Chapter 68
RAINE
They freeze. And my throat tightens. Evander blinks his brown eyes first. His gaze roams up and down my body.
I think they’re talking telepathically. I know, I know, it sounds crazy, but Roark pulled information from my brain that first day I met him.
The day I blacked out. Back when my world was a very different place.
When I didn’t fear not having them in my life.
When I would have laughed at the thought of one of them as my boyfriend, let alone all three.
When I thought I’d gotten an amazing job, not a glimpse of a life full of love I couldn’t imagine.
“Evander and I were having a stare-off,” Roark says.
“He blinked first?” I ask, cocking my head to the side. I tuck my loose hair behind my ears.
“Indeed. That makes me the winner.” Roark rockets to his feet. He snatches me around my waist and throws me over his shoulder. Evander opens the door and surges from the collection room. My roommates fling themselves across the hall like they weren’t just eavesdropping.
“Raine!” Ellen calls after me.
I turn my head to the side. “I’m good.” I smack Roark in the ass. “Stop.”
“No,” he growls.
“Slow down, then.” I smack him again, and he slows. “Find Leo—Leopold. He’ll give you rooms for the night,” I call to the girls.
“You’re sure you’re okay?” Chanda shouts down the corridor.
“She’s the best kind of okay,” Kate answers for me, and Roark turns the corner, speeding away from them.
I’m expecting Roark to take the stairs off the dragon’s eye foyer up to my suite, but he bypasses it. He also leaves the door to the office behind us and heads to the side entrance.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“Damn the rules. I’ll break every law in both realms for you, Duchess,” Roark says.
Evander’s laughing as he trails behind us.
And I’m not sure if he’s laughing at what Roark said or something Roark told him telepathically.
There’s a twinge of jealousy that they can communicate without me.
Sure, they have their own language. And I’ve been picking up bits and pieces as the weeks fly by.
I’ve got a pretty large vocabulary of basic words, plus an extensive selection of swear words I’ll never use.
Mostly because I’m afraid to ask what they really mean.
Roark takes the stairs two at a time. Round and round up the circular stairwell, he speeds. The space narrows the higher we go.
“Where are we going?” I’ve never explored up here. But then, there’s plenty of places in Cloud Rift I’ve never investigated. It’s simply too big, and I’ve had too much to do with the collection. The more we spiral up, the colder the air gets. There’s a wind blowing on my back.
“I can walk . . .” I’ve said it so many times to Roark it’s lost its meaning.
There’s a creak of a door and the night air fills my lungs.
The wind is even stronger when Roark lowers me to my feet.
He spins me around, holding me around my waist. It’s the large flat roof of a turret.
From here, the other towers are clear. The other five of them have golden domes.
This one has a four-foot wall almost all the way around and lacks the dome.
There’s also a large section with no wall.
There’s nothing to keep someone from dropping off the edge either.
I reach back to Roark and dig my fingers into the sides of his pants.
“I’ve got you, Duchess. I would never let you fall.” He carefully turns me around. Behind him, in the middle of the turret, there’s a granite slab. Six feet long and less than two feet wide. It’s narrow and it reminds me of an altar. My heart pounds, wondering what it’s doing up here.
“I know,” I say, and I mean it. But my focus is on the altar behind him.
“You can see the village from here.” Evander runs his hand down my arm and interlocks our fingers. Slowly, I let go of Roark and turn back to the view.
“Amazing. The colors streaking across the sky don’t appear real.” It’s dusk, and the last light of day skims over the mountains in the distance—bounces off the tops of the village roofs and glows on the village lake. Blue, orange, and red paint the sky.
The hairs on my arms are standing up, and I’m not sure if it’s from the scent of rain moving across the valley or being this close to Evander and Roark.
“Here’s something else we’re not supposed to show anyone but our mate.” Evander lifts me around the waist and sets me on the slab.
“What . . . what is this?” My heart’s jumping around my chest. The coldness of the stone sinks through my thin pants. I swing my feet. The impulse to slide off and run pounds against my ribs.
Evander steps between my legs. The firm planes of his legs radiate warmth in the wind.
“It’s a mating altar. Something that was always used in the before-time, Duchess.” Roark’s behind me. His hands settle on my hips. The heat radiating from the two of them cocoons me.
I lean back into him and rest my shoulders against his hard chest.
Evander leans in, his mouth finding mine. He tastes like chocolate and spice.
The wind blows my hair between our noses, and I break the kiss. “You taste amazing.”
“Cremira—I knew you’d like it, though most humans don’t. It’s a spicy hot liquor we drink in the winter in the other realm. You liking it is another of the long line of reasons I know you’ll have the lightning, Raine.”
The wind howls between us. My hair swirls around my head. Evander rolls his sleeves up while Roark pulls my hair into a ponytail. He produces a hair tie from his pocket.
