She readjusted her hiking pack and tightened her ponytail, shook her head in amusement at them, then trundled down the steps. Turning and walking backwards down the path beyond them, she grinned.
“Are we doing this, or what?” she called up to them. She had to admit, the exhilaration of calling the shots for once felt good, but it didn’t diminish the deep wish to find a man who exuded more power than these two did, with their boisterous exuberance and eagerness to please.
They galloped after her, Orrick taking the lead while Sten walked at her side.
“Have fun!” her mother called after them. Jade turned to wave, and as she did, she caught another silent look between the two males that was far too suspicious to let go. She could get past the idea that her mother may have been their first sexual experience with a female, but they were definitely hiding something.
When they were half an hour out, and hiking up a narrow path beyond the top of their favorite swimming spot, Jade finally broke their companionable silence. “My mother put you up to something, didn’t she? What is it?” She stopped on the path, unable to take another step until she knew.
The pair halted at her side and she found herself awash in their male muskiness. Jade closed her eyes, wishing like hell she wasn’t so damn attracted to them both. She took a deep breath and looked between them.
Orrick’s throat worked and his lips parted, his brows tilting down as he studied the path. He reached back and pulled his shoulder-length hair into a knot, securing it with an elastic hair-tie, yet another object brought from Outside. Jade studied him as his jaw flexed and watched a droplet of sweat trickle down the side of his tanned neck.
Tearing her eyes away from that raw masculinity, she looked at the other male. Sten looked back briefly, then averted his gaze, his dark lashes falling to his cheeks. He bit his lip in a way that evoked a kind of sensuality Jade had never seen in a man before. His expression looked troubled, and she felt a brief pang of regret.
“Tell me I’m wrong, if I am,” she said, her voice shaking a little.
“Jade . . . ” Orrick said, turning to face her. “You aren’t wrong.”
A dark dread sank into her gut. She should have known better after hearing Emma’s story about how the Queen had planned Emma’s own mating long in advance. If it hadn’t been for Jade and Jasper’s dire situation and the intervention of her brother’s new mates, Emma would have been locked into a mating with someone she’d never even met before.
“Was it bribery? What did my mother offer you to entertain me?” she bit out, furious at the thought that her mother—who she’d established a comfortable affection with over the last few weeks—would do this kind of thing to her own daughter.
“We wanted to tell you,” Sten said. “We were going to tonight. She wants us to . . . please you enough that you choose us as your mates.”
Jade let out a bitter laugh. “Of course she does. And what do you guys want? Does that even matter to you, or do you always do everything the women tell you to do? Do you even have a fucking opinion? If so, please, share it now.”
Orrick just stared at her, and Sten bit his lip again in a way that drove her mad. Fuck, could he be any more delicious with his thick shoulders stretching his sweaty t-shirt. Every so often, he’d use the hem of it to wipe the perspiration from his face, giving her periodic glances at the toned muscles beneath. And they both smelled so amazing, like fresh cut cedar. She could die happy, surrounded by the scent of them.
God, why had she never been so attuned to her senses the way she was now? So aroused by such a little thing as a man’s smell. She lost it when Sten finally released his lip from his teeth and the full, wet, worried flesh caught a glimmer of sunlight.
Jade stepped close, gripped his t-shirt with both hands by the collar and latched onto that enticing mouth of his.
Sten let out a soft grunt and grabbed her hips with both hands. He didn’t pull away, though, like she’d feared. He kissed her back, his mouth eagerly pressing as hard in return, his tongue lashing out to meet hers. It was all Jade could do not to let herself get lost. She hadn’t done it impulsively, but to try to get a rise out of him, and judging from the hard press of his cock against her hip through the barrier of his cargo shorts, she had succeeded.
“Tell me you don’t want me,” she challenged, pulling away and staring at them both. “And tell me that my mother’s wishes have nothing to do with it.”
