Chapter Twenty-Two
love does not flinch
in the face of the unknown
it is the courage
to say yes
yes
Excerpt from Beloved,
a poetry collection dedicated to the Lover
Restlessness pulled Naia from sleep.
The first traces of morning had not yet begun to brighten the skies outside. Only the light of the moons filtered through the windows, painting everything that was not in shadow in muted shades of blue and silver.
Naia sat up, careful not to jar her sleeping lovers. Beneath her, the island’s heart beat a quiet, steady rhythm, strong and safe. So it was not danger that had sparked the unease that now twisted in her belly.
Naia stared down at the two men in the bed with her. They were twined together, with Einar’s head pillowed on Aleksi’s shoulder. Aleksi, meanwhile, had fallen asleep with his fingers tangled in Einar’s hair.
Between the Lover’s effortless beauty and the Kraken’s skin nearly glowing in this light, they did not look like men, or even gods. They looked ethereal, like a dream that might vanish at any moment.
Finally, Naia recognized the feeling.
It was fear.
She’d lost so many things, and missed so much time. Why had she not come back sooner? Einar had been reborn more than two thousand years ago, and Aleksi had walked the earth for over three.
Why had she not returned the instant after her death? She could have passed into the world that waited beyond for only a moment before slipping free of the Dream on the other side. She could have reunited with Theron. Together, they might have found Aleksi.
Except they wouldn’t have, would they? They would have stayed on Rahvekya, wrapped in the same little world they’d inhabited for thousands of years already. And when the Betrayer’s forces had come for their island, their people, she and Theron would have crushed them.
But then Aleksi might have stayed in the Sheltered Lands. Einar would not have been born, and the very thought made her heart ache. No, she could not wish that events had transpired differently, even if it meant she could not claw back thousands of years of life.
She would just have to live them now.
Aleksi’s eyes fluttered open.
“I’m sorry,” Naia apologized in a scant whisper. “I didn’t mean to disturb you.”
He shook his head and squinted up at her. “You didn’t. It’s just that your aura is so bright right now.”
“I was thinking about the past,” she admitted. “About all the things that would have been different with only a few tiny changes.”
Aleksi looked up at her as if he knew exactly what she’d been thinking. But all he said was, “Do you have regrets?”
She almost said no, but there was something that had been haunting her. “Just one—that I did not try harder to find a way to stay alive. For my people, yes, but especially for Theron. It might not have worked out . . . but I should have tried.”
Aleksi rubbed her knee soothingly. “You did what you could, love. That’s all any of us have.”
Einar stirred. He opened his eyes, and a smile curved his lips when he caught sight of her. It was the same smile she’d seen millions of times, and it tore at Naia’s heart even as it warmed her.
His voice was rough. “Couldn’t sleep?”
Her eyes burned. “I just . . . didn’t want to miss this moment.”
Einar’s expression softened, and he held out his hand. When she took it, he pulled her on top of him.
His skin looked and felt different, but his kiss was the same—eager, ready, familiar. She’d always thought so, and now she knew why.
It made her long to discover what else she recognized about his touch, about him, so she slipped her hand beneath the covers, chasing the clenching muscle and soft, hungry noises he breathed against her lips.
The bed shifted as Aleksi rose on one elbow.
He nuzzled Naia’s bare shoulder, then claimed Einar’s mouth when she tossed her head back with a gasp.
A heartbeat later, Aleksi wound his hand in her tousled hair and held her that way, her back bowed, while he and Einar slowly drew their tongues over her breasts to her nipples.
She rocked instinctively, and shuddered when she ground against Einar’s cock . . . and Aleksi’s hand.
“Wait.” Aleksi lifted his face to hers. Their mouths were so close, almost kissing, as they traded ragged breaths back and forth. “Let me—”
Naia placed her fingers to his lips. “I’ll do it.”
His eyes flared, ardent violet and ravenous purple. He closed the last bit of distance between them and kissed her hard, his tongue lingering to soothe where his teeth had nipped. “Hurry.”
Aleksi was usually the one who pulled them close, wrapped them up, and held them tightly wreathed in his magic. This time, Naia was the one who opened up and let them in.
