She huffed. “Yeah, well, things change,” she muttered.
“Not for me.” He looked back at her core and ran his finger down the center.
She wiggled.
“Does that hurt?” he asked.
“I’m not sure.”
He carefully parted her outer lips, where he could see she was swollen, and even though he knew she was sore, his cock was now at full attention. So much so that it was peeking out of his sweatpants.
He chose to ignore it.
“Am I hurting you now?” He glanced up at her eyes. “I’m trying not to, so please let me know if I am.”
She swallowed. “I’m okay…so far.”
“I’m sorry I hurt you.”
“Honestly, my neck was worse.” Leaning on one arm momentarily, she quickly lifted a hand and waved it. “Not that I’m complaining. I’m just giving you a comparison.”
He smiled wistfully. “I understand.”
“I’m actually surprised it’s already healed so well. Vampire healing properties are amazing.”
“Yeah, I suppose.”
“You suppose? Last night, I was thinking if I could bottle up your saliva, I could help so many patients.”
This was where the “suppose” part came in. “It doesn’t work like that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think of it like bacteria or a virus. But in a good way. It can’t live without a host—aka vampires. So, once those healing properties leave our body, they soon die. You can’t bottle it. It has to come directly from the source. Which is why I’m going to do this.”
Her brow furrowed. “Do wha—”
Yanking her toward the edge of the mattress, he put his mouth between her thighs and licked her.
The sound of her hitting the bed came next, followed by, “Oh God. Um, Ram?”
He pulled away just enough to ask, “Too much?”
“Um, no.” Her fingers tapped her chest, almost as if she were impatient, but it seemed like she was trying to find the right words. “I, uh, you…you and I didn’t use protection last night. And I haven’t bathed yet.”
That’s it?
He lifted a shoulder. “I know.”
Her head flew up. “You know?” She tried to close her legs, but she couldn’t get far with him between them.
“Yeah, I can taste me on you.” He ran a hand down her thigh. “It’s not a big deal.” He shook his head and frowned. “Humans are such prudes.” He smirked. “Personally, I like tasting me on you. I like tasting the two of us together.” He ran his tongue over her clit, and her legs loosened. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. What our bodies do is amazing and should be celebrated.”
He lowered his head again. While he did want her to come all over his face, he first needed to make sure that he helped fully alleviate her pain.
While that had been his main goal, by the time he returned to her sweet button, she was moaning and fisting the sheets. And he was so hard that he was the one in pain now. But that wasn’t going to stop him from focusing on her pleasure. His could wait.
He pushed his tongue against her clit to add the friction she needed, but at the last minute, something told him to scrape his fang over her.
She cried out, and the scent of her pleasure filled the room. He remembered all those months ago, he’d told her he was going to feed from the inside of her leg, and suddenly, that was all he could think about.
He brought her to the edge of orgasm, and just as he carried her over the peak, he replaced his tongue with his thumb, and he bit down on the inside of her thigh.
Human blood was bitter compared to vampire blood, but it still tasted good. Not everyone wanted cake every day. Sometimes, they wanted grapefruit or dark chocolate. And today, he wanted Siya.
He told himself he would release his fangs as soon as she finished her climax, but he began to worry he’d taken too much blood with last night’s feeding. He reluctantly closed her wounds, and when he did, her body finally settled down.
But he couldn’t resist one last lick, so he could taste her blood and her pussy together.
She jerked when he touched her but didn’t pull away, and Ram felt like his head was about to explode from the sensations on his tongue. Or more like something else was going to explode.
He ripped his mouth away and pulled his cock out as he stood.
Siya’s eyes went right to his shaft, and he swore it stiffened even more.
It was a good thing he wasn’t planning on fucking her again.
He pumped his dick in his hand only a few times before he came with a rush. His seed landed on her lower belly and pelvis and the place he wanted it the most. On her cleft.
When he was spent, he used his hands to rub his semen into her skin and between her legs, remembering to be careful of her sensitive bud.
When he was satisfied, he collapsed down beside Siya and covered his eyes with his arm.
“Ram?”
“Yeah?”
“I hate to ruin the moment, but we need to talk about birth control.”
Sixteen
Chase watched Raven groan as Ranulf took her from behind. She was on her hands and knees over Chase, and getting to see her response was magnificent. He shoved his fingers through her hair and kissed her. She whimpered into his mouth, kissing him back with fervor.
He and Ranulf were the luckiest wolf-shifters alive.
Ranulf pounded into Raven hard a couple more times and craned his neck as he came. Raven followed him, crying into Chase’s mouth.
