by Sam Hall
But I wasn’t a girl willing to pull her punches anymore.
I drew my arm back, adjusted the angle of my cue slightly, and then made my shot. We all watched the white smack off the cushions and careen across the table before clacking against the last ball, sending it slamming into the side pocket. When I stood up, I was smiling, face flush with…what?
“Well done, kid,” Stevie said. “Now,” her eyes slid to the two guys, “none of you are driving home tonight. It’s a cab, a call, or keys.”
“Keys?” I asked.
She fished out a pair from her pocket and shook them. “I’ve got an apartment upstairs you can sleep it off in, or whatever it is you’re gonna do. I’ll be at my house, so you can make as much noise as you like.”
“We’ll take these and let you know after we’ve packed the table away, yeah?” Aidan said in his client managing voice, all professional calm. He didn’t look real professional right now, hair mussed, T-shirt and jeans rucked from playing pool, eyes fixed on mine.
“Sounds good. You’ve got until I put all these in the glass washer, then I make the call to the alpha residence.”
I watched the bunch of keys slap into the palm of Aidan’s hand, jumping when Mason’s mouth brushed my ear.
“You won, so lady’s choice.”
Was it though? It was all hot and sexy right now, both of them looking like they’d love to enact my every fantasy, but their words, their looks of pain came rushing back in. Of Mason’s reticence, his feeling of going against my father’s wishes, his newly freed desire for me, of Aidan’s agonised reveal of his aching knot. Zack had let me play at casual sex with him back at the gym, but it wasn’t really. He’d always intended to take things further. I couldn’t just be a girl, picking up a couple of guys in a bar for hot meaningless sex.
Or could I?
“So what if I choose just this?” I waved my hand around vaguely. “Just bodies and pleasure and…” My words faltered as I saw their fingers tighten around their cues, faint cracks coming from the wood in protest. “What if we just go upstairs and see what happens, but when we wake up, nothing’s changed? I’m not making lifelong commitments tonight, I’m not in the right headspace for that, so if that’s all that’s on the table—”
“Rack the balls, I’ll put the cues away,” Mason said, the two of them moving as one to tidy up the pool table.
There was something similar to the time I’d been chased through the forest in the way I walked up to the flat upstairs. Stevie had her own place, but she used this when she needed somewhere to crash, too tired to drive home, or for friends like me. I turned towards them, feeling them hot on my heels as I opened the door, and stepped blindly inside, caught on their combined gazes. They tracked my every move, fanning out to hunt me down as neon lights pooled in through the long windows, colouring our flesh and lighting our way to where we needed to go. But I didn’t make it to the bedroom yet. Mason grabbed me around the waist, hauling me up against him as Aidan’s body pressed against my back. They were tall, hot, muscular, and I was sandwiched between them.
For right here, right now, I was going to focus on that. I finally let my hand land on Mason’s collarbone, tracing its shape as Aidan pushed my hair to one side. His lips burned into my skin, branding me as his, if only for tonight, drawing a gasp when they trailed over my scars, something Mason swept in to suck down. His mouth was hungry, demanding. He wanted everything he’d been denied and more.
And I wanted to give it to him.
My mind had queries, questions, outright accusations, but I shoved that to one side, and right now, I gloried in him—his taste, his lips, his tongue, his hands clawing at my clothes like they personally offended him. I’d waited five long years for this, and I was done waiting any longer. I dislodged both of them and pulled my jacket off, my belt free, placing my gun and my knife on a table just inside the door. And then I waited.
“Oh, we’re not stopping there, not this time,” Mason said, something wild in his smile. He yanked his shirt up and over his head, then advanced upon me with all that rippling muscle on display. He prowled closer, like he needed to stalk me, but there was no need. For tonight, I was his, something he seemed to realise when he stopped just short of me, reaching out like he only just dared before those broad fingers trailed slowly down my arm. Aidan had no such patience, grabbing my T-shirt and yanking it up over my head, baring me to Mason.
“Fuck…” He shifted restively, hands clenching, jaw clenching, until I grabbed him by the wrist and placed his fingers against the skin of my stomach. “Paige.”
