Midnight shift, p.6
Midnight Shift, page 6
Ian was filled with envy and curiosity, as he simply held Benie. Trace saw a side of Benie no one else could even imagine. To know what she thought, felt—an ability worth having for sure. He leaned his head against the cool tiled backsplash, held her tighter, and closed his eyes. Just to rest them. The last three days had really taken it out of him, and it seemed they were far from over.
He’d not only had to contend with a doting suitor, his competition for Benie’s affections, but he also had to figure out how to tell her of his current findings. And tell her in a way that she could accept without hating him.
Feeling dizzy, Ian opened his eyes, but when he did, he was no longer in the bathtub. He was standing in Benie’s parents’ basement. He’d forgotten how incredible she looked kicking and flying—not literally flying, but her jumps had seemed so high, he used to worry she’d float away.
Benie couldn’t have been more than thirteen in this dream, not too long before her parents died. Ian would’ve been eleven then in this version of Benie-verse. She used to sneak him down when her parents weren’t around. Young Benie landed a flying kick to the dummy’s upper arm, and then followed up with a dropped elbow, twisting around with lightning speed to catch its chest with a hard backhand.
“I think you’ve killed it,” Ian said teasingly, as he had in the past.
Benie stopped, her hard eyes snapping up to take in Ian. She raised her left brow. Then a huge grin spread over her face. “Ian!”
Running toward him, she flung herself at him and tackled him to the ground. She pinned his shoulders with her knees and smiled down at him. “When’d you get here?”
“Uhm, not long ago.”
“Egghead. I figured you’d be nose deep in studies.” She gave his shoulder a light punch.
Even though Ian could deduce that he was in Benie’s dream, what he couldn’t rationalize was the twinge of pain he felt when she’d hit his arm.
“Oh, suck it up, genius. I’m just trying to toughen you up a little. What happened to geek camp? I thought you were stuck there until after summer break?”
Geek camp? Then it dawned on Ian—this was the summer he’d gone off for the special advanced study program he’d gotten into at the university. When the summer had finished, they’d offered Ian a scholarship to study abroad.
He’d rejected the offer. Eleven years old, and he knew what he wanted even then—to be by Benie’s side.
Trace crouched down next to them and stared hard at Ian. “How come she can see you, but apparently not me? I’ve been trying to get her to talk to me for about five minutes, and I might as well be a ghost.”
“I have no idea. You’re the expert on this mind stuff.”
Benie frowned, her bow lips curved down in a pout. “What are you talking about, Ian?” She tapped her index finger against his temple. “Did they scramble your brain in one of those think-tank experiments?”
Trace was correct. They were both in Benie’s dream, but she could only see Ian. A small smile formed on his lips. He couldn’t help it. “Maybe,” he told her.
“Don’t play into her fantasy,” Trace said. “If we want to get her out of here, you have to make her realize that this isn’t reality anymore. She needs to wake up.”
Ian kept his gaze on Benie’s pale green eyes, but he nodded his acknowledgement. “Benie.”
Her head snapped up in sudden alertness. “Shh…”
“What is it?”
“Footsteps on the stairs. Oh man, it’s Dad. I’m not supposed to be down here today.”
“Where are you supposed to be?”
She put her hand over his mouth. “Up in my bedroom, studying.” She made a sour face. Jumping up, she grabbed Ian’s hand and hauled him with her. “Over here.” She led him to a weapons cabinet on the far wall, opened the door and shoved him in. Coming in behind him, she closed the doors. “If he catches me, I’m gonna have my ass handed to me. Especially, if he catches you down here as well.”
Her body so close to his, her warm breath falling against his shoulders, Ian remembered why his eleven-year-old self gave up a grand opportunity to study in Germany. God, Benie had been worth it then.
She was worth it now.
He heard voices from outside the cabinet. Two people, both male. He recognized her father’s voice. “What does he know?”
“Nothing, so far. His paranoia keeps him searching for the child. He’s not satisfied that she’s simply vanished. He wants proof of her death,” the other man replied.