It might not have worked just after she regained her memories, but she’d rediscovered so much about herself and her abilities since then. She reached out, feeling like a seductive Siren of legend when they eagerly fell into her.
For a moment, Naia trembled, nearly overwhelmed by the intensity of it. She felt everything, everything, all at once. Her flourishing desire. Einar’s hunger to taste their pleasure. Aleksi’s relief at being able to simply let go and trust that someone else would keep them shielded in this moment.
They soothed her through it, with Einar whispering encouragement against her collarbone as Aleksi slowly stroked his fingers up and down her back.
Finally, she nodded, and the whispers gave way to teeth scoring her skin.
The hand that rested on her back made another journey, between her shoulder blades, down her spine.
Lower, until Aleksi’s fingertips grazed her clit.
Fuck.
Naia put a hand on his shoulder, halting the caresses, and held Aleksi’s gaze as she eased up and forward, until the head of Einar’s cock slipped past Aleksi’s already wet fingers.
Einar gripped her hips and thrust up, driving deep. Aleksi caught her mouth, swallowing a keening cry as Einar began to fuck her.
The sound of it filled the room, skin on skin, sharp cries, and heavy breathing.
Einar guided her hips in a smooth, quick rock, and Naia leaned forward to brace her hands on his chest. Aleksi murmured appreciation and encouragement while he touched and licked them both, everywhere he could reach, as if they were clay and he meant to capture this moment forever.
Naia marveled at how they all fit when they were locked together like this, surrounded by magic, with no one having to worry about being too rough or hurting someone or maintaining rigid control. It was sheer pleasure, a joining that went beyond the physical.
Then Aleksi moved. He lifted Naia’s hair and pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the spot where the back of her neck met her shoulder. She leaned back against his chest, but he bent forward, grinding her against Einar until little sparkles of light danced in her vision, even when she closed her eyes.
“Please,” she rasped, and even she didn’t know what she meant.
But Einar and Aleksi did. Einar closed his lips around her nipple again, sucking so hard that, for a moment, Naia’s head went fuzzy. Then Aleksi made it worse—and so, so much better—by positioning himself with the head of his cock against her ass.
Oh.
Einar had insinuated, on more than one occasion, that having the Lover fuck your ass was a singular experience, but he had not elaborated. Naia had assumed he meant that Aleksi’s magic made it more intensely pleasurable, even ecstatic.
This was all of that, and more. Her body yielded to his gentle, rocking thrusts, and Einar groaned as she moved between them. But it was the pulsing that shocked her into an orgasm, quick, thrumming beats like the ones she had heard when the island had first called to her.
The rhythm grew louder, blotting out everything else as Naia spun away into the aether—and took them with her.
In that place, wrapped up in each other, they could be their truest selves, no longer bound to any mortal forms. Naia was cliffs of stone, rolling hills, and the water that cradled it all.
Through that water, Einar rippled, his huge rough-smooth tentacles gliding over her.
The rest of their mutual existence was Aleksi, around and inside them both.
And Naia wanted everything.
Einar hovered teasingly around Naia, giving her only the slightest brushes of contact until Aleksi finally urged him to coil one tentacle around her, the caress firm enough for his hooked teeth to prick her skin.
Naia moved, determined to feel that sharp jolt of heat everywhere—over hills and valleys, on her breasts and the small of her back, across water-polished beaches.
Then he slipped inside her, again, and this time there was nothing to contain any of them. They stayed that way, the three of them locked together, for what could have been an hour or a century, in a seemingly never-ending circle of ecstasy and bliss.
But it had to end. Naia fell to the rumpled sheets, sweaty and shaking and too exhausted to move. Einar lay beside her, his chest heaving. Only Aleksi was still upright, barely moving, his glazed eyes attempting to focus.
“All right?” he panted, and Naia realized he literally could not fall over until he’d reassured himself that they were fine. Sated and unharmed.
“Come here.” She lifted a trembling arm, and Aleksi collapsed with them.
They tangled together, too tired to move but never too weary to seek out one another. And that was more than enough.
It was perfect.