Steal the Moon

Chapter Nine

The sun was just beginning to set when Lee, Declan, and I sat back in my favorite park and enjoyed tacos from the local street vendor. We’d managed to clean up enough that we didn’t cause comment. The butcher who had shown us where the aswang nested had been kind enough to give us a place to clean up and a fire to roast the aswang’s head. Though she could never replace her precious child, I could see a burden had been lifted off her shoulders.

I was procrastinating. I knew I should head home, but I’d used Lee’s grumbling tummy as an excuse. It was kind of good to be back in my old neighborhood. I’d kept my apartment for a long time even after I bought my little house in the country. It had been important to still have a place in the city, but Dev convinced me to give it up after Danny and I moved in with him.

As I breathed in the early evening air, I wondered if my apartment was still available. There had been no voice mails on my cell when I checked after we burned the aswang. I’d expected Dev to leave a flurry of angry “get your ass home” messages, but there was absolutely nothing.

The silence said a lot.

“You are not enjoying your cat?” Declan asked, his voice not unkind.

“It’s great. I’m just worried about going home. What the hell do you mean cat?” I sat straight up and looked down at my beef soft taco with sour cream and guacamole.

Lee took a big bite of his fourth taco. Werewolves can really pack it away. “It’s definitely cat. You were right about this place. This is some damn fine cat. I’ll have to bring Zack here.”

“It can’t be cat, guys.” They had to be playing a joke on me. “People in the regular world don’t eat cat.”

“Trolls do.” Declan gestured toward the taco stand. I stared back at the perfectly human-looking husband and wife team who’d sold me tacos for the last five years. They bowed when Declan looked their way. I’d been surprised that they refused to allow Declan to pay them. “See, they know their future king.”

Declan got up and excused himself to get another lemonade, which he thought was the greatest invention ever.

I set my taco down. I really hoped Taco Bell wasn’t run by trolls because I was going to have to stop somewhere on my way home. I was still really hungry.

The ground in front of me shook as Daniel landed on the lawn. He was wearing a Superman T-shirt, which I found ironic, and those dimples came out as he smiled down at me.

“Hello, Z,” he said, his drawl satisfying something deep in my soul. “You’ve been a very bad girl. Dev has pulled out a good portion of that hair of his. If I don’t get you home soon, he’s going to be bald, and I don’t think any of us wants that. What’s he going to do with his spare time if he’s not fixing his hair?”

I frowned. “I don’t know if I want to face Dev, even though I was totally in the right on this one. I killed the creature and got the info I needed. Lucas Halfer sent her, by the way. He’s sending out the troops apparently.”

Daniel cursed and sat down beside me, his hand sliding over mine. It felt so good to have him next to me. “Damn it. I’m sorry, Z. It didn’t seem like a big deal last night. It’s been quiet, and I guess I didn’t want to admit that anything could be wrong. Are you okay?”

I nodded, enjoying being close to him. Danny and I had fought a lot, but we always put it behind us. “With the singular exception of really needing a shower, I’m fine.” I twisted around to put my feet in his lap. “And these are now my official zombie-killing shoes.”

“Zombies?” Daniel asked with an expectant smile.

“That was some fucked up shit,” Lee admitted as he got up and shook the grass off his jeans. “Zoey, I’ll be in the club at noon tomorrow. If you need me before then, just call. Don’t go running off on your own, okay?”

I saluted my new BFF.

Daniel shook his head, his face going grave. “Sorry, Lee. Dev fired you. He was adamant. You didn’t follow direct orders. No more bodyguards for her without a blood oath to me.”

“Quinn can fuck himself,” Lee said with an arrogant grin. “I take orders from Zoey. As for the oath to you, you can fuck yourself, too. You haven’t given me any reason to tie myself to you, Donovan. I’ll make an oath when I find the leader I want to dedicate myself to. I don’t think it’s going to be you.”

Daniel looked up at the wolf, and there was only the slightest hint of anger in his eyes. “Understood, Lee. Feel free to remove yourself.”

I rolled my eyes at the alpha-boy fight. “I’m happy with Lee, Danny. If you put Zack on my ass, I’ll just tranq him again and run off on my own. Lee and I made a deal. If he’s my bodyguard, I promise not to try to give him the slip.”

Shaking his sandy head, Daniel gave the wolf a hard look. “If you get my wife hurt, I swear I’ll kill you myself.”

“I’m sure you’ll try,” Lee muttered. “I think I’ll be going before the real fight starts.” Lee gave me a nod and I heard him say, “Good evening, Your Highness,” as he walked away.

