8. Cress
The first thing I did was shower and change into a clean, fluffy robe left behind in the room I’d claimed. With my damp hair still piled on my head with a towel, I took up my phone and flopped onto the bed. The room was little more than a rectangle of space with all the essentials lined up. A small kitchen area, a bed and closet, and finally a bathroom, with utilitarian decorations that were probably uniform across all the temporary living spaces on the second floor of this library.
I paid my surroundings little heed as I waited for a website to load. When it did, I muffled a curse in the off-white duvet I laid on and jabbed the refresh button like that would change the fact that the hacker’s feed of the Crown Coven’s audience chamber was disconnected.
I scrolled past a couple paragraphs the hacker had written, gaze snagging on a moving GIF. Myuna was swinging a startlingly bright rope that blinded the camera before the viewpoint went dark. Had she known the supernatural community was watching her? I took a breath to calm my racing heart before reading the text above the GIF.
In it, the hacker explained that there were no other working camera feeds in the audience chamber. He also linked a petition, which I tapped.
Thousands of digital signatures already graced the plea to open up Cerris City again for long enough to evacuate everyone left behind. It read like the powerful men and women debating collapsing the pocket dimension were nearing a decision and that it looked bleak for us.
“It is an unnecessary cruelty that they should die with the dimensional monster we’ve seen on the news,” I read out loud, my dread rising. “Please save these innocent people before it’s too late.”
Hana had mentioned the possibility that Myuna would be winked out of existence this way if we failed. A future she’d seen that didn’t need to happen if we killed Myuna. But someone had to reach out to the supernatural community on this side of the pocket dimension to mention that we were going to try fighting her and needed more time to regroup. Had Madigan or Hana already done that?
Was the greater supernatural community just going to collapse Cerris City anyway?
As cynical as it was, I recognized that the hundreds of lives stuck here were a small sacrifice compared to Myuna escaping and consuming the whole world instead. With a ragged sigh, I closed my eyes.
Everyone I held dear was here. If the pocket dimension was destroyed now, the mother who’d adopted me and the sister I was raised with would be gone. I saw Carly in my mind’s eye and wondered where she’d fled to. She still hadn’t answered her phone or any texts I’d sent. I hoped she was all right.
There was also my coven to consider. All of them were my friends…maybe even prickly Wren. She had come here to stand behind me in the audience chamber and confronted her father’s misdeeds head-on. I found myself hoping that she would be all right too, after the loved ones she’d lost and all the emotions that’d rocked her rich-girl world.
My mind strayed back to my men, though. With the softness of bedsheets under me, it was inevitable I thought of the three guys I wanted here with me.
First Phaeron, the one who kept me at arm’s length despite acknowledging something between us. I felt the ghost of his touch skimming goosebumps up my arms. He liked to lean down and whisper in his deep, smooth voice over the shell of my ear. Though he didn’t trust himself and his instincts not to harm me, he’d still teased and tasted and given me glimpses of the animal that lurked underneath his princely veneer.
I only hoped those moments weren’t all I was left with. I missed him with a fierceness that made needling pains in my chest. If he were here, I’d slip this robe off my skin ever so slowly and watch the heat light in his otherworldly yellow eyes. He’d seen it all before, even had the self-control to watch as Ben and Geo took me right in front of him without joining in.
Hell, both Ben and Geo were a shout away, and here I was fantasizing without them. But with Geo in gargoyle form for so long and Ben burdened by his brother’s condition, would either of them want me right now? I moved to sit at the foot of the bed, robe gaping around my body with how the tie had come loose.
Well…I wasn’t going to be much of a seductress like this. I went to the bathroom mirror to dry my hair and lamented my plain face. I hadn’t packed anything, least of all makeup, and I wasn’t about to go take some from one of the librarians who’d abandoned the pocket dimension, either.
I supposed my men were getting serious, plain-faced Cress for a while. My face didn’t rest in a friendly expression, but I poked color into my cheeks and forced my lips to turn upward in my reflection.
“It’s not all bad. They’ve seen this before,” I said aloud for my own benefit. We’d gotten past the stage where all they saw of me was the primped, polished Cress rather than the rumpled, morning-after Cress. Ben usually enjoyed tousling my purple hair further, mirth a shine in his eyes.
