It's Raining Men

by Crystal Jordan

  “I love you, too,” I breathed, and another tear leaked from my eye. I did love him. The wonder of it seeped into my heart, into the very fiber of my being. It had happened so fast, but that was the way with mates sometimes. That instantaneous connection that went beyond all logic. The connection that was soul-deep from the first instant. I knew it, and so did Stephen.

  Perfect.

  My fangs sank into the flesh of his shoulder, marking him as mine. The blood flowed like sweet nectar on my tongue. I licked the mark until his body locked, until he shouted my name and slammed deep inside me, coming in hot jets. His head bowed and his wings exploded from his back. They flexed, fully extending into what looked like gossamer black dragon wings. The light filtered through them, making them shimmer.

  A gasp ripped from my throat. “Beautiful.”

  “Yes.” Michael sat on the floor, propped against a cabinet as he watched our exchange. But now he reached out, stroking a finger along the tip of one wing. Stephen shuddered, snapping them back in. They reabsorbed into his shoulders and he rolled off of me, panting. He threw an arm over his eyes. His thigh relaxed, resting against mine.

  Chapter Five

  Long moments passed before my breathing began to slow, before my heart stopped galloping. A smile curled my lips, and sweetness ran through me. I yawned and stretched against the hard floor, twisting to get a kink out of my back. “You know…my bed is way more comfortable for laying on. I think it was even designed for it and everything.”

  Stephen chuckled and propped himself up on his elbows to look at us. His gaze narrowed on Michael. Then he winked at me and whispered out of the corner of his mouth, “Uh-oh. He’s thinking again. Always dangerous.”

  “Hilarious.” Michael shook his head, glancing from me to Stephen and then scrubbing a hand down his face. “So…the two of you are mated now. Just like that? Forever?”

  “Until we die, yeah.” Wariness trickled through me. I’d had humans react to me with everything from titillation to scorn, but my heart tripped at the idea of having my mate turn away from me now that he knew what he was to me. He didn’t need a werewolf’s hearing to have listened in on what Stephen had said to me. Michael was smart enough to figure out the truth. Sitting up, I crossed my arms over my nudity.

  Equal parts confusion and uncertainty flashed in his blue gaze. I felt him groping for words, always falling back on the politically correct lawyer when he wasn’t sure how to react. “I don’t even know how to take this all in. I’m not…what you two are. I’m not magical. I don’t have those kinds of powers, those kinds of instincts that tell me who to be with for the rest of my life. Who to love.”

  I snorted and shoved my hair out of my face. I should have known. It was easy with Stephen. We understood each other, but with Michael? It had always been hard, always fraught with misunderstanding. And years of pain. We had traveled down a bumpy road, Michael and me. “I never expected you to be magical. I wanted you to want me the way I want you, regardless of species or abilities. Magical, human…none of that matters to me. I was born to be with you, to crave you. To love you.”

  “And you can accept that?” His ebony brows drew together. “You don’t even have to know someone to mate with them and bind yourself to them for the rest of your life? You met Stephen tonight. You don’t know if he’s a psychopathic homicidal maniac. You don’t know anything about him.”

  I grinned at him, tilting my head to the side. “You do. And I know you. I trust your judgment.”

  “Gee, thanks, you guys. I’m really feeling the love.” Stephen crossed his legs at the ankles, watching the two of us duke it out with the avid enthusiasm of a sports fanatic.

  Michael ignored the siren’s sarcasm and kept his focus on me. “That’s beside the point. If there’d been no me, if there’d been only him, it wouldn’t have changed what you did.”

  “No, it wouldn’t have.” I searched his eyes, trying to understand him, trying to make him understand me. I reached out to cup his strong jaw. “You want this to be logical, Michael. You’re a human and a lawyer…logic is what you cling to. Love isn’t logical. Instincts aren’t logical. I have to trust that fate wouldn’t mate me to a homicidal maniac. I have no choice. I know that means I operate on a different set of principles than you do. It doesn’t mean one of us is right and one of us is wrong. You can’t put my instincts on trial and make a ruling on the matter. I accept you just as you are, I accept that we’re different and I cherish those differences. I hope one day you’ll feel the same.”

