“But…but…” Words and feelings were all jumbled up inside Damaon and he couldn’t arrange them fast enough to articulate what he wanted to say. He was stunned at how swiftly the tide turned against him, just when he thought he had everything he wanted in his hands. “You can’t do this to us, Saff. Not only would it be unfair to Adamas and me, you’re not doing your daughter any favor. We don’t love her—”
“You feel affection for her,” Sapphire cut him sharply in rebuke. “That’s enough for now. Your affection would soon grow into love. I’ve seen how you and Adamas cared for her these two years. You’ve always attended her birthday parties—”
Birthday parties with only Adamas and me as guests. Recalling Ida’s happy laughter upon seeing them, Damaon realized that even as a child, she was ever one to see a glass half full. Surely, she wouldn’t be devastated should he and Adamas break the betrothal. Sapphire was still speaking, “And the gifts you gave her delighted her heart—”
“Still, married life is different, Saff.” Damaon wanted to tear his hair out and he was sure Sapphire could hear the frustration in his voice. He was fighting a losing battle here, his heart sinking with every word that came out of Sapphire’s mouth, obliterating the earlier surge of hopeful joy and anticipation.
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“Damaon.”
He turned around and faced Adamas, who was staring at him with a strange look.
“What?”
“I think I know why Iamond placed the betrothal contract in his diary.”
* * * * *
She was a little girl again and her parents had brought her to the carnival. She clambered atop a white wooden horse all by herself and held tight to the pole protruding from the horse’s head. Joy and excitement bubbled within her and she waved to her parents, who waved back at her with smiling faces. The music started, catchy and lively and she swayed in time to the movement of her horse, slow and sure as the carousel wound its way in a circular direction. She passed her parents and waved again, chortling. The horse picked up speed, trotting at first, then cantering, until it was galloping down a green meadow with lush verdant grasses, the wind blowing in her face and streaming her hair behind her. Exhilaration welled up within and she laughed with carefree abandon.
Yet, a vague sense of unease shadowed her happiness, some tragedy she should remember but didn’t.
Bam!
She almost fell from her seat. She pulled hard on the reins, causing her steed to dance about before it stood quiet. She squinted in the distance, where some black smoke was rising. Was that an explosion?
Bam! Bam! Bam!
She jerked awake, heart pounding with fright. She looked around at the unfamiliar room, then calmed when she remembered where she was and why she was sleeping alone. Pain beat at her like a battering ram that was powered by an Energizer battery and though she curled up in a tight ball as she closed her eyes, she refused to give in to tears.
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Bam!
Awake, she recognized the sound of slamming doors. Now that she had identified the strange sound, she relegated it to the back of her mind. She remembered her dream. The happy times with her parents had gone, but the memories would live on in her heart. With Adamas and Damaon, however…
She bit her lip as a fresh onslaught of pain surged against her. Tomorrow would come soon enough and after tomorrow, freedom. The word tasted bitter on her tongue.
She drifted into an uneasy sleep.
She was dreaming again—a different one this time—and she never wanted to wake up. She’d gone to bed alone, empty and aching, but Damaon was now cuddling her against his hot, naked skin. So warm. He dropped a gentle kiss on her forehead and brushed her hair back from her face. She murmured his name and snuggled against him, sighing with satisfaction.
They seemed to be moving somewhere, but she didn’t care. All she knew was that she was where she wanted to be.
Through a fog misting her senses, she heard Damaon saying, his voice rumbling beneath her ear, “I don’t want to force her.”
“She murmurs your name in her sleep, so I don’t think any force would be necessary,” came Adamas’ wry voice.
She wanted to reassure him that she loved them both, that she didn’t play favorites, but the slight worry faded away as she snuggled deeper against Damaon’s chest. It felt so good to be held like that, as though she was loved and cherished and precious. She would let herself bask in the illusion for a little while longer. It wouldn’t hurt, would it?
After all, it was just a dream.
Damaon laid her down on a soft bed, but when he slid his hands from her, she clutched tight at him, protesting. He laughed. “I’m not leaving you, I promise.”
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“Just hop into bed and magick away your clothes,” Adamas said.
“She’s sleeping!” Damaon sounded indignant.
“What does that have to do with the other?”
“I have no hope of controlling my wayward cock without my clothes on.”
“As the Earthlings say, just go with the flow, mate.”
Damaon muttered something unintelligible, then the next thing she knew, he was sliding his bare skin against hers. Sensuous and silken, he made her purr. What a wonderful dream this was turning out to be.
He buried his face at the side of her neck and kissed his way up to her ear. His breath was hot and tickled her ear, but she lost the urge to giggle when he caught her soft lobe between his teeth. Instead, a raw moan escaped her when he sucked on the appendage and she moaned again when someone—it must be Adamas—ran his mouth up her calf, pausing to place kisses here and there, arousing her with each sure touch and not stopping completely until he reached her aching pussy. In one dim corner of her mind, she knew something was wrong, but she couldn’t place it. She was drowning in sensations so sharp she couldn’t believe she was still dreaming.
