TamingTabitha

by Virginia Nelson

  “Mine,” growled Lancaster in response. He stroked up her spine, easing her to lie next to Gage. “Ours.”

  Breathing hard, she closed her eyes, trying to find her center in the tsunami of sensations. The idea of two lovers and the reality were two very different things. They’d claimed her, possessed her and she lay between them in a limp puddle.

  And yet…

  She wanted more.

  She should be sated. Seers had only one lover and she lay with two.

  Yet she twirled her hand across Gage’s pale chest while Lancaster still stroked her hip and ass and she wanted more. She shook her head, trying to make sense of it and fascinated by the sight of Gage’s icy-white cock, still hard and ready between his legs.

  “We can’t read your mind. Only each other’s. Care to share with the class, Tabby?” Gage’s chest moved when he spoke, dislodging her from her perch, and she lifted her head. From behind, Lancaster rained kisses across her spine, raising goose bumps and making her more sure she needed something more.

  “I think we’re not done.” Putting into words the feelings of spirit were never simple, and in this case she searched for better ones. “I need more. I feel almost empty inside, incomplete…hungry.”

  Lancaster laughed behind her. “Insatiable. I like you, mate. You might have to give me at least a minute to recover, however.”

  She curled toward him, their lips meeting in a long and loving kiss. Again, he kissed her, this one open mouthed, and a shiver of renewed desire quaked from her lips to his. She broke away, watching as he shuddered out a breath, and saw his cock swell, reawakening to her desire.

  “I’m fond of you as well. I’m glad you both caught me and Claimed me but…” No words came to her, so she simply shoved Lancaster back. “I want something more.”

  Lancaster’s cock stiffened to its full size, despite his words regarding recovery time, as if he too felt the need for more. Biting down hard on his nipple, she hovered over it and blew a soft breath on it just to watch him react. Torturing them both with the sensation, she rubbed her aching pussy against the hard line of his desire.

  Gage slid his hands up her back, clawing her gently on the down stroke so she very nearly shoved Lancaster inside her. A moan slipped out and her eyes closed. She responded, it seemed, to even the slightest encouragement from them. The passion between them seemed to amplify rather than slowing with the transition from person to person. “May I touch you here, mate?”

  The soft-spoken question from Gage came only seconds before she felt the slick feel of his fingertip teasing her asshole.

  Her first thought was no. But before she could voice it, he’d slid in as far as his first knuckle and a new hunger grated awake inside her. Moisture soaked out of her, as if her body encouraged his trespass. Instead of words, she pushed down harder, taking the fingertip deep. “Shouldn’t that hurt or feel weird or something?”

  When he added a second fingertip, she dug her nails into Lancaster’s chest expecting pain from the invasion, but her body seemed made for his strange touch and allowed him inside with no resistance. “I think we’re on unexplored territory altogether. Perhaps the normal rules shouldn’t be applied in this situation.” As if done with her torturing glide against him, he chose that moment to push his large cock deep within her.

  Her mouth opened but no sound came out. Her pleasure with Lancaster buried deep and Gage’s fingertips teasing her ass nearly brought her to another orgasm. She shuddered, trying to keep steady in the overwhelming waves of sensation.

  “Well, then, let me try this.” Gage’s fingers slid out and she nearly cried out in complaint. The words died in her throat as she felt the hard press of his cock at her behind.

  “I don’t think—” You’ll both fit, she planned to say, but then he was slowly moving inside her. She froze, orienting to the foreign sensation. There was stretching, but it was good. Gritting her teeth, she teetered on the edge of it feeling too good. As he made it all the way in, his hands rubbed her thighs in a soothing way. Rather than easing her breathing, it simply raced harder, her body ramping up for something she could neither describe nor deny she ached for. Her fingernails dug into Lancaster beneath her and she focused on the riot of feelings, trying to sort through them and decide what she thought about it all.

  When Lancaster pulled out, she opened her eyes, ready to tell him to stop. Instead, the pleasure arced and she whispered, “Oh my.” Using her grip on his chest, she tried not to dislodge Gage, but repeat the sensation. “Lancaster, don’t stop.” It came out more an order than a request, but she couldn’t regret it.

  “Don’t plan to.” Lancaster’s jaw muscle twitched as he obviously searched for balance in a situation fast spiraling out of anyone’s control.

  Then they moved at once. Gage pressed in, Lancaster moved out. After a moment, they were rocking her between them. Sometimes, at just the right moment, her skin felt stretched tight as they both moved inside her. No longer able to even pretend a modicum of control, her body bucked and writhed. They held her, keeping them with her, and a low crooning noise filled the darkness.

  After only a moment, she realized the sound escaped her own throat. Arching her neck back, she let loose more of the noise as it gave her someplace to put all the building pressure and pleasure that boiled to an eruption point within her. A light grew inside her, and she spindled the sensation in the sound.

  “Sing for us, Seer,” Gage whispered. Both men increased their pace as if the words held some sacred meaning.

