by Kristina Lee
“I won’t come between you two,” she whispered into the warm skin of his chest.
Cory stiffened and stepped away, scrubbing his eyes with his hands. When she stepped forward, he backed away, shaking his head. “You don’t realize what you’re asking.”
His voice was rough, shaky, as if at any moment he would simply fall apart. “Have you ever been in a threesome before?”
Was he simply over-concerned for her? She shook her head softly and took another step, reaching out and circling his wrist with her thin fingers. “You’re worried you’ll hurt me.”
He let out a cynical laugh, his eyes blazing with some dark emotion she didn’t understand. She pressed closer, determined to abolish his lingering doubt, to secure this man in her life because suddenly she knew it would never be the same without him.
“More like start a jealous feud when you decide later you don’t want to share his love” he grated through clenched teeth.
Selena frowned before sliding her tongue over his collarbone, the highest point she could reach without him bending lower. Every word had been torn from him, his heart still bleeding from whatever happened in his past. “You forget I’m not a wolf. Share is in my vocabulary. And I’m fairly certain there’s enough of this particular Alpha to go around.”
Cory shivered against her then gripped her arms tight and tugged her off him. The look in his quickly darkening eyes burned a hole right through her. “Don’t say that, Selena. I’m serious. I love Zane to death and if you didn’t enjoy both of us that first time, it would kill him. He will not willingly let either of us go. Ever.”
Slipping his hand lower to twine their fingers together, he stepped away and began pulling her across the deserted vacant lot. He paused when they reached the property line, rifling through a series of storage benches until finding a pair of jeans his size. Heat flooded her cheeks as she watched him pull the rigid denim over his tanned, sculpted calves and thighs. Warmth pooled at the apex of her thighs as she raked her gaze over his hardened shaft, the tip glistening with promise. She swallowed as moisture soaked her panties.
Cory’s gaze was near feral when he snapped it back to hers. It took her a moment to realize he could scent her arousal. If that was the case then certainly he would understand that she wasn’t afraid of either of them, right? If only he knew how desperately she ached to be loved so thoroughly, to bask in a ray of the love they shared for each other.
He slipped on a pair of jogging shoes before standing upright before her. When he held out his roughened hand, Selena extended hers and immediately found herself tucked against the hard planes of his bare chest. Despite the cool weather, his skin burned hot. “Could you ever love me like you love Zane?”
She shivered as his fingers pushed up her spine to tangle into the thick ends of her long hair. Pressed so intimately together, she could still feel his erection throbbing behind the barrier of denim. His hesitation to answer only intensified her worry. What would she do if he said no? She couldn’t come between him and Zane which left only one alternative.
She swallowed the panic shooting through her suddenly icy veins. After what seemed an eternity, he brushed his firm lips over her neck, her ear, his thick voice sent straight from heaven.
“Aye. How could I not love someone who gives whole heartedly?”
Sinking against him, she gasped as he swooped her into his arms, easily carrying her toward Zane’s nearby home. With anyone else the action would have been over the top, outrageous, but coming from Cory, it only solidified her fast growing love for the dominant male. His heart pounded furiously against her chest as he carried them closer to home.
Home.
Funny how an attack on her life and two very possessive men could alter her reality.
Cory kissed the top of her head, a tender gesture that sent sparks of white-hot need plummeting through her. A few minutes more of that and she’d erupt.
“Zane needs you in his life, Selena. You, not necessarily me.”
Selena shook her head, absorbing his doubt as she wrapped her arms tight around his neck and squeezed herself closer to his warm body. She would not be the cause of separation between Cory and Zane, would not ruin something as beautiful as their love for one another. Cory would see that soon enough, she believed that as much as she believed night would soon fall. But until then, she’d reinforce that it wasn’t just Zane who needed both of them.
“But I need you both.”
He swallowed as he reached Zane’s heavy wooden door and slowly let her slide down the length of his muscled body until she could stand once again. His eyes gave away his uncertainty, his stiffened cock his desire. Skimming her nails down his bare chest, she paused at his waist. “Come inside with me, Cory. Let me heal you too.”
