When Dusk Comes, page 11
We shall endure this one too. Whatever it may be,” she said, reaching for the notepad on the desk. “How many were killed?”
“None.”
“And you don’t know who delivered the attack?” Lucía knew the answer. It was the same as before.
Samael shook his head. “It was a trio of masked assailants. They made no demanded. The witnesses say they appeared as if from thin air and delivered a blitz attack before disappearing into the night. They used some kind of airborne agent this time, rendering almost everyone in the house incapacitated. It only lasted a few moments, but it was enough to facilitate their escape.” He dropped his shoulders. “It doesn’t even make sense, Lucía. They took nothing. I don’t know what their motivation is. We should get back home. We aren’t safe here,” he pleaded.
Lucía knew Samael was right, but she wasn’t ready to leave. Not just yet. “I will not be forced to run.” Lucía’s voice was strong and unwavering.
“But my Queen—” Samael began but shuts his mouth when Lucía held up her hand to show that she had not finished speaking.
“Bring in the top teams from Romania and Brazil. Have them investigate these attacks until they find the source. They should spare no expense, but they are to work discretely. When Erin has made a decision on whether to join us, then we will return.” Lucía laid out her orders with clarity and authority.
“So you will turn her,” Samael said, misunderstanding what Lucía meant.
“No,” Lucía snapped.
“Fine, so she’ll come as your pet,” he said with a shrug.
“No,” Lucía repeated sternly.
The exacerbation vibrated from Samael’s being like an earthquake.
“Surely you’ll at least make her one of your mated pairs so no one can use her against you.”
Lucía narrowed her eyes. “If she chooses, she’ll join us as a private consultant and work on matters as needed. She’s not my thrall and you will treat her with respect.” She stood, giving Samael the message that their conversation had come to a close.
“I don’t understand what has come over you,” he spat. “Gallivanting with this person as if you don’t remember your station. What’s so special about her that you’re acting so besotted?” Rage radiated off Samael’s body.
“I won’t remind you again not to overstep, Samael,” Lucía snapped angrily without raising her voice.
Samael swallowed the rest of his objections and excused himself. Lucia heard him muttering something about lesbians moving too quickly as he stomped down the hall.
Lucía sat back down in her chair. She wondered whether she was making a mistake. Whether she was putting them all at risk, her subjects and Erin included. But the more she considered it, the more she realized that the only way to keep Erin safe now was to keep her close. If the as yet unknown enemy was watching her, they may already know about Erin.
The sun had moved much higher in the sky by the time Lucía broke her thoughts and returned to her room. She eyed Erin, her body strewn sideways across the bed. The lightest snores filled the room with life. She approached Erin and covered her with the comforter before ducking back out of the room quietly. Yes, Erin sleeping under her roof made her feel much better. Now all she had to do was convince Erin to accept her offer.
Lucía returned to her private office with Samael’s words still swirling in her head. Was it insane to reveal her true nature to Erin? Something told Lucía that Erin didn’t frighten easily.
Chapter Seven
“Good morning.” Lucía regarded Erin’s rustling body in the bed as she entered the room.
“More like good afternoon,” she grumbled after opening one eye to glance at the clock, shocked she slept so long. She blamed the absurd comfort of Lucía’s bed.
“I’ve never been much of a morning person myself,” Lucía commented as she sauntered toward her, the soft fabric of her grey dress swishing as she moved. Erin’s pulse quickened as her eyes ravished her form.
“Could have fooled me,” Erin said with a raised eyebrow as she propped herself up on her elbows. She was sure Lucía never came back to bed like she promised.
“Sometimes, my dear Erin, duty calls,” Lucía explained with a smirk.
The deep red of her lips combined with the velvet of her voice rendered Erin incapable of devising a quick quip. She remained silent, sleepy green eyes widening as she watched Lucía climb onto the bed.
