ruled by the Vampires. “When I got back...I am
so sorry Zara.”
Squeezing my eyelids shut to will the tears away, I gripped the belt loops
of his dress pants. I didn’t want to talk about S. I didn’t want to talk about
feelings or emotions. And I most definitely didn’t want to hear him
apologize.
“Get on the bed,” I said. When Devlin stared down at me in confusion, I
made my voice strident. “I said, get on the bed.”
Eyes-wide, he immediately clambered onto the bed, wrinkling the
blankets in the process.
“Zara-”
“Don’t talk.” I moved to straddle him, one knee on each side of his waist.
His chest heaved beneath me, and his eyes flickered from my face to my
chest and then back as if he didn’t know where he was supposed to look.
Thankfully, he kept his mouth shut.
Keeping my gaze locked on his, I removed his tie.
“You like this, don’t you?” I whispered, leaning down to graze my teeth
across his neck. He lifted his chin obediently, and I alternated between little
nips and kisses. His hands grabbed at my waist, pulling me even closer.
“Bad Devlin,” I cooed, biting down on his neck. He let out a grunt of pain
that quickly turned into a moan of pleasure. “You know the rules. You can
only touch me when I give you permission.”
I moved his hands until they were against the headboard, and then used
his tie to keep them in place. He struggled half-heartedly against the bondage,
but I knew he could easily break free if he actually wanted to. Devlin had
always been a kinky little shit.
Skimming my nose down his neck, I slowly undid the buttons on his shirt,
one after another. Each swath of skin revealed would r
eceive a kiss or a lick.
I rolled my tongue over his nipple, and he bucked his hips against me. I could
feel his erection straining against his pants, begging to be set free.
After a moment, I did just that, smiling victoriously when his glorious
cock appeared in my hand. I used my fingers to spread his pre-cum across his
throbbing length, and he groaned appreciatively. I wondered if he still tasted
the same.
Cupping his balls, I licked up the length of his shaft. Salty.
Yes. He most definitely tasted the same.
“Tell me, Lin,” I said, wrapping my hand around the base of his cock.
Using his cum for lubrication, I worked him in a steady rhythm. He was a
withering mess beneath my hands. “Have you been with another girl since
me? Has another girl touched your cock?”
I jerked on his shaft, and he twisted sideways, his bare ass now on
display. The position was probably dreadfully uncomfortable with his hands
still tied, but he didn’t complain.
“You have permission to answer,” I said.
“No,” he gasped. “No one.”
The greedy bitch in me smiled in satisfaction.
“Good. Because this,” I tightened my grip on him. “And this,” Using, my
freehand, I slapped his ass cheek. He hissed, but I soothingly rubbed out the
pain. “Belongs to me. Got that?”
“Always.”
Smiling contently, I jerked him once again onto his back and released his
shaft. He immediately groaned in disappointment, but one glare from me shut
him up. Pulling off my top - I hadn’t worn a bra - I watched his face light up
as he took in my bare upper body. My nipples were practically beaded
diamonds at this point. Lifting my hips, I shimmied out of my pants and
panties until I was utterly naked before him. I didn’t feel embarrassed or even
vulnerable. I felt empowered as his eyes ravaged me. His arms feebly pulled
at the restraints, but I gave him a disapproving frown.
He could look, but he couldn’t touch. Not today.
My pussy clenched with need as I lined his shaft up with my wet folds
and sank down. Having him inside of me again...it was like two becoming
one. It was as if a part of me I hadn’t known I needed was returning to me.
It was a tight fit, but it only took me a moment to get adjusted to his
impressive length. I placed my hands on his chest to keep myself steady, and
then I slowly began to rock my hips. The pleasure was instantaneous, a finale
to my denied sexual encounter with Killian. What started as soft and slow
turned into a rough, passionate frenzy. Setting the pace, I rocked against him,
my ass slapping against his thighs. My breasts bounced in his face, just out of
his reach. At one point, he took one of my throbbing nipples into his mouth,
and I allowed him to. It only amplified my pleasure.
The pleasure was coming faster now, endless waves cresting against the
shoreline. I didn’t know how much longer I was going to last. Tiny gasps
escaped my lips, and I came with a scream. I couldn’t recall ever feeling such
bliss before, as if every nerve in my body had come to life. Devlin released
my aching nipple as he came with a cry of his own, his seed releasing inside
of me.
For a moment, we remained connected, panting. I finally detangled
myself from him, using the edge of his blanket to clean myself off.
Once I was sure all traces of our activity were gone, I grabbed my clothes
off the floor and began to slowly redress.
“Where are you going?” Devlin asked huskily.
“Away.”
His brow furrowed in confusion.
Patting his knee, I said, “See you at dinner tonight.”
It was only as I was leaving did I hear his hoarse voice.
“God, I fucking love you, woman.”
“I know.”
