Sundown & Serena Read online

  Soon, the days were turning colder, and I was thinking of getting out my sweaters. Maybe it’s time I moved on. What am I staying around here for? For Devlin to catch sight of me one night? For Terian to decide his life with his one true love isn’t worth it, because of what we were to each other once? Yeah, right.

  That cool September Thursday night, Lash dropped a bombshell on me. While sitting at the bar, he said out of the blue, “I won’t be here next week, Sun. Dev is moving our operations overseas for a little while. I don’t know how long we’ll be gone, but it will be at least a few months, maybe even years. We can’t stay there long, or Samuel, the Ruler there, will notice us. Devlin’s got business there that has to be dealt with. Well, so he says, but I think really he just misses Anna, and wants to go where they spent their honeymoon, so to speak. I don’t care. In fact it will be better to be where it’s warm, with winter coming.”

  “Who is Anna?” I got out. I was floored that he was just springing this on me with no warning, then I reminded myself that we weren’t exactly friends. He had never invited me to drink with him; I’d sort of invited myself.

  “The only woman Dev ever really loved,” Lash said, finishing off his scotch, and standing up. “The one with blood similar to Sar’s. She’s been dead a long time. Anyway, I wanted you to know I wouldn’t be here.”

  “Thanks,” I said, not sure what else to say.

  Just like that, Lash threw down some money on the counter, and left. I sat there for about five seconds in shock, and then I got up and went after him.

  Chapter Nine

  He’d already made it to his truck as I banged out the exit door to the parking lot. But he heard me coming, and turned around with the door open, facing me with a little surprise. “You want something?”

  “To say good-bye.” I stepped into him, and kissed him hesitantly.

  Lash pulled me close in an instant, and kissed me back hungrily, his mouth moving on mine. Then he drew back from me, an intent look in his eyes. “Why’d you kiss me?” he asked, curious.

  “I felt like it.” My response was defiant, though I was smiling.

  “There anything else you feel like doing?” he asked with a grin.

  “Maybe,” I said, grinning back, and leaned into him to kiss him again.

  He held me away from him, his hands clasping my wrists gently. “You know I’m snake,” he cautioned. His forked tongue darted out to scent the air. “And you’re human. You really want me wriggling around inside you, Sun?”

  I shivered when he said it like that. But it had been a long time for me, and I just didn’t care that he wasn’t human. I wanted to feel loved, just for a while. “Yes.” I went to kiss him again.

  Again, he held me off. “Get in,” he said gruffly, sliding behind the wheel. He opened the door for me from inside, then started his truck. I climbed in beside him. Five minutes later, we were at a nearby motel, and Lash was inside the main office, getting us a room.

  I was surprised that he hadn’t just asked to come home with me, but he’d said nothing more to me after telling me to get in his truck. I guessed this was more chauvinism, that since I had said I’d be with him, he owed me at least the price of a bed to have me in. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. On one hand I liked that he felt that way, as most other men I’d known, Terian included, had just assumed that they were welcome in my bed, and had never offered to take me anywhere, not even to their own beds. Yet part of me was glad of the hotel because I remembered too well the one male I’d known who’d taken me to his bed, and how much of a mistake that had been.

  Lash came out of the office, and motioned to me. I got out of the truck, locked the door, and followed him a few feet to the door of our room. He unlocked it, pushed the door open, and then turned to me. “You sure, Sun?” he hissed. “I won’t ask again. You walk into that room, there’s no changing your mind. And you won’t be walking out until its morning.”

  My heart began to race, fear tingling up my spine at his proclamation. I looked him over: his cold eyes, and the well-used weapons at his belt. How well did I know him, really? Well enough to do this? “Promise me right now you won’t hurt me?” I asked in a small voice. “That you aren’t...like him.”

  “I won’t hurt you,” Lash hissed, eyeing me as he leaned up against the doorframe. “You’ll be walking out, not need to be carried out. The only wounds you might have tomorrow are ones you ask me to give you, or soreness from normal wear and tear. I don’t go in for that.”

