Dashing Devil Omnibus 2: Books 4-6, page 87
Interestingly, her halo had shifted from a warm pink back to gold as the conversation wore on. She shifted in her special chair, crossing her legs under the short skirt of the white dress she wore as her wings resettled behind her.
“Sorry, honey-buns.” Silvie smiled at the embarrassed angel. “Maybe it was just the way you said it. If you explain it in more detail, I’m sure we’ll understand.”
Hope gave her silver-haired friend a suspicious look for a long moment before she nodded and turned back to Mindy. “I just want you to control my movements and do whatever you see in his thoughts that Boyd wants me to do. I imagine you use your Power to act on his whims regularly; I simply want your help so that I can do the same thing.”
She pursed her lips. “What I can sense from him over the Bond he shares with me gives me some idea of what he likes or doesn’t like, but it only works for the things I think of or he chooses to show me. I want to do the things he is too afraid to show me.”
Laura looked at Mindy to gauge her reaction.
The Mind Powered blinked her pretty purple eyes as a look of consideration crossed her features. “I think it was just because you used the term ‘puppet’ that caused me to balk, because that sounds fairly reasonable. To confirm, did you want me to shut your mind down and just use your body? Because that’s what puppeting is. What you described isn’t quite so extreme.”
“No!” The impure angel shook her head hard enough to set her golden locks dancing about her shoulders. “I want Boyd to still see me in my eyes when you’re doing it, and I want to feel everything… but I do want you to completely control my movements.”
The angel’s halo flickered through a few faint shades of pink before returning to gold.
Laura had been wondering about that halo. Why did it turn pink when Boyd was around? She had seen him sneak up to surprise Hope with a hug from behind or to pinch her rear; that man could be surprisingly quietly for having such a… solid frame. The trauma specialist had observed that the effect wasn’t proximity-based; Hope had to be aware Boyd was nearby for it to turn the warm pink that it did when he was near.
She wasn’t sure what its shifting between pink and gold meant in this case, though.
“Fuck, that sounds hot,” Raev purred, interrupting Laura’s musings. “Is that a you thing Hope, or can I get in on that action? Uh… when Mindy is ready to, of course,” she added quickly.
Laura had watched the poor vixen carefully pursue the goth for weeks. At times she would follow her instincts and push, then back off in fear that she had pushed too far. They both seemed to be having a lot of fun with it.
“I would be delighted if you also took up the practice!” Hope beamed a happy smile at the redhead.
The angel’s faint glow grew just a bit brighter, adding a barely perceptible level increase of light to the room.
“That way,” Hope continued, “Boyd will have someone else that fulfills his every desire. Honestly, I think all of us should do it—often! It’s the best way to learn what he likes most and once we learn what he really wants, Mindy won’t have to control us anymore.”
Raev’s ears twitched in amusement as she let out one of her velvet chuckles. She shook her head before responding. “We’ll be doing it for different reasons, then… but as long as you’re on board, I’ll take it as a win.”
“What do you mean?” Hope asked. The angel tilted her to the side in confusion.
Laura marveled at the innocence she maintained, even during this conversation.
“It just sounds damn hot to me.” Raev shrugged and her emerald eyes glazed over a bit as her tails swayed around her in a decidedly dreamy fashion. “It almost sounds like the ultimate form of when he or Silvie take a fistful of my hair and use my mouth to get him off. Or when he grabs my hips and starts rocking me into him the way he wants me to and things get all intense. Stuff like that really gets me going.”
“Oh, yes… like that, I suppose.” Hope agreed with a smile, though her shoulders drooped a little.
“Well, I think I can do what you are requesting.” Mindy brought the conversation back around full circle.
This brought Laura’s eyes back to her side of the circle. The goth straightened in her seat and pursed her lips before giving a small, though definite, nod of her head. It almost looked like she had come to a decision.
