Chapter 25 Aurora
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Aurora
Zane’s mouth finds mine with a heat that's both restrained and desperate.
A spark ignites as his lips brush against mine. He holds back, trying to be gentle, but failure is evident in his trembling frame.
His hand, rough and warm, slides behind my neck, thumb stroking the sensitive spot just under my ear, coaxing me closer.
The kiss deepens, and I’m consumed with the lingering electricity of the storm that still crackles between us.
His lips part slightly, inviting, testing, teasing, and when I respond, when I open to him, a quiet, ragged sound escapes from deep within his chest, resonating through me, hitting me low and hard.
He kisses me like he wants more than just this kiss. And I kiss him back with equal fervor, needing him… all of them.
His forehead presses to mine as he reluctantly pulls away, barely an inch, our breaths mingling in the narrow space, uneven and hot. My lips feel bruised and swollen. My legs wobble beneath me.
My pulse throbs in my throat, threatening to escape. I’m dizzy, and he looks like he wants to shatter whatever composure I have left.
That’s when Finn’s hand finds my waist, his touch gentle, melting every bone in my body. He turns my face toward him, his eyes locked onto mine.
His kiss is a slow, intense anchor, pulling me out of my own head and into him. His lips move against mine with a devastating confidence, a quiet intensity that feels like a hand closing around my heart, squeezing until I’m breathless.
I can taste the warmth of cinnamon on his tongue. My fingers curl into the thick of his shirt, desperate for more, and when I tug him closer, a low, rough sound escapes his lips, vibrating straight through me.
His thumb strokes a slow line along my jaw, guiding the kiss deeper, slower, surer, and the world narrows to the warmth of his mouth and the way he holds me—he’s been waiting to do it properly.
When he finally breaks away, it’s only far enough for our breaths to mingle, his warm, mine shaky. My pulse is pounding so hard it echoes in my ears, in my throat, in every inch of me he touched. He looks at me, clearly not finished.
And neither am I.
Ryder is still in front of me, watching, hungry, but not moving until I choose him.
I reach for him, fingers wrapping in his shirt, tugging him down to me.
His mouth meets mine with a low, startled sound, as if he wasn’t expecting me to kiss him back like that, like I’m the one swallowing him whole.
Then he moves. Strong arms sweep under me, lifting me clean off the floor as if I weigh nothing. I gasp, startled, but his hold is secure, certain, his chest solid against mine. My hands clutch at his shoulders instinctively.
“Ryder…” I whisper, breathless.
“I’ve got you,” he hisses as he places me on the kitchen table.
Then, just as I’m about to catch my breath, he falls to his knees in front of me. My whole body jolts, trembling, already opening for him without thinking. The sight of him there, eyes dark and hungry, steals the breath from my lungs.
Zane is the one who steadies me, one arm around my waist, the other hand slipping under my shirt to tease at my breast with a gentle, devastating precision that makes my knees threaten mutiny. His mouth brushes my neck before his teeth catch softly on my skin, and I gasp.
And Finn cups my chin, guiding my gaze up to his.
His thumb strokes along my jaw before he leans in and kisses me, teaching my lungs how to breathe again. He kisses me, pouring warmth straight into my mouth, slow and sure, even as Ryder’s breath hits the inside of my thigh and makes my hips jerk.
I whimper into Finn’s mouth, my body arching forward as Ryder presses hot, teasing kisses higher, his stubble scraping just enough to send shivers racing up my spine.
Zane’s voice rumbles low beside my ear, barely more than a whisper but hitting a spark to dry tinder.
“Sweet girl… you sound incredible.”
It should make me shy. It should make me pull back. But here, with Finn’s lips claiming mine, Zane marking my neck, and Ryder kneeling between my thighs like he can’t help himself… All it does is make my whole body tighten with want.
Ryder inhales against me, a shaky sound, before his thumbs slide under the edge of my skirt, pushing it higher, giving him room.
He glances up, waiting for me to say no.
I don’t. I tilt my hips instead, offering him more.
His answering groan vibrates against my skin as he tugs my panties to one side.
Finn’s mouth moves to my cheek, my jaw, my throat, kissing me, showing me that every inch of me deserves attention, while Zane’s fingers stroke and tease until I’m making sounds I didn’t even know I could make.
And when Ryder finally puts his mouth on me… I break.
My back arches, my hands claw at Zane’s shirt, my hips try to press forward, but Finn catches my face in both hands and kisses me through the gasp that tears out of me. Zane murmurs soft and filthy words into my neck.
