by Eva Chase
“You wouldn’t be giving us a break if Rose wasn’t here,” Damon muttered as we slipped into the yard. He stood up from the bed of flowers he’d been planting and wiped his dirt streaked hands on his jeans. “This guy is a slave-driver, just so you know,” he said to me, but there was a playful gleam in his dark eyes.
It did look like the bunch of them had been working hard. Kyler set down the bag of mulch he’d been laying along the base of the hedge and grinned, swiping at the sweat-damp curls sticking to his forehead. Jin had been trimming a lilac tree near a wrought-iron bench with a sheen of sweat on his bare shoulders. Seth knelt down to finish assembling the matching chairs. The whole yard smelled like freshly turned earth, the prickly evergreen of the hedge, and the musk of my guys at work.
“Looking at this place, I’m starting to think I’ll have to give up that garage apartment after all,” Gabriel said. “Good call on the hedges. Tall enough for lots of privacy.” He tipped his head toward the wall of dense, dark leaves beside us and slung his arm around my waist. Casually, but I felt all four of my consorts mark the gesture in an instant.
“So you finally decided you’re joining us, huh?” Damon said, not exactly friendly but not exactly not either.
“If there’s room for one more in this group,” Gabriel said, holding Damon’s gaze. He offered the words like a question.
“As far as I’m concerned, you never left,” Jin said as he straightened up. He ran a hand through his blue-streaked hair and shot us a smile.
“I think we all figured it was just a matter of time,” Seth added. He tugged the last screw tight with his wrench and set the chair upright.
“Yeah,” Kyler said, with an arch of his eyebrows and a wider grin. “What took you so long anyway?”
Gabriel spread his free hand, his mouth curling sheepishly. “I just needed to be sure I was making the right choice—for everyone.” His gaze came back to Damon.
Damon ambled up to us with his usual cocky stride. “As long as you remember who was here from the start,” he said. He set his hand on my waist just below Gabriel’s arm and leaned in for a kiss. I felt Gabriel tense slightly behind me, but then, as Damon angled his head to deepen the kiss, he bent to press a kiss of his own to the back of my neck. Desire unfurled inside me.
Damon stepped back, looking satisfied. Gabriel tucked his head over my shoulder. “Whatever you need, whenever you want me,” he said. “This ceremony we need to do—”
I put my hand over his, squeezing his fingers to stop his words.
“We’ve got time. There’s no need for you to rush into it. I wish none of us had needed to rush. As well as that’s worked out after all.” I beamed at my guys. “And now we’re free. I can come see you here every day—spend nights here—you can come to the house. I’ll have to figure out the best timing so that it’s not noticeable enough for gossip to start in town, but… there’ll be no more fiancés. No more estate managers to dodge. No schemes hanging over me. Just us.”
“And we’re going to be amazing,” Jin said. A desire that matched mine colored his voice. He came over to take my other hand.
I tugged him into an embrace, breathing in the lingering scent of paint that always clung to him. When he stepped back, Kyler and Seth had joined the small circle around me. The slimmer twin touched my cheek and kissed me so hard I was breathless when he eased back. Then Seth stepped forward, brushing a strand of hair back from my face, gazing at me so fondly my heart swelled in my chest. It felt ready to burst with all the love I wanted to offer, all the love they were offering me.
“I want to spend as much time as I can with all of you,” I said. I reached to grip Seth’s hand. “We’ll go out to that old playground and I’ll help with the restoration—and then we’ll find something new to build for the town.”
I looked to Kyler next. “We’ll curl up on the sofa and you’ll tell me all about your latest discoveries—or the amazing programs you’re building.”
My gaze slid to Jin. “We’ll go walking through the estate to find new pockets of inspiration for your art.”
I turned to Damon. “We’ll steal apples from the orchard and go skinny-dipping in the pond and not care what anyone thinks, like we’re kids all over again.”
Then I hugged Gabriel’s arm, still wrapped around my waist. “We’ll race off on your motorcycle to all the places where no one knows where I am and see what new experiences we can dive into, with home always right here to come back to.”
