Chapter 10 Quinn #3
Rowan sat up and hauled me back against his chest. His arms locked around my hips. I looked at Cayden. He’d obviously taken off his bloody shirt and washed his face, but dried blood still clung to his hairline. A strip went down the side of his neck.
“Quinn.” Cayden squeezed his fist. “I can’t.”
“You can,” I whispered.
Rowan’s fingers pressed into my hips. “Considering everything that happened...”
I jabbed Rowan’s thigh with my elbow to cut him off. “That’s why you must, Cay.”
Cayden blinked at me. “Quinn, you saw what my family… what I…”
I put my hand out. “I felt you hard as a rock from seeing me all tied up and surrounded in red silk.”
“Wait, ah, what?” Rowan squeezed me closer to him, but I ignored him.
Cayden grimaced and hung his head.
“I saw you fight every instinct in your body to keep from doing what you wanted,” I continued.
“It wasn’t right.” Cayden hissed, not looking at me. “None of it was.”
“You're right. It’s a fucked-up situation. But you didn’t know that. If the other women went through the same process as me, by the time they were on that altar, they believed they wanted everything the family gave them.”
Cayden trembled. “But they didn’t.”
“To your knowledge, they did,” I repeated. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
Cayden bit his lips together and curled into himself. My arrogant, self-righteous friend was vanishing before my eyes, just like I’d done my entire life.
I lunged out of Rowan’s arms and slammed into my best friend. He fell backward. His head hit the pillow, and I straddled him, pinning his arms in place and forcing him to look at me.
“I spent my life ashamed. Ashamed of my illness, of being broken.” I chuckled darkly. “Only to wake up in a world where there is no normal. Every family’s moral code is unique, and yes. Yours was a basket of crazy run by a manipulative bastard. But you can’t change your past.”
Cayden didn’t take his gaze from mine.
“You can’t change who you were. You can only accept it and try to become someone you can love.
” A tear ran down my cheek. “It was too late for me to learn that lesson in my old life. But here.” I bumped Rowan with my foot so he’d know my words were for him, too.
“I’ve learned to love the part of me I wanted to cut out. ”
“This is not the same,” Cayden bit his lips together.
I threw my hands in the air. “It’s not. I can’t argue with that. But.” I let out a frustrated breath. “Did you enjoy seeing me tied up?”
Cayden’s gaze grew wary. I’d ground against his hard cock. I knew exactly how much he liked it. He nodded sharply.
“I hated everything about what happened, except that,” I bit my bottom lip. “It was the wrong situation, and if I’d been less drugged or realized we had an audience, this might be a different conversation, but I didn’t.”
Rowan grunted. I could only imagine what he was piecing together, but this moment was Cayden’s.
“Those ropes. The knots…” I licked my lips as delicious heat from the memory kissed my core. “One of your sisters tied me up. It was very clinical, but in a different situation, it wouldn’t be, would it?”
Cayden’s gaze unfocused. I gave him a minute to sort through whatever he needed, cursing the fact he could feel my emotions, but I couldn’t feel his.
“I enjoy bondage,” Cayden said softly. “But do I only enjoy it because it was part of my doctrine?”
I leaned down so close that our noses almost brushed. “Do you want to tie me up?”
Cayden’s glowing eyes burned. “Yes.”
“Do you want to kiss me?”
“Yes.”
I released Cayden’s arms and sat up. My ass landed on his hard dick, and he let out a needy hiss of pain and pleasure.
“You can’t disappear,” I said. “I won’t let you. I get it. What you’re going through is a lot, but you can’t leave me alone.”
Cayden swallowed hard. “I’m lost. I thought destroying my Prophet would fix everything, but I still don’t know who I am.”
My heart raced. “We’re in the same boat.” I cupped Cayden’s cheek and leaned in. He trembled, then turned away, leaving my lips on rough stubble instead of his mouth.
Fear and disappointment knifed through me. I didn’t know how to help Cayden. I sat back up, still acutely aware of Cayden’s erection, which he seemed desperate to ignore. My best friend pressed his lips together and avoided my gaze.
Rowan shifted closer. “What if I do the kissing?”
The big mage cupped my cheek, his other hand pressing into my lower back. Before either Cayden or I could respond, he pressed his lips to mine. The moment I kissed back, he engulfed me with possessive need. Heat zinged through my body. Finally, when we both needed air, he released me.