“And what if he finds her?”
“He won’t hesitate, Daniel. He’ll kill her without a second thought.”
“I won’t let that happen. I’ll just have to get to him first.”
“You killed his wife and the first husband. As second, he’s in charge now. It’s exactly how he planned. You’ll never get near him. Your purpose is greater now, greater than that of a hired killer.”
“I will protect the girl with my last breath.”
“It may come down to that. You broke the Triune when you helped him murder Marta and Dar.” Acrimony laced the second man’s words.
“I didn’t know,” Daniel said.
“Of course you didn’t. All you cared about was killing the ‘other worlders’ as you like to call us. And if you got paid in the process, so much the better.”
“They killed my father.”
Ian felt Benie stiffen next to him.
“A small faction killed your father. You can’t judge every race by the action of one group.”
“Don’t bet on it. You’re all monsters.” Daniel’s voice with tight with seething anger.
“I don’t think you believe that anymore. It doesn’t matter. Your penance is to keep Garrick from learning about the girl.”
“She’s well hidden, gray man. Don’t worry.”
A sinking feeling grew deep inside Ian as well. This memory of Benie’s was wrong somehow. Even more so, since he hadn’t been there the first time. He’d stayed at the university until the summer ended. But even if he had heard the private conversation between Benie’s dad and the unknown man, he would not have understood it then. Not like he understood it now.
After the basement door closed, Benie cracked the cabinet open and looked around. “They’re gone. Whew, that was close. Dad would have had my hide.” She turned around and smiled up at Ian. “Hey, you think you can get out of your house tonight? There’s a wicked band playing up at the Black Bear.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “I think I can sneak us in.”
“Benie,” he said, grasping her by the shoulders. “Wake up.”
“What are you talking about?”
“This isn’t real. You’re dreaming. Wake up.”
“Ian, I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“Look at me? Do I look like the boy you remember?”
She frowned, but didn’t respond.
“A little help, Calder.”
Trace, who’d been relegated to the role of observer, walked over to them. He put his hands on Benie’s shoulders. Her neck muscles went rigid, but she didn’t turn around.
“Benie,” Trace said.
“Ian, why are you acting so strange?” she asked.
He placed his hands on her shoulders, overlapping Trace’s. “Wake up. Please. I need you to wake up.”
She gazed up at him, her eyes swirling with color. “Ian, I…” Placing her hand on Ian’s, she grazed Trace’s fingers as well. She looked at Ian. In an instant, her body transformed, grew taller, older, that of the adult Benie. “Trace.”
“Yes,” he whispered in her ear.
“My father…”
Ian shook his head. “Is not coming back now.”
Benie’s arms slid around Ian. Trace mimicked her action, embracing both Benie and Ian.
She looked up between them. “I want to go home.”
Ian leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose. “Then wake up.”
Trace dipped his head and kissed her cheek. “Wake up.”
Benie met Trace’s mouth with a fiery kiss, then broke it. Turning up to Ian, she pulled his head down, her lips parting as she kissed him hard. Her tongue darted past his teeth. Ian closed his eyes, savoring her taste as he fed from her lips.
He didn’t even feel the sensation of warm water surrounding him, until she broke from his mouth. He opened his eyes. They were no longer in the basement. Now, all three of them were in the tub.
Benie smiled up at Ian. “I’m awake.”
He smiled back. “I’m aware.”
She kissed him as the water level began to drop. Trace was getting out of the bath. Benie reached back and grabbed his wrist. “Don’t go.”
Trace looked as confused as Ian felt.
*
Waking up in a tub full of hot water and hot men should have put Benie on guard, but instead, all she felt was insatiable need. She needed both Ian and Trace. Her body, mind, and soul craved each of them. It was as if she’d lose her sanity if one of them walked away.
“I don’t know if I can.” Trace shook his head. “I feel so drawn to you, Benie. It scares me.” He stood from the tub, water sluicing from his jeans. “I can also read your mind, so I know how much you want me.” The words held pain. “But you love him. I can’t compete with that.”
