Beth's Acceptance (Destiny's Trinities) Read online

  She looked at the creatures littering the path.

  “Not them,” Luke—Lindál—said. “We have for the last eight centuries or so, considered vampires to be our enemy.”

  Vampires.

  She couldn’t help it. She swung her gaze to Zack. He was watching her, waiting for her to connect the dots, his arms crossed over his chest. Calm. Unflinching.

  “You,” she breathed.

  “You already suspected, Beth,” he said, his deep voice at once familiar and now frightening alien to her.

  “She called you, too?” Lindál asked.

  “It wasn’t just a call, it was a compulsion,” Zack said, letting his arms drop. “I had no more choice about answering it than Pavlov’s dogs had about salivating.”

  “It was like that for me, too.” Lindál frowned. “I’ve not heard of such calls before. This is outside of normal.” He lifted his head and turned, as if he were listening hard. “There’s someone coming, about a mile off, deep in the park. They have claws. More of these creatures, I assume.” He pushed at the bodies at his feet.

  Zack took a breath, considering. “Have you been crossing over to Earth or are you staying here?”

  “Crossing over.” Lindál glanced at Beth, suddenly awkward. “A few times each week,” he added.

  “Beth’s apartment is too small and insecure. Let’s go to my place. We need to figure this out. My jalopy is a couple of blocks away.”

  * * * * *

  Zack’s jalopy was a Maserati, a black thing that purred just sitting next to the curb.

  “It only has two seats,” Beth pointed out.

  “You can sit in my lap,” Lindál offered, making her heart leap.

  Zack growled, low in his throat, barely human.

  “Or I can drive,” Lindál said placidly, holding out his hand.

  “You’ve been on Earth long enough to get a license?”

  “No.”

  “Fuck. Get in.” Zack strode around to the driver’s side, fuming.

  “I’m soaking wet,” Beth pointed out.

  “You think he gives a damn?” Zack muttered.

  Lindál just smiled as he curled himself into the passenger seat and pulled her in after him. He’d dropped his hair back over his ears now and the cleaned knife was tucked back under his shirt. She was glad to know it was there, though.

  He lifted her with little apparent effort and turned her so she was facing Zack, with her back to the door. “Your feet will get the heat from the heater,” Lindál explained and buckled the seat belt over her.

  “For a greenhorn, you know your way around,” Zack observed, starting up the car.

  “I have spent weeks reading at the Columbia library. I like the culture here. It’s...quirky. And don’t get me started on the Internet. I could spend hours there.”

  “Most people do,” Beth said, threading her arm around his neck. Her head was very slightly higher than his and she had the insane urge to kiss him. His lips were right there and his thundery blue eyes were looking right at her. Now she thought she understood all his reticence, the reason he had pulled away from her that afternoon.

  Before she had even completed the thought, her lips were pressing against his. They were warm and velvety soft, but there was a firmness there she had not expected, not since learning he was elvish. In fact, she hadn’t known what to expect. But not this firm, stroking deliciousness. His mouth molded to hers and pressed hers open and his tongue plundered her. She moaned as his hand stroked her throat and face, traced her jaw line, all while his lips and teeth nibbled and explored hers.

  When his hand cupped her naked breast she arched and cried aloud. She had no recollection of the waistcoat being opened and didn’t care. The perfection of his hand on her breast at that moment was enough. Her nipple was a marbled, electrified point, sensitive to the tiniest brush of his hand.

  “If we are to make it to my place in one piece, you have to stop now,” Zack said softly. His voice was a distorted, husky shell of itself.

  Beth gasped and tried to straighten up, to pull the waistcoat closed. Her fingers felt like big cartoon sausages, clumsy and comical. She was shuddering.

  Lindál cleared his throat.

  “Why did you kiss him, Beth?” Zack asked.

  She closed her eyes, wishing the ground could swallow her up.

  “Look, vampire—“

  “Just shut up, prince almighty. I’m trying to figure something out—“

  “Beth isn’t yours to—“

  Zack slammed on the brakes, making the responsive car’s nose dip sharply. He yanked on the wheel, bringing the car to the curb with a squeal of rubber. Beth realized with a jolt that they were already most of the way south of Central Park.