She moved nimbly across the thick down comforter covering the savannah that was her bed. Her darkening eyes focused on her target. Erin’s pulse jumped from a trot to a gallop in two seconds flat. She’d never understood why some people were so turned on by the sight of a woman on her hands and knees until this moment. She’d always found it sort of
degrading, but as she watched Lucía crawl toward her looking ready to devour her, she got it. The woman was all strength and power, and Erin could not be more excited.
The sensation of Lucía’s torso gliding across her lower body sent Erin reeling. She struggled between closing her eyes to drown in the sensation and keeping them open to watch Lucía continue the trek up to her mouth.
Lucía’s tongue peeked out to moisten her lips. Her eyes remained fixed on Erin as she pulled up the corner of her shirt and left a kiss on her hipbone. The kiss was so light she would question its existence if the small patch of skin hadn’t been left tingling from the attention. Lucía continued her ascent up her body, letting her full weight rest against the woman beneath her. She can’t help but squirm, her desire growing with each passing moment.
When Lucía finally made it up to Erin’s face, she hesitated over her soft lips. She relished the moment. Tried to prolong it. But Erin was impatient and tangled her fingers in Lucía’s hair, bringing her down into a hurried kiss.
Erin kissed Lucía deeply, revealing the magnitude of her pent-up desire, and Lucía’s kiss was just as desperate. They clashed in a blazing exchange of lips and teeth. Erin didn’t give a shit about being smooth. She wanted more. She wanted it all. Her hands rushed down Lucía’s back. She grabbed her firm flesh before continuing over her thigh and up the front of her skirt.
Lucía let her see how excited she was over the thin material of her French lingerie for just a moment before removing Erin’s hand.
“Do you not like being touched?” Erin gasped for air after the long passionate kiss. Despite the twinge of disappointment in her voice, her question was sincere. She couldn’t help but notice that Lucía had shut down
all of her attempts; even in Paris, she’d barely allowed her to touch her over her underwear.
“There are so many kinds of touch,” Lucía whispered against her mouth as she straddled her hips. “We get so caught up in the more obvious forms, don’t we?” she asked rhetorically, her nimble fingers unbuttoning the front of Erin’s shirt.
“I guess,” Erin replied, not understanding what the hell she was talking about.
“Have you ever wanted something so much that you fantasized about it?” she asked, sitting back on Erin’s hips to unfasten the rest of her buttons.
Erin nodded as she watched Lucía undress her. Her long elegant fingers reached the last button and the fabric fell open, revealing Erin’s dark blue bra and soft pale skin.
“And have you ever been so caught up in that fantasy you can practically feel your imaginary lover’s touch?” She slid cool hands over Erin’s warm skin, stopping just below the under wire of Erin’s bra before continuing down to her waist, her fingernails raking Erin’s flesh as she went.
“Yes,” she sighed.
Lucía undoing the button on her jeans was the most excruciatingly erotic sensation she had ever experienced. She watched her sit up on her knees and slide off the skinny jeans with an ease that Erin didn’t understand. The painted-on denim was usually unwilling to leave her legs, but Lucía made everything effortless. Even her clothing was happy to yield to her whims.
“The heat of her body threatening to consume you.” Lucía’s voice was hoarse as she straddled Erin once more. The warmth of her bare thighs sent
a rush of fire bursting through Erin’s body.
Erin groaned and her eyes roll into the back of her head. Lucía’s scorching heat pressed against her pelvis. She rocked her hips to gain friction, and gripped the bottom of the headboard with both hands as if it were keeping her tethered to the surface of the earth.
“Have you thought of me?” Lucía asked with confidence.
“Yes,” Erin managed before biting on her bottom lip to maintain some semblance of self-control. Most of her wanted to rip off Lucía’s clothes, but a small part of her was captivated by the teasing.
“Have you thought of touching me?” Lucía asked coyly, her hips bearing down on Erin as she moved.
“Yes,” she answered after a beat giving herself over to the fantasy. Her eyes followed each purposeful swing of Lucía’s hips and her strong trembling thighs.
