Chapter Twenty Two
Daphne
Turns out sliced sausage is indeed finger food. My life is almost perfect.
I tip my head back against the smooth stone.
Color me surprised that this little village has the best solution for bathing grime out of your skin.
A three-step process, starting with a dip into a copper tub filled with cleansing minerals that apparently “open my pores.” No idea what that means, but I am here for it.
Then I sweated my body weight out in a small room with wooden benches.
I could see the dark spirals leaking from my flesh and disappearing down the drain in the floor.
There must be some kind of dirt-gobbling monster hiding down there.
Now, the final stage is a pool deep inside a cave. Candles flicker in the corners, and there are large, soft beds piled with furs scattered around. Petals float on the gloriously smelling waters that work to unknot each of my sore muscles from horse riding. Not knight riding. Sadly.
Yet.
Eyes closed, I reach out to the metal platter resting on the edge and come away empty-handed. I frown. I definitely didn’t eat all the fruit. Sausage, yes, that was devoured in a tempo. But I’ve been grazing on slices of glorious, sweet, and juicy fruit since.
My eyes flip open, and I start to turn. Hands clamp down on my shoulders, keeping me in place.
“Don’t move, pretty mouse,” Theo growls in my ear.
I tip my head back to meet his eyes shining with a golden light as he traces the swell of my breasts hidden beneath the petals and water. “I’m still hungry,” I point out.
He smirks. He’s almost naked, only clad in loose breeches just begging to be removed. “Can’t have a starving maiden. The realm wouldn’t survive.”
Glad we are on the same page. “So what are you going to do about it?” I taunt the beast in him, a call to come out and play with my body the way he’s done before. Someone needs to before I lose my patience and take matters into my own hands.
His thumb traces my bottom lip. Heat that has nothing to do with the water builds low in my belly. “Theo,” I utter. It’s a demand, and a prayer wrapped in need.
He lifts a piece of frost fruit and clamps it between his teeth before leaning down. I open my mouth, accepting this new food delivery method with relish. It tastes a thousand times better. I fear he’s spoiled cutlery for me, but that’s his problem moving forward.
His lips move against my own, delivering more than fruit. He’s fanning the flames. One hand remains clamped on my shoulder while the other caresses my collarbone, then moves lower over my breasts before pinching my nipples. I jerk, tear my mouth free, and curse him under my breath.
“Stop teasing. Get in here, or get me out there.”
He tilts his head as if he’s weighing up both options. “You just sat against my body for many turns. It is I who was teased.”
“I was happy to get freaky on a horse,” I point out. “You teased yourself.”
“Daphne?”
“Yes?”
“Shut up and take it,” he growls.
Take what?
My thighs are yanked open beneath the water, and I cry out in shock. Holy Idol babies, there’s something in here.
“Theo,” I snap as whatever it is pins my legs apart. “There’s something—” Something strokes along my center, hot, rough, knowing, and oh so familiar. My hand dives beneath the water, tangling in Nash’s hair as he nips my inner thigh.
“Found you,” I breathe.
He breaches the surface and smirks at me. “You were always going to. I’ve waited longer than the others.” He disappears back beneath the water, shoving me closer to the edge. There’s no more hesitation in his movements. He came here to deliver. Fucking finally.
“Easy, brother,” Theo murmurs. “Remember who she is and what we discussed.”
They planned this? Why? I don’t want this choreographed. I need him to be as desperate for me as I am for him. We’ve waited long enough.
“You’re staying?” I check with Theo.
He grins. “Not a chance I would miss this.”
Sharp teeth bracket my clit, exposing that sensitive flesh as he pushes his tongue inside me. My eyes flutter closed.
“No, don’t close yourself off from me,” Theo mutters. “I’m barely holding myself back while he finally takes what he wants. Don’t steal my show, or I’ll be forced to get involved.”
Involved? Would that be so bad? A slow smile curls my lips.
“Daphne,” Theo warns. “Don’t let her come, brother.”
My eyes flip open, and I scowl at him. “You might find yourself the owner of two blue balls.”
“Unlikely, since you like what they do to you too much. I’ll risk it.”
My thighs tense, trying to urge Nash to push me over the delicious edge he’s created. I should be embarrassed that I’m this close already, but I can’t bring myself to care. Life is too short to live without orgasms.
“Indeed,” Theo agrees. That mind-reading is becoming an issue.
Nash’s fingers tighten against my hips when I try wiggling to get more friction. My core pulses. Just a little more. My chest rises and falls more rapidly with anticipation.
