Caught in the Middle

by Desiree Holt

  Hayden inhaled deeply, taking her scent from the air. “You smell different,” he observed.

  Jasmine stood up. Stepping forward, she knelt on the bed between them. She offered her hand to the wolf, letting him sniff at the skin inside her wrist and learn the scent of the shower gel she’d used.

  He didn’t look incredibly impressed with the change, but he lapped at the skin she offered him, accepting her back under his protection. She smiled across at him, and turned her attention to Stafford.

  He brushed her hair back from her face, tucking the damp ringlets behind her ear. “As beautiful as ever,” he said.

  She offered him the same shy little smile and waited for one of her masters to give her an order, but none were forthcoming.

  “Would you like me to order the breakfast for you, sir?” she asked, carefully directing the question at both of them at the same time.

  The two men looked at each other.

  “Very well,” Stafford said slowly.

  Hayden, watching the vampire all the time, took his hand away from the phone and Stafford offered it to her.

  They each gave her their order for breakfast and retired to the bathroom, still trapped together by the handcuffs.

  She phoned down the order for the breakfast and listened with half an ear just in case one of the men took it into his head to drown the other in the shower. It seemed quiet in there—maybe too quiet for two young men who seemed inclined to bicker over everything. Jasmine put the phone down and crept to the bathroom door. Through the wooden panelling, she heard the faint sound of voices inside.

  “Do you have to get the water everywhere? I’m getting soaked out here.” That was obviously Stafford, she couldn’t imagine the werewolf ever managing such haughty a tone.

  “If you’d just let us share the shower like I said, it wouldn’t be a problem.” Hayden said cheerfully back, never the least bit repentant.

  Jasmine found herself smiling as she walked away from the door. Tidying the bed and setting the room in order, she picked up all their clothes and put them in separate neat little piles on top of the dresser.

  Smoothing out the creases in the fabric, her smile faded a little. She closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind. She was here to serve them, to distract them until they realised they didn’t hate each other as much as they assumed they did, or perhaps as much as they liked everyone else to assume they did. That was all.

  She didn’t belong to them. Once they found their common ground, she would be returned to Mr. Washington and they would probably never think about her or anything that had happened that night again. They would go on to find vampire and werewolf girlfriends who were closer to their ages and they would have no use for her.

  Jasmine took a deep breath and shook her head at herself. She wasn’t here to enjoy herself—if she had loved every minute of the previous night then that was chance and nothing more.

  They weren’t her masters, and they weren’t going to be.

  The door to the bathroom swung open. Stafford pulled impatiently at the cuff joining their wrists.

  Hayden carried on rubbing at his hair with a towel, not in the least bothered by Stafford’s tugging at his wrist. As she watched, he tossed the towel aside and shook the last of the moisture from his hair. Stafford, standing well within range of the last few droplets, closed his eyes and, if she was any judge, only just kept his temper.

  “Breakfast will be here in a few minutes, sir,” she said quickly.

  “Thank you, Jasmine,” Stafford said, glaring at Hayden but not actually saying anything to him.

  Hayden caught his eye and tilted his head on the side as if trying to work out why the other man looked so pissed off with the world.

  “How may I please you, sir?” she asked them both.

  “After breakfast we all need to talk,” Stafford said firmly.

  Jasmine nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  Stafford walked over to his clothes and extracted his boxer briefs and his trousers from the neat little pile she had made of them.

  Hayden, by the necessity of the cuffs, followed him across the room, but he showed no interest in his own pile of clothes.

  Stafford looked to him a few times. When he seemed to realise Hayden had no intention of picking them up himself, Stafford grabbed the other man’s jeans and tossed them at him. “Put them on.”

  “Why?” Hayden asked.

  “Because civilised people don’t go around with their cock hanging out all day,” he snapped.

  Hayden shrugged and pulled his jeans on with a long suffering sigh. They rode low on his hips, the legs were full of tears and rips.

