Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
B ecause the threat was meant to sound playful and matched the gleam in his eyes, I didn't tense when Andrei lowered his head, brushing his lips against mine.
But I also didn't open my mouth.
“You want to play,” he murmured, licking along the seam of my lips with the tip of his tongue, requesting entry.
When I continued to deny him, he nipped, the sharp points of his fangs drawing pinpricks of blood. I opened my mouth, and he delved inside.
I should bite you back.
“You're welcome to try.”
I wrapped my right leg around his waist and in a quick movement flipped him onto his back, grabbing his wrists and pinning them over his head. I wasn’t as delicate as I looked.
Andrei, pliant under my hold, widened eyes filled with sensual humor—if lounging dragons were ever pliant. “What sport is this?”
“No sport.” My hair spilled over my shoulders as I leaned down, kissing his jaw. I released his wrists, sliding down his body. “I can take a hint.”
When I reached his naval and pressed a kiss on his taut abs, I straightened, glancing regretfully over his long, chiseled chest. Strong, elegant shoulders, arms and pecs with natural musculature rather than the overblown fake bulge of bodybuilders. More like a dancer’s frame, but with a swordsman’s added heft.
He looked so edible.
But according to Con, I had a reputation for focus.
I grasped the drawstring of his black leggings and loosened it, tugging the cloth down his body until it freed his erection.
Long, thick enough I couldn't wrap my entire hand around it, managing to look lovely even though it was just a swollen cock?—
“Do you like what you see, bonded?”
—and shouldn’t be given more praise than due because its owner was already vain enough.
“It’s pretty,” I said, affecting nonchalance. “But how does it taste?”
I brushed my fingers across his smooth groin and wrapped my hand around the base, shimmying down his legs a bit more so the positioning was ideal.
“There’s a reason I eat so many sweets, darling,” Andrei purred.
Constin and Mathen settled on either side of us, reminding me that the bed was big enough for a dance troupe.
Constin lounged on his elbow, gaze ravenous, while Mathen propped himself against the headboard and wrapped an arm around his raised knee, lowering his eyes to watch through a modest veil of lashes.
I considered the men eyeing me like breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
“Do I need to. . .give you all instructions?” They might like that kind of thing.
Con gave me a lazy smile as Mathen snorted. “Oh, we’ll know when to jump in,” Con said. “But feel free if it pleases you. We may even obey.”
My heart thumped. Safe word, I had a safe word. Everything would be fine. The three predators in bed with me had Vowed my safety.
“Not your first rodeo?” I managed to keep my voice steady, a little ironic.
“Or the third.”
I hadn’t thought so.
Lowering my head, I smiled at the men staring avidly at me; I was a performer, after all. Little did they realize, I basked in the attention. When I ascended the stage, shyness more or less fled.
Slowly, teasing them, I lowered my head and licked the wet slit of his head. Andrei's chest rose with his inhaled breath. I ran my tongue around the rim of the hot, satiny skin, toying with him.
A series of Cassanian words spilled out of Andrei’s throat.
“Woman,” he repeated in thickly accented English. “If you continue to tease me, you'll get what you're asking for.”
And I know exactly what you’re asking for.
My lungs compressed as I obeyed, sliding my mouth down his length, taking him as deep into my throat as I could manage, his mind a sensual threat overshadowing mine. The moment he lost patience, game over.
Still, I played. Even two weeks ago I wouldn’t have, because it never started or ended well for me. But. . .trust. Hope. Chains of my own making.
The Phases receded a little more to the back of my mind. Receded, and were shelved. These men had already proven I no longer needed to nurse that specific bitterness. I would allow myself to begin healing.
Andrei hissed, his legs tensing beneath me.
“You're still teasing,” he said, voice guttural as I licked up his length, moving my head in slow up and down strokes.
A hand lifted my hair out of my face and held it in a tight ponytail. A tight, warning ponytail, the heat of the man at my back another sensual, not quite friendly, promise.
I didn’t know if it was a mistake, giving them carte blanche to do whatever they wanted as long as I didn’t speak my safe word. But the Vow would hold them. . .wouldn’t it?
