Where The Numinous Awaits

Ch. 22: Nixie's Invitation

August 31 | Day

Dex's eyelashes formed two crescent fans to cloak her desire, but when she lifted her gaze, her feelings were evident: yearning, reproach, capitulation. A thrill shot through me. Was she ready to stop fighting the inevitable? The three of us couldn't resist each other. Making love to Dex and Legend had filled my intimate dreams with wave after wave of ecstasy for many nights, but fantasies couldn't sustain me. I needed more. I needed her, the woman in charge, our consummate leader. All she had to do was drop her guard.

Seductively licking her lips, Dex maneuvered toward me. Closer, I willed. The scent of her jasmine body spray enveloped me. Her silky mouth connected with mine over Legend's chest, and I melted. I was a flowing river. A sensual moan erupted from somewhere sizzling hot within me. The dragon shifter's fingers skimmed my back, and he echoed the same sound.

Give in to me. I slanted forward for a deeper exploration of Dex's lips. The plunge of her tongue spoke volumes about her hunger, and I thought we would take things further, but she broke away with a frustrated groan.

"Don't stop," I begged.

"Are you using your powers against me?" she asked.

"No." I didn't need to.

Growling, she slid her hand beneath the covers and stroked Legend to gasping as she kissed him next. He shuddered from the teasing caress of her fingers, panted as she let her kisses trail to his neck and chest. I ached, watching his hips rise and fall in her grasp. Imagining his gratifying girth filling my sex with pleasure, I reached down to find his cock turgid and slick with readiness.

But Dex jerked away from us as if scalded. "My resolve may be weakening, but it hasn't fractured completely. Get some sleep, princess," she muttered. "Goodnight, Legend."

What the fuck? I looked at her with a mix of annoyance and admiration. True to character, she turned over and went to bed. As much as I regretted the early end to the fireworks, her self-discipline was a thing of wonder and one of the prime reasons I had asked the secret agent to help prepare me for my future role as queen. Dex Rodriguez exuded power.

And that was why I was falling in love with her.

Exhaustion clawed me under. I fell asleep on Legend's chest and only stirred when the alarm went off, signaling it was time to relieve Fitz. I felt the dragon shifter creep out of bed, trying not to wake me. Drowsily, I rolled across the warm empty space left by his body and snuggled up next to Dex. She wrapped an arm around me, disinhibited by sleep.

Hours later, before the sun had even lightened the windows, I found myself alone in bed, awakened by the sound of voices coming from the living room. I knuckled sleep from my eyes and trudged in. "What's going on?" I yawned.

Director Van der Woodsen looked up from discussing our return trip with the rest of the team. Legend and Dex occupied the sofa. Fitz perched on a stool in the thinker's pose, and the director sank into the recliner.

"Delilah's cage has been loaded into a small shipping container to be transported upriver via barge," he explained the change of plans. "She's revitalizing faster than expected, and I must return to headquarters. I think it's best we get the vampire to the safehouse where Dr. Rodriguez can negotiate the terms and conditions of her release."

I nodded in understanding, but any thoughts of another day alone with Dex and Legend were quickly extinguished. It was impossible to pursue a relationship with the weight of the world on our shoulders. There was always so much to do.

We collected our belongings for an uneventful trip to Baton Rouge, where a truck was waiting to transport the shipping crate to Dex's cottage. I struggled to visualize the bulky container parked in the suburban neighborhood and wondered what the neighbors would think, but Dex seemed unbothered by appearances. More importantly, how would the vampire react to a veritable buffet like a suburban neighborhood?