Lions' Pride

by Teresa Noelle Roberts

  “More, please.” Elissa did the baby-bird thing again.

  Only with her eyes closed, her head thrown back, her lips parted and succulent, she didn’t look like a baby bird. That was her blowjob face, the one she’d show just before she wrapped her lips around his cock and began to suck and lick, torment and tease and ultimately please.

  Oh, gods. This was not the time to be having that thought, not when, flirty mood or not, she was weak as a half-drowned kitten. Not when Rafe was watching them both, obviously fascinated by Elissa’s expression and by Jude’s reaction to her.

  Rafe’s full, juicy lips were parted, too, his eyes half-lidded. Some kind of subconscious echo. It was pure porn, but classy porn. As if he, too, was waiting to suck Jude’s cock.

  That image on top of everything else was just too much.

  Lust surged through Jude as he rocked his hips against Elissa’s ass. Exhausted as he was, his body urged him to do more. He sent his cock a stern, “Down boy!” It would be too awkward with Rafe there and besides, Elissa couldn’t possibly be up for playing in her current state.

  “Oh, yeah,” Elissa breathed. “More of that…and more chocolate.”

  He froze for a millisecond. Rafe took advantage of his hesitation to grab the chocolate bar from his unresisting hand.

  And to kiss his unresisting lips.

  He was too surprised to fight back—not that he wanted to. So surprised that his mouth opened in shock.

  Rafe’s mouth worked against his, and Rafe’s tongue just barely brushed the inside of his lips. It was gentle yet possessive and made him even harder, made him grind more against Elissa. He remembered the dream/hallucination/adventure-in-alternate-reality from the facility—the softness of Rafe’s mouth, the suede-wrapped steel of Rafe’s cock, Elissa’s wet tightness clamped around his dick.

  He groaned into Rafe’s mouth as the other man pulled away, wearing a grin Jude could only describe as smug or maybe sublime. One thing about being married to a red witch was you learned that sublime and even holy turned up in the sexiest and oddest places. Good Trickster lesson, really.

  “Powers,” Jude breathed.

  “Something like that. You felt it, too?”

  Jude desperately wanted to make a wise-ass remark, or to reach out and “feel it” in payback for the kiss or, if he was honest with himself, follow up on all the kiss promised.

  But the room pulsed around them, and he knew enough to realize it wasn’t just lust making his heart race.

  Red magic rose between the three of them. He’d lived with Elissa long enough to recognize it dancing across his skin and charging the air.

  “H…how?” he stammered, hoping he could get an answer before his brain turned off completely.

  Elissa, sandwiched between two male bodies, writhed, pushing back against Jude, grinding forward against Rafe. “I’m not sure. But it’s feeding me.” Her voice sounded stronger, breathy rather than breathless. “Like the chocolate, only better.” She ran one hand down Rafe’s chest, and even though he was wearing one of Jude’s thermal shirts, he shuddered as if she caressed his naked skin. “More chocolate?”

  Rafe put a piece of the chocolate between his lips in blatant invitation.

  She eagerly responded.

  Jude thought he probably should be furious, or at least annoyed. But color rose in Elissa’s pale cheeks. He swore he could feel heat and strength flowing back into her exhausted body.

  She was his life, his heart, and she’d gone so far into the magic for him that she’d drained herself dangerously.

  Later he’d worry about the ramifications of this weird magical ménage. Right now, if an extra body in the mix helped her fill that empty well, that was more important than his male ego.

  And no matter how strange and awkward it got afterward, his insistent body pointed out a threesome would be fun.

  Which didn’t mean he wasn’t going to stake his claim in no uncertain terms.

  He snatched himself a piece of chocolate, put it between his lips, tapped Elissa on the shoulder. She took the hint. More than took it.

  Chocolate didn’t suit Jude’s mostly carnivore tastes, but tasting from Elissa’s mouth was something else altogether. Sweet and smooth and very sexy, flavored with her breath. Elissa swallowed the chocolate somewhere along the line, but they didn’t stop kissing to get more.

  Rafe’s arms wrapped around them both. One hand traveled up and down Jude’s back, leaving a trail of tingling sensation.