“I want you,” Sten whispered, nuzzling at her ear. The roughness of his voice made her quiver with a deeper need that terrified her a little.
She didn’t quite know where that outburst had come from. Her deepest core was still tender from the few experiences she’d had, so she didn’t quite believe Sten when he said it.
His eyes raised to meet hers and his eyebrows twitched. With a clench of his jaw, he repeated himself.
“I want you, Jade.” He grabbed her hand and pulled it to his groin, pressing her palm against his arousal. “Isn’t this enough? Your mother ruined it by asking us to do something we’d already hoped to do. Don’t blame us for what she did.”
Jade reclaimed her hand and aimed a cry at the heavens. “Fuck! Do you two have any idea how frustrating you are? I’ve been watching you go in and out of Emma’s room for weeks, and now here you are, telling me you want me, yet doing fuck all to get me. Don’t make me do all the work, guys. Show me you want me, for Christ’s sake.”
She started walking and halted again at the deep voice of Orrick calling to her.
“Jade. Do you want us? I think that’s the more important question.”
Jade clenched her eyes shut and turned. “Yeah,” she admitted. “But I will never be happy with a guy who’s just with me because I outrank him. Relationships don’t work that way in my world.”
Orrick nodded and moved to walk beside her again. “So, do you want us to overpower you? Assert dominance? Is that it?”
Jade gawked at him, frustration and confusion rising so swiftly in tandem she felt tears pricking at her eyes. “Do you really have no idea what it feels like to have an opinion? Don’t you care about getting what you want once in a while?”
“We get what we want,” Orrick said. “We want for very little, though.”
“Do you want love?” Jade asked.
The pair of men looked at each other over her head.
“We have love,” he said. “A female represents status for us, as males. Belonging to you would be an honor—the highest honor available in the Sanctuary, now that your cousin is mated.”
“See, that contradicts what you just told me. Do you want me for the status, or because you genuinely want to be with me? I’m not a moron—I know what I am here. But I’m never, ever going to choose a mate who doesn’t want me in spite of who I am and the status he can achieve by being with me.” Her throat tightened up and the tears threatened to become full-on water works as she spoke. Yet she kept walking, wiping at her eyes.
“It’s against our ways . . . ” Orrick said. Jade nearly stopped and punched him.
“Fuck everyone’s ways,” she snapped, shoving down her emotional surge. “Just do me a favor over the next few days and forget the rules. I want you to not consider every action in the context of your—our—rules. But based on simple, true desires. Can you do that? Also, don’t let me boss you around. I’m getting way too into it, and I don’t like who I’m turning into around you guys.”
They didn’t respond, and Jade avoided looking at either of them. She took a few deep breaths as she walked until finally calming down enough to enjoy the scenery again.
Another half hour up the steep, narrow path, she became intensely conscious of the incline and the fact that she was in front with Sten behind her, his eyes aimed at about hip-level. She struggled a little to make it up the treacherous bank, grabbing onto a nearby sapling that came out by the roots when she used it for levera
ge.
Behind her, Sten said in a casual tone, “So, if I want to tell you I think your ass is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my life, that’s cool?”
“Don’t fucking mock me,” Jade said, grasping at a rock that looked at least more solidly anchored than the small tree had been.
A pair of hands pressed against her backside, not pushing, just simply squeezing. She froze, her entire body flushing from the hyperawareness of their contact.
“I said, don’t mock me.” The words came out distinctly less forcefully than she’d intended. Had Sten really taken her words to heart, or was he fucking with her?
“No mocking,” Orrick said, though he stood behind Sten and could only observe. “Just agreement. Your ass is amazing.”
Finally, Sten pushed and she managed to clamber up and away from his grip.
When her companions made it to the top of the ridge with her, they paused to catch their breath on a fallen log that rested in a shady spot overlooking the valley beneath.
“Your turn,” Orrick said. “We shared a little, now you share, too.”
Jade nearly choked on her water. “You shared? You call ogling my ass and groping me sharing?”
