Page 84 of Absolution

“Do you remember any of it?”

I thought for a few minutes. “Maybe.”

“We’ll keep working on it.”

“I’d like to work you out of that suit,” I told him honestly after the last group got out of the elevator and we were finally headed down to the parking garage.

Luca threw me a sexy grin. “That can be arranged.” He’d kept himself clean-shaven, which while making him look several years younger, just did crazy things to my dick every time I saw him.

“Con won’t be home until after three,” I reminded him. Con was working until close at the bar tonight, which meant two a.m. and then cleanup. Since it was just after eleven p.m., that left us some time before our third could join us.

“I’m sure he won’t mind us starting without him. He’ll join us when he gets home.”

I still hesitated to spend time alone with Luca. It was odd, because of the two, he was more indestructible than Con. The whole getting shot and healing in less than a week thing proved that. However, I wasn’t tempted to throw Con up against a wall and fuck him through it. Con and I together were more slow exploration until we were both about to pop. Romance some might call it, though I hated the term. What I felt for Luca wasn’t so much romance, but full on lust. I really liked him. Like panicked at the thought of him going anywhere,likedhim. Con told me it was love, but the whole love thing still had me confused. Philosophy bullshit in my opinion. Luca was mine just as much as Con was mine, and that was all that mattered. I wanted both of them badly in very different ways. It didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy slow kisses and exploration with Luca, or rough grips and a bit of teeth with Con, but more a mix of the two. What I wanted from Luca came more from the vampire side. A sense of ownership I didn’t feel I had a right to. It was very visceral and related a little to the fact that I was feeding from him regularly.

Territorial, Luca reminded me when I got bitchy about Max’s other vamps looking at him like he was dessert. He experienced the same thing. My caveman attitude over him had taken several blood exchanges to develop. And while it was no longer specifically related to the feeding, it bothered me a little that it was related to blood at all.

Luca’s strength made my masochistic and sadistic sides come out. I liked to manhandle him, liked when his grip bruised me, or if occasionally my claws came out to mark his beautiful skin. We hadn’t done more than hand jobs or blow jobs between the three of us. That was my fault. More old baggage I tried to pretend didn’t exist.

“Isn’t there work stuff we should do?” I tried to get my mind off the idea of having Luca naked and all to myself.

“Nah, my stuff is done from noon to midnight. It’s easier when I have calls to make. Most of the businesses are normal human businesses run during daylight hours. A handful are overseas which is why I’m working so late most times. I’ll go over the computer and handbook stuff tomorrow.”

Each of us had been given a laptop, a fancy phone, a black diamond credit card—to be used for business expenses only—and a handbook of rules and guidelines expected from employees who represented the company. In our case, not so much the company, but my bonded sire, Maxwell Hart.

I was also being handed a bunch of contracts, in Chinese, to review. That was going to suck. Because not only did I hate reading, but my reading of Chinese was pretty rusty. I hoped it came back like riding a bike.

“We should stop in and check on Seiran.” He’d been pretty quiet all week. Back to work, with his mother, Kelly, Jamie, Bryar, and even me on rotation to watch the twins. When Luca and I had headed to the meeting earlier he’d been spread out in the second floor family room, which we hadn’t noticed before, twins playing on a blanket on the floor, and papers of some new mystery from his job as an investigator for the Dominion, spread out around him. He didn’t seem happy, but also not completely broken. I just worried about him.

“Do you not want to be alone with me?” Luca asked.

“Not at all. I have visions of throwing you against the wall, but worry about the property damage and a pissed off witch.”

Luca laughed. “So much snark. I mean it, though.”

“Mean what?” I played dumb.

“Do you not want to be alone with me?”

“I just said I did.”

“You can throw me against a wall anytime. I’ll pay for any property damage.”

I just grunted. Stupid insecurity.

“Do you need to fight?”

I didn’t, and wasn’t that sad? ‘Cause fighting with Luca was hot, sexy, and a super turn-on, but I was as calm as I’d ever been. “No.”

“So what’s wrong?”

“I’ll blow you when we get home,” I offered. I was getting better at that.

“I want you to fuck me.”

Just the idea of that made me hard, and terrified all at once.

“Do you not want to fuck me?”