by Aubrey Ross
Dalton growled and moved to her other nipple, obviously distressed by the thought of Olav tasting her mouth. Nipping his way along her torso, Dalton settled on his stomach and slid his hands along her inner thighs. She needed to see his face, to judge his reactions. Her empathic abilities were minimal. But Olav went right on kissing her, forcing her to depend on her senses and her instincts.
Forget about him, fluretta. It’s the human’s turn to serve you. Olav sent the thought in their native language without lifting his mouth from hers.
Parting her folds with his thumbs, Dalton traced her slit with the tip of his tongue. “God,” he murmured against her cunt, “you taste so good.”
Heat curled up her spine, her core pulsed, and her clit throbbed, begging for attention. She could do no more than moan with Olav kissing her so deeply. They were focused entirely on her, caring for her, ministering to her. Rocking her hips, she rubbed her folds against Dalton’s mouth, praying he’d understand the silent demand.
She needed this and more. She needed to participate, to give as well as receive, but they wouldn’t let her. Olav rolled her nipples, anchoring her body in place as Dalton tongued her clit. A short burst of pleasure fanned out through Kylie. Before the sensations could mellow, Dalton pushed two fingers into her pussy and forced the pleasure higher.
“That’s right,” Olav said as she tossed her head against his chest. “Don’t stop when she screams.”
Dalton raised his head enough to look into her eyes. She smiled, reassuring him before she offered her throat to Olav. The tantalizing stroke of Dalton’s tongue slowed, but it didn’t stop. He was obviously distracted by what she was doing. Olav scraped her skin with his fangs, then sank deep into the base of her throat with one sharp bite.
She screamed, but Olav held her locked against his chest until her instinctive need to resist subsided.
Once she relaxed against Olav, Dalton continued his tender assault on her body in earnest. He circled her clit with his tongue while his fingers shuttled in and out of her throbbing core. Orgasm after orgasm washed over her. Olav blasted her senses with energy at the crest of each peak. Without the burst of pleasure, the concentrated saturation would have been excruciating.
“Let me… rest,” she panted after countless cycles had passed.
Olav withdrew his fangs from Kylie’s throat and sagged against the pillows as the human licked her to one final orgasm. She came so sweetly, her face flushed and glowing. The intoxicating scent of her arousal tormented him.
The human rested his cheek against her inner thigh and studied her face as he gently stroked her flawless skin. Perhaps he wasn’t as useless as Olav had first thought. Was it possible he had never interacted with one of their kind before he met Kylie?
“She needs to sleep for an hour or so.” Olav lifted her slightly and placed her on her side. She curled into a ball, tucking her hands beneath her cheek like a child. The human took the bedding from the floor and covered her while Olav gathered their clothes.
They dressed in silence, each stealing frequent glances at the woman sleeping on the bed.
“Is she out of danger?” the human asked when they reached the outer room. He left the bedroom door cracked so they could hear her if she stirred.
“Her condition is stabilized, but she’s still really weak.” Olav couldn’t think of a diplomatic way of posing the question, so he just asked, “How did she end up with you?”
“Do you know what she was doing in this dimension?”
Olav chuckled. They would need a mediator if they continued to provoke each other with every exchange. “I know she was dispatched by Mistress Arabel. That’s all I need to know.”
“Then you’ll have to ask Kylie when she’s feeling better. This mission is important to her and I’m not going to do anything to compromise her success.”
“Except fucking her into oblivion.”
“That wasn’t my fault!”
Ignoring the outburst, Olav crossed to the window and stared out into the night. Even Kylie had said Dalton was blameless. Still, Olav couldn’t let go of the thought that this human had touched his precious fluretta in ways he’d only dreamed about. Kylie had been out of contact for three days. How much of that time had been spent with this blond man, touching him, tasting him, allowing him to --
“Does she realize you’re in love with her?”