  I wavered for a few seconds, and then thought, screw it. Lash had protected me. If he’d wanted, he could have had me any way that he liked while sharing me with Devlin. Instead, he’d saved me with a bus ticket, for no more reason than it had been the right thing to do.

  I pushed past him, and walked into the room.

  Lash was right after me. As soon as we were both through the door, he locked it behind me. He turned and grabbed hold of me, kissing me passionately as he pushed me down on the bed, pulling off my jeans as fast as he could. I was as eager for him as he was for me, and I helped him, crying out a little in my arousal. He pushed down his jeans, holding me down with one hand, baring his erection, as he pushed aside my underwear, and got himself into position. Suddenly he let out an irritated hiss, drew back from me, and quickly slid on a condom from his back pocket. The second it was fully on, he was on top of me, shoving himself into me as fast as he could, grunting with each thrust, his hands under my buttocks as he pistoned in and out of me. I moaned, feeling his thick hard length filling me like no one had in so long. I wanted it to last, but a few seconds later he let out a long hiss, then went limp on me.

  Lash withdrew from me right after he came, pulling off the condom, and throwing it away. He stripped off his jeans, put his weapons within reach of the bed, and took off his sweater, though he left his T-shirt on. I took that time to pull off the rest of my clothes, and toss them aside. Lash crawled back across the bed, and took me in his arms.

  “I broke up with my lover yesterday, when I told her I was leaving,” he hissed softly, kissing my face gently. “We’d been together in our other forms, but not as humans. She was bent out of shape I was leaving, and that I hadn’t told her until then, and so she refused to. I needed it bad, Sun, I apologize for not waiting for you.”

  “It’s okay,” I replied, hugging him. “I’ve been there myself. But I hope that this isn’t the end.”

  “Of course not, I’m a weresnake. Just give me a minute, and I’ll pleasure you, I promise,” Lash hissed with a lecherous smile, still kissing me. “Tell me what you like, while we wait.”

  “What?” I said, furrowing my brow.

  “What you like in bed,” Lash said easily, giving me a serious look. “I want you to enjoy tonight, Sun. All women are different, they want different things. So tell me honestly what you like, so I can make it good for you. I won’t judge you, whatever you tell me. Just tell me the truth.”

  “Sex,” I said uncomfortably, not sure what he was asking. No one had ever asked me that question before, ever. “Regular sex.”

  “What positions?” Lash hissed gently. “And do you like oral sex? ‘Other’ sex? Any particular place you like it, besides the bed? You want me to talk dirty to you, or say nothing? What turns you on?”

  I felt myself blushing. No one had been so frank with me ever, asking about what I wanted or needed to feel satisfied. But I thought it was nice he cared, even if the way he was asking me was a little blunt. “Any position, and the bed’s fine,” I said, blushing slightly. “You can talk or not, whatever you like. But just regular sex.” I actually would have liked some oral sex quite a bit, but I remembered his tongue was forked like a snake’s, and there was just no way I could face it, not at all. And what about his fangs? Shiver.

  “Got it,” Lash said, nodding once. “Would you mind if I didn’t wear anything?”

  I gave him an irked look out of the corner of my eyes.

  He sighed. “I will if you want me to,”
he said reluctantly. “It just feels better if I don’t. And if you want me to, I’m going to have to leave to get some, because I’ve only got another two in my wallet, and they are probably expired by now, or damn close to it. I’m lucky that one didn’t break on me.”

  “Aren’t you worried about catching something?” I interjected.

  “I’ve been with my current lover for more than a year,” Lash said with irritation. “I trust Lys, and I know she never—”

  “I meant from me!” I said exasperatedly. “You don’t know my sexual history.”

  “Have you been with anyone since Devlin?” Lash said with a steely gaze.

  I shuddered in his arms, just hearing that name. “No,” I got out finally. “I haven’t been able to bring myself to be. I haven’t wanted anyone for a long time, except...except—”

  “Except him,” Lash supplied very softly.