  “And if I don’t?” Confusion still shown in the azure depths of his gaze, and I knew he struggled to accept what Stephen and I simply knew. But that was why we both loved him so. He was different than us. We were creatures of instinct, of reaction. He was the balance point for that. We both craved that, craved him. Stephen with his Fae mischief, and me with all the animalistic passion of my soul.

  I winced, struggling to hold back the pain of his doubt. He was human, and I loved that about him. Even if it meant that we were constantly at cross-purposes. It made us both reconsider what we knew, what we embraced without question. “I’d accept that too. I would never force you, Michael. That’s not how mating works. Not for me, not for any but the most archaic of my kind. I’m just glad you know the truth now. It hurt…hiding it. Hiding from it…and you.”

  He sighed heavily. “I feel like I’m never quite on the same page as magicals, as if I’m always struggling to catch up.”

  “We’ll wait for you,” Stephen spoke again, that quiet understanding on his face. It seemed odd from him, and yet it fit. Wise and playful, serious and sweet. The dichotomy of a halfling’s soul. “But someday, handsome, you’re going to have to take a leap of faith.”

  Open honesty filled Michael’s gaze, blending with a bit of rueful self-deprecation. “It could take years. This is me we’re talking about. Flirt and fuck around? Sure. Even love I can get on board with. Barely. But commit to forever? Believe it can last? I don’t know.” He swallowed. “I wouldn’t change either of you for anything, and I know I need you. But the rest…I’m not sure I’ll ever get there. Not even for you.”

  “We love you, and we’ll wait for you. We have to.” I pushed myself to my feet and held my hand out to him. He hesitated briefly before accepting it, and I used my superior strength to haul him upright. “And while we wait, I have some ideas about how best to pass the time. Year’s worth of ideas.”

  Stephen caught the edge of the counter in his hand and heaved to his feet. Slinging an arm around my shoulder, he flashed his pretty smile. “You know, I really love the way you think.”

  Chapter Six

  Leading the way into the bedroom, I lay back on my king-sized bed and crooked my finger at my mates. The sight of their big, firm bodies, the hard arcs of their rising erections, made the muscles in my belly quiver. They’d both completely stripped on the way to my room, so they were as nude as me. Heat spread through my body, tightened my nipples to stiff points and renewed the moisture between my legs. “C’mere, lovers. Time to test-drive some of those ideas of mine.”

  Stephen pushed Michael towards me. “You first, handsome.”

  The hot smile on Michael’s face made my breath stop in my chest. That I knew now the kind of follow-through that promise carried only made my anticipation peak higher. I’d seen what he’d done to Stephen, and I’d waited a long, long time for a taste of that myself. I was going to get it. My claws raked lightly up the sheets, and I knew my eyes had gone wolfish. He didn’t hesitate this time. His lips met mine in that same slow kiss we’d had in the kitchen. I closed my eyes to take in his flavor.

  He stroked his fingers over my breasts, tweaking my nipples lightly, teasing me until I wanted to scream. Instead, I moaned into his mouth, mating my tongue with his. The wolf inside me whimpered in delight at being petted. The woman liked it just as much. His hand moved down, grazing my stomach until he dipped into my soaking curls. Fire and ice raced over my skin as he pushed two long
fingers into me, widening me for when his cock would replace his fingers. Cupping his hands under my shoulders, he pulled me up until I straddled his muscular thighs, lifting me so he could sink into me all the way to the hilt. Damn, he was thick. It felt so amazing, better than my fantasies had ever painted it. My head fell back, breaking the kiss, and my eyes damn near rolled back in my skull when he rotated his hips, working in at a different angle.

  “Jesus Christ, Stephen.” A deep groan issued from Michael’s throat, and I knew Stephen had entered him from the way our bodies jolted from the impact, from the way Michael’s thighs widened to spread us both. Knowing we were all connected in the most carnal way possible only increased the dampness between my thighs. Stephen chuckled wickedly, and I couldn’t blame him. God, it was so fucking hot.