We both turned to Cayden.
“I don’t know a lot,” Rowan said. “And you’re going to tell me what the fuck happened, but later. Right now, you’ve got to get back on the horse, Cayden.”
“What?” Cayden and I said at the same time.
A faint blush rose on Rowan’s cheeks. “You heard me. And we're all a little lost sometimes. I, uh, well, taking orders might be a turn-on for me.” Rowan pointed at Cayden and pushed on. “And bondage is about control, right? You need that right now, Cayden. You don’t have any.”
Cayden flinched.
Rowan pressed harder. “Nothing’s what you thought it was.”
Cayden’s face pinched.
“So, take control, now.” Rowan slid his hands under my arms and started pulling me toward him. “Right fucking now, or I’m going to pin your helpless, worthless ass to the mattress and deposit Quinn between two men that can actually help her.”
Cayden shot upright, fury blazing. The sudden jolt hurled me into Rowan’s lap, breathless in the crackling tension.
“Xan and Ezra are not helping her,” Cayden growled.
Rowan grinned. “Then instruct me if you’re not ready to touch… show me you aren’t just another broken Lawson incapable of existing outside your compound.”
A ripple of excitement washed across me. I didn’t know how to help my friend, but I wasn’t alone, and fuck me if Rowan wasn’t the smartest of all of us.
Cayden snarled, and his face twisted. His pajama pants rode low on his hips, showing off the perfect ‘V’ at the bottom of his abs, virtually pointing to the straining tent in his pants. The air grew thick around us as he clenched and unclenched his fist in indecision.
“I want this, Cay,” I said softly.
Cayden met my gaze, and anger drained from him.
He leaned down and kissed my forehead before sitting in the big armchair, making the dragon move or be squished.
After a few spouts of cold fire and a half-hearted stabbing attempt, the dragon flew up and over to the kitchen, snuffling through the broken piles of crockery.
Cayden spread his legs. Slowly, he leaned forward and steepled his fingers. “Open your legs and pull her close.”
Rowan spread his legs, sliding warm hands under my shirt. I helped him wiggle me into position. His erection stabbed into my backside.
Cayden studied us like an artist before the first stroke of paint. “Pull off her shirt.” His voice dropped, edged with tightly controlled authority.
Rowan grabbed the side of my shirt and started to rip it off.
“No, slowly. Run your thumbs up her sides as you go.”
The command in his voice shot heat straight to my core, and half of Cayden’s mouth tugged into a dark smile.
Rowan slowed, his thumbs grazing my sides in a teasing climb that made every curve of me feel alive.
Heat prickled across my skin as I lifted my arms, his touch skimming higher until it brushed the swell of my breasts.
My tunic slid away with a final whisper of cloth, leaving me bare beneath his hands.
“Quinn, hook your arms around his neck.”
I did. The position forced my bare chest out and my lower back to bend so my ass ground into Rowan’s bulging dick. Rowan let out an unexpected grunt, and Cayden dropped his hand so it rested on his bulge.
“Now, feel her. Trace every part of her before you cup just below her breasts.”
My heart hammered, the anticipation unbearable as I imagined his touch before it landed. When Rowan’s hands finally slid over my skin, shivers rippled through me, heat pooling where his palms lingered just beneath my breasts.
“Kiss her neck,” Cayden ordered. “Kiss her so hard, Xan and Ezra feel it.”
Rowan’s lips teased along my neck before his teeth sank in, sharp and claiming. A moan escaped, my head tilting back in surrender as heat melted me from the inside out.
I looked at Cayden, begging him to join us with my eyes. Instead, he dipped his hand into his pants and rubbed his length.
“One hand on her breasts, the other on her clit.”
Rowan didn’t have to be told twice. He spread his fingers, lightly scratching down my aroused body, and slipped two digits into my undergarments. I unlinked my fingers from behind his head.
“Don’t.” Cayden barked. “Don’t even think about it.”
I returned my hands to their original position, as Rowan’s fingers found me, every stroke sharper, hungrier, until my clit pulsed under his touch. His mouth claimed my neck and a hand my breast, leaving the other aching, my body strung tight with need.
Cayden groaned as he worked his length in time to us.