Declan walked up, giving the wolf a regal nod of his head as he exited the park. He stared down at Daniel, whose face flushed at the sight of the future king of Faery.

“There’s two of him?” Daniel’s eyes widened.

“He told you he had a twin,” I pointed out.

“I thought it was a fraternal thing.” Daniel stood up. He stared at Declan like he really didn’t want to believe it. I probably should have mentioned it. I’d seen Dev’s twin before in a Hell plane vision, but Dev didn’t really like to talk about him. I’d kept it to myself, figuring if Dev wanted to talk to Daniel about his brother, he would.

“Nope, they’re identical.” I joined him, scrambling up. “He’s the one who saved me last night. It’s why I thought I was with Dev.”

Declan bowed slightly as he introduced himself. “Vampire, I am Prince Declan Quinn, future king of Faery. I did indeed save the fair Zoey from the beast, though she has yet to offer any real payment for the deed. I have had to steal kisses from her all day as she selfishly refuses to give them.”

“And they have the same taste in women,” I pointed out with a sigh.

I thought Daniel would laugh and have a good joke about me having to put up with not one but two horny faeries. I kind of thought he would roll his eyes and treat the prince like an obnoxious child. I’d gotten used to my husband being somewhat good natured about other men sometimes looking at me. Dev had helped him get over the crazy maniac vampire jealousy thing.

It had been a long time since Danny had gone a little crazy, so I didn’t expect his fangs to pop out to violent lengths as he reared his fist back and sent the prince flying through the air. His completely over-the-top reaction reminded me that the extremely possessive nature of Daniel Donovan was not something to be messed with.

Declan hit a tree with a nasty crack, but he popped back up, weapon in hand. Before we could move, he’d notched the arrow, drawn it back, and released it. There was a whizzing sound and then a thunk as it slammed into Daniel’s leg.

“Guards,” Declan yelled. “The vampire only. Do not harm my brother’s mistress.”

Suddenly the park was filled with warriors and weapons, and a couple of freaky flying things with big teeth. I stared at the flying creatures because they greatly resembled manta rays with their long spiked tails. They didn’t need water though. They moved through the air with a menacing grace that took my breath away. Those tails slapped around with audible cracks and came at Daniel even as two large Fae bore down on him with broadswords.

Declan stood in the back of the fray with Padric in front of him, and he managed to slam several more arrows into my husband’s body.

I found a place away from the fray because the truth of the matter was this wasn’t a fair fight. So I made myself comfortable. There were only eleven of them, including Declan, and they didn’t even have guns. Daniel moved faster than my eyes could track, but I was able to see how the Fae fell one by one under his claws and teeth. He reached up and pulled the Unseelie creatures straight out of the air, slamming the two into each other with a mighty crunch before kicking them against a tree.

I just sat and watched, comfortable with the fact that Daniel wouldn’t really kill Declan. He would enjoy the fight, but unlike my boyfriend, these Fae were immortal. Danny could take out all of his frustration on them and other than a nice long healing process, they would turn out okay. I thought about tossing Danny one of the knives I had strapped to my thigh, but just as I was mustering the will to get up and do it, I noted that he’d wrestled one of the long swords away. He used it to skewer a tall faery with blond hair. He’d already incapacitated half the small army.

While Danny was working through his problems, I was still worried about Dev. I pulled out my phone and checked my e-mail. Other than some Nigerian prince who really wanted me to help him smuggle money out of the country, there was nothing. Dev hadn’t even written me a single freaking e-mail, and I usually got five or six from him a day. There was at least one every day with an attached photo that I couldn’t open in public, but today I got nothing. How pissed off would Daniel be with me if his chief advisor left us because he was so sick of dealing with my crap? I found myself hoping the fight would last a little longer so I could avoid Dev.

There was no such luck as Danny stuck the sword into the last fighting Fae and began to move on Padric and Declan.

Declan watched Daniel with serious eyes even as Padric gave a great shout and leapt forward to protect his king. He looked pretty scary to me as he sprang through the air with a warrior’s cry and an upraised sword, but Daniel just punched him in the face with all of his might and the Fae flew backward. When he hit the ground, he didn’t get back up.

Daniel’s eyes were stark, his claws long as he stalked the faery prince, who now had the good sense to realize he was in real danger. Still, even with death staring at him, he was curious.

“What are you?” Declan asked, no longer bothering with his weapon. “You’re not a simple vampire.”

