Phoenixfall: A Reverse Harem Romance (The Rogue Witch Book 2)

by KT Strange

  “Evidence would suggest otherwise,” Eli’s voice was dry, almost amused. Did he think this was funny? Anger flushed in my cheeks. His shoulders gave a hitch, then another.

  He was laughing. He was laughing at me. Tears welled up in my eyes.

  “Stop it! Stop laughing, it’s not funny!”

  “It…” he cleared his throat and swallowed, wresting his amusement under control. “It kind of is.”

  “I killed someone.”

  Eli’s face went somber at my words and he reached out, both hands wrapping around my shoulders. He pulled me in and I, weak and out of strength to resist him, stumbled into him.

  “You protected the pack,” he said, the scent of his clothes, and his own unique smell, filling my senses. My eyes closed, and I rested against his chest. “You’re not a murderer, Darce, you’re a protector.”

  “I’m terrible at everything I do,” I mumbled into his shirt. His hands were warm as they slid down my back, and I relaxed.

  “You seem pretty good at tossing around lightning.” Eli’s fingers pressed into my tense muscles and I let out a heavy sigh.

  “Yeah, that’s a recent development.”

  Ace made a noise and I opened my eyes, looking over at him. Eli stepped back from me, and I immediately missed his warmth.

  “We’ll talk about this later.” He was gone, out the door, leaving me in the van with Ace.

  Ace’s eyes cracked open and he stretched, sitting up. He blinked a few times and glanced at me.

  “We’re camping out,” I said. He nodded, licked his lips and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck.

  “You pack a punch, Darce,” he murmured. He got to his feet slowly, as if he wasn’t certain if his legs were going to give out or not. He frowned when he looked at my face again. “Don’t tell me you’re blaming yourself.”

  “I—"

  “Darcy, no.” He wrapped me up in a big hug, kissing my cheek hard before whispering into my ear, “Fights are like that. Sometimes we end up getting hit by friendly fire, or electricity in your case.” His fingers were rough on the back of my neck as he stroked over my bare skin, soothing me. I didn’t want to relax. I wanted them to all know how much of a danger I was to them. A tremble shuddered through my limbs and I hugged Ace close. If I’d missed, if I’d hit him directly instead of the hunter—

  “You gotta stop thinking so hard.” Ace’s fingers slipped under my chin and he pulled away enough to look down at me, tilting my head up so I could see him.

  “It’s hard,” I whispered. His eyes half-closed.

  “Let me fix that.” He leaned down and kissed me.

  Twenty-Three

  Darcy

  Ace’s kisses had me backing up, searching for a solid surface to brace myself on. My butt hit the side of one of the bucket seats, and I grabbed onto it with one hand, the fingers of my other hand curving around his shoulder. His arms were slung around my lower back as he kissed me, tongue licking in between my lips when I parted them to moan.

  I’d nearly killed him. I loved him. The agony of almost losing him made each kiss more important, more necessary, my breaths coming short and shallow each time he pulled away to let me breathe.

  “God, I want you.” He closed his eyes and gulped down a chestful of air. “I gotta—" He moved to pull away but I grabbed his shoulder, fisting my fingers in the fabric of his shirt.

  “No, please.” He needed to stay near me. I needed him close. His eyes were so dark in the dim light of the van, the moon flooding inside and laying strips of silver all around us. “I love you.” Looking anywhere but right at him was impossible. I had to let him know how I felt, to know that he felt the same way right back.

  Ace was still, his fingers loose on my body.

  “I love you too, so damn much.” His lips found mine, kissing me until I was clinging to him and breathless. My skin tingled, aching to be touched, needing his hands all over me. My mouth moved along his jaw, my teeth grazing the flesh under his ear when he groaned. His arms tightened around me, squeezing me into him. “I’m gonna pretend that I was a good guy and asked you if you were sure.”

  “Please don’t, I don’t want you to be a good guy right now, I just want you to be you.” My fingers found the hem of his shirt, slipping under to feel his smooth skin, the warmth and curve of his muscles as he took each slow, tortured breath. His eyelashes fluttered for a moment as he watched me through hooded eyes.

