by DJ Michaels
Kae laughed. “Good girl, Chelsea. You tell those assholes to stay out of it.”
Ari turned and leveled a look at Kae that would have slain a lesser man. “Advice you’d do well to take yourself.”
Folding his arms across his chest, Kae just grinned wider. “My woman already talks to my dragon. I’ve got nothing to lose.”
Chelsea turned and gave Kae the sweetest smile. “Can I rely on you to help me, Kae?”
“In whatever way I can. I’d be delighted.”
She turned to Jax. “Den Commander?”
“I am always at your service.” Because he didn’t see why he and Kae had to be the only ones in the den dealing with a mate-dragon relationship.
He knew his friends would make him pay for it later. For now the back-and-forth was a good distraction from the fact that his woman wasn’t here in the room with them.
How’s she going, Tengale?
Good. Don’t worry. I told you, Jaysada and I won’t let anything bad happen to her.
So she’ll be all right?
Yes. Now stop annoying me. It’s better for my pet if I’m not cranky.
Jax snorted. Cranky was Tengale’s default position on any given day but if he needed peace to heal Sorcha then Jax would be happy to go to the lair and sing a lullaby.
Instead he made his friends comfortable, ordered some food and settled in for the long wait until sunset. As soon as the sun slipped under the horizon he planned to curl up with his lover and his mate and let Tengale and Jaysada take care of them all.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sorcha woke in a warm cocoon of safety. She could feel Kae and Jax bracketing her skin-to-skin and the even lift and drop of her impromptu bed perfectly matched the rhythmic dragon rumble that vibrated in the air. And then there was the smell. Pure, sweet, joyous. It was impossible not to take deeper and deeper breaths.
No one could tell her what the smell was or where it came from. The only other person who knew about it was Chelsea and she only smelled it when she was around her husbands or their dragons. Sorcha didn’t know if it was a mating scent or a possession pheromone. All she did know was it smelled like heaven so she sucked it into her lungs until she felt dizzy.
She was sandwiched between Jax and Kae who were in turn tucked tight against Tengale’s and Jaysada’s chests. An enormous stretch of dragon wings covered them entirely, a living dome that sheltered them from the outside world. It occurred to Sorcha that this was her life now. She could have this extraordinary experience anytime she liked and the wondrousness of that simply took her breath away.
Jax was lying behind her and when his cock twitched and his hips gave a little flex she knew he was awake. Reaching around, she smoothed her palm over the warm silky skin of his perfect butt. “Morning.”
Pressing closer, he nuzzled her neck until he could touch lips to skin. “You’re back. How are you feeling?”
She was about to give him an automatic response but she realized after the snake-bite yesterday she should really take inventory before replying. Wiggling a bit, she checked in with various parts of her body but everything felt fine. She lifted her hand for a close inspection and there was nothing to show for her ordeal but two little marks that looked more like mosquito bites than anything with venom. Lowering her hand, she went back to stroking Jax’s butt.
“I feel good,” she said. “Rested. No aftereffects at all it seems.”
Kae opened his eyes and ran his hands over her, shoulder to hip and back again. “We were lucky. You drank the sedative quickly enough to slow your heart rate. The poultice drew a lot of the poison from your body before it had a chance to mutate and enter your bloodstream. Wallen and Floreah were on the scene really quickly and they did everything they could for you. Add Tengale and Jaysada’s healing abilities to the mix and you were given every chance to survive.”
Sorcha blinked a couple of times, only just now realizing how much work had gone into helping her. “Just how poisonous was that snake?”
“Very,” Kae said. “The venom takes about five minutes to mutate enough to get into a victim’s bloodstream and once that happens nothing can be done.”
Jax squeezed her hard. “But you did great, kitten. You called for help when you needed it and you gave us a chance to save you.”
When Medalyn had kidnapped her she’d learned a hard lesson about not calling for help. She wasn’t about to make that mistake twice.
Her stomach rumbled, reminding her she hadn’t eaten at all yesterday, and it was so loud it spurred her men into action.
In less than half an hour she was sitting at the table with an array of delicious breakfast food laid out before her and two very attentive males piling up her plate. They were still naked but she was so busy ogling her men she didn’t have time to feel exposed. She was scraping up the last of her meal with a hunk of fresh bread when she realized Jax hadn’t touched his food.
“You okay, Jax?”
He smiled at her but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Yes, of course. You and Kae are here, whole and healthy. That’s all I need.”
Kae leaned over and threaded his fingers with Jax’s. “Liar.” Kae turned to face Sorcha. “Our Jax is packed full of strength, courage and honor but he’s fragile in a way only you and I will ever see.”
“Kae, no.” Jax’s eyes darted to Kae and to her, then back to Kae.
