by A. K. Koonce
His smooth skin beneath my palms covers the chiseled lines of his muscles as I push my way up his chest and lean into his perfect body. My lips are just beneath his when he dips his head down low. His warmth surrounds me. He’ll protect me for the rest of our lives.
But he’ll never protect me from me.
I shove aside that thought fast and hard as I press my lips to his.
He doesn't respond immediately. Soft lips tense beneath mine. Until my tongue flicks against his mouth, and he opens to me without hesitation. Hands clamp hard over my hips as he brings me against him like he's fighting for control in this nirvana of lust between us.
He holds me close, and I let him, but my wings spread out wide behind me, and I pull him away. I bring him right where I want him without asking and without waiting.
My frame jars against his as his back hits the netting with a slight bounce. My legs part, and I'm straddled above him, just the way he likes.
Just the way I like.
"Gods, Aries," he murmurs against my lips between hot kisses and sharp bites of my teeth. "Just talk to me," he pleads.
But he never stops that delicious feel of his tongue sliding against mine.
"Later," I promise.
I'll talk later. I'll worry later. I'll hurt later.
For now, I just want to feel good.
With a groan, he seems to give in. And fuck, does he give in good.
His hips rock against mine, the friction of our clothes is as rewarding as it is frustrating.
"Take your pants off," I command on a breathless tone.
His hands shove between us like he's bound to the sound of my voice alone. He fumbles as I lift my hips for him, but he can't work the button, it seems.
Long steady fingers slide up and then down my stomach from beneath my shirt. A tremble follows his alluring touch, and I know immediately who it is.
"Let me help," Krave says with a soft addicting tone.
Damien groans a growling sound against my lips, and it makes my sex clench at the feel of it.
Krave's palm pushes against my center, cupping me from over my jeans hard and rough before doing what he offered to begin with.
When his magical fingers make contact with Damien's sensitive flesh, I know it immediately. Damien jerks beneath me, leaning up to devour the taste of my desire. His normally sweet kisses become demanding, dominating.
"Fuck," he growls, his hips rocking hard against something I can't see, but I want so, so badly to feel.
"I could watch the good in you fight the bad all fucking day, Fallen." Krave's wrist rolls against my lower stomach, and it causes Damien to bite my lip, his sharp teeth trailing even lower as he snips at my jaw line, kissing and hurting and soothing my flesh as he works his way down my throat. "Show Aries a little taste of that bad, Damien. Show her how good it feels."
My head tilts back for the consuming sensation of his mouth, hot and heavy against my skin. Just as my lashes flutter shut, he flips me.
The breath knocks from my lungs as I bounce against the netting.
"Take your shirt off," Damien commands on a voice I've never heard from him before.
His cock juts up toward his navel, and the length of it curves just slightly to the left. I study the powerful sight of him.
He looks like a fallen god instead of an angel. Big black wings loom behind his golden appearance. Messy hair falls in his dark chestnut eyes, no longer looking sweet as honey but darker. Deadlier.
My fingers spread over my stomach, just above my hips, and I hold his gaze as I slide my palms over my ribs, across the curve of my breasts, ever so slowly over my nipples, and then finally over my head.
"Fuck," someone else says from behind the two men looking down on me.
My attention flicks to the two shadows. I can't see Zaviar and Ryke, but I feel them watching.
Ryke shifts on his feet, and I want him here. I want him with me. I want him in me.
"Ryke," I whisper without air in my lungs.
"Don't fucking look at him," Damien says with eerie calmness. "Look at me."
I blink, and I can't help but think about his brother in this moment. Sometimes, sometimes the violence of his brother slips out of Damien's mouth, and it's so surprising, it's hard to take it all in.
"Take off your jeans." He's still kneeling over me, but he leans back, his hands patiently on his knees as he waits for me to do as I'm told.
Krave's eyes flash, and I feel him eating up every move I make.
