by Hazel Hunter
“No,” she gasped. “No, please.” She could hardly get a breath.
Shayne released her nipple, only to hover his mouth over the other.
“Say it,” he whispered harshly, his hot breath scorching the already needy tip. “Say what you want.”
“I want you…inside me,” she breathed. “Please, I’m so close.”
“Which one?” asked Shayne, his lips brushing her nipple and making her breath catch. “Which one of us do you want in you?”
“Both. Either. I don’t care. I…I can’t wait.”
“You can,” Shayne said, kissing the tip of her breast. “And you will.” With a casual strength, he pulled Mathias up to lie next to her. Then he helped her to sit up. “Get your mouth down there again.”
Gillian found herself on her elbows and knees. Her rear was pushed high into the air. Shayne’s hand landed on her head, pressing her firmly down to Mathias’s straining cock. As she wrapped her mouth around it, he moaned. His skin was so hot and smooth. It felt like he would climax with just a few strokes of her mouth. Shayne had sensed it too.
“Don’t come, Mathias,” he said with a soft growl. “After we’re done, you get your turn.”
“Or you’ll–” Mathias gasped as Gillian drew on his cock with her lips. “Or you’ll what, Colonel?”
“Or I’ll stand you up by the fire, pull your pants down, and take my belt to your ass.”
The threat, uttered with simple but complete conviction, made Mathias groan in a way that Gillian had never heard before. She could feel his cock pulse frantically in her mouth. Shayne knelt behind her.
In that instant, she knew Mathias and Shayne had done exactly that. Now she wanted to see it. She wanted to hear the sounds that Mathias might make as he was stripped, as he was told to grab his ankles and bare himself for punishment. She imagined Shayne winding the belt around his fist and snapping it across Mathias’s ass. Would Mathias scream? Would he fall to the ground as red welts appeared across his skin?
Shayne took her by the hips and thrust deep inside her. His shaft spread and speared her all at once. She cried out at the sudden penetration. But as he sunk himself to the hilt, the fullness was nearly too much. Beyond her control, her hips began to grind.
“Get your head down,” Shayne said. “You know what to do.”
She did. She grabbed a fistful of Mathias’s shirt to steady herself. Then as Shayne started to pound into her body, she sucked on Mathias’s cock with a will. She wanted to see him punished. She wanted to see him wailing. Perhaps Shayne would even let her take a turn whipping him. She could feel Mathias trying not to come. She could feel the way he struggled against it, whining whenever she hit a sensitive spot.
Though she concentrated on making him come, Shayne was pushing inside her. His strokes were long and hard. The head of his cock struck a place deep inside that shot her full of pleasure. Hands on her hips, he was relentless, pounding faster. Her own pleasure began to crest, but she needed Mathias to come. Her lips and tongue worked furiously, making him groan. Behind her, Shayne’s thrusts were becoming frenzied, erratic, and wild. His fingers dug into her hips as they started to pump. She sucked savagely on Mathias’s cock, drawing him deep in her mouth.
Shayne suddenly withdrew and hot semen coated her back. But the moment that Mathias’s hips thrust upward, he reached his hand between her legs. His fingers spread her slick folds, found her clit, and sent sparks of electricity straight into that tender flesh.
Gillian’s climax rocked her. Her entire body quivered with the force of it. Pleasure coursed through her belly like shock waves. White hot ecstasy clenched deep in her core. Her stuttered, strangled cry around Mathias’s cock was too much. When she threw her head back and gasped, he cried out. His climax splashed onto his belly. As he grabbed his cock and worked himself to completion, Gillian collapsed on her side next to him. The warmth of her climax suffused her entire body. For a minute there was only the sound of heavy breathing and the flickering of the fire.
Shayne gently wiped her back and then Mathias’s belly.
“Are you both all right?” he asked, as he settled on the bedroll next to them.
“Do you really need to ask?” Mathias said.
“I feel good,” she said. “I feel so good. Thank you, Shayne.”
“Mathias?” Shayne tried again.
Mathias sighed, as if he were being asked for a great favor.
“I enjoyed it, Shayne. I always do. You know that.”
Shayne sighed. “Good.” He laid his arm across Gillian as she rolled on her back. “You’re both lovely,” he said softly. “You’re both a part of me in ways that I don’t even understand.”
Gillian nodded.
“You can feel it too, can’t you?” she said softly. “There’s something between the three of us.”
“If you’re talking about good sex, then yes there is,” said Mathias, a faint note of irritation in his voice.
Gillian scowled, about to make a retort, but looked at his aura. It was still a moss green streaked with gold, but there were darker spots now too. They moved slowly and sluggishly, turning like small tornadoes.
He’s afraid, she realized.
“All I know is what I feel,” she said simply.
Shayne turned her face so that she looked at him.
“The dragon’s eye seed,” he said. “Are you still feeling it?”
“I am,” she murmured sleepily. “I feel good.”
Shayne nodded. “Sleep,” he whispered. Then he kissed her forehead. As she curled into his chest, his arms wound around her. But behind her, she felt Mathias roll away. She’d been hoping he’d snuggle too.
