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Lover Tamed	By : Sarah_Wolfe Category: A through F > Black Dagger Brotherhood Views: 3499 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward, nor do I make any profit from this.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
Chapter 10
Qhuinn was coming out of the underground entrance to the gym when he bumped into something in the passage back to the main part of the mansion. He heard a squeak. It was small, feminine and reached out instinctively to steady whatever it was he’d collided with. The clean scent of spring flowers and paint assaulted his nose. He knew who it was before he saw her face.
“Eve? What are you doing down here?” he demanded. She shouldn’t be down here. The brothers wouldn’t be too cool with her wandering the mansion by herself. Unless it was one of them that had given her the code.
She jerked her head in the direction of the Pit. “I’m coming from Butch’s place. Then you crashed right into me. Where did you come from?” She looked at him frowning.
“The gym.” He let go of her shoulders then took a step back to put some space between them.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t there be more secret rooms?” she grumbled to herself.
There was something different about her. She wasn’t in her normal disheveled appearance. Eve had abandoned the scrubs for normal threads. She even pulled her hair out of her face into a high ponytail. She was more attractive, more tempting than Qhuinn was comfortable admitting. Hell, she would have been pretty if she had another expression other than the stern lines her face was currently set in. It looked like she hated the world and everyone in it.
“What did Butch want with you?”
“It wasn’t Butch who brought me over here. It was his psycho roommate.” And by her tone she didn’t sound pleased or impressed with the brother. It was more like she wanted to strangle him.
The intrigue was nibbling away at him. Out of all the brothers he would have figured Vishous wouldn’t care about her one way or another. Of course she was involved with Butch. And V was tight with the brother…always had a habit of getting a bug up his ass wherever the cop was concerned. “What would V want with you?”
“To go over a few ground rules, the thieving bastard,” she mumbled heatedly. “Where’s Blay at? I thought he would be with you.” Her tone softened when she said the last part.
“He’s still running laps.” Qhuinn shifted around her to punch in the code to get back into the main house.
Once they entered the foyer a cacophony of cheerful voices could be heard. Most of the males and their females were exiting the kitchen after last meal, paying them no mind as they talked and laughed amongst themselves.
“Wow, you really have quite the brood here,” she said, staring at the retreating crowd.
A brood was right. And lately new additions seemed to be popping up faster than mushrooms after a heavy rain.
“Why don’t you come get something to eat with me? Fritz will still have last meal out for a little while yet for all the stragglers. It’ll still be hot,” Qhuinn wheedled.
As she chewed on her lip, he could see the wheels turning in her head as she debated on whether or not to accept his offer. “I guess so,” she finally said.
Qhuinn motioned her into the kitchen. He even let free his inner gentleman and pulled out the chair for her. Blay would have been proud.
Eve gave him a funny look but thanked him then scooted up in her seat. “Shouldn’t we wait for Blay and John?”
He took the empty chair next to hers. “They’ll be here eventually. Shouldn’t take them long to shower and change.”
And it didn’t. A few minutes later Blay entered the room with John who acknowledged both him and Eve with a head nod.
“Evening, Eve. Everything fit?” Blay looked pleased that she was outfitted in the clothing he picked out for her. She had been set against wearing them earlier, but now she seemed to accept that they weren’t going back.
“Yeah, thank you. For everything. I appreciate it.”
“No problem,” he said rewarding her with a smile that brightened his whole face.
Fritz set out their dishes before them. It was grilled beef tenderloin with a garlic potato mash and roasted beet salad with arugula and crumbled cheese.
Qhuinn wasn’t too keen on the salad but the rest of it looked great.
He looked over when he was halfway through his food and noticed that Eve hadn’t touched her meal. It looked like she didn’t know what to make of the dish before her.
He nudged her with his elbow. “You haven’t touched your meal. You okay?”
“I don’t eat meat. And what is this?” she inquired, poking her fork at a piece of feta cheese like she expected it to grow legs and walk away.