“As have I,” Lucía admitted, breaking Erin’s trance, her eyes flew up to Lucía’s face. Lucía’s skin was flushed, and desire was etched in her face.
Erin gripped the headboard tighter to keep from reaching out. Lucía looked almost embarrassed by her admission, but Erin doubted a woman like her had ever been shy about anything.
“Tell me.” Erin surprised herself with the demand.
“I have imagined what you would feel like inside me,” Lucía admitted, her movements and growing arousal making her dress uncomfortable. In a single, coordinated motion she pulled it up over her head. It landed on the floor before Erin could register its absence. “Much like this,” Lucía continued, her hands moving over her own chest as she stared down at a slack-jawed Erin.
Erin groaned, no longer able to keep her hands away. She grabbed Lucía hard over her bra and pulled her down toward her. Lucía didn’t fight the new position, grinding harder and faster against Erin.
“Close your eyes,” Lucía instructed in a breathless moan, and Erin obliged. It was too hard to keep them open. “You feel so good inside of me,” she cooed. Erin’s body responded as if it were happening. As if she were moving inside her although she knew she wasn’t Lucía groaned as her lower back muscles tightened and a thin layer of perspiration developed over her skin. Erin gripped her hips harder to guide her quickening motions. Her muscles strained with the force of her exertion, but she didn’t dare slow down. Lucía’s body was slick and trembling. The sensation reverberated throughout Erin’s entire being. She groaned, giving in completely to the fantasy.
“Don’t stop,” Erin begged breathlessly into Lucía’s ear. She was so close, but she needed more. Lucía’s hand slipped between them to give her the direct contact they both needed to go careening off the edge. Erin’s body stiffened under Lucía’s practiced touch.
Lucía cursed as she bore down hard. Erin felt how close she was and moved against her with as much force as she could generate. They both succumbed to the game, and Lucía landed on her like a sweaty heap.
“Well that was intense.” Erin smiled as she rolled Lucía onto her side.
“I told you there were less obvious forms of touch. They simply require more patience and concentration.” Lucía grinned mischievously. Erin rolled her eyes before settling into the crook of her neck. Instinctively, Lucía wrapped her arm around her body and absentmindedly strokes the soft skin of Erin’s side.
They lay in bed together embracing and enjoying the comfort of each other’s bodies until the sun fell away, leaving the room too dark to see anything.
“Will you come back with me?” Lucía asked after the sun had set. “I only need to be abroad for a few weeks, and then we can come back to New York for a time,” she offered, ready to rearrange her schedule.
“I have to visit my dad this weekend,” Erin responded, remembering her promise.
“Are you very close?” Lucía asked.
“Yeah, we’ve always been kind of a duo,” she explained. My mother died,” she added abruptly.
“I’m so very sorry.” Lucía held Erin tighter.
“I was only a baby. I never knew her,” she said, her body stiffening with discomfort. She hated talking about her life but was almost compelled to trust Lucía with her secrets.
“That doesn’t make your loss any less painful. It’s unbearable to mourn the relationships that have been stolen from you.” Lucía placed a soft kiss on the top of Erin’s head.
“It’s worse for my dad,” Erin continued, trying to divert the attention from herself. “I don’t think he’s ever gotten over it. For the last twenty-eight years, it’s just been me and him, you know?” The emotions welled up in her chest and threatened to spill from the well-secured box she kept them in.
“It can’t be easy to raise a child on one’s own,” Lucía said in credit to Erin’s father. “It appears as though he has done a remarkable job.”
“Yeah well, he was a cop until I was in high school,” Erin said with a nervous laugh. “It’s easy to stay out of trouble that way. Plus, I was always
the new kid. I think that was his strategy. He didn’t give me enough time in any town to make friends.” The words spilled from her mouth in jest, but the pain of their truth was clear.
“What does he do now?”
“He works mostly odd jobs in security,” Erin explained. “It’s hard to find something steady.”
“I can always use a trustworthy person in security. I have a lovely boutique hotel in Boston,” Lucía offered without hesitation.
