Terian was on time, like always. He told me over dinner the whole story of what had happened the two years we’d been apart, and of the new ongoing drama that was the Theo/Sar/Danial/Devlin three-dimensional love triangle. It was hard to believe some of what he said had happened, but I took his word for it. In return, I told him what had happened with me and my father, leaving out only Lash, and what had happened with Devlin. While I felt bad not telling him everything, I justified that by telling myself the cold truth could only hurt him, if not cause more trouble if he either sought revenge against Devlin, or felt jealous of Lash.
Afterward he followed me home for a drink. At first, we were both reserved and kept our distance, careful of one another and unsure. Then the alcohol kicked in. The moment we accidentally touched, our passion ignited with a roar. Terian’s lips met mine in a punishing kiss, his arms going around me, pulling me close. I kissed him hungrily, all those lonely nights of wanting him determined to be satisfied.
He made to get up, but I’d waited long enough already. I pulled him back down on me, my hips rising to meet his, my hands going down his back to cup his buttocks through his jeans. Terian’s lips broke with mine, his head ducking to kiss my neck, then moving lower as he pulled down my low cut top, exposing my lace brassiere. With a tug, he pushed it down, revealing my breast, his hungry mouth fastening on the left as his hand cupped the right, squeezing possessively.
I moaned, my hands fumbling for his belt, anxious to free him. With a snap, I popped the button, then tore down the zipper. I reached in, my hand grasping his throbbing erection. Terian stiffened his back with a cry, then moved back, attacking my jeans. He tugged, but despite his efforts, they did not come off.
Damn stretch jeans. “I’ll get them,” I panted, standing unsteadily. “You get ready.”
We both stripped off our jeans, his taking longer than mine. By the time I’d helped him get them off, he’d finished putting on the condom. I pushed him back onto the couch, straddling him. With a shift of my hips, I impaled myself, throwing my head back with a groan.
Terian grasped my hips, chest heaving, and began to move me. I grabbed his hands, then held them down to the couch. I used my hips, moving him in and out of me with long deliberate strokes. Terian groaned, then jerked, his blissful expression delightful to watch as he strained upwards.
I kissed his neck, then took some skin in my mouth, sucking hard. Terian broke loose of my hands, grasping my breasts, squeezing. With a snarl, he pulled my upper body closer, burying his head between my breasts, his hot tongue stroking. His other hand grabbed my rear, pushing it down hard against him.
His stiff penis slid in another few inches. I jerked, letting out a sharp cry. Terian took my nipple in his mouth, sucking hard as he drove into me again and again.
I screamed, the climax washing over me like a tidal wave. The pure feeling expanded, filling me completely, freeing me utterly. Terian yelled, his lower body contracting again and again as he clutched me tightly to him.
We held each other, sweaty and panting, completely sated.
“Do you mind if I spend the night, Sun?”
Only he would ask, after all our history together. For the first time, my normal sarcasm was absent in my reply. “No,” I said, kissing him lovingly as I blinked my moist eyes rapidly. “I want you to stay.”
* * * *
The next morning, he asked me formally to move in with him. I agreed immediately. To celebrate, we made love again.
“Are you okay to keep going?” Terian asked suddenly with concern, stopping his movements. “I don’t want to hurt you. And we’ve been at it all night.”
“It’s okay. I’ve gone longer than this.” Stupid! I bit my lip, before I said anything more.
“With who?” Terian growled. “No human man could have lasted this long.”
“A were,” I whispered. “That’s how he referred to himself.”
“What type?” he growled, his eyes glinting red.
“I don’t know,” I lied. “I never saw him be anything but human,” I added.
“Fine,” Terian said roughly. “You’ve known the staying power of a were. But demons have the most staying power of any being, and faeries are a close second. I could go for days, and not stop.”
That admission was simultaneously scary and exciting. “Faerie?”
“I’m half-faerie,” Terian said, blushing slightly. “Turns out my mother isn’t dead, and my father’s alive, too. But that’s another can of worms, Sun.”
“It’s okay,” I consoled him, touching his cheek gently. “I’ve learned a lot about accepting things I can’t change, in the time we’ve been apart.”
“So have I,” Terian said in an old, slightly bitter tone. “So have I.”
* * * *
I moved in with Terian the next day, and quit my job. It was a nice change to not have to get up for work in the afternoon, or stay up every night until after midnight. With that simple change, there was a deeper feeling of me finally being on track to a real life, not living on the fringes of one. That first morning when I woke up and actually saw a sunrise as the first part of my day instead of its end was the beginning of an awakening for me.
My life had been a certain way for a long time. I hadn’t been happy, but I hadn’t felt I could change my direction. Maybe I thought I hadn’t deserved more than getting by. But I did deserve more, a lot more. And so did Terian, for giving me a third shot at some happiness. Determined, I turned my focus to my new home and partner, and got busy.