“Feta cheese. It’s good. Try it,” Blay encouraged.
Eve stabbed a little bit of the salad onto her fork and took an apprehensive nibble. It was like watching a kid try broccoli for the first time. After a few slow chews, her eyes lit up appreciatively and she dug in with relish.
“Since you seem to like it so much, I’ll trade you beets for beef,” Qhuinn said, pushing the full white bowl over to her.
“Deal.” She slid the plate with the meat over to Qhuinn. “I never had anything like this. I’ve been to a few galleries and galas in that past the served supposedly high end food and nothing was ever this good. I think a lot of them were fooled by the mounds of caviar or raw fish thrown on top,” Eve said, her nose wrinkled in distaste.
“Caviar isn’t that bad,” Blay said as he cut a bite sized piece of beef.
“I didn’t think so either. Then I made the mistake of putting it in my mouth.” Eve wagged her finger in the air. “Never again.”
John stopped eating to sign something. Qhuinn translated it for Eve. “John said he’s going to have to agree with you on this one, Eve. Sorry, Blay, but I am too.”
“If it makes you feel better I’m a picky eater. And I have a weak stomach when it comes to taste and texture,” she explained.
“Is that why you don’t eat meat?” Qhuinn asked.
“That’s more of a personal choice, I guess. It started with my mother’s cooking; that woman could screw up a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And I can’t cook anything that doesn’t come out of a box with instructions, so when I lived on my own it was just easier to buy produce and eat it in the raw than try to prepare something. Even as I got older, I had meat cooked properly and it just didn’t appeal to me. Dairy is pretty much the only byproduct from animals I eat, and maybe the occasional egg.”
“Sounds…disgusting,” Qhuinn muttered. “Unless you’re a rabbit or a horse.” He was a carnivore through and through. The thought of never eating meat caused him to shudder. No way in hell would he give up fauna for flora.
“Qhuinn!” Blay admonished.
Eve laughed, a light tinkling sound that twisted Qhuinn’s insides. He tried to pushed away the feeling as best as he could.
“It’s okay. I’d imagine it doesn’t sound ideal to you the way you’re shoveling the beef in. Besides, I get that reaction a lot. I’m used to it,” she said.
Conversation remained at a dull, impersonal roar the rest of the meal. After eating they all split apart, going to their separate spaces except Eve, who went to the billiards room to watch TV. It reminded him of something Lassiter would do. Maybe all angels had a penchant for daytime talk shows and soap operas.
Qhuinn headed to his room to get a good night’s rest that never came to him. He was restless and edgy, tossing and turning but finding no comfortable in any position. His mind and body weren’t going to let him sleep until he found some sort of release for all the pent up energy and tension.
The hand resting on his naked chest slithered under the covers. Qhuinn slept in the nude so there weren’t any obstructions on the way down. He was already half erect when he palmed himself. Faceless strangers rolled through his mind like a slide projector on crack. He stroked himself faster and faster while the erotic picture show reeled in his head. Sweat slickened bodies undulated beneath him, moaning, screaming, clawing, and biting, begging for more.
Harder and harder he pumped his fist as he rocked his hips into his hand. Pre-ejaculate beaded at the tip of his cock then rolled down the head to the shaft slicking his hand. Qhuinn gripped himself tighter as he flashed through all the countless bodies he had found sexual gratification in, specific faces and features he could only vaguely remember.
All of a sudden Eve was there, her two-toned hair fanned around her, her head thrown back crying out as he pounded himself inside of her. She was hot and tight, her body squeezing around him as she called out his name.
Qhuinn’s spine bowed off the mattress and he cried out wordlessly as he came in hot spurts all over his stomach. Each stream sent a ripple of ecstasy through his body. His breathing was heavy, lungs trying to get their shit together to work properly. Perspiration bloomed like a dewy second skin.
