Even if that meant he had to sit behind me, mostly forgotten, while two men fucked on top of his legs. Or while one of them dipped low to slide his tongue along my slit and tease the base of his cock.
“That’s a good kitty,” Mehen growled roughly as he tore his wrist open. “Make our queen come again for our alpha. Make her squeeze his dick in half.”
He bled all over Daire, and me, and Rik, carelessly slinging blood on the sheets. The sight of his blood dripping down Daire’s back as he bent low between my thighs made me crazy. My fangs descended and I dragged my hands up Daire’s back, smearing blood into his skin. He slid his tongue around Rik’s cock buried inside me and leisurely made his way back up, sucking on my flesh as he went. When he finally closed his lips around my clit, my back bowed and I clutched his head, because Rik swirled his hips up in a lazy, powerful roll.
My heart fluttered frantically, my thighs quivering. I watched as Mehen worked his fingers into Daire’s ass, loosening him up enough to shove deep in one hard thrust that made Daire rumble against me.
Oh goddess. That purr. I couldn’t imagine a vibrator with even a fraction of that incredibly powerful rumble. Mehen’s head fell back, the tendons in his neck and shoulders standing out in stark relief. Shuddering with bliss, he breathed out, “ahhhhh.”
Yeah. Me too. I couldn’t sit still. Not with Rik so hard inside me. Daire sucking on me. That purr sliding along my nerves, racing from my clit, to my nipples, and up to my mouth. My fangs throbbed deep into my jaws and down my throat.
Cracking his eyes open, Mehen seized Daire’s hips in both hands and ground harder against him. He stared into my eyes while he hauled himself out and slammed back, hard, making Daire’s breath sigh out against me. Mehen wasn’t even touching me, but I could feel him moving inside Daire by the way his mouth moved on me.
Rik slid his right arm around me, his fingers splayed on my stomach. He stroked over my throat, bringing me back harder against him. Even the weight of his big hand changed the angle slightly, making the head of his cock rub new nerves inside me. I felt like a guitar in his hands, his fingers strumming chords from my throat. He pushed a little harder on my abdomen, giving himself just a little more depth inside me. Impaled and stuffed, I writhed beneath Daire’s mouth and the green fire in Mehen’s eyes.
I hugged Daire’s shoulders with my thighs, my hands in his hair. He sucked harder, groaning and moaning against my flesh with every punishing thrust Mehen gave him. The king gave him no quarter. No tenderness. He pounded him mercilessly, breathing hard, sweat dripping down his forehead. His eyes flashed with power, the scales flickering and gleaming on his shoulders as the dragon slid and writhed beneath his skin.
His lips twisted in a grimace and he dragged his right hand down Daire’s back, leaving deep bloody scratches from his talons.
The smell of blood tormented me, but none of them wanted to get close to my fangs. I wouldn’t be able to keep from sinking them deep and then this would be over. I didn’t blame them. I didn’t want this over either. But my hunger ravaged through me like wildfire ripping through a drought-stricken forest.
Three men. So close. Touching. But nothing I could easily bite. It would have made me laugh if my fangs didn’t hurt so badly. It was a good hurt, though. The kind of pain that made my pleasure surge even higher.
Tremors rocked Daire’s shoulders. He purred louder, more of a growl, a desperate pleading roar, and Mehen’s furious rhythm faltered. He plunged deep and gritted his teeth, fighting back his release, but Daire wasn’t having any of that. His rumble dropped even lower, hitting a new bass that made my toes curl and I shattered again. Mehen let out a wordless roar and the bed rocked with the fury of his release. He fell across Daire and pressed his bleeding wrist to my mouth, which pushed me over the edge.
Naturally, Rik sank his fangs into my shoulder, making sure my climax soared to a whole new stratosphere as he came inside me.
Panting and sweaty, I forced my eyes open. Our bonds shimmered with feel-good endorphins. On his side, Mehen lay against Rik’s thigh, hugging Daire’s back. I’d probably suffocated him, my thighs locked around his head. I released him but he didn’t come up right away. He’d sank his fangs into my thigh and I hadn’t even realized it.