Chapter Seven
Cory scented Zane’s fear and distress but more importantly his potent anger before Selena even opened the door. Stepping through behind her, he caught Zane’s abrupt halt from where he paced the far end of the room. Worry pinched his gut knowing his mixture of dangerous emotion went far deeper than their lover’s spat—no matter it was the biggest they’d ever had.
“You came back.”
With three powerful strides Zane reached their side and his chocolate brown eyes darkened almost near black as he slid his gaze over the minor injuries from their fight. Selena knotted her fingers with his, covering his bandaged knuckles.
“Zane?” he questioned, sensing the tension riding down his stiffened spine and growing more wary by the silence.
Zane tilted his head in a half shake, his hands sliding up Cory’s bare chest to rest on his shoulders. He knew his Alpha needed sensory comfort, and wanted it from him right now, not Selena. Cory also knew no matter how surprising the gesture, Zane would never ask for it. An Alpha never showed weakness.
Refusing to part with Selena’s soothing touch, he held her hand steady against his stomach with one hand while lifting the other to Zane’s neck and pulling him closer. Cory crushed his lips to his lover’s, drinking in the adrenaline he’d missed since their love making last night.
Zane gripped him tighter as their tongue’s mated in a fiery dance, and Cory knew he’d easily washed away his partner’s distress, the hunger growing rapidly inside them. As he cupped Zane’s neck, pressing him closer, Zane’s hands slipped lower, grazing over his bare chest and down to where he held Selena’s hand to his stomach. He reached around and pulled her other hand across his side, so she hugged him from behind.
Hot sparks raked down his spine as the dual heat of both Selena’s supple, soft body on his back and Zane’s hard chest against his front enveloped him. In the space of one moment, he lost the upper hand with Zane, their rigid cocks pressed against each other as his lover continued to assault his senses. He slid his tongue over Cory’s teeth, before pulling back to nip at his lips and graze his teeth down his stubbled jaw. Energy surged throughout his body, all racing to the throbbing tip of his hardened shaft.
He pulled back and gasped for air.
“You don’t need me now,” he rasped.
The air around him was a suffocating mixture of everything he loved. Zane’s raw, masculine scent. The distinctive comforting mix of worn leather and fresh earth. Selena’s gentle perfume—a scent that brought to mind the freshness of dew covered grass. He ached to breathe it in as deep as possible and hold it there, hungered to grab onto both these people he loved and forget his misery in their welcome embrace.
Only he was the outsider now. Selena was Zane’s mate. Not his. And Zane belonged to her now. Not him.
Aware of his heartbeat racing like thunder in his ears, he calmed as Selena began stroking the ridge of his spine with the pads of her soft fingers. Even softer lips caressed over the hodgepodge of scars and scrapes on his exposed back, and he relaxed to lean forward onto Zane’s firm chest. Together they would be the death of him.
“I can’t lose you.” Zane grated. “Either of you.”
Zane brought his arms up
and closed them over his shoulders, fisting his fingers into his thick hair and kissing the top of his head. No matter that he knew it did no good to prolong this comforting embrace, he hesitated, needing the strength of his Alpha, craving the touch of his lover. Zane’s breath tickled over his ear.
“Come to bed with us, Cory.” He whispered so soft he knew Selena’s human ears would never hear. “Claim our mate.”
Cory squeezed Zane’s waist, wanting to believe it possible, desperate to be included. He had loved Zane for years now, but always knew this day would come. There were no three-way mating bonds. Their love existed with an expiration date.
Yet he sensed an urgency in Zane’s low whisper that had nothing to do with the need to claim his mate. Did something sinister still grip his mind or was he simply struggling to keep Cory the same way Cory struggled not to lose him?
Selena’s hands trailed off his back as she pulled away, the loss of her heat a mild form of torture. He turned before reason stopped him, instinctively pulling her back.
