Chapter 25
Beck rolled his napkin into a ball and tossed it in the corner. Bandages and gauze littered his bare chest. Including the tattoos he’d gotten for Ray and me. My brain still couldn’t comprehend a world where I was friends with Beck.
“When can I leave this bed?”
“Put a sock in it.” Lyra rolled her eyes from her perch on the end of the mattress. “You’re the worst patient ever.”
Beck squeezed his eyes shut as Ray laughed, tidying up the mess he’d made. After we destroyed The Unseen, we’d tracked each member of the council with Adelaide’s help. Larson King had gone into hiding, but it was only a matter of time before he reared his angry head.
Men with power didn’t tolerate being beaten.
“Can I have my laptop back? I can comb through security cameras for Larson.” Beck crossed his arms.
“You’re supposed to be resting.” Lyra clicked her tongue.
Ray tossed a bunch of clothes into a basket and smirked. “I know a way to shut you both up.”
His tone and the playful tilt of his lips made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
“How?” Lyra and Beck asked.
Ray’s grin widened, and he looked around the bedroom with his eyebrows raised. Of-fucking-course his mind would go there.
“Raimondo,” I growled.
“Uh oh, big guy used my legal name. Don’t worry, you’ll be happy with this game too.”
Lyra’s brow furrowed, but I knew what Ray had in mind. Playing games and role-play were his favorite. Ray snatched Lyra’s hand and dragged her to the door. She dug her heels into the dark carpet.
“Trust me, can you do that?” Ray pleaded, pulling on her arm.
She let out a whistling sigh and let him take her away. My stomach heated despite itself.
“I’m going to enjoy this, aren’t I?” The sunken frustration in Beck’s expression melted away.
I nodded, and he leaned back on his pillow. Remembering the enmity I held for Beck was like viewing through water. Ray had been my enemy too, and now he was my lover. After what Lyra admitted to us on the plane, I felt like we found love again.
Beck cleared his throat. “Thank you.”
“What for?”
It felt too intimate to sit on the bed, so I leaned against the chest of drawers.
“For giving Lyra what I can’t.”
The admission surprised me, and Beck’s lips flattened once the words left his mouth, as if they left a bitter aftertaste.
My chin hit my chest, covering my shock.
Would I ever get used to Beck being amiable and not using every excuse to get rid of us?
For the first time, it felt like we were a cohesive group.
A family, even.
“I’m not like you and Ray. Warmth, comfort? They don’t come naturally to me, and I know I haven’t been fair to you both. I caused this divide with my jealousy, but I want you to know I will never sabotage us again. Lyra is my heart, and whatever makes her happy I will fight for, including you two.”
Ray and I escaped the port with minimal struggle. The Unseen were after Lyra and Beck. We were collateral damage they could do without. But the entire time I fought panic, for Lyra, but also for Beck. We were a team, and I was glad he acknowledged it.
“Back at you.”
Ray burst through the door, his cheeks flushed as he wrung his hands. I grabbed his arm and pulled him close. His dilated pupils blinked up at me.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Ray’s fingers scrambled over my forearm. “I-I wasn’t really being serious. I mean, I’m serious, and this has been a fantasy I wanted to make real for so long, but I didn’t think she’d do it.”
My stomach clenched. What had Ray done to Lyra? I thought he wanted to do some kinky role-play, but I’d never seen him so flustered before. Ray was impervious to embarrassment or shame. Beck sat up, his lips white and flat.
“Spare? If you’ve scared or annoyed Lyra, I’ll wring your skinny neck.”
“Excuse me?” Ray clasped his neck with wide eyes. “It’s hard to look jacked next to Jonah, but my neck is perfection and another thing…” Ray trailed off as the door opened.
Did I think Ray unraveled before? The charming man sagged against me, his mouth hanging on its hinges. Silk whispered as Lyra filled the doorway. My thoughts screeched to a halt, and my heart crashed almost through my ribs.
A white silk dress clung to Lyra’s body, dipping low between her breasts. A slit up the side gave a generous flash of her muscular thigh. Lyra smirked from behind her veil, and my pulse hammered.
She wore a wedding dress.
“I’m here for my wedding night. Which husband wants to claim me first?”
“Little Liar.” Beck’s breath hitched.
Hunger hollowed his expression. Desire roared through my veins, surging from the hidden place I’d stuffed it. My stomach twisted, matching his greed. Lyra made the perfect bride. I shook my head, dizzy at the vision she made.