He grinned at her while Sten chuckled softly on the other side. “You gave us leave to express our desires, didn’t you? Maybe we misinterpreted your instructions, but I thought that’s what we were doing. Or does open appreciation of your anatomy not count?”
Jade took another quick swallow of her water, to give herself a second to think. Finally, she nodded.
“Fair enough. I can take it if you have nice things to say that aren’t lies.”
“So . . . ” Orrick cleared his throat. “Are we allowed to ask for the same in return? Our honesty in exchange for yours?”
The back of Jade’s neck prickled, but she nodded gamely. “What do you want to know?”
Sten stood up from his seat and went to lean against a tree facing her. Orrick, ever the spokesman of the two, asked the question.
“Are you as, ah, worldly as your cousin?”
Jade had braced herself for the question, but let out a loud laugh now. “What the hell? Do you mean am I . . . what? A virgin?”
She stood up abruptly, more to cover up the way her hands shook at the thought of telling them the truth. She hurriedly hoisted the pack back onto her back, hanging her water bottle on the carabiner at her belt.
They didn’t need to know precisely how inexperienced she was. But God, was it completely irrational that she wanted to maintain control while still wishing like hell that one of them—hell, both of them—would take it away from her?
They said nothing, only falling into pace beside her again, but the tension between them dug at her gut. Why did they need to know her sexual status? How the hell did it have any relevance?
Fuck, she was in denial already, though. It meant everything if she wanted to have anything with them. And she had to at least admit that to herself. She did want them both. Sten’s hungry response to her kiss was only the smallest piece of it. Orrick’s level-headed reactions to her drove her mad, but beyond his words, she’d been aware of his measured self-restraint all along. They respected her, she realized, which was far more than she could say for he rude awakening she’d had back in high-school with her first kiss. And she hated herself a little bit for belittling that.
“Fine!” she yelled, stalling their progress yet again and turning to look at them both, terrified about what she was prepared to share, but knowing she needed to do it anyway.
“I’m a virgin, at twenty-six,” she said. “I’ve only ever been kissed twice.” Sten raised an eyebrow and she rolled her eyes. “Until today, anyway. You guys terrify me, because you know more than I do. And I am so, so attracted to you both, but that just isn’t enough for me. I hope you get that. I figured out a while ago that wanting and having are two very different things. And what I want is something real. Real doesn’t happen if you force it.”
“I wasn’t lying about your ass,” Sten said. “For what it’s worth. You are perfect, Jade.”
She let a little breath out through her nose and gave him a sad smile. “Thank you, but that doesn’t exactly tell me how you feel, you know. We barely know each other. Beyond this little physical attraction, there has to be more. So much more. It can’t be forced because some other party wants it to happen.”
“I don’t think we’re capable of forcing it,” Orrick said. “Don’t let your mother’s involvement ruin this trip, all right? Trust me when I tell you we’re not doing this for her. We’re doing it because we want to be here, with you.”
Jade took a deep breath and nodded. “Good. Now, how far are we from the falls?”
“A couple hours still, but it’s nearly sunset, so we can stop soon to camp and reach it in the morning.”
“Fuck that,” Jade said. “We’re hiking to it tonight. We’ll stop when we get there.”
She turned resolutely and started walking again, surreptitiously wiping a stray tear from her cheek. They really were the sweetest guys, yet she knew they were trying hard to be less deferential, for her sake.
Chapter Five
The sun had fully set by the time the roar of the waterfall became too deafening for Jade to hear herself think over. They came through the trees to a view more spectacular than any she’d seen so far inside the Sanctuary. There was no moon that night, but the stars were out in full, sparkling force, the arc of the Milky Way painted across the deep, velvet canvas of the sky.
Jade stopped short and must have made a small sound of amazement. Beside her, Sten let out a light laugh.
“You haven’t seen anything yet. Wait for sunrise.”
“It’s fucking spectacular. We had a view to die for at my house at night, but never was it anything close to this.”
