by Marie Harte
“Shh. Easy baby.” He stopped her squirming by putting more weight on her. He pinned her wrists above her head with one hand, then kissed his way down to her chest and sighed. “Your breasts are amazing.”
She stared at the top of his head, waiting, then let out a heartfelt groan when his hot mouth closed around one nipple. He sucked and tugged, teething the bud until she all but came. The powerful sensation shot straight to her core, not helped when he cupped her other breast, kneading her flesh with a hand that seemed to know all her pleasure points.
She was a writhing mass of need when he turned to her other breast, giving it the same attention he’d given the first. Then his fingers slid down her ribcage and curled inward, over her belly and lower. His kisses grew more ravenous as he teased her nipple, biting with enough force to almost send her over.
A thick finger penetrated her without warning, and she came hard, her cries ringing through the gym. Alex gave her nipple one more kiss before pulling back to stare into her face, his flushed with passion, his eyes bright. “God, you smell so fucking good.”
He continued to finger her, revving her up for another go.
Before she lost herself and begged him to take her, he slid kisses down her belly and lower…and feasted. He moaned as he took her into his mouth lick by lick, bringing her to orgasm twice more, his beast demanded her pleasure.
Kennedy had never been so glad to be more than human as pure ecstasy consumed her.
She hadn’t realized she’d been crying his name when he slid up her body and leaned up on his elbows, staring down at her.
“Shh. I’ll make it all better, mate,” he growled, waiting until she blinked at him, she and her beast in utter love.
“Alex.” Kennedy felt him at her entrance, his cock so hot, the head broad, slick. Ready. “Now.”
He pushed inside her, watching her take every inch as he seated himself fully. His eyes glowed, their shape wholly Circ.
She’d never seen anything sexier in her life.
Once Alex had joined her fully, she arched up, loving the feel of them together.
“Oh fuck. That’s so good. You have no idea.” He moaned and stared into her eyes as he started thrusting. He moved with purpose, sealing them together, taking her with a thoroughness that could leave no doubt as to his claiming.
“You’re mine now. All mine,” he declared as he pounded into her, his loving hard, thorough, and so complete she had no idea where he started and she ended.
Watching him come was a treat she’d never get enough of, and her giving lover made sure to include her soon after. Again and again. The sex turned into an almost religious experience, until Kennedy couldn’t think for want of Alex being a part of her.
When he filled her once more, his copious seed spilling out of her, and sighed into her kiss, she had a feeling they’d finished. For now.
“Oh, baby. So good.” He ran kisses down her face and buried his lips at the crook of her neck. “Your perfume gets me so hard.”
“I’m not wearing any,” she managed, exhausted, as if she’d run a marathon.
He chuckled against her skin. “I know.” Alex rolled them over, so that he lay on his back, still embedded inside her. He should have softened by now, yet he remained firm. “Uh oh. I hit the wet spot.”
“You made a mess,” she told him. “I’m leaking all over the mats, and now over you.”
“Good.” He purred. Honest to goodness purred like a big house cat. “You’re mine. About time everyone realized it.” He narrowed those beautiful gray eyes on her. “You included.”
Her beast chuffed inside her. In agreement and in exasperation. “Not my fault you avoided me for days.”
He sat up so fast she shrieked, because he slid even deeper into her while her legs braced on either side of his hips. He held her to him, not letting her escape—as if her legs could hold her if she even wanted to.
“I was giving you space. You were avoiding me.” He glared. “Damn it. You’re new to being Circ. You think I’d force you to stay when you don’t want to?”
She glared right back. “How exactly do you know what I want when I don’t? Thinking for me doesn’t help, you know. Sure I’m confused. I’m no longer human.” She tried to hold onto her mad, but her beast loved the fact Alex remained lodged inside her. And hell, so did the crazy human woman, who wanted to fuck again, even after losing count of how many times they’d just done it.
“Well, I can’t read your mind,” Alex huffed. “Unlike some people.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you. It’s a violation of privacy. And plus…” She bit her lip. “I wouldn’t want to know if you changed your mind about me.”
