Nick was at her back. A warm presence that sheltered her, protected her from the storm she knew was coming. The waves rolled, crashed against a shore to further hone the pain that resided in her chest into a thing of terrible beauty. Edges smooth, it glimmered like glass. Everything that was wonderful they had to work for, suffer more than before.
Euan turned, and goodness. Even scarred and lean, he was magnificent. At his shoulder, the jagged puckered skin bisected the tattoo there. The lion’s head was disfigured, warped, mauled. Its face eaten by pink, its ear twisted, only one eye visible …
Much like its master.
The eyepatch suited him. The black leather covered the scarring, the disfigurement and a part of his upper cheek. He looked dangerous with it, threatening. His brow was heavy with creases, his visible brown eye hard, but behind the solid mass was a whirlpool of sentiment. He felt vulnerable with his wounds visible. She could see it.
They had survived a plague that had wiped out ninety-five percent of the population. They had survived the dystopian aftermath, the scarcity of food, the anarchy of a renegade, leaderless population.
Despite all the obstacles, the uncertainty, the mayhem and chaos, they had found each other, had fallen in love.
She wasn’t giving up without a fight. Not this, not them. She wanted to feel Euan’s skin under her fingertips. Trace those scars with her lips, her tongue. Kiss him. Kiss away his pain. Tell him that she loved him, for she did. With everything that she was.
So instead of all the words she meant to say, instead of all the clever things, the articulate and eloquent that needed to be spoken, she said simply, ‘I love you.’
His shoulder sagged, the air left his lungs. His gaze focused on the straw that covered concrete before he closed his eye and squeezed it tight.
The words came from her heart, her soul. They came from that shiny stone of pain and resentment. They echoed inside her, vibrated through her chest, her body.
She reached out for Nick’s hand, took a step towards Euan. ‘I love you.’
He shook his head. Those big shoulders swung with the force of his denial. Euan had never been able to embrace the feelings both her and Nick held for him. He was a powerhouse of strength with a fierce and unrelenting moral code. But he was also vulnerable. His emotional intelligence limited. He was desperate for love, for forgiveness, for compassion and loyalty. He required the words. He needed the reminder, in every poignant moment, love from them was necessary. He longed for something more than just cheap tricks of what the flesh could provide. Euan needed the all-encompassing embrace of love to sustain him, feed his soul, and yet, he often did things that would push those who did love him away.
Like lock them in an underground bunker and risk their death in the search of a man who would likely see his demise.
‘We love you, Euan,’ she said one last time. ‘But we are also very angry at you.’
He nodded, his head still tilted downwards. His wide chest expanded. That lion’s head tattoo stretched and morphed as he took in that great breath. She didn’t flinch when Nick squeezed her hand. She needed his strength now if she was going to get through this. If they were all going to get through this.
It was time.
‘I know.’ His voice was small. A slight shadow to his usual gruff determined dominance.
It broke her heart to hear it. A thousand shards detonated like the starburst on his back. She wanted to rage at him, hit, kick and maim. But apart from knowing that her tiny body would do little damage, she knew that he would let her have her fill to cause him physical pain, and that destroyed her even further.
So she spoke instead. ‘Not everything is black and white. We can love you, and be angry with you at the same time. We can want to hurt you and kiss you at the same time. We can desire to tie you up and maul you while we cry about how much we missed you, how scared we were for you, how utterly euphoric we both were when you woke. Relationships don’t work in linear shapes—’ her face quirked, ‘—especially not ours.’
He relaxed a little, a tremor rippled through him. Nick’s hand squeezed and she shifted her focus until their eyes met. So green, so lovely. Nick was everything to her, but so was the man who had almost destroyed them, and himself. ‘You left us.’
Euan nodded. His fists clenched, large hands that could cause the most incredible pleasure, hands that could, and had, killed men who threatened to hurt them.
‘I’m sorry.’ The words were almost impossible to here. Not because of the volume but because of the torment behind them.