It will. Andrei’s whisper in my mind. But you’re stubborn. How much will you take before you yield?
Yielders didn’t make it to the top. I would never yield.
Then brace yourself, little prima. I have no intention of being gentle. And neither, I think, do my luudthen.
Succumbing to the inevitable, I stopped playing, and he used my mouth.
Andrei's hips bucked, and I gagged as his cock touched the back of my throat. Again and again, in a physical and internal struggle to maintain control. I wanted him to spill down my throat, to hear him shout his release and feel as out of control of his own destiny as I felt.
Andrei’s amused denial slithered through my mind; he’d cede control to his disobedient little faeling over his dead body, which she needed many more years and a great deal more power to achieve, if his death and her escape was the ambitious goal.
Mathen watched, making it Constin behind me, his hand tightening, moving my head up and down Andrei's length at some subtle signal between the two men.
“Is he salty?” Constin asked close to my ear. “Or is he sweet?”
I dug my nails into Andrei's thighs, angry that they wouldn't allow me even this little taste of domination.
But from the noises ripping from Andrei's throat he was close. So close.
Constin yanked my head back as Andrei detangled himself and reached for me. A blink and I found myself pulled up Andrei’s body, straddling him at the waist, his hands on my hips.
“You don't get nourishment from me today,” he said in his silky croon. “You're a headstrong woman. If you want my submission, you'll have to offer yours first.” His eyes darkened. “Ride me.”
I straightened, understanding his offer to let me control the penetration, faltering as Constin’s chest brushed my back and his hand moved around my body, fingers resting lightly on my clit.
“Yes?” Con murmured, strands of silver hair falling over my chest. “Do you want my fingers?”
Biting my lip, I nodded and closed my eyes as I rose on my knees, wrapped my hand around the base of Andrei’s cock and positioned him at my entrance. Con shifted with my motion, fingers beginning a skilled dance between my legs.
I slid down Andrei, painstaking, my thighs tense as I guided the penetration. My teeth sank deeper into my bottom lip at the painful stretch of his girth. But it was manageable, low thrumming discomfort rather than sharp burning. I almost sobbed in relief.
My body adjusted to him as he cupped my breasts and squeezed.
Sharp eyes took in my face. “Are you with me, darling?”
I nodded and began to move gingerly, adjusting the angle and depth until I’d balanced the discomfort with pleasure and didn’t have to maintain such caution.
“God,” I gasped.
“High Lord,” the man beneath me corrected coolly.
I noted distantly that Andrei didn’t stray from the path I’d set, controlling his entry when he took over thrusting after a brief mental inquiry, maintaining the depth and angle though he increased the speed.
Noted as well that when my internal distress spiked, he exerted will over his dark, spiraling instincts, as if the need to care for me drew him away from the edge.
But after a time I accepted the warning twinges and placed my hands on his chest, exerting pressure.
Andrei halted, eyes searching my face. Do you need to stop?
No, but it’s better to change positions now. Before I press my luck.
“Are you okay, Anah?” Con asked.
“I’m fine, but this position is starting. . .”
I feel your discomfort. Gently spoken words. I was waiting for you to speak.
Thank you. That’s part of what I need. For you to let me tell you when I can’t take any more.
Con moved back, giving us room as Andrei lifted me off him, shifting so he was no longer beneath me.
“How do you want me?” my High Lord asked.
In response, I positioned myself on my hands, spreading my legs wider. Two male inhalations behind me, two sets of hands on my body, caressing waist and bottom and thighs.
“Is this a better position for you?” Con asked. “I was here first, Drei.”
“Ask me if I give a kobold’s ass, Con .”
“It’s better,” I said.
Fingers—whose, I had no idea—touched me between my legs, caressing along my slit and delicately entering my body, playing with me as a snarling negotiation went on in Cassanian.
I glanced at Mathen, who rolled his eyes briefly, then lowered his knee so he could shift next to me on the bed. “They’re playing. . .ah, a game like Rock Paper Scissors.” He gave me a slow, slightly smug smile. “But I perceive that I’m in the better position right now.”