Kae ignored their lover’s wild gaze, keeping his voice smooth and steady as he spoke to her. “I know some of what happened to Jax when Brightstar captured him but I don’t know the whole story—nor do I need to. What I do know is Jax had too much happen to him to hold himself together on his own. That’s why he needs us. You and I anchor him. We keep him in the here and now and our love and support make up the glue that holds him together.”
Sorcha nodded. She wasn’t sure exactly what Kae was getting at but she had a sense of where he was heading. “That’s why you were so keen to bring me into your relationship. You thought I could help you anchor Jax.”
“No. I’m perfectly capable of being what Jax needs all on my own.” He reached across the table and took her hand in his spare one. “I thought you could add to what we already shared. You are smart, beautiful, challenging and you’re the kind of person who loves with everything she has in her. That’s what I want for myself and that’s what I want for Jax. And now our glue is so much better and stronger than it has ever been before.”
He looked at Jax and gave him an apologetic smile. “But when Jax feels threatened in any way, if there is even the hint of a wrinkle in our bond, he starts to break apart. That’s what happened the first night we had sex together. It was so good, so beyond what Jax and I could give each other alone it scared the hell out of him. He felt my relationship with him was under threat and he started to unravel. I was helping him stay grounded when you came out and heard the wrong bit of conversation in the wrong context.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t sure what to make of that but she appreciated Kae trying to make things right with her. “Thanks for telling me.”
Jax turned his head, his dark-green eyes hard and unreadable. “He hasn’t finished yet.”
Kae grinned. “Yesterday you could have been taken from us. In fact you nearly were. That poses the kind of threat that would ordinarily put Jax into meltdown. I’ve been anchoring him as best I can but nothing short of the three of us together in our bed is going to hold him together.”
“It’s how I connect,” Jax said. “My emotions are real and strong but they fragment under pressure. Tapping into Kae’s emotions through our physical link is how I keep everything in place. It will be the same with you.”
It finally dawned on Sorcha what they were getting at. “We’re like your emotional lightning rods. Being with us, touching us, grounds you and helps you maintain your balance.”
“Yes.” The tension around Jax’s mouth eased. “Yes, that’s it exactly.”
Sorcha’s heart swelled too big for her chest. It was an extraor
dinary thing to be so essential to an otherwise independent and dominant male.
Jax stood and held out his hand. “I need you and Kae. Will you take me inside you, Sorcha?”
“Always,” she said. “You don’t ever have to ask.”
Jax was so emotionally raw he felt as though he was bleeding. Everything Kae told Sorcha was true and that wasn’t even a tenth of the story. He never wanted either of them to know what he went through at the hands of Brightstar’s soldiers. But they had to know enough to be ready for the nightmares—both waking and sleeping—and to understand why he clung so hard.
He knew he didn’t deserve them. He could never give them back what they gave him but there was no way he was giving either of them up. They were his and he was fucking keeping them.
The three of them stood at the foot of the bed and he rubbed himself against their naked bodies. Sorcha’s long, lean and soft. Kae’s big, firm and warm. He licked and sucked the tight flat nipple on Kae’s chest before turning to the plump temptation of his woman’s breast. He switched his attention back and forth until they were both writhing.
Moving behind Sorcha, he reached around her silky curves, fisting Kae’s cock with one hand and gliding the fingers of his free hand along Sorcha’s slippery heat. He pushed them closer together, bumping knuckles and cock and belly as he built their desire. Kae’s hands came up to play with Sorcha’s nipples and when she moaned and arched her back, Jax pinched her clit between his fingers, rubbing, circling and pulling. It didn’t take her long. She was so responsive, so generous, she surrendered to him as he drove her toward her climax hard and fast. Panting and calling their names, she shuddered, her body hovering between them for an age before she broke. Screaming her pleasure as she orgasmed, her body convulsed under their hands.
She hadn’t quite come down when Kae gathered her in his arms and placed her on the bed.
“Spread your legs, kitten. Give Jax plenty of room.”
Good idea. Jax climbed up onto the bed with them, detouring to her core for a few long, sweet licks, tongue-fucking her and sucking her clit to rebuild her arousal. He was about to lower himself to his elbows and settle in when he felt Kae stroking his ass. Squeezing and pulling, Kae slid his hand between Jax’s legs to fondle his balls. With the slightest pressure of Kae’s hand on his thigh Jax took his cue to work his way up Sorcha’s body. He nuzzled over her mound and rubbed his cheek against the soft warmth of her belly. Licking along her rib cage, he paused to nip and suck at her sweet tight nipples. It wasn’t long before he moved up to kiss along her neck, biting the tender flesh and sucking into his mouth hard enough to leave a bruise.
Lifting himself above Sorcha, he caged her with his body, pulling her knees high and wide while spreading his own legs and arching his back. The cool slide of gel was bliss on his ass and when Kae inserted a finger and began the stretch every nerve in Jax’s body flared to life.
