by Ophelia Bell
“No, you fool. It’s good. But we actually only have twenty-four hours, remember? The party’s tomorrow. If you want that …” She pointed out the window to where Nessa and Gaius were now curled up together on one of the two-person loungers, snuggling their children. “… then we’d better get started, don’t you think?”
31
Pomona laughed as the two of them practically pounced on her, pushing her back toward the dining table. She pressed a hand to each man’s chest and gazed up into two pairs of eyes filled with equal parts love and desire.
“Guys, if you don’t mind, can we actually try this in a bed for a change?”
Bryer instantly had her lifted and cradled in his arms while Ignazio pushed through the kitchen doors, holding them open. He led the way through the kitchen while Bryer kissed her.
The bungalow’s huge bed beckoned when they reached it, and somehow with only a slight tug, her dress flowed completely off as though it had turned to liquid. She gasped down at the puddle of shimmering fabric on the floor.
“Smart fabric,” Bryer said, answering her surprise as he nuzzled her neck again.
“I guess you guys had to adapt your clothes to for self-preservation, huh?”
Ignazio pressed up against her back and whispered in her ear. “Nothing could keep me away from this body today, hot stuff.” He slid his hands up her belly. Bryer lowered his head to her nipples and sucked while Ignazio cupped her breasts and held them up for his friend. She felt herself being backed up with Ignazio urging her along from behind until she tilted backwards onto his lap.
Ignazio’s cock was hot and hard against her ass and her core clenched in memory of the way he’d fucked her so thoroughly the night before—how they’d both fucked her. She was still sore from it, but desperately wanted them again.
Bryer swiftly shed his clothes and dropped to his knees in front of her. He pushed her legs wide, sliding his hands up either side and kissing one thigh as he went.
“Is it dragon babies you want?” Ignazio murmured in her ear. “Because we plan to fill you up all night. I didn’t forget what you asked for.”
Her pulse raced, her mind desperately trying to focus over the ecstasy of Bryer’s mouth on her clit. He sunk his fingers deep into her core and rubbed against her inner walls until she cried out.
“I didn’t forget, either,” Bryer said. “How ready do you need to be to take us both? I want to see if I can make you beg for it.”
She writhed on his fingers when he bent down again to tease his tongue over her sensitive flesh. Ignazio held her breasts, gently pinching and tugging at her nipples until the pleasure made her core ache to be filled with more than just Bryer’s fingers.
“Please! I need you both.”
“Not yet,” Ignazio said. “It’s my turn to make you beg.”
He shifted away and she leaned back on her elbows, legs spread.
Bryer moved up onto the bed beside her and clutched at the back of her neck. He pulled her toward him onto her side and kissed her, the deep hunger in that melding of their lips taking her breath away. He was every bit as reverent as the night before and she lost herself, letting him pull her into his arms.
Ignazio’s hands slid between her legs from behind, one hand lifting her thigh while he dipped his head and pressed his tongue against her slit, teasing between her folds. She gasped when his tongue teased her ass, but he only kissed her and moved to press his lips against her pussy and plunge his tongue deep into her.
“Don’t worry, sweet thing,” Bryer said into her ear. “We’ll give your ass some time off. I’m all about filling that pussy as full as you can take.”
Ignazio’s tongue took her almost to the edge before he stopped. He slid up behind her, caressing her body as he went. He wreathed his strong arms around her, lips pressed to her shoulder.
“You ready for this?” he asked. Slowly, he pushed his fingers in and out of her while the hot tip of his cock teased at the edge of her opening. Then his fingers disappeared and Bryer’s cock slipped between her folds, his tip rubbing at her needy clit enough to make her moan.
Two hands gripped her thigh, holding it high. Her gaze fixed on Bryer’s face, his blue eyes directed down between them. His cockhead moved deeper, pushing into her, stretching her, and then he held still, his face a mask of pleasure.
Then the hot, blunt tip of Ignazio’s cock pushed into her from behind, stretching her pussy even more. Heat rushed through her body and her channel spasmed around the heads of their cocks.
“Please,” she whimpered. “I need more.”
She reached back and gripped Ignazio’s neck, digging her nails in. His lips grazed her jaw and he groaned against the corner of her mouth. “Fuck, you are so hot and wet and fucking tight. Are you ready for us to fill you completely?”
“Yes. Fuck me like this. Please!”
Their movements synchronized as though they were one, their cocks slowly rocking into her together in increments. With each little push, the pleasure grew.
“Hold onto me,” Bryer said.
Panting, she curled her arm around his neck, her other hand still clinging desperately to Ignazio. Both their hands still held her thigh.
With one sudden, instantaneous stroke they plunged deep, both their cocks piercing her aching core.
Pomona threw her head back. “Yes! Oh, god, yes!”
They were wild, the pair of them letting out roars of pleasure when their cocks began to thrust hard into her. She lost traction on reality, felt herself being moved bodily and found herself on her back, with Ignazio’s strong body beneath her and her head back against his shoulder. He thrust his cock up into her alongside Bryer’s, who now hovered over her, his blue eyes bright with frantic need.
