Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Scottie
I lean back in the tub, Tucker’s arm across my chest pulling me against his naked body. The water laps at our skin, carrying the calming scent of lavender and bergamot from the essential oils I added. My muscles are tense as he massages my thighs beneath the surface.
“You were amazing tonight, beautiful.” His voice is deep and seductive as warm breath tickles the shell of my ear.
I sink deeper into the water, my wet hair floating out like a blonde screen molding to the rounds of my breasts. “And is this my reward?”
“Part of it, but not the best part.”
Tiny foam bubbles hiss and pop around us as I shift, sending ripples across the surface. His strong hands slide to my arms, kneading against the stiffness left in the wake of our battle at the warehouse.
I twist to look over my shoulder at him, my half-lidded gaze lazy and content. “Then I look forward to the full experience.”
He leans closer and kisses my cheek before I turn back around and relax once more. Drawing a gentle finger down my arms, he traces the Vasari lineage inked into my skin.
My father was Francesco’s squire years before I was born, so I never knew him without this ink on his arm. It’s an honor to be tied to Zane’s family. It’s also an honor for me to share the destiny that meant everything to him.
It makes me feel close to him.
“Beautiful? What you said before…about imagining having all three of us together…”
I stiffen, the sudden change in topic making my head spin a little. The three of us? Right, my daydreaming in the training session…
“Sorry. Should I have kept that to myself?”
He presses a kiss on my shoulder. “Never apologize for knowing what you want. Where I grew up, the women led our clan. They were cherished and taught me there is no higher honor than to bring pleasure to the one you love.”
I turn in his arms, the motion creating eddies of swirling water as I spin to straddle his hips. He opens his arms and gives me the space I need to straddle his lap. Reaching my dripping hands over his shoulders, I run my fingers into the back of his chestnut waves.
I meet his gaze, his golden eyes dark with desire. “Whether there is only me in your bed or all three of us, I will be no less committed to you or your happiness. I spoke to Zane about it and told him the same thing.”
“You did?”
He dips his chin. “If exploring a relationship with all of us is something you would enjoy, I want you to have that pleasure.”
I study his expression as he says that and don’t read an ounce of hesitation. “Wow, your pack sounds like an enlightened place to grow up as a girl.”
He doesn’t talk about his life with his mother much and I won’t push him for more details if he isn’t offering them voluntarily.
I lean back a little and trail my fingers down the sculpted ridges of his bare chest. “So, do you feel like honoring your female right now?”
The candlelight catches the water droplets on his broad shoulders, making me drool. He cups my face in his hands, drawing me closer. “Nothing would make me happier.”
Reaching beneath the layer of bubbles and through the warmth of the water, he grips both my hips and lifts me onto my knees. “Isn’t there a warning for women to avoid having sex in water?”
I reach between us and guide his big and beautiful cock to my core. “I’ll risk it.”
The moment the swollen head of his erection is poised at my entrance, all thoughts of caution and restraint dissolve. Over the past weeks, he’s been inside me so many times in so many positions, I’d be hard pressed to count them all. But every time is like the first.
The way he fills me steals my breath.
The way my pussy squeezes him like it’ll never let me go makes me crazy.
The way our shared magic lights me up from the inside brings me to the edge of my control.
Every time is just as breathtakingly perfect as the first time.
I grip his muscled shoulders and ride up and down his shaft. With each rise and fall, the water in the tub sloshes against my ribs and splashes up the side of the tub. It’s both sexy as hell and a bit worrisome.
I don’t want to flood the place and have people running in here because water is leaking into the dining hall below.
Not that it would stop me.
With my eyes closed and my head thrown back, I take what I need from him. When he groans, I bite my bottom lip and grind over his hips, lost in the delicious fullness.
It’s perfection—utter perfection.
Zane
I flop onto my back, my energy spent, my breath coming in short, quick gasps. Huntley has been well and truly schooled in poor decisions and putting himself at risk. Not that I’m finished with him—not by a long shot—but even a true-blood vampire needs a moment to catch his breath.
“Feel better now?”
“Only a little.” Rolling onto my side, I grip the silver ring pierced through his nipple and give it a tweak.
He winces. “Ah, your balls really are in a twist.”
I release the piercing before his masochistic sense of pain for pleasure takes over, and he enjoys it. Too late. Both his nipples are hard and he’s getting hard again. “You’d do well to at least pretend to be punished. Otherwise, I may never let you out of this bed.”
“All the more reason not to give you the satisfaction. I’m having fun.” The lingering scent of sweat and orgasms mix with the earthy spice of the genuine contentment he’s giving off in waves.
It’s an intoxicating blend that holds me in its embrace.
“You’re supposed to be suffering for what you put me through. You’re so annoying.”
He grunts a laugh. “I am sorry you worried, but me sticking with the truck was the right call. If we simply followed the truck, we would’ve lost our chance to catch the thieves, and we wouldn’t have the witches in custody.”
I grunt. “Not good enough.”
He runs his thumb over my bottom lip and gives it a tug. “Don’t pout. It was good for you and Scottie to work together to find me. It felt like old times, except for Tucker being there.”
There’s an edge to Huntley’s voice when he talks about Tucker and that has to stop. “If the big guy will share her with us without comment, you’ve got to open up to the idea of him being around.”
Huntley wrinkles his nose. “That’s not something I would’ve ever thought you’d say.”
“Consider me an enlightened man. He brings Scottie a level of comfort and happiness we can’t give her. If we make her give that up, we might be the ones who lose out.”
