Shadow, page 10
part #1 of Jaegers of the Consortium Series
“Who said anything about getting naked?” Lucas murmured into her neck, his lips brushing her skin. Shivers ran down her spine and seemed to shoot straight between her legs. Her passion pooled there, making her lightheaded. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” Charity whimpered, feeling herself weaken as his hands crept up her skirts and slip.
“Then trust me,” Lucas said, and kissed her right behind the ear. Charity lolled her head down, around, and back up, as her loins now demanded attention in response to his touch. With half-lidded eyes, she looked back down at the stage where the prince was now inside Beauty from behind as she ground into him with writhing pleasure. The prince arched his back and shouted his lines, which were now lost to a distracted Charity. She watched as he jerked his hips, acting out an orgasm. Or at least, Charity thought he was acting. She couldn’t tell for sure.
Either way, she quickly lost interest when Lucas’ hand found its way to her most intimate spot. She closed her eyes, let out a strangled moan, propped a leg onto the railing in front of them, and melted back against him when his fingers pressed against her panties. He slowly stroked her mound through the fabric, before bringing his hand up and dipping underneath. Charity’s breath became husky and ragged as he fingered her in just the way she liked. “Oh, God,” she breathed out. “Lucas, I want you.”
“And so you shall have me.” Lucas brought his free hand up to the side of her face, straining it around and guiding her lips to his. He kissed her passionately, his tongue taking control of her mouth. She soft-moaned as they kissed, his hand quickly working her into a frenzy. Her eyes were squeezed shut, but her body writhed in Lucas’ grasp. No matter how hard she tried to remain silent, no matter how hard she tried to keep from making a scene, she crept closer to losing control.
And—and—“Mmmph!” Charity’s eyes snapped open as the orgasm slammed into her. Lucas kept his mouth pressed tight against hers, muffling her voice, as her body quaked in the throes of passion. Lucas simply cradled her in his powerful arms, her whole body trembling down from the climax until she was still, spent, and satisfied. “Oh, God, that felt so good,” she gasped, curling up against him.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jake’s hushed, but harsh, voice came from the other side of the curtain. “Already?”
“Ten gold, pay up,” Lucas shot back.
“Double or nothing by intermission?”
“Fine, fine… I’ll take your money, but you have to get Ayla off twice to beat me.”
“Mmmph! Challenge accepted!” Ayla’s whispered voice came, after a wet popping sound, from a point much lower than Jake’s. Charity heard a distinct slurping sound and some muffled sucking shortly after.
“Did you all have a bet on me?” Charity glowered up at him.
“Just a friendly wager. Now, what do you say we get started on beating them to intermission, my dear?” Lucas waggled his eyebrows at her.
She wanted to be mad at him, but the situation was too funny. Ayla had lost, but only because she’d been too busy going down on the Jaeger. Her loss. Charity nodded at Lucas, smiling sweetly at him. When Lucas brought his hand up to her breast, she grabbed it and shook her head. “No, please, let me,” she said, grabbing the strings of her bodice and pulling the knot loose. She continued unlacing the garment as she slid down to her knees onto the floor. Charity shook her upper body just slightly. Her breasts started to fall free as the garment slid down.
Lucas arched an eyebrow and grinned. “Thought that you didn’t want to get naked here?”
“Hush, before I change my mind,” Charity said, grabbing for his belt and trousers’ fly. After a bit of fumbling, she managed to get them open; his already hard cock sprung to attention under her hands. “I really, shouldn’t be doing this,” she whispered as she started to stroke him gently, trying to summon up the courage to do this on her own.
“You want to know a secret?” Lucas reached down and caressed the side of her face, getting an errant strand of blonde hair out of the way. “Here, you are acting like a good and proper girl. You’re acting no differently than anyone else. Look around. You’re in high society and everyone’s doing exactly the same thing.”
Charity smiled up at him, taking heart at hearing that. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose before opening her mouth up and tentatively placing it over the tip of his cock. She could taste a bit of his salty fluid. Charity tried taking his cock further into her mouth as she’d seen, and heard, Ayla do to Jake and wound up grazing her teeth across its head.