There was something different about her amethyst eyes; they had a specific cast to them that Laura had only seen in Boyd’s eyes before. When the gothic beauty spoke again, it was in a purr and with a slightly slower cadence—once again reminding the trauma specialist of a certain big, hunky demon.
“But it would require that you trust me to take control of you—now,” the Mind Powered said, “before Boyd can give you a glimpse into my soul. If I were wicked the way you fear that I am, I might do all sorts of awful things to you.”
Another round of pleasant feather fluttering filled the room as Hope’s wings shivered. The halo flickered pink and back to gold and she swallowed before replying. “I think… I think I can trust you enough for this.”
Laura wanted to laugh, but restrained the urge to do so because—unlike the angel—she did trust Mindy. From what she’d gathered, this whole conversation came about because Hope was afraid to let Mindy use her Power on her. But that fear went right out the window as soon as any application of said Power involved the potential of sex with Boyd.
Every woman in the room, including Laura, gave Hope a knowing look.
“I can give you what you want,” Mindy replied, the smooth purr still going. “But I’ll need you to prove that you can trust me.”
Laura glanced at Mindy and saw that she had shifted to plant her feet squarely on the floor. She had also shifted the set her shoulders in a bold, confident way that was oddly familiar—and one that Laura was used to seeing on a much broader frame.
“If you were to doubt me and fight back at the wrong time,” Mindy continued, “someone might get hurt. So before I do anything like what you suggested, you’ll need to show me that you can trust me. Otherwise, I won’t risk it.”
Another soft fluttering sound filled the room, this one lasting a few seconds as Hope’s halo shifted to a warm pink before fading back to gold.
“How?” the angel whispered. She was otherwise very still as she asked the simple question so softly it was almost a breath.
“Come here.” Mindy beckoned with a confident, lazy gesture.
The angel began to rise but then she froze. “Boyd isn’t here.”
“Kuh-he!” Mindy laughed. “Silv would cut me in half if she thought I started doing something to you,” the goth said. “She is almost as protective of you as Boyd is. She’ll keep you safe from me—if you still want her too.”
The sound of feathers rustling filled the space again. Gulping, the angel nodded.
“I just want to show you a hypothetical—what I think you are looking for from me so I can be sure to do it right. So, if you are willing to trust me… come here.” She beckoned again.
Hope glanced at Silvie.
The silver-haired bombshell gave her a knowing look, a thumbs up, and then replied sincerely, “I get why trusting her is tough for you, honey-buns. And I understand why—given how in the dark I kept you. But you can trust her. I promise.”
Hope nodded and rose smoothly from her chair, her eyes fixed on a very confident-looking Mindy. The angel brushed her dress against her hips and settled her wings before slowly crossing the center of the circle of chairs to stand in front of Mindy’s chair.
“Lean down.”
Mindy didn’t so much command as instruct. She looked up at Hope with a devilish smirk curling the edge of her lips. It signaled her complete control of the situation. She didn’t need to command.
Laura again recognized the source of that look and wondered if Mindy was literally channeling Boyd through her Power or if any of those trained in a PAC could slide into this role so smoothly. She suspected Power over training, in this case.
If every PAC-raised Hero could act like Boyd, why wouldn’t they?
Either way, Hope took a short sharp breath that was nearly a gasp before she leaned forward at the waist.
“Lower,” Mindy instructed.
The angel’s wings extended out to balance her as she continued to lower her face until the unusually confident goth said, “Stop.” Hope’s face was just beyond kissing range of the smirking goth, but it was not by much. Her golden halo had picked up a definite pink hue.
“Remember, you have to let me in. I need you to ask me to show you what I think you want when you are ready,” Mindy purred softly.
“Please. Show me,” Hope breathed back after only a moment’s hesitation.
“Prepare yourself, sweet angel,” Mindy murmured as she reached up to stroke the blonde’s cheek with the back of her fingers.