Rik reached around me to tap him on the head. “Not too much. You know what she’s been through today.”
Licking his lips, Daire came up over me, draping himself on top of me. “Just a taste.”
I stroked his hair back out of his face. “You okay?”
“Mmmmm. Fabulous.”
“I should look at those scratches on both of you and see if they need to be healed.”
Mehen grunted, shifted beside Rik, and almost fell off the bed. He grabbed at Daire’s hair and Rik’s thigh, holding on until he got his balance. “Don’t be ridiculous. These scratches aren’t worth you wasting a single drop of effort to heal. They’ll all be gone in the morning.”
My eyes were already heavy. I yawned and Rik immediately said, “Go, find a place to sleep. She needs her rest.”
Daire buried his head against me. “No cuddles tonight?”
Even Mehen looked disappointed, though he sat up and smacked Daire’s ass lightly. “Come on, D. Let’s go see if G’s had any problems with those two idiots.”
I wished they could stay, but this fucking bed…
Daire kissed me and then padded after Mehen. “I call the couch.”
“Fuck that shit. You can sleep on the floor. There’s plenty of pillows.”
I bit my lip. If they had to sleep on the floor, then I should sleep with them.
Rik shifted me off to the side so he spooned against me. “Fuck that shit. My queen doesn’t sleep on the floor.”
And I fell asleep before I could argue with him.
25
Shara
The absence of Rik’s heat against me woke me more than the low voices. I sat up and immediately, both Rik and Xin turned away from the French doors leading out to the plaza and came to me.
Rik sat beside me and wrapped his arm around my back, his hand sliding down beneath my opposite thigh, offering his shoulder up as a back rest. “Sorry, my queen. We didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Did you find something?”
Xin crouched down beside the bed. “Indeed, I did. She’s hiding another Blood, my queen. An extremely powerful, old Blood, like Leviathan.”
“She has a king?”
Xin shrugged. “Maybe he’s a king. Maybe he’s something else. I smell her blood in him and he’s ancient. At least as old as your king. He couldn’t see me, but he knew something was near. I didn’t dare push deeper to see what he was guarding.”
“When her brothers pressured her about why she hadn’t warned me, she said she was protecting ‘us’, but she hesitated, like there was something else. Someone else. Maybe that’s who this old Blood is guarding.”
“It’s concerning that she never mentioned him,” Rik added. “All she had to do was say she had another Blood she’d assigned elsewhere and none of us would have taken that amiss. A queen may send her Blood to any task. Why hide that she has a fifth Blood, unless she specifically doesn’t want you to know?”
I tried to think through scenarios. She wanted to become my sib. She’d offered before we retired for the night. She’d invited me to her nest, without warning me of the geas that made such a visit extremely dangerous. Each secret alone was enough to make me not trust her. But added together…
“Could this Blood be a member of Skye’s court? And that’s why she hid him—so you and Daire don’t recognize him?”
Rik focused on Xin. “Picture him in your mind. I’m going to try and see him through our bond.”
Xin nodded and sat back on his heels, his hands loose on his thighs. “I’m ready, alpha.”
I closed my eyes so I could see our bonds more clearly. Rik’s bond was always like a volcano with streaks of red, molten rock sliding down his sides, even if his bond was quiet. Xin’s b
ond was more like his wolf. Still, quiet, nearly invisible, a blanket of soft, damp fog. I watched as Rik sent a stream of lava rolling toward Xin’s fog. I tensed, afraid it might hurt him, or burn his fog away, and I’m sure Rik could have done either if he’d wanted. I’d felt him send an alpha surge in the bonds before that had affected even Mehen’s dragon. Xin’s bond vibrated in response, but rather than dissipating, his fog thickened around Rik’s bond, drawing him in. I reached for him too and immediately stood with his wolf in a dark hallway. The air felt heavy and smelled slightly of damp, like a basement. I felt the impression of weight and distance above us. Interlocking stones covered the floors, walls, and ceiling. So maybe a man-made tunnel rather than a hallway.