  Zack grabbed her hand and pulled it into his lap, thrusting it up against his crotch. Her eyes widened as she felt his cock, hard, erect, and throbbing wildly against the thin fabric of his trousers. The heat was enormous. Zack stared into her eyes. “What you two were feeling, I was feeling, too. I don’t know what’s going on here, but it seems like we’re in it together. We’re bonding...impressing each other somehow.” He lifted her hand and licked the palm, before giving it back to Lindál and putting the car back in gear.

  He drove down a mostly deserted Fifth Avenue in silence, as Lindál curled his hand around hers.

  Beth bit her lip. “I kissed him because I had this stupid idea I had to keep it even, or something.”

  “Because you kissed me earlier,” Zack clarified. He glanced at them both. “I don’t think we have time for coyness. Those things tonight. There’s more of them and I don’t think they’re going give us the time to poke our toes in the water until we get the courage to learn how to dog paddle with water fins at the kiddy end. We’re going to have to take a breath, jump in the deep end and figure out how to swim while the sharks circle.”

  “Amazingly, I followed most of that,” Lindál replied evenly. “And even more astounding, given the circumstances, I agree with you.” He tugged on Beth’s hand. “How long have you known Zack, Beth?”

  “About three or four months. He was a customer at the pub where I work. But he left town—“

  “I stayed away,” Zack amended with a growl. “I wanted to fuck you so bad I could have bent you over a table in full view of the whole bar. Jesus, Beth, you really had no idea?”

  She jumped a little and Lindál’s arm tightened around her. She felt him laugh. “Apparently she didn’t,” he said. “No more, I guess, than she knew how much I’ve spent the last month wishing I were human so the privilege of fucking her to a standstill, giving her climax after climax and leaving her a boneless, limp, completely satiated woman was something I could claim as any other human male.”

  Beth beat her fist lightly against Lindál’s chest. “But why all this agonizing?” she said. “I would have let either of you...both of you! For the asking! You must have known that!”

  “It is not permitted,” Lindál said at once. “In truth, I’ve risked so much already. I’ve exposed my race by even being here. If I were to mate with a human….” He shook his head. “The ramifications would be horrendous.”

  “But you came anyway,” Zack rumbled.

  “The elders have never specifically banned us from crossing over to Earth,” Lindál said stiffly.

  “I figure that’s because it’s never entered their tiny minds that someone would want to cross over to Earth on a regular basis,” Zack pushed.

  “That’s true.” Beth could feel Lindál’s discomfort.

  “All that rustic bliss get too much for you, prince of the cartwheels?”

  Lindál took a deep breath. “Yes,” he said at last. “And now, it seems, I was supposed to come. This…whatever it is that is driving us, is why I am here.”

  “That’s the second time you’ve called him prince,” she pointed out.

  “Because he is,” Zack said. “The elves have an extended royal family. Hell, they all live forever, over there—“
/>   “As do vampires,” Lindál slid in softly.

  “Yeah, but we don’t get snotty about who’s better than others. Lindál here is one of the blue blood of the elvish kingdom. Eldest son of the King, in fact.”

  “The crown prince?” Beth squeaked.

  “They don’t exactly call it that there,” Lindál said awkwardly.

  “No wonder mating with a human will cause a few hiccups. Oh, lordy.” Beth sighed.

  “You don’t have a say in this,” Lindál said firmly. “None of us do. Not anymore. There’s something at work. We—elves, vampires, all the older races, have long known there are ancient forces that sometimes conspire to dictate world events along paths known only to them. This might be one of those times. We have to take things on trust.”

  Beth stared at him. She look at Zack. “You believe this stuff, Zack? It’s way too elvish for me.”

  “That stuff is far older than even the elves,” Zack said. “But he’s putting it in elvish bullshit. Try it this way. Fact—we two are both drawn to you, and you to us. Whatever one of us males feels, the other seems to feel, so some sort of bonding is happening. There’s been records of that happening occasionally throughout vampire history. I don’t know about elvish.”