I did a fair bit of cleaning that first week, as Terian was messy and something of a book hoarder. His lab was always neat, but his large bedroom—our room—was a mess, and so was anywhere he spent time. But once I got that straightened out with the help of some large bookshelves with metal shelving, plastic bins, and upscale labels for the rest, keeping order was easy.
Meeting Sar was less time consuming, yet still a lot harder. It didn’t help that Theo had mistaken me for her when I was kissing Terian one morning in his lab and blown a gasket. He’d come through the lab door shouting about betrayal, breaking the door lock in the process. While he’d apologized over and over after seeing I wasn’t Sar, and replaced the lock himself that very afternoon, his sudden rage had made me wonder if all the weres living there were as tightly wound as he was.
After all the time I’d cursed Sar for being a bitch, she was...well, nice. She smiled when she saw me, and welcomed me. It was in her tone that she meant what she said about hoping we’d be friends. Still, that gold bear of ownership around her neck gave me a chill. And along with friendliness, Sar’s tone also had an intensity that told me she had already formed some opinions about me, at least a few of them as negative as the ones I harbored for her. That if I hurt Tears again—the nickname she and everyone else here called him—she’d make me sorry.
That was understandable. I still wasn’t willing to completely let go of my old negative opinions of her, no matter how nice she seemed. Besides, I was happy living in Danial’s guard quarters, talking with Cia and Janice, and keeping to myself. I didn’t need to hang around with Sar, especially where I might run into Devlin. Cia had told me when I’d inquired discreetly that he almost never came to Danial’s compound. When he did, it was always to the main house to visit Danial or Sar.
As the weeks passed, I even began sitting in on some of Elle and Theoron’s lessons. I’d never cared about books, never even finished high school. But I enjoyed learning about history and art when there was no pressure on me to have to take a test. Bill, the man tutoring Elle and Theoron, asked me finally if I wanted private lessons. I agreed at once, arranging the next day for a session three times a week. Everyone here was always talking about books they’d read, or referencing something in history that had once happened. Shit, Terian seemed to know about every battle that had ever been fought, and was always going on about how amazing some of the early commanders had been, even when they’d been fighting with only bows and arrows. I wanted to be able to join the conversation, to know what they were talking about, and to be able to say something, when they asked me what I thought.
I walked into the kitchen that second week, and Cia was baking some kind of cookies that smelled heavenly. When I asked her if I could help, she just smiled and told me to pull up a chair. That day we baked two kinds of cookies, mint chocolate chip, and ginger molasses. In the weeks that followed, we became closer, as she taught me how to cook and bake. I’d always bragged that talent in the kitchen wasn’t necessary if you had talent in the bedroom. Yet along with my new surroundings was a new sense of not only wanting to fit in, but the desire to take a chance on some of the things that I’d always sneered at as not being “my thing.” I hadn’t been happy with who I was, not deep down. So why hold onto that person’s beliefs and values?
Letting go of that old chip on my shoulder was the beginning of healing for me. I’d never sought any reasoning for my way of life, or even felt it was necessary to understand why I did the things I did. But as I began to feel valued by the people around me, I understood finally it was because I was finally standing up for myself. I’d always been very vocal about not letting anyone screw me over, and making sure that I got my fair share of whatever I wanted, whether it be orgasms, tips, or anything else. Yet I came to understand that my attitude hadn’t ever really gotten me something I’d yearned for my whole life: true admiration born of respect. There was a difference between someone giving me a fair deal because they were made to, and someone willingly sharing things with me because they wanted to spend time with me, or thought I’d earned them through an equal share of work.
With that newfound sense of self, I finally was able to look towards a future. I’d always lived day-to-day my entire life, my mantra that tomorrow would take care of itself and the present was all that was important. I saw now much of that attitude had been because I had never been able to see a tomorrow that was filled with something better than today. Cliché as it was to admit it, I hadn’t known anything was missing in my life until Terian had shown me how much more was out there. Hesitantly, I secretly began to consider a future of getting married, maybe enrolling in a short college program, or getting some kind of part-time job with Solutions, Inc., like Sar had. Hell, maybe I could fill in for her on the days she wasn’t here, as that seemed to be most of the week these days. With Danial growing the business, Terian said there would be a lot more work coming in.
I was finally happy, really happy. I had a home, a committed man that loved me, and real friends. I wasn’t going to mess that up for anything.
* * * *
A few months later, I got a letter from a lawyer, telling me my father was dead. In spite of everything he’d done and how much I hated him, I still went to pieces.
Terian was wonderful, holding and comforting me until I managed to pull myself together. We arranged travel to meet with the lawyer, fortunately having already planned to go west to try to track down any remaining members of Terian’s foster family.