I understood what he meant and blushed. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a pain in the ass,” I murmured.
His eyes gleamed with amusement as he cupped the back of my head, fingers running through the strands of my hair.
“He’d rather be a pain in your ass, darling,” Constin drawled. “But your bonded here is going to be stubborn.”
“She’s mine ,” Andrei said.
I felt Constin’s eyeroll. “Realms, spare me from a possessive male. What did I teach you about sharing?”
“That only frightened prey or sycophants offer their toys to another, and if you do share, don’t expect your possession returned in the same condition in which you lent it.”
A beat of silence. “Was that really what I taught you? I have some doubts.”
As he spoke, Mathen slipped off the bed and stripped off his clothing. He’d been the last one to hold out and I watched, riveted, as he revealed muscles under his dark brown skin that made me think of ancient Koa warriors. Wide, powerful shoulders and thick thighs.
“Don’t tell me you like the barbarian horde type,” Con said, voice a little sour. He was the leanest of the three.
Mathen grinned at his luudthen, flexing his well-developed shoulders and chest. “When you’re hungry you want steak, not an amuse bouche,” he said.
I discreetly tucked my tongue back in my mouth.
“I might have to add extra seasoning to your dinner this week,” Con said. “Don’t worry—it won’t kill you.”
I breathed fast and harsh, my body tipping over the edge as Mathen fisted his cock, his grip lazy and. . .almost taunting. Too slow, moving up and down his heavy length as my gaze followed.
“How like you this, Lady?” Mathen asked, voice husky, a note rising to the surface. A not so civilized note.
Wanted. Wanted to touch, to taste. I met his gaze, filling mine with the heat of my request. My demand.
“Come here,” I said. “Or am I meant to look but not touch?”
Mathen crawled back on the bed. I opened my mouth to receive him, turning my head as he adjusted his position.
Mathen pumped in and out of my mouth, doing most of the work though I relaxed my throat so I could take him deeper. Tasted the salty beads of his fluid, heard his deep, breathy moans, the scratchy words of praise as he took my mouth.
“Lady,” he breathed. “You can beguile me all you like if this is the end result.”
I almost laughed; I did grin. But the grin faded because warm hands gripped my hips; a familiar touch. Gentle, but an unspoken assumption of command. They must have finished the argument, but Mathen and I had stopped paying attention.
Andrei asked only by the press of his fingers as he spread my cheeks, the nudge of his cock against my entrance.
He waited as I pushed backwards, knowing what angle and depth would maximize enjoyment and minimize the opposite.
Hands stroked up and down my back, massaged my cheeks. He hissed through his teeth as I sheathed him, holding completely still even when I began to rock my hips.
Andrei’s fingers bit into my hips. “I can’t believe I let you hold out for so long.” Rich amusement in his voice, thick lust, a rough scrape of need.
“An entire week, was it?” Constin mocked.
You can take me, I whispered, ignoring him. It had been more like ten days. I’ll tell you if something changes.
Andrei settled his hands on my hips and began to pump in and out of me, our minds merging at the edges as he checked in to see what noises were pleasure and what were pain.
We guided him to the spot that unfurled ribbons of ecstasy throughout my entire body, and once found, the primal slap of his flesh on mine took over, his silent will bearing down.
That I take his desire, sate it, and give him my own.
That I accept everything he offered—himself, his luudthen, his wealth, the power of his House—and stopped fighting him .
I don’t want to fight you anymore.
A surge of triumph, of tender possessiveness. Then concern, as he reminded himself to go easy on the girl. And to make arrangements for the best healers in the city to attend her soon.
Mathen’s cock hit the back of my throat as he neared his peak. The hand on the back of my head tightened in demand as he lost himself to the pleasure and forgot I was his Lord’s consort, and to be treated with deference. . .even while I had his seed spilling down my throat.
The ridiculousness made me love him even more.
“Anali,” Mathen said through gritted teeth. “ Fuck. Fuck me. Take me deeper.”