His lips fall on mine again with bruising force, and we crash into the wall together. I’m pinned by him, raw force holding me in place but also holding him back. “This magic—” he falters. “Yes, I want to hurt you.” There’s conflict there. The magic that’s taken hold of his brain telling him the only way to find satisfaction is to cause me harm. He’s warring with himself, even as he kisses my jaw with desperation.
Kiaran rips himself away from me, his lips red as though he’s been burned from kissing my skin, and he looks at me. “She will never stop,” he says. “Never.”
Before I can say another word, his body goes rigid, face contorted with pain before he almost throws himself out the door of the mansion. The magic overtook him again, and I wonder what it cost him to leave without taking me with him.
Goddess.
I sag against the wall, the fight draining out of me. That choice, I made the right one. But how do I explain this? How do I tell them what happened?
“Kari!” I hear the shout from far away. It’s not just a shout, it’s a warning. My senses pick it up a second later—the danger. Across the room the fire spins out of control, suddenly a bonfire that’s unable to be contained. Real and vicious magic tears through the house, and this time it tastes of her. Orange and ash, burnt and dead things. More than I’ve ever felt before. It’s tearing the house apart, and I can’t move. Gravity suddenly seems thick like syrup and my limbs will not obey. The only thing I have is power.
And now, I unleash everything.
Light blazes around me like a star as the building falls around me. Thousands of pounds of stone and crystal crack into pieces and cascade onto the ground. But not on me. They melt into glass in the heat of this sparkling fury, and I let everything pour out. Pain and rage and frustration and grief for my mate who currently is in pain. Anger that I had to choose, and relief that I chose correctly.
The building disintegrates into sand around me, and if I hadn’t had the shield of this magic, I would be crushed beneath it. I can see my mates running towards me, more than one bloodied and broken as I let the magic go, and succumb to the sudden exhaustion of releasing everything.
Arms catch me before the world goes black.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
________
KARI
“Kari,” the muffled voice says, reaching out with an aching sweep of blue power. “Kari.”
The voice is sad, and I want to comfort him, but when I reach out, he’s not there. I can’t feel him. “I’m here.”
Kari. It’s barely a whisper now. Filled with longing.
When I open my eyes there are tears on my cheeks. I turn my face into my pillow and let the sob escape me. Kiaran. His pain echoes in my chest, and there’s nothing that I can do about it. Not now. Not until I figure out exactly how to free him. And I will. No matter what it takes, I will make sure my mate is released from Ariana and her power.
“Kari?” Verys’s voice sounds from the doorway, and then he’s by my side.
“Bad dream,” I mutter, as the rest of my mates enter and sit. “Are you guys all right? You were ambushed.”
“How did you know?” Brae asks. There’s a nasty bruise on his face and Urien has a cut on his arm that’s nearly healed. Probably due to his talent.
I stretch, realizing I’m still in the clothes I wore, and I’m covered in glass dust. “Aside from the way you look? Kiaran told me.”
Aeric snaps to attention. “Kiaran?”
“The fae who attacked Verys,” I say. “He was there instead of Ariana.”
Kent curses under his breath.
“She wants my power, he doesn’t know why, but he said that she’s not going to stop. Ever.”
Brae shakes his head and reaches to stroke down my leg. “Why would he tell you that?”
My voice catches in my throat. How do I explain? “The power controlling him—it broke. He was free. But only for a moment. He chose to tell me those things and leave.”
“That makes sense,” Verys says. “Given what we’ve seen. The people who attacked us seemed to be controlled, and I imagined the people that brought down the building were as well. Kiaran leaving the building must have been a signal. They didn’t make it.”
Sadness hits me in a rush. To Ariana, those fae were expendable. But they were fae with lives, and families. Who knows how they got mixed up with her, but they don’t deserve that. “Will you be able to find out where they’re from.”
“I can do that,” Brae says. “And if I can’t, I can give them the proper rites.”
“Good.” I lean against Verys. We all take a moment of silence, not consciously, just letting the sadness breathe. They haven’t told me much about their time in the war, but I hope that I’m doing this right. I will acknowledge sadness and death, but I refuse to let it dictate me. I want to live, and love, and be free. “I know we have to make a new plan, but Ariana does as well. Can we take a day to breathe?”
Urien smiles. “I think that can be arranged. What did you have in mind?”
“I can think of some unfinished business from yesterday,” Kent says, chuckling.
“Actually,” I say, “Though I’m looking forward to that unfinished business a lot, Verys and I have some unfinished business of our own.”
He looks down at me, surprised. “We do?”
“We do.”
Urien laughs. “Have fun.”
I roll off the bed and grab Verys’s hand. I’ve already told the house exactly what I need, and I pull him into his room. He’s smiling as I push him onto the bed. “Not that I’m complaining about what’s about to happen, but after a week spent nearly alone, what kind of unfinished business do we have?”
I straddle his waist and kiss him, enjoying the feeling of him growing hard underneath me. “You gave me your firsts,” I say. “Almost all of them. I want to return the favor.”
Confusion crosses his face, and then clarity. His eyes go wide when I grab his hands and guide them to my ass. Over his shoulder I see the bottle of lubricant I asked the house to put here. Fuck I love magic. Verys’s voice is hoarse with need. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” I breathe against his lips. “I want to do this. I want to be able to have you. And—” I cut off, blood rising to my cheeks. It’s not easy to say out loud. “I want to be able to have more than one of you at once. This is the first step.”
Silver eyes go dark in a haze of lust, and I swear that he’s so hard he’s about to burst out of his trousers. “Are you sure you don’t want someone with more experience?”
