“You remember that time I walked in on you and Caleb?” Wesley murmured, leaving my lips and kissing down my neck. Pushing up my borrowed sweatshirt, his hands smoothed up the sides of my rib cage until he reached my bra. It had only been a little blood splattered and I’d been able to rinse it out during my shower at Master Yoshi’s apartment, but now that I’d been sleeping in it for god knows how long, it was uncomfortable as shit.
“Um, yeah?” I gasped as his teeth scraped down the curve of my neck, and I ground my hips into his a little harder.
“You have no idea how badly I wanted to swap places with him. It’s all I’ve been able to think about for the last week.” He sucked a little patch of skin into his mouth, sending tingling shivers racing through me even though I knew it was leaving a mark. “And then when River interrupted us...”
“He’s got a talent for that,” I chuckled. As frustrating as it had been for River to interrupt my first real makeout with Wes, I also freaking loved when River was watching me. Fucking Christ, I was turning into a nympho.
Wesley pushed my sweatshirt up further, and I stripped it off, leaving me in my bra and borrowed sweatpants while half lying on top of Wesley, who wore nothing but a pair of tightly straining boxer briefs. My hands ran down his smooth chest, tingling with magic everywhere we touched, and he made a low noise of encouragement as my hands slid over his surprisingly toned stomach.
“You kill me, sweetheart,” he muttered, flicking the clasp of my bra open and tossing the garment aside.
“How so?” I replied, meeting his eyes with a flirty grin.
“Because,” he replied, cupping my breasts in his hands and eliciting a breathy gasp from me, “I was supposed to let the others know as soon as you woke up.”
“Mmm, so? We could still be sleeping.” I moaned a little as his fingers rolled my nipples and my belly quivered.
“Except you’re not.” Austin’s voice snapped somewhere in the direction of the door, and I froze.
Surely I was imagining that. Our luck couldn’t be that bad.
“The dragon can hear you, so everyone knows you’re awake.” Austin’s voice wasn’t going away, despite my mental prayers that it would, and Wesley’s annoyed face confirmed it for me. I wasn’t imagining things. God fucking dammit!
“Seriously, Austin?” I snarled, looking over my shoulder at him leaning on my doorframe. “You couldn’t have just given us a few minutes of privacy?”
“No. I couldn’t. Move it into the living room; Alpha has news.” Austin held my angry glare, and my eyes narrowed. The earlier revelations of his and Caleb’s abilities to keep secrets had not escaped my memory, and seeing his dickish face was bringing that anger right back to the surface.
“Sorry, sweetheart,” Wes whispered. “I should have stopped sooner.” His hands were still closed over my breasts, hiding them from the view of our surly team member who seemed to have no qualms about maintaining my modesty. Well, fuck him, then.
“Not your fault, Wes.” I leaned back down and kissed him soundly. “To be continued... again.”
Swinging my leg over him, I very deliberately got out of bed on the side that was facing Austin, and planted my hands on my hips.
“A little privacy to get dressed, if you don’t mind?” I arched a brow at him, fully aware that I was being a brat, given my naked breasts were out and proud and my borrowed pants were riding dangerously low on my hips.
Austin’s burning gaze dipped to the exposed skin of my body, and for a tense moment, no one spoke.
“Aus, stop being an asshole,” Wesley muttered from the mess of bedding. “Just fucking leave, and we will be out in a sec.”
Austin took his sweet ass time returning his gaze to my face, and when he did, it was with an odd, almost pained expression. “Fine. Two minutes.”
He turned and left the room but didn’t bother closing the door behind himself. Asshole.
“Okay, let me get this straight,” I processed the information aloud. “The ring that Vic told Vali about, the one that all Ban Dia require in order to access and control their powers, that ring... you’re saying that Mr. Gray has it?”
We were in the living room, clothed this time, and Caleb had just handed me a coffee in my fox mug. Cole had been filling us in on his trip to visit Suzette while I’d been passed out and recharging with Wesley. Turned out I’d been out for most of a day, which was a little shocking that I’d slept so long but, on the other hand, encouraging to see I could recharge my magic without needing full sex with my guardians every time I healed someone. Not that it wasn’t fun, don’t get me wrong; I was the first one to put my hand up for it, magic or not. But it wasn’t always convenient, as proven by the bloody scene in Yoshi’s apartment and the awkward—and hot as hell—forced makeout session with Austin.
“We do have progress on that aspect, though. Wesley was about to verify the truth of that information for us so we wouldn’t be chasing our tails,” River advised, nodding to Wesley.
“Ah yeah.” He blushed adorably. “You were asleep for a really long time, so I did some laptop research from bed. I kept skin contact with you the whole time, though.”
“I’m impressed.” I grinned, the first time I’d smiled at anything since Cole had begun telling me about his day. Dredging up those memories of Suzette and Mr Gray... everything that had gone on in that house of horrors while Mr Gray played out his sick, sadistic fantasies on my damned immortal body... If I could work out what magic had erased my memories of my life prior to seven years old, I’d have done it again to rid me of those years too.
“Well, I found this.” He pulled up an image on his laptop and turned it to me. “Does that look like the ring you remember?” I needed a closer look, so I took the computer from him and double-clicked to bring it up larger. The image itself was of Gray’s wife, Amelia, but what interested me in the picture was her hand. Sure enough, when I expanded the image and zoomed in, the familiar blue-stoned ring sat on her right hand.
“Yeah, that’s it for sure.” I paused, staring at the image. “Well, I mean not for sure. I was only a kid and my memories of it are mostly from Suzette hitting me with it, but I’m relatively sure that’s it. How old is this image?”
“Recent,” Wesley replied, with a proud sort of look on his face. “It’s from about two months ago, so it’s fairly likely it’s still in her possession.”
“Kitten, you said you have broken into Gray’s penthouse on a couple of occasions, just to scare him a bit?” River asked, and I nodded.
“Yeah, but that was before all this shit started happening with Blood Moon and the shifters. If he hasn’t tightened up security and moved, I’d be fucking dumbfounded.” I chewed the edge of my lip, looking back at the image again. “Also, I’m pretty sure Amelia had her own place. Her shit was never there when I broke into Gray’s apartment, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were just keeping up appearances for media.”
“You’re right; that seems in keeping with their public presence.” River pondered this as Wesley tapped away on his keyboard. “Wes, keep searching, see what you can come up with on Amelia Liath.”
“Yes, sir,” Wesley muttered, already engrossed in his work and not sparing a glance up at us.