  “All right,” he growled, and I yelped when he picked me up, his hands running along my thighs to hook under my knees. He lifted me, muscles flexing and bunching under my seeking fingers. I had to bring an arm up around his shoulders to steady myself, and then to cling to him as he kissed me again. My knees scraped against his hips, the seam of my jeans digging into my body, and I moaned.

  My fingers scraped through his hair, drawing a growl from him which set me into shivers. He moved, holding me in mid-air. He pressed me up into the side of the van, the curved roof forcing me to bend into him. The slow grind of his hips as they pushed between my thighs had me desperate already for more.

  “I need,” I said, searching for words as his kisses moved south, down my neck. His tongue slicked out across my skin, flicking into the hollow of my throat. A light-headed, buzzy feeling was taking over my thoughts, my legs pulling him in tighter to my core to keep him as close as possible.

  “What do you need? I’ll give you anything you want, Darce, I love you, anything you want,” his words faded into a long, slow lick on the side of my neck. He sighed. “I can smell Finn on you. It’s driving me crazy. I just wanna be on you too.”

  I gulped for air, holding to him tight as we slid down onto the floor, the carpet of the van digging into my soft skin where it was exposed. Ace was half-kneeling between my legs.

  “I didn’t want to do this in the van,” he whispered, and I cried out softly when his teeth grazed the pulse-point on the side of my neck. I froze, in his arms, as we both breathed for a moment. He pulled away, guilt on his face.

  “What? What?” I scrambled to sit up, feeling like I was already naked even though I was fully clothed.

  “You want me?”

  I swallowed.

  “Isn’t that kinda obvious?” I gave him an incredulous look. Really? Now? He was having second thoughts and doubts now? I huffed out a breath, and he winced.

  “Uh, I’m fucking this up, aren’t I?”

  “Not if you don’t stop, you aren’t. Get back down here,” I ordered, reaching up to tuck my fingers into the neckline of his shirt.

  “I’m not good with girls.”

  “Good enough for me, don’t have a lot of experience either, we’ll figure it out.” We shifted, my head coming to rest on the floor of the van. He was on top of me, his weight settling in a way that had me arching up into him. The firmness of his cock was pressed into the soft underside of my belly through my shirt and I squirmed. That. I wanted that. My skin was burning up, a shuddering cracking feeling inside me that made me rake my fingers down his chest until he exhaled noisily.

  “Figuring it out,” he muttered then bent down, mouthing at my neck. “Figuring you out.” His hands were all over me, stroking along the curves of my hips, over the dip of my waist and then up under my shirt. Short, blunt nails ran over my ribs and I giggled for a moment. A smile crossed his face. “Ticklish?”

  “I’ll fry you,” I threatened.

  “You already tried that. Didn’t work. I’m invincible.” He caught my mouth in a series of soft, nibbling kisses that had me following him up for more when he pulled away.

  He tugged at my shirt, until I squirmed and let him pull it off of me. His eyes glittered as I lay back down, one of his hands at the back of my neck.

  “Let me just…” He kissed me again, his hand working down under my back, around my ribs. For a moment, his mouth paused on mine, his fingers still. I lifted up and felt him scrabble at the clasp on the back of my bra.

  Another few seconds passed, the band still tig
ht around my ribs as he tried and failed to get it undone.

  “Um.” He sat back, looking flustered.

  “Let me,” I said, reaching back and snapping it open with one hand. His eyebrows kicked up.

  “Witch magic,” he commented, his cheeks flushed bright red. His lips parted when the straps of my bra skated down my arms.

  “It’s called coordination,” I replied, trying not to smile at the way he stared at me.

  “Uh huh, sounds good to me,” he sounded distracted, and I was about to call him on it, when his fingers wrapped around my breasts, his touch reverent, light, and electric. I gasped, my palms digging into the carpet as I pushed them behind me to keep balanced, half-sat up like I was. His mouth went to the slope of my clavicle, then down my chest, soft biting kisses that proved, even if he wasn’t a natural with undoing bras, he knew exactly how to make me feel good, almost like—

  “Oh God, you and Finn talked, didn’t you,” I moaned, lifting one hand to wrap it around the back of his head.