Laura wasn’t normally into women, but this scene made her realize any concerns she’d had about seeing his other women with Boyd, or being seen with him by them, had gone out the window. It was just plain hot, and it didn’t even include the bulky demon with the fainting-spell-inducing smile.
The angel nearly came apart at the goth’s simple touch and her halo immediately turned a deep and warm pink. She sucked in a shaky breath as her feathers shook more than shivered behind her arching back. The music of her feathers brushing together sounded louder than ever.
The poor woman’s legs failed her, and she collapsed to her knees. Hope fell half into the goth’s lap as she continued to shudder and shake with her wings sprawling out and twitching behind her. The blonde’s hands clutched the loose material of the dark kaftan the raven-haired woman wore as Mindy stroked her darkly painted fingernails through Hope’s golden hair.
When the effect of her little game passed and Hope’s chest heaved as she recovered, a pleased smirk settled on the goth’s darkly painted lips. After the other woman’s shaking subsided and the angel could take a much smoother, deeper breath, Mindy asked, “I take it you liked it?”
“Ohhhh yes, exactly like that.” Hope’s flute-like voice carried a dreamy quality.
“Good, we can do just that… soon. And then you can see my soul so that you can be sure you can trust me.” Mindy continued to smirk, triumphant in establishing a beachhead.
The goth nodded to Silvie as she spoke. “We’ll have Silvie take you and help you get cleaned up for bed. Oh, and I think it would be good for us to build our trust and sleep on the same side of Boyd tonight, don’t you?”’
“Mhmm,” Hope agreed. Nodding into Mindy’s lap as the darker woman continued to stroke her hair. The angel sounded like she was clinging to whatever fantasy the Mind Powered had showed her.
Silvie floated over with an amused expression and easily lifted the larger woman up before slipping under her arm with one hand underneath the taller woman’s wings and around her waist. “Come on honey-buns, let’s get you washed up. If we take you to bed like this, no one is getting any sleep and it’s late.” Silvie easily floated the listless woman off the ground.
“Um, I may need a moment alone to… to take care of things,” Hope said as they were on their way to the door.
Laura could only cover her mouth and stifle a snicker as she shook her head at the faint glistening sheen she saw streaking the likely panty-less woman’s pale thigh.
Chapter 33
Boyd woke up in the very enviable position of having five of the world’s most amazing women around and upon him. Tinker had her cheek resting against his chest. And as far as he could tell, her assertion that she only drooled—or, as she explained it, ‘leaked a little’—when she fell asleep sitting up was true.
Not that it would have been a deal breaker. Especially after their respective size adjustments.
Now, his little inventor aligned just right. When she lay with her head on his chest like this, her legs fit perfectly between his so that the softness of her bare thighs nestled on either side of his cock while they slept. Only the fabric of the shorts he had donned and the more comfortable romper she had chosen from her closet separated him from the warmth of her core, which he felt resting on his groin. Her pillowed chest pressed into him just below his ribs and her narrow waist rested against his firm abs.
And that was to say nothing of the others.
When Boyd had first carried Tinker into the room so they could all sleep together, he’d found the rest of his loves already gathered. Silvie and Hope had recently showered, which was unusual for either of them to do before bed, and everyone was wearing their most modest sleepwear. He sensed the wardrobe choice was to ease his little inventor into her new sleeping arrangements and he sent each of them his gratitude in response.
It had been a long day with an emotional end for each of them, so they had been quick to curl up on the smart bed. Boyd had laid back with his wings extended and let Tinker settle onto his chest. He’d been surprised by a shift in his loves’ sleeping arrangement. Silvie snuggled in on his left side to rest her head on his shoulder as usual, but Raev spooned her from behind instead of Hope. His angel had claimed the spot behind Silvie since they’d all started sleeping together as a group.
Tonight, Hope settled in behind his gothic love, who claimed her usual spot under his right arm. He sensed some residual anxiety in Hope as she tucked up behind Mindy, but it was mixed with a surprisingly excited little thrill as well. A distinctly sexual little thrill.
