Fire & Ice

by Alice Brown

'Think she is ready, or is she going to hit the panic button?' Adrian wanted his brother’s opinion before venturing any further down the road they were traveling.

  'I think she is ready. She is so loosened up, she is like putty in my hands,' Aiden replied telepathically before going back to raining kisses down the side of her neck. It was imperative they keep the fire burning brightly.

  Adrian resumed their kiss, only this time he swiped his tongue over her lips asking for entrance. She opened immediately for him, and his tongue dove in to taste their mate. A moment later, ‘peaches’ came to his brain, and he realized Fadri was trying to tell him their mate tasted like peaches, one of the many fruits he adored back on Earth. In one fell swoop, he reached around her, one hand cradling her back and shoulders, while the other scooped up her legs as he gently laid her down on the blanket. He remained poised above her, his mouth still devouring hers, when she let out the sexiest moan he had ever heard. He broke off the kiss to find his brother had slid her top up to the bottom of her breasts, and was lightly stroking her belly and ribs with his fingers.

  The look on Aiden’s face was one of sheer adoration, and Adrian grinned inwardly. He had secretly worried if his brother was going to be able to show their mate the love and devotion she deserved. Of the two of them, Aiden had always been more aloof, choosing to keep to himself when he was plagued with a problem. He was also the one who was quick to jump to the wrong conclusions sometimes, not giving the other person a chance to tell their side of the story. Adrian knew this was no way to treat their mate. Frankly, he counted on having to be the go-between for the remainder of his life, to try to make up for his twin’s lack of compassion, while knocking his brother upside his head for his belligerent actions.

  Now, watching him devour her with his eyes even though she was still mostly clothed, he heaved a silent sigh of relief. It seemed his brother had some compassion in him somewhere, and had decided to dig it up. Adrian continued watching his brother as Aiden dipped his head down and ran his tongue over her belly, causing a slight giggle to escape their mate. Adrian locked eyes with her from his position above her, and swooped back in for another kiss. As the kiss deepened, he slowly moved her shirt even higher up, exposing her bra-covered breasts for his brother. He heard a noise, and when he broke off the kiss to get a glimpse, while trailing kisses down her neck, he could see that Aiden had already freed her breasts and was looking at them as if they were a tall glass of water being offered to a man who was dying of thirst.

  Adrian dropped his kisses even lower, trailing down her chest, and caught full sight of the heaven his brother had been staring at. Have mercy, their mate was made perfectly! High firm globes now stared up at him, and he could not help slowly gliding his tongue around the areola before taking one flawless, pert, hard nipple into his mouth and sucking. He caught sight of his brother doing almost the exact same thing to her other breast. Good, they were on the same page, and they weren’t even communicating telepathically.

  Evangelina found herself flat on her back before she even realized what was going on. She would have protested, if they hadn’t started using their tongues. Those perfectly wicked, sinful, but oh-so-heavenly tongues. No one had ever paid her breasts the attention they were now receiving. Each pull, each nip with their teeth, sent her closer and closer to losing herself against the climax she could feel building. She reached for their heads and held them tightly to her breasts, just knowing it wouldn’t take very much more to send her over.

  Her cloth-covered core openly wept, wanting to be filled. She couldn’t ever remember feeling this worked up, and they really hadn’t started on the good stuff yet. But as preposterous as it sounded in her own head, she was fast barreling toward a climax with nothing but their mouths on her sensitive breasts.

  She heard, and felt, the snap being pulled from her jeans before the zipper was lowered. Adrian stopped suckling on her breast. “Darling, we would like to pleasure you. Would you like that?”

  As if the word no would even form in her mind. The only response going through her mind was, oh yes, yes, please yes! Not trusting her tongue at the moment, she merely nodded down at him and lifted her hips as Aiden made short work of removing her pants and undies.

  Right before she felt his nose up against her pubic bone, he growled, “Our mate smells so good, brother. Like heaven!”