  “Couldn’t you find anything else to wear?” Stafford asked.

  “What’s wrong with them?” Hayden said.

  Stafford huffed and made no further comment.

  Hayden looked across at Jasmine. Out of Stafford’s line of sight, he winked at her.

  The phone rang. Stafford’s slightly faster reactions allowed him to pick it up before Hayden. He smiled, very smugly and went to the far end of what the handcuffs would allow.

  Hayden beckoned her across to him.

  “May I ask you something, sir?” she asked softly as she stood before him.

  In the background Stafford went through the payment details on his credit card and confirmed the breakfast order.

  Hayden smiled and nodded, pulling her close in so their bodies were pressed together. His free hand slid over her back, caressing her wherever his fancy took him as she rested her hands on the sharply defined muscles of his arms.

  “What do you want to ask?” he whispered in her ear, rubbing his cheek against hers.

  “You… you wind him up on purpose, don’t you, sir?”

  Hayden’s smile grew. “Sometimes, yes. He has…” his brow creased as he began to think about the matter more carefully. “He has too many sharp edges. He has to learn how to get on with people if he is ever to be happy in a pack.”

  Jasmine hesitated. She knew very well what correcting a master could lead to, but wrapped in Hayden’s embrace, somehow it seemed safe to say more than ‘yes, sir’ to him.

  “Vampires don’t usually live in packs, sir,” she whispered.

  Hayden looked past her at Stafford. “He should. He would make a good pack member. He is wasted on his own. Don’t you think so?”

  Jasmine looked down. “It is not my place to tell masters how they should live their lives, sir.”

  Hayden tucked his knuckle under his chin and made her look back up. “You don’t think your pack would listen to your opinion?” he asked, immediately concerned.

  She offered him a small smile. “I gave up the right to have an opinion of my own a long time ago, sir.”

  Hayden frowned down at her. Stafford hung up the phone and turned back towards them.

  “What’s wrong?” Stafford asked.

  Jasmine forced a smile. “Nothing, sir.”

  “Then you should rest until breakfast gets here,” Stafford decided, with a nod to the bed.

  Hayden nodded his agreement and took her by the hand. Stafford had no choice but to follow where the cuffs and Hayden led. For some reason Stafford seemed quite set on her lying between them on the bed despite the inconvenience of the cuffs and the chain crossing over her body.

  The werewolf wasted no time making himself very comfortable and pulling her close.

  Stafford, who’d left a gap between their bodies when he lay down, frowned. “She’ll rest far more comfortably if you give her some room to breathe,” he snapped.

  Hayden glanced at Stafford and then to her. “You’re comfortable, aren’t you, Jas?”

  She didn’t get a chance to answer.

  “I know a damn sight more about women than you do,” Stafford snapped.

  Hayden considered the idea for several long seconds. “No,” he decided. “You said before that humans are for feeding and sex, you don’t know any more about human women than I do.”

  “You’d
never even had sex with a human before last night,” Stafford accused.

  Hayden grinned. “Doesn’t matter. I’m a quick learner.”

  Stafford ran his eyes over the way he held Jasmine. “You haven’t learned anything.”

  “I know Jas has the same pleasure spot inside her as a female werewolf,” Hayden said. “I know she likes to feel my tongue here too.” He slid his hand between her legs and brushed his finger tips across her clitoris.

  Jasmine stopped turning her head to look from one man to the other as they argued across her. Her eyes dropped closed. Instant pleasure coursed through her. Part of the bliss from the previous night seemed to have lingered inside her body, it only took the lightest touch to rekindle the spark into a blaze.

  “When you know what you’re talking about you’ll find those ‘pleasure spots’ are actually called a G-spot and a clitoris.”

  Hayden shrugged, his fingers pressed more firmly against her clit with the movement. “Don’t need to know what it’s called to make sure Jas feels good.”