“Sounds like nirvana to me,” Jin said. “But you know, I think right now we should be celebrating your accomplishments.” He teased his fingers down my side, and a fresh quiver of desire ran through me. “From what I’ve heard, there are a whole lot of beds in that house that need breaking in.”
“I’ll second that motion,” Ky said. He eased past Jin to kiss me again. Then he pulled back far enough to murmur, “There is something I was thinking it’d be fun to try the next time at least a couple of us were together.”
I had to laugh. “Have you been researching again?”
His grin turned wicked.
Seth cleared his throat. “Well,” he said, “I happen to know that the room with the biggest bed is the one in the attic, which technically is Rose’s.” His lips twitched upward as he met my eyes. “It’s also soundproofed.”
A flush washed over me. “All right,” I said. “You thought of everything, didn’t you?”
“Sounds good to me,” Damon said, nudging me toward the house, his eyes dark with hunger. “Let’s give the new boy a taste of what he’s in for.”
“You make it sound like a bad thing,” I said.
He chuckled. “Not at all. It’s just a matter of whether he can keep up.” He aimed a challenging look at Gabriel.
“I’m looking forward to trying,” Gabriel said, sounding amused.
Seth led the way into the house and up the stairs. When we reached the attic with its vaulted roof, I sucked in a breath. He hadn’t done much decorating yet, but there was a big oak bed with a king-sized mattress, a little reading nook by the dormer window with an armchair, and a low bookcase just begging for me to add some of my books to it. It already felt like home.
Seth smiled at me a little shyly. I pulled him to me and kissed him with all the love and gratitude I had in me. His hands smoothed over the sides of my dress, and others joined them. Damon stroked my hip as he leaned in to kiss the crook of my jaw. Jin grazed the swell of my breast as he nibbled my earlobe. The rising flood of sensation made my head spin.
Damon eased my dress up, sliding it over my head, and Kyler knelt to press his lips to the sensitive skin at the back of my knee. Gabriel claimed my mouth next, cupping my breast through my bra. Jin slid his hand down to the front of my panties. I moaned, rocking into his touch, alight with pleasure.
“What was your big idea, Ky?” Seth asked, his voice thick.
“Mmm. Maximum pleasure for our consort,” Ky said. He stood up, his gray-green eyes gone languid in an unexpectedly seductive way. “C’mere, Rose.”
The other guys drifted around us as he led me to the bed. My skin tingled with anticipation. “I don’t think we want any of this in the way,” he said, unclasping my bra. Jin moved to slide down my panties without waiting for instruction. There was the rasp of a zipper as Ky kicked off his own pants. “Stay right there, Jin. We’re going to give her everything, inside and out.”
Jin’s eyes lit with delight. He kissed my thigh, easing his mouth up my leg as Kyler dipped his hand to my sex. I hummed encouragingly. Ky explored the slickness of my folds with a groan.
“Lean over a little—hold on to the bed post?” he murmured. I did, my fingers curling around the polished wood, my feet edging apart instinctively. He rubbed his rigid cock over the curve of my ass and then down to my core.
“Fuck,” he muttered. Then he was sliding inside me with an eager thrust that sent a jolt of bliss through me. I gasped and moaned.
Jin took that as his cue. He set his mout
h over the front of my sex and flicked his tongue against my clit. I cried out louder as ecstasy spiked through my nerves. My spark shot higher, blazing through my nerves.
“Oh, God,” Ky said, thrusting slow and steady. “I love being inside you.” He pushed himself in all the way to the hilt, sending pleasure shuddering through me.
Damon came up beside me. He kissed me on the mouth, swallowing my next moan, and then sat on the edge of the bed where he was the perfect height to test his teeth against my nipples. Another cry broke from my throat. Jin swiped his tongue over my clit, the rhythm of Kyler inside me pressing me harder against the other guy’s mouth, and it was a wonder I didn’t explode right then.
