The Heart of a Monster: The Complete Series

Chapter 18

Quinn

As Torrent’s pale skin and auburn hair vanished amid a vast maroon body that expanded through the water, my breath caught in my throat. I got up, walking to the edge of the pool so I could see all of him properly.

I’d had a general sense of what he must look like in his most natural form from having seen his tentacles, but it hadn’t really prepared me for the reality. The tentacles themselves had expanded to twice the length and width I was used to, and the body they attached to now was no more human than Lance’s reptilian dragon form. Even less human, with twice as many limbs and no clear facial features other than the large eyes set low on either side of Torrent’s immense, rounded head.

He was, in essence, a giant octopus. Large enough that he had to curve his tentacles to allow them to fit in the rectangular space, his head alone longer than I was tall. To accommodate him, the salty pool water sloshed over the lip of the walls onto the slate tiles.

Most people probably would have been terrified. But I’d spent most of my life pushing myself to my limits, turning the things that scared me into an adventure. As alien as Torrent’s appearance was, there was also something sublime about it, like a vast mystery waiting to be unraveled. A secret I’d never quite get to the bottom of.

I’d taken my shoes off in the summer heat, and the water streaked over my feet, cooling my skin. After everything he’d said to me, an impulse gripped me to show him that I accepted him this way too, that our connection meant just as much to me as it did to him.

Normally I avoided pools like all stagnant water, but Rollick had specifically mentioned that he’d had this one replenished with clean water for our arrival, by whatever means the demon had at his disposal. Without hesitation, I pulled off my tee and shorts and darted around the corner of the pool to the steps in just my panties and bra. Unlike Torrent, I couldn’t dry off my entire outfit with a quick trip into the shadows.

I waded down into the water until my feet reached the floor and the salt-laced liquid reached my chin. My hair floated out around my face like flaxen seaweed. I’d placed myself carefully in an open space between two of Torrent’s tentacles. Now I reached out and rested my hand on one.

It might have been larger, but the soft yet firm skin felt the same as it always had. Torrent eased closer, the end of that tentacle wrapping loosely around my waist. As he moved into the shallower end of the pool, the top of his head protruded from the water. I stepped forward to meet him, my heart skipping a beat as I touched the spot at the base of his head between those two fathomless eyes.

He was even more awe-inspiring up close. “You’re amazing,” I told him, stroking the velvety slope of flesh. I had no idea how well he could hear me in his current state, but I had to say it anyway. “Totally amazing.”

Another tentacle coiled around my calf, its tip trailing in a teasing line up my inner leg toward my thigh. I’d barely had time to consider whether the heat that abruptly flooded me was reasonable or deeply weird when Torrent surged toward me.

He shifted as he came, with a warble of the water. The next thing I knew his human body was pinning me to the side of the pool, his human head bowing over mine as droplets streamed from his drenched hair. Four of his tentacles held me in place with the kiss of their suckers. He clutched the side of my neck and slammed his mouth into mine.

The salt of the water lingered on his lips, and his human skin was slick when I wrapped my arms around his shoulders. I kissed him back hard, all of me aching for the ultimate closeness that I’d gone without for days.

His warped hand came to rest on my side. The other and the ends of his tentacles caressed my curves as he devoured my mouth. The hooks of my bra released, and the water washed over my breasts. Suckers plucked at one nipple while his palms and then his thumb swiveled over the other, sending jolts of pleasure through my chest.

My hips rose instinctively, my thighs splaying around his hips. He’d reappeared without bothering with clothes, and the head of his rigid erection slid against my sex through my panties so perfectly that I gasped into his mouth.

He pulled back just far enough to mutter words, his lips grazing mine with each movement. “I will always come back. There’s no pain that could be greater than this joy. You are… everything.”

His voice rasped, and then he was claiming my mouth again at the same moment as he wrenched at my panties. The fabric split, and his cock plunged into me.

He swallowed my pleased cry and rammed even deeper. I arched into him and groped at his shoulders, desperate to feel all of him, to solidify our connection in the most fundamental possible way.

It felt like it’d been forever since we’d come together like this. My body melted into his, bliss surging with every thrust, impossibly fast. I rocked with him, clung to him, gasped my eagerness into his ear.