Nick stepped forward then. Spine rigid, shoulders tight, a golden jaw was stone. ‘Look at me when you say it.’
The breath left her lungs when Euan raised his head. A single glassy eye. Their powerhouse of strength, of fortitude and determination. The man that was equal in being her safeguard against the storms of the new words was so broken he was drawn to tears.
She rushed at him. Her footsteps quick and sure. At the last moment she jumped, and just as she knew he would, he caught her. Strong arms of muscle and power wrapped around her. Hands rough with the effort to protect her were in her hair. Her lips were upon his and she tasted salt and sadness. ‘I love you.’ She had lied to herself, she needed to say it again. Would always need to say it again.
He attempted to shake his head. She wrapped her legs around a lean waist for leverage, pulled away from his soft lips and cupped that bearded jaw in both palms. She vaguely noticed that her own skin was chapped and dry. Despite her efforts to hold his gaze, his head turned in her hands. Nick was at her shoulder. His eyes sad. He licked dry lips, took a breath, and turned his head.
‘I love you, both of you,’ Euan said as he held green eyes. ‘I will never be enough. When I was … When they were … I didn’t think I’d get another chance to say anything to you, say those words to you again. But I want you to know that everything I did, I thought I did it for you, us. I’m sorry, I am. So fucking sorry.’
Kira felt the sincerity of his voice through his skin. It penetrated into her heart, lodged there, started to loosen the worm.
Nick leaned in, the heat in his body warmed her side. It radiated and influenced the heat that she only now noticed through the fabric of her pants. Her crotch was pressed against the warm exposed skin of Euan’s hard belly. And suddenly, the pain of everything that had transpired between them melted away.
‘You’re my everything.’ It was Nick’s voice that broke now. Nick’s tone that was hoarse with brimming emotion. Kira removed her hands from Euan’s jaw so that he was unencumbered when he leaned in and pressed wet lips to dry ones briefly before resting his forehead against Euan’s. ‘Fuck me, I was so goddamned scared.’
Emotion made their voices gruff, ragged. Euan’s strength held her still. His hands scorching at her hips. It gave her the opportunity to run her fingertips over the scar at his shoulder, in his arms that would never falter, she twisted her body until she was able to lean down and kiss the angry skin.
‘Christ,’ Euan huffed.
She licked the puckered skin, brushed her wet lips over the distorted mouth of the lion. ‘Lie down.’
The temptation of straw littered around them. Euan loosened his hold on her hips and let her slide down his body until her booted feet hit the ground.
It was a strange sensation, to watch him do something she had told him to without question or hesitation. He took three steps backwards, his eye never breaking with hers as he went to his knees in the straw.
Oh now, this was beautiful. Before he could take that enormous body further down, she said, ‘Stop.’
He did. The brown eye heated in the way that melted her heart. The anger dripped out of her, the hurt was inconsequential. This man, on his knees, in front of her? The only thing in the entire universe that mattered.
Kneeling, he was still a commander of minds and men. His lips reached her breasts and she wanted nothing more than to have those lips brush the sensitive skin there.
She pul
led her shirt off slowly, let the fabric hide her vision for just a moment. The confidence that swirled through her was unfamiliar. The sexual domination was something that she had never experienced. Even before the end of humankind, she had never been this way inclined.
But there was a reverence that infused with the air around them. A need for change, a desire for something more. Her hair tickled her bare shoulders as she twisted the bra strap at her back and slowly pulled it from her body.
Euan’s eye was molten molasses. So warm and dark, syrupy and lovely. It heated her skin wherever it focused, trails of fire that smouldered like hot coals in his wake. She shivered, because how could she not?
Then Nick was there, a blaze of emotion at her spine. His skin was soft against hers, and she knew he was naked from the waist up too. Firm muscles, warmth and home. His hands were rough as they slipped around her rib cage and cupped her breasts. He pinched her nipples. She arched, gasped. Hid her face in the hollow of Nick’s throat. Kissed the skin. Air whispered past her lips in quiet demands for more. Then the small weights were lifted in offering to the man before her on his knees.