He grabbed a towel casually draped over the end of his bed and mopped up the mess on his abs. On rubbery legs he got off the mattress and took the towel to the bathroom to toss it with the rest of the dirty clothes. He jumped in the shower for a quick rinse. Under the hot spray he leaned his head against the tiles wall and banged it against the ceramic a few times.
What the hell was wrong with him?
He shouldn’t be having fantasies about her. Eve was so not his flavor of female. But his mind threw out all kinds of fuck-yous to him. And his body was down for jumping all over that bandwagon. Qhuinn tried to tell himself it didn’t matter that she was the last face he saw. He hadn’t had any sort of release in days so of course that orgasm was back-bowing, toe-curling intense. It had nothing to do with Eve.
Qhuinn shut off the water and climbed out. He grabbed a towel from a fresh stack and patted himself dry. After that little session in his bed, he had no desire whatsoever to go back to sleep. He was more keyed up than ever. And even if he could finally catch some zzz’s, he was afraid of what his mental might ambush him with.
Maybe a strong drink was in order. What he had consumed earlier had bled out through his pores during training. The inactivity – even with the training – was keeping him wound up.
He put on a pair of sweatpants and lumbered it down to the bar. The glow of the TV flickered in the darkness of the lobby like a beckon. Qhuinn followed it like a moth to flame. Eve was sprawled on the couch, remote in hand, clicking through all the stations.
It was awkward seeing her after what had just happened not even fifteen minutes ago.
What do you do when the girl you just fantasized about was less than ten feet away from you? Had she been a normal female he would have just taken her to his bed and satisfied them both until neither one of them could walk straight. But Blay was right. Getting involved with a female they lived with was a big fucking NO-NO. Not while they are forced to share close quarters for an indefinite period of time.
Qhuinn stopped at the doorway. He wasn’t used to being uncomfortable around anyone. He was the one usually making others blush and fall all over themselves. He wasn’t so far gone that he was doing either one of those things but he was definitely knocked off his game. It was hard trying to think of something to say to Eve. Speechless was one thing he wasn’t.
He fucking hated feeling like this. He wasn’t some awkward pretrans alone with his first naked female. He needed to get his shit together. Qhuinn should have saved himself this disconcertion and just turned around and gone back to his room the moment he saw she was still up. But it was like a loose tooth. You just had to keep poking until it falls out. He had to test the waters, to say something to get her to gain her attention.
“Can’t find anything to watch?” Not his best opening line but it was something.
Eve popped up off the couch and stared at him with wide, startled eyes. “Shit! What is it with you and sneaking up on me in the dark? I thought you went to bed. What are you doing up?”
He looked away not able to meet her gaze. “Sorry ‘bout that. I can’t sleep so I came down for a drink to help me unwind.”
Qhuinn went over to pour himself something to burn away his anxiety. When he noticed Eve peeking at him from behind the couch he held up a bottle in question to her.
She grimaced and shook her head. “I’m not a fan of that stuff. I only drank it because it was there.”
“I can get you something else. We got about everything you could want.” It was true. The bar was kept well stocked with more than just alcohol. There was water, pop, juice…just about anything you could want.
Eve gnawed at her lip as she debated internally. “Rum?” she finally asked after a few moments.
“Any particular brand?” Qhuinn questioned.
She shrugged a slender shoulder. “I’m not picky.”
“Anything mixed in with it?”
“Ice.”
Qhuinn scooped some ice cubes in a tumbler then poured some Pyrat. He took both their drinks over to the couch and handed her the rum.
She took a sip and nodded her head approvingly. “I’m generally not a big drinker but this is good. ”
Even as he listed off all the reasons why it was a bad fucking idea, he perched his ass down on the couch right beside her. For once he hoped it wasn’t his dick leading him around. This was so not his most brilliant plan but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.
“So why are you up so late?”
She smiled tightly – almost bitterly – then shook her head. “I have a hard time being able to get a decent night of sleep in this place.”