Daniel took him by the neck and hauled him up. His voice was deep as he talked around his fangs. “I’m a king, Your Highness, and not because my mother spat me from her womb. I am a king because I kill everything between me and my crown. Do you think I will not guard what is mine? She is my queen, my wife, my companion, my precious blood, and my property. I will kill you if you so much as think about touching her again. Do I make myself clear?”

“I believe I fully understand you,” Declan agreed, surprisingly calm. He didn’t fight Daniel’s hold, didn’t kick out. He merely waited.

Daniel dropped Declan, turning from him and starting toward me. “And don’t think your brother will be returning with you. He has work to do here. Take your ass back to Faeryland.”

Daniel stalked across his small battlefield, not caring that he stepped over various groaning bodies. He was completely ignoring the fact that he had three arrows sticking out of his body. He’d taken more, but the ones that had hit his chest had come out and the wounds were already healing. It was the three that had hit his legs and gone through to the other side he was struggling with. His body couldn’t figure out which way to push the foreign object out and he seemed reluctant to deal with them himself. He reached down and pulled me off the ground. His arms went around my back and under my knees.

“Property?” I wound my arms around his neck. It was the only thing on his list of words to describe me that I had issue with.

“Well, he pissed me off,” Daniel said as he leveled one last scowl at Dev’s brother. His eyes moved down toward me as we started to float. “And you were right. Arrows fucking hurt.”

Our flight through the city was far too short for my liking. Danny didn’t speak, but he held me tight and kissed my cheek. Even as we approached the balcony of the penthouse, I could see Dev pacing and watching the sky. It was no use because Daniel shielded himself when he flew. No one could see us as we made our way through downtown Dallas. The lights were beginning to flicker around us, but I couldn’t see anything but Dev and the emotion playing on his face.

Daniel landed on the balcony. Dev turned, his eyes finding mine, and I saw a momentary relief that was quickly replaced with anger. His eyes flared when he took in Daniel.

“Dude, what the hell happened to you?” he asked as Daniel set me on my feet.

Daniel gestured to the arrows sticking out of his body. “Your brother happened to me. He got handsy with Z, and I took offense. He brought out his little bodyguards and after I took them out, we came to an agreement. He won’t touch her again, and I won’t hack him into small pieces.”

“You took out Padric?” Dev’s mouth was slightly open in surprise. He dropped to his knees in front of Daniel, inspecting the wounds.

“I don’t know who that is,” Daniel admitted. “If he was with your brother, I assure you he got his ass handed to him. Now will someone go get a knife and cut these things out of me? I know it would be easier to shove them through but the wood hurts way more than whatever they used on the tips.”

“It’s made from a rock found in Faeryland.” Dev glanced up at me with little expression on his handsome face. I noticed he hadn’t shaved. There was a sexy five-o’clock shadow across his jaw. “Give me a knife, Zoey. I know you have at least two. I inventoried the armory.”

I pulled out the knives and handed them over. Now that I was standing in the same room with him, I really wanted to say whatever it took to get through this. “Dev, I think…”

“Not now, Zoey.” He dismissed me as he started to slice through the denim of Daniel’s jeans. “I’ll handle this while you go take a shower. You smell like you waded through corpses. When you’re presentable, we can discuss how this is going to work from now on.”

“Ultimatums, Dev?” I’d told myself I would be calm, but he was starting to push my buttons.

He didn’t even look back. “Oh, yes, my mistress. There will likely be several of them. After what you put me through today, I will give you ultimatums all night long.”

Daniel grunted as Dev widened the hole on his leg made by the arrow and with a jerk pulled it out as fast as he could. The hole immediately started to heal. “Baby, calm down. We need to talk, but it isn’t going to get us anywhere if we start yelling at each other.”

But I wanted to yell. They’d been wrong. They’d spent months and months putting me in a corner, and I was so tired of being stuck. “I think I’d like to hear what Dev really has to say.”

“I don’t think you do.” Dev started on the next arrow sticking out of Daniel’s leg. “I don’t think you want to know what I think. Daniel and I have done our level best to protect you and you turn right around and make it hard on us. Do you honestly think this is the way to prove you give a shit about us?”

“Dev.” Daniel made his name an admonition.

Dev pulled the next arrow out, making Daniel groan. “I’m speaking the truth. She walked out on us. She did that.”

“Yes, and she’s got the pussy, dude. Maybe you can get pussy wherever you want, but I’m a dude who’s only wanted one pussy his whole life. You gotta deal with the pussy in a certain way.” A low groan came from Danny’s mouth. “Fuck. Don’t twist it, asshole.”

