Chapter 25 Beyond All Expectations
Seri
“Makes a man hungry.”
I jolted awake, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. The room was pitch black, the silence so heavy it pressed against my ears. My breath came in shallow gasps, and I clutched at the sheets tangled around my legs, the fabric damp with sweat.
Claudio’s taunt echoed in my head, cruel and menacing, and my stomach turned. I hated the way his words curled around my mind like smoke I couldn’t clear.
I’d tried to show Zane the memory a few hours ago, and Casimir had cautioned me this might happen. He’d even offered me a sleeping pill, but I’d settled for Koa’s honey-kissed chamomile tea instead. Now, I wished I would have taken the pill.
It hadn’t even worked; the silence shackle had kept Zane from seeing and hearing anything except a few fuzzy images and distorted sounds.
Shivering, I pulled my knees to my chest and tried to fold myself into something small and unseen. The clock on the nightstand glowed faintly: 2:03 a.m.
I knew I was at Evermere, not back on the Bell homestead. I also knew I was safe from Arabesque and Claudio. And yet…
I want my husbands.
The thought surprised me, but it felt right.
Will they mind if I go in their room? I bit my bottom lip. It’s an invasion of their privacy, but Zane said I wasn’t a bother.
And they’d understand I was scared and didn’t want to be alone, wouldn’t they? So far, they’d given me nothing but care and kindness, something I hadn’t dared hope for when I’d learned I was to be married to a vampire.
Speaking of getting married, our human wedding ceremony was tomorrow, and I was both excited and nervous.
The guys had bought gold wedding bands to match mine, and I couldn’t wait to see them wearing them.
They’d even agreed to dress up with me, and Zane had valiantly promised no sarcastic sayings on his shirt.
I wasn’t sure if I was ready for a wedding night. I hadn’t even kissed them on the lips yet! But the way they made me feel inside with every touch and hungry glance—
“Look at those pretty eyes. Like a cornered doe. Makes a man hungry.” Claudio’s taunt and leering eyes ruined the thought.
Makes a man hungry. Makes a man hungry. Makes a man hungry. Makes a man—
A soft whine broke through the fear spiraling in my mind, and I turned to see Brumous at the threshold of my room, his charcoal-gray fur blending into the shadows.
The door was slightly ajar, just enough for him to slip in and out as he wanted.
His eyes glowed faintly in the night, and I knew he was concerned.
“Just a bad dream, Brummy.”
He padded over to the bed, his steps slow and careful, as though he didn’t want to startle me. When he reached my side, he dropped his chin on the mattress, his warm breath brushing my arm.
My fingers trembled as I reached out to stroke his fur, but he took my wrist in his mouth and tugged until I sat on the edge of the bed. Then he walked back to the door, raised a paw, and pointed across the hall.
Was he telling me to go to them? To my husbands?
I bit my lip as my stomach twisted with indecision.
What if they were annoyed? What if I was being too needy? Was it too much? Would they think I was being ridiculous?
“Makes a man hungry.”
That voice slithered through me again, and I shuddered.
Brumous came back and mouthed my wrist a second time, tugging more insistently.
“Okay,” I whispered, more to myself than to him. “Okay.”
Sliding out of bed, I took in my sweat-drenched hoodie, well, Koa’s hoodie, and decided I could at least put on dry clothes first. Limping to my dresser, I stripped down and grabbed the first thing that came to my hand, a long-sleeved t-shirt nightie that reached to my knees.
That seemed like adequate coverage, so I slipped it on and hobbled to my door, scowling at my ankle when it twinged.
Brumous trailed silently besides me and brushed against my legs as I stopped at their door.
I reached for the knob, then drew my hand back.
“They’re asleep, Brummy. What if they don’t want to wake up and find me in there?” I chewed my lower lip, torn between the nightmare still gnawing at me and the worry that I’d be a burden to them. “What if they yell at me or throw me out?”
Silently, Brumous nudged my hip, and I looked into his eyes to see them wide with encouragement.
Right, I told myself. They’re kind. They’re decent. They won’t hurt you. Be brave.
And before I could talk myself out of it again, I cracked the door open and peered inside.
The room was dark, the only light coming from the hall behind me.
My eyes adjusted slowly, and there they were.
Koa on the left, his black hair tousled over his face.
Zane on his stomach, hugging his pillow.
And Casimir on the right, his broad shoulders rising and falling with each slow breath, long hair unbound for once and spilling down the side of the bed.
My heart clenched. I wanted to be there. I wanted to be with them.