  Jasmine blinked her eyes open, looking from one man to the other, trying to work out what the hell she was supposed to do now. “How may I serve you, sir?” she asked both of them.

  Her question trailed into a low throaty moan as Stafford pushed Hayden’s fingers out of the way. “Like this,” he corrected the other man. His fingers played her clit to perfection, trailing the moisture gathering at her slit up to slick his carefully orchestrated movements. Jasmine bit down on her lip, desperately trying not to show favouritism for one man’s touch or another man’s technique.

  She glanced at Hayden, but the werewolf didn’t seem to be the least offended, merely curious. Turning to Stafford, she saw the triumph in the vampire’s eyes.

  Turning back to Hayden, she was ready to reach out and reassure him, when he smiled and ducked his head to push Stafford’s hand out of the way with his cheek. Replacing Stafford’s finger tips with an amazingly versatile tongue, he lapped enthusiastically at her clit.

  A whimper escaped from between her lips, but that was as close as she could get to real words right then. Jasmine reached for the back of his head, trying to wordlessly beg him to stay where he was and to keep doing exactly what he was doing forever.

  Stafford caught her wrist before her fingers touched Hayden’s hair. She turned to him, blinking her confusion as he pinned her wrist against the mattress. Moving slightly, she tested his hold, not trying to free herself, but wondering what he would do if she tried.

  Her gaze met Stafford’s and was instantly trapped. Hayden stopped licking. Without thinking she pulled at the wrist in Stafford’s grip. He wouldn’t allow her to reclaim her hand, but he made no objection to her moving her other hand and tangling the fingers of that hand into Hayden’s hair.

  “Don’t do that,” Hayden said. Blond eyebrows almost met as a frown descended on his normally happy continence. “You’ll hurt her.”

  Stafford dismissed his objection. “I know what I’m doing.”

  “If you have to hold her down, you’re doing something bloody well wrong,” Hayden growled.

  “Do you like being held like this?” Stafford asked her, turning all his attention away from the werewolf. “Do you like to be held tight so you know that the man you’re with will always keep you safe and close to him?”

  Jasmine looked back and forth between the two men, trying to work out what answer would please both of them.

  “The truth,” Hayden ordered.

  “I like it, sir,” she whispered.

  Hayden’s frown remained as he took hold of the hand she’d wound into his hair and wrapped his fingers around her wrist. Looking back to her eyes, he offered her a small smile and licked the skin next to his grip, giving the pleasure she took from being held his blessing.

  She smiled tentatively back at him, and then at Stafford.

  “You like this too, don’t you?” Stafford said as his free hand caressed her breast, his finger tips quickly making her nipple peak and plead for attention.

  Hayden watched for a few moments before he lowered his head and lapped at her other nipple, sucking the tiny nub into his mouth and swirling his tongue around it. In different ways each man’s touch was exquisite, each man’s hold on each of her wrists was perfect.

  When Stafford lowered his head to her other nipple, she wanted nothing more than to reach out for them both, but hands tightened around her wrists and stopped her. An extra shot of arousal coursed through her body with the knowledge she belonged to them both more and more thoroughly with each moment she spent in their bed.

  As Hayden’s lips left her breast and began to kiss his way back to her clitoris, Stafford’s teeth scraped against her nipple. She arched and bucked against the bed as somehow the two young men she was caught between began to work together rather than against each other.

  Hayden licked at her clit, murmuring his enjoyment of her taste against her. At the same time, Stafford nipped at her nipple again, letting her craving for a real bite, and the pleasure that could bring, bubble and peak inside her.

  Jasmine squirmed against the mattress. “Please,” she whispered, right on the edge of her orgasm.

  No longer able to distinguish which jolts of pleasure that raced through her body were given to her by each of the men, she only knew that it would take just the smallest extra little bit of stimulation to push her right over the edge.

  “Please,” she gasped again.

  The hotel bedroom door swung open and crashed against the wall.

