Page 24 of Bottoms Up (Mythic Beast #4)

Julian

I hadn’t understood how going on vacation was going to fix anything, but Silver and Marco had been right.

The change in location helped, but even more, just the energy of me and Silver without anyone else around changed everything .

I can’t explain how it changed things, but we were us again.

The energy of lovers, rather than owner and owned.

Marco is friends with the Master of New Orleans and got us an invitation to visit as tourists.

Our first stop was an ancient mansion in the Garden District, where Augustus and Blaze met with us personally, and I gave the Master Vampire the bottle of expensive whiskey Marco had asked someone to bring to me from our gifting storage area.

We were only with the Master Vampire and slayer around fifteen minutes, and then our driver took us to the French Quarter, to one of those old historic mansions that’ve been turned into a museum.

It isn’t a B&B or a hotel, but there are sunproof vampire rooms for rent, and staying here put us in the heart of party central.

We were just here for one night, though, and Silver got completely and totally drunk.

It was a lot of fun, going from bar to bar, playing with the musicians, dancing with strangers.

She looked totally different than she does on stage when she’s a girl, her hair in a ponytail, makeup done all cutesy rather than chic rocker-girl, but I still worried someone might recognize her. Thankfully, no one did.

When I got her back to our tiny little underground room, she face-planted onto the bed and crashed.

It was after three in the morning, so once I got her under the covers with a bottled water and her salt solution on the table beside her, I played video games a couple of hours before I locked myself into the hidey-hole before the sun took me.

When I rose, I found a note that she’d gone out exploring and to text her when I woke.

I’m up. I hope you’re safe.

Completely safe. I had a killer hangover this morning so I went out for food and aspirin, then decided to explore some of these old buildings, so I dropped by the room to leave you a note.

I wish we had longer here but I don’t want to miss the show in Vegas tonight.

I’m finishing up this tour and then I’ll head back

No, stay out and explore the city. No need for both of us to be trapped in this tiny little room.

I’ll grab some food before I head in. You need or want anything?

Just Silver, but I didn’t want to rush her, so I texted, I’m good, and I’m happy you’re enjoying yoursel f .

She returned nearly an hour later, loaded down with food. She ate and talked, and showed me pictures on her phone of the places she’d been, along with the stories the tour guides had told. We left as soon as the sun went down, headed for the airport, and climbed onto Heather’s plane.

“N’awlins and Vegas,” Heather said with a smile. “What a fun vacation. Did you do any ghost tours?”

“I did a haunted museum thing,” Silver told her. “Creepy, but I don’t know about haunted.”

We chatted the whole way to Vegas, and then said our goodbyes when she dropped us off at the airport before returning to Chattanooga to her men.

“One of her men is my therapist,” Julian told me on the walk from the plane to the limo.

“Yeah, but Kirsten assures me he won’t have talked to Heather about us.”

“I didn’t figure he would, but it’s still a little weird.”

I wanted to steer away from difficult subjects, so I said, “I’m looking forward to spending time with Lauren, Gavin, and Nick.” I see them when they visit Homewood, but it would be good to spend time with them in their city — to see where they live, meet their people.

He nodded. “I have a gift Kirsten gave me, something appropriate to give Gavin as a gift — a framed picture of Lauren as a child, before Kirsten adopted her.”

“And you gave expensive whiskey to Augustus. Does Marco get gifts from all the vampires who visit Chattanooga?”

“He has someone who acts as host to them, or he’d never get anything done, but yeah, there’s a storage area with all the gifts Marco doesn’t want.

It’s where I got the whiskey to give Augustus.

Really important people, Marco has to make time to greet them and sometimes spend an evening with them.

Augustus is more of a friend, so Marco sees him personally. ”

“Which means Augustus and Blaze had to see us personally?”

“Oh, no. They saw us because Blaze wanted to meet you. Had nothing to do with me.”

The limo pulled us up to the front of an impressive building, a palace indeed.

A doorman opened our door, and Lauren greeted us.

“Welcome to Vegas, and to the Universal Palace Hotel and Casino. It’ll be easiest for us to go straight to the theater from here.

