“Your name is Diana Karlson Blackmoor,” the second twin continued. “We lost you when our kingdom was taken by the Incanti brothers, Kevan and Leif. Do you remember them?”
I shook my head and looked back at the first twin. His eyes had darkened and he was frowning, but not in a frightening way. It was more like he was trying to figure out what to say.
“Where’s Eira?” I missed the plucky vampire who acted as my go-between in this strange and unfamiliar world. I prayed to whatever gods were listening that she had not abandoned me.
“Down the hall washing up. Neither of us thought you’d wake from the healing sleep so quickly. Do you feel all right? Any residual pain anywhere?” The second twin rambled on and I watched him refrain from reaching for me at least three times.
At least I was not the only one struggling to keep my hands to myself. Even with the revelation that I was married to two men—two brothers. I wanted them. With every fiber of my being, I craved their touch and so much more. My behavior was that of a tavern wench. This heat would not let up.
“I feel tired, but no pain. Why is the room not covered in ice?”
The first twin held out his hand, palm up.
I could feel heat rising from his skin, warming the temperature around me. It was counteracting the freezing cold and ice that normally poured from me whenever stress overwhelmed me. Which was most of the time lately.
“Are you like me?”
“Dragons? Yes,” the twin to my right spoke up. “But you’re an ice-breather. We’re fire-breathers. My brother Miles …” he pointed to the first twin, “ … and I are born of the house of Blackmoor. We were the crown princes of the Veil before the Incantis betrayed us and stole our home. We would have ruled from the stone thrones as kings once our fathers finished their two-thousand-year reign.”
None of it sounded familiar. Not even the name “Miles.”
“What is your name?” I asked. It would be nice to refer to them as something besides number one and number two. Or twin with the scar.
“Forgive me,” he said. “I’m Eli.”
Eli and Miles. I rolled the two names around in my head, but still came up blank. I would give anything to regain my memories. Who I was. Where I was from. If I had a life with these two men, it would be nice to remember it.
“Eira calls me D.” I looked up at Eli. His brown eyes softened and he smiled.
“How did she guess?”
“She didn’t.” I scooted backward against the pillows, giving myself a better angle from which to observe them. It was so strange to lay flat on my back and look up at these two handsome, but gigantic, men. The only thoughts running through my head in that position were nothing a lady should be thinking about. Though they had said we were married. So maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself.
“She called me D for dragon.” I let a small grin curve my mouth.
“Do you want us to call you D?” Miles asked, hesitation in his voice.
“No, it’s fine. I’ll get used to Diana. I know you know me as this person, but I don’t know her. Or anything about you.” My words rushed out. I wanted them to know how lost I felt. I didn’t think I could handle expectations right now. It was all I could do not to throw ice at anything unfamiliar in this strange world.
Eira had helped me acquire some techniques to calm some of my anxiety, but it was still a learning process. One that Eira had no experience with previously. Maybe these dragons, even if they were fire-breathers, could help me conquer this ice problem.
“I’m sorry. I know you must have so many questions. But, I’m afraid I have no answers.”
“It’s we who should be answering your questions. Eira said you had no memory of your life before the prison.”
“She said she knew a witch in Ada who could help, but when we finally arrived, I was too weak.”
Miles glanced up at Eli. “She must know the Bateman family. They’re the only witches living in and out of Ada. Hannah would have been there when she arrived. The timeline is right.”
I looked first to Miles and then back to Eli. “Do you know the witch, too?”
“Yes, the Bateman family has a long history with the town. Hannah and Meredith travel back and forth regularly between Sanctuary and Ada. Their father lives there,” Eli explained. “When you feel up to it, we will speak with her about the spell she’d planned to use. Perhaps when you’re stronger, it could help you remember what you’ve lost.”
“If you want to remember …” Miles spoke softly under his breath.
I turned to him and nodded. “I have to remember. No matter the price. I have to remember.”