The question brought Olav around. He glared at the human, then realized the futility of denial. “I doubt it. We’ve been friends too long for her to think of me in any other light.”
“You certainly have feelings for her that have nothing to do with friendship.”
“What’s your point?”
Dalton raked one hand through his burnished hair, then slowly shook his head. “I don’t know. This is all knew to me.” He gestured toward the bedroom with his chin. “Is that how you heal all your patients?”
“The remedy fits the ailment.” He strolled across the room, the thick carpeting cushioning his bare feet. “We’re back were we started. How did Kylie end up in your bed?”
“Actually I ended up in hers.” Dalton rubbed his eyebrows with his thumb and forefinger. “I guess we’re both going to have to bend. Tell me a little bit about your dimension and I’ll explain what happened to Kylie.”
“What do you want to know?” Olav clasped his hands behind his back, his gaze assessing his competition.
“Kylie mentioned that you’ve allied with vampires in the past because you are both nocturnal. Are there more nocturnal races in Froswick or day dwellers?”
“The Froswick dimension has hundreds of planets. Are you asking about the entire dimension or our home world?”
The human looked confused. “I thought Froswick was the name of your home world.”
“No, it’s the name of our dimension. You must earn our trust before we’ll divulge specific information about our home world. We never know when we’re talking to a species that can teleport.”
“That makes sense. Less than a year ago, I thought humans had this world to ourselves.”
“How were you enlightened?”
“I was kidnapped by two vampires.”
“Thus your interest in nocturnal species?”
“To some extent. Mainly, I’m just curious.”
Olav suspected there was more to his interest than simple curiosity, but he saw no harm in providing the statistics. “Approximately eighty percent of the inhabitants of the Froswick dimension are nocturnal. All of the humanoid species indigenous to our home world are nocturnal.”
“Do you share Kylie’s disdain for vampires?”
“I hold to the unpopular belief that we share a common ancestor with vampires. Is that what you’re wondering? If my ancestors slipped through the Veil at some time in your past and settled here on Earth?”
“There are some striking similarities between your species and the vampires I have known.” He laughed as Olav began to scowl. “The ones who rescued me, not the ones who kidnapped me.”
“I indulged your curiosity, now indulge mine.”
Dalton nodded. “Kylie showed up at a nightclub I frequent during a private party. She’d been invited by one of my best friends, so I figured she was harmless. She was Mimicking the appearance of a human when she first came downstairs. I was intrigued by her and we were enjoying some mutual flirting when a vampire took exception to the fact that she was passing herself off as human and insisted she transform.”
“Shape shifting isn’t allowed in this dimension?”
“It’s not that simple. The vampire took personal exception to the role Kylie was playing. That’s the part you need to ask her about, because I’m not sure who is allowed to know the specifics of her mission.”
Olav snorted. “I know Kylie was sent here to locate a woman the council believes to be important. Is that the ‘secret’ you’re dancing around?”
“Well, yes.” Dalton smiled and Olav shook his head. They might actually get something accompl
ished if they stopped snarling at each other. “The vampire’s name is Faelon and he claims to have blood ties to the woman Kylie came here to find.”
“I still don’t see how this leads to your spending three days in Kylie’s bed.”
“Faelon told Kylie to back off.”
Olav could almost picture hotheaded Kylie facing off with a vampire. “I’m sure that went over well.”
“She demanded to speak with the woman and the next thing we remember clearly is Kylie using Faelon’s voice to undo his compulsion. We were here in her hotel room and three days had passed in a sort of sexual frenzy.”
“Now that Kylie knows the woman is alive and this vampire is determined to keep them apart, we’re going to have to keep a close eye on Kylie.”
Dalton nodded again, his gaze clouded with speculation. “Some friends of mine are checking into the specifics of the woman’s identity, but I’m not sure that’s enough to keep Kylie from sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“She’ll be out the door as soon as she’s strong enough to get dressed,” Olav agreed.