“No light pollution in here,” Orrick said. “Makes it easier to see in the dark, too.”
“Can’t you guys see in the dark anyway? Like cats?”
Orrick moved to stand in front of her. He grinned at her, his white smile nearly as bright as a crescent moon would have been, if it existed. His blue eyes gleamed with mirth. “You mean like you? It’s been full dark for hours, and you’ve never once tripped or asked one of us to hold your hand.”
Jade’s eyes widened as she realized he was right. Even though he was in shadows, she could make out every feature of Orrick’s face, right down to the extra few hours’ growth of stubble on his square, dimpled chin.
She laughed out loud and reached up to graze her fingertips over the short, rough hairs, fascinated by the way they still managed to catch what little light could be found.
Orrick’s intake of breath made her realize that she’d never so much as touched him before. She’d laid that kiss on Sten earlier to make a point, which had worked, and had been wonderful. But somehow, this tiny bit of contact with Orrick seemed so much more intimate than the rough, quick, there-and-gone kiss she’d shared with Sten. Now her own breath seemed to have abandoned her as Orrick stared back into her eyes.
She felt like she was in a kind of stasis in that moment, unable to move, or breathe, or anything. The only thing going through her mind was: will he?
He moved incrementally closer, and Jade heard pounding in her ears, even stronger than the steady rush of the waterfall behind them. Was that her heartbeat, or his? If her eyesight was that keen, was her hearing, too?
Her hearing was at least sharp enough to hear Orrick’s whispered “fuck” just before he drew her into his arms and pressed his mouth onto hers. She let out a little gasp and a moan, then sank into him, sliding her hands up the sides of his neck and tangling her fingers into his hair. His toyed with her mouth softly, gently, as his tongue swept along her lips.
The anticipation killed her—she had expected something as rough and quick as the kiss she and Sten had shared, but Orrick
didn’t seem inclined to make it fast. He savored her lips until another small groan drawn from her throat caused her to open to him. That was when he made it count, sinking his tongue into her mouth and taking over entirely.
Oh, God, yes. This is what I want.
She wanted to feel so overwhelmed by a man that she would let herself surrender to him. This came so close, and she might have, except for the sudden stiffening of his posture when she pressed closer to him and deepened the kiss.
He pulled away slowly, giving her lip an impulsive nip, then growled low in his chest.
“I didn’t get a chance to say it before,” he said softly. “But I do want you, Jade. If we need to be different than we are to have you, please give us a chance to try. You’re nothing like the ursa females we’re used to.”
Jade’s skin itched with the desire to be touched by him, to have his mouth all over her. She glanced at Sten, who stood only a foot away, seeming to hold his breath while he watched them. A single stroke of his tongue over the lip she’d devoured earlier made her clench her eyes shut in an effort to contain her hunger for them both.
“Wow,” she murmured, too overwhelmed by the heat radiating off them to think. She extracted herself from Orrick’s arms, biting her lip when she pressed against his hips by accident and felt how much he’d really enjoyed that kiss.
Her entire body was on fire from it, and she shakily turned and jogged the last few yards up the path. Spying the perfect rocky ledge that jutted out over the pool the waterfall fell into, she dropped her gear and started stripping.
“I’m going for a swim,” she said. “I’ll help set up camp after, okay?”
Heedless of where she stood or what lay between her and the water, she simply left all her belongings in a big pile. With only the stars lighting her way, she managed to find the lip of the rock. Taking a deep breath, Jade stared down at the dark, rippling surface. Without the light, she had no idea what lay beneath, but had learned to trust every inch of the Sanctuary as safe. Maybe a little treacherous at times, if their climb were any indication, but the most treacherous things inside were the people. The pair of enticing males she’d left behind made it so hard for her to think. Her own mother had apparently attempted to engineer a mating between Jade and those two sweet guys, too.
Nailed (Black Mountain Bears Book 3) Page 4