TWENTY-THREE
DEVLIN
F or the first time in years, I felt satiated. Tiny licks of fire hummed
through my veins, an after effect of my time with Susan.
Zara.
Z.
She didn’t think I was aware of her real name, but you couldn’t stalk a
girl for years and not discover it. Z the assassin.
Z...my mate.
Eyes still heavy with lust, I stared at the door where she had disappeared
through. I wasn’t naive enough to believe she would stay after everything I
had put her through, but the tiny, wistful voice inside my head had hoped.
Did it make me a pussy that I wanted to cuddle with her? That I wanted to
feel her in my arms, warm and real, her presence as vibrant as a fire?
Her absence from my life had been like wandering the desert. I wasn’t
quite dead, but my body ached dreadfully as it struggled to quench its thirst.
She was the rain pelting my face.
She would never be the light - her darkness was too consuming - but she
would always be a necessity. She was the air I breathed, the water I drank,
my home in the storm.
But the idiot was repeatedly putting her life on the line to achieve a
warped sense of justice. I couldn’t fault her on that. Losing her other mate,
her human mate, would make any sane person go a little crazy. It was a
wonder she could still behave coherently at all. If I were to ever find the
person who had killed S…
I took a deep, calming breath. He was supposed to be my brother, this
man, and his life had been snuffed out too soon leaving my girl alone.
I closed my eyes, watching her face behind my closed eyelids as she rode
me. I would never get tired of seeing the heat in her eyes, the lust in her sultry
grin. Her large breasts had been on display, the pink nipple so enticing. The
feel of her around me. Her golden hair cascading around her shoulders in
soft, yet wild, curls. She was the only female I knew that could roll out of bed
looking as perfect as those who spent hours in front of a mirror. It was an
effortless beauty that was almost ethereal. And it was mine.
She was mine.
“Devlin! We need to talk - and why the hell am I staring at another
dick?” The voice was familiar, though I had never heard such horror in it
before. It suddenly occurred to me that I was still tied to the bed, naked, with
my cock once again rock-hard at the mere thought of my perfect mate. At the
thought of her tits bouncing in my face, her warm pussy clenching around my
length, her wild eyes-
Killian stepped further into the room, mouth agape.
“Wait? Another dick? How many dicks have you been seeing?” Lupe
asked. The big man had silently moved into my room, his footsteps
shockingly light. He leaned against my eggshell colored wall, meaty arms
crossed over his broad chest.
Killian’s face turned green at the memory.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Bash pushed Killian aside, wheeling Dair in as well. Apparently, it was a
fucking party in my bedroom. I quite literally wanted to kill them all right
then and there, consequences be damned.
“It’s not gay if you don’t look,” my Mage brother pointed out to Killian.
Lupe rubbed at his temples.
“We came for an actual reason,” the mountain of a Shifter assure
d me,
flashing a glare in Bash’s direction. Bash glared right back, eyes narrowing
into thin slits. He seemed to be in an especially bad mood, though that wasn’t
necessarily a surprise. Bash always seemed to be in a mood.
“Can you put some clothes on?” Dair asked kindly. He was the only one
that didn’t seem at all perpetrated by my nudity. Mermaids and Shifters were
similar in that aspect. When they changed from one form to the next, they
lost all of their clothes. Dair, through his mandatory twelve-hour stint as a
human, was almost as fluid as Jax when it came to nudity. Lupe, on the other
hand, was extremely self-conscious when it came to his body. I was his best
friend, and I had yet to ever see him with his shirt off. Rumor was, last time
he had sex, he turned off all the lights and kept half of his clothes on.
Lupe was a strange man.
I couldn’t help but think that Z would like him, despite him being a
Shifter. She would like all of my brothers. The thought sent a giddy smile
across my face.
Was there anything better than your girl getting along with your family?
“Oh my god. It twitched. Why is it twitching?” Killian whispered,
horrified. Cussing, I quickly broke free of my constraints tying me to the bed
and pulled on my boxers. Ways to kill a mood? Have your brother talk about
your twitching cock.
Crisis averted, I sat on the bed and leveled a glare at all four of them. I
didn’t have to be a genius to know that Ryland was lurking in one of the
many shadows in my room. And Jax?
It was comical to even believe he would be sane enough to be here and
partake in the conversation. He was probably running down the hallways
naked. Again.
“Why are you guys here?” I asked snidely, jumping to my feet. I ran a
hand through my brown hair in agitation. Damn them. If they would’ve came
one minute earlier, when Z had been riding me, I might’ve killed them. The
mere thought of them seeing her like that…
My hands clenched and unclenched by my sides.
Deep breaths. Rein it in, Devlin. Rein it in.
I felt my power swell before diminishing behind a blockade of my own
making. It always took considerable effort to tame the beast that was my
Genie. I was still filled with an almost elemental fury when I thought of my
girl with that one Mage, Diego. I knew for a fact that he wasn’t her mate. If I