Trust, however, did not accompany it.
‘The talk was productive, but there is still much work to be done,’ the Mindy in his head explained as she drew back the curtains that enclosed her space. Mind Mindy had definitely not toned things down tonight; she was wearing a far from modest purple teddy and black panty set. ‘You’ll have a role to play in the next step—one that should be quite fun. But we will talk more about it when that time comes. It won’t be long, though… now that she has a personal reason to want to trust me.’
Boyd trusted his loves to settle whatever issues arose amongst them, but would happily assist in whatever way they needed him to—as long as that help was mutually beneficial for both sides. No one would be happy if he was asked to pick a side or felt the need to settle things because they could not.
Everyone knew it, too. He wondered if this was instinctive, a result of the Devotion, or just because many of them had been around him for much of his life.
Everyone murmured their goodnights as Raev curled her fluffy tails over their tangled legs and Hope brought a wing over to cover the rest of them with her down-like feathers. Boyd curled the outer halves of his leathery wings over both ends, hiding and protecting his little pile of warmth and softness away from the world.
The arrangement was supremely comfortable but would have gotten quite stuffy if Boyd had not picked up the habit of slowly opening and closing his wings just enough to generate a little airflow in his sleep—at least according to his loves. He couldn’t remember consciously doing so. It must be another aspect of his Power, reacting as he slept to ensure no one got too hot or too cool in their little nest.
That didn’t help with the issue that he had getting up long before his loves did. Unlike him, they weren’t used to waking fully rested after only four hours of sleep. And there was no real way to avoid waking them—not when they slept on his wings, as had become the preference.
With Tinker on his chest, this only complicated things.
He somehow managed to extract himself—with a few grumbled complaints from the women—but it had only been just over four hours since they’d dozed off, so they promptly fell back to sleep. Boyd smirked at the way they’d collapsed into a smaller pile centered around Tink. His little inventor hadn’t stirred when he’d lifted her up and then set her back down in the warm spot he left behind.
After a quick shower and running through his morning essentials, Boyd pulled on a pair of shorts and made his way to the general-purpose room after a quick stop in a room down the hall from Tinker’s lab that they’d outfitted as his personal armory. He wanted to grab a few items. The big demon hadn’t needed anything like an alarm clock since he was eight, so had no trouble making it to the gym well before his trainee showed up.
Boyd was reviewing the changes he’d made to the standard course, removing some but not all of the more advanced obstacles he had worked in for Tinker. His little inventor was getting quite good at zipping around using those bracelets of hers.
Laura arrived in a slightly less cheerful state than she normally did in the morning. “Good morning.” Her normal sing-song greeting was muted by a lack of sleep.
She’d arrived in a comfortable-looking sweat pants and tank top set that was only a little tighter than they needed to be, along with a pair of serviceable running shoes, passing his first test. He would have sent her back if she arrived for training in anything showier.
“Good morning,” he replied, making sure the lighting adjustments he’d entered had been made as well. “We’ll get right to it. The first thing we have to do is test your current capabilities, starting with your ability to navigate environments and respond to threats. You are fit, but I need to see if you know how to apply that fitness in a practical setting.”
“Understood.” Laura nodded, glancing at the large room behind him filled with all sorts of fun things to climb over, swing from, crawl under, balance on, leap to, or any other motion their duties were likely to call on a Hero to perform. “I take it this means running an obstacle course?”
“More or less.” Boyd showed her a devilish grin while passing her an adjustable belt that had a pouch filled with vials on it. “At random intervals, you will be attacked by an unknown threat as you complete the course. Each of these vials is filled with Paciferiline you can use to neutralize that threat. Are you familiar with it?”
Laura took the belt and checked the pouch. “I’m familiar with it, although I never had cause to use it because it only induces unconsciousness for five to ten minutes in adults. It’s used mostly by Heroes because it can be injected but it also aerosolizes when exposed to oxygen… and you can’t accidentally overdose someone on it. It’s not approved for use on children, but it didn’t cause any long-term negative effects on them in testing.”