  “Fun, isn’t it, handsome?” He bucked his hips, and Michael grunted. Stephen slid his hands up Michael’s ribs, curving them around his shoulders to seat him more deeply. It sank him deeper into me as well, and we all groaned. “Me inside you, you inside her. It could be like this forever. Just say the word.”

  A hiss issued between the human’s teeth as he clenched his jaw, arching his back into the siren. “What happened to waiting?”

  “I will wait… This is just a taste of how good it could be.” And then Stephen started a swift, pounding rhythm guaranteed to push us to the very edge of sanity. Bracing my feet against the mattress, I lifted and lowered myself into each thrust. Michael pumped into me hard, and the slap of skin on skin echoed in the room.

  I smiled at Stephen over his shoulder. The Fae groaned, whispering what sounded almost like a song in Michael’s ear, “I love you, I love you. Forever, my love.”

  And I chanted in his other ear, “I love you, love you, love you. Michael!”

  Michael shouted, each of us wringing him dry. We exploded together, each crying out. Hot fluid flooded my pussy, and I tightened around Michael. Flames licked at my skin, tingles breaking in the wake of the intense heat. My finger’s laced together with Stephen’s on Michael’s shoulders. The three of us, locked together. We shuddered over and over. Michael still thrust into me in short jabs of his cock, and my pussy flexed tight each time. My breath stuttered to a stop, and I arched helplessly. The world blurred before my eyes and became a wash of pure sensation. I treasured each one. The sound of our breaths, the scents of our mingled passion, the heat and fire of us.

  I laid my forehead against Michael’s, staring deep into his pretty blue eyes. “I crave you. I have from that very first day. I will a hundred years from now.” I sighed, shivering as the air conditioner kicked on and raised goose bumps on my sweat-dampened skin. “God, I love you.”

  A rusty chuckle rumbled from his broad chest. “Yeah, I caught that. I also catch it when Stephen says it every day.”

  “I can’t help it that you need a daily reminder, my little skeptic.” The siren kissed his shoulder lightly.

  He smiled, resting his head back on the siren’s shoulder. Soft tenderness entered his gaze as he looked at me. He angled the same look at Stephen. “I don’t want to be a skeptic forever. In the courtroom, yeah, but…not with you. I want…I want what Cyn and Andre have. I want to know that there are people who love me and will always be mine. In sickness and in health.” He swallowed hard and closed his crystal blue eyes for a moment. When they opened, there was no more confusion, no more doubt. Just clear resolve. “I’m ready to take that leap you mentioned. With you. With both of you.”

  “Well then.” The same sweetness that pierced my soul flooded Stephen’s emerald gaze, and I knew he’d been waiting with baited breath for months, wanting Michael to make up his mind as badly as I had. Then a Fae smile, full of mischievous light, bloomed on his face. His fingers tightened around mine almost painfully, and I saw them dig into Michael’s shoulder as well. “My turn.”

  A musical note, so clear and pure it almost hurt sounded in my head, built in intensity until it drowned out everything else, until it wrenched at my very soul. Stephen. It was Stephen. A second note joined the first, deeper, richer, and it vibrated through me. Michael. What shocked me was the third note that joined them, lighter, sweeter, almost like the song of a flute. Me. My sound joined them until it all became one note, building and building until my skin shivered with the intensity of it. A siren’s song.

  Both men started moving again, Stephen in Michael, Michael in me. Like the music, we wove together in a sensual tempo. I watched the Fae’s wings unfurl from his back, fluttering as he curled them around us. The music climbed, striking higher notes. Picking up the beat as we moved faster. The press of them against me, the plunge of Michael’s long cock inside me, the stretch of my sex around him, the hot scent of sex. Each sensation piled on top of the next, each translating into the symphony in my mind. The music throbbed as I did, reaching for an intense crescendo that had starbursts exploding in my vision. It plunged deep into my soul, lighting me up from the inside out. I screamed, but I couldn’t hear it.

  Instead of pulling away, I clung to them both, trying to accept, to understand. I threw my head back and howled, the low, keening wail of a wolf. The fetters loosed, and wolf and woman became one…more fully than I’d ever experienced before. They’d given me this. My two mates.