Terian’s “can of worms” was not that big, but it was supernatural: a demon Titus was his father, and his mother was a faerie called Leri. Titus had apparently wanted a child, but Leri hadn’t, or at least Titus hadn’t checked with her before casting a spell to make a pregnancy possible. Leri had dealt with her bundle of joy in the worst possible way: hiding it from Titus until she gave birth in secret, then foisting the child off on an unsuspecting human whom she’d bespelled. It was obvious that Terian’s feelings for his mother resembled mine for my late father. While I couldn’t fault him for that, I did understand Leri’s panic; most women who got pregnant by a demon died giving birth. I didn’t excuse her for her actions, but I trusted Titus even less. Another reason I was not rushing into marriage anytime soon, with those kinds of potential in-laws.
Our trip was a good one. Terian did find the sister of his beloved brotherwell, the man he’d thought of as his brother. When he came back from meeting with her, he’d clearly been crying. But he seemed so much more at peace than he had been, almost like he’d been given a reprieve from the gallows.
On our way home, we stopped in Janesville, and met with the lawyer.
“Your father didn’t leave you anything,” he said in a solemn tone. “He said you betrayed him when he needed you most. But he didn’t leave a will, and so the money comes to you, as next of kin.”
“I don’t want it,” I grated out, full of old wrath. “Draw up papers to donate it to the state program for children.”
“Which one?” the lawyer asked, clearly taken aback. “There are dozens.”
“Pick one for abandoned and orphaned children,” Terian said, putting his hand over mine and squeezing. “One that gets them together with new families, and gives them a chance, even when they think there isn’t one.”
I nodded, pressing my lips together tightly and blinking a lot to control my emotions. The lawyer said he’d do it, and send me some papers to sign in a few days.
Later, we went to my father’s old trailer. Once again, it looked abandoned, with all the signs that it was being used for sex by the local teenage crowd.
“Want me to incinerate it?” Terian offered, a blue ball of his mystical fire appearing in his hand. “Just say the word, and it’s done.”
“No,” I said slowly. “Leave it. My father liked sex more than anything. Maybe this is a good way for him to be remembered.”
Terian clearly thought me crazy for that thought, but he just held my hand, and together, we walked away. We had one more stop to make, before catching our plane home.
When I got to the cemetery, my mother’s grave was overgrown again. Terian helped me weed it, and before long, the patch of earth in front of it was bare again.
“We need to plant some flowers,” I said in dismay. “I forgot to bring any.”
Terian looked around. “Grab me one of those wild roses, over there,” he said.
I grabbed one. Swearing when it jabbed me, I broke off a piece with a flower. It was a pretty variety, kind of pink and pale orange. I handed it to him, and he stuck it in the earth.
“It’s better than nothing—” I broke off, gaping in shock. Terian was murmuring something, and the rose was growing before my eyes, branches and greenery springing forth. Soon it was a foot tall bush, covered with fragrant blossoms.
I stared at the beautiful roses, touched to the point I couldn’t speak. I had known for years that Terian could wield magic, but this was the first time he had ever done some for me. “Thank you,” I finally managed, blinking back tears.
“The roses will last,” Terian said, giving me a smile. “I helped the flower grow deep roots, Sun. It’ll be able to get water when it needs it.”
Only one thing more was needed. Blinking rapidly, I got out my Sharpie, which I had remembered this visit, and wrote “Beloved Mother” on the stone. “Mom, this is Terian,” I said. “He’s my guy, and I’m finally happy. I might not be back for a while, but—”
“I can teleport you, Sun,” Terian reminded me in a whispered tone. “We can come back whenever you want.”
I’d forgot. I shot him a grateful look, and went on. “Dad’s dead, maybe you already know that. Anyway, he donated his body to science, to try to help find a cure for what he died of. Maybe he wasn’t the bastard we both thought he was.” I paused. “I wanted you to know that. And I hope you can see Terian and I, and that you’re happy for me.” I wiped away sudden tears. “Because I finally am happy, with him. He helped me find my way to a great life, instead of just a life.”
Terian took my hand, and we began to walk away.
“Why do you write on the stone?” Terian asked. “Did your Mom and you have some inside joke with Sharpies?”
“No,” I said, smiling at his naïve assumption. “I want the stone to say what I wrote. And it doesn’t.”
“I can fix that,” he said lovingly. “Cover your eyes.”
He turned, and lightning shot from his hands, striking the headstone. I covered my face with my arms as stone chips exploded outward with a sharp crack.
Terian gently took my hands away from my face. “How’s that? It’s a little jagged, I’m afraid.”
He’d rent the stone with the lightning. Now “Beloved Mother” was there in scrawled letters, beneath my mom’s name.
I gave him a hug and a kiss, more unshed tears in my eyes threatening to spill down my cheeks. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”
“Anytime,” he said, kissing me again. “Now let’s go home, Sun.”