Chapter 14 #2
“Wow—you actually crave it?” Cassie could hardly believe he was telling the truth.
Her first husband, Mitch, absolutely refused to go “down there” as he put it.
And as for Sskarth, well he’d tried it several times when they were first married but his long, thin, forked tongue didn’t feel very pleasant at all.
It was like being licked by a damp strand of spaghetti and after a few tries, Cassie had excused him from this particular “marital duty.”
“We do crave it.” Severin’s pale blue eyes had gone half-lidded behind his glasses now. “Very much,” he added in a low voice.
Cassie was getting that feeling of being surrounded again and it made her nervous. Especially since both of the big Kindred on either side of her were leaning in towards her.
This close to them she could pick up their individual scents.
She’d already smelled Ravik’s—his personal scent was like leather and smoke and dark spice.
But now she could smell Severin as well—he had a clean, sharp smell like the ocean and the icy wind on a winter’s day.
Both of them smelled amazing and somehow when their scents mixed together, it was even better.
Like the best men’s cologne in the world, she thought. The kind that costs a thousand dollars an ounce.
Not that she would ever have bought such a thing, but there was no denying their scents drew her in a strange way she hadn’t experienced before. They made her feel things…things she’d thought were behind her.
For instance, why were her nipples so tight and sensitive? And why did she suddenly feel wet and hot between her legs when she’d been dry as a bone with Sskarth for the past year at least? Were the mingled scents of the two Kindred doing something to her?
No, surely not. Cassie pushed the idea out of her head. It was probably just another hot flash coming on or something else to do with perimenopause.
“Well,” she said, rising from the table and beginning to clear the dishes. “Let me get these taken care of and then we can all get some rest. Er…where are we going to sleep, though?” she added, looking at Severin.
“Please—you cooked. I can do the dishes,” the Blood Kindred said, rising as well. “And as for sleeping arrangements—”
“Mate will sleep with me—in my arms,” Ravik interrupted, frowning.
“Is that…I mean, are we really doing that?” Cassie asked anxiously, still looking at Severin. “I mean, what if he, you know, tries something?” she added in a much lower voice.
The Blood Kindred looked conflicted.
“I’m sorry but I don’t know if I can dissuade him from wanting to sleep with you in his arms,” he said, also speaking in a lower voice. “The best I can do is to stay in the same room with you.”
Cassie frowned.
“Is there a room in the bunker that’s big enough for the three of us?”
“There is, actually. I believe it was meant as a group mating chamber but it should work for the three of us.”
“A group mating chamber?” Cassie gave him and incredulous look. “Seriously?”
Severin shrugged, his broad shoulders rolling.
“Afraid so. Er…we’ll have to share the bed, unfortunately, since there’s only one in the room,” he added. “Of course, if you’d rather not, I can go into a separate room. Or you can lock yourself away, but I’m afraid that might make Ravik, er, agitated.”
He cast a glance at the big Beast Kindred who was staring lovingly at Cassie, as though he intended to devote his entire life to her.
Or maybe he’s just thinking of pinning you down and ravishing you the first chance he gets, whispered a little voice in her head.
Strangely, the thought didn’t horrify her the way it should have.
In fact, it sent a little tingle through her entire body.
What would it be like to be with such a huge male?
Sskarth had been barely an inch taller than her and Mitch had been only a bit taller than that.
Neither of them was built like a lineman which Ravik and Severin definitely were.
She had always admired the Kindred warriors when she worked aboard the Mother Ship, but she’d never actually gotten to “try one out.”
Part of that was because she was almost immediately swept off her feet by Sskarth but the other part was that Kindred warriors didn’t do casual hookups.
They used pairing puppets—animatronic and anatomically correct female robots to meet their physical needs until they found the woman they wanted to Bond with for life.
Of course, Severin wasn’t suggesting that the three of them get Bonded—Cassie didn’t even think it was possible to be Bonded to two Kindred warriors at once unless they were Twin Kindred.
He was only saying they should sleep all together so he could keep an eye on Ravik, in case the big Beast Kindred got “frisky” in the middle of the night.
But looking at his hopeful face, she realized there was another reason the big Blood Kindred wanted her to sleep in his friend’s arms.
“You think that me sleeping with him—er, sleeping beside him, will help him, don’t you?” she asked.
Severin nodded.
“I do. Your scent seems to regenerate his mind—to push the virus back somehow. I don’t know why—I won’t until I can get more samples and do some tests. But for now, if he could just keep breathing your scent…”
Cassie nibbled her lower lip. She ought to say no. She ought to lock herself away in a room of her own and stay there all night, even if Ravik got angry or upset.
But somehow, she couldn’t do that to the big Beast Kindred.
He genuinely thought she was his mate—she didn’t want to distress him by disappearing.
Also, it seemed like Severin was right about her scent helping him.
He had regressed considerably when she’d left him alone in the bathtub and had come back quickly to his right mind—or what passed for his right mind—when he held her in the kitchen and smelled her again.
Ravik needed her. And in a way, so did Severin. His best friend was dying slowly—inch by inch. If she could help bring him back, shouldn’t she?
“All right,” she said at last and blew out a breath. “I must be crazy agreeing to sleep between two males I barely know but all right—I’ll do it.”
“Thank you.” Severin’s face registered instant relief.
It occurred to Cassie that while the Blood Kindred tried to project cool scientific indifference, that calm exterior slipped when it came to his best friend.
“All right—I just hope I don’t regret this,” she said. “Come on—lead the way to the mating chamber.”