He growled my name like it was a prayer to Mother Moon herself, but there wasn’t room for reverence tonight. Aidan’s mouth burned a trail down my spine, making it arch, thrusting my breasts into Mason’s face, and that was apparently enough. He snapped the chain that held him back, surging forward, hands clawing down the straps of my bra, his lips and teeth tracing the skin it revealed.
I couldn’t breathe deep enough, just in short little pants, as my hand buried itself in the waves of his hair. I felt his mouth burn a trail downwards, one cup of my bra shoved down until the whole thing fell free. Our eyes flicked up to see Aidan staring down, his fingers tracing small circles on my back where the clasp had been.
“Jesus Christ,” Aidan hissed. “You’re fucking beautiful.”
Mason spun me around, wrapping his arms around my waist and kissing my neck as he basically revealed me to the other man. For a moment, Aidan just stared, then that boyish smile of his returned. Mason’s fingers worked the button on my jeans as mine slid up Aidan’s muscular torso, his abs jumping at my touch until he tilted my chin up and then took my mouth.
This was really different to kissing Mason. With him, there was all this pent-up desire, but with Aidan, I could replicate that ‘going home with a stranger’ experience I was after. I leaned into him, taking his bottom lip between my teeth, letting it pop free and swiping my tongue into his mouth, learning his taste like he learned mine. He grabbed me when I went to pull away, slamming his mouth down, eating me whole, as Mason slid my jeans down.
“Well, I sure as shit am not gonna be the only one standing here naked,” I said after Mason had stripped me, casting an eye over both of them. They took a few seconds to register what I said, pacing around me like the animals they were, taking everything in. It was my pointed look that finally alerted them, then hands went to belts and zippers, shoes pulled off, until everything I was about to spoil myself with was unveiled. Perfectly taut muscular bodies swayed slightly, eyes burning liquid silver, and they were hard, achingly hard for me. I nodded to myself, smiling my beast’s smile, before I said, “Get on the bed.”
Jesus fucking Christ, I could see why people resented nix. Wolf shifters already got more out of a mated relationship than most. Our partners were supremely fit, sporting the kinds of bodies that everyone else drooled over on Instagram well into middle age, and our mate bonds ensured we were loyal until death. But as I padded after them, moving from the living room to the bedroom, watching them flop down on the surface, a visual feast of maleness, I could see it. This was an embarrassment of riches, more than any woman should be lucky enough to experience, and this was only one part of my pack. I sent up a silent prayer to the Moon Maiden in thanks as I drew closer, while Mason watched my every move, Aidan giving his cock a stroke. I settled on the bed, resting on my knees and looked the two of them over.
“What’s up, baby?” Aidan said, my eyes hypnotised by the slow swivel of his hand. “You look like you don’t know where to start.”
He was right—I didn’t. They were an ocean of things to touch, taste, smell, lick, and I wanted to savour every damn bit of it. But as I moved forward, crawling across the bed, my mouth dry and my eyes roaming, I threw myself down between them, ready to drown. Hands grabbed my wrists, pulling them up over my head, while another pair landed on my hips. I was dragged down the bed until I was caught between the two of them, a tightly wound string, but it was Mason
who relented first. He reared above me, a dark god with a neon halo, the bright lights casting rainbow shadows into his black locks.
“I’ve thought so often about being here with you,” Mason said. “Of having you naked before me, of what I would do if you were.” His hands went to my ankles, hoisting them up and placing a gentle kiss to the inside of one of them. One hand slid up, pressing my thighs wide so I was split open for him. “It’s hard to decide which fantasy to follow.”
“No, it’s not.” I looked to see Aidan’s smile, his eyes taking in everything. “What’ll make her come hardest? What’ll make her scream like a little girl, with breathy little moans that turn your cock to stone?” His hand slid slowly down my torso before diving between my legs, fingers spreading my pussy wide, and a little groan escaped him when he felt how wet I was already. “You can’t work out what to do first because she’s accepted you, so you’ll have your whole damn life to tease her and taste her and fuck her until she cries out your name in one long sob. Me?” My body jerked as his middle finger slid over the hood of my clit, just once. “I might never get this opportunity again, so if you need some time to make your mind up…?”