There was no headway to be made with him. I walked away through the grotto, making my way past the bedroom we shared and into the master bathroom, already planning my exit strategy. Dev didn’t need me. He had a whole harem. And Daniel had Dev now. Neither one of them needed me.

Anger thrummed through my system. Everything I’d gone through during the day served to feed my anger. He’d ignored my very real problems and then thought he could give me ultimatums.

Tossing off my clothes, I turned on the shower without bothering to wait for it to heat up. With short angry strokes, I washed every inch of my skin and then started in on my hair. I had to hold on to my anger or I would cry, and I really didn’t want to cry. As I rubbed the shampoo in, I made plans.

Staying with Sarah was an option, but that might be hard on her brand new marriage. The last thing a newlywed couple needed was a crying, depressed friend turning their couch into her own personal mourning space. I could stay with Dad, but the idea of listening to “I told you so” twenty-four seven was unpleasant. As I finished with my hair, I switched the shower off and knew I would do what I had always done when I was really lost. I would walk the bridges and hope I could forget them.

Adrenaline was still pumping through my system as I wrapped the fuzzy towel around me and walked out of the shower, already planning what I would pack. I didn’t need much, just some clothes and my gun. Halfer was still out there, and he wouldn’t care that Dev didn’t want me anymore.

“You look ready to run, my mistress.” Dev stood by the sink, his arms crossed over his chest. “Just who are you planning to run to?”

“I thought I’d spend some time with Ingrid and Halle.”

“Did you now?” He moved away from the sink, his whole being stern and authoritarian. “You thought you would just walk away and nothing else mattered except what you wanted.”

“You think I wanted to almost get my ass kicked by an undead piece of crap? You think I wanted to spend the day with your brother trying to get in my pants? You can go to hell, Dev. Oh, wait, we’ve already been there.”

I tried not to think about how much I loved him. Weariness was stamped on his face, and I wanted to smooth his hair down and kiss him until he smiled at me again. Instead, I walked past him and into the bedroom.

He followed close behind me. Daniel was stepping into sweats as I entered the room, his strong body showing no evidence of the damage it had taken. Declan hadn’t done anything Daniel couldn’t fix in a couple of minutes.

Dev gave him a caustic smile. “You win that bet, Dan. She thinks she’s running.”

Danny looked over at me, his lips a flat line. “Baby, don’t do this. You’re digging a hole.”

But it was my damn hole and there weren’t any bodyguards or people who wanted to hold me back down in my hole.

Dev didn’t seem to want to listen to Daniel any more than I did. “Before you attempt to leave, Zoey, I would like to ask you a few questions.”

Taking a deep breath, I moved to face him. “Fine, Dev, ask away.”

“What did you think you would gain by walking away today?”

That was an easy one. “I thought I would figure out what was happening to me. You didn’t seem to give a crap.”

“I will admit I mishandled the situation last night. I am very sorry about it. I should have listened to you. I can only say that dealing with your father put me in a bad mood. This morning however, is a completely different matter. You didn’t call me. Didn’t think to talk to me.”

“Oh, I did. I talked to you. You just turned out to be Declan.”

He shook his head. “And you should have called me. The minute you realized what had happened, you should have called me or Daniel.”

“Because you would have believed me.” They wouldn’t have. They would have come up with twelve different ways I’d done the wrong thing, and I was so tired of being treated like an idiot.

Dev looked to me, his face a polite mask. “Please tell me what I have done to earn this. What have I failed to provide you with? I’ve given you a home. There’s an entire staff to wait on you. You need only ask for something and it’s provided.”

“You wanted me to move in here, Dev. It wasn’t like I didn’t have a place of my own,” I shot back because I’d been called property one too many times already. “I can certainly get another. I stopped working because the two of you wanted me to.”

Daniel sat down on the bed, watching Dev and I circle each other. “Zoey, that was for the best. We’ve got to concentrate on taking over the Council. We’re close to being able to do it.”

“That’s not the point, Dan,” Dev said, his emerald eyes on me. “Zoey broke trust with us today. We agreed to this arrangement. She agreed to her bodyguards, and the first time she finds it inconvenient, she takes off on her own without leaving so much as a note to let us know she’s still alive.”

Anger welled in my gut. He wanted to do this now? Oh, I could do this. He had no idea what it meant to be followed every minute of every day. “The first time? I assure you, Devinshea, I’ve found Zack to be entirely inconvenient from the day you hired him.”