  Elissa broke off the kiss and ducked to one side, practically forcing the two men on each other.

  Okay, no force was needed.

  This should feel stranger than it did…but then again, why? Getting hung up on definitions was so human. Trickster got to be both sexes; why shouldn’t Trickster’s children enjoy both sexes?

  They ended up lip to lip, body to body, and oh, Trickster’s boobs and balls, hard-on to hard-on. Without his brain being particularly involved, Jude reached for the drawstring on his sweatpants.

  Elissa beat him there.

  Her other hand was on Rafe’s fly. Maybe that should have bothered him, but with Elissa touching him, sending even wilder sensations through his dick, he couldn’t be bothered, even by her doing the same thing to Rafe. Rafe seemed to enjoy her touch as much as he did, and he found that curiously hot.

  “Please,” Elissa said, her voice small, but stronger than it had been. “Help me out here. I can’t coordinate.”

  Both men nodded. Jude untied his drawstring and let Elissa wiggle his sweats down.

  Rafe unzipped.

  Good God, he’d had that in his mouth? It looked exactly how he remembered it from the dream/vision/whatever, but it seemed more intimidating in the physical world. Gave him new respect for women.

  Trickster love the Lady and the Lord, this was going to be strange.

  Fun, but strange.

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Elissa wrapped a hand around each cock. The men’s energy surged up her arms and into her body, or maybe her spirit—wherever the hollow was where her magic should be. Arousal pulsed hot between her legs, flaring when she felt the familiar heaviness of Jude’s cock in one hand, Rafe’s slightly shorter but thicker one in the other, and imagined all the other places they might end up, in her or in each other. Sweet power fed into her from Jude’s and Rafe’s desire, filling the void, recharging her physical and magical energy.

  All her training screamed there was a huge ethical problem with involving Rafe now the emergency had passed. But, sandwiched between the two of them, she felt like a starving woman in the best bakery in the world, ready to run amok and not inclined to worry about nutrition or calories. Jude’s energy was powerful, delicious, familiar, but her drained body and spirit couldn’t—or wouldn’t—turn away Rafe’s, either.

  And Jude and Rafe kissing… Gods, she felt so much power there, so much male energy combining as they tormented each other so deliciously. Despite their encounter in the Otherworld, she’d figured nothing would happen in the physical realm. Rafe was unabashedly bi, but she’d expected Jude to maintain his straight-guy distance on the theory that what happened in the Otherworld stayed in the Otherworld.

  She was wrong. Lucky her. Lucky all of them.

  She worked her hands up and down and around both cocks until Rafe made gorgeous, strangled noises in the back of his throat and Jude’s cock rewarded her with a pearly drop of pre-come.

  She shifted, bent over, took Jude into her mouth, pushing back the foreskin with her lips to reach the sensitive head and taste that pre-come.

  God in the oak, it seemed like forever. She couldn’t say now how long he’d been gone. The magic and her fear of losing him had distorted time so badly that the bald truth of a calendar would never seem right. It had been a day and eternity, but he was back where he belonged, with her.

  Hands caressed her hair. Jude still held onto her legs as if she’d saved him from drowning.

  “Beautiful,” Rafe breathed, stepping bac
k. Maybe it was to give her room to work or to better enjoy the view, but she felt the chill as his energy pulled away and she wanted to yank him back into contact.

  “Keep…touching her…” Jude said through clenched teeth. “She needs us both.”

  Warmth again, warmth and energy then gentle hands sliding under her sweater to caress her breasts.

  Energy of a different kind—the kind that came from a man who wasn’t merely turned on, but turning her on.

  All the while, Jude’s cock was in her mouth. He was sweaty and tasted odd from the drugs, but to Elissa, he was delicious and filling.

  Energy buzzed through her.

  The two men radiated heat, and not just from simple body contact. Heat and power, red magic and desire and love, all rose together.

  “Too many clothes,” she said as best she could around a mouthful of cock.

  It came out like mush, but Jude said, “Couldn’t agree more,” and let her ease away.

  If she’d known a spell that made clothes disappear, it couldn’t have worked any more efficiently.