Above her, Lucas hissed. “Less teeth, more lips, sweetheart.”
“Sorry!”
“Relax. Think of it as a piece of hard candy from a copper store or something like that,” Lucas said, caressing her head again to reassure her. “Just don’t bite down trying to get to the creamy center.”
Charity let out an unladylike snort of laughter that she tried to cover up with her hand. She felt more relaxed as she went in for her second attempt. This time, she followed the advice and managed to keep her teeth out of the way.
“Ahhh, yes, that’s much better,” Lucas breathed. He kept a hold of her hair to keep it out of her way. Charity swallowed a bit as she got used to having something inside her mouth, inside her throat. Eddie had tried to make her do this before, but every time, he’d been frustrated with her, not calm, patient, and caring, the way Lucas was being.
“Slow down, Charity. You’re going to make me blow,” Lucas said when she found the right rhythm. Her head bobbed furiously in his lap, and she felt his hand in her hair, pulling just hard enough to stop her. She looked up, confused, but he smiled at her, and then helped her to her feet and into his lap.
He only wanted to change positions. That was alright. She yearned to have him inside once again, the full length of him, big and hot. She felt his hand under her skirt again, pulling her panties off to the side, before feeling the head of his cock slide across her waiting opening. Then his hand was against her shoulders, pulling her down. Charity slid down his length to be nestled straddling his lap. Her knees rested on the plush cushioning of the velvet seats.
Lucas brought his hands up to Charity’s breasts, pulling her bodice down enough so that he could bare them. Once they were free, he took one into his mouth, teasing the nipple with his tongue while his hand sought out the other to squeeze it. Charity gasped and wrapped her arms around his head to draw him in close.
“Yes,” she breathed, shifting slightly in his lap and feeling his cock move inside of her. She lifted up and settled down again, reveling in the exquisite new feeling. “That feels good,” she said breathlessly.
With his free hand, Lucas reached down and squeezed her ass to get her to move again. When she settled back down after that, he gave her a playful swat on her thigh. Charity soon got the idea and got the right rhythm going. She went with the feeling and rolled her hips into his as she lowered herself down repeatedly. Her clit rubbed across his coarse pubic hair. “Oh, Lucas,” she breathed. “Oh, God!” She buried her face in his neck as she quickly hit her peak.
“Already?” The heavy curtain ripped back, causing Charity to jump and reflexively cover her breasts up with crossed arms. “No way,” Jake said with disbelief. “No fucking way!” Charity could see Ayla’s naked body up in Jake’s lap much as she was now in Lucas’.
“She’s from Dixie, dear,” Ayla said, panting. She was still rolling her hips into Jake as she spoke. “She’s got a lot of pent up sexual energy like the whole lot of them.” She put a finger to his lips to silence his retort. “Shush and just pay the man already.” Jake grumbled something about an unfair advantage but counted out twenty gold coins. He put them into a small pouch and tossed it over to Lucas who smiled and waved at them. Jake flipped him off before pulling the curtain closed.
“I feel like such a cad,” Charity whispered, burying her face back into his neck. “We’re doing such a disservice to the actors.”
“Oh please. Actors here rate their performance based on how many in the audience get off.”
“What?”
Lucas grinned. “Well, we do have a saying here: if you can’t get it at an Elysian play, you can’t get it at all.” He jerked his chin up to indicate the general audience. “Look for yourself. A play here is considered a success if the actors are hot and passionate enough to set off an orgy.”
“You aren’t serious.” Sure enough, when she peeked over the railing, she saw the patrons below engaged in various sexual acts with anyone and everyone around them. She quickly pulled her head back. “But—”
“Still feel bad?”
Charity blushed. “Well, no, not really. But, it does make me wonder what the second act is going to be like.”
Lucas grinned. “Just wait until you see how Beauty goes about getting the kingdom back.”