A predatory smile bowed Dalton’s mouth. “We’ll have to find ways to keep her undressed.”
Chapter Seven
Kylie had just finished her second shower of the night when the door burst open and Olav and Dalton filed into the bathroom. Dalton picked up her neatly stacked clothes and handed them to Olav, whose sexy grin sent tingles down her spine. He wasn’t acting like himself at all. The sensible Olav she knew didn’t use endearments like “love” and “fluretta.” He also didn’t stare at her breasts or lick his lips as he gazed at her pussy.
“You don’t really think you’re strong enough to leave the suite, do you?” Dalton asked.
“I was going to find out.”
“By doing what?” Challenge snapped through Dalton’s tone and he exchanged a knowing look with Olav.
Wait a minute! When had Olav and Dalton become allies? They’d barely been able to contain their animosity when they were with her before. The tantalizing memory of their uneasy cooperation had followed her into sleep, filling her dreams with erotic images and sensual possibilities. Now suddenly they were united against her?
“I don’t trust Rafe.” She glanced at the towels hanging just out of reach. Was it necessary to have this conversation while she was naked? “He asked for twenty-four hours so he can help Faelon move Mercedes.”
Olav took the towels off the rack and handed one to Dalton. They approached her together, seduction apparent in every move they made. Her pulse leapt. She was still a little tired, but it was nothing a good day’s sleep wouldn’t cure. She and Dalton had hardly been able to keep their hands off each other even before Faelon turned nasty. But what was going on with Olav?
“Rafe could have warned Faelon telepathically without ever leaving your sight.” Dalton dragged the towel down one of her arms and then the other. Olav circled behind her and went to work on her hair. They crowded her, surrounded her, and embraced her, yet the towels remained an ever present barrier between her skin and their hands. “I trust Jessie enough to allow her mate twenty-four hours.”
“And what am I supposed to do until tomorrow night?” She twisted away from Dalton’s towel only to press herself more closely against Olav’s.
“Can’t you guess?” Olav chuckled.
“Before we get started, I want her to clear something up for me.” Dalton turned her to face Olav. Wrapping his arm around her waist, Dalton brought his mouth close to her ear. “Olav has been harboring secret fantasies about you for a long time. Sexual fantasies. Improper fantasies, if I understand the nature of your relationship.”
She squirmed against Dalton, suspecting where this was leading. Olav watched her closely, unembarrassed by the other man’s words. “Sexual relationships among team members aren’t forbidden, they’re just discouraged,” she said.
Olav’s eyes widened and he moved closer. “If I had let you know how I feel about you, would you have been --”
“How do you feel about me?”
Before Olav could answer, Dalton stepped around her and insinuated his tall body in between them. “This wasn’t the deal, buddy. I was just going to get her to admit she’d had sexual thoughts about you and suggest she get it out of her system. My relationships have been few and far between. You are not going to screw this up for me.”
“Relationship? Dalton, we met three days ago and have spent the majority of that time under a mind altering compulsion.”
His jaw set into a mutinous line. “Jessie knew you were mine. I sure as hell knew you were the one. All Faelon did was rush us to the finish line. That’s not how I would have played it, but I won’t regret the time I’ve spent with you.”
“I need to think. I need to --”
Dalton scooped her up in his arms and strode from the bathroom, Olav a step behind. “You need to accept that life is unpredictable and I’m one stubborn son of a bitch.” He sat down on the side of the bed, still holding her in his arms. Her skin tingled and her nipples peaked the instant his hands touched her. “We’ll settle this later, when we don’t have an audience.”
“And when do you expect that to be?” Olav asked. “I want her just as much as you do.”
Olav’s flashing gaze and husky tone sent desire curling through her body. They wanted her, they both wanted her, and nothing had ever aroused her more. She scooted off Dalton’s lap and stepped back, looking from one to the other. Olav stood with his hands clasped behind his back. She knew his patient calm was misleading. He could strike like a snake, fast and lethal, if he perceived a threat. Dalton stayed on the bed, hands braced on either side of his lean hips, gaze ravenous.