My lips twist up. He’d have been the largest scout in my cousin’s troop if he’d been human. “Always prepared. Thank you.”
“That is my aim.” He kisses down the side of my neck, and I find myself holding on to the edge of the platform. “I love your bare neck.”
“I love your bare skin,” Evander says.
Roark rakes his teeth across the tender spot beneath my ear.
“Wait, you’re not going to . . .”
“No, Duchess. We won’t mate you without Kieren, or without your consent.”
“Mating will always be your choice,” Evander says.
Roark nudges my ear with his nose, and goosebumps shoot down my side.
“Then what are we doing up here?” I ask.
“There’s a human expression that I think is appropriate in this case.” Evander kisses me again.
I’m dizzy when he stops. “What’s that?”
“Practice makes perfect, Duchess.” Roark pulls me back, and this time it’s not the smoothness of his shirt on my shoulders and arms but the heat of his bare skin.
“Arms up, Raine. I want to see how you shine in the twilight.” Evander’s eyes glow in the dim light. “More importantly, let’s see if you can get your cries to echo through the village.”
Roark’s working on my neck, and it takes me a minute to realize Evander’s meaning. “Echo. Isn’t the name of the lake Echo Lake?”
“Indeed.” Roark’s chuckle rumbles into my back.
“I want to hear your pleasure bounce back to us. Let the entire village know. Lift,” Evander demands.
And Roark picks me up off the stone before I can react.
Evander’s fingers make quick work of the button and zipper on my pants.
In the next second, my underwear and bra are gone.
Roark sits on the stone beside me—his legs facing the opposite direction of mine.
His feet most certainly hit the terrace’s stone floor, while mine dangle like a small child’s.
Roark’s neck bends, and his warm body shelters me from the wind. Honestly, though, I’m heating up on my own. With one hand, I lightly scratch my fingernails down Evander’s abs.
“Harder,” he says, his eyes wide. He’s drawing circles on my thigh with his thumbs. But then he drops to his knees. “Slide forward,” he growls, and I do. He pushes my legs wider apart and throws my right leg over his shoulder.
Roark sucks my nipples into his mouth. His other hand lavishes attention on my other breast.
When Evander sends his tongue around my clit for the first time, I jump. The coolness of the stone, the electricity in the air—two of the men I’m tumbling for have every cell in my body firing.
Evander grips my knees, forcing his shoulders into the V of my legs.
Roark kisses up my chest, back to my neck. He lifts his head—his chin nuzzles against my shoulder. “Damn, Duchess, I want to rub myself all over you. Mark you as my own.”
I’m gasping for air. “Me too.”
Roark chuckles into my neck, and his kisses trail over my chin to my lips.
I’m being devoured. There’s no other term for it.
My eyes drift closed. It’s too much. Evander’s fingers work a rhythm that has my hips flailing for more.
Roark breaks the kiss and stands behind me.
His lips return to my neck in an instant.
“More.” I’ve got one hand in Evander’s hair. With the other, I’m reaching for Roark.
“You heard the Duchess. She wants more,” Roark barks at Evander. Roark blows on the stone beside me. Smoke curls into the air.
In a flash, everyone’s changed around. My breasts are against the now warm stone. I push up on my elbows. Roark’s warm body is in front of me, his thick and veiny cock pointing at me.
Evander stepping between my legs again has me twisting around to see him.
“Are you ready, Raine? You want more. We have more, beautiful girl. I love looking at you like this. Damn, my mark is on fucking fire,” Evander says. He slides his fingers down my butt cheeks and into my pussy. “I think you better find something large and warm to hold on to, Raine.”
Roark laughs and tucks my loose hair behind my ears. “Warm enou—”
I cut him off with one hand around his waist. I use the other to guide his cock into my mouth.
“Damn, Raine. The way you’re swallowing him down.” Evander removes his fingers and slides into me. The way the altar’s angled has him hitting just the right spot. With each thrust, Evander is feeding my need. I’m so close.
Roark’s holding me up. Evander’s got one hand on my lower back, guiding us into a frenzied rhythm. My body has taken over, answering Evander’s unasked questions without input from me.
“You’re doing so well, Raine.” He reaches around and strokes my clit while hitting the right spot inside me. I swallow Roark down. My climax lets me do something I’ve never been able to do before. His cock eases into my throat, muffling my moans.
“No. Let me hear you.” Roark pulls out of my mouth. He drops to his knees, his face inches from mine. “Tell the world what we do to you.”
Evander lifts my hips, and my climax builds. It starts in my toes and travels through my body until I can’t contain it. I tumble over an imaginary cliff. Evander’s there with me. His thrusts are wild as he comes. I’m screaming. And when I stop, the echo continues.
Roark quickly kisses me. “That’s how you tell them who you are. Well done, Duchess.”