  I shuddered again.

  “I thought not, Sun. That’s the way the drug works on most women. I’ll bet you had dreams too, dreams of him—”

  “Can we not talk about that?” I interrupted. “Please, Lash?”

  “Sorry,” Lash hissed apologetically. “My point is that knowing that, I know I’m safe being bare with you, because I had your blood tested. Because you were clean then.”

  I narrowed my eyes, suddenly irritated. “Why’d you do that? You said a vampire couldn’t give me anything.”

  “Because he wanted me or another were to join in the next time he was with you,” Lash said bluntly. “I know Kev had you that night and the condom broke when he did.”

  I let out a cry, struggling hard to get away from him.

  “Stop, shh! Relax,” Lash said calmly, restraining me easily. “That’s one of the reasons I helped you get away. I don’t want any woman who doesn’t want me. He was being an ass though, and wouldn’t drop it. Anyway, I took some of your blood, and tissue when I bandaged you up, and Dr. Camlyn said you were safe, completely clean. Kev said he was, but I made him get a test anyway to make sure. I don’t trust that bastard. I never have, he’s too much of a fucking deviant, the things he likes to do.”

  “But why trust me, when it’s been months since that test? I could be lying to you now.”

  “Are you?” Lash said, grabbing my face and making me look into his flat eyes.

  “No,” I said honestly, staring back at him. “But how about you? Why should I trust you?”

  “You shouldn’t trust me about much, but you can trust me about this,” Lash hissed, his eyes boring into mine. “I got tested today, because I always get tested between lovers. I prefer not to wear anything, and I know damn well that can be risky. I’ve had lovers lie to me; tell me they were safe when they weren’t. But I’ve never given anyone anything to my knowledge, not ever. It’s my prerogative, when I have permission.” He paused. “We are both clean. So yes or no?”

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  Lash leaned in and kissed me again, rolling his body on top of mine. A second later, he penetrated me, his bare shaft stroking me slowly and deliberately. Aroused, I ran my fingers up over his back, then went to move to his chest, to slide them under his T-shirt. He stopped me gently with a shake of his head, moving my hands back to his shoulders before he resumed kissing me. I thought it odd, but left it alone. He probably had a scar there he didn’t want me to see or touch.

  Lash took his time with me, until I was panting and moving under him, straining to come. He clearly knew how to please a woman, and before long I felt myself shaking as my orgasm broke over me. It had been a long time for me, and it was such a relief, so satisfying as it washed over me, to know I could still feel that feeling, that it wasn’t just something that I used to know and never would again. God, I felt like that for so many months...

  Lash came a second after I did. This time, I felt his climax as he spilled himself deep inside me with a long satisfied hiss. With that familiar shudder within, his muscles tensing, then relaxing completely, something broke in me. I began to cry softly.

  Lash drew back from me, though he didn’t pull out of me, or let me go. “What is it?” he said gently, looking at me intently with his flat eyes. “Was it because it had been so long for you, Sun?”

  It wasn’t just because it had been so long since I had a lover of my own. It was because it had been so long since I felt like my lover cared about my pleasure, as well as his own. None of the men I’d been with in my life besides Terian had. Terian and Lash are the only ones in my life who’ve ever even made the pretense of caring about me, caring that I was satisfied, or that I enjoyed the sex at all. I’d been used or objectified so often by everyone else in my life, my clients, my bosses, my father, my lovers, and even my mother a little, as a shoulder to cry on. No one had ever really cared about me, the me I was, or my happiness.

  Well, one man had. One man had wanted to give me everything he had. Terian had wanted to marry me. Now he’s with Sar... I let out another sob.

  “Sun, say something,” Lash hissed again, his snake eyes looking into mine. But for once, I didn’t find them cold, though they held no expression. “What’s wrong?”

  “Please hold me, please,” I whimpered.

  He did, sliding his arms around me, and fitting my head under his chin. I cried a few more tears, but in a while, I began to feel better.