“Sorry, honey-buns.” Silvie smiled at the embarrassed angel. “Maybe it was just the way you said it. If you explain it in more detail, I’m sure we’ll understand.”
Hope gave her silver-haired friend a suspicious look for a long moment before she nodded and turned back to Mindy. “I just want you to control my movements and do whatever you see in his thoughts that Boyd wants me to do. I imagine you use your Power to act on his whims regularly; I simply want your help so that I can do the same thing.”
She pursed her lips. “What I can sense from him over the Bond he shares with me gives me some idea of what he likes or doesn’t like, but it only works for the things I think of or he chooses to show me. I want to do the things he is too afraid to show me.”
Laura looked at Mindy to gauge her reaction.
The Mind Powered blinked her pretty purple eyes as a look of consideration crossed her features. “I think it was just because you used the term ‘puppet’ that caused me to balk, because that sounds fairly reasonable. To confirm, did you want me to shut your mind down and just use your body? Because that’s what puppeting is. What you described isn’t quite so extreme.”
“No!” The impure angel shook her head hard enough to set her golden locks dancing about her shoulders. “I want Boyd to still see me in my eyes when you’re doing it, and I want to feel everything… but I do want you to completely control my movements.”
The angel’s halo flickered through a few faint shades of pink before returning to gold.
Laura had been wondering about that halo. Why did it turn pink when Boyd was around? She had seen him sneak up to surprise Hope with a hug from behind or to pinch her rear; that man could be surprisingly quietly for having such a… solid frame. The trauma specialist had observed that the effect wasn’t proximity-based; Hope had to be aware Boyd was nearby for it to turn the warm pink that it did when he was near.
She wasn’t sure what its shifting between pink and gold meant in this case, though.
“Fuck, that sounds hot,” Raev purred, interrupting Laura’s musings. “Is that a you thing Hope, or can I get in on that action? Uh… when Mindy is ready to, of course,” she added quickly.
Laura had watched the poor vixen carefully pursue the goth for weeks. At times she would follow her instincts and push, then back off in fear that she had pushed too far. They both seemed to be having a lot of fun with it.
“I would be delighted if you also took up the practice!” Hope beamed a happy smile at the redhead.
The angel’s faint glow grew just a bit brighter, adding a barely perceptible level increase of light to the room.
“That way,” Hope continued, “Boyd will have someone else that fulfills his every desire. Honestly, I think all of us should do it—often! It’s the best way to learn what he likes most and once we learn what he really wants, Mindy won’t have to control us anymore.”
Raev’s ears twitched in amusement as she let out one of her velvet chuckles. She shook her head before responding. “We’ll be doing it for different reasons, then… but as long as you’re on board, I’ll take it as a win.”
“What do you mean?” Hope asked. The angel tilted her to the side in confusion.
Laura marveled at the innocence she maintained, even during this conversation.
“It just sounds damn hot to me.” Raev shrugged and her emerald eyes glazed over a bit as her tails swayed around her in a decidedly dreamy fashion. “It almost sounds like the ultimate form of when he or Silvie take a fistful of my hair and use my mouth to get him off. Or when he grabs my hips and starts rocking me into him the way he wants me to and things get all intense. Stuff like that really gets me going.”
“Oh, yes… like that, I suppose.” Hope agreed with a smile, though her shoulders drooped a little.
“Well, I think I can do what you are requesting.” Mindy brought the conversation back around full circle.
This brought Laura’s eyes back to her side of the circle. The goth straightened in her seat and pursed her lips before giving a small, though definite, nod of her head. It almost looked like she had come to a decision.
There was something different about her amethyst eyes; they had a specific cast to them that Laura had only seen in Boyd’s eyes before. When the gothic beauty spoke again, it was in a purr and with a slightly slower cadence—once again reminding the trauma specialist of a certain big, hunky demon.
