Page 52 of Claimed

It is a crap apology. Robotic and in a tone that makes him sound like he’s never interacted with anyone born post 1800s.

“I wasn’t trying to offend you. I was trying to undo whatever Nix did to your mind to make you think⁠—”

“She’s bluffing.” Kim speaks softly, almost chuckling. “Lucien, can’t you tell that she’s bluffing?”

I glance at him, and his eyes sparkle back at me. He’s in grey joggers and a hoodie, his glasses taped together, cracked on one side, and still wonky.

Lucien visibly glitches.

I meet his eyes and nod. “Kim’s right.”

“Bluffing?” Lucien pronounces it like he’s not sure what the word means.

“How did you know?” I turn to Kim, slipping my hand into his.

He kisses my forehead. “I’ve played a lot of poker in my time. You did this thing with your index finger and your thumb. Tapping one against the other. Once I noticed it, it was obvious it was a tell.”

“Damn it.” I shake my head. “If you noticed, then Nix might have⁠—”

Lucien is leaning back against his desk, taking a sip of blood from a glass he’s poured himself. “Trust me, he didn’t. And neither did I.” He frowns at me. “Why would you…?”

“Because this is how we do it.” I look from Lucien to Kim. “We can’t fight him physically. But we need to get close to The Covenant to destroy it. The only way we’re going to do that is if Nix thinks I want to be close to it. And now he’s confirmed he has it with him⁠—”

“He won’t believe I’ve changed my mind.” Lucien sets down his glass and steeples his fingers. “I am not good at lying to him.”

“He doesn’t need to. In fact, it’s better if he doesn’t.” I walk over to him and slot myself between his legs. “If he thinks I’ve gone to him because you don’t understand me, his ego will get a thrill out of it and he won’t question me. He’ll be so excited his plan worked, and that he’s charmed me to his side, he’ll let me do whatever I want with The Covenant.”

Lucien strokes my hair from the side of my face, sliding his hands up the back of my neck to almost cradle my head as he kisses me. “It’s dangerous.”

“Yes. But do you have a better idea?” I look over my shoulder at Kim. “Does either of you have a better idea? Because I think the time for making plans is over. If we’re going to do this, now is the moment.”

“Do we have to?” Kim moves over to us and rests a hand on my hip. The feeling of being held by both of them at once makes me shiver. “Nix isn’t going to hurt Luna. And he won’t destroy The Covenant. So what if we just don’t do anything?” He shrugs. With his glasses on, he looks adorable.

“Because Nix will keep causing chaos in the city. Three humans lost their lives at the campsite last night just because Nix was playing games with us.” Lucien looks at me and his tone darkens. “And the ramifications of the fact that supers attacked humans won’t be small. The Supernatural Defence Bureau will get involved. It’s—” Lucien inhales sharply, sucking air past his fangs in the way he does when he’s as close to ‘stressed’ as he can get. He turns to Kim and meets his eyes. “This is bigger than just keeping Luna safe.”

The way they’re looking at each other has changed, and I’m trying to focus on what Lucien is saying but instead find myself kissing them.

It’s a strange kiss. Pressing my lips to both of them at once; the three of us leaning in to each other, taking turns to explore each other with our tongues.

Kim is the one who removes my jeans and underwear but Lucien lifts me onto the desk. As Kim enters me, kissing my neck, stroking my breasts through the fabric of my sweater, Lucien stands behind him and slides down his trousers.

Kim looks back at him over his shoulder and grins, and Lucien spits onto his cock, stroking its length and pressing one palm into the small of Kim’s back.

When Lucien enters him, Kim groans and jolts forward. He’s unable to keep fucking me while Lucien fucks him, but the movement of Lucien’s cock inside him – in and out, in and out – makes him sink deeper into me. Kim reaches between us to stroke my clit.

There are hands and lips and fingers everywhere, and the way we climax is quick, hard, loud, and dirty.

A release that we all needed.

Afterwards, Lucien takes us both to shower the way he took me back at the mansion. He washes Kim and I gently, smoothing soap over our skin like he’s worshipping us both. Then we do the same for him.

When we’re finished, Lucien fetches us fresh clothes, coffee, and a great big pile of books.

I raise my eyebrows at him. We’re in a large room at the back of the museum which looks like the library from an episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer where they’re figuring out how to destroy a Big Bad.

“We need to know how to destroy The Covenant or this entire scheme is pointless,” he says, staring at the pile of books.

“Lucien, it’ll take us forever to read these. We started back at the mansion but there was nothing,” Kim says, lifting the first one and frowning at it. “I don’t even know what language this is in.”