My fingers trail down the valley between my breasts, and it feels good to make them want me without ever touching them. It’s erotic in a way I’ve never felt before. With the heat of their attention, it’s like someone else is touching me. Delicate fingers ghost over the soft skin between my hips. They unsnap my jeans and slide with feather-light pressure across my thighs. They come up slow and teasingly between my legs, brushing over my center before coming right back down and pushing the clothes away entirely. I shimmy out of them and continue to stroke my fingers back and forth along the wetness of my black panties.
Damien’s lips part with heavy breaths as he focuses on those two fingers.
My hips lift to meet the gentle touch of my fingertips.
“Want more?” I ask quietly, the cool wind teasing my flesh and my nipples as I lie spread out for them all to see.
I glance to Krave. He’s unbuttoning his own jeans as he watches the stroking movement of my hand between my thighs.
“Yes,” Damien rasps out, glancing to Krave for only a moment as he speaks. His warm eyes meet mine, and he makes my legs shift when his big hand wraps around his own shaft.
My body feels like sex and power. It’s sensual magic that makes me forget everything aside from the men surrounding me.
My palm lifts higher, my fingers slip just under the band of my panties.
But I stop.
“Make Krave feel good, and I’ll make me feel good,” I tell him instead.
Damien’s hand wrapped around himself stops moving. He looks to the incubus at his side. Krave’s brows lift like he’s as surprised by what I just said as I am.
It’s a flip of dominance. Damien likes me taking care of him. I know he does. Our relationship is taking care of one another. He’s strong, but . . .
Will he take my command as I did his?
His hand lifts toward Krave. I watch with heavy attention. I wait with pent-up patience for him to wrap his big hand ever so slowly around Krave’s length.
But he never does.
Instead, his palms settle gently on either side of Krave’s sharp jaw. He leans in close, holding the incubus’s curious gaze. Then Damien’s lips brush sweetly against his. Krave’s lashes flutter at how delicate the touch is.
Has anyone ever touched him like that?
It’s a fleeting kiss, just a taste. And then Damien’s mouth is trailing lower. I forget how much of a giver he is. And fuck, is he giving. His lips are light at the lowest part of the incubus’s throat, but the scrape of his teeth isn’t. He bites so hard, Krave groans, his hand lifting to clutch Damien, but he holds himself back. He doesn’t dare make distracting magical contact with the man currently pleasing him. Lower and lower, Damien’s mouth drawls a sinful path down the muscles of Krave’s hard body. His big hands clamp over lean, carved hips. The flat of his tongue slides over the lines veering down, and Krave trembles hard from the teasing, flicking kiss.
But it seems Damien’s just getting started. His mouth veers low with open-mouthed kisses just beneath Krave’s hip. He bites and sucks and dips lower, but then comes right back up, never once touching Krave where he clearly wants and needs him.
“Damien,” Krave rasps out, his hands fisting at his sides to stop himself from touching.
He’s always so fucking careful with his hands. Meticulously careful.
That’s how I know what he does next is entirely intentional.
“Damien,” he whispers once more on the sweetest tone just before skimming his fi
nger ever so lightly along the length of Damien’s neck.
Damien’s back arches, his arms shaking from the minor touch alone.
“Damien, love.” Another sweeping touch right back up his neck before sliding even farther down. “Wrap your sinful mouth around my cock, and I promise I’ll make you feel good,” he whispers.
Another hard tremble shivers through the demon currently settled on his hands and knees. His head tips up. Their eyes clash in heated stares.
And then Damien’s mouth lowers down. He presses a gentle kiss to the tip of Krave’s dick. His tongue slides out oh-so-slowly to swirl lightly at the head of the smooth hard flesh. His lips part, and my breath catches as he slides his mouth down farther and farther over every prominent vein of Krave’s hardness.
My legs shift together to ease the throbbing sensation that I’m doing absolutely nothing with.
