“What is the point of you telling me all this?”
“I’m sure you’ve wondered.” He lifted his chin toward Heath, but Simone, still staring at Heath’s navel, couldn’t possibly see him. “You’ve wondered how many women he’s taken to his bed.”
She pulled her lips between her teeth, saying nothing, but the action was telling in itself. She wanted to know, but wouldn’t ask.
“If you ask, he would tell you. It’d be your right to confront every woman he’s ever taken to bed.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because that’s what fairies do. We eliminate perceived threats.”
“How are his exes any threat to me? I’m sure they’re exes for a reason.”
Thom grinned behind her, and for good reason. It was a very rational statement, though the fae weren’t known for their rationality. Heath certainly wasn’t.
“Aye, they are. The reason is that they’re not you.”
She turned her head to look back at him, but this time Heath caught her cheeks and held her still. “Look at me, Simone. I’m right in front of you.”
She rolled that butterscotch gaze up to his face and swallowed again.
“I’m not going to try to ingratiate myself with you with a load of shit, Simone. I’m a straightforward man. I speak plainly most of the time, and if I’m not, you can usually discern why.”
“Touch your prince,” Thom said. “He’s standing right in front of you, so touch him. Do what’s natural. Stop fighting the urges. Stop trying to subvert your impulses.”
“Touching usually leads to other things,” she said.
“Aye. That’s the point. Are you going to do it, or do I need to help you?”
Her fingers twitched atop her thighs, but beyond those minute movements, she was still.
Thom stood. “Have it your way.”
Chapter Twelve
Simone really should have figured out by then that Thom didn’t make idle threats. When he said that he’d help, he’d obviously meant it.
He moved to Heath’s side, took her hands, and pulled her to standing. He tugged her around, placing her behind Heath, and pressed her hands to his back.
Heath looked over his shoulder and raised one black eyebrow.
“Is that view less offensive to you?” Thom asked.
Simone rolled her eyes. “I never said there was anything wrong with the front view.” The back view was quite nice, too. Heath’s torso was long and elegantly built, his back sculpted with lean muscle, and his skin smooth and unmarred. He had a beautiful body—a pleasing physique—and she couldn’t quite wrap her brain around the fact it was meant just for her. In some ways, he was too good to be true.
Thom slid her palms down to the dimples at the base of Heath’s spine and skimmed around to his hipbones. The ones that held up those fitted pants he always looked so delectable in.
“That’s not so bad, is it?” Thom whispered.
“No,” she conceded. “You can leave, if you want. I think I’m fine. I promise I won’t further insult your prince.”
“No, I don’t think I will. The moment I walk out that door, you’ll go back to pouting on the bed, and we can’t have that.”
“What exactly is your end goal here?” She felt her way up Heath’s torso, tracing the ridges of his abs on her way to his pecs.
“I’m demonstrating nothing bad is going to happen to you if you touch him. Do you see anything bad happening?”
She wouldn’t call it bad, but seeing Heath’s ass cheeks clench with each soft caress of his skin she made was certainly doing some interesting things to her down-below parts. She stepped in closer, pressing her body to his back to improve her reach. Skimming back down toward his waist, pausing at his navel, she murmured, “No.”
He had an exquisite body. She might even say perfect, and knew if he’d been anyone else, she might have been more openly appreciative of it. She skimmed down his thighs, resting her palms at the tops of them.
“Perhaps you’ve overcome your aversion of his other side, my lady?”
She sighed. Didn’t want to see it. Didn’t want to embarrass herself transfixing on it, and especially not with a witness standing so close. They’d think she’d never seen a dick before, which was far from being the truth. It’d just…been a while.
Heath turned slowly, allowing her space and time to shift her grip.
His cock was hard and tight to his belly, but somehow she managed to glance only briefly at it. She kept her gaze on his chest, and her hands at his waist.
“Does it displease you?” Thom asked.
“No.”
“You wish for more?”
“No!” she said emphatically. “There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s…nice.”
Heath chuckled. “I think that’s a first. No woman’s ever called anything about me nice, including my cock.”
“I’m sure they used much more colorful language.” She traced the outline of the black ink tattoo on the left side of his chest. Biker Death with an angry eagle perched on his forearm. Death’s skeletal grin seemed to mock and tease her for her uncertainty. She deserved it. She pressed her hand over it and met Heath’s gaze.
“Colorful enough.”
The fine hairs at the back of her neck stop on end as Thom leaned closer. He put his lips to her ear and whispered, “What words would you use to describe it? If he’d been some one-nighter, what would you tell your girlfriends?”
“What girlfriends?” Her friends had all but abandoned her. Well, all but one. She’d proactively cut ties with her bestie Dasha knowing that there was no way Simone could be a very good friend from a distance. Dasha would have spent every dime she had visiting Simone, and Simone couldn’t let her do that. Last she heard, Dasha had gotten a job in San Francisco. She didn’t want Dasha to worry, and for as levelheaded as Dasha was, she was a chronic worrier. It was best Simone didn’t give the woman some new, chronic stressor. The only other person she called a friend was Zenia at the seafood restaurant, but Simone really wasn’t that great of a friend to her. How could she be when she only saw her when she had enough cash at the end of the month for a buffet meal?
