Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Sophie
Lucian sweeps me off my feet and into his arms with dizzying, unexpected speed.
“Lucian!”
“It’s a husband’s duty to carry his wife across the threshold of their home on their wedding night.”
Caleb closes and secures the door behind us, locking us all in together.
In the living room, near the vast windows, Lucian sets me on my feet, steadying me until I regain my balance. Which I’m not sure I ever will.
“Ours.”
My knees weaken. I’m so nervous I can’t think.
Lucian moves in closer to pluck the pins from my hair. There’s something unexpectedly intimate about the care he takes as he removes my veil. When the last pin comes free, he catches it before it falls. For a moment, he simply holds it. Then he folds the delicate fabric over the back of a chair.
I don’t know why that affects me. Maybe because I half expected him to treat it like something unimportant. Instead, he takes great care with it.
Caleb reaches toward my necklace, then pauses.
“May I?”
My throat tightens, but I nod.
He moves behind me, his fingers brushing my nape as he opens the clasp. The sapphire settles into his palm. Carefully, he places it on the table.
Then both men turn back to me. And wait.
The silence stretches. My nerves begin to fray beneath it.
“Well?”
Lucian raises a brow.
“Isn’t this the part where you issue some terrifying command?”
His expression doesn’t change. “No.”
That is somehow worse.
Caleb loosens his bowtie. The small movement makes my pulse jump.
Lucian takes one step closer. “The marriage was not your choice.”
The words hit me with enough force that I stop breathing for a moment. He has never said it that plainly. Not once.
His midnight-blue eyes remain locked on mine. “This is.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then we enjoy some time together. Perhaps drink some champagne.” He shrugs. “Go to bed.”
With both of them. For the first time ever.
I look between them. “You expect me to believe you’ll simply go to sleep?”
Lucian’s voice becomes very quiet. “No. I expect you to believe we will be miserable, aroused beyond reason, and probably impossible to live with tomorrow.”
That almost pulls a smile from me. Almost.
My heart begins to beat harder.
The decision I faced at the altar was never real. This one is.
That should make it easier. It doesn’t.
Because I know what I want.
I want these men.
I have wanted them since before I knew what to call the feeling.
Maybe since the first time Lucian kissed me and fury did absolutely nothing to stop my body from responding.
Maybe since Caleb stood behind me and touched me with a gentleness that made his strength even more dangerous.
Definitely since the Retreat. Definitely since I lay naked on their sofa and discovered I could not make myself come while they watched until I finally asked them for what I needed.
I take a slow breath. Then I reach behind myself for the buttons on my dress.
Lucian’s gaze drops to my hand. “Let me help.”
Under his skillful touch, the first button comes free. Then another. I begin to tremble.
“Relax,” he encourages softly.
I don’t know why I’m so nervous. I’ve been to the club with them. Stripped myself bare in front of them. Touched myself in this same living room while they watched.
But this is different.
I’m their wife.
And this is the first time we’ll have actual sex.
Finally the last button surrenders.
Caleb moves closer and settles his strong hands on my shoulders. I draw a breath and tip my chin back as the dress falls, fabric whispering down my body to pool at my feet.
Cool air rushes over my skin. My nipples tighten against the thin lace of the strapless bra. The panties I chose this morning already feel obscene.
When I open my eyes again, neither man looks controlled anymore.
Lucian’s face remains composed, but the muscle in his jaw has locked. Caleb’s hands are curled tightly at his sides.
The reactions send an unexpected rush of power through me.
These men engineered our marriage. Bought my father’s debt. Moved people around like chess pieces. They terrify grown men for a living. And yet I can make both of them look like this simply by standing in front of them in my lingerie.
That knowledge is heady.
Very deliberately, I step out of the dress.
Lucian moves first, taking a single step and stopping directly in front of me. Dark fire ignites in his eyes as he closes his palm against my cheek.
Then he kisses me.
Not the ceremonial kiss after the wedding. Not the possessive kisses he has taken before. This one begins slowly. Almost carefully.
