Damn, he loved this woman.
And wanted her.
He should have known he could accidentally project in their minds if he was distracted enough. He was filled with embarrassment for stepping out of line.
“Take her,” Gentry said. “Watching will be hot.”
“But, I…”
“Take her,” Gentry said, eyeing his partner with heat. “I want to see it.”
Sterling nodded. Gentry had always been generous with him, despite being so much higher in dragon rank. He knew Gentry would never want him treating himself as less than. But it was just habit at this point, habit that had risen from desperation and then life-saving gratitude.
“Sterling, I never chose you out of pity,” Gentry said, kissing Roxy’s shoulders and making her moan. “I chose you because I admired you. Because you were strong. Because even in the face of terrifying odds and isolation because of your powers, you were brave and stoic. And I knew I would need that. Far more than I would need a golden shield.”
Something in Sterling was cracking. A wall he’d been hiding behind for a long time.
He was wanted. He’d been chosen. His hands tightened around Roxy, holding her close, as he needed comfort at that moment.
Suddenly, he was a young dragon again, shaking with fear as he waited for the choices to be made. Wondering what they’d do to him when they took him.
And then Gentry’s kind purple eyes as he reached out a hand.
Sterling blinked back the tears that rose at the sudden emotion. He was here, he was happy, and their mate was in their arms.
And he finally knew what he meant to Gentry. It hadn’t been pity. It had been what he wanted. He had been worthy.
Gentry got up on his knees, facing Sterling on the other side of their mate. She was so short between them. So soft, so wonderful. With her vulnerability and sunlight, she utterly completed them. Brought things to the surface that would have long stayed buried.
And Sterling wanted to take her.
Gentry’s hands smoothed over his shoulders, soothing him. “I’ve always wanted to see you take what you want. You’ve never been lesser in my mind. Take our mate. You deserve her as much as I do.”
Sterling didn’t know if that were true, but he didn’t care. He reached a hand down between her legs, and she gasped.
“Sterling,” she said breathlessly. “Do it.”
He hesitated.
“Well, one of you better take me soon, because I’m about to explode if I don’t feel one of you inside me.”
That snapped Sterling into action. Gentry leaned back with Roxy against his chest as Sterling held her hips to enter her from behind. He was treated to the view of her gorgeous round ass as he teased her entrance, which was wet and ready for him.
It felt like it was more than he would ever deserve, but he was taking it. He slid smoothly inside.
His entire body convulsed at the feeling. She held him perfectly, so tight, so warm, so home. He could see Gentry’s warm eyes watching him with love as he adjusted to being inside her. The most wonderful thing he’d ever felt.
Roxy’s hands were on Gentry’s chest and she was looking up at him as she gasped and adjusted to the fullness.
Luckily, after having Gentry, she was a little more used to the size of dragons.
She sighed. “That feels so good. Nothing in the world is ever going to feel as good as the two of you, is it?”
Gentry grinned and caressed her breasts as she arched against him. “No. I don’t think so.”
“Damn straight,” Sterling said and began to slowly pull out of her. The friction was like lightning and her moan of pleasure was like thunder, rumbling through him and making everything too overwhelming.
Still, he continued to move inside her, grateful for Gentry holding her up and stroking her breasts and calming her as the storm continued to build.
And it was a storm inside him, raging and raining over him as he felt completely accepted for the first time in his life. It meant more than claiming; it meant more than taking.
It was being wanted, being taken inside.
He braced a hand around her soft waist and the other on the side of the tub to keep him steady as he continued to thrust hard into her. She met his thrusts with little moans, and she began to say his name between breaths.
He felt Gentry growing more heated as well. He knew from experience that watching your mate get pleasured was amazingly hot, and he wouldn’t resent the times he didn’t get to do this. But this was special, a gift, and he was going to treasure it.
He felt at one with her, and as her breath increased, he felt her body tightening in response, getting closer.
“More,” she gasped, and then her hand moved in front of her. Sterling realized with surprise that she was reaching for Gentry. He heard Gentry’s deep moan as she began to stroke him.
The heat of all of them experiencing pleasure drove him further, made it hard to hold on. He could feel her body tightening around him, fighting off the release and pleasure coming. But he wouldn’t let her fight it. He wanted her to feel it, knowing it was coming from him, shaking in his arms.
He reached around to fondle her clit as he stroked deeper, making it harder to resist her climax.
Sure enough, after a few seconds, she let out a little scream and pushed up against Gentry, arching. Her release triggered Gentry’s, and Sterling heard his partner groan as he and Roxy shook together. He then gave himself up to his own pleasure, totally complete as he felt shock and sensation pulse through him, vibrating him from head to toe, filling him with something he’d never tasted before.
He let out her name in an oath as he heard her scream his name and then Gentry’s.
He’d never forget this moment, not in a million years.
And he’d never let her go. He curled his arms around her and held her tight.
Never.
7
Roxy’s heart was pounding within her as she came down from the orgasm. With Sterling inside her, she’d been soaring, filled with pleasure and resting against Gentry’s strong chest, carefully contained between her dragons as the world seemed to spin.