As with last time, her relief was only temporary before pain flashed across her face. So, as soon as Ranulf pulled himself from her body, Chase grabbed his dick and slid into her heat. She was wet from Ranulf, but Chase didn’t care. He loved sharing her with his best friend.
He gripped Raven’s hips as she rode him, and he had to give her props for still having the energy to do so. With her back arched and her breathing increased, she was beautiful, and while he wanted to stay inside her, he knew that it couldn’t last forever.
Ranulf cupped her breasts and whispered words of encouragement while Chase grabbed on to her waist and held her as close to him as possible, emptying himself inside her.
Just like earlier, as soon as he let go, she orgasmed, too. He knew it was biology, but it still puffed his ego that his orgasm was what had caused hers. His cock thickened as it knotted, and he felt the knot secure itself in her body.
Ranulf dropped down to the bed beside him, and Raven collapsed on top of Chase. He pushed her hair out of her face, and Ranulf rubbed her back.
“You doing okay?” Ranulf asked.
“Ye—” Her voice came out as a squeak, and she cleared her throat. “Yes. I’m good.”
The knot in Chase receded, and Raven slid off of him to lie in between the two males.
“That was intense,” she said.
“Sure was,” Chase agreed.
“So, you both said you’ve never done this before, right?”
“Right,” Ranulf said.
Her brow furrowed.
“Why do you ask?”
“Hmm…” She tapped her chin. “How do I put this?”
Ranulf and Chase both waited. Neither felt a need to rush her.
“From what I’ve heard from Kendall and Isabelle, they only had to have sex once for their heat to die down for a while. But so far, every time, it doesn’t happen until I have sex twice. I would think something’s wrong with me, but everything else seems normal.”
She seemed more perplexed than concerned, but Chase had a theory.
And it seemed that Ranulf did, too, because he propped himself up onto an elbow and ran his hand over Raven’s lower abdomen. “Do you think that you need to have sex twice or that maybe you need to have sex with both of us?”
Her mouth formed a perfect O, and Chase laughed.
She sat up. “But how is that possible?” She turned and looked at the two of them. “It doesn’t seem like a real thing.”
/>
Chase shrugged. “I think it could be a very real thing.” He lifted his hand and swirled it around. “Our hormones are in the air.”
Raven seemed to think about it. “I see your point, but when you two were in Vegas, staying in the same hotel suite as Isabelle and Tegan, plus Zane and Reid, then wouldn’t you have had to have sex with either woman when they were going through their heat?”
Chase grinned. “Maybe it’s because they each found their mates then, and you are meant to be with the two of us, so that’s why your body craves our essence.”
Raven rolled her eyes and scooted off the bed. “I’m going to find something to eat while I’m feeling good enough to get food.” When she reached the door, she turned around. “You coming?”
“Yeah, in a sec,” Chase said.
“Suit yourself.”
She left, and Chase looked over at Ranulf. “When do you think she’s going to get it through her head that she’s ours?”
Ranulf raised his eyebrows and shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe after she’s carrying one of our babies?”
“Yeah, it does seem like she’s forgotten she can get pregnant from this whole thing.” Chase sat up. “We should probably talk to her about that.”
“Yes. And I suppose there’s no better time than over food.”
“I suppose not.”
Raven shoved a piece of fruit in her mouth as Ranulf and Chase walked into the kitchen, naked. It was kind of weird for them all to be walking around without clothes, but at this point, they’d just get in the way.
She pushed the bowl toward them. “Do you want some?”
They both sat down at the counter, and Chase said, “Yes, please.”
Raven handed both of them a fork. “I turned on the oven to reheat a chicken potpie my mom had made. It tastes better than in the microwave, but you two are more than welcome to look around and eat whatever else you want.”
Ranulf got up and went to the fridge and came back with two yogurts. He pushed one toward Chase.
“Where did those come from?” She hadn’t seen any when she did an inventory of the fridge.
“We bought it yesterday,” Ranulf said.
“We had some groceries delivered while you were sleeping,” Chase finished.
Raven put up her hand. “Wait. You had groceries delivered?”
“Yeah…”
“So, you planned to be here when I went through my heat?”
The two guys looked at each other and back at her.
“I thought that was obvious,” Ranulf said, eyeing her for some reason.
She was about to ask why when Chase spoke first. “Speaking of your heat, you know there is a chance you can get pregnant, right?”
Raven dropped the strawberry she’d been holding.
“I don’t think she likes the idea of having our kids, Ranulf.”
Ranulf didn’t answer him. He only continued to study her.