  “Uh huh,” he mumbled into my wet skin, tongue sliding along the curve of my breast. “No guilt, no shame, just wanna make you feel good. I’m making you feel good, right?”

  “Mmhmmm.” My stomach muscles were tight, and I bit back a low cry when his mouth closed over one of my tight nipples. “Gotta lay down, I gotta—"

  He followed me down, mouth hot on my skin until I was squirming under him, arching up into the firm warmth of his body. These guys, these men, drove me to all sorts of insanity. I wanted to be inside his skin, as close to him as possible. A rush of air escaped my lips when he pulled away to gaze over me.

  He shook his head slowly, walking his fingers down my bare stomach.

  “You have no idea how crazy you make me,” he said, voice hoarse. “How every time I look at you, I just—" He swallowed hard. “Feels like I’m gonna blink and you’ll be gone again.”

  “I won’t,” I said as his fingers traced the rough edge of my jeans’ waistband.

  “You better not,” his words were dark and light at once, “I’ll chase you, wherever you go.”

  “That’s creepy,” I whispered back as he flicked open the button on my jeans. A lopsided smile crossed his sweet face, and he shrugged his shirt over his head, tossing it aside.

  “You want me to chase, cause you love me. You’re not gonna run cause you don’t love me anymore, Darce, you’re gonna run cause you’re too scared of how much you do love me, love us. That’s why you ran before.” Ace kissed me, slowly, once, on my belly, the heat of his breath raising my skin into tiny bumps of goose flesh.

  “You don’t know that,” I argued, my brain wanting to fight as much as my body was telling me to shut the fuck up for once in my life.

  “Yeah I do. It’s why you came back. Cause you figured it out, thought about it, and realized you belong with us, just like we were made for you.” Even as he spoke, his lips brushed over the gentle curve of my lower belly where it met the unforgiving constriction of my jeans. “You’re our heart, Darcy.” The soft noise of my zipper being undone filled the air.

  I looked down just in time to see his hands wrap around my hips and tug my jeans down my thighs. His eyes were glinting in what little moonlight filtered into the van.

  We both let out a breath, slowly into the night’s silence, as I helped him with my jeans. He flicked open his own, and slipped a hand inside them, groaning slowly.

  “You make sitting in this tiny ass van a fucking trial,” he said.

  “Filthy mouth on you Ace.” My cheeks were so hot as his gaze ran down my nearly-naked body.

  “Don’t care. Who you gonna tell? Eli? He’d say the same thing. Cash? If he ever gets over feeling bad for what he said to you, he’ll be doing this very thing and swearing up a storm while he does it.” Ace slid down, pressing his hips between my legs, and I moaned, aching up to feel him. The soft fabric of my panties dug into my skin. Everything felt hot and tight, my muscles tensing as I tried to get more contact, more friction, more of him.

  “Every time Finn gets you riled up, I can practically taste you on my tongue, you smell so good.” Ace’s hips were moving in slow, torturous circles, his hard cock pulling at my underwear through his boxers. I reached down to give him a little bit of what he was dishing out, my hand working between us.

  A shuddered rolled through him and he closed his eyes for a brief second, before opening them again.

  “Don’t do that or I—" he stuttered, and for the first time in little while he actually looked nervous.

  “Fuck me,” I blurted out. “Stop teasing and just—"

  He groaned and shoved his boxers down, before fumbling at my underwear. He cursed under his breath.

  “They’re not complicated,” I hissed at him, and he growled at me. His fingers fisted in the side of them and I cried out when he ripped them right off of me, tearing through the fabric.

  “Buy you new ones promise, just, gotta have you… now, I can’t…” He buried his face in my neck and I felt the first hot, slick press of his cock right against my inner thigh. My indignation at him slaughtering a pair of new underwear in his haste to get me naked melted away, and I moaned, my hips flaring up to meet him. I was so wet already, nearly dying and then his kisses all over my flushed skin making me ready.

  “First time, worst time, right?” he was asking himself, his voice almost so low that I could barely hear it. His fingers were shaking when they wrapped around the length of his cock, his eyes flicking to my face as he pressed himself into me.

