Burned In Shadows (Shadow Unit) Read online

“I’ll take your soul for my death squad and have my way with your body. I will do the vilest of things in ways even you couldn’t imagine.”

  A nanosecond past before her hands clawed at the demons face, kicking and screaming and trying to open him so she could pulverize his facial muscles. She wanted to wipe that look off his face as he’d said those words. Kill Vivek’s son, oh she’d do a lot more than that, but first she wanted to make Enri pay for his last statement. No one would ever put their hands on her without permission again. Ever.

  Nothing she did to his face, affected him if anything he just laughed and that pissed her off. After what seemed like hours and her fists were bruised, swollen and open to the knuckles, she stopped. There was no reason in trying to fight him any longer, she’d do what he asked. She’d kill Vivek’s son, and she’d get Draven to agree to come back to the Unit with her.

  “Now that you’re done making a fool of yourself, your five minutes begin now.”

  Chapter 17

  Something warm was nuzzling Belinda’s neck, she tried to stretch, but the hard press of someone’s chest pinned her to the bed. Slowly, Bells opened her eyes to see Royce poised over her, his lazy gaze was playful and sexy. Dipping his head to hers he slowly traced her face with the tip of his nose. He was being playful, something she was used to. Waking up in his arms was strange, but not unwelcomed.

  “Good evening.”

  “Evening? All ready?” Bells asked. She was trying to stretch, but that brought her breast up into Royce’s rock hard chest. He didn’t have a single bit of hair on his chest. He was smooth there. She wanted to reach up and rub her entire body along his, but thought better of it. Ronin wasn’t in bed. The fact hadn’t escaped her notice. He hadn’t slept at all with them, and it hurt her feelings. More than she would have thought.

  “What’s with the long face?”

  Royce rested his body flush with hers and rolled them over, so she was on top.

  “Ronin. Did he not sleep at all?”

  She knew her face was giving away a little bit more than it should have. He could have stayed, he didn’t have to fuck and run. It made her feel used and unwanted. There is nothing serious between the three of you. Sex in any form was serious to her. She wasn’t accustomed to being frivolous with her body or her emotions. She didn’t like the turn of events. He’d admitted to feeling what she had. It had been deep and intense. There was no way to disguise their connection. So why wasn’t he here with her too?

  “He’s not one to cuddle. But I,” Royce smiled and kissed the side of her neck. “I’m a total snuggle bunny.”

  He tried to make her laugh. It wasn’t going to work. Exasperated and a little hurt she reached a leg over Royce and pulled herself out of bed searching for her clothes. Her eyes burned with tears. Anger made her hands shaky as she reached for her shorts and forcefully shoved her legs through. This is what happens when you take on more than you can chew. Well she wasn’t going to let it happen again.

  “It’s not a problem trust me.” Belinda said in a clipped tone. She said it out loud to reinforce her thoughts.

  She found her stretched out tank top discarded towards the end of the bed and reached to put it on when Royce’s hand came down lightly on her shoulders, pulling her into his chest.

  “Bells, don’ be difficult. It’s going to take him some time.” Royce whispered softly against her shoulder.

  Bells tugged out of his hold and walked over to the door. When she cracked it open, she could hear the sounds of some music channel playing a blues song. She’d heard the song a thousand times and loved the Thomas King version better. Whoever was playing, added more soul and emotion to it. The sound lulled and soothed her heart in a way music never had before. It was almost as if the guitarist could feel her pain.

  She shook the thoughts from her head and stepped over the threshold of the room she’d shared not that long ago with Ronin and Royce. It had been beautiful and terrifying all in the same moment, she still took that chance. She knew somehow it end up this way, a bigger part of her had hoped it wouldn’t. But it had, and there was nothing she could do about it. She wasn’t going to make it into some dramatic thing to expose her emotions even further. They still had an assignment to complete, and tomorrow they were going to her Enclave where she’d have to face Surelle and her brother Solon.