Ryder’s grip on my thighs tightens as he drags his tongue up again, savoring me like he plans to memorize every sound I make.
Ryder makes a low sound of agreement against my inner thigh, and I feel his fingers spreading me open gently, his breath hot against the tender skin he’s uncovering.
I can feel him smile against me, this wicked, satisfied curl of his lips, right before he gives me another long, intense stroke of his tongue that makes my hips buck without permission.
“Easy, Aurora,” Ryder murmurs. “I’ve got you.”
My fingers scrabble blindly until Finn takes one hand, threading our fingers together, while Zane catches the other and presses it to his chest. He needs the anchor as much as I do.
It’s too much. Finn’s quiet strength at my side.
Zane’s mouth marking heat down my neck. Ryder’s wicked, relentless attention between my thighs.
Too much, too hot, too real… and nowhere near enough.
Finn’s thumb strokes slow circles on the inside of my wrist, and he leans in, whispering against my cheek, “Aurora… you’re incredible like this.”
Zane’s voice is lower, rougher. “Let us hear you.”
A shiver runs through me so fast it borders on painful. Ryder tongues my clit with a devastating pull of his mouth, and my entire body goes rigid. The sound I make is nothing I’ve ever heard from my own throat. A gasp, a cry, a breaking point.
My thighs clamp around his head without my permission, but he doesn’t stop. He holds me there, firm, unyielding, his mouth working me with a single-minded focus that sends shockwaves ricocheting through my spine.
Zane’s breath is suddenly hot at my ear.
“Let go,” he murmurs. “Aurora… let us see you.”
Finn’s mouth finds mine at the same moment everything inside me snaps.
He kisses me while I fall apart. Holding me as my hips buck uncontrollably.
I’m drowning, and he holds me there, kissing me through every wave that tears through me.
I’m sobbing into his mouth, shaking, unable to breathe around the intensity as Ryder keeps going, his mouth relentless, greedy, undone.
Zane’s hands slide up my sides, gathering me against his chest as my knees threaten to give out.
His lips are everywhere: my shoulder, my throat, the corner of my mouth, trying to taste every sound I make.
Ryder groans against me, low and victorious, and the vibration sends another shudder ripping through my body.
He doesn’t stop until I’m pleading, wordless, breathless, for mercy I don’t actually want.
When it finally, finally ebbs, I collapse back against Finn’s chest, boneless and trembling. My breath stutters. My pulse stumbles. Ryder drags his mouth up my thigh, his lips warm and damp from me. He looks up with a wicked, breath-stealing grin.
“That,” he rasps, “was only the beginning.”
My entire body flares hot again.
Zane is the first to move. His hands, still firm at my waist, slide up until his fingers brush the hem of my top. He waits, eyes locked on mine, asking without speaking. I nod. I nod so fast.
Finn lets out a quiet, wrecked sound behind me, his palms sweeping under my thighs to lift me just enough for Ryder to tug my skirt down, inch by inch, breath catching every time more skin is revealed. They’re not rushing. They’re savoring. Undressing me like it’s part of the worship.
Zane pulls my shirt over my head, his lips brushing my shoulder as it passes.
Finn’s fingers trace the new bare skin at my ribs, gentle, afraid I’ll vanish if he presses too hard.
I reach for him. My fingers curl into the hem of his shirt, tugging it upward.
He stills, eyes snapping to mine, hunger and disbelief tangled together.
When I pull again, firmer this time, he lifts his arms and lets me peel him out of it.
He looks at me like I just set him on fire.
Zane steps closer, and I turn to him next.
His buttons are small, neat, maddening. I undo them one by one, my hands trembling, his breath growing shorter with every inch of skin I uncover.
When I push his shirt off his shoulders, he swallows hard and cups the back of my neck, resting his forehead against mine like he needs the contact to stay upright.
Ryder is last. He doesn’t say a word when I reach for the hem of his jumper.
He simply lifts his arms and lets me pull the thick knit upward, revealing the warm, solid lines of his body beneath.
When the sweater hits the floor, he takes my hand, pressing it flat against his chest so I can feel how fast he’s breathing.
Now there’s nothing between us but heat and want and the trembling edge of restraint.
Zane claims my mouth then, his kiss deep and consuming, tasting the sounds he pulled from me. I melt into him, too wrung out to hide how desperate I still am.