Mason’s eyes flicked up, a low growl forming in his chest, his body moving protectively over mine.
“Then it’s time to dive in, mate.” Aidan’s voice was challenging and empathetic and a little bit sad, but his mouth dropped down on mine as Mason’s went to my thighs, prickling the soft skin with his stubble. Them, the drinks, this whole crazy situation created a wave of sensation that rose and rose, then crashed over me, sweeping me up in its tide.
“Fuck…” I moaned, my lips open and panting, my eyes staring without seeing. My back arched, twitching, tightening, then collapsing, then tightening again. Mason had kissed his way up my thigh and down the other, making my cunt burn for attention. I cried out, begged between the long, wet kisses Aidan bestowed upon me, fought to gasp out what I wanted between sucking on the other man’s tongue.
And I begged Aidan too. His fingers moved slowly, so slowly, like he’d memorise every square inch of my skin, storing the information away for later. He clawed at me, raking his fingers up my ribs, then softening to cup my breasts, just holding them in his hands for a few seconds with a kind of reverence I’d never expected. I opened my eyes, meeting his that burned so fiercely right now, boring into mine. I could see it, everything he was holding back, waiting almost for Mason’s lead, then his eyes softened when Mase covered my cunt with his mouth, parting me with his tongue. He watched my lips fall open, he watched me struggle to contain my moans, he watched me come apart under those initially gentle licks. He smiled as he watched me squirm, watched pleasure wash over me before deciding he needed to add to it. He surged forward, pinching down on one nipple before sucking the other into the hot velvet of his mouth.
“Fuck… Fuck!”
They were tearing me down, the two of them, taking away all my worries, thoughts, and concerns, until there was only this—pleasure. What they did and what I needed to think about couldn’t coexist in the same body, so bliss won. I thrashed on the bed, or I tried to, Mason’s hands pinning my hips to the bed, Aidan holding my shoulders, so that every movement was an abbreviated, truncated thing until I finally collapsed and dove into sensation.
Mason’s thumbs pressing into the flesh of my inner thighs. The rasp of his stubble, his slick, mobile tongue, spearing through me and leaving a burning trail behind. That flicker of the hard point, battering my clit in rapid succession, provoking a heavy bloom of pleasure. His fingers sliding through my folds, then circling, then pushing in, while I fought his grip, wanting to push down upon them, wedge him inside me quicker.
“You needing?” he asked me in a low growl, placing a kiss on my thigh when all I could do was make inarticulate grumbles. “Do you need me, Paige?”
“Yes!” That came out without a thought, which provoked a chorus of them. “Yes, yes, yessss….” My voice became a long drawn-out hiss that transformed into a moan as he wedged several fingers inside me, giving me the stretch I needed.
“Do you need me?”
He asked the same question but for a whole other reason, and Aidan pulled back, stroking my hair, the requirement of an answer hanging heavily in the air.
“C’mon, Paige,” Aidan prompted, his voice soft, reassuring. It was like somehow he knew, about the dynamic between us, about the way things were between Mason and me, about everything. “Tell him.”
My eyes slid down, met my lover’s in the brightly coloured darkness, saw his glowing alien and beautiful in the dark. How the fuck did I put it in words? Mason was oxygen, something my body ached for, needed wrapped around it for every moment of the day, needed deep inside me. I tried to claw him up, but he shook his head, still playing lightly with my pussy, his fingers covered in my slick, but he wasn’t going to move an inch without it.
“I…” This felt like jumping off a fucking cliff into certain doom below. This felt like a betrayal of all my pain, the letting go of a knife I’d kept plunged into my heart for five years. “I…” But he needed it, I could see that. He needed me, he needed my heart, he needed my words.