  Naked, she shivered—the room was still icy despite the wood stove’s best efforts. The guys pulled her into the nest of blankets, one on either side of her, warming her until the shivers stopped.

  They looked at each other over her. “What now?” Rafe asked, his voice husky.

  “Whatever the lady wants.” Jude smiled and ran his hand down her body to find its home between her thighs.

  Focused on the men, on refilling her well of energy, she’d known she was turned on—how could she not be?—but hadn’t realized how drenched she was until Jude started stroking her clit.

  “Too much,” she gasped, fighting the urge to explode into stars. She craved an orgasm from Jude. But she needed to build up more energy before she could dissipate any that way. Her parched spirit was refreshed, but not healed—and when this beautiful interlude was over, she’d need to be strong again, be the witch who’d helped get Jude away from the Agency.

  It was possible only luck and a freak snowstorm had kept the Agency away this long.

  Something closed off inside her, trying to conserve energy for the battle to come. Trying to detach, so it would hurt a little less if something went wrong.

  If she lost Jude. If she lost Rafe.

  But at the same time, a barrier collapsed.

  Life was dangerous and might be short. Live while you can.

  She fumbled, found Jude’s cock again. “I want you in me.”

  “Rafe should pull up a chair and make popcorn. Or something.” A world of sexual possibilities opened in those few words, in the light in Jude’s eyes and the rough warmth of his voice. A world of possibilities, and she wanted them all.

  It wasn’t like they could go anywhere with a blizzard howling outside.

  With a thought and a gesture, she sealed their corner of the room in a magical bubble, somewhat shielded from possible Agency scrying spells and, just as importantly, from cold and wind.

  Just a thought and a gesture, but she was shaky by the time she finished, and she couldn’t hide it from Jude.

  “You need more, don’t you, love? Tell us how to help you.”

  She took a deep breath. In her wildest fantasies, she’d never choreographed a threesome. When she’d dared to imagine one, it had been vague images, imagined sensory overload—not details and logistics.

  “Fuck me, Jude,” she begged. “And Rafe…” She hesitated, not knowing how to ask for what she craved.

  “When I needed healing,” Jude said, “you two made me the center of attention. Do you need that, Elissa? Do you need me in your pussy and Rafe in your mouth?”

  Goddess, she was lucky in her man.

  Make that in her men. Rafe felt like he belonged. The magic thought so. Even Jude was acting like he did.

  Relieved of the need to speak her forbidden fantasies, she nodded.

  “Get on top of me,” Jude urged, rolling onto his back, kicking aside the blankets.

  She straddled him, teased them both by stroking the swollen head of his cock against her slick, sensitive labia then rubbing him against her clit.

  Rafe, who knelt beside them, cupped her breast with one hand, teasing the stiff nipple until the fire shooting from there met the fire rising from her groin.

  With his other…oh, gods, he wouldn’t…

  He did. He put his hand over hers to hold Jude’s cock, and to move Jude’s cock against her.

  Jude arched, sputtered. He fumbled blindly and found Rafe’s hard dick.

  Rafe worked Jude against her cunt, his big, dark hand moving Jude’s foreskin back and forth along his shaft. The visual as much as the sensation flooded her, made her arch and gasp and try to fill herself with that delicious, familiar, beloved hardness. At the same time, Jude stroked Rafe’s cock, a bit awkwardly, but with a blissful smile.

  The room shifted to red. The earth pulsed, or maybe it was the sound of her own heart. “Now,” she begged.

  Rafe helped guide Jude’s cock into her.

  She’d meant to take it slowly, to push their arousal even further, but it felt too damn good. She sank down on him, reveling as his thick length opened her.

  She wasn’t quite sure how it would work with Rafe, but he moved so he knelt next to Jude’s head, and she understood.

  She leaned forward, stretching over the length of Jude’s body, and kissed her husband for all she was worth.

  It was fire and green growing things and a purring cat and the best foreplay ever.

  “I love you, Jude,” she said when she came up for air. “Always and forever.”

  “And I love you. I also know you nearly killed yourself getting me out. Let Rafe help you, too.”