“He’s always like this,” Shayne whispered in her ear. “He runs hot and cold.” Her eyelids drifted closed. “You’re safe. Sleep.”
She slept.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
WHETHER IT WAS the dragon’s eye seeds or not, Gillian didn’t know. But when she woke up, she realized there’d been no dreams. Nothing. Slowly she sat up.
There was still a chill to the air, but the sky was beginning to lighten. Only a few stars remained. Mathias was already up and gone somewhere, but Shayne still slept peacefully. She rose from the bedroll as carefully and quietly as she could. She went to relieve herself behind a rocky outcropping. When she came back, she dressed herself and drank some water from one of the canteens.
She wasn’t sure when Mathias had reappeared, but she joined him at the edge of the fountain.
“Good morning,” she said, examining his face. “Did you get any sleep at all?”
He shrugged. She could guess that from the dark circles under his eyes the answer was probably ‘no.’ His aura was the same as it was last night, marked with fear. Is that why he hadn’t slept?
“Last night was good,” he said slowly. “Amazing, as a matter of fact. It felt like…like…”
“Like something missing had snapped into place,” she suggested.
He nodded. “Yes, just like that. And Gillian, I don’t trust it.” She cocked her head back, blinking. That was not the response she’d expected. “It felt…amazing. Better than anything I’ve ever felt before, and that’s not right. Not after what happened in the lake.”
“Look,” she said, not liking where this was heading. “That was–”
“How’s your shoulder?”
“My…my…shoulder?” she stuttered.
“Listen to yourself,” he said. “You can hardly bring yourself to say it. I tried to kill you, Gillian. You’ll have a scar.” He paused. “So will I,” he said quietly, as if to himself.
The dark whorls in his green aura grew larger.
“We don’t have to be afraid,” she said gently.
“Now you sound like Shayne. But Shayne doesn’t think that I can consider anything except my next meal or my next screw.” He stood. “I’ve been thinking all night. I’m out.”
Gillian blinked, but didn’t stand, not trusting her legs. “Mathias, I don’t unde
rstand.”
“I’m out. I’m done. After I get you back to Ankara, after I find you a guide who can do a job as good as I can, I’m taking off. Marceline might not give me everything she owes me, but at this point, she could keep it all for all I care. I got to be with the two of you, and that’s enough.”
Gillian stared at him, stunned. “Are…are you angry with me and what we did last night?”
“Oh far from it. Like I said. It was amazing. I’ll remember it until the day I die.”
“Mathias…”
“I nearly gutted you in that cavern!” he said. He looked as startled as she felt. When he spoke again, it was with more control. “I nearly killed you. I looked up and, somehow, I was ready to kill you. I was overwhelmed with it. I couldn’t stop it. Can you understand what that’s like? You stood in front of me, entirely defenseless. If Shayne hadn’t stepped in, you would have died.”
“But Shayne did save me,” she said gently. “What happened before doesn’t need to happen again.”
He snorted. “You weren’t in my head.”
Gillian bit her lip. Somewhere deep inside, she knew he was right. She had seen the look on his face when he’d held the sword. But she also knew what she’d felt when the three of them had been together. Only together were they complete.
Mathias studied her for a moment, then nodded. “That’s why I not coming back to this place.”
Shayne had awakened. Dressed only in a pair of trousers, he strode toward them.
“I never figured you for a coward,” he said.
Mathias spun towards him as if eager for a fight.
“Don’t start with me, Colonel,” he snapped. “If you thought for half a moment about doing your job, you wouldn’t come back either. You’re as pulled into this madness as any of us. If you really wanted to protect Gillian, you’d get her out of here.”
Thankfully, Shayne ignored the bait.
“So you are a coward. You can’t even confront the real issue.” He indicated all three of them. “Us.”
“That’s it,” Mathias growled.
Though she thought for a crazy second he was going to throw a punch, he spun on his heel and walked off.
“Good morning to you, too,” Shayne muttered, looking after him. He ran the fingers of both hands through his hair. “Dammit.”
“I’m sorry,” Gillian whispered.
“It’s not your fault,” Shayne said quickly. He glanced in the direction Mathias had taken. “I’m just going to talk to him.” He leaned down and kissed her lightly on the cheek. “Be right back.”
As Gillian watched him go, she remembered Shayne’s words about Mathias blowing hot and cold. Though she hoped that’s all it was, she already knew it wasn’t. With a sigh, she stood––and sat right back down. A lancing pain shot through her forehead. She put a hand to it and closed her eyes. But as soon as it’d begun, it was gone. She inhaled the cool morning air deeply, and tentatively raised her head. She opened her eyes and gazed around. Everything seemed fine.
When was the last time I ate?
Maybe too long.
Slowly, she stood, keeping a hand on the lip of the fountain for balance. But she needn’t have. The headache, if that’s what it was, was gone. But as she walked the short distance to the bedrolls, she realized something else was gone. The beautiful silvery shimmer of the ruins was no longer there. She glanced in the direction Shayne and Mathias had gone. Though Mathias’s aura had faded, she hadn’t seen Shayne’s at all. Had the dragon’s eye seeds already worn off? She’d hardly begun her search. Hurrying, before either of the men came back, she went to her backpack and brought out the pouch. Expecting the heat this time, she dumped two seeds into her palm. With a quick look over her shoulder, she popped them in her mouth and swallowed. Before she’d finished cinching the sack and tucking it into her tunic pocket, warmth spread in her chest.
