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“You know. Pretty awful.” I swallowed thickly. “But I can’t mope around in bed all day. Not with the Frankfords attacking us like this. Have you heard any news about your dad?”
Ky nodded. “They had to bandage him up pretty good, but he’s coming home with my mom this afternoon. Seth and I will go see them, but we’ll come back here to sleep. All of us want to be here any way you need us.”
They’d said as much last night, but it loosened a fragment of the tension in my chest hearing it again.
“I don’t know what to do,” I said. “I don’t know how to protect everyone. We can’t just move all your parents and everything that matters to you on to the estate. I don’t even know how well I can protect all of the estate grounds… I can lay down spells over the main roads into town that should detect if anyone with magic crosses over. At least that would give us more warning that they’re up to something.”
“But really what we need is to shut the Frankfords and their people down,” Ky said.
“Yeah.” A brief flare of anger seared through me. If I could have just raced into Portland or wherever they were right now and burnedthemto the ground… But even as I pictured it, my fury faltered with an uneasy twist of my stomach.
I didn’t think I could have gotten away with doing that kind of violence anyway. The Frankfords would be protecting themselves as well as they could. Even making the attempt would probably get me arrested, and who knew what would happen to my consorts and the estate then?
But even if I could have gotten away with it, murdered them without consequence, it was thinking like that, acting like that, that had driven Gabriel away. Could I really blame him for not wanting to be with someone who’d contemplate cold-blooded murder? The real wonder was that the other guys were still here.
I squeezed my eyes shut tight against a fresh flood of tears. “Hey,” Ky murmured. He caressed my hair and kissed my temple. “Any moment I can spare, I’ll be working on this. I’ll go through all the files again. I’ll talk to the witches who came to you and see if they’ve thought of anything else they saw or heard that might help. I know I have to be missing something. Normally I’d have put together some kind of an idea by now.”
“I know how much time you’ve put into this,” I said. “If there’s anything you can figure out, you’ll get there. I’m sure of it.”
“But I want to be sure you’re okay too.” He stroked his hand over my hair to the crook of my jaw. I tipped back my head to seek out his lips.
We kissed long and slow, a tingle of pleasure spreading over my skin. My nipples pebbled where they brushed Ky’s bare chest. My spark fluttered, spreading warmth through my insides in turn.
“You know,” Ky murmured against my mouth, “it was fun playing a little rough last night. But that’s not the kind of lover I prefer to be.”
“Good,” I said softly. “Because I don’t think that’s the kind of lover I need right now anyway.”
He smiled and kissed me again, sure and gentle, his thumb grazing my cheek as if he were mapping the planes of my face. He eased down to mouth the tender skin of my throat, and my breath hitched. I tangled my fingers in his tawny curls as he dipped even lower, nibbling across my collarbone, following the curve of my breast until he could flick his tongue over the tip. I quivered, a whimper working itself from my throat.
He eased me onto my back as he suckled and fondled one side of my chest and then the other, until my nipples were stiff with delight and the rest of me squirming with desire. With a sly grin that suggested great plans, Ky drew farther back, kneeling over me. He kissed my stomach, my belly button, the hollow of my belly just beneath it. His hands slid down my panties and then traced up and down my thighs. I gave a murmur of encouragement and then a gasp as his mouth settled over my core.
My hips arched instinctively, seeking more of the hot sweet pressure of his lips. He swiveled his tongue around my clit until I was panting with the waves of pleasure that rolled through me. My fingers curled into the sheets. My eyelids fluttered, and my gaze caught on Ky’s erection jutting against the fabric of his boxers. Ready at attention with no one attending to him.
That wouldn’t do. I hooked one finger around his boxers and tugged. He moved his hips toward me, closer when I pulled again. I yanked his boxers down. He groaned with a hot rush of breath over my sex as I sucked the head of his cock into my mouth from below.
At my encouragement, he rocked over me, his lips and tongue having their way with me while his cock bobbed up and down, as deep into the back of my throat as I could take him. I lapped the salty musk from him and moaned as he suckled me harder. My hips started to buck in time with the movement of his mouth.
He dipped a finger inside me as he licked my clit, and that pressure tipped me over the edge. Bliss raced through me with a shudder. My lips clamped around his cock, and Ky came too, a flood of thick salty fluid shooting into my mouth. I swallowed it, coasting on my own quivers of pleasure as he groaned with his.
He kissed my sex one more time and then eased around to cuddle with me. The ache of loss still gripped my chest, but I could offer him a dreamily pleased smile.
“I don’t know why we’ve never triedthatbefore.”
His gray-green eyes gleamed. “Oh, I’m sure there are all sorts of experiments still ahead of us.”
As I nestled against him, an even sharper pang dug between my ribs. An uncertainty I couldn’t shake, even though I’d tried to reassure myself yesterday. I pushed myself back to look Ky in the eyes again.
“Tell me the truth,” I said. “Do you think I’ve gone too far? Was I too hard on Master Courtland yesterday?”
Ky wet his lips. “Rose… I don’t understand why Gabriel left, but I understand why he was worried. You have seemed angrier, and more ruthless, than I’m used to. Than I like seeing you have to be. But I’m not sure that youdon’thave to be that way right now. If you see other ways to fight these people, then I’d be happier, but if that’s the only way, then you have to fight. I’m not going to blame you for that. I promise. We’ve all talked—we all feel the same way.” His tone turned wry. “Well, other than Damon, who thinks it’s about time you got ruthless.”
I had to laugh even as a lump rose in my throat. It wasn’t as comforting an answer as I could have hoped for, but it was fair. I didn’t think I could stand to lose another of my consorts.
Maybe Gabriel had just been overwhelmed. Maybe he’d come back—today, even—and we could talk it out properly. He couldn’t have really meant what he’d said about Frankfords’ group being right to want to control my magic, could he?
I shouldn’t dwell on that question. Like I’d said to Ky earlier, there wasn’t time for moping around. After a brief cuddle longer, I got up to shower and get dressed.
I was halfway to the stairs to rejoin the others when my ringtone went off. My heart skipped a beat at the thought that it might be Gabriel. But the number was a Portland one I didn’t recognize. My spine stiffened as I answered it.