Light flickered at the end of the tunnel and a man stood in front of a thick wooden door. Arms crossed over his chest, feet planted wide, the man definitely screamed protector, his glare sending a clear message. Leave this place.
Rik moved past me, ducking a little to pass beneath one of the lower sections of the ceiling, until he stood in front of the man. It was so strange, because it wasn’t real. We weren’t really there, even though I could smell the dank, thick odor of dirt and something else. Something feral.
It wasn’t this man. It was something behind that door.
Something precious. Something that he would willingly die for.
Then it dawned on me. The man was as big as Rik. Maybe… even slightly bigger.
Rik gave me a look over his shoulder, brow arched. “He’s not bigger than my rock troll though.”
“Unless he can shift into something bigger than he already is.”
Rik snorted with disgust. “Mehen’s dragon is bigger than me, but we all remember how that went down.”
“It doesn’t matter how big he is. I don’t feel drawn to him.”
Despite his confident words, a crease eased in his forehead. My big, bad alpha liked being my biggest and baddest. :That will never change.:
“I don’t recognize him and he doesn’t smell like Skye. A man this big, this powerful, would have made an impression on her. She would have been damned near giddy to have the opportunity to break him.”
“Is he alpha?”
“Yes and no. He’s like Mehen, or Guillaume. Old and powerful, yes. He could be alpha if he chose. But he’s not. Maybe Zaniyah already had an alpha when she called him.”
I opened my eyes and swayed slightly, disoriented. It took a second for my brain to make the adjustment to the guest quarters, rather than the dark tunnel. “At least he’s not a plant by Skye. Other than that, we don’t really know what he’s protecting or why she lied about him.”
“Should I go back and try to learn more, my queen?” Xin asked.
I cupped his cheek and he turned his face into my caress, rubbing deeper against my palm. “No, thank you, Xin. I don’t want to risk you being discovered. I’ll find out what she’s hiding.”
“How?”
I yawned, which Rik immediately took to mean I should be picked up, shifted deeper into the bed, and tucked in against his big body. Not that I was complaining. “What time is it?”
“Four in the morning,” he replied against my shoulder, his lips a soft caress.
I listened to my bonds a moment, taking a quick inventory. Mehen had switched with Nevarre on the balcony. Daire had taken over for Guillaume at the door, though Ezra was still up and gave no sign of leaving his post now that Daire had joined him. Gina was sleeping. “Xin, could you write a quick note for Gina and ask her to set up a meeting with Mayte first thing this morning? Like eight. Slide it under her door. I’m sure she’ll be up long before I will.”
Xin nodded and immediately stood to go in search of paper and pen.
Rik rubbed his nose behind my ear, breathing in my scent. “Are you sure you want to be up so early, my queen?”
“Regretfully, yes,” I sighed, closing my eyes. “I have a feeling it’s going to be a very long day.”
26
Nevarre
My queen was many things. Gorgeous, powerful, sensual, a walking, breathing goddess incarnate.
But she was not a morning person.
Rik held her coffee cup beneath her nose but she still gave him a bleary look of exhaustion. “Whose stupid idea was it to be up so early for a meeting?”
He grinned at her and lifted the cup to her mouth. “Yours.”
Gina unzipped the traveling wardrobe that contained our queen’s clothing. “What image do you want to portray this morning?”
“That I’m not death warmed over.”
“Something business like? Or sultry? Innocent and sweet, or formidable?”
Shara groaned. “I don’t really care about fashion much. You pick. I’ll wear it.”
“Hmmm.” Gina surveyed the dresses of various lengths inside. “I take it you found something interesting last night, and you intend to put her feet to the fire.”
“You could say that.”
“So something formidable and powerful, but not terrifyingly so.”
She touched one of the dresses and wings fluttered in my mind. Not my raven’s, but my goddess’s.