“What mind?” He gave an angry laugh. “I’m pissed as hell we’re once again nowhere close to Lang. But I’ve been crazy because I thought you were ignoring me.”
“Because you kept avoiding me.”
He stared at her, then gave a slow, melting smile. “Jesus, we’re a pair. I didn’t want to crowd you. You didn’t want to crowd me. And now I’m fucking balls deep inside you, and there’s nowhere else I’d like to be.”
“Gee, you say the nicest things.” She felt her face heat, which was ridiculous.
He laughed. “Aw, baby. I was dying for you. I’m sorry if you thought I was avoiding you. But it wasn’t that long ago that I was changed, and I remember how tough it was adjusting.”
“I know, in here.” She put his hand on her chest, over her heart. “I do appreciate you not rushing me. You’re so sweet, Alex.”
Now he flushed. “Stop.”
“You are.” She smiled and kissed him. “You’re so busy helping everyone else, aren’t you? But sometimes you don’t get what you need.” Something Bailey had mentioned about him. Alex was the ultimate team player who was there to help Gideon wrangle the others, to make sure Bailey felt included, that Carter knew how much he was valued, or to make sure Eli had what he needed to feel safe.
Gideon led the team, no doubt. His strength and overpowering presence kept them together. Bailey was its heart. Alex, its soul.
“You’re a good man, Alexander Palmer,” she stated, quietly. “My beast fell for you from the first. The woman…well, I’ve been burned in the past. I’m sadly not a great judge of character. But I like to think you’re the first right choice I’ve made. I’m sorry for making you feel bad, before. Now I just want to see where this takes us. You make me…” Content seemed to tame a word to describe how he made her feel.
“Confused? Angry? Horny? So damn happy you can’t see straight?”
She laughed. “Yes.” She kissed him again, because she had to.
He sighed and kissed her back, and the feel of him still thick and long inside her had her raring to go again.
Until Gideon spoke.
“Well it’s about damn time.”
“I told you,” Bailey said.
Alex’s arms tensed around her, then relaxed. “I knew this was coming.”
Gideon grinned as he approached, but the hard look in his eyes took Kennedy aback. “Bailey said she was softening, but it sure did take a while for Kennedy to know her own mind. You good now, honey?”
She nodded, not sure whether to feel embarrassed or proud that she’d been caught naked, with the man still inside her, while claiming her mate. The woman wanted to hide; the beast wanted to show off her prize. Gideon and Bailey weren’t making it easy by drawing closer.
“It’s time,” Bailey said to her. She went down on her knees beside them, seeming uncaring of their position or state of undress. “You want him, you belong to us.” Her beast stared at them, and Kennedy felt something in her give. “Yeah, there you go.”
Bailey leaned close, and Kennedy surprised herself by meeting the woman halfway. She opened her mouth for the kiss, and when it came, it was full of sweetness, understanding, acceptance.
“That is fuckin’ hot,” Gideon growled.
Bailey ended the kiss and stood, her eyes shining with laughter. “
The ultimate male fantasy, two women going at it.”
“While buried in one of them,” Alex agreed, then groaned. “Oh, yeah, Kennedy. Squeeze me.”
“Not yet,” Gideon ordered. “Bailey, you—”
“No. You first. I’m here to help, but this show is all yours. You know that.” She stared back at him.
He sighed. “Fine. But I don’t want you getting upset with me later.”
“Aw, now baby. You know it gets me hot when you do the others.”
He flushed and tried to look mean, but Kennedy saw the love pass between the pair.
The strangeness of the situation hadn’t escaped her, but her beast knew it was right. The way a healthy pack worked. Acceptance from everyone. She’d already been with Eli, and she knew him. But Gideon ruled.
Kennedy didn’t get a chance to overthink anything. Alex turned her face to his and kissed her. Then he started loving her again, moving her hips up and down on him while they sat interlocked.
She lost herself in her mate. Until Gideon spoke, his voice low, commanding.
“My turn.”