The flood of pleasure stole my breath. A tentacle slid between us to pluck at my clit, and sparks of pure delight seared through my pussy. It only took a few moments of that monstrous, marvelous touch before I was shivering and shuddering my release against him.

Torrent groaned and bucked faster. I felt his own climax in the tremor that rippled through his muscles, pressed so tightly against mine.

As he caught my mouth again, our bodies sagging together against the side of the pool, a shadow fell over us.

“Hmm,” Lance said in a teasing tone. “Getting up to so much fun already, and not inviting the rest of us. That’s not very… what’s the word humans use?”

“Sportsmanlike?” Crag suggested in a rumble from a little farther away.

I tipped my head back to peer up at them. Lance had crouched down at the edge of the pool over us—he reached to brush the tips of his claws over my hair. Crag loomed just a couple of steps behind him, his stance relaxed but his eyes smoldering.

I was still trembling with the force of my collision with Torrent, but more giddiness rushed through me at the desire in my other men’s expressions. I lifted a hand toward Lance. “There’s no reason you can’t join in now.”

He grinned wide and might have leapt into the water right then if Torrent hadn’t cleared his throat. “Maybe we should take this to a more private venue. I actually found a little something in the guest bedroom that I’d like to try out with our woman if she’s up for it… I just got a little caught up in the moment.” He pressed a kiss to my temple as if in apology.

I laughed. “Feel free to get caught up whenever you’re in the mood. But now I’m curious. What are we trying out?”

His pale eyes glinted with promise. “You’ll see.” He scooped me up in his arms with an extra boost from one tentacle and lifted me into the edge of the pool. “Can I count on the two of you to get her to the bedroom?”

Lance nuzzled my damp shoulder. “As fast as we can.”

“I’ll take care of that.” Crag bent down to gather me in his arms the way I was used to.

I tucked my head against his brawny chest, weirdly turned on and yet also comforted by his embrace. “I’m getting your shirt all wet.”

“It’ll be gone soon!” Lance announced gleefully, and bounced ahead of us into the house.

Crag squeezed me a little tighter as he carried me after the dragon shifter. “You’re as lovely like this as you are every other way, Softness.” He paused, and a smile touched his usually somber lips. “And he isn’t wrong.”

Torrent vanished, trailing alongside us through the shadows where he could move more easily. Crag strode down the hall with its cream-colored walls and pale birch flooring and into the airy bedroom Rollick had assigned to me “in case you’re in the mood to sleep before we leave again.” I didn’t suppose he’d be all that surprised by us making other uses of the king-sized bed.

Crag lowered me onto the fluffy duvet and climbed up next to me, lowering his head to seek out my mouth. As I kissed him, reveling in the tenderness he could offer even with his rocky jaw, Lance leapt up at my other side. The dragon shifter lapped his ridged tongue up the side of my neck and flicked the tips of his claws over my breast to send a rush of giddy quivers over my skin.

A bittersweet ache spread through my chest like melting wax. This was where I was meant to be. This was who I was meant to be with. I’d denied myself and these men what felt right to all of us for too long. But this interlude, right now, was even more of a homecoming than the moment when they’d appeared before me this morning.

Another presence knelt by my legs, and I knew Torrent had rejoined us. He trailed his fingers along my leg and let one of his tentacles nibble my toes with its suckers.

“Mine,” Lance murmured with typical possessiveness. He eased down my body, swiping his claws back and forth with just enough pressure to leave me tingling, slicking his tongue along the same path. He teased them right over my clit and jerked them back when I couldn’t stop my hips from bucking up to meet him.

“Needy girl.” He nudged my knee to the side and bent his head between my legs as I gasped against Crag’s mouth. “I’ll take care of you good.”

At the first swipe of his tongue over my pussy, I moaned. Crag swallowed the sound and lowered one of his massive hands to massage my breast. His calloused fingers worked over my nipple with a friction totally different from but just as thrilling as Lance’s claws.

Torrent eased around to attend to my other breast with a tentacle. Watching over me, he reached to tug open the drawer on the bedside table. I was too occupied with my other lovers to see what he retrieved.