She didn’t hear his approach. With her eyes closed, it was a wet mouth that consumed one tight, sensitive nipple and brought her focus sharply to the ache. She gasped, arched further, put both hands on Euan’s head and held him to her breast even as Nick held her close to his chest.
Nick’s lips scorched a brand along the skin of her shoulder, up the column of her neck. Hot breath was in her ear, his hands still cupped her for Euan’s attention while his hips thrust against her bottom. His lips caused devastation to her cognitive thought.
Euan’s bristly, short hair was under her fingertips. She scratched it with her nails, heard the rasp past the groan in Euan’s throat and the sigh in hers. Wetness, suction, teeth. Euan played her body with expertise, the experience of a master musician and she adored it.
He grunted when she forced him from his treat. His bearded chin was in her fingertips and she tilted his head until their eyes met. His lips glistened with wetness, his eye was a single black coal of want. She swayed with the heady sensation that powerhouse of muscle and bone was hers, and in that moment, hers to command, hers to enjoy.
‘On your back.’ Her voice was soft even as she let go of that granite jaw to undo the fastening of her pants. She could see the flash of indignation in his smouldering eyes. Not for the control, but for the loss of removing her clothes for her, so she indulged him. She removed her fingers only to be replaced by his. Nick captured her hair, pulled it from her shoulders and continued to devour the skin at her throat, eat the goosed flesh and torment her.
She closed her eyes for just a moment, to relish the sensations, to simply enjoy what was around her, with her.
Her boots were gone, so were her fatigues. Euan was already homing in on his prize when she gripped his head with both hands and told him, ‘No, I told you what I wanted you to do, now do it.’
Both men groaned. The vibration from both of them rippled through her spine and her fingers. She smiled, and Euan’s eye closed.
She wanted this, she wanted this more than she could articulate. She wanted, for just this moment to have the control, the command. There was a headiness in power, and she was suddenly drunk on it. More, more of this, this feeling of invincibility, of men at her feet, at her whim. Something inside her clicked, a shudder of understanding passed through her. She could be more than the meek woman that did as she was told, she could be more than the prize, the trophy. Maybe she could be the commander of men, change the world, with one compassionate ruling at a time. She had never considered it, and it was still a fancy, fleeting thought. But what if she could be the ruler of what was left of humankind?
Her eyes were on Euan and they must have flashed fire because his reverent utter of ‘Oh, fuck yeah,’ was music to her ears.
He was on his back, that glorious chest just for her, the furred skin just for her, the bulge in his pants, the steel and velvet behind the stretched fly right now? Just. For. Her.
She licked her lips and Euan held out his hands.
She came to him. Reckless with the scent of passion in her nose, she went directly to what she wanted, no more hesitation. Kira was going to be the leader of this little tryst and she rejoiced in the thought.
Naked, a little cold, Nick held her hand as she moved not to Euan’s waist where she could sit and grind. No, she moved to his head and waited.
His dark eye was ablaze. He stared up at her with desire and demand in those fiery depths. His attention flicked briefly to Nick and a smile stretched across his lips at what he saw. She tilted her own head to see what made her man of frowns and growls grin to enjoy something equally as beautiful on Nick’s face. The smile beamed, white teeth shone. Eyes as bright as strobes communicated nothing but excitement. They were loving this, both of them. They were adoring the switch in control.
It fuelled Kira’s determination further.
The heartbeat between her legs was a thunderstorm, the wetness there slippery against her thighs. She took the single breath needed for courage, turned towards his toes, and then began to kneel.
Right over Euan’s face.
The appreciative growl sent her heart into a thrum and her nerves to sing.
She turned to Nick and simply said, ‘I want you naked as well.’
And then Euan’s lips touched her, and she struggled with reality.
She’d never done this, not in all her life, sit on a man’s face. Have him devour what was between her legs with hungry, beautiful noises of desire and demand. His hands and forearms were wrapped hard around her thighs to draw her close, pull her tighter against the aggressive tongue, lips that consumed and teeth that nipped. She moaned and smelt her own arousal. She placed her hands on his rippling abs for leverage and moved her hips with her own rhythm. Hot skin burned her fingertips. It only increased the ferocity in the beast below her.