“Still hungry?” Theo taunts as he slips a piece of pineapple between his lips.
“Ravenous.”
He feeds me the fruit and then another piece. Can one perish like this?
Here lies Daphne Stone—stuffed with fruit while being forever edged with tongue and teeth.
I doubt the Hallows have reported that cause of death before. That’s why I’m here, though, to rewrite the future.
“Wait,” I say, yanking Nash’s hair. “He can’t breathe.”
Here lies Nash Stirling—drowned in a flurry of floof fondling.
“He doesn’t need it,” Theo reassures me.
As if commanded, Nash lifts his head out of the water, stealing my attention. My heart thuds faster. Gone are the green eyes I’ve gotten to know intimately. His darkness is in control. Good. It’s time he learned I’m not breakable.
He captures both my hands and flattens them on the stone beside my head. “Are you sure, Daphne?” His voice is layered as if he’s fighting something inside of him. I nod, the words stolen under the weight of his beautiful darkness. “This doesn’t work if you don’t speak to me.”
“Yes,” I whisper. “I’m sure.”
He growls and presses his lips against mine, sealing my gift of surrender with a flick of his tongue.
I’m the one who feels like I’m drowning.
Like I’m reaching out for something in dark waters that keeps slipping out of my grasp.
I need it, a lifeline to anchor me in this world.
Him, I realize. I need him. All of him. No holding back.
He breaks away and kisses my jaw before sucking on the fluttering pulse in my throat. My blood sings in my veins. “My brothers were gentle with you,” he tells me.
“Not sure about that,” I murmur as my head rolls back to meet Theo’s gaze. “A rough tenderness is a better description.”
“They took their time,” Nash continues while dragging his teeth over my collarbone. “They worshipped you.”
“That I can’t deny.”
He lifts away to stare into my eyes. “I’m not them.”
I swallow as my stomach flips in anticipation. “Wouldn’t do to have four carbon copies of the same man. What would be the point?”
Theo snorts. “We’re going to explore that.”
I flush at the thought of them truly sharing me. The closest I came to that was the twins.
“Not tonight,” Nash rumbles. He grips my hips, and his shadows curl on the surface of the water before lifting us out of the pool.
Wow. Handy skill. I want my own shadows. Can I borrow them?
Nash drops my wet, naked body on the bed and tears his breeches off. I blink. Holy fucking shit. My mouth parts, and he smirks, pumping his heavy cock with his fist before releasing it and doing the same to the smaller member jutting out above it.
“Double sausage?” I whisper.
“Scared?” he teases as he lets me take him in.
I come to my knees and then crawl toward him. “Surprised, but never scared with you, Nash.”
His breath hitches as I reach out to trace my finger down the ridge of the smaller one. “So, if I’m facing you, the bigger one?”
I swallow, because that is no small introduction to very naughty deeds. “I can change them,” he mutters, and like it’s show and tell, the one on the top swells and elongates in my hand while the other shrinks. “Or deflate one altogether.” It disappears under his command.
“Wow,” I whisper. Because what does one say to the pick and mix of one’s double-dick scenario?
“What do you want, Daphne?” he growls.
I lift my eyes to him and squeeze. “What you’ve been promising me, Nash Stirling. Threefold. And if I can walk out of here after, I’ll consider your threat just that.”
“Fucking hell,” Theo rumbles from the shadows against the wall, his hand shoved beneath his breeches. “Don’t taunt him, pretty mouse.”
“Remember, you asked for this,” Nash warns as his hand curves around my jaw and draws my eyes to meet his. “However, if you say stop at any point, I will stop. If I’m too lost to do so, Theo is here to make sure that happens.”
He doubts himself, but he still hasn’t acknowledged the startling fact that he would never hurt me.
“I trust you.”
His eyes flicker to green for a beat before the shadows crowd in once more, hungry and poised to claim what is already theirs.
“Then tell me you understand that stop means I will stop.”
This is a huge barrier for him, even if it’s not for me. “I understand.”
“Use the word.”
“Stop.”
“Good girl. Theo, I need you closer.”
“Gladly,” my dragon says as he pulls off his breeches and stalks toward me. His monster is close to the edge too. All three of us need this, a connection that ties us in ways nothing else could.
Theo positions himself behind me while Nash grabs my hips and slides me backward between Theo’s legs.
I expect him to be inside me by the end of my next breath, but I should stop predicting anything when it comes to the Stirlings.
He plucks a white rose from the ground. Where did he find that?
The soft petals tease my lips, making them part. He’s slowing this down, and I want to speed it up. Haven’t we waited long enough?