  Adrian came back up to her mouth and devoured it with a ferocity that was sizzling hot. He demanded entrance immediately, gliding his tongue over every inch of surface he could find. Meanwhile, she felt Aiden’s hands as they gently separated her legs apart, skimming his fingertips up the inside of her thighs until she was quivering beneath them.

  Adrian pried his lips off hers, allowing her to take in a lungful of much-needed air. She glanced down to find Aiden between her legs, his shoulders pushing her legs further apart as he looked to be getting comfortable, as if he planned to stay there for a while. What was with these guys? She’d never had this much attention bestowed upon her, and to say it was a bit overwhelming was an understatement. Oh, but she could get used to this.

  She was already starting to develop feelings for these two, even though the logical side of her brain kept trying to tell her it was way too soon. She didn’t care. They hadn’t done anything, yet, that would make her believe they weren’t developing feelings for her also.

  She felt his tongue take a leisurely lick from her hole upwards, causing her to gasp and wiggle. He threw a huge arm over her stomach, effectively pinning her down. He raised his head up at her and cocked one eyebrow, as if to say, “You’re not going anywhere until I’m finished with you!”

  Just as his head went back down, Adrian reached over and lightly pinched and rolled a nipple between his fingers as his mouth quickly found the other one. The sensations were too much, yet felt so good. Aiden continued his leisurely licks, going around the one spot that needed his attention the most. He used his free hand to slide under her rear end to lift her up. It took her a moment to realize what he was doing, so shocked that he could raise her bottom halfway up one-handed. But then she realized why he had done it. It was so he could have better access to her. His tongue found her tight hole, wiggling and pushing up just as far as he could go. Adrian was still suckling her breast, and rolling the nipple of her other with his fingers, and with the dual stimulation, her body felt like it was a rubber band winding up tighter and tighter. When Aiden brought his tongue out and traveled upwards again, she was prepared for him to yet again go around her clit, but was surprised when she first felt his tongue travel over the little bundle of nerves, and then place it between his lips and suck on it hard. She exploded. She bucked against his mouth as the spasms just continued rolling through her. That rubber band had been coiled up tightly, and now that it had been released, her entire body trembled. The most euphoric feelings ran through her as Adrian released her nipples to rain soft kisses across her shoulder and back up her neck. When he reached her ear, he nibbled on it lightly, before whispering sweet words meant to soothe her.

  Finally, she heaved a heavy sigh, the feeling of floating in space coming to a dead stop. She suddenly felt like she had just crash-landed. Her emotions welled up instantaneously, everything that had happened over the past year hitting her like a ton of bricks. On top of it all, here were two of the best looking men she had ever met, and even though they told her they wanted her and she was their mate and all that, her negativity got the best of her. After all, she had always dated losers, why would her luck suddenly change? They had pleasured her, and it was now over. She would go back to her room and sleep all alone tonight, all by herself. Again. No, she couldn’t face that when they just showed her pure ecstasy. Tears hit without warning, and she tried to hide them, but it was of little use. Aiden still had her lower body pinned down, and as embarrassment hit her, she fought their hold on her body.

  “Let me up!” she demanded, or it was intended to come out as a demand, but even she realized it came out sounding like a wounded ani
mal. Aiden’s head shot up from between her legs, concern lacing the corners of his eyes immediately.

  “Baby, what is wrong?” Aiden asked at the same time his brother tried reaching for her. She quickly turned away from Adrian’s touch, curling into herself, as the tears came in a torrent.

  She rolled over on her side as she cried for all the injustice that had happened in her life. She cried for all the broken relationships she had gone through, all the jerks, the biggest of them being her last boyfriend, Gerald. Who went around breaking into her apartment and trashing it and then bombing her car? She had fought against everything for what seemed like an eternity, always trying to get ahead, yet never making it.

  She felt the men as they lay down on either side of her, one in front, the other in the back, and felt them press their bodies as close to hers as possible. And she realized it wasn't so they could push their erections against her. No, their broad chests were pushed up tight against her.