Now she realized Sterling was still holding her from behind, his fingers clutching tightly like he’d never let her go.
There was something pure about him, something sterling, like his name. Bright and shining and light. She shared overwhelmed looks with Gentry. She’d loved stroking his long length while Sterling had been pumping inside her. It was the most alive she’d ever felt. She loved having each of her dragons inside her, each a different experience but each amazing.
Sterling pulled out carefully and then turned her to face him, taking her lips in a hard kiss that consumed her very soul. She felt Gentry kneel behind her, holding her with both arms. She could feel how strongly they were bonding with her. Perhaps that’s just how dragons were.
“It is,” Sterling murmured. “But you are the first it has happened with.”
“You were made for us, Roxy,” Gentry said urgently, tickling her ear.
Her body was still alight, pulsing with the pleasure she’d experienced, the release.
And she could sense they wanted something more from her. A commitment, a willingness to walk into this with them and leave everything behind.
She wanted to. She did. But when she’d been alone in that basement after being kidnapped, the only thing that had kept her going was achieving her dreams. All she could think of were the thousands of hours she’d spent working for that very thing.
“I’ll buy you a cooking school,” Sterling said. “Bring all the teachers here.”
She shook her head. She knew that wouldn’t be practical. Overwhelmed tears filled her eyes as she wrapped her arms around Sterling’s neck, hugging him tight for comfort. He’d been so unbelievably tender with her during their lovemaking. And Gentry had been patient as always, both of them focused on her pleasure.
She should just say yes. Why couldn’t she say yes?
“What’s wrong?” Gentry asked. “What’s bothering you?”
“I just… I know you both want me to say yes, and I just… don’t know how to. Yet.”
“You can tell we care for you,” Gentry said, sounding strained as he leaned forward, on hand on his forehead. “When we make love to you, surely you can sense our feelings for you.”
She nodded. “I feel your caring, your lust, your strength. But this all… It’s all happening so fast. And I don’t want to give up everything until I’m sure. Usually something is too good to be true when it comes this easily.”
Gentry sighed and sat back in the bath. He put a hand up to his head. “You think it’s been easy? You think it was easy to see you in a vision and track you down to save you? You think it’s easy to hold back every day when my dragon wants to claim you and he’s used to getting what he wants?” He lowered his hand and his eyes seared her. “You think it’s easy to make love to you? To watch you come in my arms knowing you don’t have my blood, my protection? Nothing about this is easy for us, Roxy. But we’re trying to be patient.”
Gentry leaned forward again, closing his eyes, and Roxy didn’t know what was going on with him.
Sterling was silent throughout this. Roxy had been expecting this kind of outburst from him, not Gentry.
Gentry pulled himself from the tub and grabbed one of the bathrobes Sterling had set out earlier.
“I took your side against Sterling because I was trying to give you time,” Gentry said, hurriedly tying the belt to his robe as if he couldn’t wait to hide himself from her. “But you just had us again. What we give you when we do this…” He gestured to the tub. “That means something to us. I’m not trying to rush you, but…”
“Wait,” she said. She wasn’t saying no. She was just working up the nerve to say yes. She didn’t know how to take the leap.
Sterling turned to face her. “You don’t have to understand everything. You just need to decide if you trust us or not.”
Gentry turned back to stare at her, putting her on the spot.
“I do,” she said, letting out a sigh and feeling her whole body relax as she accepted it. “I really do. And I wasn’t trying to hurt either of you.” It was time to let down her guard. It wasn’t fair for them to be the only ones putting themselves out there.
Gentry came back to her and hugged her tight over the rim of the tub. “I’m sorry,” he said, and she could hear the reluctance in his voice. “Perhaps I haven’t explained enough what’s in my heart, but I’m not sure it would even make sense to you. I would die before I let anything happen to you.”
“As would I,” Sterling agreed, getting out of the tub and shrugging into a robe as he walked out of the room. She concentrated on Gentry, because the main issue seemed to be between them for now. Sterling seemed okay with things for once.
She could sense how great he’d felt when he was inside her, and perhaps that had been reassuring.
Gentry held her from outside the tub, and she was sure she was getting his robe wet. He seemed overwhelmed so she was content to just let him hold her. She wanted to hold him as well, until she could summon up more courage to make the choice she knew she needed to make.
But once that happened, it would be over, final. It was hard to commit to anything that had such eternal consequences. The only thing that had ever been final in life was death, and now she was leaving even that behind. Eternity. Her mind spun at the thought of it.
“But you can’t really imagine it ending either, can you?” Gentry murmured. “Days like today, with people you love, can’t you just see them going on forever?”
She nodded. When she put aside the fear, she could. But she’d been alone for so long, and she didn’t want to hope for too much and be disappointed.
“It’s real,” Gentry said. “We’re real. It’s why we’ve been so patient. But we’re running out of time.” He winced and leaned forward over her, and she was surprised by how heavy, how exhausted he felt. He was shaking.
“You had the vision again, didn’t you?” Sterling asked, having come back from wherever he went. His hands were clasped behind him, his face stern. “That’s why you were upset after sex. You’ve had more premonitions, haven’t you?”