He looked into Sorcha’s wide trusting eyes. “Remember what it was like when I fucked your ass? How I used my fingers to prepare you for my cock?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“That’s what Kae’s doing now. He’s putting his fingers inside me, stretching me, waking up all those pleasure points so it will feel good when he finally gets inside me.”
Jax pushed back and worked himself on Kae’s fingers, lowering his chest enough to rub Sorcha’s breasts. “Feels so good. You underneath me, him at my back.”
The ache in his cock had spread to his whole body. He yearned for his lovers and he couldn’t hold off the need to be inside Sorcha for another instant. Hooking both arms under her knees, Jax spread her wide and pressed his cock into her hot, wet core. She was tight and he should have invaded in increments but the scent of her desire was driving him out of his mind. As soon as the head of his cock met wet, feminine flesh Jax flexed his body and drove into her in one long push. Arching under him Sorcha’s eyes went wide and her mouth parted as she gasped for breath. He pulled almost all the way out and then snapped forward again, taking her mouth as ruthlessly as he took her core.
She met him stroke for stroke, her tongue tangling with his, sliding in and out of his mouth as her hips lifted up and down off the mattress.
Then Kae crowded against his back and Jax jammed himself deep inside Sorcha and held still.
She slid her fingers into his hair. “Tell me. Tell me what it feels like.”
“Perfection,” he said, his voice low and raspy. “Having my cock inside you, feeling you grip me so tight I can barely breathe is like a miracle. And you’re so hot and wet every glide of skin on skin sets me on fire.”
“And Kae. What’s it feel like when he fucks you?”
Jax grunted as Kae blanketed his back, his lover’s cock prodding his ass. “It’s a different kind of perfection. There’s the burn and stretch of that initial entry, the anticipation of the pleasure to come. I can feel him sliding inside me, just like I slid inside you.”
Kae pressed and retreated, fucking Jax with tiny little thrusts that gradually went deeper and deeper. Jax held all his weight on elbows and knees, letting his head drop and focusing on nothing but the tight grip of Sorcha’s core around his cock and the insistent pressure of Kae’s cock in his ass.
Jax was sweating by the time Kae finally drove in all the way, his balls squashed between them.
“Do you feel that, my brother?” Kae said, his breath hot in Jax’s ear. “Total connection. You in Sorcha, me in you, breast to chest, chest to back, hip to hip. This is our family. This is the glue that will keep all three of us together. She and I are your anchor, you and I are her home, and you and Sorcha are my life.” Kae moved, thrusting in a long steady rhythm that Jax immediately mimicked. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life fucking and being fucked by both of you.”
Kae lowered his head and bit Jax’s shoulder, picking up speed as his thrusts become less restrained. It was too much for Jax. The sensation of being surrounded by his lovers, filling them and being filled by them. The pleasure bloomed inside him, radiating out, filling up all his dark spaces until he was nothing but light. His whole body vibrated with joy and the frantic thrusts of his hips rebounded the feeling until it breached the point of ecstasy. His pleasure boiled out of his body, burning through nerve endings, shooting in exquisite agony into his ass and down his cock. He exploded into a million pieces, his seed jetting into Sorcha over and over, his ass clenching around Kae as he came in a long shout of pleasure.
Gasping and panting, they fell sideways, still joined. Jax let himself float. It didn’t matter if he was in one piece or a million and it didn’t matter how often or how fully he shattered. He knew his lover and his mate would always be around to put him back together.
Jax slid one hand under Sorcha’s waist and used the other to pull Kae’s arm tight around his chest. Tucked between the two people who made up his world, Jax snuggled down and let sleep take him.
About DJ Michaels
Books have always been my refuge, a bit (okay, a lot) like an adult cubbyhouse. When real life gets too much—or too little—I can delve into my library and be utterly transported to places familiar and exotic. I can also meet the kind of people I’d never come across in my normal life, which is not always a bad thing.
These days not only do I get to visit other writers’ worlds, but I get to create my own—worlds chock full of sexy warrior men; strong, capable women; and oh yes, let’s not forget the dragons. My cubbyhouse is very cool, the door is always open for visitors, and new friends are most welcome.
DJ welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Also by DJ Michaels
Dragon Alliance 1: Enforcer’s Cravi
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Ellora’s Cave Publishing
www.ellorascave.com
Hearts Enchained
ISBN 9781419949845
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Hearts Enchained Copyright © 2015 DJ Michaels
Edited by Nina Gooden
Cover design by Kelly A. Martin
Cover photography by Shkvarko, Viktoria, NAS CRETIVES, Aleksandr Petrunovskyi, Giuseppe Parisi, Maksim Toome, Petar Djordjevic
Electronic book publication January 2015
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