  Stephen groaned as he came, the sound almost musical. He slid out of Michael and rolled away. Michael angled his chin up, baring his throat to me. “Do it.”

  I didn’t pause this time, didn’t consider if he would regret it later. The wolf was unleashed and I couldn’t rein it in. The animal and I had melded together, one purpose, one need, one unstoppable, undeniable craving. My fangs bit deep into the base of his neck, and I drank from him, binding him to me until the day we both died. Mine. Every ounce of anticipation that had built up inside me since the day I met him crashed around me, shattering like fragile glass. My pussy clenched, milking his cock as my fangs milked his flesh. He shoved me onto my back, covering me, riding me into the mattress until he came hard and jetted deep inside me. I flicked my tongue over the wound, healing it with the beast magic of my kind. Still I kissed it, sucked it until he screamed for mercy, until I’d dragged every ounce of sensation out of him that I could. Until he knew as deeply as I did that we could never be parted.

  “Candy. I’m yours, Candy, and you’re mine. You’ll always be mine.” He slumped over me, panting for breath. Sweat slid down his face, sealing our bodies together. His gaze met mine, and he smiled. Worshipful sweetness shone there, the emotion one I was too terrified to put a name to. “I love you.”

  I broke then, covering my eyes with my hands. A sob choked from my throat and tears cascaded down my cheeks. Using my werewolf strength, I lifted him off of me and rolled out from under him. I curled into myself, hugging myself tight. How long had I dreamed of this moment, of hearing those words from this man? How long had I been sure it would never come? The year’s worth of agony from denying myself my mate fell away, and it almost hurt it was so good. The sweet edge of relief sliced through me. But now I felt stripped bare, raw from all the emotion that had ripped through me tonight. Stephen. Michael.

  “I l-love you, too. I love you b-both,” I sobbed. I drew up my knees and curved my arms around them, rocking myself as the tears continued to fall. I couldn’t make them stop, a dam had burst inside me and I couldn’t hold back the flood. “My m-mates.”

  “Candy—” Panic edged Michael’s voice, the capable lawyer helpless as his hands hovered over my hair without touching. I could sense how close he was, could sense him with every fiber of my being. The connection was intense, overwhelming.

  God help me, it was more than I’d ever imagined possible. I was drowning in it.

  Stephen slid his hand up and down my back, crooning wordless comfort in my ear until my sobs slowed to rough, gasping hiccups. I shivered, tightening my arms around my knees. I could hear the music in my head still, a soft chime that rippled and soothed my pain. The melody would be as much a part of me as it was him. All the pieces o
f my soul coalesced in the space of a heartbeat, joined by light and music and magic and…love. A wavering smile curled my lips as the last of the heaving sobs released their grip. My breath hitched in painful spasms, and I shook in wracking shudders. Finally, I sighed and sniffled. Spent. And…happy.

  “Here.” Michael pushed a tissue into my hand. “Are you all right, Candy?”

  “Yeah.” I sat up and blew my nose, balled up the tissue and tossed it into the wastebasket across the room.

  “Nice shot,” Stephen praised. I could feel how he tried to lighten the moment, how he tried to make it easier for me. “Werewolves have the best reflexes. You guys need to start your own basketball league.”

  “Who says we haven’t just taken over the human league in disguise?” I winked at him and gave a watery chuckle.

  He smoothed a hand down my calf and kissed my knee. “You’re sure you’re all right, gorgeous?”

  I tugged on one of his brown curls. “Yes, I’m sure.”

  “Then why were you crying?” Michael’s hand rubbed small circles on my back. “I didn’t expect that kind of reaction to a declaration of love.”

  “It was more the buildup and the doubt than the actual declaration.” A wry smile touched my lips. “Think of it as years of foreplay.”

  “Don’t scare me like that again.” He rested his forehead on my shoulder. “I thought something was really wrong, that I’d totally fucked this up somehow. Already.”

  “Humans.” Stephen heaved a long-suffering sigh—a damn good imitation of Michael’s—and flopped over onto his back.