Now as she walked toward the arches, they were different. A gold light emanated from them that filled the air. As she passed under the Linear B symbols, Marceline’s words came back to her: the key to the gate would be powerful and special, a bind rune. The name of the Magician’s Gate described in the Kalevala wouldn’t be written in runes carved individually. They would be engraved one on top of another, compounding their effect. But where?
As the heat continued to rise in her core, Gillian had to squint at the radiant ruins. They were awash in brilliant hues of gold and silver. But in the center of the large circle whose perimeter the partial arches described, Gillian saw something different. There was a faint green hue. She gravitated to it, not knowing why, just finding the emerald glow seductive somehow. But the closer she got to the center of the circle, the more she realized the light didn’t come from any of the toppled sections of columns or arches. It came from the ground itself.
As Gillian neared it, she had to hold her hair out of her face in order to see. A stiff wind had come up that seemed to be swirling everything in sight. Below her feet, the dust of centuries was shifting. Though most of the flooring was a beautiful, geometric mosaic, she caught the occasional glimmer. Like the concentric rings of a bull’s eye, she was crossing rings of tile interspersed with rings of stone. And the stone was carved with glowing symbols. The closer she got to the center, the more dense the symbols became. She crossed a ring of ancient Greek, then one of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Dodging around a piece of fluted column that she saw just in the nick of time, she picked up the pace.
The green light was distinct now, even in the swirling wind that was carrying what looked like twinkling sparks. There was a green column of light, Gillian was certain of it. She broke into a run. It looked about ten yards wide, and she was nearly there. Breathless, she dashed across the translucent emerald border, staring at the ground. Before she was even at the center, she could see it: the bind rune! She came to an abrupt halt and knelt.
A gun shot rang out.
A bullet ricocheted off the stone just beyond her.
Gillian twisted around.
Shayne and Mathias were sprinting across the ruins toward her.
“Get down,” Shayne shouted.
Mathias launched a bolt of electricity at the cliffs behind her. She heard it land with a deafening boom. She turned back to the bind rune, which was pulsing a vibrant, eye-watering green. She was so close!
In the next moment, Shayne and Mathias each had one of her arms and were hurtling toward the fallen column. They slammed into the side of it, hunkering low and pulling her down.
“No,” she gasped.
“Can’t see them,” Shayne yelled, over the sound of the whipping wind. “Up on the cliffs.”
“Gillian,” Mathias yelled, staring at the center of the plaza. “What are you doing?”
“Can you see it?” she shouted. “The bind rune?”
“I see a dust devil,” he said, as another gun shot rang out. “Are you doing that?”
“No!” she said. “I mean, yes!” She grabbed his arm. “We have to go there!”
He grabbed hers right back, and pulled her close. “Stay down!”
“It’s the portal to Tenebris,” she screamed. “We have to go.”
“She’s right,” Shayne yelled. “We’re pinned down here.”
Mathias looked like an animal that was cornered. He checked left and right as another two shots ricocheted nearby. He put his back to the column and looked Shayne in the eye. They exchanged a look, and Shayne nodded. He took Gillian’s arm, and Mathias let go. He crouched on the balls of his feet.
“Get ready!” Shayne said to her.
“No wait,” she said, as their plan became clear. “No! We can’t split up. We can’t leave–”
“Now!” Mathias yelled.
He jumped up with lightning shooting from his hands.
“No, Mathias!”
Shayne yanked her up, and together they ran, straight into the whirlwind and then the circle of green light. Suddenly all sound died. Shayne pulled her to his chest, and she held on tight.
>
The green light faded until there was only darkness. Though she stared into the utter black, eyes wide, she felt as though she were blind. Shayne was right in front of her, but she couldn’t see him. There was the strangest sensation of her feet being tugged, and then the top of her head. It was like being stretched. She wanted to scream, but the black space around her didn’t have air. Instead, small lights winked on and Gillian knew they were seeing stars. But their brilliant colors were unlike anything she’d ever seen before. They whirled past, in their cold and infinite beauty, until it felt like she and Shayne were descending. She could feel gravity again, the strength of Shayne’s embrace. The ground returned beneath her feet and the darkness faded.
“Where are we?” she whispered.
• • • • •
Gillian’s story continues in HAUNTED (Book Four of the Hollow City Coven Series).
For a sneak peek, turn the page.
Book 4 Excerpt:
HAUNTED
Book Four of the Hollow City Coven Series
“Gillian?”
She blinked and came back to the present. “Yes, love?”
The endearment slipped out before she realized what she’d said. If Shayne had thought it awkward, he didn’t let on.
“What I did with Mathias,” he said, his eyebrows furrowing. “Did it frighten you?”
“No,” she said softly, a huskiness to her voice. She paused, wondering how much to say. “It excited me.”
She felt him tense. “Did it?” he said. “Are you sure?”