  Aiden managed to shift her just a little, and soon had her curled up on top of him. She was still crying, but was trying to bring herself under control. Adrian gently rubbed her back, as both men promised her that she was their destiny. They also promised to love her for the rest of their lives. If she hadn’t been so distraught, she might have questioned that one, but there was no talking until well after the storm of tears had passed. But isn’t that what men usually did to shut a crying woman up? Talk a lot of nonsense in order to get them to stop bawling their eyes out? Men weren’t made to have the same emotions as women. There was no way for her to find someone who would understand her on an emotional level, was there? Then again, she thought, these men weren’t exactly human.

  Both Aiden and Adrian had been fighting Fadri ever since their mate had begun to cry, all the while trying to figure out why she was upset and how to fix it. This was NOT how they had expected their first time with their mate to go.

  'Brother, you are usually the more sensitive one of the two of us, any idea what is going on?' Aiden asked his brother silently.

  'No, it seems to be emotional. I don’t think she is in any pain. I fail to detect any, anyway. She just seems very distraught,' Adrian finished speaking telepathically to his brother and immediately turned his attention back to their upset mate.

  'She just seems very distraught!' Aiden fumed. He could bloody well see that! She was lying across the front of him with her head pillowed on his large chest, crying her eyes out. The sight of her crying was nearly tearing his heart in two, and if Fadri did not step back and give him a moment to figure things out without trying to butt in and insist he knew better; he was going to strangle his dragon!

  He leaned down to speak quietly in her ear. “Babe, whatever we did to hurt you, I truly apologize. Fadri is going nuts right now, and is very close to breaking free and taking over, sure he can do a better job of fixing whatever is wrong than we can.”

  For some reason, that finally got through to her, and she lifted herself off his chest as she tried to dry up her tears. She assured them it wasn’t anything they had done; it had just been her emotions getting the best of her. When Aiden stopped and thought about it for a moment, he thought he understood why she had let go of the tears. She wasn’t given the time to process, let alone mourn, the loss she suffered from the breakin. Then her car was blown up the very next day, almost taking her life along with the car. That had to have been scary. As far as he knew, she hadn’t processed anything, yet. And then, he and Adrian come waltzing into her life and claim she is their mate. Yeah, probably a bit too much.

  As soon as she had lifted off him and stated that she was okay, thankfully, Fadri settled back down after only another grumble or two. Good, that made it a lot easier in handling their mate who looked to still be a bit emotional. A final grumble rumbled through the twins from Fadri about how he could have had this whole thing straightened out by now, but then he laid down and curled up for a nap. One problem settled. One more to go.

  “Babe, how about laying back down here and talking for a few minutes,” Adrian suggested from behind her.

  “Look, guys, I know you don’t want to hear all my baggage. I’m fine, really. It was too many emotions all hitting at once, and I couldn’t process everything.” They were men, she would just wait until she got back to the castle and find Angel. There she could cut loose again if needed, without worrying about scaring the men she was starting to have some deep feelings for.

  Aiden turned her so she was looking at him. “I think I do understand what is going on in that pretty head of yours. You’ve had no time to process everything that has happened to you, and basically, your life has been turned upside down in a very short amount of time. You haven’t had time to process the breakin, or the fact you were almost killed.”

  Adrian stared at his brother in total disbelief. 'When did you get in touch with your emotional self?' he asked telepathically with a snarl in his voice. Adrian had always been the one to put the pieces back together that his brother went around destroying. If Aiden broke up with a girl, Adrian was the one who comforted her when she was distraught by the rude way his brother chose to do the breakup.

  'Shut up, bro, can’t you see she is upset? You would be too, if you had gone through everything she has in the last few days. Besides, she is a female. She is bound to be more emotional than we are. It is our job to take care of her so she doesn’t get this way very often,' Aiden replied to his brother while his arms were wrapped around Evangelina.

