by Hazel Hunter
Aileen pressed her hands to her mouth.
“My dearest, darling girl, when you came to us I wanted to tell you. But I needed to protect you more. I told myself that way I could be the mother of your heart as well as your body.” Erica sank down in front of her daughter. “Can you ever forgive me?”
Aileen lowered her hands and then flung herself at Erica, sobbing as she clutched her tightly.
“I would say that’s a yes,” Michael murmured.
“Yeah.” Summer leaned her cheek against his shoulder. “Me, too.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
SUMMER CHECKED THE bubbling pot of pasta sauce on the stove before she went to place the big salad she’d made on the new dining room table.
The work involved with the final preparations for the winter gathering over the past few days had gradually dispelled the last of the shock and unease among the coven. Erica seemed to be at peace now that Aileen knew the truth of her origins, and while some of the members of the coven remained disturbed about her use of dark magic to dispatch Gideon, Summer suspected the High Priestess would never again resort to such measures. Learning the truth about her birth parents had transformed Aileen, who now bloomed with happiness and contentment. Even Wilson appeared to have abandoned his usual sullen resentment of Troy, and now worked without a qualm alongside his older brother and father as they cleared several sites for the visiting covens to use as camps.
Things had never been better, and still Summer hadn’t been able to shake off a sense that evil still lingered, and time was running out. Those feelings had prompted her to insist on joining Troy and Michael when they had gone to bury Gideon. Troy had set fire to the grisly remains, while he and Michael dug a deep grave to bury the ash. Once they had filled in the ground, Summer had sent a surge of her own power into the soil, and covered the grave with a carpet of tiny saplings that spread out over the entire camp site.
“By next spring these trees will be fully-grown,” Summer had told Troy. “But I can feel the dark magic lingering. No one should ever camp here again.”
He’d nodded. “I’ll advise my father.”
Now as Summer sliced one of Erica’s fresh-baked baguettes to spread it with roasted garlic she looked out through the kitchen window at the light violet curtain that twilight had drawn across the horizon. Abel had grudgingly invited them to come back to the main house, but she was glad Troy had politely refused. Now that things had settled down with the coven they needed time alone together to attend to their business.
Summer saw the two of them as they came out of the old barn, each carrying an armful of split logs for the fireplaces. Troy was laughing and Michael grinning as they shared some joke, and as their emotions flooded into her for a moment she thought her heart would burst with happiness.
You have to tell them.
Her smile faded as she felt the power roil inside her.
“Not yet,” she whispered. “Not tonight.”
Quickly Summer finished the bread so she could strain the pasta and top it with the savory red sauce she’d made. By the time she’d brought the last of the food out to the table Troy and Michael appeared, and each kissed her before surveying the table.
Michael gave her one of his slow smiles. “I knew you liked Italian.”
“You must have been a chef in your previous life,” Troy teased.
Watching them sit down on either side of her chair made her throat tighten, and for a moment she thought she might begin weeping.
Not tonight.
“More like a waitress who had a crush on the short-order cook.”
Michael’s light brows rose. “You remember that?”
“No.” She forced herself to chuckle. “It just sounds more interesting than ‘I can’t remember.’”
The men ate hugely, as always, and talked about the gathering, which would begin in a week. Tomorrow they were both going to help with the makeshift arena where Abel would perform the mass rituals and hold the magical contests planned for the celebration. Summer listened and nodded but said little, and when the men volunteered to clear and wash up she retreated to take a long, hot bath and see if that would soak away her worries.
Reclining naked in the fragrant water only made her wish she had a tub big enough for three, and that thought sent shivery tremors of longing through her. She stroked her hands slowly over her body as she soaped herself, and then let out the water and used the shower to rinse off. When she finally dried off, she pulled on the T-shirt and leggings. As she walked out to the master bedroom, she yawned. Since the attack the men had been sleeping in other rooms. While she felt lonely by herself in the big bed, she understood they were giving her time to heal––and that was why it made her jump to see both of them waiting for her, each man wearing only boxers.
“Oh,” she gasped.
The sight of all that hard, muscular flesh made her heart flutter. Troy stood at one of the nightstands and set down a bottle of white wine he’d been pouring. He offered her a glass.
“We thought you might like some company tonight.”
“And we are tired of sleeping in the other rooms,” Michael said, as he placed a large box of condoms on the other night table.
Summer accepted the glass as her men approached, and took a sip, hoping it might calm her pounding heart. As they came closer though, she set the wine down.
“We can feel you,” Troy said as he cradled her face between his palms. “Even from the other side of the house.”
“You want us,” Michael said as he came up behind her, and wrapped his arms around her waist. “We could feel your hands on your body while you were bathing.”
“I was only washing,” she assured him, her eyelids drooping as Troy began kissing his way down her neck. “Next time I’ll have to do something else––something special.”
“Let us do that,” Michael murmured as he slid his hands under her T-shirt.
Us. We. Never me, or him, Summer thought as she closed her eyes.
They probably weren’t even aware that they now only spoke of each other in the plural. She had done that to them, just as surely as she had used sex to bind them to her––and each other.