Ian slid out from under her and sat on the edge of the tub. “No worries, Calder. If it comes down to Buff and Beautiful versus Bony and Brainy, I know which side wins every time.”
Benie stared at them both as if they’d each grown an extra head. Ian’s words hurt her most of all. “I need you. Both of you.” She felt desperate. Every fiber of her being cried out to be in their arms. “I don’t know why, but I do.”
Hot and cold, pain and pleasure, she felt nothing and everything. “I’m losing my mind.” Her skin had become like the water, translucent and liquid. “I’m losing myself.”
Without them, both of them, she would die. It wasn’t something she knew in her head, but she definitely felt it in her heart. Ian was the air she breathed. Trace was nourishment. One might sustain her for a while, but without Ian she would suffocate, without Trace she would starve.
Oh God, this wasn’t right. The compulsion to make love to both men confused Benie. Wanting both men wasn’t fair. Not to Ian or Trace. Fair or not, it didn’t stop her from grasping Trace’s pants with one hand while she clutched Ian’s shirt with the other, gazing from one man to the other with a desperation that shamed her.
“Benie?” The stark look in Ian’s eyes helped her to let go.
“I’m sorry.” She slipped beneath the surface of the water. Better to go quickly than have her death drag out for days.
Four hands took hold of her. She tried to tell them to stop. Them touching her, only made her desire more potent, and the pain more real. The words caught in her throat as Ian and Trace hauled her onto the bathroom floor.
Ian embraced her, rocking Benie in his arms. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”
Trace stroked her face. “Her mind is so dark. Darker than I’ve ever encountered. I don’t know if it’s physical or mental, but she truly believes if she can’t have us, then she’ll choose death as the alternative.”
“Will she die?”
Trace bit his lower lip, his brows narrowed with worry. “Maybe.”
“Please,” Benie begged. “Let me go…or don’t. But choose. I’ve chosen already.” Her words held a deeper meaning. They were ritualistic and older than time. She didn’t know when or why she’d made the choice. But it didn’t change the fact that she had chosen. It was as if both men completed the missing parts of her. Ian was intelligent, but he was more than that, he also had the inner strength to protect Benie if necessary. Trace was strong, powerful, and his sharp mind and ability would only add to their power base.
She would need a strong power base to rule.
Rule? Where had that come from? She really was losing her fucking mind. Benie struggled to make sense of her cluttered thoughts as she withered from the inside.
“We have two options…” Trace didn’t say them aloud, but Ian seemed to get it.
“Option number two is not going to work for me.” He caressed her cheek and kissed her. “I told you before, Benie. Anything you need. Anything.”
Ian offered her pity sex, which should have made her angry, but instead, she grabbed on to his offer like it was the only life raft in a vast ocean. So, when Ian kissed her again, Benie tilted her head to meet his mouth full on, feverishly kissing him back. She moaned as her mind began to clear, but she needed more. Blindly she reached out for Trace and pulled him down to them. Parting from Ian’s mouth, she tilted her head back to Trace. He met her halfway, his sensuous lips working hers as Ian fluttered kisses down her neck, licking and sucking the water from her skin.
“Yes,” she breathed into Trace’s mouth. “Yes.”
A hand—she wasn’t sure whose—slipped between her thighs.
“Touch me,” she begged. “I need you to touch me.” When the fingers slid under her panties and between her wet folds, she moaned her pleasure.
“God, you’re so slick,” Ian said, his voice two octaves lower than normal.
“Taste me,” Benie said.
He brought his fingers to his lips, his beautiful blue eyes intense with lust, and licked the glistening fluids from them. “So good,” he murmured.
Ian’s voice sounded strange, foreign, but Benie couldn’t focus enough to reason why. She laced her fingers in his hair and arched as he slid a finger inside her.