“Maybe the drink will help.”
She looked over at him as she cradled her glass in her hands and tucked her legs underneath her. “Doubt it. But I’ll give it a go.”
“What’s being an angel like?” He knew he was running out of things to talk about if he was asking shit like that. But for the life of him, he couldn’t motivate his ass to take a hike. It seemed quite content to sit there while he made a total fool of himself.
This was bad.
This was category-five-natural-fucking-disaster bad.
Eve shrugged. “Just like being a human so far. I don’t feel any different. Except for the fangs, of course.” She took another sip of her drink.
“I didn’t want to be rude and bring it up but what the hell happened to your teeth?” He had thought something was odd about her earlier at dinner but thought better than to mention it.
She ran her finger around the edge of her glass as she stared into the contents. “Lassiter made them fall out. He said I was getting my very own set of fangs, which will only come in handy every Halloween. Next thing you know, I’ll sprout wings and halo. Then you can stick me on top of a Christmas tree.”
“We don’t celebrate human holidays.”
“Lucky you. You get to avoid the holiday cheer people insist on cramming down your throat.”
“Do you feed on blood?”
“Hell if I knew. You probably know more about angels than I do. Lassiter has barely told me anything except I should be on the lookout for any odd changes. Are there a lot like you, vampires I mean?”
“If you compared us with the human population then no, there are very few of us.”
“Is that because you are being hunted by those things…lessers?”
“Part of the reason…most of the reason maybe.” He told her about the low birthrates in their race, the problems with conception, and the fatalities of mahmen and young that occurs in the actual birth. It was why young were considered blessings from the Scribe Virgin herself. There were just so few of them that survived to full term.
She shifted her legs. Folding them to her chest and resting her head on her knees. “How have you managed to keep your race shrouded in secrecy all this time?”
“Very carefully. If humans did prove our existence they would join the slayers and finish killing the rest of us off.”
Eve nodded in agreement. “We tend to be a race with genocidal tendencies.”
“Tend to be? Humans kill each other off easily enough. We would be hunted like animals, slaughtered because of fear and old superstitions. Staying in the dark is the best thing for our kind,” Qhuinn said. “Beside’s, you’re not human any more either. And do you really believe that they would think you were an angel?”
Eve shrugged. “I think I could start a cult or two,” she said only half jokingly. “Increasing your numbers has to be hard. It must be scary for anyone to have to go through a pregnancy where the death is a very real and expected possibility. You ever think about having little Qhuinns and Qhuinnettes running around?”
“No.” Most definitely not. He wasn’t father material. He wouldn’t disgrace his children with a mutant father whose eyes didn’t match. And he wouldn’t chance passing down this shit to other generations of his line. He had nothing to offer them but shame.
Eve looked at him for a moment then shrugged. She didn’t pester him with why-nots and he was grateful for that.
“It’s not easy. I mean in my experience popping out the kid is probably the easiest part of being a parent. It’s all the stuff that comes after,” Eve said softly.
It was his turn to look over at her. She was young. He would have never thought she had any children. “I didn’t think you had kids.”
Eve shook her head, here eyebrows drawing down on her forehead. “I don’t.”
“Then how do you know how hard it is?”
“I had a brother eight years younger than me and an absentee mother. I took care of him because she couldn’t deal.”
“Had?”
“He died.”
“I’m sorry, Eve. What happened?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she whispered under her breath. She tilted her glass up and took a long swallow of liquor, draining the tumbler. The ice had long since melted but she didn’t seem to notice or care. She got up from the sofa and went to the bar. Qhuinn had left the Pyrat and Herradura bottles on the counter. Eve tucked them both under her arm and brought them back with her. “Thought you might want a refill,” she said, handing the bottle over.
Damn, but this female could grow on him. She really could.
“Thanks,” he said, taking it from her hand and topping off his own drink.
“You have any family?” she asked, sitting back down.