  Adrian sat there silently for a moment, dumbfounded, as he watched his brother compassionately take care of their mate. It’s about damn time, he thought. He heard his brother talking softly to their mate, asking her if he could wrap her up in the blanket and take her home, to their bed.

  'Good, that’s where she belongs. We’ll probably need to get up and take cold showers every hour or so from being curled up with her, but it will be worth it,' he conveyed to his brother silently.

  Chapter Ten

  Evangelina allowed Aiden to carry her home tucked up against his chest, wrapped in the blanket they had used in the field. About every twenty feet or so he would lean down to kiss her forehead, or the tip of her nose. Never had she felt this…loved? Is that what she was feeling? Yeah, sure they had both pledged their love to her while she had an emotional breakdown, but did they mean it? Really mean it?

  She thought about bringing it up for clarification, but knew she just couldn’t. If they truly hadn’t meant what they said earlier, then she would be embarrassed beyond words. So she spent the time getting back to the castle with her cheek up against Aiden’s chest, listening to his heartbeat, lightly stroking the chest hairs with the tips of her fingers until she fell asleep.

  As the brothers neared the castle, their father’s voice came through their heads loud and clear. 'Boys, she doesn’t think you really love her. Evidently, she has had nothing but bad relationships, and she still doesn’t understand our ways. Go slow with her. Remember, she is going to be your mate for the rest of your life.'

  Aiden looked down at his sleeping mate. He didn’t like the fact he had to hear what she was thinking from his dad, but at the same time, he knew his father would not sugarcoat anything. His father had telepathic abilities, and could read just about anyone’s mind, where Aiden and his brother were limited to each other.

  Adrian cut into his thoughts, using their silent link as not to disturb their mate. 'She is so special. To see her sad tears, tore my heart in two.”

  'I know, brother, I know. I feel the same way. I never knew true love would feel like this. I’m willing to do whatever we have to in order for her to be happy. If she wants to move back to Earth, that is where I’ll go. If she wants to stay here, that’s fine too. I’ll do whatever makes her happy.'

  While Adrian was happy his brother seemed so smitten over their mate, he also wondered about the quick turnaround in his brother. It was like his old self had been yanked out of his body and replaced with an entirely, and to be honest, new and im
proved Aiden.

  'Bro, don’t get me wrong, because I agree with everything you just said. But you are starting to sound like me. I am just surprised at your change in attitude.'

  'She is our mate. The one special person designed just for us.' Aiden stopped and shook his head a moment as he peered down at his sleeping mate in his arms. 'I am already in love with her so much I can’t even begin to imagine life without her.'

  As they approached the huge double doors leading into the castle, the king’s voice once again sounded in their head. 'Maybe you two should start conveying your feelings to her a bit more.'

  'Thanks, dad, thanks.'

  Evangelina woke with a start as she was being placed on a bed. “What….” she exclaimed, her voice still sleepy, her eyes blinking rapidly as she attempted to regain her senses and figure out where she was.

  “Shh, sweetness, I’ve got you.” Aiden’s voice was whispering in her ear a heartbeat later, and she visibly relaxed as he finished laying her in the bed. He followed her down, stretching out alongside and bringing her body tucked in next to his. He looked up at his brother, who currently had a smirk on his face.

  'Damn, if I knew finding our mate would have brought out this personality, I would have searched over the Earth twice by now to find her.'

  Aiden glared at his brother. He probably wasn’t helping his own case, because he was sure he was hogging their mate. It was probably the reason his twin was making digs at him. He glanced down to see his mate had shifted and was looking up at him.

  “Why are you glaring at Adrian? Are you two fighting?” her voice, although still sleepy, was laced with concern.

  Thankfully, Adrian climbed onto the bed and lay down on the other side of her. He chuckled as he gently picked up her hand and placed a kiss on the inside of her wrist.

  “No, love, we aren’t fighting. I had been giving Aiden a hard time, and had gone a little too far.”