As different as night and day, the contrast intoxicated her. Olav offered power and tenderness, the comfort of things familiar. With Dalton she could explore uncharted territory, adventurous and new. Dalton was passion and intensity. Olav was depth and stability. A warrior and a healer. Day and night.
Olav broke the tense silence. “What are you thinking, fluretta?”
“I won’t choose between you.” She raised her chin, emboldened by a rush of feminine power. “Not tonight, perhaps not ever.”
“Let’s enjoy ourselves until dawn and take the rest one night at a time,” Olav suggested, his gaze fixed on her mouth.
“If she still needs energy,” Dalton countered, “I’m willing to let her play, but I intend to spend each night showing her why she needs no one but me.”
Olav lunged for Dalton, grabbing his windpipe in a punishing grip before the other man perceived his movement. “If that were true, human, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Olav.” Kylie placed her hand on his upper arm and his grip eased. He looked into her eyes, longing burning through the flash of anger. “I accept your offer and I think our arrogant companion might benefit from a demonstration.” She sent an explicit mental image to Olav and he chuckled.
“What’s going on?” Dalton rubbed his neck as Olav released him and walked across the room. “You two can speak telepathically, can’t you?”
“You said you’re willing to let me play,” Kylie remarked as Olav set a chair next to Dalton and proffered the neatly folded belt from her bathrobe. “Well, I’m willing to let you watch Olav and me. Maybe if you behave yourself, I’ll let you join us after we’ve enjoyed ourselves for a while.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.” He looked at the chair with obvious dread. “I want to be the only man in your life. Is that so bad?”
“In our case, it could be lethal.” She paused to make sure she had his full attention. “Dalton, I’m not human and we can’t pretend I am. If I have sex with you and don’t augment my energy from another source, it will either harm me or destroy you.”
“So it’s a ménage or nothing?” he grumbled. He forced his gaze to Olav with obvious reluctance. “The thought of sharing her with me doesn’t bother you?”
“Humans make everything so complicated. When you are more comf
ortable with me, I will share more of myself with you.”
“Back up the truck, buddy! I’m hetero all the way. You won’t be sharing yourself with me -- ever.”
Olav shook his head and handed her the belt. “I really don’t see the appeal.”
“I’m sure he’s glad to hear it.” She waited until Dalton met her gaze, then offered him a soft, encouraging smile. This was a lot for anyone to accept. “If this isn’t going to work for you, I understand.” She would mourn his decision, but she would understand.
Dalton stared into the greenest eyes he’d ever seen, in the most beautiful face he could ever imagine, aching for things he didn’t quite understand. Their passionate lovemaking had almost killed Kylie. He would never intentionally cause her harm.
Instead of attempting an eloquence he knew he couldn’t muster, he pulled his shirt off over his head. Studs went flying. He shed his pants with the same urgency and took his place on the chair.
“If you promise not to leave the chair or touch yourself without permission, I won’t tie you up.” Her luminous gaze drifted down to his erection as she made the offer.
“I’m not going to be satisfied with anything but you, so the belt isn’t necessary.”
“Say it,” she prompted.
“I promise not to move without permission.”
Naked now, Olav joined her directly in front of Dalton. Determined not to stare at Olav’s lean body, or long, tapered shaft, Dalton fixed his gaze on Kylie. Desire gripped his abdomen and his cock bucked. He was reacting to the sexual situation, nothing more. Olav moved behind her, displaying her body as he touched her, and kissed her. Just the flick of his thumbs had her nipples darkly flushed and beaded. Olav scraped his fangs against her neck and her shoulder, leaving thin red welts in their wake. She undulated and moaned, obviously enjoying the stimulation.
Dalton balled his fists on his thighs. Maybe the belt would have been a mercy. His shaft throbbed and his balls ached and the show had barely begun.