Trace rumbled, drawing Benie’s attention. She recognized the raw passion in his eyes and knew it had to match her own. She craved both men with a crazed intensity that wouldn’t let up until satisfied.
She unbuttoned and unzipped Trace’s jeans and loosed his cock. It sprung from him, thick and hard. Benie grasped his shaft and stroked the silky length of him.
Ian laid her down, pulling her nightgown up as he kissed a trail to her chest. He sucked in one nipple, teasing and twirling. Benie pushed her hips off the floor, aching for him to go lower.
Trace, leaning over Benie on all fours, darted his tongue into her mouth. He cupped her other breast with one hand. She moaned, pressing her shoulders against the floor and arched as Ian sucked hard, his teeth grazing her nipple. Her lower body clenched with need. Then Trace latched onto her other nipple, his mouth hard but sensual, and she cried out at sensory overload.
Their mouths, Trace’s firm, with just a hint of scruff, Ian’s soft and determined, moved down her abdomen like a duet melding smoothly, trying to find the right rhythm, and showing so much promise. Benie needed to bind them to her completely, and she needed them bound to each other, as well.
When their lips found the insides of her thighs, she gasped. They both peered up, their lips stilled at the sharp intake of breath. Their eyes. There was something wrong with them, they were different somehow, but Benie couldn’t think clearly. Her need became the only thing that mattered.
Not even the rumbled growl from Ian could penetrate the fog of her desire. “Please don’t stop,” she begged, gripping his hair tightly. She reached out for Trace’s hair with her other hand and gave it an urgent tug. “Please. I need. Need…need.” Her arousal was choking, and she felt like she would suffocate on it if they didn’t bring her to completion.
Trace, on her right, licked first across the folds of her sex, and the almost unbearable sensation collapsed her legs. He crawled between her thighs, lifting her with his shoulders. He worked his tongue in circles around her clit, flicking and sucking. Ian, on her left, nipped at her upper thigh.
Benie gripped Trace’s hair and pulled him closer. The stubble of his chin rubbed against her sensitive skin, but still it wasn’t enough. She was on the edge, a powder keg ready to blow, but she couldn’t come. Her body wouldn’t allow it. Not without Ian.
“Fuck!” she screamed. What she wanted from Ian wasn’t fair to her best friend, but fairness didn’t matter. Not now.
She turned her gaze to meet his, silently pleading. An awareness crept past her blinding passion. Had his eyes widened? And why were his normally light blue eyes a deep shade of cerulean? Was she hallucinating? Was that a side effect of the poison? Benie knew something was wrong—so wrong, but she couldn’t wrap her thoughts around it. And the need in her was too powerful—it was animalistic. Beyond primal.
Trace lowered her to the floor and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
Shit, worse and worse. She felt a creeping madness building in her mind. “I know you don’t want me, but I need you. Need you.” Her voice sounded weak and whiney, and she hated herself for putting her best friend in such an awful position.
Trace’s voice was low and soft when he spoke. “You’re wrong, Benie.”
“Shut up, shut up, shut up,” she murmured. Fear of being swallowed whole, disappearing into nothing, tightened her throat.
“Ian,” Trace said. “You have to help her.”
Yes, Benie thought, help me. Without either of them tending her, her body began to burn and ache, scalding her from the inside out.
She didn’t care about words or feeling, she only cared that if someone didn’t touch her soon, she was going to implode. She grabbed Trace’s hair and tugged until his mouth was back on her aching sex. She felt a finger slide inside her, then another, and the searing pain eased.
She opened her eyes. Trace’s hands were on her thighs, which meant…She rolled her head to the left and looked at Ian. “I’m sorry.” Emotionally, Benie wanted him to want her. Physically, she didn’t give a shit what he wanted. She needed him to do what she needed him to do.
“Tell her you want her,” Trace said, after his tongue swiped the length of her sex. “She needs to know how you feel.”
“I…” Ian’s voice trailed off, but thank God his fingers kept working in and out of her, sliding and rubbing the sweet spot just inside her channel.