He shakes his head. “I doubt that.”
“Having Scots home has taken a weight off me—off both of us.”
He nods. “There were things that needed to be said. It’s helped to get them off our chests.”
It has. Not that I’ll ever forget how I hurt her—I couldn’t even if I tried. “Bran gave me a second chance to make amends, and I will live every day of my eternal life, dedicating myself to making her happy. If that means Tucker joins our relationship, he’s welcome.”
Huntley doesn’t look convinced.
I close my eyes and reach across the Sacred Squire bond I share with Scots. Waves of contentment and pleasure wash over me from the Squire’s Suite on the other side of the Royal Residence.
“Scottie and Tucker are enjoying one another—again. When they’re together, the currents of her rapture drown out the tumult of her pain.”
Huntley arches a brow. “You can sense her having sex with him?”
“He’s good to her, Viking. It may have taken me a few weeks to wrap my head around the idea, but Jack was right—everything in my life with Scottie before now was about me. I love her enough to put her happiness first.”
Huntley studies me as if he’s not sure he believes me.
“Tucker is a good man, and he treats her well—very well. He’s not only good to her—he’s good for her. In a world of dominant and arrogant men, Tucker is calm. He listens to her and sees beyond what she’s doing and saying, and straight to what she’s feeling.”
Huntley sighs. “She deserves that.”
“She deserves more than the two of us and our broody moods. She deserves more than for her needs to come after my reign and our commitment to the clan.”
He rolls onto his back and clasps his hands behind his head, staring up at the pillow. “I still don’t like it.”
“Tucker is willing to share Scottie’s heart with us. We’d be fools to press for more than that. My father didn’t raise a fool.”
“Hearing her ask about all three of us sharing her was a bit of a shock.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh. “Multiple partners to vampires is just another Thursday night. When did you become such a monogamous prude?”
“Never—but Scottie is human, and until now she was a one-man kind of woman.”
Until I ruined that.
“Well, this is where we ended up. Scottie proposed the idea of the four of us, and we need to consider it.”
Huntley rolls onto his side to face me. “And that brings up another question.”
“Which is?”
“Are we really a ‘we’? You’ve always insisted on no one knowing about our private life, but when Link caught us kissing, you didn’t freak out. You didn’t even bat an eye.”
“I was private about it when I was the prince, and you were my bodyguard. We both know Bran would never have approved and my father wouldn’t have either. They would’ve cited it as a conflict of interest.”
“And he did.” Huntley shrugs and lets off a long sigh. “That was what my video message from Bran was about. He didn’t choose Scotland over me because of anything she did. He chose her because he knew about the two of us.”
What? How? I thought we’d been so discreet. Then again, there wasn’t a thing that went on in this compound that Bran wasn’t aware of.
Until Benoit’s treachery, that is.
Beneath my fingertips, I sense the tension coiling in my Viking’s muscles. That he lost his destiny because of our relationship hurts. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. Bran was right—we crossed the line. He was also wrong because my feelings for you don’t distract me from my duty to protect you—they intensify it.”
But it still hurts to cause his disappointment. I press my forehead to his chest, absorbing the weight of our actions, the gravity of how they affected his future. “I never meant for you to lose your destiny because of me.”
He tilts my chin up, forcing me to meet his gaze. “ You are my destiny, Zane. You always have been. This is where we are now and I’m coming to grips with it. I’ve guarded you the past decade without squire powers, and I’ll continue to guard you for centuries more if the fates are kind to us.”
He doesn’t sound broken or despondent about the unexpected loss of a destiny he envisioned for so long. He sounds like he’s accepted Scottie being my squire and is pivoting toward a new future.
A future that includes both me and Scottie.
And Tucker, too.
“Holding Scottie in my arms after the energy pulse took her from us…”
“After she died…” Huntley corrects, his hand sliding over the rise of my hip.
His touch is a warm comfort, but nothing can ease the icy horror of that moment. I hate to even think about what might have happened.
I swallow. “Losing her again crushed me. I know I won’t survive her walking away from us. I also know I lost the right to have her all to myself.”
He arches a brow. “And you’re okay with that?”
“I’m working on it. Hearing her ask about all four of us sharing a bed was humbling.” The thought stirs up a mix of desire and frustration. “I didn’t realize you loved her like that. I knew you cared for her, but I didn’t know you loved her.”
“I’m not surprised. Growing up, you two saw nothing but each other. It was a tough situation to be in as the third wheel.”
“I’m sorry about that.”
Huntley’s piercing blue eyes study my face. “It was a long time ago, Z. We’re way past that now.”
Are we? I sure hope so.
“But if we’re talking about adding in not only Scottie but also Tucker, we better understand our expectations. Tucker laid out his thoughts with me and I respect the hell out of him for it.”
“He what? Why is this the first I’m hearing about this?” Huntley’s phone buzzes, vibrating against the surface of the bedside table.
“Leave it.”
He scoffs. “I can’t. You know I can’t.”
The intrusion breaks the fragile moment between us as Huntley reaches for the bedside table. When he rolls back, his brow furrows as he checks the screen.
“We’re invited to come back to Donor Watch. Larkin and Wylder convinced the Queen to give us a second chance.”
I blink. “That’s the last thing I expected.”
Huntley grins. “Let’s try not to piss off the Queen of Shedim and her dark angel family this time around, shall we?”
I roll my eyes and roll off the bed to get dressed. “I’ll do my best.”