  “Yes, elvish, too. But it’s rare.”

  “Fact—this sort of bonding has never happened with two males and a female, at the same time and of both species. It has never happened with a human female.”

  She shivered, almost violently.

  “You’re scaring her,” Lindál complained.

  “No,” she said quickly. “Actually, I was thinking about the…bonding. It’s—well, it’s sexual, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Lindál said simply.

  “And no,” Zack added. “Sex is just the base of the bonding. Depending on the purpose of the bond, it has layers and meanings added on top of that. Sex is the cement.”

  “So we’re going back to your place so you can both fuck me, right?”

  The silence in the car was total.

  “In that case, you’d better drive faster,” Beth suggested.

  The Maserati leapt forward.

  Chapter Three

  Zack made a call on the way to his apartment, which was somewhere in Soho, he told Lindál when he asked. Zack spoke French rapidly and as far as Beth could tell, flawlessly, before putting the cell phone back in his pocket.

  “You speak French like a native,” she said.

  “Because a native Frenchman taught me,” he said, “For six months while I was hiding him on my farm in what would become New England, before the English found him and executed him as a spy. Then they shot me for harboring a spy and left me to die next to him.” Zack’s mouth curled down. “Their spy was fifteen years old.” He reached overhead and touched a remote control and turned a corner. The Maserati nosed into a parking garage.

  “That would be around 1776, I imagine,” Lindál murmured.

  Of course Lindál would know that, Beth realized. He’d spent a few days in the American history section.

  “1775,” Zack amended. “My neighbor found me at sunrise the next morning. He offered to make me.” He glanced at Beth. “You may meet Aubrey one day.”

  It was the implication that there was a future that warmed her the most. But it was a startling glimpse of the type of future that startled her. She had spent the last ten years knocking herself out, saving money, sweating out adult equivalency exams to get acceptance into Columbia, saving more money, fighting for student loans, eking out a living, all with an eye on the final goal of business school and a great career.

  Now this. The real world co-existed cheek-by-jowl with vampires and elves and creatures that had no name and she was apparently fated to bond with them.

  How did business school fit with that?

  The door opened behind her back and Zack’s hands were on her waist, lifting her out like a parent would a child, scooping her up. He kissed her, hard and short, and put her on her feet.

  Lindál was uncurling himself from the low-slung car, smiling. He seemed neither jealous nor angry at the kiss. His gaze fell to her chest and he lifted a brow. “Have you got a jacket in the car?” he asked Zack.

  “No, but at this time of night, we should be fine.”

  Beth looked down at the waistcoat. No wonder she been unable to do up the buttons. There were none left on the cloth to do up. Lindál must have ripped the vest open to get at her breasts. The only thing holding it closed now was the weight of the material and the shaping of the fitted garment.

  She couldn’t help her blush. It was only a matter of a few disks of plastic, but without them, she seemed extraordinarily exposed and vulnerable. Wanton. She couldn’t get the idea out of her head of having both of their hands on her breasts at the same time. It seemed to lodge there like fly paper, making her nipples tighten with excitement and her pussy throb in response.

  Lindál turned his head, listening. “Let’s go,” he suggested, moving toward her.

  Zack nodded, and rested his hand on the small of Beth’s back. “This way.”

  * * * * *

  Zack’s apartment was the penthouse, which surprised both Beth and Lindál. “I thought you’d prefer the cold basement, close to the roots and the soil,” Lindál said.

  “I like the sun,” Zack said.

  “Don’t you...burn up?” Beth asked delicately.

  He grinned. “No. But daylight slows me down. A lot. You’ll see.” He threw his keys onto the big teak table and picked up her hand. “Come with me. I have a surprise for you.”

  He led her through to a bedroom that was clearly a guest bedroom, for there was a minimum of furniture and little personalization. Despite that, it was designed with a female in mind, with good lighting and plenty of storage and horizontal surfaces. He pushed open a door and flipped on a light. It was a walk-in wardrobe and there were a dozen outfits hanging from the hangers. “They’re for you,” he told her. “I may be out on the sizes by a fraction of an inch here and there, but I don’t think so. They’re your colors.”

