Chapter 29 #2
Warmth envelops my body along with the familiar scent of an art studio tinged with something smokey and earthy.
Kane, I tell myself, snuggling into his chest. Sam’s absence has been strange, but Kane’s been present the entire time.
Zane, too, honestly, the two of them attempting to fill a void that Sam left.
The fact that he hasn’t said a word or sent a note or anything makes me anxious.
“I thought that Sam loved me,” I murmur softly. “He said that he loved me.” The colors on the canvas bleed together as my focus slips. “But how can he love me if he isn’t here?”
Kane’s chest expands against my back as he takes a deep breath.
“Love can’t be defined that easily, Mercy.
It’s like…” He dips his fingers into a fresh blob of burgundy on a nearby palette.
“Paint.” Rubbing the pads of his thumb and index fingers together, he spreads the paint between them.
“When you mix the colors together—” He dabs three of his fingers in a pure white.
“—the composition changes. No two loves are the same.” Tracing a flower bud on the back of my hand, Kane separates the colors until they reach the center, where they combine into a dusty rose.
“And when you add a third—” Deep indigo blends into the petals, quickly followed by a sudden swipe of vibrant orange highlights. “Or a fourth, that love is unique.”
“It’s complicated,” I murmur, brushing my fingertips across the palette to gather paint.
I draw a white diamond on the back of Kane’s hand.
“It should be easy.” My heart catches in my throat.
My parents’ love was always easy; they were in sync every step of the way, from sunrise of their first day together until their final sunset when they parted for different realms. My dad misses her every day.
I miss Sam every day, too.
Kane takes my hand and gently spins me around to face him.
“Loving you is easy.” His eyes reflect the bright lights, sparkling and intense as he holds my gaze.
“It’s the easiest thing I’ve ever done, Mercy.
” Taking a breath, he laces our fingers together.
“I know that Sam feels the same. Don’t give up on him…
or on me.” A faint blush dusts his cheeks.
“I’ve never done this before, and I want to do it right.
I normally rush into everything since I get so—” He scrunches his face.
“—excited, you know? You excite me, Mercy, but you also have this calming effect. Like you can anchor me back to earth. I need that sometimes.” He steps closer. “I need you.”
Now I’m the one blushing. “You’ve never done… what before?”
His gaze remains steady as he brushes warm knuckles across my rosy cheek. “Fallen in love like this.”
I bite my lip as nerves tingle down my arms. My heart skips once, twice, three times as I hold Kane’s gaze. The spotlight behind him damn near makes him glow, turning his blonde hair golden and his eyes warmer and brighter than I’ve ever seen.
He doesn’t look like a man who wants to kill me.
He looks like a man who…
Loves me.
“But I thought—” My mind whirls as I try to come up with a reason why we can’t. I’m not supposed to like two men at the same time, let alone love more than one person. Sam makes sense. Kane makes my world spin.
I take a step back and stumble on a stack of canvases.
Kane catches me, but rather than pull me back up, he holds me close and falls right along with me.
He takes the brunt of the fall as he slams into the floor, grinning like an idiot as he gazes up at me.
“You’re beautiful,” he breathes, tossing his head back.
“God, you look good with my art.” Grabbing my shoulder, he pulls my sweater down to expose my collar bone and smears black paint across my skin. “Should’ve brought you here sooner.”
As he grabs a bottle of sunflower yellow and squeezes it into his palm, I scoot back. “Wait! Kane!” We haven’t talked about anything he just said, and covering me in paint all of a sudden is the kind of crazy spontaneity that makes him unpredictable. He follows his heart, no matter where it leads.
“You love Zane! You can’t possibly love me too!”
Sitting up, he hums as he tosses the paint bottle away. “I can, and I do. Come back here. I wanna paint you.”
“Use a canvas!”
He licks a stripe across his front teeth. “Your body is better.”
I scramble to my feet and run for the door, only able to turn the knob before Kane snatches me from behind.
He lifts my sweater over my head with one hand and smacks my stomach with the other, smudging a yellow-black handprint on my skin.
I gasp at how cold the paint is and squeal when Kane slides his hand beneath the waistband of my leggings and grabs my hip, expertly smearing paint in a sticky wet line down my body.
Laughing, he peppers open-mouthed kisses along my neck as he yanks at my pants. “Take these off, Siren, c’mon. Work with me.” He snaps the waistband and laughs again, the sound full and rich and just as warm as his body heat.