This was a game of pretend but I wanted more than anything for it to be real. Family was an abstract dream when I was a child. I wanted to eat breakfast together, plant trees, and have someone hold me on the icy nights. Simple hopes that surged as Lyra bounced toe to toe.
“Isn’t someone going to carry me in?” Lyra tossed a fake bouquet.
Ray leaped into a slow arc, grabbed the flowers and crushed them to his chest. I moved before my brain even processed her request. My lungs burned, and my fingers tingled as I hitched my arms around her thighs and cradled Lyra against my chest. The silk was soft like hot spring water, and it whispered as I crushed her to me.
“Are you a dream?” I whispered.
The veil puffed as Lyra let out a sharp exhale. I stepped into the room, feeling the weight of the moment like a wordless promise. I wouldn’t stop until I made this fantasy a reality. Ray watched on with a fevered gaze, and Beck clutched the bedspread in his fists.
“You can put me down now.” Lyra laughed.
“I don’t want to,” I admitted.
Her warmth spread into my marrow. Every day, she cemented herself as my home, and I carried her like a torch inside.
All those nights I spent as a child, scared of what was in the dark, until I became the thing to be feared.
I never thought I’d find someone who could match me and not be frightened of who I was.
“Put me down, husband.”
The word sent a shiver through my limbs, and I lowered her feet to the ground. Lyra flattened her palms on my chest.
“Pull up my veil.”
I did as she asked, with more reverence I couldn’t mask. Her gaze was darkened honey, and color flushed her cheeks. Ray opened his mouth to say something, but Beck slapped the back of his head and mashed his finger over his mouth.
“Kiss your wife.”
“Lyra…”
“Do it.”
Who was I to disobey? I lowered my head, eyes closed, and lost myself in her velvet lips. Lyra tasted sweet, like lazy Sunday sunshine, glimmering through twisted vines. Her tongue slipped into my mouth, and the kiss turned wild. It made parts of me tighten with a need that stole my breath.
Ray cleared his throat like an engine until we pulled apart.
“Call me husband too,” he pouted.
Lyra swayed her hips, folded over and whispered. “Ti amo, mio marito.”
Ray slapped his hand against his chest, gasping for breath. Lyra lingered her lips on his cheek, kissing the other side before giving him a chaste peck. Ray wrapped his hand around her neck and pulled her deeper, until they sprawled together on the bed.
“I need to hear you say that a hundred more times.” Ray’s voice was hoarse.
Lyra made a noise, pressing her fingertips to the corner of Ray’s eyes, where moisture gathered.
How perfect they looked together. Dark, lithe, and beautiful.
It reminded me of when I saw them together in the store changing room, and how jealous I’d been of their rapport.
This was supposed to be a sexy little mood breaker, not a heart slaying, wasn’t it?
Beck flicked his fingers and arched his eyebrow.
“Yes, husband?”
He showed his teeth. Would he ever look human when he did that, or always some type of demon?
“You know husband isn’t enough for me. In this life, the next, and for eternity, you’ll be mine. Right?”
My cock stirred as Beck claimed Lyra’s lips. The savage edge heightened when Lyra sank her teeth into his bottom lip. He thumbed the pooling red with a satisfied hum.
“There’s nothing like a blood promise.”
My chest inflated as if it might explode. Lyra was here in a wedding dress. She had forgiven us after we betrayed her, and I would never let her regret loving us. I needed to redeem myself in so many ways, but one in particular.
I needed to make love to her.
“Let me make you feel good?” I kneeled at the end of the bed.
Lyra inched the silk up her lean thighs, widening them.
She leaned back on her elbows and arched an eyebrow.
She was the picture of languid arrogance, except her chest rose too fast. I smoothed my touch up her heated skin, wanting to blur away how I treated her in the past. I’d dug my fingers into her skin, desperate to pull back the lies.
But all I’d done was leave shame for my reaction.
“Don’t.” Lyra shook her head, gulping. “Be here with me. Not the past.”
She knew where my mind went and reeled me back.
I pressed my lips to her inner thigh in silent thanks.
She was a precious gem, forged from years of pressure and pain.
She tasted of musk and melted molasses. I clamped my hands around her hips and wrenched her close.
Flattened my tongue up the length of her slit and moaned.
Her legs wrapped around my head and dragged me into her heated orbit. The room vibrated with tension as I slaked my desire on her body. Fingers wrapped around my hard cock and squeezed. Ray chuckled in my ear.
“You look so fucking hot, big guy.”
