She reached for her glass of water and headed to the stairs that would take her up to her bedroom on the third floor of her house. The only thing she really hated about living in New Orleans was that you couldn't have a basement, which was much safer than an upstairs bedroom. Unfortunately the sea level here was such that a basement would flood constantly. Since she lived alone, if a fire or hurricane struck, she'd be at its mercy.
For that reason most Dark-Hunters had a human Squire who stayed in their house as a personal secretary and guardian during the day.
Sam didn't.
You should have let Dev stay with you.
That would have been a mistake in more ways than one. Plus she didn't know if his shield--whatever it was--would hold the same if she was asleep. Since the moment she'd become a Dark-Hunter, she couldn't allow anyone near her while she slept. Once she was unconscious, she had no way to block them. Her dreams tangled with their thoughts and she'd spend a restless day seeing and hearing everything they did.
She'd tried once to have a pet dog and then a cat, but their thoughts were even stranger than the humans'. So she was relegated to eternal solitude. Not that it mattered. After all these centuries, she was used to it.
At least that's what she told herself.
Yawning again, she entered her room and dropped her robe. A few hours of sleep and she'd be as good as new.
And if that damn bird that kept thinking about eating worms parked its butt on her windowsill again today while she was sleeping, she was going to shoot it even if it did flood sunlight into her room.
Dev woke up with a start. His heart pounding, he used his heightened hearing to listen carefully and see what had awakened him. He heard Aimee's soft snore from her room down the hall. The normal house activity of the day crew working...
Nothing out of the ordinary. Just another typical day.
After one hell of an incredible morning that had ended with him getting mentally bitch-slapped at the end.
Not wanting to think about that, he turned to look at the clock. It was just after two P.M. He cursed. He'd only had three hours of sleep.
Go back to bed.
He rolled over and closed his eyes. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't manage to go back to sleep. Worse, he was being haunted by the scent of a certain Amazon frustration.
"What is wrong with me?"
Sam had made it clear that she was done with him. Her play toy had been shoved back in the drawer and she didn't want to see it again. And yet he couldn't get the thought of her out of his head.
She's aggravating. Frustrating. Off-limits.
And sexy as hell.
I should never have imagined her naked.... Never gone to her house and spent the best damned morning of my life with her.
That was like willing himself not to breathe. Some things a guy just did automatically and when a woman like her offered him a full morning of rampant sex, he took her up on it.
Groaning, he pulled the pillow out from under his head and laid it over his face. Go back to sleep.
Screw it, suffocate yourself.
At least then he'd be out of his misery.
But it was useless. He couldn't do either one. He was up. Fully awake. So was his cock.... Damn it to hell. He'd be cranky as all get out for the rest of the day and night.
There was nothing he could do. His body refused to doze back off.
It was still thrumming from the incredible sex he'd had, the charge to his powers, and an insatiable desire to repeat what they'd done all morning. He was lucky he'd been able to go to sleep the first time.
Now...
Useless.
Disgusted, he got up and went to the bathroom to get dressed and try to put some sanity in his brain.
When have you ever been sane?
Well, there was that....
It didn't take long to shower, shave, and dress. He went downstairs to find his identical brother Quinn in the kitchen, bitching about Remi from the night before. It was a familiar sound and a rant he'd had a time or two himself.
Dev gave him a lopsided grin. "You know, I could put him down while he's sleeping if it'll make you feel better."
Laughing, Quinn set his armload of dishes next to the sink. "Don't tempt me. Not like I didn't have the same thought myself. Worthless bastard."
Dev stopped next to the sink. "What'd he do?"
"Screwed up the paperwork from last night again." Quinn growled low in his throat. "How can he not read a register receipt after all these years? I swear to the gods...Maman would have a stroke if she saw it."
They both went silent as those words hung between them and they were faced with the reality that their mother would never have a fit about anything ever again.
Gah, when would that pain stop hurting so much? It was only second to the guilt he had over not having protected his parents. Had he been quicker on the draw, he might have saved his mother's life.
Shoving that useless regret aside, Dev twisted his hand in the chin strap of the helmet he was holding. "Let Aimee sort it out. She's better at that than us anyway."
"I'll tell her you said that."
Quinn probably would too, and Aimee would be highly offended even though Dev meant nothing by it, other than she had more business sense than the rest of them. Women. They were always getting pissed off over nothing.