“Quinn,” Rowan stopped kissing me and pressed his palm against my clit, slamming his erection into my ass.
“I didn’t tell you to do any of that,” Cayden snapped. “Stop everything and stand up.”
Rowan removed his hand from my clit and stood, hauling me up after him.
“Strip her, but like before.”
For a moment, I couldn’t remember before.
My sex-fogged brain ached to go forward, not back.
Rowan dropped to his knees and gripped my pajama bottoms with his teeth, dragging his nails lightly down my hips.
My sensitive skin lit up as the light scratch dragged down the outside of my legs.
Heat filled my face, knowing Rowan was right in front of me, his nose brushing the wetness he’d created between my legs.
Then, he dragged my pants lower, and it was Cayden’s gaze burning into my naked flesh.
With light prompting, I stepped out of the last of my clothing, and Rowan tossed it to the side.
Nerves and excitement made my chest rise and fall as Cayden studied me with that same critical gaze.
So many adjectives flashed across my mind.
I wasn’t a porn star; my starvation and subsequent regaining of weight meant parts of me were too thin while others had an extra roll or two.
What was I doing? I’d gotten so caught up in the moment—
“Stop,” Cayden’s command literally froze my thoughts. “You’re incredible. Every delicious inch of you.”
Cayden couldn’t have read my mind… but he’d felt my anxiety rising and stopped it.
Something loosened inside me. I didn’t need to explain or justify myself. I was safe here. I was accepted.
“Rowan, don’t let her think again,” Cayden said, as if ordering a sandwich from Wicked Wich, though his eyes gleamed. “Pump your dick and eat her until she screams.”
One hand gripped my ass while Rowan’s tongue devoured me, thrusting, tasting, teasing. My anxiety abandoned me, along with most of my rational thoughts. Every stroke set me alight. I clutched his head, trembling as wave after wave of heat ripped out from my core.
Rowan’s slurping mixed with the sound of pumping hands.
“More,” Cayden demanded. “Work your tongue in and out.”
Rowan did all of it. I dissolved into moans as Cayden’s commands and Rowan’s tongue drove me higher and higher.
“Pressure, Rowan, more pressure.” Strain turned the command in Cayden’s voice into a storm of need. “She’s almost there.” The last three words could have been a prayer or a wish, but they were far from it.
Rowan hooked his tongue inside my tight opening before slurping up and sliding his tongue down.
“Right…” was all I managed to gasp before Rowan let go of himself to hook a single finger into my entrance and drive up.
My orgasm ripped through me, stealing my strength until I collapsed forward against the massive mage, trembling.
He pushed out my legs, catching my back in his arms before lowering my twitching body to the bed.
“Now, ask nicely and finish on her tits.” Cayden made eye contact with me. “Don’t look at me; look at Rowan.”
I did.
Rowan already had his pulsing cock in his hands. “May I?”
I pushed my breasts together. One of my nipples swelled cherry red from attention, while the untouched one begged for more. It was a moment to say something sexy, but my body throbbed with spent need, and I barely managed a wavering, “Yes.”
Rowan groaned. Two strokes, and he spilled across my chest. The big elemental’s gaze blazed with hunger before claiming my untouched breast between his lips.
Another wave of molten heat made me flush.
I glanced at Cayden just as his face scrunched up, and he grunted, curling around his hand in his pants.Not quite the romance of a cozy novel, but raw and real.
Rowan pulled back and nipped the exact spot I was pretty sure he’d already branded on my neck.
A startled laugh caught in my throat, breathier than I wanted to admit, as he stretched out on my far side.
His free hand lazily circled his mess across my chest.My face went hot, and I scrambled for the blanket, dragging it over whatever parts of me I could hide.
Embarrassment was pointless at this stage, but apparently my body hadn’t gotten the memo.
I was half-naked in a medieval castle, with two stupidly handsome mages short-circuiting every nerve I had… and I loved it.
“Come back to bed?” I whispered to Cayden.
My friend took a deep breath before standing. Conflict still filled his eyes, but after a quick detour for a towel, his confident steps brought him back to my side. I kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you; that was amazing.”
“Bloody hell, I did all the work,” Rowan grumbled.
Cayden snorted, tossing Rowan the towel. “Keep working. Her chest won’t clean itself.”