“But it would require that you trust me to take control of you—now,” the Mind Powered said, “before Boyd can give you a glimpse into my soul. If I were wicked the way you fear that I am, I might do all sorts of awful things to you.”
Another round of pleasant feather fluttering filled the room as Hope’s wings shivered. The halo flickered pink and back to gold and she swallowed before replying. “I think… I think I can trust you enough for this.”
Laura wanted to laugh, but restrained the urge to do so because—unlike the angel—she did trust Mindy. From what she’d gathered, this whole conversation came about because Hope was afraid to let Mindy use her Power on her. But that fear went right out the window as soon as any application of said Power involved the potential of sex with Boyd.
Every woman in the room, including Laura, gave Hope a knowing look.
“I can give you what you want,” Mindy replied, the smooth purr still going. “But I’ll need you to prove that you can trust me.”
Laura glanced at Mindy and saw that she had shifted to plant her feet squarely on the floor. She had also shifted the set her shoulders in a bold, confident way that was oddly familiar—and one that Laura was used to seeing on a much broader frame.
“If you were to doubt me and fight back at the wrong time,” Mindy continued, “someone might get hurt. So before I do anything like what you suggested, you’ll need to show me that you can trust me. Otherwise, I won’t risk it.”
Another soft fluttering sound filled the room, this one lasting a few seconds as Hope’s halo shifted to a warm pink before fading back to gold.
“How?” the angel whispered. She was otherwise very still as she asked the simple question so softly it was almost a breath.
“Come here.” Mindy beckoned with a confident, lazy gesture.
The angel began to rise but then she froze. “Boyd isn’t here.”
“Kuh-he!” Mindy laughed. “Silv would cut me in half if she thought I started doing something to you,” the goth said. “She is almost as protective of you as Boyd is. She’ll keep you safe from me—if you still want her too.”
The sound of feathers rustling filled the space again. Gulping, the angel nodded.
“I just want to show you a hypothetical—what I think you are looking for from me so I can be sure to do it right. So, if you are willing to trust me… come here.” She beckoned again.
Hope glanced at Silvie.
The silver-haired bombshell gave her a knowing look, a thumbs up, and then replied sincerely, “I get why trusting her is tough for you, honey-buns. And I understand why—given how in the dark I kept you. But you can trust her. I promise.”
Hope nodded and rose smoothly from her chair, her eyes fixed on a very confident-looking Mindy. The angel brushed her dress against her hips and settled her wings before slowly crossing the center of the circle of chairs to stand in front of Mindy’s chair.
“Lean down.”
Mindy didn’t so much command as instruct. She looked up at Hope with a devilish smirk curling the edge of her lips. It signaled her complete control of the situation. She didn’t need to command.
Laura again recognized the source of that look and wondered if Mindy was literally channeling Boyd through her Power or if any of those trained in a PAC could slide into this role so smoothly. She suspected Power over training, in this case.
If every PAC-raised Hero could act like Boyd, why wouldn’t they?
Either way, Hope took a short sharp breath that was nearly a gasp before she leaned forward at the waist.
“Lower,” Mindy instructed.
The angel’s wings extended out to balance her as she continued to lower her face until the unusually confident goth said, “Stop.” Hope’s face was just beyond kissing range of the smirking goth, but it was not by much. Her golden halo had picked up a definite pink hue.
“Remember, you have to let me in. I need you to ask me to show you what I think you want when you are ready,” Mindy purred softly.
“Please. Show me,” Hope breathed back after only a moment’s hesitation.
“Prepare yourself, sweet angel,” Mindy murmured as she reached up to stroke the blonde’s cheek with the back of her fingers.
Laura wasn’t normally into women, but this scene made her realize any concerns she’d had about seeing his other women with Boyd, or being seen with him by them, had gone out the window. It was just plain hot, and it didn’t even include the bulky demon with the fainting-spell-inducing smile.