“It’s okay, Cory. I’m just going to take a quick shower and banish the chill.”
Zane’s fingers snaked down his corded arm and over the pair of theirs. Heat shot outward from the intimate tangle of fingers before Zane gently curled Cory’s into his own, releasing Selena. She walked into the adjoining bathroom, leaving the door wide open and soon the soothing rhythm of cascading water filled his ears.
“You’re an integral part of me, Cory. A part that she will need too.”
He swallowed the lump in his throat, staring at the open doorway to the bathroom. How many times had he made love with Zane in that same shower? “I wish I believed you.”
Zane’s smile tightened his chest, made him ache to press his lips to him again. With a shoulder, Zane nudged him toward the bathroom. “Take a shower with Selena. If you still don’t believe me afterward, I’ll stop fighting you.”
Fierce hunger burned in his stomach, spreading through his limbs until he knew there wasn’t any way in hell he could resist his lover’s offer. He wanted Zane in his life, wanted to make him and Selena happy. But did she truly want them both?
He took another step toward the bathroom, figuring he was about to find out.
* * * *
Despite the steam fogging the shower stall glass, Selena watched Cory enter the tiled bathroom, her eyes glued to the endless tan, lean muscle as he stripped off his worn jeans. Her breath caught at the sight of him naked, her gaze following the barely visible line of burnt gold hair to his rigid shaft. Her stomach clenched even as her mouth watered.
She was nuts for thinking this would work. Crazy for believing she could find happiness in the arms of two men when all her life she’d struggled to find her way into anyone’s arms. Only she knew including Cory was more important to Zane than saving the Pack. She nibbled her lower lip thinking that Cory might even be more important than she was—giving a voice to Cory’s fears.
So why was it she was the one convincing Cory this would all work out?
He slid the glass door open, steam whooshing out as he stepped inside.
Water pelted her back as if pushing her toward him, willing her to close her arms around him and comfort. Love. She swallowed when his hazel eyes raked up her body, pausing at her firm breasts. His gaze burned, tightening the peaks further. Finally he lifted his gaze to her face and stepped into the warm mist, closing his body around her.
The skin of his chest burned as hot as the shower spray, his words thick like the steamed air around them. “I don’t want to hurt either of you.”
Her hands slid down his back, dipping over the curve to his tight ass. She dug her nails into firm flesh, felt as if they were drifting in the same boat together. Lost.
“Neither do I, Cory.”
Lifting her face to his, she struggled to lock away her fears and doubts as Cory caressed her beneath the gentle spray of water. The past twenty-four hours were surreal, outrageous. But for the first time in her life she possessed what she always craved—doubly so. Selena knew she needed both men in her life because they were each unique, different. Two halves to one whole.
But would both keep her?
“What worries you, little one?” he asked, his voice a deep rumble against her hair.
She shivered as he ran a bar of soap across her back, closing her eyes against the intimacy of the moment. She kept her mouth shut knowing there wasn’t anything to say. Both men welcomed her into their lives as if they’d been anticipating her arrival, eager for it. She had no reason to fear rejection from either of them. These wolves were not going to abandon her like her family.
His hands soaped over her hips, lifting higher much to her delight.
“Perhaps I should just take your mind off it?”
Selena nodded, remembering how confident Cory had been the day before, positive he could make her forget Zane. As his nimble fingers slid over the tight nubs of her breasts, she moaned, her thoughts lost.
“That’s better, sweetheart.” Cory whispered, lathering soap in small circles around her nipples. Her nails scratched over his hips, her eyes screwed shut, stars exploding behind the lids.
As his fingers moved lower, his lips grazed hers, sparking a sharp current of need deep inside her. Wicked desires, heavy passion hummed alive for him. His tongue lapped the beaded moisture off the corner of her lips before slowly, purposefully slipping inside the warm cavern of her mouth. Rising onto her toes, she pressed back, hungry for something more substantial, her body aching as if it just received a violent electric shock.
