Free Demon of Desire by Ari Thatcher Page A

“Why
don’t you soak in the bathtub with some oils or salts?”
    Gower asked, “Would you like a glass of wine to sip?” He
rose from the back of the couch.
    “No, guys, really. I don’t need anything from you. From
anyone. Right now I’d love to be on a deserted island. No offense, but I
haven’t been alone since I arrived in Whispering Valley.”
    “We can’t leave you completely alone, hon. Not until the
last of your aunt’s possessions have been checked for demons.” Gower looked at
his brothers as if for support.
    Baen agreed. “We can stay out of your way, though. You go
pamper yourself and we’ll see if we can get the last of the crates out of the
attic.”
    “Fine.” At least they wouldn’t be hovering.
    As she walked slowly up the steps, with twinges of pain
coming from her hips and inner thighs from being spread on Enos’ lap, she
realized how ridiculous it was that she was complaining about the men hovering
over her. Tim had never been nurturing in all their six years together. He was
whiny, demanding. A spiritual and emotional vampire, now that she thought about
it.
    And downstairs she had three, count ‘em, three, real
vampires waiting to see to her every need. She hadn’t planned to enter the
romance lottery ever again, but the letter from her aunt’s lawyer had
apparently been the winning ticket.
    Maybe someday she’d feel like a winner. At that moment she
felt only drained.
     
    Baen and his brothers surveyed the stacks of crates and junk
in the attic. He pointed at the ones stacked in one corner. “These boxes we’ve
gone through can go to Marrett. And let’s take anything that looks like books
to our place. Sin started reading from one a few weeks back. I don’t know what
language it was, but I was sure a demon would appear at any moment.”
    “Her curiosity is dangerous. Her parents must not have told
her anything about what her great-grandfather did.” Gower lifted a pile of
quilts and moved them to a corner where a mahogany highboy dresser stood. “I
think we should take it all to Marrett’s to sort through. It’s too risky to
leave it where she can get at it.”
    Enos folded in the top flaps on a box of books and lifted.
“He isn’t going to be happy to see all of this shit dumped at his place.”
    “So we’ll take it to our basement and he can look through it
there. I just want it as far from Sin as we can get it. She’s not strong enough
to survive another possession.” Baen frowned as he thought about the potential
risks the attic held. He moved to the nearest stack of boxes and picked up the
top two, then followed his brothers down the staircase.
    He barely noticed the whispers filling the corners he
passed. He’d lived in the valley for so long, their presence was like a
constant breeze, or the stench from the horses down the road from their house.
It came with the territory. He wondered how much of their lives went unnoticed,
yet would be new to Sin. Life in the valley, life as a vampire, required
adjustments.
    They needed to be aware of that and act accordingly. Like
not watching each other make love to Sin. Not yet, anyway. She didn’t seem the
type to have experimented with multiple partners, serially or at one time. They
would have to ease her into it.
    Memories of the expression on her face when she had peaked
with Enos set his cock twitching. Her face could have been painted by the
Masters—so much passion, so much womanly mystique poured from her features.
    Baen considered how he felt about her after such a short
time. He wouldn’t call it love, yet. Love took time to build and deepen. There
was something about finding your mate, though, that changed the rules.
    Was it possessiveness? A sense of completion and rightness,
or inevitability? He could honestly tell Sin he and his brothers would devote
themselves to her forever, because they had been waiting so long to be able to
do so. Love would come, blossoming out of whatever emotion they felt for