Three Trials (The Dark Side Book 2)(5)

He studies me for a minute, but I turn away and start hiking again, electing to stay with him so that he’s not left down here alone.

“Will you be able to make it three days without giving in to the urge to solidify?” Kai asks me.

“No. My level-up has its own form of balance, it seems,” I answer on a sigh. “How much can Lucifer see?”

“Not really sure, but I doubt he can see in caves. You can turn whole in those to rest and gain strength,” he says to me. “We’ll have to break for rest anyway. This place will drain our energy.”

“But you’re at your most vulnerable when you sleep. I’ll just rest an hour at a time. It’ll be enough.”

“It’s obvious Lucifer has an interest in you, possibly even knows what you are. If you go whole, you’re at your most vulnerable, and you’re not a participant in the trials. He can haul you out and execute you. You know he’s stronger, and he might know of a way to stop you from escaping.”

“Careful. You’re starting to sound like you care, and that conflicts with your selfish image,” I say, lightening the mood.

The more they act like they care, the more attached my stupid little heart tries to get to them. Like it’s starving for all the scraps of attention.

“It gets old,” he finally says with a shrug.

“What?” I ask as we move up higher on the mountain, our pace brisk to make up for lost ground.

“It gets old,” he says again. “The game. It’s always the same. The only time we shook things up was when we tried to tackle relationships. Once we even tried to have a relationship with four women, and they were game for it. Sex was together, one woman at a time. They didn’t find out about each other, but when they did, things got bad. It’s the only time favorites didn’t matter, because we were all someone’s favorite. Yet…”

“They didn’t like sharing their favorite,” I decide to say.

“Yeah. They didn’t mind sharing the rest of us, but the favorite was off limits. Even that proved to weaken us. Our bond is the only thing that steadies us. We’re a volatile explosion waiting to happen, and the bond is the glue that holds us together both individually and as a unit. Anything that threatens the bond is the worst threat to us.”

“What about being all together in the same room with different women?” I muse.

“Tried that too. It’s not…I don’t expect you to understand, but we bonded when sharing, and sharing only strengthens the bond. We don’t feel whole when we’re not sharing.”

I bet the bleeding hell rocks have synced up their mensies

“I think I know why you’re all so moody,” I say as though it’s just dawned on me. “You all have your man-periods at the same time.”

“I’m not even sure how to respond to you when you abruptly shift directions and say shit like that, and half the time you take silence as a sign of being moody,” he murmurs distractedly.

“Episodes of homicidal rage. Uncontrollable lust. Middle-of-the-night pizza cravings…Yep. You’re all totally synced up like these menstruating rocks,” I go on.

I get the usual groan.

“I mean, it’s right there in the word. Menstruating. It’d make more sense to define moody men.”

“Feel free to talk about anything else,” he grumbles. “Unless you want to keep hearing silence.”

“You’re just grunting and groaning, not really staying all that silent,” I inform him.

He gives me an impatient look.

Oh, yeah. I need back on the original topic. “For the record, I totally didn’t want any of you touching anyone else, and that made me feel selfish. If it wasn’t for the evil vagina that got you all individual hard-ons, what would the answer have been to my proposal?” I ask mildly, glancing at another bleeding rock.

Kai weirdly walks into a cave, and I follow, warily looking around. He spins once we’re deep inside. “Turn whole,” he demands.

I do, and the light is absent this time. I guess the adrenaline must have been playing a part on the cliff.

“What’s going—”

My words are cut off when he’s suddenly on me, kissing me hard as he lifts the flimsy little skirt that doesn’t even cover all of my ass and presses me against the cave wall.

He reaches between us and rips away the scrap of lace, and my breath catches, forcing me to break the kiss, when his fingers find my clit. My eyes almost cross, and I clutch his shoulder, amazed by how much better it feels when someone else touches me than when I touch myself.

Ignoring the terribly inappropriate timing, my lips hungrily find his, and I moan into his mouth as he starts working a finger inside me, his thumb still working those incredible circles at the exact right speed and perfect pressure.

I can’t even think.

He kisses his way down my throat, and my nails dig into his tux jacket as he drives me insane with very little effort. The orgasm hits me so much faster than it has under my own manipulations.

My entire body shudders and comes alive with sensation, and I kiss him even harder, needing more of him as I clench around his fingers, not feeling that hollow sensation quite as much.

He manages to break the kiss, pulling back as he pants heavily and stares into my eyes. He brings his finger up and sucks it like he’s tasting the most intimate part of my body from the one piece of his body that has touched it.