Lance plunged his tongue right inside me and then started pumping into me with his knuckles while he sucked on my clit. At my growl of need, he chuckled with a wash of hot breath over my sex. “I’ll give you what you’re craving, baby girl. I need it too.”

He moved up my body in one smooth motion, his clothes disappearing somewhere along the way. As he nipped the edge of my jaw, he speared me with his cock, sliding all the way to the hilt in one go.

I arched to meet him, and he clutched my hip with the slightest prick of his claws. I pulled away from Crag to catch the dragon shifter’s mouth.

As Lance’s tongue delved between my lips, Crag crouched down to suckle the breast he’d been fondling. My men seemed determined to leave no part of me unattended.

My body thrummed with pleasure, every nerve alight. We’d only come together all three of us once before, and I’d forgotten just how exhilarating an experience it was. Lance’s cock swelled inside me into its bulbous dragon form, stretching me and rubbing against the perfect spot inside with every stroke, and I started to tremble with delight. I bucked with his thrusts, matching his rhythm as well as I could, tipping my head to kiss Torrent and then meet Crag’s mouth again.

Lance kept up his ferocious pace and trailed his claws down my side at the same time. The quiver of bliss they woke up twined with the pleasure swelling from my core. My head jerked back against the pillow, and I clenched around him as I came. Sparks danced behind my eyes.

The dragon shifter let out a strangled sound as he careened after me. He bowed over my body, panting and grinning with satisfaction. I ran my fingers down the side of his face, but I still had one more lover I hadn’t fully reunited with yet.

As Lance withdrew, I pushed myself upright and turned toward Crag. He drew back far enough to take in my expression.

I nudged him into a sitting position. “Clothes off. Now.”

He smiled with a hint of a flush beneath the bronze of his cheeks. “How do you want me, Softness? The man or the gargoyle?”

I let out an impatient sound. “I love both of them. Which feels better to you?”

He paused and then admitted, “I like it better when I know I’m not at all pretending.”

“Then give me the gargoyle.”

He blinked into the shadows and back again, a foot taller and nearly as much broader on his return. His wings arched from his back. The bed’s frame creaked but held under the weight of his flexible stone body.

I clambered onto his lap and stroked my hands over the solid planes that felt rock-hard yet as warm as regular flesh. When I reached past his shoulders to trail my fingers along the tops of his wings, he made a sound somewhere between a growl and a purr of encouragement.

One part of him was particularly hard, stiffly erect in anticipation. I slid my cunt along it, licking my lips and closing my eyes as the friction brought a fresh surge of giddiness.

Torrent and Lance had warmed me up, but Crag’s gargoyle cock was by far the biggest I’d ever taken. We’d managed it before, though.

He slipped one hand between us to prepare me, sliding between my folds carefully and then with more confidence. With each sweep of his fingers, he stretched me wider. A little moan escaped me. I swayed with the movements of his hand, kissing his rough-edged jaw, his cheek, his mouth again until he was groaning too.

“Now,” I mumbled when I couldn’t stand the wait any longer. “I need you now.”

A rumble reverberated from deep in the gargoyle’s chest. He withdrew his hand, and I positioned myself over him. I eased down a couple of inches, and then a couple more, a sigh escaping both of us in unison. I was so perfectly, incredibly full.

Another hand glided down my back to my ass. Torrent leaned in to kiss my shoulder. “This is the perfect position for my experiment.” He glanced at Crag. “If you don’t mind me collaborating.”

Crag gave me a look that was both fond and hot enough to turn my blood scorching. “If it makes our woman even happier, I’m all for it.”

I sank a little deeper, taking even more of Crag into me, and paused to absorb the heady sensation. Then I peeked at Torrent from the corner of my eyes. “What’s this secret?”

His smile was sly. “Not really a secret. We’ve discussed it before. And Rollick seems to keep his guestrooms well-stocked.” He held up a bottle of lube. His caressing hand dipped between my cheeks to my back entrance, and a jolt of unexpected pleasure raced through my body. “We could find out how you enjoy being taken from two directions at the same time. We’ll go slowly with it—I’ll use a tentacle so I have even more control.”

The thought of one of those lithe appendages stimulating me there turned my breath ragged in an instant. “Okay. Yes. Please.”

Lance chuckled. “So eager, baby girl. I want to watch this. And hear every sound you make.”