We should be sharing this room, not going to different parts of the library. I secured my robe firmly and peered out into the hall, looking left and right to be sure it was quiet. On bare feet, I padded to the door I thought Ben had claimed and knocked.
He answered as I was raising my knuckles to knock a second time. He’d been scowling, but his expression brightened the moment he saw me standing there. “Hey, babe. Come tell Geo to eat,” he invited, stepping aside.
Puzzled, I came inside and spotted Geo in his human form. His tall body was folded awkwardly over the squat table in the kitchen area, a plate of smoked meat and crackers set out next to a steaming mug before him. His eyes gleamed with quicksilver irises, a sign that he’d just recently changed back from gargoyle form.
“You need to eat,” I parroted.
On cue, Geo coughed up a puff of dust. We’d learned that eating and drinking gave his human side a kick start, drawing back the man I loved from the shell of stone he could encase himself in.
“As you insist.” His voice was deep and guttural, yet his generous lips curled into a smile before he drank from his mug.
They’d made coffee, the smell of it lingering. I searched for creamer before committing to a mug of it, knowing I couldn’t stomach it black but wanting the kick of energy all the same. Ben came behind me while I poured and stirred, his hands warm pressure around my hips. I placed everything on the counter and leaned back, tilting my head toward his.
The same longing I’d been feeling reflected back at me. I knew Ben well enough to gauge the slant of his clever mouth. “We were going to come find you,” he said. His fingertips skimmed up my waist, finding the soft tie of fabric holding my robe together.
“Well, I found you first. What is my reward?” I snared his fingers with mine, drawing them away from freeing me of my clothes so soon.
“Us, of course,” Geo answered. Straight to the point, as always, while Ben punctuated it with a kiss on the curve of my neck.
I shivered, the chill in the air only a contrast to the heat of him. I should’ve told him about the online petition, one representation of the executioner’s axe looming over us regardless of whether we had a chance to confront the evil in Cerris City. Maybe I should have mentioned the destroyed camera that’d once offered us a glimpse at Myuna and Phaeron.
But what would we do about any of that now? I twisted in Ben’s hold, taking him in again now that we were face to face. His worries were shadows in the hollows of his face. The last thing he needed was more to shoulder.
“I’ll take that reward. Let’s forget what’s outside this room, at least for tonight,” I said, tracing my fingers up his freshly shaven jaw.
He leaned into my touch. “That’s the best idea I’ve heard in a long while,” he said.
My hand drifted to the soft feathers of his honey-brown hair, drawing him down to meet my lips. He opened up, kissing with the intent to forget, and tasting of coffee with a hint of his usual breath mints. Effortlessly he lifted and spun me around, my lower back hitting a hard surface.
I opened my eyes, meeting Geo’s gaze, which was darkening with lust. He sat on the chair next to the one my head brushed. Ben smiled against my mouth, holding up a strip of cloth…the tie to my robe, which pooled around me to reveal my naked form. I hadn’t bothered with underwear.
Ben released me suddenly, skimming his touch up my curves. His calloused fingertips rubbed the chilled pucker of my nipples. “Hey, babe, lean back. I need to eat too,” he said with a hint of his usual smirk.
“What if I’m hungry as well?” I asked playfully.
Geo eased his meal aside and helped guide me so my back was fully on the table. He stood and left my line of sight while Ben cupped my thighs and eased my legs around his shoulders. A little sound of pleasure left us both when his tongue ran up the seam of my slit and he kissed the bud at its apex. I moaned from the electric thrill that jumped through me.
I heard Geo return to his seat and the scrape as he repositioned it. He set something ceramic down close to my ear. “I will feed you anything you desire,” he rumbled. The pad of his fingertip pressed to my lips, and I opened, surprised by the taste of sweet coffee. I licked his finger clean and sucked on the digit. The swirl of my tongue hinted that I expected him to “feed” me something else.
In response, Geo next placed a circle of smoked meat in my mouth, and I chewed carefully, experimenting with this while Ben coaxed his way between my lower lips with shorter licks. He’d picked up on the mood and slowed down from his usual eager feasting to prolong the moment.
I swallowed, accepting a cracker next. Though a little stale, this food packed more flavor than the last meal I remembered…my breakfast in the hospital. My belly rumbled, suddenly ravenous. I tightened my thighs around Ben, grinding against his face for more. His eyes were slanted with amusement as well as the lust that grew sharper when I closed my lips around Geo’s finger again for a small taste of coffee.