  Jasmine let out a small cry. The men on either side of her practically launched themselves vertical and off the bed at the first click of the lock.

  The handcuffs didn’t seem to bother them at all right then, Stafford reached back and tossed the blanket up over her. Hayden was already half crouched next to him, as they stood at the bottom of the bed, ready to throw himself at whoever stepped into the room.

  A low growl rumbled in the back of his throat. A shiver ran down Jasmine’s spine. That wasn’t the grumbling sound he made at Stafford when the vampire wouldn’t let him have his own way. This version had a primal chill to it which no human would forget once they heard it.

  Mr. Washington strode into the middle of the room. Stafford and Hayden seemed to hesitate when they recognised him. They slowly morphed from the predators at the top of the food chain back into young men who wouldn’t be a match for Mr. Washington for several years to come.

  Jasmine met Mr. Washington’s eyes and held his gaze for several seconds. As soon as she saw his expression change at such a huge breach of protocol, she looked down. As the other members of the council trooped in behind them, she kept her gaze on the bed and forced herself to stay still and silent as she felt all their eyes trail over her.

  Her hair was a ruffled mess, her skin flushed with arousal, her breaths came in pants. There was no way they couldn’t smell their scent of their combined arousal still hanging in the air.

  Jasmine quickly tried to push aside the idea that the council were intruding upon something private and intimate right then. She was there to serve, she reminded herself again. They’d screwed her, not made love to her. They weren’t her lovers, and they weren’t her masters either.

  “It seems finding a common interest has helped them after all.”

  Jasmine cast the briefest possible glance at the two men standing at the bottom of the bed. It wasn’t just the handcuffs keeping them together right then. Their very postures showed they were presenting a united front against anyone who walked into their space unannounced and uninvited.

  “I trust this little venture has got your petty disagreement out of your system?” the female vampire asked.

  The two young men glanced at each other. Jasmine knew it had worked just as the council wanted it to. She doubted many things would break the bond she saw growing between them. The safety of the council’s future was reasonably secure already. But she doubted either of them was willing to admit as much yet.
<
br />   She wondered if failing to bring them to understanding in one night would gain her another night in their bed, lying snugly, happily, between two strong bodies or if it would just lead to her bring replaced by another submissive.

  Hayden looked across at her. She didn’t lower her eyes as quickly as she should have. She saw something peculiar in his expression before she looked away.

  “We understand each other,” he announced.

  Jasmine risked a look back up. Stafford turned to Hayden and raised an eyebrow at the idea there was any such understanding in place.

  Jasmine saw Hayden tug his wrist when Stafford would have disagreed with him.

  “Jas did everything her old pack wanted her to do,” Hayden said. “She convinced us to get on well with each other, didn’t she?”

  She felt Stafford looking across to her, but she couldn’t bring herself to look up again to meet his eyes.

  “Yes,” the vampire said. “We understand each other just fine. Jasmine fulfilled her role perfectly.”

  “Then, I think we can consider the matter closed, don’t you?” Mr. Washington said. He sounded very pleased with himself as he stepped forward and unlocked the cuffs linking the two men together.

  Once they were free of the cuffs, they stepped away from each other.

  Mr. Washington turned to her. “Come along.”

  “What?” Hayden and Stafford both stepped between her and the older man, trying to stare him down.

  Jasmine knew it was pointless. A human didn’t rise to the top of a council of paranormal beings by being scared of them—or to the top of a community of human dominants by showing any sign of fear either.

  She hesitated, but her training gave her the strength to push past her reluctance to uncover herself. She slipped from between the sheets to kneel once more, naked before the council.

  “Mine!” Hayden snapped when the Mr. Washington would have pushed past him. He put his hand in the middle of the man’s chest and pushed him back several feet without even exerting himself.

  “She belonged to both of you for the duration of the exercise. The exercise is over, neither of you have any claim to her,” Mr. Washington explained, perfectly, calmly.