Chapter 7
Quinn
Lance paused in his death-defying caress of my torso with a cock of his head. “Torrent’s come back.”
Now that we’d started on this course, every nerve in my body was quivering with the need for him to continue toward its blissful end. But that didn’t mean I only wanted him. I teased my fingers into his chaotic curls. “Is that a problem?”
The dragon shifter flashed a grin at me, baring the fangs he’d already grazed along my neck with glee. “Not at all. The more thrills for you, the better, right?”
I beamed back at him. “Definitely.” But even as the generosity of his love lit a warm glow inside me, a sharper pang hit me underneath.
This interlude wasn’t just about thrills, as much as I enjoyed those. Depending on what I had to do to stop the leviathan, I didn’t know for sure whether we’d ever have another moment like this again. This might be the last time I’d get to soak in my men’s carnal affections and offer my own devotion so intensely and concretely in return.
I didn’t know how much of an impact losing me might really make on their vast lives, but if I was going to have to leave them, I wanted it to be with them knowing how fully I embraced and appreciated every part of them.
As he resumed his stroking of my stomach, Lance glanced over his shoulder. “Don’t just stand around watching from the shadows. Bring those tentacles over here.”
Torrent wavered into view just a few steps away at the base of one of the looming boulders. I couldn’t read his tense expression, but his eyes looked stormy with the emotion behind them.
For a second, I forgot the moment I’d wanted to create here, the little bubble of happiness I’d known would only be temporary anyway. I rested my hand against Lance’s knuckles to stop his caress. “Did you find out anything in your search?”
Torrent shook his head. “Nothing clear enough that we could do anything about it immediately. You can carry on.” He paused. “I wasn’t sure that you’d want me to join in.”
Lance snorted. “I can give our woman my claws and fangs and tongue, but you can make her feel even better on top of that. We might as well put all we have to good use.” His mouth stretched into an even broader grin.
In case the other man had any doubts about whether I agreed with that sentiment, I held out my hand to Torrent to beckon him over. “I wasn’t accomplishing much wandering around here,” I said, as if I needed to explain why I wasn’t saving the world this instant. “It seemed like… a worthwhile way to pass the time. While we can.”
I’d only meant to refer to the fact that we’d been pretty busy with tackling and then fleeing from our enemies in the past couple of days, but I suspected from the tightening of Torrent’s jaw that he understood the other implications as well.
I didn’t want him thinking about the limited time I might have in general. “Come here,” I added softly, and something about my tone convinced him.
He sank down onto the sand next to me, leaving me encompassed in heat between him and Lance. As the dragon shifter nuzzled my jaw and pressed another kiss to my neck, I turned my head toward Torrent. His gaze held mine as my breath hitched and my eyelids fluttered with the sliding of Lance’s claws farther down my body to the apex of my thighs.
Torrent raised his hand to trace his fingers over my cheek, but he didn’t lean in for the kiss I was anticipating. “Always trying to find a way to make everything better, Ms. Fix It,” he said lightly, though his expression was still pensive.
My lips twitched with a smile. “I’m not trying to fix anything right now. Just to make the most of what I have. Which I think is an awful lot.”
His throat worked. Then he finally kissed me, his mouth capturing mine at the same moment as he trailed one of his tentacles across my chest. Even through the fabric of my tee and undershirt, my nipples stiffened at the brush of the suckers over them. The tingles of pleasure brought an eager murmur up my throat.
I gripped his shoulder and kept my other hand tangled in Lance’s hair. The tips of the dragon shifter’s claws grazed my cunt through my shorts, and I only partly swallowed the moan that followed.
He swiped his tongue over my throat as Torrent kissed me harder. When the exploring tentacle slipped right under my clothes, trailing bliss up my torso, Lance tugged my face around to claim my mouth for himself again.
Torrent swept my hair back from my shoulder and pressed kisses to the crook of my neck as his lithe limb worked over both of my breasts in tandem. He didn’t give any sign that the contact with the threaded undershirt bothered him, and I didn’t want to offend him by implying any physical weakness.
He knew what he could give, what he was comfortable with. I wanted my men to trust that I knew what I could handle, and I should respect them just as much.
I reached for Torrent’s shirt and unbuttoned it blindly so my hand could roam over his leanly sculpted chest. Every ripple and dip of a scar was a testament to how far he’d come to be here with me now. He hesitated at first and then pushed even closer to me, welcoming my touch. When I stroked my fingertips over the dappling of suckers on the back of his upper arms, a hungry noise resonated through his breath over my skin.
Lance let out a grunt that sounded like a mix of amusement and impatience and vanished from my grasp for a split-second. I wasn’t at all surprised to see him reappear fully naked, his well-muscled, golden-brown body on full display with his erection jutting impressively from between his thighs, ready for action.