I was glad they’d brewed some, even though we were taking in the caffeine later than we should. I’d come in here feeling drained and stressed, but my heart zipped with new energy as they teased out my pleasure. They just so happened to meet two needs at once.
When I came, I bit Geo’s finger, and he moaned deeply. He breathed without trouble, no sign of stone dust or the apathy of his other form. The way he watched the pleasure break across my expression and how I threaded my fingers through Ben’s hair possessively showed that Geo was fully with us, completely a man.
As I lay there recovering from my pleasure high, they motioned between themselves, negotiating how they’d share me next.
“If we’re doing food-themed tonight,” I said, my voice husky. “Then I had better be sandwiched between you as soon as possible.”
“You heard the lady.” Chuckling, Ben flipped Geo a condom. We’d discussed the birth control I’d started taking in a private moment, but they still had to use protection until the pill took effect. I was just glad Ben had taken a few condoms in his wallet.
Geo caught my chin between his thumb and forefinger, stealing a kiss. “He got to taste you. I want you next,” he practically growled.
I felt a brief pang of worry that he was letting his old reluctance to share me rise to the surface until his fingers skimmed down my lower belly, cupping and rubbing my slippery womanhood. His thick digits spread me, and I moaned as he curled them, shooting a bolt of pleasure through my core.
“Fine by me,” Ben said.
I nodded in breathless agreement and slipped off the table, the fabric of my robe making it a fast trip to land on my jelly-like legs. Ben caught me and helped pass me to Geo. Soon, I was lip-locked with the gargoyle, pressed firmly to his clothed front.
Geo had to release me to get the shirt off his body. I took that moment to help him, shortening the time between acts so I wouldn’t need to think. After freeing his erection from the confines of his pants, I stole the condom from his fingers and slipped it onto his heavy shaft in one loving stroke.
I’d been shared by these two men enough to prefer having them at the same time rather than needing to choose between them for an evening. Sometimes I wondered what it would be like to add a third man, especially one with a tail and shadows solid enough to feel like stroking fingers. But I shook off thoughts of Phaeron, knowing longing would sour the night if I let it into my heart.
We didn’t make it to the bed. Geo was strong enough to lift me without trouble halfway there, and I anchored myself with my legs around his solid thighs, arms braced on his shoulders. I tugged his white locs and shivered with anticipation as Ben stepped up behind me, squeezing my waist while Geo had my ass cupped in his broad palms.
Ben’s teasing touch ran up and down my back, his mouth on my neck from behind. He brushed my slit and teased his thumb between my cheeks, using my own slick to prepare my ass for a bigger insertion. My breath came in slow, eager pants against Geo’s mouth. Ben leaned down, lips brushing my ear. “Is this when I make a sandwich pun?” he whispered.
“No,” Geo answered shortly.
He practically pouted. “I had a clever one. Salami was involved.”
I sank my teeth into my bottom lip to keep from bursting out laughing. I’d missed their back and forth. “Actions over words, Ben,” I said.
Geo grunted in agreement, lowering my hips to spear me on his manhood. He caught his lower lip between his teeth on a hiss of pleasure.
“All right, all right,” Ben conceded quickly. I knew he was taking himself in hand, waiting for me to sink halfway on the gargoyle’s cock before he made his move. He pressed me more firmly between the heat of their chests and helped angle himself into my ass.
Mouth hanging half open, I moaned loudly at how full I felt between them. I tried to shift in Geo’s hold, but he dug his fingers into my skin to hold me still, as immovable as stone. By unspoken agreement, they moved like two pistons; where Ben pressed, Geo withdrew, and back again.
My nails dug into Geo’s back. His skin was slick…already sheened with sweat. I would marvel later at how quickly he bounced back from his stone form. Maybe it was just the food, as his kisses still tasted faintly of his scrounged meal, but I wanted to think it was me. Us. That this act was the true switch to flip for him.
I was glad to have him back…to have both of them still here with me. I cried their names out until I came and jumbled them up together. Once we cleaned up and lay out together, with me still blissfully between them, they had a good-natured debate over who I called out to when I’d said something akin to “Beneo.”