“… so good … never knew it could be so good,” he said, his eyes fluttering closed as he pounded deep. She wrapped her legs around him and held on, grateful for Ignazio’s strong grip on her body and his lips at her ear.
“Only you, baby. It was only ever you from the moment I saw you …”
“… I knew you were mine that second, knew I loved you, would always love you …”
“… needed to touch you, taste you, be inside you …”
Their words became a continuous string that never stopped, and she wasn’t even sure who was speaking, only that their two voices kept reverberating in her ears until their pants and moans made it impossible to distinguish between them, and yet they continued. She opened her eyes and realized Bryer’s lips weren’t moving, and Ignazio’s teeth were buried in the flesh of her shoulder, but the sweet stream of love still filled her mind.
They were inside her soul, the link unmistakable, like the glow of an oil lamp as flame found fuel, growing every brighter.
She closed her eyes again and let the pleasure take her, awash in their silent words and filled with their love.
“I love you both so much,” she thought to them, and their response was a sudden, simultaneous rush of ecstasy that flooded her mind and her body as the three of them climaxed together.
32
Pomona didn’t want to move. In fact, she wasn’t even sure she could move, for several reasons. Her body ached in the most delicious way. Her thigh muscles were sore, as were her hips and her arms. Her core felt tender and bruised when she shifted beneath the sheets. One shoulder stung, and she reached up and felt the indentation of teeth marks.
When she shifted again, an arm slid across her waist and tugged her back against a warm, hard body. She opened her eyes to see a tanned, muscular chest and a face she loved with red eyes gazing tenderly down at her.
Ignazio traced his fingertips over the line of her jaw and smiled.
“What do you need, hot stuff? We still have several hours left before we need to be anywhere. I can go see to your wishes while Bryer fulfills any other needs you have.”
The hand that rested against the skin of her belly shifted, moving in a soft caress back over her hip and up her side. In spite of how raw she
was from the past few hours of lovemaking, her body still responded, her core heating and her nipples tightening.
“I am at your service,” Bryer murmured into her ear from behind as his hand slid up to cup one breast.
“Mmm, you two are impossible to say no to, do you know that? But I only need two things right now, and one of them is attached to you. Come back here.”
Ignazio moved to lie against her, and moments later, she was happily filled by them again and wondering how in the world she’d ever tried to avoid having this.
* * *
Pomona woke some time later to the dim light of early evening and a hushed conversation taking place across her body.
“We should just skip it. Nessa and Gaius have things handled with the food. Levi can do damage control.”
“I’m all for that, except it’s our house and we’re the hosts. The entire world will be watching us on the net to find out who won the fucking bet.”
“Then they’ll just have to be disappointed because nobody won. We called it off before we even marked her.”
“You know hundreds of people had side bets for everything, from what type of shifter she’d be to whether we’d introduce her holding her left hand or her right hand. We owe them something.”
Pomona kept her eyes closed and listened, her chest tightening when the news that they’d canceled the bet came out. Finally, she opened her eyes.
“It was never about the bet, was it?” she asked. Both men looked down at her.
“No,” Ignazio said. “Well … that’s not entirely true. It made us act like idiots and keep from telling you the truth, but the bet was only about …” His lips tightened and he shook his head, looking ashamed.
Bryer gave his friend a pat on the shoulder. “The bet was about fixing me. I apparently needed a mate to heal completely, but Ignoramus here neglected to share that detail with me and thought it would be better to trick me into it. I would have won if my cock had worked before last night.”
Ignazio hung his head and Pomona threaded her fingers through his hair, giving him a comforting stroke. “Well, did marking me work?”
“You tell me,” Bryer said. The lights grew brighter in the room and he threw off the covers, turning so his injured hip was illuminated.
Pomona frowned as she stared at his skin, then squinted and sat up.
“It’s your other side, isn’t it?” she asked, confused by what she saw.
“Nope. The injury was on my right side, from here to here.” He drew three fingertips in a line that ran from his ribcage all the way down to the top of his thigh.
There were no marks to speak of, not even the pale remnant of a scar.
“Oh, my god! It’s completely healed?”
“Looks like it,” he said, and leaned in to kiss her.
“Guys, we have to go to this party. We’ve got the rest of our lives to lie in bed and make love. What time is it?”
“Guests are already arriving,” Ignazio said.
“Then what are we waiting for? Get in the shower!” She hopped over Ignazio and grabbed her hairbrush off the dresser to start untangling mess her hair had become.
“Ah …” Bryer gave her a dubious look. “We don’t exactly have any clothes here besides what we were wearing earlier.”
“Shit … Can you get to your rooms without any guests seeing you?”
Ignazio grinned. “I think we can manage that. Meet us in an hour on Bryer’s breezeway, all right?”
The pair brushed past her, stopping for a brief kiss as they headed through her living room and out the back door that led to a dark path through the forest. She stared after them, speechless as they each transformed before her eyes and leapt into the air. They soared up high over the trees for a moment before banking and arcing around, each one heading for his own wing of the big house.
33
The house was already filled with people, the party spilling out onto the huge deck, when Pomona anxiously made her way around the garden path to the breezeway that joined Bryer’s wing to the main house. Big, handsome men were everywhere, along with some of the most beautiful women she’d ever seen. She felt a little out of place. She’d been to many high-society parties before on Earth, but was usually part of the staff, and not a guest.
