Author's Note: This is the second book in The Devlin Family series. Be sure to read
The Devlin Family
and
The Devlin Family: Epilogue
before you read this continuation. As with all of my writing please check the tags before you continue. If the tags don't interest you please just skip this story. For those who continue on, I hope you enjoy.
***
Needless to say the family is surprised by Vespera's torpor but I assure them all was well. I could feel it. She needed time to adjust and adapt. She needed to rest. As powerful as she was being ripped permanently from one reality and rooted into another was no small feat. With Ves resting in the attic the normal Devlin day to day life quickly returned to normal. And after a few days of much needed recovery I am feeling better than ever.
Walking through the house one day I spot my little brother Lucian sitting by himself in the library. He is curled up into the corner of one of the big leather chairs joylessly flipping through one of the old tomes one page at a time. Wearing only reading glasses, an oversize mint green t shirt with yellow panties and socks, his bare legs tucked up close, he is ridiculously adorable and sexy as hell, as usual. Of course chilling at home he is in his natural form as a half incubus. Pink hair, emerald eyes, small horns, and his short inch wide tail slowly waving back and forth. Not quite guy, not quite girl, curves and breast but with hints of muscles and masculine angles here and there. But, like our mother, it is the imperceptible things that really put him on another level. He oozed with sexual confidence and he KNEW how fucking good he looked.
Right now however he just looked sad. His moods shift wildly at the best of times yet, after the initial elation of Vespera's arrival, he had been in something of a steady funk since last week.
I am glad to have found him like this as I had actually sought him out today with a purpose in mind. I had talked mom about it and discovered that Lucian's loss of control with me last week was a problem. It had been a huge setback in his preparation for independence. If he could not contain his demonic powers, if he wasn't a "good boy" as my mother put it, he would not be able to go out to lead the life he wanted to live. She told me that a demon, even a half demon, known to be on Earth free of the bonds of a contract was bound to draw the attention of angels, demon hunters, or worse. For his own safety Lucian needed to master himself.
And beyond mere safety the boy had ambitions. Lucian was really smart, clearly his father's son in that respect, and where his sister Trixie hovered around the bottom of the graduating class grade wise he was at the very top. He wanted nothing to do with the family business and thanks to his interest in football he had big dreams of becoming a medical doctor with a specialization in Sports Medicine. He was not going to be satisfied living here in the safety of the manor forever. He dreamed of a normal life and to achieve it he had to resist the temptations of his heritage, or at least learn direct them in controlled ways, and with Ves asleep I had taken it upon myself to use this time to help him.
"Hey, there you are. Why so glum?" I ask as I walk up and set the small flat box I carried on a side table. I squeeze in beside him on the wide chair, he happily makes way for me. Patting his smooth bare knee I ask. "What's up sweetie?"
Setting his book to the side he leans into me, resting his head on my shoulder. One of his small horns pokes into me but not enough to complain about it. "Hahhhh." He sighs. "I think Mum's disappointed in me. For what happened with you last week. For being bad. I really messed up."
"Hey, no way!" I assure him. "She understands better than anyone. From what I understand the sin of forbidden lust is one of the most powerful things you can experience." He nods but says nothing. "I don't think either of us were ready for what happened last week." I chuckle and give him a squeeze, feeling that one of a kind combination of soft and firm in his body. Had my eyes been closed I wouldn't have been able to tell if it was a man or a woman beside me. "Trust me she is not disappointed in you. In fact she is pretty damn proud of you standing up for me like you did." I slide my hand from his knee to take his delicate hand. "And so am I. Thank you Lucian, I'll never forget that."
Despite himself he smiles and blushes a little.
"I think there's something else bothering you though." I say. "You haven't been your usual bratty self lately."
"I'm not a brat."
"Yes you are."
His emerald eyes roll in the brattiest way. "Says you."
"Come on. What's up? Is it Ves? Does having a new sister bother you?"
"No, no. Nothing like that. I love Ves." He says. "It's just...things have been weird at school since...ya know."
"Since Bron and I beat up those guys?"
"Yeah." He sidles up even closer to me, hugging to my arm snugly. "Everyone is acting differently around me now. And...I do miss the fun we had. A couple of those guys could really fuck."
"They treated you like garbage."
"I know, and I won't let that happen again. But...hmmm...I'm glad I'm graduating soon. I can't wait. If I can even leave after that outburst with you. I need to work harder to control that. You have no idea how hard it is Jacob."
"I know sweetie." I kiss his head, his pleasant natural perfume lighting up my senses. "So you're still set on Harvard?"