Through the haze of bliss, I raised my head. My gaze locked with Gabriel’s, watching where he stood by the bed. His face was flushed and his eyes bright, but he was holding back as if he wasn’t quite sure how he fit in. The bulge of his cock strained against the fly of his jeans. Spark help me, I wanted him too. Wanted him to know how much he was a part of this crazy wonderful love we were making.
I motioned to him and to the bed with my free hand. He climbed onto the mattress, coming to a stop on his knees a foot away from me. He bent down to kiss me, and I hooked my fingers over the waist of his jeans. Closer. Off.
He sucked in a breath as I slid his cock free from his boxers. I swiveled my tongue around the head, and he groaned. “Rose,” he said, sounding almost incredulous. Incredulous but happy.
Seth clambered onto the bed too, sprawling with his back against the pillows. I glanced at him as I stroked Gabriel’s cock. Seth shook his head with a smile that looked totally relaxed and freed his own cock from his slacks.
“You and I got first shot christening this place,” he said. “I’m happy to watch—and I’ve got a great view right here.”
He rubbed his hand up and down his erection. The sight of him touching himself turned me on even more, another burst of pleasure rushing through me alongside the heady burn inside me and the quivering of my nerves around my clit and my nipples.
I lowered my mouth to Gabriel’s cock, letting the rocking of my body guide it to the back of my throat. His hand fisted my hair. “Oh, yeah. Just like that. You’re amazing, Rose.”
Damon bit down on one nipple. I gasped and sucked Gabriel down even deeper. Ky picked up the pace of his thrusts, and my legs started to wobble. Pleasure surged up through me, my spark searing higher with it, building and building, and Jin scraped his teeth over my clit and—
Fireworks burst behind my eyes as that immense wave of bliss crashed over me. I moaned, my mouth clamping around Gabriel’s cock.
“So good,” Ky said, his thrusts becoming erratic. “Rose.” His hips stuttered with a hot spurt. I sucked Gabriel hard, riding out the wave, and he came too with a salty gush. Then he was pulling me up to kiss me on the mouth.
The moment he let me go, Damon hooked an arm around my waist and tipped over with me onto the bed. He kissed me hard and murmured by my ear, “Ready for round two, angel?”
“Fuck, yes,” I managed to mumble. The aftershock of my first orgasm was still ringing in my veins, but a fresh wave of desire coursed through me.
Damon slid into me with one quick thrust, and I nearly tipped over the edge again just like that. Jin was scooting onto the bed next to us. I reached to grip his cock, and he groaned. I stroked him in time with Damon’s already shaky thrusts inside me.
“Tell me you’re almost there,” Damon said. “Let me take you all the way.”
“Please,” I said around a whimper, arching my hips to meet him. He plunged into me even harder, and I lost it again, every nerve singing with the flood of ecstasy.
Jin braced his hand over mine, and we finished him off together. My head rolled back just in time to see Seth coming with us, his gaze fixed on me.
I flopped back on the bed, boneless and sated. The guys snuggled around me, an arm looping over me here, a face nestling against me there. I sighed and wriggled deeper into their combined embrace.
For a while we just floated on the afterglow. But as I came down, a totally different—maybe even silly—but no less potent desire rose up inside me.
“You know what?” I said.
“What, Rose?” Gabriel said, kissing my hip.
I ran my hand over his soft hair. “I want to do something totally, amazingly normal with all of you. Let’s… let’s go make lunch. And watch TV. And argue about who’s going to take out the garbage.”
“That would be Seth!” Damon announced. “He cares the most.”
Seth laughed.
I made a face. “Okay, maybe we can skip the arguing part. But you know what I mean.”
“Yeah,” Kyler said. “I think we do.”
We peeled ourselves off the bed and managed to reconstruct our clothing into some semblance of neatness. In the big, sunny kitchen on the first floor, I found Seth was one step ahead of me there. A fresh loaf of bread I was going to bet his and Kyler’s mom had baked sat on the counter. There were cold cuts and cheese in the fridge.
