by Em Ashcroft
She hadn’t needed her sister in the picture to know the tiger was Blade. So far the picture was all that had emerged, and The Grid was having a field day. Thea stared at the photo before the newsreader showed a clip.
Ladonna made one of her suggestive remarks. Blade stood before her with Renaud behind him, unbuttoning his shirt. Thea’s mind went into meltdown. When was this? They stood in a room she didn’t recognize. Ladonna was wearing a bikini and sarong, one long leg emerging to cross over the other, a teasing gesture that promised sex.
When Blade moved, for a fraction of a second, the blackout square failed to keep up with him. Blade was erect. He wanted Ladonna? Had he lied to Thea all this time?
Then Renaud glanced at Blade, who moved a step to the left, turned, and pounced. That was when the picture had taken. He turned full tiger mid-leap, and then the screen went blank.
The newsreader smirked at the camera. “And that’s all we’ve got, folks. Police are anxious to contact the people in the photo, so any information you have, call this number and let us know.”
The phone must be ringing off the hook.
The doorbell rang. Thea made no move and heard Andie yell, “I’ll get the door!”
Andie’s kindness, and the way she’d gladly given Thea some breathing space, went a long way toward Thea regaining her senses. But she was still mourning the loss of the men who had become the center of her life. She’d never, ever forget them.
But it looked like they’d forgotten her. And it hadn’t taken long. She couldn’t get that vision of Blade standing before Ladonna out of her head, although she’d tried often enough. At least she was thinking straight now, and she’d developed a plan. One in which Ladonna had no part. She’d get a job, any job, one she could leave behind at the end of the day, and go back to her original plan. Go back to school for her doctorate. She was always meant to be an academic, anyway.
“Thea!”
As Andie called out, Thea’s bedroom door opened, and the air immediately sucked out of the room. Sitting up, fighting tears of shock, she stared at Blade. His well-worn jeans fit him like a second skin, reminding her of the video she couldn’t stop watching.
They stared at one another, but when Blade started across the room, she held up her hands. She couldn’t bear having him any closer. “Stay where you are!”
He halted. His chest heaved, as if he’d been running for miles. Perhaps he had. It wasn’t her concern anymore. “Thea.” He stared at her as if drinking her in.
She lifted her chin, firming it. Life wasn’t fair. She’d only just stopped crying, and now she would start all over again. “As you can see, I’m fine.”
“I went to your house. The realtor who answered the door said it wasn’t yours any more.”
“No. Chester really found a mark in me. And Ladonna, as I discovered. They sold the house, told the company they sold it to they could take possession while we were in Texas.”
“Illegally.” His deep voice resonated through the room. “In the morning I’ll stop the sale. But, Thea, that’s not as important as you coming back to us.”
Before she could stop him, he dropped to his knees by the bed, reaching for her hands. She moved them away. “No touching.”
“But I need to touch you. Thea, I was so wrong. I made Renaud stay behind because he’s been constant about the way he feels about you. He has always been sure how he feels. I haven’t. Or rather, I have, but I didn’t want to admit it. I love you, Thea. I want you to be a permanent part of my life. Renaud does, too.”
“Why isn’t he here?”
“Because somebody had to stay behind and deal with the practicalities. That’s the other reason I came. We’re laying charges against Chester and Ladonna, and we need your input. Will you come?”
“What about this?” With a shaking hand, she held up her phone, the picture of Blade mid-shift frozen there.
He growled deep in his throat, the sound more feral than human. “That was Chester taking the picture of me at the point of arrest.”
“But—”
“Chester was about to take a video of us fucking Ladonna. I got that hard-on because I was thinking of you. I couldn’t get it up any other way. I swear, my love, that’s the truth. I’m open to you now, all barriers down, nothing left between us. Read me, see me.”
After what had happened to her, Thea couldn’t trust herself any more. She couldn’t trust her feelings, even what she saw. The only way she could survive was to believe what she saw and hold fast to the truth. “I don’t know. I can’t…”
His voice gentled. “Darling, just keep going. Breathe. Come home with me. We’ll take it a day at a time.”