Troy took his mouth from the front of her throat and brushed his lips over hers before he drew back, frowning down at her.
“Summer, why are you so sad?”
She tried to smile, but when Michael took his hands from her breasts and stepped away, she knew she couldn’t fool either of them.
“I’ve taken too much,” she blurted out, her throat tight and her eyes stinging. “I’ve stolen your lives from you. You’ll never be free of me again.”
Troy cupped her cheek and whisked away a tear with his thumb.
“And this is a bad thing how?” he asked.
“Some of my memory is coming back, and one thing I know now is that I can’t give you sons. Women of my bloodline have only female children.” She sat heavily down on the bed. “It’s the reason we were chosen to be the guardians of the Tablet.”
“So we shall have daughters.” Michael sat down beside her and took her hand in his. “As my brother says, how is this a bad thing?”
“I will have one daughter,” she corrected him. “I will train her to be the next guardian of the Emerald Tablet. Someday, when it’s her time to replace me, she will take two lovers––two men who were also predestined to be her sentinel mates. She’ll seduce them, and bind them to her, and ruin their lives.” She saw how they were looking at her. “Don’t you understand? None of us ever had a choice in this. Your names were tattooed into my skin before I ever met either of you.”
“I see. So your mother chose us for you, is this right?” Troy said. “How could she do that when––as far as we know––we’ve never met her?”
“I can’t tell you,” Summer said, hunching her shoulders as misery filled her heart. “That’s part of what I still don’t remember.”
Michael studied her face. “In my mortal time, matches were arranged by parents
for their children.”
“Mine, too,” Troy said. “I think that’s how my parents got together, actually.”
“Don’t,” Summer whispered. “Please, don’t try to make light of this.” She paused. “You can’t even refer to yourselves in the singular anymore.”
“You are wrong, Beauty. I despised my life so deeply that I considered ending it more times than I care to count,” Michael said softly. “You brought me out of darkness, and gave me noble purpose, and gifted me with the first real, true love I have ever known.”
Troy nodded. “Same here. I’ve never belonged to my father, my family or the coven. All these years I’ve been serving in the Corps, I’ve had nothing but my duty. The Magus Corps kept me busy and on the move, so I didn’t have to think about how empty my life was. These last couple years I’ve just been sleep-walking through every day, and then you come along and suddenly I’m alive, and in love. Finally I mean something more than Major. Finally I belong somewhere––with Michael, at your side.”
“You didn’t ruin our lives, Beauty.” Michael laced his fingers through hers. “You gave them to us.”
If they were lying she would have known it, but they weren’t. She could feel the truth in their touch, and saw it in their eyes. To keep from crying Summer kissed Michael, and then turned to Troy and hugged him close. Her men held her and stroked her and eased her down between them, holding her and comforting her until the joy and gratitude she felt flared into desire and need.
“Will you have me?” she asked them.
Troy answered her by covering her mouth with his, tasting her with his tongue and swallowing her moan, as his hand pushed up her T-shirt to cup her bare breast. Michael whispered something wordless against her shoulder as he reached down to tug her leggings down over her hips and drag them from her legs. Troy broke their kiss to pull her shirt over her head, and then she lay naked between them. Their skin rubbed and heated her as they peeled off their boxers to reveal the thick, straining shafts of their erections.
Wetness flooded between her thighs.
“I can’t wait,” she breathed.
“But you must, for a moment, ” Michael said, as he rolled her toward him so he could nuzzle her breasts.
Troy rose and removed two condom packets from the box, tossing one to Michael, who caught it without looking. Troy retreated to the bathroom.
“Where is he going?” Summer asked, pressing herself against Michael’s big body.
“We’re going to take care of you, my Beauty.”
That was all Michael told her as he rolled on top of her, pinning her with the delicious heaviness of his weight, while he kissed her deeply. His erection pressed hard against her, and she let her fingers dig into the hard slabs of muscle along his back. He lifted up as Troy came back to the bed. He smoothly shifted away as the warlock took his place, and immediately ravished her aching nipples with hard tugging pulls of his hungry mouth.
Summer felt Michael move up beside them, as Troy drew her onto her side. She shivered as the Templar caressed her buttocks before stroking a silky, warm, oil over her rosebud. At the same time Troy brought her hand down to his pulsing cock, and had her roll the thin sheath of the condom down the length of his shaft while he rubbed his fingertip back and forth against her clit.
The tease was maddening and for a few moments she didn’t know if her trembling fingers could manage the condom. But finally she stroked it all the way down, and felt Troy shiver. Breathing fast, she gripped him with her fist and guided his broad cock head between her slick folds. But as Michael rubbed his bulbous head over the tight pucker between her buttocks, she gasped and went still.
“Don’t be afraid,” Troy said. “Trust us.”
“We will fit perfectly,” Michael murmured against her hair as he pressed in. “Relax, sweet Beauty, and let us inside you. Let us possess you.”
Summer nodded and released the tension in her muscles, thinking only of being open for their pleasure. Troy penetrated her with a deep, sure thrust, and then held himself still inside her as Michael began to work his cock into the tight ring of her rosebud. For a moment there was an unfamiliar stretching and burning, and then the thick head popped inside her. She tightened around him reflexively, and felt all the rich nerves just inside the opening flare into life.