Bending at the waist, I dig my ass into his crotch and stall for time as I reach for a bottle of royal blue nearby.
Once it’s in my hand, I pop the cap and whirl around, squeezing paint all over Kane’s chest. He laughs, grinning as he strips off his t-shirt and steps into the paint stream.
“Gotta get dirty with me, sweetheart.” With a wet smack, he slams my palm onto his chest and smears paint across his torso, the smooth glide over his skin more satisfying than it has any right to be.
I grab his waist and leave a handprint, and he does the same to me.
The yellow from his hand mixes with the blue on mine, creating a vibrant green as he eagerly palms my ribs on the way up to my breasts.
I jump back before he can ruin my bra, although I’m sure the damage has already been done to the rest of my clothes. I’ll have to throw this entire outfit away. Paint will never come out.
The door creaks open. “I’m done with my—” Pausing, Zane quickly assesses the scene before stepping up behind me.
His voice purrs in my ear as he reaches for my bra.
“Allow me, Kitten.” The frustrated puff of his breath warms the back of my neck as he unclasps my bra one-handed…
on the fourth try. As soon as my breasts spill free and my bra hits the floor, that same hand grabs my waistband and pulls down my leggings.
My panties are next, rolling as they slide down my thighs.
When they get caught around my ankles, Zane kneels by my feet to help me step out of them.
“There we go,” he murmurs, brushing his lips across the back of my thighs. “A perfect canvas.”
While Zane touches me from behind, Kane watches, completely enraptured.
If he were religious, I imagine that he’d fall to his knees in prayer, thanking whichever god put us on this lecherous path.
As it stands, however, he clenches and unclenches his painted fists while his dick swells, creating a massive imprint down one side of his jeans.
I try not to stare, but heat pools between my thighs as I remember the feel of his thick cock sliding against my aching pussy, desperate to fit inside. I’m still not sure that it would fit, but…
I want to try.
Sam isn’t here, the voice in my head reminds me. An ugly scar on my heart throbs. He promised that he’d be here when I have sex with Kane. I fulfilled my end of the bargain—Sam took my virginity. Now that it’s his turn to ante up, he’s gone, and I’m painfully alone.
So much more alone than I was before he came back into my life.
Closing my eyes, I throw thoughts of Sam to the back of my mind. He might not want me anymore, but there are two men who do. Kane could fall in love with me any minute now, and Zane…
His touch sets my body on fire.
He slips his hand between my thighs. “You’re warm,” he murmurs, pushing my legs farther apart. “Right—” He kisses the globe of my ass while his hand wanders north. “Here.”
I gasp as he rubs my pussy with his knuckles. A moan catches in my throat as he teases my slit with his fingertips. “Z-Zane,” I whimper, fisting his hair. “Stop that.”
Humming happily, he bites my ass. “No.”
Kane quickly strips, tossing his remaining clothes to the floor and sitting his bare ass on a tarp. “Bring her here,” he rasps, motioning for us to come closer. “I need to taste her.”
Grunting, Zane smacks the meatiest part of my thigh. “Don’t get paint on her cunt.”
Kane grins cheekily but doesn’t argue. “I’ll be careful with my hands.” He pats the tops of his shoulders and carelessly spreads more paint across his body. There’s no way I’m coming out of this unscathed. “Come here, Siren. Hook your legs over my shoulders.”
I stare at him without comprehending his request. “I’ll fall.”
“You won’t.” Kane licks his lips as I shuffle closer. But before he can grab me, Zane reaches around and holds his fingers to Kane’s lips. Without prompting, Kane pops them into his mouth and sucks my desire from Zane’s fingers, the two of them groaning in unison at the sight.
Arousal drips down my thighs. I bite my lip and squeeze my legs together.
Seeing the two of them together has no business being that hot, but for some reason, it turns me on just as much as when one of them touches me.
Kane’s gaze flicks to mine as he hollows out his cheeks, sucking hard enough that Zane shivers.
That’s hot as fuck.
I blush scarlet as Kane winks at me, then licks his lips as his lover pulls his fingers free.
But Zane doesn’t linger in the moment; he grabs the back of my knee and lifts my leg so that my calf hangs over Kane’s shoulder.
My pussy throbs as Kane’s nostrils flare and his eyes dilate, his attention zeroing in on my molten core.
“Ohhh, fuck,” he groans, panting against my thighs. “You’re so wet, sweetheart.”