“W-where’s my sister?”
“In jail at Goldclaw. I’m sorry, but it’s where she belongs.”
“With Chester.”
“Yep. So will you come?” His dark eyes turned pleading, and he waited.
She didn’t have a choice. “Yes, I’ll come. But I don’t know if I’ll stay.”
“Thank you.” He got to his feet but only to sit on the side of the bed. “How soon can you pack?”
* * * *
She’d thought he was joking, but within an hour, Blade had her in a private plane and in the air. In the luxury of cream leather upholstery and private service, he sat her at a table, and they were served a dinner so delicious she couldn’t resist it.
“I’m guessing you haven’t eaten properly since you got home,” he said, putting his flatware on his plate.
With a sigh of repletion, she followed suit. “Maybe.” She felt a hundred percent better. Whether it was his presence or the good food she didn’t know, but strength returned to her. “I don’t want to be your pet,” she said.
He laughed. “Are you kidding me? There’s no way you could be anything of the kind. Darling, we have a proposition for you, and this has nothing to do with us. We had a board meeting before your sister’s wedding-that-wasn’t. In it we presented them with the plans you made for the wedding, the detail you went into. And they agreed with us. So the majority is with us. We want to offer you a job at Goldclaw. Wedding coordinator. You’ll be the liaison between the external wedding planner and the staff at Goldclaw. We’ve been struggling along piecemeal for far too long.”
Picking up a toothpick, he played with it between his fingers. Remembering what those fingers had done to her clit, Thea’s mouth went dry.
She took a moment to think about what he’d said. “This isn’t a manufactured job to get me back?”
He shook his head. “Oh no, not at all. I can show you the minutes of previous meetings. The wedding business escalated so fast we’ve been running to catch up. But now it’s time to get it all sorted out. If you want the job, you’ll be working with the schedulers, helping to arrange accommodation, as well as the event itself. We want to maximize the use of the hotel rooms, so it’s important to get the guests in and out and new guests in.”
Absorbing the information, Thea could see an office full of charts, transferred to spreadsheets. Bliss. Not everyone’s idea of it, but certainly hers. “How do you know I can do it?”
“We dealt with you before we met you, don’t forget. Before we fell in love with you,” he reminded her, openly enjoying her blush. “We were impressed then. That wedding, despite your own personal bridezilla, was the easiest to arrange. You had the guests sorted out and the rooms blocked out. You had us send you 360 views of the rooms. You missed nothing.” Leaning forward, he covered her hand with his. “You can do this. The job’s yours, if you want it. But for now, it’s time for bed.”
“Oh!” Wildly, she looked around, and Blade laughed.
“You’re exhausted, darlin’. You need sleep. Besides, Renaud made me promise I wouldn’t fuck you until we got home. Even if you beg me, and you’re far too tired for that. Come on.” Standing, he held out his hand to her.
Almost shyly, she slipped her own hand into it. Gently, he led her to the rear of the plane and showed her a neat bedroom
. It even had an attached shower room. She’d never seen anything like it. At the door, he turned her into him and delivered the sweetest kiss in the world. “I don’t dare go in there with you. Otherwise I’ll break my promise to Renaud. I’ll wake you when we land. Good night, darlin’.”
“But where will you sleep?”
Laughing, he indicated the rest of the plane with a sweep of his hand. “I’m not exactly going to sleep rough. I’ll recline one of the chairs. Although I’d much rather join you. If you ask me, I might be able to tell Renaud that you didn’t want to be without me.” His face turned grave, and love filled his blue eyes. “Don’t tempt me. I can feel how tired you are. Go to bed and get some sleep. I might not be as considerate next time.”
He patted her butt, urging her into the bedroom. Thea needed no more urging.