Thom nudged her arm. “Well?”
“Um.” She swallowed. “Look, if I liked it, I wouldn’t speak on it at all. I wouldn’t want to share anything about him, one-night stand or not. I know men are different in that regard.”
“At times, we can be.” He wrapped his large hands around her wrists and guided her to touch Heath’s erection.
She tried to pull away when Heath sucked in a breath, but Thom kept her still.
“Put your fingers around it.”
“Why?”
“Because you want to. Don’t argue it.”
Damn him. Gritting her back teeth, she closed her fingers around the base. The tip already glistened with evidence of his arousal, and if she played there, she’d spread it. Massage him. She’d keep stroking until he found his release, and maybe she wouldn’t mind so much because she owed him one, anyway.
Thom placed her other hand on Heath’s sac. “That’ll do for a start. Feel free to fondle. He won’t mind, will you, Heath?”
“Not in the slightest bit.”
“I bet,” she muttered. Keeping her hands still was an impossible venture, though. She wanted to examine his silky length, tease the delicate flesh in her grip and test his control. She traced one finger around the crown exposed by his retracted foreskin.
Thom’s heavy hands rested on her shoulders. “Off?”
“What?”
“Aye,” Heath said.
“What am I missing?”
“Take off your shirt.” Heath freed his cock from her hands. “Let me see you.”
She moved her hands to the bottom of her shirt and grabbed the edge, but apparently not fast enough for Thom’s liking. He pulled it over her head in one easy yank.
She put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes when his golden gaze tracked down to her cleavage. Typ
ical man. “Eager, much?”
“Merely efficient. I figured you wouldn’t want to miss dinner.” He reached for the drawstring of her sweatpants.
She squirmed out of the way. “So everyone’s naked except you?”
Heath chuckled. “If you’re looking for some impediment to put up, you’ll have to search harder for one. I believe you’ll enjoy seeing Thom in the nude. Most women do.” Heath sat at the end of the bed and leaned back onto his forearms. He fondled his cock idly and canted his head.
He said that with such certainty, as if…they’d…shared?
She caught her jaw flapping and closed her mouth on a whimper.
Thom moved in her periphery, but she didn’t dare turn to see what he was doing.
“You know, Thom can make a woman come in thirty seconds using only three fingers.”
Some nonsense words fell out of her mouth, and it took a few moments to get her brain and tongue back in sync. “Why would I care?” Which three fingers and how?
Heath sat up and shrugged. “He’s going to help me make you come. I could do it on my own, but you evidently have issues with being in a room alone with me. I figured this first time, you’d be most comfortable with a chaperone.”
“That sounds like a little more than just chaperoning.”
“He’s a hands-on kind of Second. That’s why he’s so good at his job.”
“You’d…let him…”
“Touch you? No, love. I don’t have a say in that. You are the one who extends the consent. And don’t worry. He’s not going to fuck you or even try to. He’s merely here to”—Heath made a dismissive hand gesture—“facilitate, if you’ll allow him to.”
Now she did look at Thom. He’d stripped down to his boxer briefs and stood with his arms folded over his muscular chest.
She drew in a quick breath and could feel her eyes widening as her gaze tracked down his torso and past his waist. Holy hell. Even soft, he was impressive.
“Does that make you more comfortable, my lady?”
“Uh.” Gods. She smoothed her hair back and swallowed hard. “Shit, I’m going to go with no, but don’t bother redressing for my sake.”
“So, you agree, then,” Heath said.
“What am I agreeing to, exactly?”
He leaned back onto his forearms again, leaving his cock to fall against his belly. Her mouth went slack with thoughts of pulling it between her lips, tasting him, swallowing his sharp tang.
She closed her eyes. Get it together, chick.
“Well, we’ve got fifty minutes, tops, unless you want to fool around through dinner.” Thom picked her up by the waist, carried her to the head of the bed, and settled her against the pillows. “We’re just going to twiddle your knobs a little. Get you to loosen up.”
“Oh.” She was intrigued. She wasn’t going to lie. “Do I get a happy ending for all my trust?”
Heath scoffed. “You’re looking at your happy ending, but if what you’re asking for is an orgasm, we can certainly see to it you’re satisfied.”
She cleared her throat and entwined her nervous fingers atop her lap. “Well…have at it then.”
“Have at it, she says.” Thom nudged her bra straps off her shoulders and crushed his hands against her breasts. “Spoken like a true princess.”
“I just don’t see the point in”—she yipped when his fingers closed around her nipples and gave them a dominating tug—“belaboring things.”
“Right. Belaboring.” He leaned in and latched his hot mouth over her left nipple, pulling her breast taut and sending a ripple of pleasure down to her toes.
“God.”
“Which one?” Heath chuckled and tucked his thumbs beneath her panty elastic. “In our world, you’ve got to be specific, lest you inadvertently cause one offense. Lift your hips for me, love.”
She tilted them up a bit and he eased her panties down her legs, crushing them in his hand.