I have your room keys I can give you now, and I’ve assigned a bellhop I trust to get your bags to your room. ”

“Of course,” I told her. We climbed out of our car, watched as a bellhop piled our bags on a cart, and then followed Lauren to another limo.

Once we were all inside and moving, Lauren said, “Sorry to have to rush like that. I thought we’d have thirty minutes to get you settled before we had to leave for the theater, but I’m told the talent is being a diva.

Not the first time I’ve had to intervene for the traveling tours.

” She glanced at Silver. “Present company not included. Your team was mega professional.”

“Good to hear, but I have absolutely nothing to do with that. Will and his people handle all the organizing. I just have to show up and play guitar.”

“We all know there’s more to it than that,” I said.

“We do,” Lauren said. “Security will get you to our private box. Gavin will try to show up sometime during the latter part of the show. Nick is dealing with a problem in Laughlin, and he isn’t likely to be back in time.

I should be with you for the start of the show, but if I’m not, it shouldn’t be long after the start. ”

As promised, we were taken to a luxurious box, hanging from the balcony, dead center of the stage. Plush chairs, floor-length curtains, cold drinks already waiting. I sat in one of the chairs, and Silver curled into my lap, facing me, her legs tucked around mine like she used to. Before .

“Serious talk?”

I nodded, bracing.

“Other than both of us playing with Billy when you fed before we left, we haven’t had sex since your test — I mean, not with each other.”

No, because I’d ordered him to go down on her while I’d fucked his ass, and told him he wasn’t getting relief until she’d had seven orgasms, and if he didn’t do a good enough job, he wouldn’t be allowed to orgasm at all.

I’d taken charge of Billy, and I’d seen to Silver’s pleasure, but I hadn’t taken charge of Silver yet, not since I was free. My own man. It had to happen, and the sooner the better, but it hadn’t felt right, yet, when we were home.

And now, even with the oath behind me and more power than I’d expected pulsing through my veins, something still felt fragile. Like we were waiting for the moment to click back into place — except the moment kept not coming .

“We weren’t exactly in bed together in the nights leading up to us leaving, and then I thought it might happen in New Orleans,” I told her, trying to figure out how to explain without it sounding like an excuse.

“I even thought you might be getting tipsy to help things along, but then you got completely drunk and passed out, which was fine — I had a blast with you last night, exploring at least half the bars in the French Quarter.”

I kissed her forehead. “We needed that, last night. Bonding and having fun together.”

She leaned into me, her head on my chest. “It’s possible I did that to sidestep the awkwardness. Maybe. I don’t know. I didn’t think so at the time, but if I was still seeing a therapist, that’s what they’d probably say.”

I rubbed her back. Kissed the top of her head. “So what do we do to keep it from being awkward?” Because she wouldn’t have brought it up if she didn’t have a solution. I know my Silver.

“I asked Lauren, earlier, if we could have the use of one of their dungeon rooms. She said we could use the playroom on the top floor, in their private area. I propose we use it with the same rules we did… before . So I take my clothes off right inside the door, and you’re in control until we leave the room.

Same rules we had before Marco changed the rules on it. ”

I considered our best option. Being in charge meant directing the scene.

Making all decisions within our agreed-upon rules.

“If I’m in charge, I want to possibly include someone else.

Gavin’s sending me someone to drink from when we return, and he was clear he’s offering him for a feed-and-fuck with the traditional European rules, meaning torture and such is fine so long as he’s returned to Gavin healthy.

I understand the young man is a jaguar shifter, so we’ll just have to put him through a few changes before we return him.

I propose you flog him while I feed from him, and then we blindfold him while he’s horny as fuck, so you and I can have our fun before we bring him back into it. ”

She sat up and smiled, and I could see and scent her relief. She’d needed to know I could take control again.

“Yeah, okay. That works. Is he part of the flock, or a slave?”

“Neither. He’s part of their security team, ex-military. Gavin says he’ll be assigned to us during the day tomorrow as our close security.”

She frowned. “He can loan his security out?”

“Special arrangement with this particular guy, who apparently needs pain. He’s an alpha sort, not submissive, but he’ll submit to a certain extent sexually if it means pain.”

She leaned into me again, rested her head on my shoulder, and I stroked her back.