A HALF hour later, Chris watched the door to the master bedroom open, then close behind Cassie as she emerged. He’d left the healing to the women, knowing Flynn would prefer as little of an audience as necessary. The moonlight shining through the open living room curtains caught Cassie’s white skirt and blouse, turning her into something ephemeral and angelic. But as she drew closer to him, the paleness of her face proved Flynn wasn’t the only one having a rough night. Almost losing her daughter and then pouring her energy into a healing potion had taken their toll.
He hadn’t bothered turning on the lights. A headache pulsed behind his eyes, the result of about half of what Flynn had drunk. Chris didn’t envy her when morning came.
“She manage to swallow it?” he asked, taking Cassie’s hands. He rubbed the cold skin, warming them with his own.
Cassie’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “Yes. Not without gagging a few times. It’s foul. But it works. The bones will be good as new by the wedding.”
“And the rest of her?”
She frowned. “No idea. She’s the first psychic succubus we’ve seen in generations… the first the Registry has been aware of, anyway. And the old records are incomplete. No one quite knows how to deal with Flynn’s… idiosyncrasies. But Genesis is working on her now. I think she’ll be fine.”
As if to punctuate Cassie’s words, a cry of pleasure carried through the closed bedroom door, followed by some softer murmuring, then steady, rhythmic moans.
“Um… yeah.” Chris shifted his feet on the plush carpeting. Too weird, standing outside their bedroom, listening to his sister have sex with his soon-to-be sister-in-law. He hadn’t even eavesdropped on Gen with her boyfriends and girlfriends when the two of them lived under the same roof, though he suspected Genesis hadn’t extended the same courtesy to him and the few girlfriends he’d brought home. “Listen,” he said, glad Cassie couldn’t see his blush in the shadows, “Flynn would flip if she knew we were out here. I’m gonna give them some privacy.” He nodded toward the door to his own bedroom on the opposite side from the master. “You, um, wanna join me?”
Chris didn’t make the offer lightly. He and Cassie hadn’t slept together yet, though they’d made out quite a few times on the couch in his apartment back in Festivity. After the disaster of her first marriage and a series of unsuccessful relationships, she’d wanted to take things slow, and he hadn’t pushed her. From the sad smile she gave him, tonight wasn’t going to be the night either.
“Actually, I just want to use your guest bathroom and then go to bed. My bed,” she added for clarity. She leaned in and kissed him, her lips tasting of the coffee she’d drunk to stay awake this long. “It’s not that I’m not interested….”
“No, it’s fine.” And it was. Really. Even if it had been a while, a long while. Even if his body was responding, just a little bit, to the sounds coming from the master bedroom. (And oh, wasn’t that awkward?) But he wouldn’t push her. When she did agree to stay with him, he wanted it to be because she had absolutely no doubts.
“Thank you. You make it easy to want to say yes, soon.”
Thank God.
Because despite being a gentleman, despite wanting to give her the time she needed, watching the sway of her hips in that tight white skirt as she walked to the entry hall half bath nearly undid him.
Chris took a deep breath and let it out, then went to his own room. Inside the doorway, he hesitated. Open or shut? Open made him feel like the voyeur he was trying to avoid being. But shut….
Shut meant he wouldn’t be able to hear Genesis if she called for help. And while he loved Flynn and trusted her when she was in control of herself, Chris had to admit he didn’t entirely trust the psychic succubus in her current state. That desperate need for sex she’d displayed at the Pink Pussycat had him worried she might be rough with Genesis, might hurt her without meaning to, perhaps without even realizing she was doing so.
So he left the door open, changed into sweatpants and a white T-shirt, and went to bed, the sound of Flynn crying out Genesis’s name ringing in his ears.
Other than that, the room lay silent, the bed cold, the second double bed empty, lonely.
Like him.
All his waking hours went into the Village Pub. Only in the last two years had he felt comfortable when he left his managers to run it on his days off. His parents had entrusted the family business to him. Gen, who could still speak with them through her gift, said he’d made them proud.
But the sacrifice….
The door creaked as someone pushed it open a little farther than he’d left it. A shadow crossed the room on silent feet, then slid into bed beside him, soft skin and toned muscle curling against his back. Cassie’s perfume settled over him in an intoxicating haze.
“Change your mind?” he whispered, afraid louder speech might break this spell, chase her away.
“Mmm,” she purred, sliding her hand beneath his shirt, skimming fingers down his spine.
A wave of tiredness swept through him—not the response to her touch that he’d expected. Too much alcohol. Too many hours awake. Too much stress.
Chris forced it all aside.
If it meant making love to this beautiful woman, he’d find the energy somewhere.
Even if it drained him dry.