I grabbed them. Jin started slicing the bread. Damon brandished a knife with the mayo. Gabriel searched through the cupboards until he found some plates, and Ky studied the offerings with a thoughtful eye.
“The best combination of flavors would definitely have to be pastrami and Swiss,” he said. “But turkey and Havarti can give it a run for its money.”
“We’re making sandwiches, not science experiments,” Damon said.
Ky shrugged with a brilliant smile. “Same difference.”
“From an artistic standpoint,” Jin put in, “we could really use some pickles. That splash of green will tie it all together.”
“Add it to the list,” Seth said, jabbing his thumb toward a magnetic pad on the fridge.
Gabriel chuckled, shaking his head, and went to write it on. I looked around at all of them—my guys, together the way we should be—and a lump of emotion filled my throat.
Here we were. One big, weird, spectacular family. I didn’t care if I never got to show another person outside this house my magic. I had everything I could have wanted from my life right here.
“Turkey for me, please,” I said, leaning across the counter to grab it. My fingers had just closed around the package when the front door slammed open.
“Stay where you are!” a sharp female voice rang out. “Hands up and still.”
My heart lurched. We all froze. Damon’s fingers tightened around his knife as several sets of footsteps thumped into the house behind me.
“I said hands up,” the woman snapped. “Rose Hallowell, and possibly present company as well, you’re being taken into custody by the order of the Assembly.”
* * *
Will Rose and her men escape the corrupt witches of the Assembly? How much more evil will they uncover? Find out in Consort of Pain, the third book in the Witch’s Consorts series. Click here to get it now!
Want a glimpse into the history between Rose and her guys? You can grab, Rose’s Boys, the Witch’s Consorts prequel story FREE here!
Next in the Witch’s Consorts series
Consort of Pain (The Witch’s Consorts #3)
I've overcome the odds to claim my magic and the five men I'm not supposed to love. Then, just when I think we've finally found peace, our lives are turned upside down by a life-shattering threat.
If our enemies succeed, we'll be dead by tomorrow. But they've never fought Rose Hallowell before. Even I haven't discovered the limits of my powers yet. I just wish I could be sure that my magic will be enough. I can't summon it alone, and the more energy my consorts offer me, the more pain I could cause them.
Can I find new allies to help us win the day—or will we be betrayed all over again?
Get it now!
Dragon’s Guard excerpt
Did you know I have another reverse harem paranormal romance series, full of shifters and steam and mystery? Here’s a sneak peek inside the first book, Dragon’s Guard.
&nbs
p; The last dragon shifter meets her four hot alpha mates—and life is about to get dangerous.
DRAGON’S GUARD
1
Ren
“Are you waiting for someone, honey?” the bartender asked.
It was a reasonable question, considering that I’d been perched on one of the leather-cushioned seats at the bar for ten minutes without ordering anything. If the place had been any busier, he’d probably have pushed me a lot sooner. But there was only one other patron down the counter from me, a grizzled dude who was glued to his beer and the burble of the football game, and a handful of people scattered around the wooden tables in the rest of the room.
I’d picked this bar for exactly that reason. If she came, it’d be somewhere low key, not too noisy or crowded. At least, that had felt like the right idea. It wasn’t as if she’d shown up anyway.
“Not exactly,” I said to the bartender, leaning my elbows on the counter. The smell of wood varnish and booze tickled my nose. “And if you’re going to call me anything, call me Ren.” Most of the times I’d heard “honey” in the last seven years, it’d been followed by a leer and a grope.
The bartender didn’t take offense, just grinned. “No problem, Ren. Can I get you anything, while you’re ‘not exactly’ waiting?”
I was feeling too restless to want a drink for pleasure, but maybe that was why I should have one. It’d take the edge off my nerves. “I’ll have a Bloody Mary.”
“That I can do.” His grin turned apologetic. “I do have to ask for ID. Take it as a compliment?”
I shrugged and pulled out my wallet. When I flashed the card at him, he chuckled. “Birthday girl, huh? It’s an honor to serve your first drink.” He raised an eyebrow. “Or at least your first legal drink.”