The angel nearly came apart at the goth’s simple touch and her halo immediately turned a deep and warm pink. She sucked in a shaky breath as her feathers shook more than shivered behind her arching back. The music of her feathers brushing together sounded louder than ever.
The poor woman’s legs failed her, and she collapsed to her knees. Hope fell half into the goth’s lap as she continued to shudder and shake with her wings sprawling out and twitching behind her. The blonde’s hands clutched the loose material of the dark kaftan the raven-haired woman wore as Mindy stroked her darkly painted fingernails through Hope’s golden hair.
When the effect of her little game passed and Hope’s chest heaved as she recovered, a pleased smirk settled on the goth’s darkly painted lips. After the other woman’s shaking subsided and the angel could take a much smoother, deeper breath, Mindy asked, “I take it you liked it?”
“Ohhhh yes, exactly like that.” Hope’s flute-like voice carried a dreamy quality.
“Good, we can do just that… soon. And then you can see my soul so that you can be sure you can trust me.” Mindy continued to smirk, triumphant in establishing a beachhead.
The goth nodded to Silvie as she spoke. “We’ll have Silvie take you and help you get cleaned up for bed. Oh, and I think it would be good for us to build our trust and sleep on the same side of Boyd tonight, don’t you?”’
“Mhmm,” Hope agreed. Nodding into Mindy’s lap as the darker woman continued to stroke her hair. The angel sounded like she was clinging to whatever fantasy the Mind Powered had showed her.
Silvie floated over with an amused expression and easily lifted the larger woman up before slipping under her arm with one hand underneath the taller woman’s wings and around her waist. “Come on honey-buns, let’s get you washed up. If we take you to bed like this, no one is getting any sleep and it’s late.” Silvie easily floated the listless woman off the ground.
“Um, I may need a moment alone to… to take care of things,” Hope said as they were on their way to the door.
Laura could only cover her mouth and stifle a snicker as she shook her head at the faint glistening sheen she saw streaking the likely panty-less woman’s pale thigh.
Chapter 33
Boyd woke up in the very enviable position of having five of the world’s most amazing women around and upon him. Tinker had her cheek resting against his chest. And as far as he could tell, her assertion that she only drooled—or, as she explained it, ‘leaked a little’—when she fell asleep sitting up was true.
Not that it would have been a deal breaker. Especially after their respective size adjustments.
Now, his little inventor aligned just right. When she lay with her head on his chest like this, her legs fit perfectly between his so that the softness of her bare thighs nestled on either side of his cock while they slept. Only the fabric of the shorts he had donned and the more comfortable romper she had chosen from her closet separated him from the warmth of her core, which he felt resting on his groin. Her pillowed chest pressed into him just below his ribs and her narrow waist rested against his firm abs.
And that was to say nothing of the others.
When Boyd had first carried Tinker into the room so they could all sleep together, he’d found the rest of his loves already gathered. Silvie and Hope had recently showered, which was unusual for either of them to do before bed, and everyone was wearing their most modest sleepwear. He sensed the wardrobe choice was to ease his little inventor into her new sleeping arrangements and he sent each of them his gratitude in response.
It had been a long day with an emotional end for each of them, so they had been quick to curl up on the smart bed. Boyd had laid back with his wings extended and let Tinker settle onto his chest. He’d been surprised by a shift in his loves’ sleeping arrangement. Silvie snuggled in on his left side to rest her head on his shoulder as usual, but Raev spooned her from behind instead of Hope. His angel had claimed the spot behind Silvie since they’d all started sleeping together as a group.
Tonight, Hope settled in behind his gothic love, who claimed her usual spot under his right arm. He sensed some residual anxiety in Hope as she tucked up behind Mindy, but it was mixed with a surprisingly excited little thrill as well. A distinctly sexual little thrill.
Trust, however, did not accompany it.