She sobbed when Adamas insinuated his mouth against her wet folds and caressed her most intimate places with short, stabbing jabs of his pointed tongue. At the same time, Damaon’s large hand covered her breast and pinched her nipple, sending a dizzying mixture of pain and pleasure shooting through her. Adamas’ tongue rasped over her clit and swirls of pleasure eddied through her body. She whimpered. He curled his tongue around her clit and sucked and she splintered into a thousand shining diamond bits—
Her eyes popped open and she knew it was no dream. Her body was writhing in ecstasy beneath two firm male forms and one hand clasped Adamas’ head close to her pussy. His skillful tongue never stopped its marauding strokes—
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The vague sense of unease coalesced into a hard knot of rejection.
“No!” She cried as she pushed them away. Though she dislodged them a little, they returned to her body with a tenacity that she feared she wouldn’t be able to resist. She gasped out, “Please…stop…”
Their heads lifted and both men wore bewildered expressions.
“Raisa? What’s the matter?” Adamas questioned from between her legs. She drew her limbs close and tucked her legs under her as she sat up against the headboard of the bed. “We can’t do this.” She leaned her head against the wall and shook her head, despair clamping down on her. “It wouldn’t be fair to Ida. It didn’t matter before, when I didn’t know, but now—”
Beside her, sitting on his haunches, Damaon crossed his arms. “So you think we’re the type of men to have a fiancée waiting for us in the wings, then cheat on her with another woman? Even display that woman under her nose?”
Both his face and voice were stern and angry. She was the one who’d asked them to cease their lovemaking as soon as she’d been conscious. She was the one who’d stopped them from committing a further mistake. She was doing what was right. So why was it that she felt as though she was the one in the wrong?
“I don’t know,” she moaned, miserable, her gaze
on the bedspread. It was too much. To love them and want them when they were so appallingly out of reach… She started to inch toward the floor, but Adamas and Damaon cut off her escape route.
“I’ll…I’ll go back to my room and…after tomorrow…after tomorrow,” she gasped, then wailed at the hopelessness of her situation, at the way her heart was breaking. “I want to go home…”
“Poor Raisa,” Adamas patted her hand and there was something in his voice, some trace of anguish that stabbed at her heart. “You never wanted to be here, did you?”
She couldn’t reply. When she couldn’t wait to leave before, now she couldn’t bear to leave. “Please, let me go…” She couldn’t control herself if she continued to stay here, in this room with them. She might just embarrass herself into pleading with them to allow 117
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her to live with them. But how could she? Every cell and fiber of her was mortal. The palace wouldn’t accept her indefinite presence, unless—
Damaon clasped her against him, so tight that her breath whooshed out of her. “No. Raisa, I can’t—”
“Da-Damaon?” she squeaked. His voice was reminiscent of the Emerald Immortal’s voice, when he’d been declaring the depth of his love for his wife. “I…can’t breathe.”
“Not until you swear on Esmeralda’s head that you won’t leave.” His hoarse voice thundered in her ear, full of desperate entreaty. “I know you miss your home and I don’t know how it can be done, but I promise you can go visit every now and then, even if we have to flood Earth with diamonds in the process. I know you don’t feel anything for us right now, but you love the sex—admit it!—and we’ll build on that, we have eternity to develop our relationship and—”
With each word that fell from Damaon’s mouth, a tremulous joy started to spread from deep within her. She had to check her reaction though, because she didn’t know if she was hallucinating as a result of being lightheaded from lack of air. Then again, there was Iderea.
“Let her breathe, Damaon.”
Air rushed back into her body, though Damaon didn’t release her. His anxious face filled her vision when she opened her eyes. “Raisa? I’m sorry. Are you all right?”
“I-I’m fine. Do you…” Adamas’ hand remained on her back, stroking her. She licked her suddenly dry lips and Damaon’s gaze latched onto her tongue. She grew warm and she became conscious of him, of his hard body pressed against hers, of his virile masculinity, of a certain body part of his that was stirring to life. Do you mean what you said? Unsure if she had just dreamed the words, she changed her question. “Why would you flood the Earth with diamonds?”
He stared at her, nonplussed.
Behind her, Adamas smothered his chuckles.
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“Well,” Damaon said with a slowness that made her think he was feeling his way around uncharted territory. “If you were…immortal, you couldn’t just leave the demesne and go traipsing around the universe for security reasons, but we could arrange it so that we’d have to plant diamonds on Earth more often and you could visit. You do miss your home, don’t you?”
Not if home is where you are. She didn’t have anyone on Earth, no family, just a few friends who wouldn’t even know or care that she was gone. “But what’s that thing about Esmeralda’s head?” If she could clear that up, then she could believe he had really said those words and she could contemplate the wondrous possibility that maybe they were starting to feel something for her other than sex. A puzzled frown creased his brows. “Does it matter?”