"Pffft!" He puffs with the impudent sarcasm that only an 18 year old truly can. "Yeah, I guess."
I try to hide my smile at his disdain for getting into one of the most prestigious schools in the world. Yet I cannot help but to sympathize. The Devlin's were old money, American aristocracy, and the weight and expectation that came along with the name could feel smothering at times. For a Devlin so gifted academically one of the Ivy League schools was the natural destination. If I had half the brains of Lucian I would be there right now myself.
"You really had your heart set on Ohio State huh." Heaven knows why but my younger brother was a rabid Buckeyes fan. At first I thought it was simply to get under Bron's skin, who was a Michigan fan, and it might have started out that way but through his teens it had bloomed into a full fledged passion. Needless to say it was an interesting day around the house when the Bucks and Wolverines played each other.
"Yeah." He sighs and his slender shoulders slump in defeat. "It has a fine program too. But not as good as Harvard's obviously. Dad says Ohio is a redneck school. Dad says that I'm better than that. And Cambridge is so much closer to home. Yeah, it's Harvard. I guess Dad's already got me lined up for some secret society or something. Everything is set. I'm going to get the finest education money can buy."
"They say an education is what you make of it. It's not Dad's decision, it's yours. It's not Dad's life, it's yours." I say. "You should at least go check OSU out before making the decision final."
"Check it out? Don't be ridiculous. When am I going to do that?"
"Well..." I smile. "...how about now?"
He looks up at me. "Now? What do you mean now? I can't just..."
"Why not? You never miss any school. Skip tomorrow and then it's the weekend. We can make a whole weekend of it. If we leave right now we can be there late tonight, we can check out the campus tomorrow then look around Columbus on Saturday, and back on Sunday. With your grades one day off won't hurt."
"We?"
"Yeah, I mean if you don't mind the company. I thought it might be fun. Just you and me away from the rest." I shift in the seat and invite him up onto my lap. "Come here."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea." He looks at me suspiciously. "Don't tease me Jacob. I'm not a baby."
"I'm not teasing you, and you will always be my baby brother." I insist. Motioning to the little box I'd brought in with me I say. "Come on, I got something for you. Come here Lucian."
He hesitates a second but eventually moves up to sit on my lap. Sitting like this he is taller than me but not by much and only weighs as much as a small woman, he wraps his hands around my neck and without even thinking about it begins playing with my hair at the back. Once he is good and comfortable I make him an offer that he can't refuse.
***
With Trixie I had played with family boundaries and with Vespera I had shattered them. After some soul searching I had come to the inevitable conclusion that taboos would be falling in the coming days and weeks. Among the Devlin brood, sons and daughters of a lust demon that we were, normality was never going to be an option. I wanted them and I knew they wanted me. I knew right away that Lucian would be the first after my twin. Not only did he need me in a way the others didn't but perversity ran through his veins as surely as blood. There would be no judgment or guilt here, sexual sin came as natural to him as breathing. But I would ensure this would be sin with a purpose.
When I confided what I was planning with Trixie she was understandably disappointed not to be involved but gave me her whole hearted blessing...with the condition that I bring her gift with me on the trip.
Rubbing one hand across his back and the other slowly up his silky smooth hairless thigh I ask. "May I touch you?"
"Always." He replies instantly. "But..."
"Shhh." I motion to the box. "Open it."
His breath catches as my hand glides from the top of his leg down to his inner thigh...and then up under his long mint green shirt that he is wearing as a nightie. His flawless skin is soft beyond belief and the flesh warm and supple. My hand stops just short of his panties, my fingers but a fraction of an inch away from his balls.
"You don't want it?" I ask.
"Huh?" He gasps with wide eyed surprised and a warm blush colors his fines cheeks.
"Come on sweetie, open it up."
"You're teasing me!" He says even as his legs part a couple of inches. "Don't be cruel Jacob."
"I told you that I'm not teasing. Open it." I give him a brotherly smile. "Please?"
Not wanting to argue with the promise of sin in the air he nods and leans forward to take the box from the table. When he sits back up I wrap the hand at his back all the way around his slender frame to grope his far breast through the cotton shirt. Small, firm, and a wonderfully perky shape he had a damn fine rack on him, one most women would kill for. Yet beneath that the subtle contours of a man's pec, concealed by his soft bits my brother actually had a fine lithe physique.
"Oh! Jacob!" He melts into me, leaning his weight into my chest. "Your hands feel so good on my body!"