Her eyes were closed only long enough to tip her head back and roll her hips, so when fabric rasped and the empty boots hit the cement floor, she could meet the gaze of flinting green. He was glorious. Tanned skin that overlayed a torso that was built for desire. Square pectoral muscles, dipped and rippled abdominals, a muscular v that pointed to the prize.
The fastening on his pants was loose. Kira’s focus caught there. She moved involuntarily against Euan as Nick teased her by drawing the zipper down one metal tooth at a time. Her lips were wet, breath escalated, her thoughts nothing more than primal desire. As one man brought her to her knees, the other held her there.
Perfection, both of them. Nick defined excellence, Euan exuded glory. Together they supported her, cherished her, loved her.
Had always loved her. Would always love her. No matter her strengths, weaknesses, failures or triumphs. She was there’s. They were hers. And no man in the woods would take them from her.
Or they would have her to deal with.
Nick was then at Euan’s pants, boots. Both were removed with an efficiency she couldn’t fathom as she lost herself to a tongue that lashed her and a mouth that sucked at her. Euan had her clit now, and he was showing no mercy.
Then Nick was there. His tongue was in her mouth, he kissed her, drew her moans inside him. He smelt of woodland and man. She gave up her strength to him, allowed him to hold her upright as he devoured her mouth, and Euan consumed her pussy.
It was rising within her. Heavens, it had been weeks since she had experienced the rush of euphoric wonderment that came with an orgasm. The chaos of Euan’s recovery, the anger that simmered between them all. The guilt of sharing something with Nick without Euan’s presence seemed almost as big of a betrayal as him leaving them behind.
It came upon her fast and quick, angry in its ferocity. Her nails were on Nick’s shoulders, and it was his throat she cried down as she thrashed upon Euan’s face, used his mouth, lips, nose and chin for her own pleasure.
Her legs were jelly when it finally subsided. Aftershocks
of wonderment rippled within her, but her strength had turned to dust, so had that wild thrust for command. Now she just wanted to be held, between them.
Forever.
But they had other ideas.
They turned her together while she shuddered through the aftershocks. Euan used a discarded shirt to wipe his face but it still smelt of her when she kissed him. He tasted rich and beautiful, heady and musky. A combination of them both and she loved it. Tongues duelled, and the heat of his skin and hardness of his belly was between her twitching thighs.
‘My turn,’ from Nick was her only warning that something else was coming.
Another tongue, this one at her bottom. She squeaked and pulled back, but Euan held her to his lips with warm palms at her jaw, and Nick locked two big hands on her to hold her still.
She was forced to endure them. Forced to lie between them as one teased her lips, pinched her nipples, and the other played with that very, very sensitive little ring of nerves.
This was … Kira didn’t know what this was. But one thing was certain. No wonder her men liked it; heavens, it was wonderful.
‘Oh, that’s it, baby, relax into it.’ A finger entered the channel that still pulsed, that still dripped. ‘Little Pixie here said she wanted to fuck both of us.’
Euan broke the kiss slowly, pulled her face from his lips. The iris to his eye was almost lost to the blown pupil. She fell into a sea of blackness and never wanted to get out.
‘You want that, sweetheart?’ Euan asked.
She nodded, her voice lost to her, lost down that beautiful eye, consumed by it like she was consumed by the love she felt radiating from him. The smile that split his beard blinded her. Now that was perfection. It was then she found her voice. ‘Yes.’
He kissed her as Nick found that special spot within her that made her buck and writhe. As his tongue broached that ring of muscle, and his fingers manipulated her insides, Euan took the initiative to twist a sensitive nipple. The tide rose again, the pressure built. Thunder and lightning, electricity and noise vibrated through her body, sung through her veins, jolted and shocked. She was close, so very close.
Eternal Refuge Page 8