Cory’s fingers slipped inside her moist sex and she gasped. Her eyes flew back open, catching his devilish smile. He stroked with slow purpose, his pace steady, delirious. Heat pooled low in her belly, spreading outward like molten lava, consuming her. Selena sighed as she fell forward against him.
“Feels so good,” she panted into the river of water streaming down his hard chest.
He chuckled as his thumb rolled over her clit, circling the swollen nub as shivers racked her very core.
“Yes you do,” he admitted in her ear, sucking the tender flesh into his mouth and flicking his tongue across it.
His thick shaft throbbed against her belly and she hungered for a more thorough taste. “More,” she breathed.
For a moment Cory’s fingers stalled, and she cried out when he pulled away. Glancing up at him, she saw Zane standing immediately opposite the glass door, watching. His eyes were nearly black with hunger. Feral.
Her fingers trembled against Cory’s back as she stared into the depths of Zane’s darkening eyes, believing at any moment he would crash through the glass and devour her. Cory nibbled her neck, never turning, never stopping his thorough tasting of her flesh.
“Relax, Selena. He won’t bite.” Cory slid his tongue down the length of her neck, pinching the tender flesh over her pulse point between his teeth. “Not yet anyway.”
He pushed her further into the spray, rinsing the remaining soap from her body before backing her up further until she hit the tiled shower wall. Water poured down Cory’s chiseled physique, the tawny strands of his drenched hair brushing his shoulders, begging to be touched. She indulged, digging her fingers into the thick waves of wet hair, breathing in the heady smell of him. Even now he smelt of damp forest floor, of pine needles and earth.
He kissed her damp flesh, licking the rivulets of moisture from her while meandering lower until capturing one taut nipple in the heat of his mouth and tonguing it. A moan tore from her lips as she fisted his hair, shocked by the intensity of that one small flick. A low growl wrapped around them as Zane paced away from the shower door. “Is he angry with us?”
For a moment, her delight subsided, driven by the instinctive knowledge that she would do anything to prevent Zane from hurting. He wanted her to be the Pack healer but above all else, she wanted to heal him. To heal Cory too.
Because they’re finding a way to heal me and my heart.
Cory teased the undersi
de of one heavy breast with his tongue before nibbling lower, pausing to dip his tongue into the indent of her belly button before pushing her legs apart as he knelt before her. Fire burned across her skin, the anticipation of knowing what he intended to do—and do while Zane watched—nearly scorching her. Still she gripped his thick hair.
Cory’s whisper vibrated across her most sensitive flesh as rough fingers parted the folds of her sex for his greedy mouth. “If he is, then he’s a bloody hypocrite since he is the one who asked me to stay.”
Selena closed her eyes, no longer taking any comfort from the cool tile behind her. Cory’s tongue slid the length of her opening, flicking across her clit much like he had done to her nipples before slipping inside her. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from crying out, white hot heat racing through her veins.
“I asked you to stay too, Cory. I want you as much as he does.” She gasped, barely able to suck enough air into her lungs to force the words out.
She knew her confession pleased him when his hands gripped her ass tighter, his mouth kissing her sex like no one ever had. Every swipe of his tongue, every soft bite of his teeth sent waves of sensation crashing through her. She gripped his shoulders and curled forward, trembling from the madness of need pulsing through her as he continued to push her inexorably closer to blissful release.
Even before she opened her eyes she sensed Zane nearby, his gaze sizzling across her aching flesh. She glanced his way, shocked to find him pressed to the glass, every muscle tight as he watched Cory lap her senseless. Brazen, she thought at the erotic picture they painted.
And when Cory’s whispered “come for me” brushed against her swollen sex, his tongue dancing inside her with a frenzied pace, she burst over the edge, screaming from the sheer intensity of her orgasm. Water poured over her neck and back as she rode the endless wave of pleasure streaming through her. When he finally lifted his face to kiss her thigh, she fell down, her legs too weak to keep her upright.