  The slide was slow, and I reached up to grab ahold of his shoulders, as his knees rubbed along the inside of mine. I couldn’t look away, watching every emotion flitter across his face as he filled me. It was a hot, perfect burn, and my breath rushing out from between my lips every other second. This was him, this was us. It was perfect. A shudder rippled through the muscles in his arms and he let go of his cock to steady himself on the carpet either side of my shoulders as his cock bottomed out inside me, and I took him root to tip.

  Ace stilled, his adam’s apple bobbing for a moment as he tried to catch his breath.

  “Fuck,” he said.

  “That’s what we’re doing,” I sounded breathless but couldn’t help but tease him. His eyes focused on my face and narrowed.

  “You got enough energy to tease me?” He hitched his hips, somehow, some way, pressing deeper. I cried out. “Didn’t think so.” My feet slipped over the rough carpet as he pulled back with an unsteady breath then thrust back in. A deep-seated pleasure flared inside me, and again, and again as he pressed me into the carpet and started fucking me down into it.

  The fibers scraped my skin, but only added to the thrill of electricity that was running down my body every time his knees dug down and he pressed into me.

  Ace bent his head to mine, and kissed the side of my face, his lips brushing over my ear.

  “I want you.”

  “You’ve got me,” I was breathless, small sounds being pushed from the back of my throat.

  “Want you like Finn had you, but he, you… he didn’t…” Ace groaned, and kissed the soft round of my shoulder. “Wanna mark you, bite you, claim you. You’re ours, always, please?” It was hard to put his scrambled words into order, to make sense of them, as his fingers from one hand dragged down my side and wrapped around my thigh, tugging it up to press along his chest. I groaned as the angle of him inside me changed and pleasure burgeoned inside me.

  Finn had claimed me, marked me as his, that much I’d understood, and now Ace—

  “Yes, yes, yes-yes,” my words ran together as each thrust took me higher, the need crawling up my spine, swooping inside my belly, and I tried to cling to him every time he withdrew from me only to thrust back inside again.

  Ace growled, a thunderous, roaring sound that vibrated in my chest, and sank his teeth into my throat. My nails scored down his back as the orgasm that had been floating far out of reach rose up inside me like a wave, breaking hard and fast. Tingles
raced along my skin and I cried out, clawing violently at him, my hips arching up to keep him deep inside me. Mine, mine, my heart pounded out the word inside my chest and I held my breath, Ace’s hips furiously thrusting against me until he shuddered and came with a long moan.

  There was a sharp, sudden pain in the side of my neck and he pulled away with a gasp, slamming his fist down into the carpet beside my head.

  “Fuck,” he breathed. “Fuck, I made you bleed, fuck, Darcy—" He was still half hard inside me, the wet, soft feeling of him just enough as my insides trembled on the edge of too sensitive. I tried to catch my breath, sweat breaking across my body. I reached up my fingers to my neck and felt wet warmth. Ace pulled away from me, guilt across his face. “I—"

  “I need a bandage,” I mumbled, my head feeling fuzzy. I was bleeding? I was bleeding.

  Ace twisted, on his knees, still naked, and roared,

  “FINN!”

  Twenty-Four

  Darcy

  Everything ached, my muscles sore from our love-making, and the rough carpet beneath me as Ace had enthusiastically and thoroughly fucked me.

  That and I had a bite in the side of my neck that throbbed with each pulse of my heart. Cash's careful fingers smoothed an antibiotic cream on the wound.

  "Gauze," he said, holding out his hand behind him. Finn, wordlessly, passed him the gauze, then snipped off two strips of tape. My skin tingled painfully when Cash plastered the dressing over the bite marks. He sat back with a sigh. "If we're careful, you won't scar."

  Ace was long gone, hauled off by Eli, or maybe he'd gone willingly, I had no idea. There was an empty feeling in my stomach, something that demanded that Ace be close to me, that I find him. I satisfied myself with reaching out for Finn. Cash eyed me for a moment and pulled away, giving Finn space to curl up next to me on the floor of the van.

  Charlie leaned against the open door, arms crossed. Finn adjusted the blanket that gave me some passing semblance of modesty, the one that he'd tugged down over me when Ace had yelled for him.