She had a million questions, but they rang around her head until they turned into nonsense. The soft comforter on the bed looked too inviting to resist, and yes, she was utterly exhausted. She’d been living on fresh air and little else. Now, with her stomach full of good food, she needed sleep.
Chapter Sixteen
Thea got back from the jail sick at heart. Ladonna had shown her true colors, and Thea couldn’t believe how much resentment her sister had built up over the years. No, not resentment. As the door to the apartment closed behind her, she’d had it. “She doesn’t think about anybody except herself. I can’t imagine how I didn’t see it before.”
“She’s good,” Blade said. “Very good. She deflects, defends, and, most of all, she believes what she’s saying when she says it, but doesn’t act on it afterward.”
“She really thought she was entitled to the house. And she had Chester running after her, too.” Thea sighed as Blade led her toward the stairs. “I thought he was the villain in all this, but he was really another victim.”
“And she planned for him to take the fall for everything, if her plans went wrong,” Renaud added, following them up. “She’d have thrown him to the wolves before she was done.”
“Or the tigers,” Blade added with a flash of white teeth.
They had Thea on the floor containing the bedroom before she realized what they were up to. “Erm—it’s only just after lunchtime.”
The staff at the restaurant had provided them with a light meal. When she and Blade had been met by Renaud at the airport, he’d only given her one kiss before taking her to town, telling her that they wanted all the details handled now. She didn’t dare ask why because she already knew.
Her men wanted to concentrate on her.
So after signing the forms the police chief set in front of her, and having a painful conversation with Chester, then an even worse one with Ladonna, Blade declared them done. Both Chester and Ladonna would be charged with fraud. In time, Thea would get her share of the house back because they hadn’t disposed of the money for that yet. The rest was salted away in overseas accounts. Nathan Goldclaw assured them comfortably that he’d have the numbers and locations of the accounts by the end of the week.
Looking into his hard eyes, Thea believed him. The tigers of Goldclaw were a formidable bunch.
Then Blade and Renaud bundled her back into the car, brought her home, and took her to the restaurant.
Now here they were, on the bedroom floor of their apartment. “What are you doing?”
“Guess,” said Blade, his eyes gleaming. But he didn’t stop. A flight of stairs led up, narrower this time. Thea had assumed they led to a storage area, but Renaud took her toward them.
“Where are we going?”
“To our bedroom.”
She said nothing else until they stood in the most amazing room she’d ever seen. It was all cream and blue, the furniture low lying for the most part, but it wasn’t that which made her gasp.
All four walls had windows, and the views were unbelievable. To one side she saw part of the house, and the fields beyond, with the road leading to the town of Goldclaw. From the others, open country, and mountains beyond, blue in the haze of a spring day. The room was dominated by a huge bed covered with a sky-blue comforter.
“This is amazing.”
“Our ancestors built two towers in the house, and this bedroom is in one of them,” Blade explained. “We thought we’d turn the bedrooms downstairs into dressing rooms because this is all there is on this floor.”
A half-sunken tub was set before a window, decadence and beauty combined. “Why don’t you sleep here?”
“We want to.”
To her astonishment both men dropped down on one knee. Both held small velvet boxes up to her.
Thea caught her breath.
“Thea, will you marry me?” Blade said.
“And me,” Renaud added. “In time, we want to mate with you. Breedmates are closer than married trios, their bond unbreakable. We want that.”
“But…”
The men opened the boxes. Renaud had chosen a solitaire diamond, dazzling in its beauty. Blade had a sapphire in his box, surrounded by diamonds. The rings seemed to reflect their personalities. “It’s traditional for a Goldclaw bride to wear a ring on each hand.”
Thea recalled Renata’s breed rings. Perhaps she’d get a pair of her own after all. But she was relieved the men didn’t want to rush her into everything all at once. Besides, arranging a wedding was enough work.
Was she really thinking about it? Could she do this?
Taking her life in her hands, Thea took the leap and made the biggest and best decision of her life.
“Yes. Yes, please. I love you both so much.”