“Didn’t you promise to do something with those idle hands, Ari?” Krave asks on a shaking breath, his head tipping back to expose how much Damien’s affecting him. He looks down on me through thick dark lashes. “Take that hand and slide your panties to the side, love,” he whispers, licking his lips slowly as he watches me.
A shiver runs down my spine, and my back arches in response.
And I do as I’m told.
Fingers skim like a breath against my thigh. The thin panties hook around my index finger, and then cool air sweeps over the most sensitive part of me as I’m bared to the three men still watching intently.
“Spread those long legs. Show Ryke how wet you are for him. Show that angel what he’ll never taste,” Krave says on a cruel, cutting tone.
My legs shake as my thighs part wide and invitingly.
Groans kiss the wind from the shadows before me. I feel that sound rumble through my core, and I suddenly want someone against me more than I want the air in my lungs.
I want Ryke’s big body between my thighs. I want Krave’s dirty mouth against my pussy. I want Damien’s hands all over my trembling body.
And I want—I fucking want every part of Zaviar.
Even if I know I’ll never truly have him.
Krave gasps with a string of curses slipping out as he shoves his hands through Damien’s hair and thrusts his hips hard and fast.
They’re consumed with one another. And I’m still on display for men who are too, too far away.
“You going to fuckin’ make yourself cum, Pretty Crow?” A steadier voice asks, and I can hear his smirk.
I want him nearer.
“Why don’t you make me?”
It’s a petty response, but I mean it so fucking much.
Make me cum, Zaviar. Fuck me. Feel so good until you forget the loyalty you have to your own kind. Fuck me. Use me. Own me.
But never, never leave me.
“You know I can’t, Pretty Crow.” His words are hesitant. Wanting. “If I did, though, how would you want me to do it?”
Ryke’s low growling groan shudders out and just causes my breath to shudder even more.
These men are going to be the sexy death of me.
My fingers twitch as I think through what he just said to me.
“I’d want you to go slow so I could feel every part of you first.” My index finger slides down my wet folds. The steady touch rubs back and forth against my slickness, almost grazing my clit but not quite.
Another cutting breath kisses the darkness, and I know Ryke’s working himself now just like I am. Just like I want them to.
I close my eyes and imagine Zaviar’s strong body caging me in from above. I remember the way his hands felt consuming and controlling against my skin.
My fingers push hard over my mound, and a gasp tears from my throat as my head falls back in a blissful memory.
“I’d want you to fuck me with your mouth. Worship me with that cruel mouth of yours. Lap up the taste of my cum and feel me fall apart in your arms before making me do it all over again with your cock buried deep inside me.”
“Fucckk, Aries,” Zaviar groans, and it’s enough to make my core ache without him.
Fingers thrust in deep, forcing a moan from my lips as I try to imagine how good he’d make me feel. I try to imagine how hard he’d fuck me. I try to imagine how much he’d fill me so entirely, I’d be gasping against his lips for more and more and more.
But it isn’t enough.
It’s torment.
It’s the worst pain to know you can have something.
But to also know it’ll never be yours.
“Zaviar, come here,” I fling my eyes open and listen to the silence. Only uneven breaths reply.
Is he scared? Is he terrified he’ll fuck up his life just by being near me?
Wind swooshes down on me with the gentle sound of wings soaring above.
Mere seconds pass.
From behind, his hands slide beneath my shoulders, and he lifts me up into a sitting position. His warm chest meets my back, and I settle there in his arms as he hugs me from behind.
“I want you so fucking bad it hurts, Aries,” he says in a tortured tone. His head drops to my shoulder, and I feel his pain seep into me. We’re the same. He and I are so fucking alike, we’re miserable together.
Miserably in love.
And I never even realized it.
Tears sting my eyes.
Warm hands slide up the underside of my thighs. A body cradles me as he settles in nice and close, bringing my legs up until my thighs are wrapped around his hips.
I’m wrapped around Ryke, and Zav is wrapped around me.