“I want us to learn together,” I say, pulling the dusty shirt over my head. “I asked the house to give us what we needed.” He starts laughing when he sees the bottle, and grabs it as he strips down. I strip down too, crawling onto his bed.
When he turns back to me, I wiggle my ass at him. “I’m so fucking lucky,” he says. “To have you as a mate.”
“Right back at you there.”
Hands fall on my ass, stroking and smoothing down. Verys leans over me, kissing the nape of my neck and letting me feel the length of him pressed against my spine. Goddess, this is going to be something. Dragging his hand up the inside of my thigh, he teases me. Dipping his fingers into me before drawing circles around my clit, warming me up. Can’t hurt.
Without warning, he slips his cock into my pussy and plunges deep. I nearly come right then. He holds my hips as he plunges in, using the long, steady strokes that I’ve come to crave from him. The orgasm rolls in like a tide, filling me up slowly, building to a crescendo, and then nothing. He pulls back only seconds before I’m about to go over and I groan in frustration. “What the fuck? Oohhh—”
Cold lubricant spreads over my ass, and I understand. He’s taken me to the edge of pleasure so that I’m already blissed out on his cock. Leaning over me again, he kisses the edge of my ear. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” I arch my ass up into him. “You want this ass?”
“Fuck, Kari,” he says. “You
have no idea.”
“Then take it.”
One hand lands on my lower back, steadying me as he lines up, and I feel him against me, slowly pushing. Goddess, he feels so much bigger when he’s pressing in here. I don’t know if he’s going to fit. Is it even possible? My breath goes short as he pushes further, and I force my body to relax. Suddenly he slips past the tightest part, and he’s in. He curses and I do too. Fuck it feels so strange, and amazing. There’s a small amount of pain too, but nothing like what I thought it might be.
Every other part of me feels so sensitive now, from my skin down to my clit. Like they’re suddenly on alert because this is a sensation that they’ve never felt before. He sinks in a little deeper and I swear that I see stars. Adding magic to his gentle thrusts only makes it better. I’ve got sensations zinging through me that I never imagined that I would have, and it’s un-fucking-believable.
“You have no idea how good this feels,” he says, sinking in further.
My voice is more moan than words. “I think I have a pretty good idea.”
When he’s so deep in me that I don’t think I can possibly take any more, he’s still plunging further. My fingers grip the bedsheets like a vice just for something, anything to hold on to. I’m panting, desperate, wanting. Verys pulls back, the reverse friction driving me mad, and I can’t hold myself back any longer. I come, ecstasy making me go blind with sensation. I bear down on his cock, and Verys nearly collapses on top of me. “Fuck, Kari.”
“Yes, please,” I manage to say.
Laughing, he takes the hint, plunging in again just to pull back and fuck deeper. I’ve barely finished the first orgasm when the second one hits, bigger than the last. It’s an earthquake inside of me, pulling apart fault lines I’ve never felt. My clit is so sensitive and swollen that it’s aching, begging to be touched, and I think I might actually beg.
Verys hand slips around my legs and stroke me there, and I come again. “Verys!” His name echoes off the walls and I collapse onto the bed, unable to hold myself up any longer as he takes me deeper. He’s close himself grunting with every thrust, pounding faster and faster until he cries out, releasing heat inside me. Just that sends off aftershocks in my belly, making me shake helplessly as he spends himself inside me.
I don’t know why I waited so long to do that. If I’d known it would be that good I would have added that to my list of party tricks years ago. “Amazing,” I say, as he pulls out of me, covering my body with his and kissing down my spine.
“Yes.” His voice is reverent. “Thank you for sharing that with me.”
I roll over underneath him and lift my mouth to his. “I love you.”
“And I you.” His forehead presses against mine. “I’m grateful for unfinished business.”
I laugh. “Me too.”
At least, I am in this context. There’s so much more unfinished business than I want to think about. Kiaran and Ariana. Whatever she’s trying to accomplish by taking magic. Sealing the mating bonds and building a life here. So many things to figure out that it’s overwhelming. But I can take the day to breathe. Just one day, and then I’ll start to figure out what the hell to do. And I’ll have help.
Verys pulls me into his arms and lifts me off the bed. “Where are we going?”
“We’re not the only ones with unfinished business,” he says, dragging his lips across my neck, leaving a trail of delicious heat.
I laugh as he carries me back into my bedroom, where the guys are still sitting, and places me on the bed like an offering. “Kent,” he says. “Unfinished business?”
“Absolutely.” Kent strips off his shirt and leans down to kiss me.
There’s laughter and fire and pleasure in this room, and through it all, I have a bolt of fear. This is all too perfect. It’s what I want every day for the rest of my life. But I can’t quite let go of that thread of terror running underneath it all. Because deep in my mind, I can still hear that lingering, echoing voice.
Choose.
To be continued…
Want to know what happens next? Aeric, Brae, Kent, Verys, Urien, and Kiaran are waiting for you Shamless.
Pre-order now.
Keep in touch!
Devyn’s Newsletter:
Be the first to hear updates about my new releases, sexy exclusive content, and the occasional dessert recipe!
https://www.subscribepage.com/e1z4c0
Devyn’s Facebook Group:
Come hang out with us! We talk about books—especially the sexy ones—share memes and hot inspiration photos and more!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/devynsinclair/
About the Author
Devyn Sinclair writes steamy Reverse Harem romances for your wildest fantasies. Every sexy story is packed with the right amount steam, hot men, and delicious happy endings.
She lives in the wilds of Montana in a small red house with a crazy orange cat. When Devyn's not writing, she spends time outside in big sky country, continues her quest to find the best lemon pastry there is, and buys too many books. (Of course!)
To connect with Devyn:
Euphoria: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (The Carnal Court Book 2) Page 17