  Jude’s eyes were unfocused with lust, but she looked into them and saw the truth in what he was saying. He might be confused, even scared—just like she was—but he also understood.

  She pushed back against Jude’s cock, then rocked forward and wrapped her mouth around Rafe, who obligingly pushed his hips forward to meet her.

  Jude’s arms supported her so she had a hand free to circle Rafe’s girth. He tasted herbal and musky and smoky, and a few salty, excited drops graced her tongue almost immediately. At the same time, Jude rolled his hips, pushing deeper into her.

  Liquid fire filled her veins. The room heated a few degrees.

  She felt stronger already. Stronger and hotter.

  Their bodies moved together, copper and brown and ivory entwined.

  She wanted to say how beautiful they looked together, but that would mean taking her mouth off Rafe’s dick and she didn’t want to.

  Any more than she wanted to lose her husband’s cock in her pussy, filling her so sweetly, moving inside her, drawing a flood of juices from her body. She trembled, on the verge of an orgasm she held off only by a great effort of will. The raw sexual energy was medicine and coffee and chocolate and wine all at once, reviving and intoxicating her. She wanted more, although she couldn’t say if that was magical instinct or pure hedonistic greed.

  Rafe’s hips started to move in rhythm with her mouth.

  The room buzzed with energy, or maybe it purred.

  She drew in as much of it as she could, until she was swollen with power.

  Her orgasm rose again, almost too hard and fast to resist, but Rafe beat her to it, filling her mouth with his hot come.

  To her astonishment, Jude drew her down into a kiss before she finished swallowing, tasting the last dregs of Rafe on her tongue. “Don’t be greedy, my heart,” he said. The sweetness in his voice, the love for her and the acceptance of Rafe and all that had transpired, undid her.

  Her pussy clamped down on Jude. She cried out into Jude’s mouth. Rafe embraced them both, kissing her on the spine as she and Jude came together.

  The room purred and pulsed, and when it stopped, Elissa felt almost healthy again.

  Rafe had rolled onto his side, but she still sprawled on Jude. She opened her eyes and studied his face for a
long time before she kissed him back to alertness.

  “Feeling better?”

  “Like I could take on an army if I had to, but let’s hope we don’t need to test that theory. And there’s something you should know.”

  His face darkened as if he feared some terrible confession. She sat up quickly, put her hand over his heart and repeated part of their wedding vows: “You are my heart, my hearth, my home, my love and my husband, now and always. Do you understand, Jude?”

  He nodded and repeated the gesture, putting his hand over her left breast—apparently unable to resist the temptation to caress her nipple in passing. “And I’m yours. No matter what. Throughout this life and beyond death. You understand that?”

  “Yes.” Her eyes misted. “You and me. That’s non-negotiable.”

  “The rest is just details.” He waved in Rafe’s general direction, caught himself and laughed uneasily. “Not that you’re just a detail. You’re…”

  “I don’t know who or what I am at this point.” He stretched on the blanket as he spoke, making his muscles ripple entrancingly. “Can’t expect you guys to. But I hope you’ll let me stick around long enough to figure it out. And not just because it’s going to take all of us working together to make it to Canada.”

  She looked at Jude. Guilt stabbed her, because she wanted to say yes. Donovan teachings be damned—the heart was more complicated than that, and whatever she felt for Rafe, it wasn’t in itself wrong. Not if her magic acknowledged it.

  It was wrong only if it came between her and Jude. She couldn’t risk that.

  She froze, unable to speak. She wanted Rafe with them—in every sense of with them—but she had to leave that decision up to Jude, who had the most at risk.

  Jude answered for them both. “If it’s all right with Elissa, I’d like that,” he said, touching Rafe’s hand. “I…I’m straight, or thought I was. And possessive as hell, or thought I was. So this is fucked up. But it feels damn good. After a couple of near-death experiences I’m inclined to grab anything that feels good, ride it into the sunset and ask questions later.”

  Rafe smiled lewdly. “I’m impressed. After all you’ve been through, I’d think you’d need more recovery time. Anyway, we missed sunset. Would sunrise do?”