“Don’t cry, Crow.” Ryke tells me with a tilt of his head. “You’re strong. You’re too fucking strong to cry over something you’ll always own. And you’ll always own the four of us, baby. Don’t you ever fucking forget that.”
“Mmm,” Krave says on an uneven sound of agreement.
I nod, but I can’t stop the wetness from filling my eyes.
Not until Ryke’s big body shifts closer. And closer.
Smooth skin brushes against my wetness. He teases the flesh between my thighs with languid thrusts that grind against my folds but never fill me.
His big hands are warm as he skims up my stomach and across my hips. With a hard jerk, he brings me closer. He holds me firmly against him. I’m shared between the two men in a way that allows me to feel both of their pounding heartbeats and all of their hungry heated breaths.
I peer over just long enough to see Krave hovering over Damien, their lips parted as Krave slides his tongue slowly over Damien’s, kissing him so deeply I know he feels more than just faint friendship for the man beneath him.
They’re connected. The bond they share with me only ties their feelings together even deeper.
But I know there’s more than that. So much more.
Fingers tilt my chin up to the man staring down on me. Ryke’s shining eyes drift to my lips, and his beard scrapes my skin as his mouth presses gently against mine. He takes my breath away as he ever so slowly slides in. His thickness makes me gasp against his parted lips.
“You said slow at first, right, baby?” His body is tense and hard as he takes his time to slide out so fucking slowly, I feel every single inch he has to offer.
He takes my breath away when he sinks in, taking his time filling me entirely as he holds himself above me. Over and over and over again, he thrusts in with languid strokes, stealing my gasps and harboring my cries of empty breaths.
“You’re so fuckin’ sexy, Aries,” Zaviar whisper against my throat, his hand snaking across my chest to hold my chin up high for him as he presses his mouth against my neck. His filthy words and heated breath consume me while Ryke’s body works me with meticulous pounding thrusts.
“Ryke, please,” I beg, my hands pushing across the deep lines scarring his chest.
“Please, what, baby?” he asks as he presses a sweet taunting kiss to my lips.
My fingers slip around the back of his neck, and I jerk him against my mouth. I only pull back long enough
to sink my teeth into his lower lip, and as he groans a sound of pain and pleasure, I tell him, “Fuck me harder, Ryke.”
Big hands slide down all the way to my ass, and he lifts me up just slightly, positioning me just how he likes before driving down hard with so much force, it knocks the breath from my lungs. My head throws back against Zaviar, and the two men hold me between them as I fall apart. A slamming slapping sound accompanies my jagged moans of lustful desire.
Zaviar kisses my neck, his hand roaming low to slide between our damp bodies. His fingers slide over my sex, and he pinches my clit before rubbing it harder and harder. Ryke and Zaviar give me unfiltered ecstasy, and I release it all on screams that kiss the silence. The stars above me shine in my eyes even as I close my lids and let the throbbing tension within me explode into shattered pieces that tingle through every inch of my body.
Ryke thrusts harder and harder and more and more recklessly until he slams in once more.
And then stops with a shuddering breath kissing my skin.
He looks down on me with the sweetest look in his hooded eyes. I feel every part of him against me. I feel his heart, and I know he feels mine.
I want to love him. I just don’t want to mess up his life more than I already have.
I don’t want him to be like the others.
And so, I’ll never say the words that are caught in my throat right now.
I blink the streaming colors from my eyes, and all I can hear is the knocking of my pounding heart. It drowns out the whisper along my ear.
But I know what Zaviar just said.
I know by the quietness of his tone. I know by the gentleness of his hands. I know by the way he kisses my ear after he says it.
“I love you so fuckin’ much, Aries.”
I stare up at the heavens above. I glare into the beautiful starlight.
And I curse the gods for giving me a man I can never keep.
15
Patience
Ryke
She looks like an angel when she sleeps.
A beautiful dark angel. Surrounded by so much hell, it’ll eat her alive.