Chapter 9
Later, after the show was over, Lucas stood with Charity to wave their friends off. “We’ll see you back at the mansion,” he said.
“You’d think that they’d be ready to sleep after a show like that,” Charity commented.
He shrugged. “Considering their respective work, they get all they can out of each other while they’re together. It’s sweet and sad at the same time.”
“Why is that?”
“They both have some personal growth to do until they’ll finally figure things out for themselves. I’m just afraid it’ll be too late by the time that happens, that’s all.” Lucas walked arm-in-arm with Charity down the cobblestone sidewalk back to where the valets had parked their carriage. He’d been annoyed when they’d told him he’d have to get the carriage himself. Nonetheless, it wasn’t a far walk. But the street was dark, and he was suddenly getting a bad feeling.
Charity, seemingly sensing it, leaned toward him. “What’s wrong?”
“We’re being followed. No, don’t look—you’ll tip them off.”
“What do we do?”
“Even the odds,” Lucas said grimly. “Fight in a place of our choosing... if it comes down to that.” He led her into the nearest alley he could find that was open enough to move around in, yet far enough off the streets that innocent bystanders wouldn’t be drawn into the fight. The men behind them were saying something, urgently, and he wasn’t surprised to see two more emerge from the other end of the alley.
Lucas stopped, pulling Charity behind him and backing her up to the nearest wall. “You have at least two dukes and a duchess wearing enough jewelry to finance a small kingdom,” he called out to the men, “and counts and countesses with loaded wallets. Throw a rock in any direction, and you’d hit a baron or baroness without even trying. All of them would be easy pickings. Yet you settle on a single businessman and his date—why?”
“You ain’t no businessman, mate,” the man in front said, slapping a small club into his palm. “Yer military, or even Consortium, trained. Let’s just say that you have something that don’t belong to you and we’re ‘ere to take it back.” When the man smiled, Lucas could see his gold and silver dental work. “After we ‘ave some fun with ‘er on the way home, that is.”
Lucas swung his cane up, gripping it by the ornate handle. No matter what, this was not going to be pretty. “Over my dead body.” He thumbed a switch on it, and a brass knuckle guard sprang out and snapped into position.
“Hoping you was gonna say that,” the man said. Then he charged.
Twisting the top of his cane and pulling, Lucas drew a hidden sword out of the handle and lunged for his attacker. He flicked another switch with his thumb, and the entire blade hummed with electricity. The other man had only a split second to realize his mistake before he ran himself into the blade—straight through his chest. Blood spurted high out of the wound. Lucas quickly withdrew the sword and the man fell back, mortally wounded. Lucas stepped closer to Charity, extending his sword toward the other three. It had been a while since he’d been in a good scrap.
The others were hesitant to move in after seeing their leader go down so easily. So Lucas continued. Thrusting his blade out again, he caught one man in the knee, blocking the club the man brought down towards Lucas’ head by reversing his sword in his grip and holding it against his forearm to absorb the blow. He then slashed upward, carving a line from the man’s midsection all the way up to his throat.
Thwack. He whirled, in time to see Charity hit the third man upside the head with her evening bag. He’d moved in while Lucas was busy with the second man. The blow didn’t seem to stun, and Charity had continued to beat him with it until he dropped to his knees. Lucas kicked the body of the second thug away, and then locked eyes with the fourth, a skinny man who only stood there, gaping like an idiot. Lucas ran him through without a second thought, and ran to Charity’s aid. When the man saw him coming, he broke off his attack on Charity and bolted.
Lucas brought his cane up as though throwing a javelin and let it fly, catching the man in the back of the leg. The thug cried out as he went down, his head making a sickening crack on the road. Charity blanched; Lucas grimaced. “Fuck,” he spat, “I wanted one of them alive.”
Charity was staring at him, he saw as he walked forward. “Just what kind of businessman are you, anyway; Corporate Raider? Proxy Fight Specialist? Hostile Takeovers?”