Brumous trotted past me, settling on the carpet at the foot of the bed with a contented sigh. I stood frozen in the doorway, my cheeks burning.
They were all shirtless, the blanket bunched near their waists and their skin glowing faintly in the hall light, and my cheeks burned at the intimacy of it.
What am I doing here? I thought, panic fluttering in my chest. This is dumb. I shouldn’t—
“Serafina?” At Casimir’s voice, gravelly with sleep, my eyes snapped to his face to find him watching me. He raised the edge of the blanket with one hand and gestured with the other. “Come here.”
I hesitated, my fingers twisting in my nightie’s sleeves.
“I didn’t mean to wake you,” I whispered.
“You didn’t. Come here.”
I bit my lip, my heart pounding in my ears, torn between the deep yearning to be close to them and the fear of, well, just fear.
This is insane. I can’t—
“Sorry. I’ll go.”
I took a step back into the hallway, but in a blink, he was in front of me, and my face heated up as I saw his form-fitting boxer briefs. Before I could come up with more excuses, he picked me up and cradled me against his warm chest. My breath stuttered as I felt his coarse hairs tickle my face.
“You’re welcome here any time, little wife,” he whispered. “Who else would you go to after a nightmare other than your husbands?”
My cheeks burned hotter as he carried me back to their bed and settled me next to Zane, so very careful of my bad arm, then climbed back in himself.
I froze, very aware of all of him just inches from my face.
My gaze flicked to Zane on my other side, his hair a red halo against the pillow, and I gulped.
I was surrounded by more bare skin than I’d even seen in my entire life. My fingers knotted in the blanket, clutching it like a lifeline. This was a lot.
“Relax,” Casimir murmured. His hand, warm and calloused, brushed against mine, sending a shiver through me. “Nothing’s going to happen that you don’t want. You’re safe here. Always safe with us.”
His words melted some of the tension in my shoulders, but still, I couldn’t ignore the warmth radiating from him and the others.
Then his hand moved to rest on my hip.
I froze, and he jerked away as if he’d touched a hot burner.
“Apologies—”
“No!” I fumbled for his wrist and guided his hand back into place. “It’s just new.”
After a moment, his thumb moved slightly, a barely there caress that sent a shiver up my spine.
Near my ear, his heart thundered. On a spurt of courage, I let my fingers skate up to the golden hair spread across his pillow.
“May I braid this sometime? I mean, if you don’t mind.”
Fire ignited in his eyes, a banked forge roaring to life. I didn’t understand it, but it made my breath flutter and my lower belly feel tight and warm.
“Anything. Everything. All I am, all I have, is yours.”
“You mean it?” My eyebrows shot up.
“Test me. Do something.”
The permission unlocked something reckless inside me.
I tilted my head slightly, my gaze tracing the line of his throat, the sharp angle of his jaw, and the delicate dip between his collarbones.
It was such a small thing, that little hollow, but it drew me in, like a secret only I could see.
Slowly, giving him time to retreat, I pressed my lips there, and salt and heat burst across my tongue.
He made a sound deep in his throat, his hand tightening on my hip.
“Seri. That’s…”
“Too much?” I worried.
His laugh came out strangled.
“Not enough.”
Before I lost my courage, I traced the shell of his ear with my fingertips, and he went still, so still I thought he might never move again. As I was marveling at what my featherlight touches could do to him, his head came closer until his lips hovered above mine.
“Slowly,” he murmured, although I wasn’t certain which of us he was telling.
The first brush of his mouth against mine stole the oxygen from my lungs.
Not a kiss, but the ghost of one. His exhale trembled against my chin as he slanted his head, and his second pass was firmer.
Warmth bloomed behind my breastbone, spreading outward until even my toes tingled.
I forgot to breathe. Forgot everything except the velvet slide of his lips and the way my pulse thrummed in time with his.
When he pulled back, his eyes glittered like a galaxy of stars.
“Still with me, my love?”
I nodded, dazed. My fingertips drifted to my tingling mouth. Kissing Zane’s forehead during the shampoo adventure had been like patting a friendly dog compared to this magic that turned my bones to honey and my thoughts to dust.
He caught my hand and held it over the frantic rhythm beneath his ribs.
“I want to devour you,” he said hoarsely, “but I want to shelter you, too. I want to protect your innocence as much as I want to take it.”
“But I don’t want to be protected from you,” I blurted, the words tumbling out before I could stop them. “I want you to be mine. All three of you. And I don’t want anyone else to have you.”