  “I’m going to hop in the shower, I just need some time Royce.” She whispered over her shoulder as she shut the bedroom door. She didn’t want to turn and look at him or the rumpled sheets. Didn’t want to be reminded of something she realized she’d been missing. The connection the three of them shared was infinitely deeper than anything she could have ever thought possible. She’d wanted to go so much further than they’d taken her tonight, but somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew it wasn’t something that she could do. Not with them, not with everything that was going on.

  She was thankful Royce didn’t try to stop her and make the situation lighter than what it was. Finding out you were in love with two men at the same time was way too much for one single woman to handle.

  The funny thing about males, no matter if they were human or immortal, they hurt you, caused way too much drama, and were big ass babies the moment they thought a female was clingy. Ronin hadn’t even deemed it necessary to stay for some cuddle time. Cuddle time? It wasn’t clingy, nor was it whiny. She’d actually expected Royce to leave and for Ronin to stay. He’d seemed like the one who’d have commitment issues. Not Ronin.

  Bells reached into the shower stall and turned on the spray. She thought about everything that happened between her and the two exceedingly virile men that were presently out in the living area watching the television. She hadn’t taken care of Royce, but he’d taken care of her. He’d had been gentle, serious and caring all at the same time. If anything, she’d expected some snarky comments during their interlude. Not the dark sensual manner of a man that had a way to turn the crassest words into something so sexy, she’d turned to liquid. When she looked into his eyes she’d seen something sinister lurking just beneath the surface. She couldn’t place what he made her feel. Her emotions were jumbled. His amber gaze showed anticipation, mixed with desire. Her reaction had scared the shit out of her. Somehow, the tables had been turned. She was used to being weary of Ronin, now she wondered if somehow she’d gotten their personalities mixed up.

  It was Royce she needed to be weary of. Ronin was tame. His dark hunger had clashed with his slow, lazy demeanor, and she’d expected to be ravished, claimed. He’d taken her slowly, building her orgasm to the highest peak and crashing her down with slow, even strokes of his cock. Royce, had watched her, waited while his brother had fucked her slowly. He’d held her the entire time. He whispered things in her ear that she’d never dared to say out loud. Her body shivered at the memory. She wasn’t going to get worked up over something that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. After tomorrow everything would change anyway.

  Belinda stepped into the warm spray letting the warmth of the water calm her over analyzing brain. She wasn’t going to think about the incident in the bedroom. It hurt her more. Her body relaxed as the water cascaded over all the aches and pains her body sustained from Ronin’s lovemaking. She looked over her shoulder at her living tattoo and smiled. She wasn’t the only one affected by their actions. Royce’s tongue touched every inch of her tattoo. Her bird’s wings were now open, and spread wide hugging her back in a loving embrace. Bells placed her forehead on the cold tile and moved her hair over her shoulders so that she could let the water fully hit her back. She reached back with her hand seeking the shower gel when she touched a hard, wet chest. She hadn’t even heard him come in. When she spun around there stood Royce. Everything about him looked calm, everything except for the storm raging behind his eyes and the hard press of his flesh against her hip bone.

  This is why she’d gotten up from the bed. This is what she was trying to escape. Sometime between then and now, he’d decided that she was ready, ready f
or him. Ready for the real him.

  # # #

  There were plenty of reasons why this was not a bright idea, and normally he’d listen. What the hell are you babbling about, you never listen to your own wisdom. True, there was that. He’d gone into the living room with the intention of beating the crap out of his older sibling for hurting Bells’ feelings. That was the plan, but when he’d walked in on his brother sitting on the couch playing his guitar and belting out some blues song, he hadn’t wanted to interrupt. Which was never a true Royce thing to do. They were both reeling from their encounter with her. She was theirs, and that was fucking amazing. Which was why he now found himself in the shower, hard as hell and ready to put dents in the shower walls with her beautiful body. It could get that violent. His dominant hungers hadn’t run this deep in well, like forever, and he didn’t want to scare her off, by asking her to drop to her knees and attach her beautiful mouth to his cock. He could, and if she were any other woman he’d be able to get away with demanding her submission, but Belinda changed all the rules.