Gina had already moved several dresses down, still looking for the right outfit. I stepped closer and pulled the one Morrigan had liked. At first glance, it was a somber dark green with long sleeves and a high waist that didn’t really scream Shara’s style, though it was pretty enough. Almost business like with a modest length that would hit below her knees and a full layered skirt that managed to look filmy without looking fragile or risque.
“This?”
I nodded. “Morrigan likes this one very much.”
“Then I’ll wear it,” Shara replied.
“High heels or something more comfortable?” Gina asked.
“Comfortable but formidable.”
Gina snorted. “Now that’s a tall order. Let’s see what we brought from Dallas. There were a few pairs that caught my eye and I’m sure we packed them, though they might still be in the jet.”
Shara knocked back half the cup of coffee, even though it was hot. “It’s not worth sending Angela up here for shoes. Whatever we have is fine.”
Gloriously naked and uncaring that we looked at her, she stood, her body like a Grecian statue. How could we not worship her with our eyes and our bodies and our mouths every chance she gave us? She was fucking gorgeous. A goddess in living breathing flesh. I brought the dress to her, expecting Rik to take over. Or Daire. He made himself useful like that quite often. But she turned around and held her arms up, waiting for me to drop the dress over her head.
I swallowed hard. Dressing my queen was such an intimate thing. Something a human man might do for his wife, a small way to take care of her. Intimate, because I would know what she wore beneath that dress. Or rather, what she didn’t. “Do you want a bra?”
Just saying it made my cheeks burn and Daire snickered beneath his breath.
She flashed a smile over her shoulder. “No. It’s too hot, and if I have to wear a fucking dress, I’m going to at least be comfortable.”
I slipped the gown over her head and helped her with the hook at the base of her neck. From the front, the dress was very conservative, but the back… It made me gulp, afraid she would be offended. Her entire back was bare, dipping deliciously low into a point that directed my gaze straight to the shadowed crevice at the top of her buttocks.
Rik narrowed a hard look on me. “We’ve already got the twins to deal with, and you select a racy dress like this?”
“It’s racy?” Shara peeked at the back in the mirror and her eyes widened. “Wow. Yeah. I can see why Morrigan liked it. It’s fine, Rik.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want those two idiots bothering you needlessly and all that skin…” His voice thickened, his eyes heating as he trailed a smoky look down her spine.
The dress was cut low enough that it was obvious that our queen wore nothing beneath it. No bra. No panties. Just sweet skin begging for a soft caress.
“We didn’t bring any green shoes along, but either of these black shoes will work.” Gina set two pairs of shoes out. One pair of simple flats with a bit of sparkle on the toes, and the other heels. “You said comfortable, so these heels aren’t too high. They shouldn’t be too much of a chore to walk in.”
Shara slipped her foot into one of each shoe and looked at herself in the mirror. “Yeah, the heels. I think I’ll be fine in them.”
“Jewelry.” Gina set a heavy case on the bed and opened it, both sides sweeping out to reveal a fortune in stones and gold neatly compartmentalized inside. “I’m thinking something unexpected and understated, like the front of the dress.”
Shara looked at me, her eyes glowing with soft emotion that made my throat ache. “Let Nevarre pick. What does Morrigan want with this dress?”
I held my hand out over the rings and necklaces and earrings, waiting until something made the fluttering noise inside my head again. I lifted out a heavy silver chain with an intricate twisted black wire tree medallion. Morrigan’s Grove. Of course. I slipped the chain around her neck and latched it for her. The tree hung perfectly in the center of her chest. Exactly where the large spiked thorn had punctured her.
Rik handed her the cup and she sat back down on the side of the mattress, both hands wrapped around the cup. "Now it's your turn."
"How dressy do you want us today?" Rik asked as we each headed to our bags.
The only suit jacket I'd brought was the fancy tailed one. I didn't care to wear it again, but I'd do what my queen asked of me.
Mehen opened up the wardrobe. "If you want us to dress in formal wear, we should ask Zaniyah if we can get a few things pressed."
Queen Takes Queen Page 20