‘The talk was productive, but there is still much work to be done,’ the Mindy in his head explained as she drew back the curtains that enclosed her space. Mind Mindy had definitely not toned things down tonight; she was wearing a far from modest purple teddy and black panty set. ‘You’ll have a role to play in the next step—one that should be quite fun. But we will talk more about it when that time comes. It won’t be long, though… now that she has a personal reason to want to trust me.’
Boyd trusted his loves to settle whatever issues arose amongst them, but would happily assist in whatever way they needed him to—as long as that help was mutually beneficial for both sides. No one would be happy if he was asked to pick a side or felt the need to settle things because they could not.
Everyone knew it, too. He wondered if this was instinctive, a result of the Devotion, or just because many of them had been around him for much of his life.
Everyone murmured their goodnights as Raev curled her fluffy tails over their tangled legs and Hope brought a wing over to cover the rest of them with her down-like feathers. Boyd curled the outer halves of his leathery wings over both ends, hiding and protecting his little pile of warmth and softness away from the world.
The arrangement was supremely comfortable but would have gotten quite stuffy if Boyd had not picked up the habit of slowly opening and closing his wings just enough to generate a little airflow in his sleep—at least according to his loves. He couldn’t remember consciously doing so. It must be another aspect of his Power, reacting as he slept to ensure no one got too hot or too cool in their little nest.
That didn’t help with the issue that he had getting up long before his loves did. Unlike him, they weren’t used to waking fully rested after only four hours of sleep. And there was no real way to avoid waking them—not when they slept on his wings, as had become the preference.
With Tinker on his chest, this only complicated things.
He somehow managed to extract himself—with a few grumbled complaints from the women—but it had only been just over four hours since they’d dozed off, so they promptly fell back to sleep. Boyd smirked at the way they’d collapsed into a smaller pile centered around Tink. His little inventor hadn’t stirred when he’d lifted her up and then set her back down in the warm spot he left behind.
After a quick shower and running through his morning essentials, Boyd pulled on a pair of shorts and made his way to the general-purpose room after a quick stop in a room down the hall from Tinker’s lab that they’d outfitted as his personal armory. He wanted to grab a few items. The big demon hadn’t needed anything like an alarm clock since he was eight, so had no trouble making it to the gym well before his trainee showed up.
Boyd was reviewing the changes he’d made to the standard course, removing some but not all of the more advanced obstacles he had worked in for Tinker. His little inventor was getting quite good at zipping around using those bracelets of hers.
Laura arrived in a slightly less cheerful state than she normally did in the morning. “Good morning.” Her normal sing-song greeting was muted by a lack of sleep.
She’d arrived in a comfortable-looking sweat pants and tank top set that was only a little tighter than they needed to be, along with a pair of serviceable running shoes, passing his first test. He would have sent her back if she arrived for training in anything showier.
“Good morning,” he replied, making sure the lighting adjustments he’d entered had been made as well. “We’ll get right to it. The first thing we have to do is test your current capabilities, starting with your ability to navigate environments and respond to threats. You are fit, but I need to see if you know how to apply that fitness in a practical setting.”
“Understood.” Laura nodded, glancing at the large room behind him filled with all sorts of fun things to climb over, swing from, crawl under, balance on, leap to, or any other motion their duties were likely to call on a Hero to perform. “I take it this means running an obstacle course?”
“More or less.” Boyd showed her a devilish grin while passing her an adjustable belt that had a pouch filled with vials on it. “At random intervals, you will be attacked by an unknown threat as you complete the course. Each of these vials is filled with Paciferiline you can use to neutralize that threat. Are you familiar with it?”
Laura took the belt and checked the pouch. “I’m familiar with it, although I never had cause to use it because it only induces unconsciousness for five to ten minutes in adults. It’s used mostly by Heroes because it can be injected but it also aerosolizes when exposed to oxygen… and you can’t accidentally overdose someone on it. It’s not approved for use on children, but it didn’t cause any long-term negative effects on them in testing.”