“Uh…I’d like to have those back. They weren’t exactly cheap when I bought them.” Six years ago. They were her fanciest pair, in fact. The only reason she was wearing them at the moment was because she’d let laundry pile up at the motel and hadn’t had a chance to wash her own stuff.
“No, I think I’ll keep them for a memento.” He tossed them toward his pile of dirty clothes near the bathroom door. “We’re not exactly short on funds. I think we can afford a few pairs of panties.”
Thom let her breast fall from his mouth. “Or she could just go without.”
“I think she might be a bit uptight for that.”
She sighed and pulled Thom’s head back down. “I’m right here. Feel free to consider my feelings a little bit if you’re going to talk about me.”
“Well, you are uptight.” Heath nudged her thighs apart and lifted her legs at the knees. “Look at you, tensing up every time I touch you.”
Thom scraped the edges of his teeth against her nipple, and she threw back her head. “Fuck. Anyone would be tense given the circumstances. I have two naked near-strangers with their hands and…other things on me.”
“That’s the human part of you talking. The fairy part of you would have had you asking by now why my tongue isn’t between your legs yet.”
“Why isn’t it?” She slapped her hand over her stupid fairy mouth. Shit.
Chuckling against her, Thom skimmed a hand down her belly, making her belly quiver at his soft touch, and alighted over her sex.
Confused, she raised her head to see what he was doing. She’d assumed they’d each had their own territories—Thom above the waist, Heath below—but maybe she’d guessed wrong.
Thom spread her lips between his index and middle fingers. “Tell me about it.”
Heath settled down onto his forearms and lifted her knees over his shoulders. “Wet. Ready, in spite of all the backtalk.” He made a lazy swirl around her clit with his index finger, and pressed down her belly with his other hand when she tried to arch up.
“How does she taste?”
“Thom…” She tried to put the heat of a warning in her voice, but sounding indignant was difficult when she was so damned curious—so damned eager—to see what they were going to do to her. Of course her thighs were slick and sex puffy from arousal. She had two undeniably sexy men on the bed, both whom seemed ever so motivated to make her lose her ever-loving shit. Why not let them? It wasn’t like anyone would ever have to know, and even if people did find out, so what? There wasn’t a damned person in her life at the moment whose opinions she cared about. Why not have a little fun with the man whom was supposedly her husband and his bossy friend? They were consenting adults, and that was all that mattered.
She clamped Heath’s head between her thighs and pulled him a little closer. “Stop looking at it and do something to it.”
He shrugged under the weight of her legs and dipped his head. He dragged his tongue along the crevice Thom created and rimmed the tip around her opening.
Her toes curled reflexively behind his back. “More of that.”
“As you wish.” Heath flattened his tongue against her slit, and Thom drew his hand back to her breasts.
“Giving up so soon?”
He grunted. “If I’m only going to have one chance to touch you, I’m going to focus on the parts I like the most.”
“I guess extramarital flings don’t happen in the fairy world, huh?”
“Oh, they happen.” He fluffed her breasts and let out an appreciative moan. “With consent. It’s not a frequent scenario, but happens often enough that there are some universal rules in place. Usually, all effected parties are in the room when it happens.”
“Sounds like swinging.”
“Close, but it’s not so much trading partners as borrowing one who you’ve connected with previously.”
“We don’t go around collecting partners,” Heath said.
Thom grunted again. “It’s more like getting to use an expensive toy you can’t keep.”
Sounded pretty reasonable to Sim
one, but she couldn’t imagine being a party to it herself beyond this one time. Women were too petty. She couldn’t see herself in a room with some other plaything of Heath’s.
“Ouch, love.” He gave the outside of her thighs little pats.
She’d apparently put a vice on him. She loosened it.
“What’s gotten into you?”
“You would take another lover?”
Heath furrowed his brow. “What?”
“Would. You. Take. Another. Lover?” She punctuated each word with a clench of her thighs.
“No. Why?”
“You make that sound like such a sure thing, but here were are.” She indicated Thom. “Seems like such a casual proclivity to your lot.”
“It can be, but we generally aren’t attracted to anyone aside from our mates once we find them, so it’d be very difficult for me to go through with.”
“But not impossible.”
“Close to it.” Thom bussed his lips down the line of her neck, and her toes curled again.
“But you have a mate.”
“Two, if you want to be technical.”
“What?” She tried to swat him away. “You’re confusing me.”
Heath sighed and patted her mound, drawing her attention back downward. “Suffice it to say, sexual attraction is a complicated subject when it comes to fairies. We’d probably need to draw Venn diagrams to show connectivity. Mine would only overlap with you. The gate slammed down when I met you. I’m completely off the market. Yours might overlap with both me and Thom.”
She opened her mouth to rebut, and Thom put his hand over it.
She growled behind it.
“I really don’t care if you’re superficially attracted to my Second, Simone. It’s not an atypical occurrence given the length of our relationship. He seems safe to you, and I like that a great deal. Your comfort is one of my foremost considerations. Your limited attraction toward each other leaves the door open for the rare encounter, which I would consent to assuming I was present. Thom’s circle would probably overlap with yours a small amount, and with his mates a whole lot.”
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