“Breathe,” Michael said as he gave her another gentle thrust, and more of his shaft sank into her.
“Ah.” Troy shuddered with pleasure as the pressure of Michael’s slow strokes began working through Summer against the bulge of his own shaft. “Yes, Brother, like that. She can feel us both now.”
“She makes me her maypole,” Michael said, and groaned as he forged deeper. “All satin ribbons round me.”
Summer couldn’t move. Suspended between them and skewered by their thrusting shafts, she could only gasp with each glide and pump. Her nipples flooded with heat and aching sensation, plumping and tightening at the same time, and a cry left her as Michael gripped her heaving mounds from behind and held them so that Troy could suck one peak and then the other.
When Michael had sunken into her to his root, Troy finally lifted his head to look into her eyes.
“We’re going to fuck you now, Lady.”
“How you need it, Beauty,” Michael said, his breath whispering over her cheek. “Deep and hard.”
Troy drew out of her almost all the way, and then thrust back into her pussy just as Michael began to glide out of her bottom. When he plowed back in, Troy pulled out, and that set the rhythm of their fucking as they worked in and out of her with smooth, steady power.
Summer whimpered and writhed between them, her hips jerking first toward Troy and then back against Michael as she found their rhythm and followed it, tightening and releasing them with muscles she’d never felt before. Her softness caressed their swelling shafts as she accepted their hard, deep strokes.
“Look at me.” Troy’s fingers tangled in her hair. “Let me see your eyes.” He pressed deep, and the dome of his cock head nudged her cervix, sending a thrilling jolt through her pelvis that made her moan. “Together now, Brother.”
Summer groaned as Michael matched Troy’s movements, and both heavy shafts penetrated her simultaneously, stretching her and delving into her and filling her. Her breasts heaved against Troy as she shuddered and wailed.
“Oh, please,” she begged, clutching at Troy when he stilled. “Don’t stop, please, I need–”
Michael caught the lobe of her ear between his teeth.
“We have everything you need,” he told her. “Every dream, every desire.” He plunged hard into her. “We will bring you every delight you can imagine, my Beauty.”
It seemed to go on forever, that intimate dance between them, and on them, the sweet friction inside her twining and expanding in a flush of feeling that rose and burned through her so wildly she almost blacked out. Michael brought her back by firmly pinching one nipple and then the other while Troy dragged the edge of his teeth over her bottom lip.
“You want to come on our cocks, don’t you?” he said, his voice deep and a little ragged. “Go deeper, Brother. She needs to feel every inch of us taking her pussy and her ass before she gives herself to us.”
Michael pressed in, filling her so completely she could feel the soft crinkle of his body hair tickling her tightly-stretched opening. For a moment Summer wanted desperately to feel their semen pump into her body. The thought of both of them coming inside her made a strange heat seep through her sex, as if it meant to burn away the protective sheaths. The sensation pushed her into a dark, frantic upsurge of hot pleasure that shattered inside her over and over. As the climax claimed her, she screamed their names until she couldn’t get enough breath. Some primal rhythm possessed them all, their shafts pounding into her as she writhed, out of control. As Michael’s hands squeezed her breasts, his shaft began to jerk, and Troy’s penis did the same in the tight clasp of her pussy.
“Summer,” Troy groaned, spilling himself, as Michae
l did the same.
“Beauty,” he whispered harshly beside her ear.
But it was several long moments before any of them could be still. The last bits of the shared orgasm spasmed erratically, hips twitching, as they all gasped for breath. When it finally ended, no one could move. For a long time, they simply lay there. But when her lovers began to carefully disengage their bodies from hers, Summer felt tears prick her eyes. They had been so gentle, and yet so passionate, and she had never felt sexier or more beautiful…but now she knew she would never be able to let them go. She caught the two of them frowning at each other over her head.
“Please,” she said, “don’t tell me I messed that up somehow. It was…”
She couldn’t think of any word to describe it, and shook her head.
“There is something we would ask you,” Michael said, and raised her hand to his mouth.
“When you are ready,” Troy said, brushing the hair back from her eyes. “Michael and I would like to take you without using any barriers. No condoms, just us.”
She stiffened. Had they been able to read her thoughts?
“When we do,” the Templar said, “we will come inside you, and it will initiate you into your immortality. It is said there is no greater pleasure. But only when you are ready to join us in eternity, Beauty.”
Summer wanted nothing more than to give up her mortality and make the final transition, but another part of her made her think that was the last thing she needed to do. She was afraid of the power inside her, the power that would manifest completely once she was initiated.
What if it takes over? What if I’m never me again?
“Beauty, if we have upset you, think no more on it,” Michael said quietly.
She stared at him. “I’m not upset. I can’t do this––I mean, I can’t make the transition yet. Please don’t ask me why, because I don’t know. It’s just one more thing I can’t remember.” She pressed the heel of her hand against her forehead. “And there’s more––much more. I can feel it, hiding somehow in the back of my mind. Or waiting, maybe.”