Lyra let out a muffled moan, and as I circled her clit, I stared up her body. Beck had his hand down the front of her dress, and his lips fused to hers. Her eyes squeezed tight, and I swirled my tongue. Deeper. Faster. Until she shuddered against my mouth, and her taste intensified.
I angled my hips and winked at Ray.
“You want my mouth?” He bit his fist with a curse.
His fingers scrambled over my hips, and he pulled my restricted pants down. I refused to stop eating Lyra out. How could I? She tossed on a wave of pleasure, arched back with hard nipples and rosy cheeks.
Ray took my swollen tip in his mouth. The groan I made vibrated against Lyra, and she cracked her eyes, pulling away from Beck.
“So hot.” She licked her lips. “But I’m getting close.”
I could feel it in the tremble of her perfect thighs. The way her skin burned with bottled lust. This time, when she came, it would be with me inside her the way it should have been the first time.
Beck shuffled up the bed to give us space. I tangled my fingers through Ray’s hair, dragging him off my cock. He looked good on his knees. He panted, eyes glazed. Ray tossed himself into the chair beside the bed and palmed the hardened lump in his pants.
“Make our bride scream, won’t you?”
Bride. The word made my knees wobble as I crawled up the bed to Lyra. Her fingers were between her legs, playing with her clit as she grinned. The sight of her, half undone, hit me in my chest. Fuck, I loved this woman.
“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” I cupped her face and took her lips.
I let her taste herself on my tongue. How raw, magnetic, and addictive she was. She rocked underneath me until my cock slipped between her slick lips. Bursts of heat pooled at the base of my spine. I was so hard it made me grit my teeth. But I couldn’t rush this.
“I need you,” Lyra whispered.
Not as much as I need you. I ran my hands over her body, taking my time. Could she feel the reverence in my touch? From the beginning, I had been enamored. Lyra stole my heart and made me pay for it. My pulse crashed like the tide, and she was the moon that controlled me.
“I’d do anything for you.”
She trailed her fingers down my cheek. My cock sheathed in the wet grasp of her outer lips was sweet torture.
“I know.” Forgiveness shone bright in her gaze.
How could her heart be so generous? My tongue twisted into a knot as I rocked my hips back.
“Please. Make love to me, Jonah.”
My ribs wrapped so tight around my heart I couldn’t breathe.
I would never make her ask me twice. I gripped my cock and circled her entrance.
The look on her face was everything, everything.
Being here with Beck and Ray felt right.
As I sank inside Lyra, all the broken shards of regret and guilt that pierced my heart melted.
How could I carry them with me when she looked at me the way she did?
I filled her inch by inch, slow and slower. I wanted her to feel me in her chest, like I did. To know this was so much more than our bodies. It was everything I wanted to give her the first time, and a promise for our future. Entwined forever.
Lyra wrapped her legs around my ass and urged me deeper.
Her eyes widened, and her lips fell open on a moan as my hips met her entrance.
Her pussy throbbed around my rigid length until I could feel every fucking vein and heartbeat from the inside out.
I sank my fingers into the delicious curve of her hips.
I moved like the silk bunched around her waist, soft and strong at the same time.
Lyra met me there. She rolled her hips until she crashed against me. Heat fused my nerves and voice. Ray spoke for me, touching himself and commentating in breathy Italian.
I snapped my hips. “Let go for me.”
Lyra wrapped her hands around my wrists, and her gaze flashed with desire.
Being romantic didn’t mean it wasn’t filthy.
Fucking didn’t mean there wasn’t devotion.
I let her feel every part of me, thrusting my cock deeper each time.
I pulled Lyra up and flattened my palm on her lower back.
My cock sank deep and hard, each thrust rubbing her clit until her eyes rolled back.
I captured her sweet little tits in my mouth and grazed them with my teeth.
“I-I’m so…” She dug her nails into the back of my skull.
A rush of blood and lust so violent, so beautiful, made me dizzy. Release tingled closer, starting in my curled toes. Each roll of my hips drew a desperate, heat-laced pant from her parted lips. Her thighs trembled around mine, even as they clamped me tighter.
“Let go,” I urged through gritted teeth.
We teetered on the edge together, but I held on until her channel clenched around me.
The silken clutch of her pussy was so euphoric that my mind blanked.
My world narrowed to Lyra in my arms. I painted her insides with ropes of desperate cum.
Even when my cock twitched, done, I couldn’t stop rocking my release deeper inside her.
I laid her on the bed and loomed over her.
With her dark hair spread out on the bed, she looked like a goddess.
Warmth bloomed from my chest as she blinked slowly and sighed. I would never forget this moment or the way it healed my insides.