“Not if it endangers you. We can’t lose you. It would kill us,” Eli said. His voice broke and he ran his hands through his loose, wavy, black hair. “You don’t understand the repercussions, but we will talk about it later.”
He sounded agitated and strained. Even Miles was beginning to look upset.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make either of you upset.”
“No!” Eli said quickly, reaching forward to brush his fingers down my arm. But just as they touched, he pulled back.
Miles growled. “No, Eli. If you touch her...”
“I know,” Eli snarled back at his brother from across the bed. “I didn’t think.”
But his touch had already started a reaction. My skin tingled. Flames of arousal slithered up and down my arms, spreading across my chest and down into my belly. My heartbeat raced and even my breathing started to come faster and faster. Something I couldn’t explain was building inside me. If I didn’t touch, taste, and take these men, it would be unbearable. I already wanted to scream in frustration because I didn’t know which man to reach for first. Which one wouldn’t deny me?
I turned my gaze to Eli, his eyes filled with burning desire. Miles had told him “no” and I didn’t want to be told no.
Reaching over I caught his arm and gasped at the shock of energy that passed between us. It was like every place in my body had just come alive for the first time. A moan slipped from between my lips and I tugged him closer.
He leaned forward, but stopped. I released a frustrated wail and threw my other arm around his head, yanking him closer. I covered his mouth with mine and the beast within me roared with excitement. I didn’t know the man, but he felt familiar. The kiss started rough, then softened. I pressed my tongue into his mouth and heard a growl vibrate in his chest. He slipped a hand behind my head and crushed my mouth the way I’d wanted to capture his. The soft tenderness turned to an animalistic need.
My body responded to every sound. Every scent surrounding him. He tasted like spice and heat. I wanted more. Not less.
A growl on my left reminded me there were two men in the room, and I was only kissing one.
Eli broke the kiss and backed away. His eyes were wide and he looked worried that he’d done something wrong. “I’m sorry.”
The apology was not directed at me. Nor should it have been. I wasn’t sorry and was near whimpering that he had pulled away.
“She’s our wife and she’s in heat. How can you just stand there and pretend you can’t feel the call of your dragon?” Eli said.
“She doesn’t know us, Eli. It would be taking advantage.” Miles looked down at me. “I can’t do that to you. I could never bear you hating me afterward. We’re strangers to you.”
I heard everything he said. Most of it even made sense, but I didn’t care. We might be strangers, but their touch and scent was familiar to me. It felt like home and I wanted it more than I wanted to be left alone to contemplate my existence.
“You bloody hell do not get to tell me how I will feel! I have been through a magickal portal, been shot twice, and now am in the most comfortable bed I could ever imagine with two men who claim to both be my husbands … and they will not touch me for fear of how I will react later! The only thing I want to do is touch both of you. Taste both of you. I’ve wanted you both every moment I was awake in that wretched ice b
lock of a prison cell.”
He didn’t say anything. Time froze as we stared at one another. Then, faster than I could react, Miles had me in his arms, crushing his mouth against mine. I moaned in satisfaction and dug my fingers into his thick, black hair. His tongue delved into my mouth and I swept mine into his. He tasted so good. Just as good as Eli had.
Rivulets of pleasure coursed up and down my body. He had pulled me from the bed and was holding me flush against his chest, my feet dangled in the air. I tried to wrap them around his waist, but the shift I wore inhibited my attempts.
I heard footsteps come around the bed and quickly I felt Eli’s warmth behind me, pinning me between them. They were huge men. Their chests broader than any I’d seen on the way to Ada. Not even the soldiers who had chased us came close to their size.
Miles distracted me from my wandering thoughts with a well-placed nip on my bottom lip. “Stay here with us, Diana,” he growled into my mouth.
I refocused on him and pulled his hair, tugging him even closer.