“I will always need you, Mason Klein. Every day that I draw breath, I need you with me. By my side, touching me, looking out for me, caring for me as I have always longed to do for you. I built a whole fucking world in my head as a teen where you were the most important person in it. I tried to take that away, shift it, make it about someone else, but no matter whom I bond with, no matter whom I come to care for, you’re always there. You’re so deep inside me.” My eyes filled with tears as I clawed at my chest. “I can’t get you out.”
“Don’t.” He shook his head, and for a split fucking second, I was right back there, in my room, feeling that same agony of rejection. When he moved, I knew he was going to pull away. He’d sobered, realised this was not right, found some other fucking reason to leave me. I tensed hard, readying myself for the blow.
So when he surged up, covering me with his body, I went stock still.
“Don’t get me out. I don’t deserve to be inside you, but I thank Mother Moon that I am.” As if to push home his point, he positioned himself between my legs, then slammed himself deep. For a moment, he just stopped still, staring down at me, his forehead creasing, his hand stroking my hair. “I’ll always love you. I haven’t touched another woman since you left, since before that when I thought… You feel so fucking tight and wet. So good, I…” I gasped as his hips flexed, shoving him deeper. “I want this to last forever, but I feel like I won’t last more than a few strokes.”
I pulled him down atop of me, our mouths joining, our bodies shifting slowly, moving inexorably further. I felt the shake of his arms, tasted the hiss of his breath, my hands digging into his buttocks, letting him know it was OK. This wasn’t the end, this was the beginning. We would have lazy days of this, lying in bed, tangled in each other, drawing the scent of the other in deep before one of us clambered over the other and joined our bodies the way our hearts did.
I was horrified when I felt the tears form, when they trickled out the sides of my eyes, when he kissed them away and replaced them with him—his cock thrusting harder and deeper, his hands clawing the bed, his kisses raining down on my skin, and I rushed to meet all of it. I couldn’t bear even the smallest of gaps, wrapping my arms around him, holding him tight until my cunt did the same, seizing him, snapping tight as wave after wave of heartbreaking pleasure broke over me. That seemed to trigger something in him, his hips jerking hard, and then he went still.
“I should go.”
We both looked up to see Aidan crouched on the bed, looking like a bystander at a car crash. His eyes were wide and colourless in the darkness.
“I’m intruding. I knew I was all along. You didn’t reach for me, didn’t want to give me the time of day, but…” I reached out, taking his hand, and Aidan squeezed it gratefully, all the while looking like he was going to be sick. “I’m sorry. I thou
ght I knew what I was getting myself into but…” He shook his head slowly.
“No one’s going to make you stay,” I said quietly, Mason kissing my neck before pulling free and rolling onto the bed. “Not if you don’t want to.”
“Want?” Aidan’s eyes shone silver for a second. “Goddess, I wish that lack of desire was the problem, but… I guess I thought this was just going to be casual.”
“It was supposed to be,” Mason said with a dry chuckle. “If you’re around Paige for any length of time, you’ll find that near impossible to maintain.” He rolled me towards him, kissing me lightly, then pulled away before it began to deepen. “If you find a way to keep your feelings out of things, you’re a tougher bastard than me.”
“I haven’t.” Aidan drew away from the two of us, like some increased physical distance would help. “I’ve made a fucking mess of things trying to deal with it, but—”
I wiggled free of Mason, feeling his fingers on my skin as I flipped over and crawled towards Aidan, pressing my lips to his. He just let me kiss him for a few seconds before his hands surged forward, yanking me into his lap, diving into my hair, then shifting me until I straddled him, his eyes trained on my mouth.
“I fucking prayed that I would be one of the ones who cooled down when you found your mates. I knew you’d chosen, and I knew that wasn’t me.” He bit the words off, trying to put up another wall, but when I put my hand to his face, his eyes fluttered closed. “Fuck yes…” he murmured. “Touch me. Give me something to take with me when I walk through that door.”
He said the words like a prayer, but I was the false idol he prayed to. I traced the line of his broad forehead, of his sharp cheekbones, along those full lips, the only bit of softness in his face.
“I can’t promise anything, but I can give you this,” I said.
“Kiss me, touch me, hit me,” he mumbled. “Whatever you have to give, I want.”