He’d thrilled me in so many ways with that dragon tongue of his that I wanted to return the favor. I leaned in, bringing my mouth to his golden-brown skin. His warm, smoky scent filled my lungs as I kissed my way down the planes of his chest and abdomen, all the way to his groin.
When I reached his cock, I didn’t hesitate to swirl my tongue around its thick head. As it twitched under my attentions, Lance groaned.
“So good, baby girl,” he murmured, teasing his claws around my thigh and across my lower back. He stroked back and forth as I took him deeper into my mouth, pressing just hard enough to send the prickling of pain that came laced with delight through my flesh. Then he tugged at the waist of my shorts as well as he could without severing the fabric. “A little help getting these off?”
The second comment was directed at Torrent. A moment later, another tentacle flicked across my belly to undo the fly and yank the shorts down. As I helped squirm out of them, sucking Lance hard enough to provoke a growl as I did, Torrent kept squeezing my nipples with his suckers. His second tentacle delved right between my thighs to glide over my pussy.
A tingle raced through my clit. I moaned around Lance’s shaft, and the dragon shifter grazed his claws across my scalp. His hips pumped instinctively, seeking even more stimulation.
When I tucked my hand lower to fondle his balls, his breath turned ragged. But with my next slick of my tongue around his cock, lapping up his musky flavor, he gripped my hair and tugged my head up.
“I don’t want to finish there,” he said in a rough voice. “Too many other parts of you I’d like to be inside.”
At the raise of my eyebrows, he didn’t elaborate, only pulled me into a kiss. I clung on to him, my body undulating as pleasure radiated through it from Torrent’s attentions, pouring all the emotion I could into the meeting of our mouths.
But it didn’t feel like enough. When I drew back, I caught Lance’s violet gaze. My pulse stuttered for no reason other than the joy of having had this man in my life. “I love you.”
Lance gave another growl and slammed his mouth back into mine, kissing me so hard my head spun. “I love you too, Quinn,” he murmured against my lips. “So much. You are mine.”
Not only his, though. I kissed him back just as passionately, but when he released me, I shifted onto my side to let Torrent wrap me even more fully in the embrace of his tentacles. The pluck of a sucker against my clit had me gasping, but it couldn’t distract me from my sense of purpose.
I brought my mouth to his and kissed him as eagerly as I had Lance, reveling in the wild, salty flavor that laced his lips. Then I cupped his jaw with my head bowed close. “I love you.”
Torrent let out a rough sound, the storminess coming back into his eyes. “I will always come back. You’re the brightest thing in my life. But I don’t know if?—”
“I know,” I said quickly, without any disappointment. Torrent had made it clear before that love wasn’t a concept he knew what to do with. I wasn’t looking for him to pretend a feeling that didn’t come naturally to him. The affection he did offer me was more than enough in return. “I just want you to remember. Always. I’d be right here with you forever if I had the choice.”
His mouth twisted, but then it crashed into mine again. His tentacles picked up their rhythm, strumming at every sensitive spot on my body faster. Pleasure swept through me, but I didn’t want to reach my release like this either.
I groped at Torrent’s pants, and he flickered away and back again like Lance had, leaving behind everything but the boots that covered the damaged ends of his legs. I pushed him over onto his back. As I straddled him, he adjusted his tentacles around me, still stroking my breasts but easing up to uncover my cunt.
Lance knelt at my flank and licked his tongue along my shoulder blade. “I like this position. I’d like to feel you the way only Torrent has gotten to before.” He grazed a knuckle over my back entrance.
Ah, so that’s what he’d meant about other places, plural. I couldn’t help pushing back into his touch at the quiver of bliss it sent through my nerves. “Yes, please,” I mumbled.
Torrent let out a dry chuckle that was cut off by a groan when I rubbed my pussy against his rigid cock. “Make sure you get her good and ready first,” he instructed his friend.
I sensed Lance’s grin in his intake of breath. As I sank down, taking Torrent inside me, the dragon shifter peppered kisses down my spine—and kept going.
At the first swipe of his tongue over my other entrance, I both whimpered at the shockingly heady sensation and started to tense. It felt even more intimate than anything we’d done before. But Lance showed no sign of hesitation or reluctance, lapping at me there and coating me with his slick dragon saliva until my uncertainty unwound.
Torrent stroked my clit with his tentacle and gave my nipples a tighter squeeze. A jolt of giddiness shot through me. I took that as my cue to start moving over him, rocking up and down, taking his cock deeper with every iteration.
The tentacled man lifted his hips to meet me, and the dragon shifter matched our pace unwaveringly. As Torrent thrust forcefully enough to hit the perfect spot inside me, a whole chorus of sounds tumbled from my mouth. Lance worked me over with his tongue for a few seconds longer and then lined himself up behind me. The head of his cock—the slimmer humanesque version—nudged against my opening.
“All good, baby girl?”
“The best,” I said in a ragged voice.