I grip the lapels of his tuxedo jacket and lean into him.
His answering groan is rough and immediate. His control snaps just enough that he threads an arm around my waist and pulls me against him.
I relax a little. This. This is the Lucian I know.
Caleb comes up behind us and presses his mouth to my shoulder, making my entire body shudder. He settles his hands at my waist. I’m boxed in between them, and I don’t try to run.
Caleb turns me toward him. Eyes locked on mine, he slides his fingers into my hair. His kiss is different from Lucian’s, as it always is. Less polished. More elemental. And every bit as potent.
Desperately, I cling to him.
When his mouth leaves mine, I hear myself whisper, “Wait. There’s something…”
My heart pounds.
“There’s something you need to know.”
The two men stand together, shoulders almost touching. Lucian’s attention sharpens.
“What?”
This should not be embarrassing. I’m twenty-eight years old. I advise people on subjects far more intimate than numbers all day long. Still, I can’t quite look at either of them.
“I’ve never done this.”
Silence.
Caleb speaks first. “Done what?”
I glare at him because surely he isn’t going to make me—
Then I see his expression. He genuinely wants precision.
I exhale. “I’ve never had sex.”
“Fuck… Damn it, Sophie.”
Lucian’s expression becomes unreadable. Then it doesn’t. Something raw and claiming moves through it, so complete it steals the air from the room.
“You truly are ours in every way.”
Caleb’s eyes are dark and possessive. His voice comes out rough. “We would have gone more slowly if we’d known.”
“I don’t want it to be slower because you think I’m breakable.”
Lucian’s gaze drops over my mouth, my throat, the lace still covering me. “Not breakable. Untouched. That is not the same thing.”
He steps in until I have to tip my face up. “It means we take you apart carefully. It does not mean we pretend we don’t want to ruin you.”
Heat punches low in my stomach.
Caleb’s fingers find the clasp of my bra. He waits there, a question in the press of his knuckles.
I nod.
The hook gives, and lace slips away.
Cool air kisses my breasts, and my nipples draw tight, dark and aching and completely visible.
Caleb makes a sound that’s almost a growl. “Look at that. Already begging without a single word.”
Lucian finally touches me. He traces my collarbone with his finger, then drifts lower, circling a tight nipple without ever quite giving it the pressure I suddenly, desperately want.
“Now your panties.” His voice is low and measured, sliding straight down my spine. “Thumbs under the lace. Slow. I want to see what this conversation did to you.”
My hands are shaking as I follow his orders.
The lace is damp. I know it before I even move. Shame and arousal twist together so tightly I cannot separate them.
Fighting for a calm I don’t feel, I ease the fabric down over my hips, past my thighs, and have to bend to step out. When I straighten, I am completely naked while Lucian and Caleb remain fully dressed.
Lucian drops his gaze to the area between my legs.
“Beautiful,” he murmurs. “And already glistening. Your body has always known first.”
Caleb moves to my left. “Spread your feet for us.”
I do, and now the evidence is impossible to hide, and I’m mortified.
Lucian’s finger traces down my spine, unhurried, until it reaches the small of my back. Then lower. He strokes through my folds from behind, gathering the proof of me on his fingertips.
“You’re wet for us.” There’s a rough mixture of approval and hunger in his voice.
Caleb’s fingers join his, and when they begin to move, I have no idea which of them is doing what.
One of my husbands circles my clit with devastating precision while the other teases my entrance, never quite pushing inside.
Need overwhelms me, and a broken sound escapes before I can stop it. My hips twitch back toward their hands.
“That’s it,” Lucian says against my ear. “Don’t fight what your body has already accepted.”
A thumb presses harder while a finger slides into me, carefully.
Both of them are watching me with intent focus.
A second finger is inserted, and I rock back, accepting it.
Together, they work me with ruthless patience until my thighs shake and my breaths are tiny, ragged pulls of air.
“Come for us,” Lucian orders, his voice dark velvet. “The first time you shatter for your husbands. Show us how well you’re planning to take us…”