  The question he needed to ask himself was, should he let her? Ronin was always the less dominant lover of the two of them. He usually did all the clean-up and the caring, but somehow the roles had been switched. Royce wasn’t going to intrude on his brother’s time, not now anyway. There was a hot, wet, beautiful bird he’d been dying to get into. Literally.

  “Fancy seeing you here.” He opted for sarcasm because everything else was too damned serious right now. He didn’t want her to know how much she’d affected him.

  “There’s the Royce we all know and love to ignore.”

  Belinda gave him her back, and that was fine, only her bird was no longer visible. The tattoo had changed. It shielded itself behind wings of fire and appeared to be, sleeping? Living tattoos?

  “Your bird is sleeping,” was all he could say.

  “She’s tired. The two of you have worn her out, and she needs to rest.”

  “Does she have a name?” Reasonable question to ask. Wasn’t it?

  “She does, it's Bena.”

  Why was he making small talk in the shower? He was ready to do severe orgasmic damage to her body. Stop being cocky. The atmosphere in the shower was slowly simmering down to where become awkward. He didn’t do awkward. Ever. He needed to be serious about this, couldn’t fuck this up. Everything else he could be stupid about, but not in this.

  Royce reached over her shoulder and gently placed his fingers under her chin. He tugged on her slowly, trying to coax her to face him again. When she didn’t hesitate, he threw a silent prayer of thanks to his Goddess. She was tall but shorter than him. She only came to his shoulder. They’d started down a path where there were no winding roads, and no hidden doors. It was just one straight shot to an inevitable ending. Him inside of her. She still wasn’t ready yet, for what he had in mind. The shower wasn’t large enough to accommodate them anyway, but he’d make the best of the situation.

  He bent his head forward but stopped midway. He wanted her to follow his lead, meet him halfway. If she were willing to go the short distance to him, then he could take her the rest of the way. She was hesitant at first. Violet eyes meet his hesitantly. She must have seen something there that coaxed her the rest of the way. Whatever his expression showed, he didn’t care. He was glad her soft, warm lips were now touching his. He leisurely kissed her at first, a light firm brushing of his mouth against hers. He wanted her to be sure this was something she wanted. Something she needed just as much as he did. What he wasn’t prepared for was her sudden hunger and urgency that crushed him to her when she wound her arms around his neck. He’d tried to for calm and collected, but the kiss had spun out of control sending a rush of sensation that wrapped around his cock and squeezed.

  “Dammit,” he breathed against her mouth. “Give me a moment to catch up.

  She threw her head back and laughed exposing her throat. The moment had come and gone. But Royce didn’t waste any more time. He kissed the beautiful column of her neck, sucking on the wet skin as his arms held her tighter. Their bodies were wet and slick. The water hot and soothing. Still, he held tighter to her, afraid that she would slip away. She was moaning again, and the frantic beat of her heart against his chest made him want inside her more.

  “Wrap your legs around me.” He said against her neck, taking his fangs and scrapping them down her throat. Neither he nor his brother had tasted her blood, and he couldn’t wait until she agreed. He wanted to bite deep into her flesh. Any part of her body would do at this point. Her legs came up in a rush and tangle as she repeatedly attempted to wrap her legs around him. They almost fell to the floor, but Royce kept a tight grip on her waist and braced his legs further apart. They were laughing by the time she was no longer squirming in his arms.

  “There, that’s better.”

  She’d wiggled until his cock was in between her thighs. He was right where he wanted to be. Right next to the hot moist depths of her pussy. Bells started nibbling on his ear. That was one of his erotic spots. There was something about a woman nibbling on his ear that was more than sexy to Royce. It always gave him the chills.

  “That’s my spot sweetheart.” He groaned against her skin.

  Her breasts were in perfect position for him to have fun with her. He dipped his head and took one of her nipples into his mouth and sucked hard. She cried out and released his ear. Her breath hitched as she returned to his ear, only to bit harder. They were touching, kissing and making out like two teenagers starved for sex. The plan was simple, shower, sex, shower again, and then more sex. But seeing her, wet, eyes wide with want, and shivering under his touch, turned him inside out. He was the aggressor, never the other way around. She was anomaly. How did the seducee become the seducer?