As wild as Lance could be, he was nothing but careful when he knew one wrong move could hurt me. He slid in slowly, letting each pump of my hips against Torrent’s guide him another inch. And with every one of those blissful inches, the pressure inside radiated farther through me, making me tingle all the way to my toes.
Lance wrapped an arm around my waist and hummed happily against the back of my neck. “Different and yet just as wonderful.”
I started to giggle and lost the sound to a moan as he and Torrent both thrust deeper at the same time. After that, I wasn’t aware of much at all other than the ecstatic sensations unfurling through my body and the grunts and groans of my lovers’ pleasure alongside mine. We moved together as if we’d always been meant for this, even though a few months ago I’d had no idea beings like these two men even existed.
“Fuck, Quinn,” Torrent muttered raggedly. “You are amazing.”
I could only whimper in response. I bucked harder, faster, chasing the release we were all hurtling toward. Torrent pushed himself upright with his good hand to close his mouth around the tip of my breast. Lance dragged the tips of his claws down my sides, Torrent nipped my nipple in time with a flick of my clit, and I tipped over the edge, feeling as if I were both soaring upward and careening from a great height at the same time.
My body shuddered, and Lance growled. He slammed into me with the most force he’d yet dared and let out a choked sound as he came with me. Torrent thrust up into me with his tentacles gripping me tight, and I cried out again with one last wave of bliss as he flooded me with his heat.
Lance didn’t pull back as he softened inside me. He nuzzled my back and hugged me close. “Still strong, our baby girl. We won’t let anything take her.”
I glanced down and met Torrent’s gaze. I had the feeling he understood better than the dragon shifter did how little say they’d have when it came to certain problems threatening my life, but he didn’t correct the other man. Instead, he pushed his torso even farther up so he could form the other side of our joint embrace more fully.
I nestled between their bodies for several minutes until the thump of heavy feet sounded just beyond the trees, as if a large form had landed on the ground.
“Crag!” Lance said cheerfully, leaping up and flickering into his clothes as easily as breathing.
My cheeks flared with the awareness that I couldn’t make myself presentable quite that quickly. Thankfully fixing my shirt was a simple matter of tugging the hem farther down. Torrent snatched up my shorts with a tentacle and passed them to me. I’d managed to squirm into them and was just buttoning them up when the gargoyle appeared at the seaward end of the sheltered hollow.
Paisley fluttered after him, but she wasn’t Crag’s only companion. He had a rotund figure about half his substantial height in his grasp, his massive hands clutched around the being’s stout neck. It squirmed in his fingers, its eyes bulging, but obviously couldn’t flee.
If Crag had taken notice of what we’d recently been up to and had any feelings about it, he didn’t show them. He nodded to me with a grim smile. “I caught one.”
“So you did.” I let out a halting laugh, jarred by the sudden switch in mood. I had to gather my powers quickly and focus on the important tasks at hand.
But reconnecting with Lance and Torrent had been important in its own way. As I sucked in a breath, I found the passionate interlude had refreshed my spirits. It wasn’t that hard to concentrate.
I focused on the plump human-like being the gargoyle held and willed a surge of sorcerer energy up from my chest. The words spilled off my tongue with a crackle, compelling him to answer our questions.
My energy smacked against a barrier inside him like it had with other beings in the past. No surprise—he was under the leviathan’s sway. I squared my shoulders and braced for a much bigger punch of power. I had to shatter the magic that already bound him… and then, if he was still unwilling to cooperate, use more sorcery to force him to.
“Quinn?” Crag said with obvious concern, but I shook my head. It wasn’t any good preserving my strength if the world fell apart around me in the meantime.
I repeated the order in the sorcerer language, flinging the words at the being and my sense of the magic inside his head with all my might. My pulse hiccupped—but the barrier cracked. With a flash of triumph, I hurled the command at him once more.
The leviathan’s sorcery disintegrated completely. The stout little man blinked and gulped a breath through his constricted throat.
“Put him down,” I told Crag. “But don’t let him leave yet.” I drew myself even straighter, this minor victory steadying me on my feet.
We were finally getting somewhere. Maybe I’d end up getting a chance to fix this mess after all.
After Crag lowered him to the ground, the being rasped a few more breaths. He shook himself and peered up at me. “You broke me out. I can do what I want again.”
“You can,” I said. “But I’d appreciate it if you tell us what you know about your former master’s plans first.”
The round face fell. “I—I’m not sure of much. He just ordered me here and there, back and forth.” He made a wiggling gesture with his thick fingers. “But…” His equally round eyes brightened. “I did hear just this morning—he was sending a bunch of watery shadowkind off into the ocean. He wanted them to gather in a few different places in the sea around this country.”
A chill tickled down my back. “And what were they supposed to do then?”
“I only got the gist of it. But I think… they’re supposed to summon the big waves.”
“Big waves?” Lance repeated. “How big?”
The little man grimaced. “Big enough to wash away all the mortals near the shores, all around this country. ‘Drown them all,’ he said.”