“Well, you get your wish on that one, sweetheart, because I fired them both,” Dev said smoothly. “Zack will continue to work with Daniel, but I’ll be supplying Lee with a one-way ticket back to Nevada in the morning.”

“Don’t. I like Lee.” And I hated the fact that I’d gotten him in trouble.

Dev’s face went stony and stubborn. “He was supposed to bring you home. I will not be defied like that. I’ve already hired a security firm to handle you from here on out. You’ll have four guards on you at all times and three others watching from a distance. I doubt you’ll be able to shoot them all.”

It was everything I’d dreaded. And everything I couldn’t accept. I couldn’t live like that. I’d hated the last several months where I was never alone, always watched. It made me insane. I couldn’t work, couldn’t breathe.

“I’m not going to be a prisoner.” I walked over to my closet and pulled out a backpack. I threw it on the bed. “You and Daniel can come and go as you please, but I have to give up everything I am so the two of you can play your little games with the Council.”

Taking my arm in his hand, Dev whirled me around, and I was shocked at the anger I saw there. It made me try to take a step back. He crowded me, using every inch of his six and a half feet to invade my space. “This has nothing to do with the Council, Zoey, and everything to do with the killer who’s stalking you. I apologize that you’ve been forced to give up the more impulsive portions of your personality in order to stay alive. And don’t you dare say I’ve given up nothing for you. You have no idea the sacrifices I’ve made in order to continue to remain at your side.”

“Oh, I have some idea,” I spat back, warming to my topic now. He’d kept a few things from me. “There was something about six priestesses. What’s wrong, Dev? You couldn’t find a seventh so you could screw a different girl every day of the week?”

“I knew she was going to find out about that one day,” Daniel said, staring at us with his arms crossed.

I was just about to ask how Danny knew about it when Dev’s demeanor changed, and I knew I’d pushed him past politeness. “Oh, sweetheart, I didn’t have one lover for each day of the week. I fucked all six of them every day of the week. I assure you, I took their pleasure seriously. It was my job, and I always do my job.”

“And the mistresses?” I asked because I just wanted it all out there. If we were going to break up, I wanted to know every minute detail. “I seem to remember you saying I was your only serious girlfriend. Guess that was a lie.”

“My brother was a busy boy today,” Dev pointed out. “He’s been telling tales. Let’s clear this up, then. I haven’t had any human girlfriends except you, and I’ve been absolutely monogamous since the moment we began dating, even when you returned to Daniel. I apologize for having a life before you, Zoey. We can’t all be as pure as Daniel over there.”

“Don’t you bring me into this, Dev,” Daniel warned. “I told you we were pushing her too hard. I told you she was going to wake up and want to be herself again and we would have to deal with it.”

Dev frowned Daniel’s way. “Well, of course. You know everything, Dan. I’m sure you’re planning on leaving with her.”

“I was planning on not letting her leave at all,” Daniel replied, looking fed up with both of us.

“You’re avoiding the point.” I wanted to get back to the fight. “Did you or did you not keep a bunch of women? I want to know if I’m just the latest in a long line of women Devinshea Quinn paid for and got rid of when he got bored.”

“You should know I was extremely generous with each of them when I was done,” Dev drawled with a bad-boy smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “My mother once asked if I planned to empty the royal coffers with payouts to my women. If it makes you feel better, lover, you’re absolutely the most expensive woman I’ve ever paid to fuck.”

My hand shot out, instinct leading me, and I slapped him with everything I had. I couldn’t stop my face from flushing with rage.

Dev shook his head to let me know my little attempt at violence had been somewhat pathetic. “You’re also the most trouble I’ve ever gone to for a piece of ass.”

“Stop it.” Daniel stood up, his voice stern. “Damn it, Dev. If I ever want to get rid of you, all I have to do is wait and let you do the work for me. Do you ever think about the shit that comes out of that mouth of yours? You don’t mean a word of it but it just keeps coming.”

Backing away from me, Dev sat down on the bed and let his head fall into his hands. “I was good at this once. I was good at handling women. I never yelled at a female until I met Zoey. I certainly never pushed one to strike me.”

“You never loved one before, man,” Daniel said quietly, and I knew this wasn’t the first conversation they’d had about me. It caught me off guard as I’d never considered they discussed me in anything more than a casual way. I knew they spent time together working and playing video games but not talking about their lives. Daniel obviously knew things about Dev he’d never chosen to discuss with me.