  “Mate. Our mate.” Lancaster began chanting the words and after a moment, Gage joined him.

  The keening sound rippled higher and then slammed out of her as the orgasm shredded her ability to think, to breathe, to move. Light shot out of her, bathing her lovers and the clearing in a crystal-bright glow, as if they hovered at the center of an agate. She crumbled, falling to Lancaster’s waiting embrace, and felt Gage shudder above them. Soon both men held her, their breathing as unsteady as hers as light drifted down to fall like snowflakes of glitter around them.

  “Apparently, our Claiming wasn’t done.” Lancaster laughed. “Although we each claimed her, I think we needed to finalize it or something.”

  She couldn’t answer him. The outburst of power released a vision that swept her under as surely as passion had moments before. Her own voice, but in a monotone, played over the flickering images. “Time spins out, like a video on fast-forward, filled with more triads, threesomes of power. A darkness, coming fast and hard at our people. The queen will See and save us all, but only if the triads join in time. Only the triads will be strong enough to stop it.”

  The fast-forwarded and unclear images vanished, leaving her panting and sandwiched between mint and brandy spice. Their warm bodies fought off the chill of her Sight and she burrowed closer to them. Their hearts beat as if in tune with hers. “Sorry,” she mumbled, not surprised her voice was husky after all her yelling. “Vision.”

  “Seemed like an important one,” Gage soothed. “Not that I have any clue what it was about.”

  “Me either. I think we need to tell the elders, though.” Lancaster sighed. “There are a few who will be surprised by our choice, but the vision suggests it may become more popular in the coming days.” His laugh rumbled up. “Triads of power. If others are going to have something like this for their Matings, the next gathering could be very amusing.”

  “I’m sorry I ran for so long.” Finding her voice again, she swallowed hard. The aftermath of the emotional and passionate moments seemed to leave her lost in their wake, floundering. Tears threatened, but she wasn’t sure why. “I knew you were both coming for me.”

  Gage’s hand, warm and safe, smoothed the hair back from her face. “We would have waited longer to claim you if you’d needed it. Why did you run from us for so long, little Seer?” He might be soothing her, but hurt resonated in his tone. No action happened without repercussion. She’d known she hurt them by stalling their union because of her vie
w of the time stream, yet fought destiny anyway, fearing they wouldn’t work out. Better to leave her mates alone and wishing for her than to have them catch her and be disappointed with their choice. Although her fears seemed almost foolish when in their arms and surrounded by the peace of their connection, it didn’t diminish her regret for waiting.

  Burrowing deeper into Lancaster’s arms, she blinked hard at tears tracking hot lines down her cheeks. “I knew what I wanted, what I needed—”

  “Us.” Lancaster’s growl sounded both proud and arrogant in one breath.

  Her smile wavered out, but she didn’t lift her head. “Yes, you both. But see…that’s the thing. I’m just me and, well, you’re both pretty exceptional men. And no one ever bonds in threes.”

  “Thanks.” Gage’s purely masculine chuckle caused goose bumps to rise on her arms and she reached back to hold his hand in hers.

  “I guess…I worried I wouldn’t be enough. Not when I wanted you both…”

  “You’re enough.” The men spoke in unison and pulled her so close she could barely breathe for a moment. Instead of being smothering or making her doubt her independence, the sensation brought her peace.

  “So you’ve claimed me. Now what?” Trying for brevity, she inhaled the mixed scents of them, her mates, satisfied to have been claimed and planning to repeat the Claiming as soon as her legs worked again. Just because the ceremony had been completed, it didn’t mean she couldn’t spend as much of the near future naked as possible. They had a lot of lost time to make up for.

  “Well, now we have forever, until the stars crumble from the sky,” Gage whispered. “I’m pretty sure we can come up with some interesting ways to pass the time.”

  Lancaster’s laugh echoed against the sound of the waking forest and a hint of sunrise teased at the horizon.

  Just as she’d Seen, the light of it burst color onto the mountain and sparkled against the glittering remains of magic. The light revealed the three of them sprawled on the forest floor, united against whatever the future might bring.

  About Virginia Nelson

  Virginia Nelson believed them when they said, “Write what you know.” She’s a small-town girl writing small-town romance. Her characters are as full of flaws, misunderstandings and flat out mistakes as Virginia herself. When she’s is not writing or plotting to take over the world, she likes to hang out with the greatest kids in history, play in the mud, drive far too fast and scream at inanimate objects. Virginia likes knights in rusted and dinged-up armor, heroes who snarl instead of croon and heroines who can’t remember to say the right thing even with an author writing their dialogue. Her books are full of snark, sex and random acts of ineptitude—not always in that order.

  Virginia welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.

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  Taming Tabitha

  ISBN 9781419949852

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Taming Tabitha Copyright © 2014 Virginia Nelson

  Edited by Elizabeth London

  Cover design by Allyse Leodra

  Cover photography by Q59

  Electronic book publication March 2014

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