Tonight she was supposed to be part of the staff, too … the food preparations had been her responsibility, at least until the day before when Nessa had insisted on taking over. Pomona had already meticulously planned the menu and had almost all the dishes prepped. The hot ones needed to be cooked and served, the cold ones merely served. That was the easy part when it came to party food—you just needed a wide variety of small things, and a lot of it, and people were happy.
She smoothed her hands down the front of her dress, yet another of the odd wrap-around numbers that seemed to automatically sense her perfect fit and ideal color. This one was a cocktail-length halter dress in deep purple with a plunging neckline. It accented her breasts and her hourglass shape in a surprisingly flattering way. The completely open back left her feeling exposed, and she almost wished she hadn’t opted for an up-do with her hair. She fidgeted in the shadows, watching for either Ignazio or Bryer to arrive.
Guests seemed not to notice her and flowed past, mingling and chatting. Growing impatient, she entered the house and headed toward the bar, where she finally saw Levi’s familiar face on the other side, serving drinks to the guests beside another tall, lanky shifter. He beamed at her and waved.
“Wow! You look fantastic, as always,” he said. “Pomona, this is my cousin, Seth. We always handle the drinks at these parties.” He leaned in and added, “It’s the best way to meet the females,” then winked at her.
Pomona laughed. “I see. Can I have a glass of Sidaii wine? And have you seen the guys, by any chance?”
He frowned as he poured her a glass of the fruity, red wine she’d grown to love since moving to Nova Aurora. “No, but I hope they show up soon. I hear the networks are here ready to make the announcement. Are you ready?”
She blinked at him. “Ah … why …?”
Levi grinned. “I’ve worked for those two for a while now. It’s not tough to pick up on the signs.” Then he put a finger to his lips. He gestured toward the front of the room near the high windows facing the deck and the double-sunset reflected in the lake beyond.
Pomona’s breath caught in her throat. Ig and Bry were standing in a spotlight, answering questions while several little globe-like objects hovered in the air above them. One of the globes was the source of the illumination that made them appear to be standing in a sunbeam. The other she soon realized must be a camera when the windows above their heads grew opaque and their images appeared upon them, larger than life.
Their voices filled the room as though coming from invisible loudspeakers. They answered several questions from a man who stood in the shadows just outside the spotlight. Bryer confirmed that his injury had healed and that they were ready for the pre-season matches to start. Then they fielded a few more serious inquiries about the fate of the former arena fighter who had broken the rules and been prosecuted as a result.
Finally, the interviewer popped the big one: “I’m sure everyone on Nova Aurora is watching tonight and waiting to find out which one of you succeeded in winning this summer’s bet. Based on the bet, I take it this will be your last. Do you have any comments on whether that also means you two are gearing up for retirement?”
The entire crowd let out an impatient murmur at the evasion of the true question. Bryer laughed and raised a hand to quiet them. “We’re playing it by ear. Right now, I promise we are good for at least another season or two. Whether retirement is in the cards for us depends on several factors, but it’s too soon to tell.”
Ignazio nodded in agreement, and then added, “We never hesitate to take a good wager, if the right one comes along and we can both agree on it. After this summer, things will definitely be different.”
The interviewer spoke up again. “Y
ou two have succeeded in keeping us all in suspense. Speculation was that one of you may have hired a matchmaker for assistance. Is this true? If so, wouldn’t that have given an unfair advantage?”
Both men were shaking their heads. Ignazio said, “As much as we respect Mrs. Wilder, neither myself nor Bryer hired her for help. The outcome of this summer’s bet was completely legitimate.”
“Well?” the interviewer asked. “Are you ready to tell us all who won?”
Ignazio and Bryer looked at each other for a long moment. Then turned to scan the waiting crowd.
Pomona set her wine down, her nerves lit up. She walked to the center of the room into their line of sight. Their eyes shone with love and they smiled, but before either of them could utter another word, she took a deep breath and spoke.
“I won.”
All eyes were instantly on her, the hovering spotlight swinging around and nearly blinding her when it found her. Up above, she saw her own face a mile high and was grateful for the flattering angle of the camera, though it gave the entire world a perfect shot down her cleavage. The camera adjusted, revolving around her to capture her from the back, along with both Bry and Ig in the same frame where they faced her. The light perfectly illuminated the pair of intricate marks on her back.
The interviewer was instantly in front of her, a sleekly dressed man with odd green eyes and too many teeth. “And who might you be? Are you the lucky female to mate one of these champions?”
Her knees shook from the sudden attention and a loud buzz began among the crowd as they started pointing up at the image of her on the screen above. The interviewer turned to look and let out an “oh” of comprehension when he saw the twin marks that glimmered colorfully on her skin.
The next moment, Bry and Ig were by her side, their strong arms wrapped around her waist. When the interviewer faced them again, he looked slightly put out, but composed himself quickly. With a jovial laugh, he said, “This is quite a surprise! Should we call this a tie, then? I don’t think anyone could have predicted this outcome.”