Chapter Twelve
KENNEDY TURNED TO see Gideon standing naked, his body as beautiful as the rest of him. Tall and strong, corded with muscle. He was hung too. Lucky, lucky Bailey. Apparently being Circ meant everything grew larger.
And he liked what he saw as he watched Alex making love to her.
Alex paused, saw his alpha drawing closer, and licked his lips. Gideon stood next to them. “On your knees,” he ordered.
Alex set Kennedy up off him and moved to his knees. She did the same, excitement and nerves filling her. A threesome while Bailey watched should have embarrassed her but instead increased her desire. Everything felt sexual, the arousal in the room building.
“Now open up,” Gideon said, his voice like silk, as he held himself and waited.
Alex didn’t hesitate. He took his alpha’s cock between his lips and sucked. But it was Kennedy whom Gideon watched. She saw what he’d intended her to see, that Alex belonged, doing as ordered with pleasure.
She waited for her chance, eager when Gideon withdrew from Alex’s mouth and moved toward her. She leaned forward and took him in her mouth, tasting Alex there, absorbing her new alpha’s power. His masculine scent, his energy, like a living thing, grew as he surged in and out of her mouth, his raspy breathing increasing her arousal.
Alex caressed her and Gideon while she blew their alpha into a powerful climax. After swallowing his seed, she continued to lick him past his first orgasm, proud that she’d caused him to lose it. All the while Bailey watched with hungry eyes. Approval radiated into her beast, as in pleasing Gideon, she’d pleased Bailey.
Then Alex was behind her, positioning himself at her ass. The suddenly sexually adventurous woman she’d become bore down on him, giving him the silent go-ahead to take her there. Alex pushed through her tight passage, his cock slick, and the feel of him there, where she needed him to be, aroused her even more. She sucked harder on Gideon’s cock, hungry for more Circ seed. She’d had anal sex a long time ago and hadn’t really liked it. But with Alex, and her beast demanding she wear his scent everywhere, she wanted more.
Her body accommodated the intrusion, her beast allowing for ease of penetration while his lubed shaft pushed in and out. And all the while, pleasure radiated throughout her body.
Gideon gripped her hair, holding her while he increased his pace and groaned. “Damn, Alex. Do it again.” He shoved deeper, the press of his cock against her throat so good. Her beast loved it.
“Oh wow. That feels amazing,” Bailey gasped, empathically tapped into the desire in the room.
Before Gideon came again, he pulled away from Kennedy and rushed his mate. He didn’t bother with finesse. Kennedy saw him strip Bailey’s bottom bare, shove her against the nearest wall, then fuck her while standing.
Alex watched as well, and he grew unbearably excited, stretching her even more as he thickened to larger proportions.
“God, so hot,” he moaned as he reached around, flicking Kennedy’s clit while he fucked her ass, both of them on their knees, hers spread to accommodate him even as she leaned back against him.
The warmth inside her swelled, then she was coming, the orgasm one huge wave of feeling. Kennedy cried out as the bliss from her pairing and her alphas’ overwhelmed her. The rush of her mate’s seed added to her enjoyment, and they did their best to catch their breath while their alphas finished in a torrent of growls and cries, bathing the room in Circ release.
Kennedy sat on her mate’s thighs, leaning against him, still impaled on his cock.
“Oh fuck. Baby, I didn’t mean to take you without asking first. I swear.” Alex kissed her shoulder, so soft, so affectionate.
She reached up to pet his hair, taken with the soft strands. “I know. I encouraged you. It’s fine.” She sighed. “No, it’s bone-melting. I came so hard.”
“Good.” He sounded satisfied as well as relieved.
“Well, you’re going to have to move first, because I can’t. I’m stuck on something.”
He chuckled and gently withdrew before helping her to her feet. Gideon and Bailey had disappeared without a sound, and Kennedy didn’t mind that they’d been there at all. A huge sign that her life had definitely changed.
“That should have been weird. Why wasn’t it?”