“Funny,” Lucas said dryly, wiping his sword clean on the thug before casually spinning it around and sheathing it back into the cane. It was a peculiarly flashy move, something he’d never seen anyone else do, but then again, most people who wielded a sword had their own quirks. A funny look came over Charity’s face as she watched him. Then her eyes went wide, and her mouth opened in an ‘o’, and he saw that she knew.
“No, it can’t be,” she said in a whisper. “You’re a Jaeger! You have to be with that kind of sword! But… but how can that be possible? You’re... you’re just a... a….”
“An accountant?” Lucas asked, giving her a hard look. “Who else can go to multiple countries and not raise suspicion? No one ever suspects a boring accountant to be a Jaeger of the Consortium.” He saw the conflict of emotions on her face, but there was also a question forming on her lips. “Ask,” he said with a resigned sigh.
“Have you ever taken on an armored zeppelin by yourself?”
“Okay, that’s probably about the hundredth question I might’ve expected you to ask me,” Lucas admitted. “And the answer is no; not alone. I had backup.”
“Who?”
“It doesn’t matter, and I’d rather not discuss it,” Lucas said, trying to change the subject. “Where the hell are the damn constables when you need them,” he muttered, looking both ways down the alley. He was only going to go look, but Charity planted herself right in front of him, placing her hand on his chest.
“Who?” she repeated.
“Don’t ask me questions that you’re not prepared to hear the answer to.” Glancing over her shoulder, and still seeing no constables, he shook his head and bent to begin going through their attackers’ pockets.
“What are you doing?” Charity asked, dropping the subject.
“Interrogating them.”
“What are they going to tell you? ‘Hello, I’m dead’?”
“I’m not going to know unless I ask now am I? Ah.” Lucas smiled, pulling an address book from one man’s pocket. “Here we go!” But the book only had the names and addresses of various women—Charity’s included, although she was listed twice, along with accompanying pictures. Lucas flinched.
“What? What is it?” Charity asked.
He pocketed the book as he stood up and walked over to the second man to rifle through his pockets. “I’m just thinking about what he said, how I have something that doesn’t belong to me.” He paused in his searching, looking at Charity for a long moment. “I don’t get it.” He then pulled out an address book from the second man’s pockets and flipped through it. “Ah, now it makes more sense. Here we have the name of their employer. Edward Spence the Third.” He held out the book toward Charity, the address clearly visible on the first page.
“Eddie? But why would Eddie send people down here?”
“Think about it. I get roughed up, you get snatched, next thing you know you’re on a zepp or boat back to Dixie. If your fiancé gave permission, it would even be legal for them to rape you.” He stood up as the constables finally appeared in the alleyway. Lucas calmly reached into his coat pocket to pull out his credentials, one of the two address books open in his other hand. He was sure he was missing something. Why did one address book have Baron Spence’s address along with contact information for his house, while another had nothing but women in it? For that matter, why was Charity’s name listed twice?
“Charity’s in bed,” Ayla said, coming into the office with Jake, “although I’d strongly suggest that you don’t leave her there for long. If those idiots knew to find you two at the theater, then they probably know she’s here.”
“I checked the perimeter myself, and all of the clockworks are set to sentry mode,” Jake said. “If anyone comes near, or even disables one of them, we’ll know.”
“Good,” Lucas said as he continued comparing the books. “We can’t stay like this, though. We’ve been on the defensive for far too long.”
“What are you thinking?” Jake asked.
“Well… why the duplicate entries and photographs in this book? And why Charity?”
Ayla looked over Lucas’ shoulder. One entry had Charity’s name and home address along with instructions on how to find her in Elysium. The second had the same information but in exchange for the Elysium address it had a second address in Dixie. “This isn’t an address that belongs to the Carmichaels,” she noted. “Hell, this picture isn’t even of Charity. Sure, she looks a lot like her, but it’s not her.”
“Shit, that’s the imposter!” Lucas delved through the papers and photos on his desk until he came up with the pic of the woman at the bank in Atlanta. He showed it to Ayla. “Know her?”