“The only blood relation I have is a cousin.”
“Are you an orphan?”
“Something like that.”
Eve tucked her knees back into her chest and stared at him for a few minutes. He could tell she wanted to ask something but didn’t want to offend him. It took a few moments but she finally asked her question. “This might be none of my business, and you can tell me to shut the hell up if it is, but what does the teardrop tattoo mean?”
It wasn’t what he expected but it was something he could answer. It wasn’t any big secret around here what his job description was. “I’m John’s ahstrux nohtrum, essentially his private guard. I keep him safe at all costs, even my own. It also gives me a license to kill anyone that I think is a threat to him without repercussions.”
“How’d you get that job?”
He had killed his cousin Lash to protect John from his cruelty, from a humiliation that he would never recover from. He didn’t regret it at all. The only way to protect him from being punished for something he was justified in was to become John’s ahstrux nohtrum. But instead of tell Eve that he said, “I had the job before it was ever appointed to me. He’s closer than a best friend, than a brother to me. I don’t need a title or tats to do right by my friends, my family.”
“What about the one on your neck? The characters resemble the ones on the side of Vishous’s face. What language is it in?”
“It’s the date I became his ahstrux nohtrum. It’s in the Old Language, the first language of all vampires.”
“Do you mind if I get a closer look?”
“No but why so interested in the tats?”
“For me it’s another form of art though the style and technique is very different from my own. You can tell a little bit about a person by their ink.”
“What do mine say about me?”
Eve got to her knees and leaned over to run her fingertip over the red teardrop, a feather light caress that had him bending closer to feel more of her. The finger moved from his face down his neck to the tattoo at his nape.
She traced her finger in over the black tattoo lines while she talked. “You have a rather bold personality. You don’t like things complicated. But you like to make a statement. You might joke around but you take your commitments seriously. Your bonds run deep.”
On her knees beside him, Qhuinn was almost eye level with her. Eve was close enough that he could smell the fresh fragrance of spring flowers and he had to catch himself from leaning even closer to take in more of that scent.
Eve took her hands away from his skin all too soon. She wasn’t showing any signs of being affected by their close proximity. It kind of galled him that he was lusting after her and she was oblivious to him.
“All that just from a few tattoos?” he forced himself to ask instead of asking that she touch him more.
“All that from just a few tattoos. Well, maybe getting to know you a little bit better helped.”
“Well, shit… You make me sound like I’m some upstanding individual.”
“Upstanding…no. But loyal, yes.”
“Do you have any ink?”
She shook her head. “I don’t need any more scars, no matter how pretty they may be. So what about all the piercings? It had to hurt getting so many of them.”
“Hurt? No. It stung, but it was more like a pleasurable pain.”
“You are an odd creature, Qhuinn.”
He jerked back like she had thrown a bucket of icy water at him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“You’re just very…unconventional.”
“I never had it put to me so eloquently before.” He couldn’t stop the biting sarcasm that leaking into his words like cold venom. “Usually people have the balls to tell me to my face in blatant words what they think of me. And believe me, lady, they never said ‘unconventional.’”
“I didn’t mean to offend you. There’s nothing wrong with being different, being who you are.”
“You don’t come from the same background as I do. You don’t know what it’s like.”
“Do you think I was never ridiculed for being different, Qhuinn? I spent the first twelve years of my life trying to belong somewhere, to fit in with all the rest of the normal little boys and girls. I know how it feels, believe me. I was painfully shy as a child – which already made me an easy target – and combine that with this.” She yanked at the chunk of white at her scalp. “I was teased when I was a kid, bullied because I didn’t look like everyone else. I ended up hating that I was different, hating myself because of the way I looked…something I couldn’t change. I was short, small, and odd, completely nonthreatening in appearance. Nothing could have put a larger target on my back than that.
“So I do get it, Qhuinn. I really do. Perhaps not on the same level, but I know what it’s like to be the only circle in a group of squares.”