“Yes!”
“All right, you don’t have to shout. I know you think well of Esmeralda and if you make a promise on her head, you will surely keep it, for fear that something will happen to her if you don’t.” He shrugged.
“And you want me to keep this promise?” she asked with breathless wonder, finally daring to allow the spiral of joy to well up within her. Maybe they cared for her as a friend. Or something more—delight in a lover who was moderately skilled. Whatever their feelings, they wanted her to stay with them, past the limited fourteen days that mortals were allowed.
“Very badly.”
Was that love shining in his beautiful silver eyes? Yes, she was getting far too fanciful.
“Why? I don’t understand you. There’s Ida, who’s young and lovely and vibrant, the perfect cure for your—”
Damaon shook her. Hard. “Because she’s not you,” he said through clenched teeth, evidently at the end of his patience. He released her so that she fell back against Adamas, then rolled his eyes and glanced up at his mate. “Why did we have to fall for 119
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such an exasperating woman, anyway? Tell her she has no choice, then maybe she’ll shut up and let us have our wicked ways with her. And this time, I’m not budging. It’s her or no one.”
Raisa shook off the feeling of déjà vu and sat up. Every word that dropped from his lips created more questions, more feelings of wonder and joy. Fallen for her—Raisa. Her and no one else. “What do you mean? Of course I have a choice!”
“Of course you have.” Adamas turned her around, then took her hands in his. His face was solemn yet contained a terrible yearning that touched her. “Do you want to stay with us, Raisa, for eternity? We have the power to make you an immortal, you have but to say the word. There’s a potion you can drink. But you should know that if you do accept, you won’t ever become mortal again. There’s no way to go back, should you regret it.”
I won’t. This is my dream, my dearest dream come true. She hung on to his words, wanting— needing—to know what her future would entail. Adamas continued, “There’s only one way we can offer a woman immortality—if she were to become our wife.”
“Your wife!” This was something she didn’t expect. “But Ida—”
Adamas’ brows drew together in a fierce frown. “What were you thinking? That she’d still be our wife?”
She nodded.
“In what capacity then would you be here?” Adamas shouting. What an oddity.
“As your lover,” she replied. “We do have foursomes on Earth and—”
Damaon shook his head. “No,” he said fiercely. “Only you, no one else.”
“Then how about that betrothal agreement?” she asked, exasperated. “Is it fake? Is that what you’re telling me?”
“No,” Damaon said. “It’s very real and binding—”
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“Then of course you have to marry Ida! It’s enough for me that I can stay here with you.” Liar. She wanted them all to herself, but she would learn to compromise. She would. “I don’t want you to lose faith with your peers, which is what would happen should they know you’ve broken a formal agreement with Sapphire.”
In a sudden turnabout, Adamas exchanged an amused glance with Damaon.
“Speaking like a wife already, isn’t she?” Adamas commented. Damaon nodded. “Yes, I think we’ve made a good choice.”
“A very good one,” Adamas agreed.
She couldn’t stand it. They were joking about something that could have a monumental impact on their reputation and career. She threw herself against them, one arm around each man’s neck in a three-way hug. “I love you so very much. Please. I can’t bear to see you ruin yourselves because of me—”
Adamas pried away her stranglehold on him. “What did you say?” There was a fierce light in his silver eyes that did strange things to her. She looked at him with a puzzled frown. “I don’t want you to ruin yourselves—”
“No, before that.”
She remembered. Whether they liked it or not, here was the whole truth of her feelings for them. “I love you, both of you.” She spared a glance at Damaon to find him staring back at her with immense satisfaction. His expression unnerved her for an instant before she continued, “I realized when Ida told me of the betrothal, just as I recognized I have no place in your world. I was anguished, but what was
I to do? I’m not the type to force myself where I’m not wanted—”
“You are wanted.” Damaon held her hand in a tight grip. “Very much.”
“You’ll have a place here as our wife,” Adamas reminded her. “If you accept. Do you?”
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Chapter Nine
She couldn’t deny herself what she wanted, but it wasn’t her right, not when another woman had first claim on them. “What about Ida?” Seeing the thunder creeping into their expressions, she snatched back her hands and took a deep breath.
“Look, we can’t deny that the betrothal agreement exists or that it’s binding. I meant what I said, I don’t want you to be in your peers’ black books. But more than that,” she continued as a realization struck her, “despite what you say, I know you must feel horrible about abandoning Ida to her fate. I’ve seen the way you both act around her and my eyes tell me you both love her the way uncles would their nieces—”
“You’re right, we do love her that way,” Adamas admitted.
“We practically watched her grow up,” Damaon said.
“So you see, I don’t want to be the cause of this blight on your souls,” she said, more determined than ever to explain her side, to make them understand, “which may be worse than the heart-hardening disease. So unless you tell me that the contract has been overturned or—”
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