“What do you mean?” Alex asked as he gently wiped her with his T-shirt. “The part about us fucking forever in here? Where I sucked Gideon’s cock while you watched? Or when Bailey stood there staring at the whole thing? Or did you mean getting fucked after you blew him while I came up your ass? Which part?”
She flushed. “Okay, all of it.”
He laughed. “Baby, we’re all weird. But weird is the new normal.” He hugged her. “I feel so much better with you close. I can’t explain it.”
She felt the same and sent him, Me too. You make me feel safe and happy and cared for.
He hugged her tighter. “You’re a part of us now. Well, except for Carter. But the others are all here.” He patted his heart with her hand. “Can’t you feel it?”
She nodded and pulled back to look up at him. “But Bailey and I…we didn’t…”
“I think you did enough. Like I said, all the group togetherness has slowed way down since our initial bonding. Mostly now it’s her, Gideon and Eli. I join in occasionally, Carter pretty much sticks to the guys when he’s not glued to his computers. We have what we need from the pack bond. And now you’re in.” He smiled down at her, and his joy made her heart melt.
Which gave her a huge slap in the feels. “Oh my God. How can I be this happy?”
He frowned. “Kennedy?”
She felt terrible. “My cousin is in the hands of Edwin Lang, and I’m thinking hearts and flowers and forever.” She saw his face change but didn’t register anything more than her shame. “I am a horrible person.”
Her beast felt confused.
“No. Stop.” Alex’s command snapped her out of her misery. “Life is short. Trust me. I know all too well how to torment yourself for shit you can’t help. Katie’s still dead. No matter how much I hurt or how happy you make me, it doesn’t change the fact she’s gone. Your cousin is out there. Gideon’s best friend is out there. Both of them are in the hands of bad people. What does feeling awful about the situation do to solve it?”
“Nothing. But—”
“But nothing, exactly,” he said bluntly. “We haven’t stopped the search. We have every single contact we know and then some out looking for answers. Don’t think Gideon won’t use you in heartbeat if he has a stubborn resource who won’t tell us things. No, you’re right where you need to be. On hand in case we get a nibble or need your abilities to ferret intel. And baby, I don’t know if you noticed. But you mean a lot to me.”
She blinked the tears away, or she tried to. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom. It just feels like I’m being disloyal or something. I’m so happy w
ith you right now. But do I deserve to be?”
He wiped her eyes, his gaze soft, the pupils rounded once more, the man in charge. “Honey, the real question is, do I deserve to be happy? I let my sister down when she needed me most, and—”
“How? She never told you she was going to die. She made a decision for you. And holding yourself accountable for that is stupid.” She bit her lip when he just stared at her. “Sorry. Bailey and I talked about you and your need to take on responsibility for everyone.”
He raised a brow.
“Okay, I get your point. I’ll just deal with being in—” Love with you. She blinked.
“In…?”
“In this situation.” She coughed, amazed she should feel something so deep for someone she’d just met. Was this another case of poor judgement? Her beast taking over to make her feel something because of wacko endorphins? Or the real thing, finally? “Geez, Alex. Do you realize that for all I know your body, I barely know you?”
He gave her a warm smile and kissed her so tenderly, she melted inside. “I was thinking that same thing about you. So while we’re getting ready to go to war and kick some major ass, how about you and I play twenty questions?”
“Um, okay.” He’d thought about wanting to get to know her better too? “When?”
“How about starting now? We’ll get you back to my—our—room, and clean you up. And while we’re getting clean, we’ll figure out where we go from here. Okay?”
She put her shirt and pants on, and he dressed back in his shorts, clutching the rest of their dirty and torn clothes.
“Okay.” She put her hand in his and let him lead her from the room. “Um, Alex?”
“What’s wrong?” He stopped with her outside the gym doors.
“Not to be indelicate or anything, but who’s going to clean up that mess in there? You were a pretty excitable guy, if you get my meaning.”
He blinked, then started laughing like crazy.
“Something I said?”
“No. I just realized Eli is on chore duty in the gym this week. Come on. I can’t do that to the guy. Give me a minute to clean this place and we’ll go up, okay?”