I did make a lot of sounds as I slid up and down on Crag’s cock while he palmed one breast and then the other and Torrent slicked gel-drenched fingers over my other entrance. When the tentacled man hooked one finger inside me, I whimpered. It turned out I could feel even more full, and that feeling was glorious.

He worked another finger inside me, careful but firm, pulsing in and out. “How are you liking that, Quinn?”

“Good,” I mumbled before another moan escaped me. “So good.”

His fingers vanished, but only for a second before one of his tentacles replaced them, nudging at my now pliant entrance. It slid into me and began to thrust in and out in an echo of my rhythm over Crag’s cock.

I cried out at the rush of pleasure radiating all through my torso. Crag caught my cheek and yanked my mouth to his. We kissed wildly, and I bucked faster, and both men picked up their pace to match me. It was a whirlwind of blissful pressure and friction and then?—

I came apart with a cry that must have rung through the whole house. My body sagged between the two men, quaking with the aftershock of my final orgasm. Crag roared at the same moment, spilling himself inside me as he caught me against his chest. He hugged me to him as if he never meant to release me from his hold.

Torrent propped himself against the headboard next to us, outright smirking now. “It seems like that was a successful experiment.”

I laughed breathlessly. “Yes. Very.”

Lance sprawled out at my other side, totally comfortable leaning against the gargoyle’s bulk as he stroked my arm. “So lovely. So sweet. Our special mortal.”

“So lucky, to have the three of you,” I said with a wave of emotion.

Torrent leaned forward to tuck a few stray strands of my hair behind my ear. He studied my face with a sudden intensity. “Have you had any interest in getting even luckier?”

His voice came out soft with its usual evenness, but something about the words made my pulse jump. I raised my head to peer at him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” he said, and hesitated as if grappling with the words, “I’ve gotten the impression you and Rollick have made your peace with each other over the past little while. Maybe even become somewhat fond of each other?”

Guilt tugged at my gut. “We haven’t done anything,” I said quickly. “I didn’t want to do anything.”

Torrent’s gaze was knowing. “Because you thought you’d be betraying us, or because you honestly weren’t interested?”

There was no judgment in his tone. Still, my shoulders slumped. I didn’t want to lie to him—to all of them.

“He has a certain appeal. He always did. And now I trust him… more than I did before, anyway. I understand why he did what he did. But I have the three of you. I don’t need anyone else. You’re more than enough.”

Lance hummed to himself, his violet eyes sparkling in his golden face. “But is there such a thing as being too happy? I think the more we can give our woman, the better.”

I blinked at him. “You’d be okay with him being a part of this relationship? He used you too—all three of you.”

Lance shrugged. “He did what he thought was the best thing without worrying too much about anyone else. That’s what shadowkind do. None of us got hurt. And he did protect you. He’s trying to protect you every way he can. That means he’s all right now.”

Crag nodded slowly, watching me with a thoughtful expression. “If you wanted him, Softness, I wouldn’t resent you or him for it. He’s tackling this problem alongside us, as one of us. I can’t say we’re somehow more deserving.”

“It’s not about deserving,” I protested.

Torrent slung a gentle tentacle around my shoulders. “When it comes to whether we can accept it or not, it is. But I only brought it up because, after talking to him, I realized you might deserve what he can offer too. I think whatever he would bring to the table, it’d be honestly, not a game. But all that matters is whether you really do want it. I don’t think any of us would object to getting to keep you all to ourselves either.”

“I don’t know,” I said, my emotions whirling.

“Lots of time to decide,” Lance said. “I don’t think the tricksy boss is going anywhere.”

Torrent nodded. “No. I didn’t mean to put you on the spot. I just thought we should be clear that the option is there, if you wanted to go down that path. I wouldn’t like to see you tearing yourself up because you wanted something you thought would upset us.”

All at once, I choked up. Still braced over Crag, I pulled the tentacled man into a hug. “Thank you,” I said.

I didn’t know what I was going to do with the information he’d just presented, but at least it dissolved the guilt that’d lodged deep inside me. We could figure the rest out when we needed to.

For now, we had two of the most ancient shadowkind in existence to bring down, and we still didn’t know for sure what their endgame even was.