  “You bought these for me?”

  “Weeks ago,” he confessed. “In a mad few days when I was hatching plans I knew I was never going to be able to execute. I never got around to throwing them away, thank god.” He pulled her into a connecting room. A bathroom, huge and golden and white marble, with a sunken bath. “I’d let you luxuriate in a bath, but right now, my patience can’t stand the idea, so I’ll settle for the shower I just know you want to take.”

  “Yes!” she sighed.

  He kissed her, both hands around her face. “Hurry back.”

  * * * * *

  Beth moved quickly through her shower. She was driven not only by Zack’s impatience, but also her own, plus Lindál’s unspoken needs. While she showered and prepared, her mind was moving even faster, rapidly examining and discarding options. Chief amongst them: What to wear?

  What did one wear to the bonding of three races, where sex was the cement that united them? Or to be more prosaic, what did you wear when you were about to fuck the two men who had been haunting your fantasies for the last few weeks, leaving you sweaty and unfulfilled despite masturbation and climaxes galore?

  She washed and dried her hair with the powerful blow dryer she found, then applied her makeup. She took stock of the clothing and accessories Zack had purchased, her lips pursed, her mind still in overdrive. She wanted something symbolic.

  * * * * *

  Beth stepped out into the main area of the apartment, feeling nervous. Zack’s appreciation for her dimensions was uncanny. The high black stilettos were a perfect fit. The black lace-topped stay-up stockings were the right size. But those two items were the only ones from Zack’s wardrobe she had borrowed.

  Zack and Lindál looked up from the bar where they both sat talking in low voices and got to their feet. They prowled toward her. They had both showered and changed, too, a fact that surprised her.

  Lindál was barefoot, but wore b
lack leather pants that fit him surprisingly well, as they must have been borrowed ones. His shirt was a white silk and seemed to float against his chest and shoulders.

  Zack wore black denim. Designer, Beth guessed by the cut and shape, along with a sleeveless black shirt that glowed red when he moved and emphasized the rounded caps of his shoulders. He walked a full circle around her while Lindál just studied her.

  “Why?” Lindál asked.

  She touched her ruined waistcoat and the short skirt that Zack had had his hand beneath earlier in the evening.

  “If you two are right, after this bonding we’ll all be something different. Something more than what we are now. So for tonight, you’re an elf, you’re a vampire, and I’m just a human.” She spread her hands across the skirt.

  “There’s no ‘just’ about it,” Zack growled. “You’ve driven me crazy for months. No-one, no vampire, no human, has ever done that to me before. You’re not just anything, Beth Siegel.” His lips touched the nape of her neck. “Do you know how close I came to biting you tonight?” he murmured and his tongue slid along the flesh there, sending a bolt of searing pleasure racing through her.

  “I realize now,” she said and shivered. Her breasts under the brushed cotton waistcoat spiked hard.

  “There is something special about you,” Lindál added, stepping closer to her, so that she was standing between them. “From the day I met you in the library, you have invaded my thoughts, drugged my sleep and stolen my peace. I cannot rest. The only surcease I find is in your presence and even there, you challenge me.”

  Zack nuzzled her neck. “Typical elf. Can’t say what he means without throwing in a dozen more words than he really needed.” His hands were on her waist, stroking the flesh there, making her stomach muscles quiver and her pussy clench.

  Lindál smiled and caught her face in his hands, his tempestuous blue eyes staring into her soul. “Very well, then,” he breathed, his voice a deep murmur. “I wanted you so badly, I couldn’t function.”

  His kiss stole her breath and made her moan into his mouth. She felt Zack’s hands on her waist holding her steady. When Lindál released her, Zack was against her back, holding her up. She turned her head, blindly seeking his lips. They were cool after Lindál’s, but just as firm and insistent. She groaned, her knees weakening. The wave of lust rolling through her from these simple kisses was something she had never experience before. It was as heady as champagne, as addictive as drugs.