Dev was silent on the subject, and all those doubts Declan had placed in me came raging back to the surface. I looked down at Dev, who was obviously trying to get himself under control, and gave him an out. “If you’re tired of me, Dev, all you have to do is say so. I won’t cause you any trouble. I’ll just leave.”

“Tire of you?” His head came up, and I saw the tears he was trying hard not to shed. “I could never tire of you. I can love you. I can hate you sometimes. I can miss you when you leave the room for as little as five minutes. I can worship you. I can curse you because my life was easier before you invaded every inch of my soul, but I will never tire of you.”

I knelt between his legs and stared up at his face, touching the roughness of his dark beard. I wasn’t exactly innocent in this fight. “I am so sorry about last night. I should never have said that to you. It was awful, and I didn’t mean a word of it. I’m also sorry about today. I didn’t do it to hurt you. I love you, Dev. I love you and Danny, but I can’t live like this. I need you to trust me. I need to be more than just your mistress.”

“You died,” Dev whispered, leaning into my hand. “I still see it when I close my eyes. I fell to the floor and knew I was going to die and it hadn’t meant a damn thing because I could hear him killing you. Daniel can protect you. What the hell can I do? I’m utterly useless when it comes to Halfer. The only thing I can do is pay a phalanx of stronger men to keep you safe. Do you have any idea how that feels?”

“No,” I admitted. “Though I have nightmares about that night, too, and I know Danny does. We have to get past it. What does keeping me alive mean if I’m not me anymore?”

“I just wish I wasn’t so soft sometimes,” he said quietly.

“That’s why we train,” Daniel said, sitting down beside Dev. “You’re much stronger than you were before. It didn’t feel soft when you pulled me into the ground last year with all those freaking plants. We were on the Hell plane. There was nothing alive for you to work with. You have to forgive yourself. We have to move on. I’ve loved Z most of my life, and let me tell you, this is not the last time she’s going to pull this crap.”

“It’s not,” I agreed because Danny was right. I wished I was a different person sometimes. I wished I was simpler because most of the time when I got into real trouble, there was no one to blame but myself, but I knew I wasn’t going to be changing.

“She’s complicated and obnoxious, and she’ll make you completely insane,” Daniel explained. “And we’ll never get bored. We had a good six months of pretending to be in charge of this relationship. Well, the boss is back.”

Dev laughed and finally kissed me. “I have missed her.”

I pushed myself up against his lips, so happy to have them pressed to mine. They could complain about me all they liked as long as they kept me. I needed them so much.

“I really missed you, Z,” Daniel said with a sarcastic sigh. “I can’t tell you how happy I was you finally broke out of your funk. It’s been damn hard being the only guy in this relationship.”

“Danny,” I scolded him because the last thing Dev needed was that kind of teasing. He really could be sensitive about it.

“Oh, no, Daniel. I disagree.” Dev’s eyes took in the fact that I was only wearing a towel. “I don’t think anyone could look at those tits of hers and think boy. If being properly organized and giving a crap about the way I present myself to the world makes me feminine in your eyes, then so be it. But let me assure you, if I’m female, I’ll be coming out of the closet because I’m definitely a lesbian.”

Dev reached out and suddenly I was no longer wearing that towel. Cool air caressed my skin, but I was heating up because of the way they were both staring. He tossed the towel aside and took a moment to let his eyes roam my body. “I believe we had an arrangement before, lover. Do you remember it? I was more than willing to concede the reins of our relationship to you as long as I maintained a certain level of dominance in one very specific place.”

Dev liked to be in control in the bedroom. He liked to play certain games, and we hadn’t done anything like that since bringing my husband into the relationship. I have to admit everything female in me tightened at the thought of Dev taking control again. Sex had been good the last six months, but Dev had allowed Daniel and me to explore what we were willing to do together. The boundaries had yet to really be pushed. As I gazed into those green eyes, I realized he was done with going with the flow.

Dev was going to take charge.

Dev stood up and before I could protest, I was in his arms. He tossed me on the bed. I tried to scramble up but found myself tangled in green vines that shot out from the walls to hold my arms. Another pair of snaking vines appeared at the end of the bed, wrapping themselves around my ankles. The lush ivy held me tight, and I couldn’t stop the startled cry that sprang from my lips as I was spread in a wanton fashion across the bed.

“Now, my goddess,” Dev drawled as he and Daniel looked down at my body. Dev’s eyes were hot, and there was no mistaking the erection he sported. “You were a bad girl today. You caused an enormous amount of trouble. Did you think you could get away with it? It’s time to discuss your punishment.”