My body shivered between them as Eli slid his hands up my thighs, tugging the shift up as he went. Cool air hit my belly and I jerked. He tucked the extra fabric between my breasts and Miles’ chest.
Both men growled, refusing to let me budge an inch. My strength was nothing compared to theirs. I was at their mercy and loving it. My temperature soared with theirs and the room became sticky with humidity and the scent of our mixed sweat.
Eli worked his fingers around my waist and then dipped them quickly between my legs from behind. I squeaked in surprise, but didn’t object because it felt so good. He slipped them into the opening of my sex, then moved them further forward until he brushed against the swollen nub above my slit.
I squealed into Miles’ unforgiving mouth, but neither man let up. Eli’s fingers worked my lower half while he feathered kisses along my bare back. Miles still made love to my mouth and lips, occasionally wandering along my jaw line and neck. But he always came back. Perhaps he couldn’t resist the cries they were eliciting from me.
My lower body had a mind of its own. If it weren’t for Eli’s firm grip on my hip I think I would have squirmed away completely. He tortured my slit and then that little nub relentlessly. Something was building inside me, growing and flowering until Miles whispered in my ear.
“Come.” He pinched one of my nipples and it was like the world shattered around me into a million pieces of glass. I let my head sag forward against Miles’ chest and shouted. Eli pumped his fingers in and out of my slit and I clamped down hard on them each time they entered. The touch of their hands sent me higher and higher. My eyes closed and I saw stars instead of darkness.
Chapter 25
DIANA
“I leave to take a shower and you take advantage of her raging libido!” Eira’s voice rang from the doorway.
I shivered through a few more waves of the aftershock.
Miles and Eli both growled at my friend and Eli left my side and turned to face Eira. My shift fell down to cover my naked bottom and I pushed against Miles’ chest until he let me down. Surprisingly, my fever had abated some and I could think logically about my situation once more. I did however feel the flush of embarrassment creeping rapidly up my face and neck.
“Eira,” I said calmly. “Do not blame them.”
“I sure as hell will. You can’t control yourself. You’re in heat like a horny pussy cat.” Eira shut the door and headed in my direction, but stopped abruptly when Miles growled and stepped in front of me. She raised the large samurai sword she always carried above her head and snarled back.
I moved to the side and pushed gently. The big giant took a step to the side and huffed his annoyance. Eli stood a few paces closer to Eira and they were eyeing each other like two animals trying to decide which would win. Hands down, I’d bet on the dragon. But Eira was resourceful. I didn’t want any of them fighting.
“Stop it. All of you.” My voice rang through the room and all three turned to look at me. “I’m perfectly content with my choices thus far. Eira, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you keeping me from leaping on each and every male in our camp over the past few weeks. But these two men are my husbands.”
“Doesn’t count,” Eira snapped, but she lowered the sword to the ground. “You don’t remember anything about them except their faces. You didn’t even know you were married.”
Eli growled again.
“Zip it, you giant fire-breathing windbag. D and I are having a conversation.”
I couldn’t hold back the snort of laughter. She’d just called a seven-foot giant of a man, who could breathe fire, a windbag and told him to be quiet.
“I remember their touch, Eira. They are a part of me, even if I can’t remember our lives together. Doesn’t that count for something?”
“Are you sure it’s not the heat talking? You have a crazy amount of magick locked up in that body of yours. I’d rather not get turned into a creamsicle because you realize later you made a mistake.”
I had no idea what a creamsicle was, but I did notice that her long, brown hair was wet and not combed. She was barefoot and her shirt was on backward.
“Did you run down here?” I asked.
Eira sighed. “I heard you yelling and freaked out. I thought they were hurting you.”
Miles and Eli had both relaxed their stances by now and somehow had moved noiselessly to either side of me. Their scent filled my lungs and naughty images of what I wanted to do to both of them danced in my mind. That had to be the heat.
“I’m fine.” I held out my hands. “I promise. We are safe here. They won’t let anything happen to me.”