  # # #

  There were a few things a girl could die from and go to the afterlife supremely happy. Death by orgasm was undoubtedly the way to go. Damn. Royce was fiiinneee, and that was putting it mildly. His muscles flexed and rolled with each breath he took as water sluiced down his back. She hadn’t expected to be this attracted to him. Hadn’t expected him to launch his sensual attack in the shower either. Bells hadn’t expected anything from either of them after their time together.

  “Sweet, sweet, merciful Goddess,” Royce said against her shoulder as the heat from the water kissed their skin. She pulled herself up and slowly eased down the hard length of his cock. They both hissed in to the other’s skin, Royce bit her shoulder, and she’d buried he face in his neck.

  “Don’t move,” Royce growled. “Don’t fucking do it princess.” His arms tightened around her waist while his body tensed beneath her. Belinda couldn’t control the sudden spasming of her walls as she felt him swell further inside her.

  “Fuuucck! Are you trying to end this early?”

  Smiling into his neck she gripped his length again.

  “Oh, I have no doubt that you will finish what you started. I’m ready when you’re ready.” He stretched her, burned her with pleasure. Short bursts of air left her rapidly. They hadn’t moved. Yet, she already felt like she’d run a marathon. She didn’t want to move, couldn’t she was too full, too filled. She swore she could feel him in her soul.

  His hands gripped her waist in a death grip. For the longest time, the only thing they did was stare at one another. Chest to chest, heart to heart, skin to skin, their emotions ignited the air with a power punch of desire. Bells could feel the passion Royce was throwing off. She knew her response was just the same. Amber eyes naked with need made his intentions all too clear. He wanted to own her.

  Their face were only a whisper of a kiss apart. The moment was intimate and alive. Royce freely offered himself with no hesitation. His eyes caused an already increasing warmth to burn brighter, longer, and hotter as his gaze scorched her skin.

  “What are we doing Royce?” Bells whispered. She placed her forehead against his as his arms tightened around her, and his eyes closed on a deep sigh. His voice tortured and raw as
he answered.

  “Loving each other.”

  Very slowly he lifted her up the length of his cock and slowly pulled her back down.

  She could feel every ridge of his erection as it slid in and out of her heat. Sweet, bliss filled agony massaged her insides past the point of pleasure. Unending ecstasy had her entire body vibrating as Royce’s cock continued to work her slowly. The sound of water and their heavy breathing echoed in the space of the bathroom as they connected in the middle.

  He’d been gentle with her, careful. Each stroke of his cock had her eyes rolling in the back of her head. Amber pools of heat met her gaze when she finally opened her eyes. Royce was a man with dark secrets, and as their eyes made love, he let her see just how dark he was. He hid nothing. Man and beast had somehow made a united decision to their treatment of her. Whether or not they agreed she was on board, she never got the chance to find out. Royce began to thrust with purpose and power. He angled his hips to make contact with her clit, pushing into her relentlessly until she became pliant in his arms.

  “More!” She said against his lips. Lips that he pulled away from her so he could release an animals’ snarl. Her orgasm was fast approaching.

  He slowed for all of a few short seconds, stumbled forward smashing her against the cold tile wall. It took the breath from her lungs. Royce pulled her legs from around his waist, and hooked them into the crooks of his elbows, stretching her open. The feel of her being spread and still stuffed full of him filled her throat with a moan that escaped as her head dropped onto his shoulder. The thick stalk of his cock stretched her, nerve endings were being tested to their limits bringing carnal gratification to every part of her being. She ached everywhere. There wasn’t a part of her body left untouched by his loving.

  “Damn. I could fuck you every day of my life, and it still wouldn’t be enough for me.” Slowly he pulled his cock from her entrance dragging his head over sensitive flesh. His head dropped between them, and he slowly pushed back in watching the action with heated interest.