“Thanks.” Erin considered lying. “But he’s not always the most dependable person,” she struggled to explain. “Sometimes he drinks.” She didn’t want to disparage her father or tarnish Lucía’s opinion of him. He didn’t drink every day, he could go months without touching a drop, but when he did, he spiraled out of control until some disaster forced him back on the wagon.
“We all find ways to shore up the fissures in our hearts,” Lucía assured without an ounce of judgment.
“I’ve never told anyone that before,” she admitted, the weight of a lifetime secret easing off her chest.
“There is no shame in that, Erin. We all struggle with something. Not everyone’s demons are written on their sleeves,” she explained in a faraway voice. “My offer remains, and I wouldn’t discharge him for needing personal time. I would pay him well for his experience in law enforcement.”
Erin hadn’t expected someone as put together as Lucía to understand her father’s plight. She expected her to be judgmental or demanding that he pick himself up by his bootstraps and shake it off.
“I don’t think he’d agree,” Erin admitted. “He would see it as a handout.
As it is, I have to sneak money around his house and pay his bills behind his back. I don’t know if he has a bad memory or just pretends to, but he wouldn’t go for something as overt as a well-paying job with that kind of leniency.” Erin knew she got her pride from her dad. She’d never seen him do anything but work hard and manage the darkness that always seemed so ready to consume him.
“Perhaps you can persuade him.” Lucía ran her open palm against Erin’s bare back.
They laid in silence while Erin contemplated her generous offer. How would she even bring it up? If he interpreted it as charity, it might send him into a relapse. She knew he’d been doing well and didn’t want to jeopardize that, but she also knew he was capable of more than guarding an empty parking lot.
“He’s all I have,” Erin confessed out of nowhere. She was horrified at the revelation and how weak it made her seem. Lucía held her more tightly and pressed her lips into Erin’s messy blonde hair. “What about you?” Erin asked trying to recover from the exposure.
“My parents passed away long ago.” Lucía’s voice shed some of its warmth.
Erin fought the urge to break the seriousness of the moment with a joke about Lucía being a real-life Batman. “Were you close?” She ran her fingertips over Lucía’s expanding and collapsing abdomen.
“Yes,” Lucía admitted instead of changing the topic. “We were very close.”
“What were they like?” Erin wondered if she’d ever see baby pictures of Lucía. She couldn’t even imagine what the little tycoon must have been
like as a kid.
“They were beautiful people,” she said sadly.
“I’m sorry,” Erin whispered into her chest.
“It was a long time ago.” Lucía shook off the stormy sky of grief threatening to spoil the tender day spent in bed. They settled into a comfortable silence, finding contentment in each other’s arms.
“Tell me, have you decided yet?” Lucía asked abruptly.
Erin flipped over onto her stomach so she could look at her face. “Are you going to give up?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I can be very persistent,” Lucía admitted with a mischievous smirk.
Erin stared at her for a long while as she mulled over her options. She wanted to spend more time with Lucía, and this opportunity was a lot more interesting than chasing dirt bags all over the Mid-Atlantic. Was it really u-hauling if she didn’t bring more than a duffle bag?
“All right,” Erin decided with a determined nod. “We can work together,” she continued firmly. “But you listen to me, Lucía. I don’t work for you. And no more of that bullshit you pulled with the car or the money or any of that. You tell me what the job is and I’ll tell you what it costs.”
Erin’s voice was authoritative and sure.
“I accept your terms,” Lucía said, pouncing on her and flipping her onto her back.
“You’re so proud of yourself, aren’t you?” Erin could see the glint in Lucía’s eyes and the pleased air of success in her face.
“Only a modest amount, I assure you.” Lucía smiled brightly before sinking into Erin’s mouth to seal their deal.
Chapter Eight
“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes!” Max called as Erin walked into the rec center, her gym bag strapped to her back.
“Oh, come on,” she laughed. “It’s been like a week.”