“They haven’t told you yet?” Eira asked.
I furrowed my brows and glanced quickly to Miles and then to Eli. Both men frowned and then flashed an annoyed glare in Eira’s direction.
“Told me what?” I asked, holding Eli’s gaze.
“The soldiers are coming here. The town is preparing for an assault,” Eira shot back before Eli could even open his mouth.
The dragon male snarled, but didn’t move toward Eira. Miles didn’t budge either, but I could feel the tension between the three. It was like they were vying for the right to be the one protecting me.
I was a dragon. Out of my element and time apparently, but still, I was a dragon. I didn’t need three babysitters. I certainly didn’t need the men claiming to be my husbands and my only friend to be at odds, either.
“I thought this land was protected—that the soldiers could not come into this place.”
Miles turned to me. “They can’t, officially. But it won’t stop them from sending in small forces by stealth to try and capture you. I’m sure Xerxes wants his dagger back and assumes you have it.”
“But I don’t.” I crossed my arms and frowned. The damned dagger was in a hole, buried where I’d first appeared.
“But you know where it is, don’t you, Love?” Eli stated softly.
It was a question, but one he intuitively knew the answer to. There was no way that he could. I hadn’t told anyone I’d hidden it. Only that I’d lost it.
“I told Eira I lost it in that little town, before they attacked me the first time.”
Eli grunted and a chuckle shook his chest. “The Diana I know wouldn’t have taken it with her to the village, especially if she realized how important it was. You’re smart Diana. Just because you don’t have any memories, doesn’t mean you don’t have your common sense and survival skills. Look how hard you fought to get back to us. You didn’t even know we were here. Not really. You just knew you had to go. It would’ve been the same thing with that dagger. In your heart you knew it had to be hidden. Protected.”
My eyebrows raised, fear lancing its way through my heart. “Will they think of it that way?”
“Probably not for a while,” he answered. “It should be safe for now.”
“Sneaky little dragon,” Eira said, a smile transforming her too-serious face.
&nbs
p; In a second she morphed from scary warrior to the friend I’d grown to trust. Now I just needed her to trust these men standing beside me. I might have no memory of them in my mind, but the rest of me, including the beast within, was jumping for joy that we’d found our home.
“Whatever comes, I will help fight. They are chasing me. I am perfectly capable of fighting, just ask Eira.”
She gave a small half-laugh. “Maybe as a dragon, sweetie, but you didn’t even know what a gun was when I met you, much less how to fire one. And you aren’t very good at dodging bullets since we’ve had to dig several out of you already.”
“You just woke from a healing spell. No way in hell are we going to let you fight anything,” Eli growled out. Heat rolled from both of them in waves and my body compensated by throwing out its own cooling temperatures.
“If y’all don’t cool it off with the hot and cold, it’s going to start raining indoors.” She laid the flat edge of her sword on her shoulder and smirked. “Since I’m not needed at the moment, I’m going to let you two boys figure out how to order her about. Just a fair warning, she doesn’t listen to instructions very well.”
I glared at Eira, but she just winked and left the room. The large door clicked shut behind her, leaving me once again alone with my husbands.
“Now what?” I turned around so I faced them both.
“Now we find out how many times you can come in the next couple of hours,” Eli said, a wicked grin spreading across his face.
Heat rushed to my cheeks and I looked away, embarrassed that I actually wanted him to try. What they had done to my body before … it had been magickal in itself.
“Don’t be shy now,” Miles said, taking a step closer and closing the space between our bodies.
Eli followed suit and suddenly they were both in front of me. Miles lifted my chin and leaned down to press his lips to mine. I wanted to taste him so much, but in the back of my head, I could hear Eira bemoaning the fact that I didn’t know either of these men. Yet, I’d already gone so far as to let one of them put his hands inside me. How could I say “no” to a kiss?
Sanctuary, Texas Complete Series Box Set Page 36