“If you had a chance to fit into the world, to show everyone that you are not some freak, wouldn’t you take it?”
She thought about that for a minute before answering. “I don’t think so, Qhuinn. I’m more comfortable being me than I’ve ever been before. What I do know is that most people who appear perfect on the outside, those without physical flaws…those are the ones that are the most ruined on the inside. I’d taking being a little strange looking over being a pretty monster.” She looked at him then. There was pain in those light eyes, a cutting anguish he never before saw in her. Something bad happened to Eve, something to leave a stain on her soul. He wanted to know what it was. Even more, he wanted to scrub the look away, to protect her from anything that would hurt her like that.
“What bad shit happened to you? And don’t give me that BS about having a difficult childhood. A difficult childhood doesn’t leave you with those kinds of wounds.”
“Why is it so important for you to know?”
“Because whatever it is seems to still be eating you up. And it’s not just that you were bullied as a kid. Maybe getting it all off your chest will help you feel better.”
She shook her head slowly, hugging her knees tighter to her body. He watched as she raised all her defenses back up. “There’s nothing to say, Qhuinn.”
He accepted that and didn’t push any further. “If you ever need someone to talk to, you know where my room is at.”
Eve didn’t say anything else. Instead she grabbed the bottle of rum and filled her glass. She took a big swallow, barely winching as it went down. She had to be getting used to the burn by now. Her eyes were the half-lidded with the glassy look of intoxication.
They kept the conversation light after that, trading playful banter about nothing in particular. They flipped through different channels on the TV, trading likes and dislikes. Surprisingly, they had more in common in entertainment than what he would have guessed.
“I could use another drink,” she finally mumbled her words becoming slightly slurred. She held up the now empty Pyrat bottle, turning it upside down and squinting into the opening as if she could see some secret hiding within. “I think there is a hole in the bottom of this bottle. The rum’s gone.”
“Yeah, it all emptied out right into your mouth. Maybe you should cool it for a while. You’re getting pretty hammered.” He had been nursing his drink while she had just started slamming the tumbler back like it was a shot glass.
She shook her head and set the empty container down on the table. “Nah, I’m good.”
“You are going to be sorry tomorrow.”
“I’ll be okay.”
“I can help you to your bedroom.”
“I want to stay down here. I hate that room.”
“Why?”
“It feels like I’m in quarantine or something. Can you stay with me?”
“Eve, I don’t think…”
“Oh, please. Get over yourself. I’m not asking you because I want to have sex with you,” the very tone of her voice sounded repulsed.
“Then why are you asking?”
“Because I just…I don’t want to be alone, which is weird as hell because I’m usually more of a loner. But I don’t know. I just need someone with me right now. I think this whole transformation did something to me.”
He just stared at her.
“Yeah, I get it. You can part a woman’s legs like you’re some sort of Moses -like satyr. I don’t want to jump a single bone on you.”
“Okay, okay. You don’t really have to tear into my anymore. There is only so many blows a guy’s ego can take.”
He maneuvered on the couch so that she could lie next to him. It was a tight fit but they managed it without either of them falling off.
She snuggled in beside him and closed her eyes. “You’re nice and warm. I’m always so cold.”
Qhuinn pulled off the blanket draped over the back of the couch and covered them with it. “I never slept with a girl before. I mean just sleeping, nothing extra.”
“I can’t say the same. I’ve slept in the same bed with members of both sexes.”
Qhuinn raised his eyebrows to that. “You’re starting to sound a lot more interesting, Eve.”
“It’s not as exciting as you would think. I’m talking about my little brother and my girlfriend. No wild debaucheries for me.” She yawned and wiggled in a little closer.
Qhuinn had to fight a groan. It was going to be pure torture trying to rest with her beside him. He had come down to try to find some sort of relief but instead found something bound to twist him up tighter than ever.
- 9
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Lover Tamed