  Lash was still holding me in his arms, waiting for my answer to his question. And there was no way I could tell him the real reason I was crying. It was just too pitiful, and I didn’t want him to pity me. Horribly, something else hit me then like a bolt of lightning, and I swore mentally.

  “Shit, I’m such an idiot,” I said, lying back with a grimace and wiping my tears away. “I only thought about catching something, but not

  about—”

  “There won’t be a child,” Lash interrupted, hugging me. “I can’t, even if you can. So don’t worry, Sun. Don’t cry over that.”

  I looked at him. “You sure?”

  “Very sure,” Lash said, grinning. “You can trust me about that, too.”

  “Then come here,” I said, crooking a finger.

  I didn’t need to ask him more than once. We had sex all that night, until the early hours of the morning. Lash was far more skilled than I thought he would be, and I enjoyed his body, and the ways he’d used it to make me feel oh so good. He went to lengths to make sure every time was as good as it could be for me, asking me if what he was doing felt good to me, and stopping when I asked him to. That touched me, especially as he refused my hesitant offer of oral sex, saying if I didn’t want that from him, then it wasn’t fair to ask me for it.

  He felt no different to me from other men, and I wondered several times during our passion why he’d made such a point of him being weresnake. He kept his tongue in his mouth, but I felt his fangs sometimes in his kiss. The feeling wasn’t much different from a regular man’s teeth. He didn’t bite me or anything, not even when he sucked on my skin. With the areas he was teasing with his mouth, I was sure he was going to draw a little blood just by accident, but there wasn’t even a scratch. In fact, the only differences at all between him and a human man was that he never got soft after coming, and he never pulled out of me after he was done. Even when we rested between bouts, he stayed close to me, holding my hips to his so that he might stay sheathed. I thought that odd, but guessed he liked the sensation. Maybe it’s a were thing? I wasn’t sure, as he was the first were I’d ever been with, to my knowledge.

  “Why do you like it?” I finally asked sleepily, sometime near dawn.

  “Sex?” he hissed with a grin, hugging me. “Duh. It feels good. I sometimes feel like I live for it, but maybe that’s just my snake side talking.”

  “No, being in me, after.”

  “After sex?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It feels good, too,” he hissed with longing. “You’re so warm inside, Sun. I’d put my whole body in you if I thought I could find a way it would fit.”

  “You feel good in
me, too,” I said languidly, snuggling against him. “I like laying here and having you there inside throbbing gently.” I ran my hands down, clasping his rear. “I like that you don’t get soft.”

  Lash held my hips, then moved closer, sliding his penis in to the root, drawing a long groan from his lips. He held me close, keeping my hips tight against his. “Then you don’t mind if I stay where I am?” he hissed softly in my ear. “I like how it feels, being held by you like that.”

  Unable to resist, I squeezed him with my vaginal muscles.

  Lash went completely still, his entire body tensing up rigidly, his eyes closing. He stayed like that, unmoving, as if bracing himself.

  Did I somehow hurt him? “Sorry,” I whispered, “I—”

  “Please, do it again,” Lash hissed eagerly. “Please, Sun, please for me, do it more?”

  Surprised but pleased, I squeezed him again. Lash let out a long, loud hiss. I began to do it in rhythm. Lash began to shake in my arms, hissing almost continuously.

  I did it faster. Lash again grasped my hips, straining closer to thrust himself in as deep as he could, holding himself there, his body pressed so tight to mine there was not a hairs breadth between us. A moment later, he squeezed me in his arms so hard it cut off my breath, a loud yell tearing out of him. His hips began spasming lightly, his dick pulsating in me as he began to come. His climax lasted a long time, groaning loudly every time he shot himself into me again, every squeeze of my body around his dick teasing out more semen. Finally, he softened, his body going limp.

  “Fuck, that was great,” Lash hissed in utter satisfaction. “I didn’t know humans could do that, only weresnake women.” He pulled back slightly, slipping out of me, then gave me a gentle kiss. “Thank you, Sun. It means something to me that you did that for me, though you must have thought it was pretty weird.”