Gentry nodded slightly, avoiding her eyes. “Just after we finished. It’s still on course, and I don’t know what to do.”
Sterling nodded, and the next second, before she could see what was happening, she felt a sharp little stab on her arm, felt something warm against her, and felt herself jerked up against Gentry unexpectedly. The next second, she was falling back in the tub as shock waved through her, and she could hear Gentry shouting as her head went under the water. Felt arms lifting her as the world seemed to swirl around her in a whirlwind. She couldn’t see, couldn’t speak, as if her whole being was sucking inward.
She cried out as something incredible flooded through her, making everything suddenly clear. As she came back to Earth, she was aware of Gentry and Sterling arguing. And then something else.
Thoughts. She could hear thoughts.
She put her hands to her head and rocked. They had placed her in a robe and on the bed while she’d been semi-conscious, and they were standing a little ways away.
She could hear their thoughts, but not make them out over the shouting. It all became too overwhelming, and she screamed out, making the shelves in the room rattle and something fall to the ground and break with a crash.
Both dragons turned to her, both voices and thoughts silent.
Tears stung her eyes. Yes, it was what she would have wanted, but it was supposed to be her choice. She hadn’t thought Sterling would ever take that from her. Not if he really cared.
She felt betrayed, and worse, she was now stuck forever with her betrayer.
And just after he’d been inside her.
She gave him a glare full of her tears and then jumped off the bed and ran for her room.
“I had no choice,” Sterling called after her. “I won’t let you die. Even if you want to.”
She ran into her room and closed the door.
* * *
“How could you?” Gentry hissed. He couldn’t believe what Sterling had just done. “You’ve just destroyed all the trust we’ve been working so hard to build.”
Sterling’s face was hard, his eyes steely. “You said it. We’re running out of time. I saw the vision clearly that time, and you know what I saw, amid the horror?”
Gentry shook his head, denying the images. They’d tortured him enough, coming into his mind at a time when he should have been reveling in the pleasure he and his partners had just experienced. He was tired of his visions ruining his life.
“I saw she was human! She hadn’t been mated. She had no powers. Thus, I did what I had to in order to change that.”
Gentry’s eyes snapped to his partner. Why didn’t he get that sometimes things could make rational sense yet still be morally wrong? “You had no right to make that choice for her.”
“And you had no right to keep information from her that would have helped her make the choice. Do you think if we told her what was at stake, she’d have chosen to stay vulnerable? I know what she wants from her life, but her mind also screams she wants us. Even if she can’t choose it yet, that’s where she was heading. And we don’t have time.” Sterling twitched his head to the side, cracking his neck once and then snapping his focus back to Gentry. “I can’t let anything happen to her. Or you. I can’t.”
Gentry sank into the chair by the window and looked out over the gloomy, overcast grounds. There was the garden where she’d first asked about the visions. Perhaps Sterling was right; perhaps he’d caused this by making her unaware of just how much was at stake. Perhaps his unwillingness to let her share the vision had hindered everything.
He put his face in his hands and sighed, still aware Sterling was in the room, watching him.
Sterling stayed still for a moment and then strode to his partner, sliding his
hands onto his shoulders. Gentry shrugged out of his grip. Sterling had taken the choice from Roxy and Gentry all at the same time, always taking everything on himself, and Gentry was tired of it.
He wasn’t willing to blame himself this time for Sterling’s awkward or inappropriate behavior. Sterling was the one who had wielded the knife.
“I understand why you did what you did,” Gentry said. “But it was still wrong. We still believe in choice, don’t we? And you took it from her. Do you even understand why it was wrong?”
“It was what she wanted,” Sterling said. “More than fifty percent of her mind. I’m sure of it.”
Gentry shook his head. “Fifty percent isn’t enough for me. I want one hundred percent of her.”
Sterling took a step back, and Gentry could see he was finally losing his cool. “And how much would you have had of her if I had waited? Maybe instead of blaming me and complaining, you should be grateful I was willing to do what neither of you could bear to. I did what had to be done. I saved both of you, even if you can’t see it, and if you want to hate me from now on, fine. At least you’ll have each other.”
Sterling strode from the room, and Gentry felt instantly repentant. Sterling hadn’t meant any harm. And he was probably right about the vision. But how to make Roxy see that?
Gentry slowly rose and changed into sweats and a shirt. It was cool in the house, and all the warmth of the moments before had seeped away. All of Roxy’s happiness and generous spirit seemed to be absent now. He let out a deep sigh as he pulled on a velvet dressing robe and exited his room.
He didn’t see Sterling anywhere, but guessed he’d gone up to sit in the attic, as he did sometimes when he was upset.
Right now, he had to worry about Roxy, not his partner. Sterling would have to take care of himself for a while. Gentry had to make sure his mate didn’t do something stupid. Like running.
* * *
Roxy felt like she’d never stop crying. She didn’t know if it was relief that it was all over or disgust with the situation or just the shock of it all settling in.
Destined Dragons: BBW Paranormal Romance (Dragons of New York Book 3) Page 7