Lover Unleashed - J. R. Ward [110]
Abruptly, he shoved himself from the bed and had to pace it off. His cock felt like it had swollen to Empire State Building dimensions, and his balls were July Fourth blue—so desperate for a release they had their own marching band and fireworks brigade. But that wasn’t all. Something in him was roaring at the fact that he wasn’t inside of her . . . and the urge was about more than merely sex. He wanted to mark her in some way—which made absolutely no sense.
Strung out, panting, on the edge, he ended up planting his hands on the jambs of the door to the hall and leaning in until his forehead was against the steel. In a way, he almost hoped someone barged in and knocked him the fuck out.
“Healer . . . it persists. . . .”
For a moment, he squeezed his eyes shut. He wasn’t sure he could go through it again with her so soon. It was nearly killing him not to—
“Regard me,” she said.
He forced his head up, looked over his shoulder . . . and realized that she wasn’t talking about sex: She was sitting on the edge of the bed, her legs hanging off the side and inching toward the floor, her glow illuminating her from within. At first, all he could really see were her breasts, and the way they hung so full and rounded, the nipples tight from the cool air in the room. But then he realized she was rotating her ankles, one after the other.
Right, see . . . this was not about the sex, but her mobility.
Got that, asshole? he told himself. This was about her walking: sex as medicine—and he’d better not forget it. This was not about him or his cock.
Manny lurched over, hoping that she wouldn’t notice the remnants of the release he’d had. But he didn’t have to worry. Her eyes were locked on her feet, her concentration fierce.
“Here . . .” He had to clear his throat. “Let me help you stand.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
Vishous’s fangs elongated as a ring of slayers formed around the opening of the alley. These were old-school numbers, he thought. Half a dozen at least—and they’d clearly been given coordinates by their fellow slayers. Otherwise the mhis would have hidden the carnage from them.
Given his mood, all the hi-how’re-ya should have been a great thing.
Problem: The alley’s construction meant there was only one way out—apart from rushing the enemy’s ranks—and that was pulling a disappearing act. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t have been an issue, as experienced fighters could, even in the heat of battle, calm themselves enough to focus and dematerialize—but you had to be relatively uninjured, and you couldn’t take any fallen-comrade types with you when you went.
So Butch was screwed if shit got out of hand. As a half-breed, that guy was grounded, literally incapable of scattering his molecules to safety.
V muttered under his breath, “Don’t be a hero, cop. Let us handle this.”
“You’re kidding me, right.” The glare was immediate and steady. “You worry about yourself.”
Not possible. He wasn’t losing the only two compass points he had on the same night.
“Hey, boys,” Hollywood called out to the enemy. “You just going to stand there or are we gonna do this?”
Annnnnnnnnnnd that was the ringside bell. The lessers streamed forward and met the Brotherhood face-to-face, fist-to-fist. To ensure they had the privacy they needed, V doubled up on his visual barrier, the buffering creating a mirage of nothing-doing in the event humans trolled on by.
As he started working out one of the enemy, he kept his eye on Butch. The fucker naturally got right in there, taking on a tall, lanky inductee with his bare hands. He loved to brawl, and heads were his favorite punching bags—but Vishous really wished the bastard would take up fencing or, even better, get into rocket launchers. From the rooftop. So he wasn’t anywhere near the fighting. He just hated that the cop got so close, because who the fuck knew what would come out of a pocket or how much damage could be done to the guy with a gun or a length of—
The kick came out of nowhere, sailing through the air like an anvil, catching V right in the side of the