Surging to their feet, the men sandwiched her between them, taking a hand each and reverently sliding the rings onto the third finger of each one. Then they kissed her, keeping the kisses almost sacred, marking the moment between one part of their lives and the next.
Thea embraced them both fervently. “Can we go to bed now?” she blurted out. She wanted to try out that beautiful bed with her beautiful men.
The men needed no more persuading. Clothes were swiftly shed to lie on the thick carpet in untidy heaps until they all stood naked.
Blade stepped forward and swept the comforter back to reveal crisp, white sheets. “Your bed awaits, milady.”
Renaud walked around to the other side. “And your husbands-to-be.”
Thea covered her burning cheeks with her hands. “Oh, that sounds so good!”
Both men stared at her hungrily, but for once, she didn’t try to cover her big boobs or her poochy stomach. Because she knew they liked her as she was. Correction, they loved her as she was. Such big men would have to be really careful with a tiny woman. That must be part of the appeal.
Blade held out his hand. “Try it for size. The bed, I mean.”
Such a wonderful bed. She couldn’t imagine a better one because her men occupied it. And they always would.
As soon as she’d settled on the sheet, Blade was with her and on her, taking her in a kiss that hinted at all that was to come. The other pair of hands running down her back belonged to Renaud. He cupped her ass, sliding a finger between her legs to find her clit and tug it into action. By now they knew exactly what would turn her on. But the sight of them, and the love in their eyes, went further than anything else to make her instantly wet and ready for them.
“My turn,” Renaud murmured as he kissed his way down her spine.
Blade finished the kiss and cupped her breasts. “I know.”
“His turn for what?”
Blade grinned. “Going bareback with you. Fuck, it feels like nothing else. Shape-shifter sperm only lives for twenty-four hours, and, darlin’, it’s been forever since we last fucked you, so he can have that joy. When we bond—and we will bond—we’ll do it bareback, and when we want a baby, we’ll dump protection.”
The last of her reason came to the fore. “Won’t we make a baby when we bond?”
His smile was the stuff of dreams. Blade no longer hid his feelings from her or how much he wanted to make ch
ildren with her. “It’s a risk, but I don’t care. I’d do anything to see you holding my child. But it’s your call, darling.”
Would it be so bad? To have their baby? Happily, she shook her head. “Ideally I want you to myself first. But yes, I’ll take the risk.”
Renaud pushed another finger into her cunt. “Oh yes. And suckling him or her.”
She had so many questions, but her men would answer them when they were ready. Now all she had to do was enjoy, and with two huge cocks primed and ready just for her, what was not to enjoy?
When Renaud curled his fingers, rubbing the place guaranteed to get her off, she sighed in sheer pleasure. From now on she’d wake up with these men, in this bed. “Fuck me,” she murmured. “Do it now. I want you now.”
When they continued to tease, she slid down the bed. She knew what she wanted. Taking their cocks in her hands, she worked them both, squeezed them until the men groaned her name, then took turns with them. Blade tasted sharper, cleaner, but Renaud was all musk, and she moaned around his fantastic flavor. She’d never get enough of either of them. Blade tunneled his fingers into her hair, sifting the strands, massaging her scalp, while Renaud stretched, pushing his cock deeper into her mouth.
“Take it, bébé.”
Yes, all of it. I want everything.
He gave a throaty laugh. “But not now. I want to fuck you, and then I want to see Blade lick me out of you.”
“Oh, fuck,” Blade said. “Turn her around.”
He tucked his arm under her hips and flipped her so she could play with their cocks to her heart’s content. They had her cunt and ass at their disposal. Blade licked along her crease and then sucked at her pussy, as if trying to drink every drop of juice she had to offer. Renaud worked on her ass, rimming and licking, making her gasp as she licked around Blade’s cockhead.
Her first orgasm of the day came when both men had their tongues inside her. She lost it and cried out, holding their cocks tightly, riding the incredible sensations out until she heard, “I think she might be ready.”