She picked her strawberry back up and used a napkin to wipe up the counter. “I mean, of course it’s always a possibility,” she said.
“Then, why did you look like we’d scared you?” Ranulf asked.
“I think…it’s just that this is the first time in my life I’ve ever had to think or worry about pregnancy. I took for granted how lucky I was, I guess.”
“Would a baby be so bad?” Chase asked.
Raven had always pictured herself as being a mother someday, so on the face of things, the answer was, “No.”
But what would happen if she did get pregnant? She looked between the two males. Which one would be more likely to knock her up? If she could choose, which one would she pick? Too hard. She didn’t want to pick either of them.
And then a horrible thought occurred to her.
What if she did get pregnant with one of their kids? Would the other be resentful? Would the one who had gotten her pregnant be resentful for being tied down with a kid while the other had no responsibility? What if she was the one who ruined their friendship?
Oh God. She didn’t feel so good.
She clutched at the counter as she started to sway, and both Ranulf and Chase jumped up at the same time the oven beeped to let her know it had reached its preheated temperature.
She quickly put up her hands. She needed to think and couldn’t have them touching her at the moment. “I’m okay. I think I just need to eat. Can one of you put the potpie in the oven?”
“Yes.” Chase spun around, probably happy to have a way to help.
“I’m going to go lie down. Will you let me know when the food is ready?” she asked Ranulf.
“Of course.”
She attempted a smile. “Thank you,” she said and headed back for her room.
Seventeen
Raven sat against the headboard in her room, feeling no better than she had when she came in there. The house was beginning to smell more like food than hormones and sex, which meant she needed to leave the room soon to go eat.
Neither Ranulf nor Chase had come looking for her, and while she had wanted to be alone, it seemed she also wanted their attention.
She rolled her eyes at herself. She was unpleasable.
Not true. She simply wanted something she couldn’t have, and she needed to manage her expectations.
She could do that. And she should start by telling the guys to leave. She wasn’t pregnant so far. She couldn’t be one hundred percent positive, but all signs pointed to no. And if she told them to leave before her heat ended, she would stay that way.
Suddenly, she was very depressed, but she knew it was only momentary. Everyone got the blues sometimes, and her hormones were a mess. She would snap out of it once her heat was over.
She was prepared to give Chase and Ranulf a speech, but what she wasn’t prepared for was for the doorbell to ring.
“Shit,” she said to the empty room. There were two naked men in her living room.
Hastily, she pulled on a shirt and shorts from her bag, grabbed the two pairs of pants that were on her floor, and ran out of her bedroom.
Ranulf and Chase were both standing in the kitchen doorway with scowls on their faces when she chucked their clothes at them.
“Get dressed,” she hissed on her way to the front door. “And let me handle this.”
Stopping short at the mirror on the left, she quickly finger-combed her hair. She had on clean clothes, and there was food cooking. Hopefully, that would cover the scent of sex that clung to her body.
Before she opened the door, she peeked out of the small window next to it.
“Who’s there?” Ranulf asked.
“The neighbor from up the street.”
He was only a little older and single. He’d always been nice to her, but she really didn’t want to talk to him. Today was not the day. She already had enough men to deal with.
Forcing a smile on her face, she opened the door just enough for her head to show.
“Oh, hi, Raven,” Brady said, surprised. “Is your dad here?”
“No. He went out of town with my mom.”
“Oh.” His smile fell.
She didn’t know him very well, but her parents liked him, and he appeared genuinely disappointed. He seemed like a decent guy, and she felt bad because she was the reason her dad wasn’t home.
“Is there something I can help you with?”
“No.” He smiled politely. “It’s okay. I’ll find him when he gets back.”
Brady shuffled backward, so she opened the door all the way to see him better since he’d moved out of her view.
“Are you sure?”
“Well, if it’s not too much trouble…”
She chuckled. “Ask me, and I’ll let you know.”
He smiled again. “Well, I was going to ask if I could borrow your dad’s hedge trimmer.” He took a couple steps forward, a look of hope on his face. “I ran into him the other day…” Brady trailed off, and his nostrils flared as he smelled her desire. His gaze traveled down to her breasts, which wer
e only covered by a shirt—she hadn’t had time to grab a bra—and to where her nipples were poking through.
The door flew out of her hand and hit the wall as two male wolf-shifters flanked her.
Brady’s eyes flew up to Chase and Ranulf.
“Where’s the hedge trimmer, Raven?” Chase asked.
“In the garage, I would assume.”
Chase smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ll meet you in there.”
Brady visibly swallowed and nodded. “Okay.” He almost tripped over his own feet to get off the front step.
“Stay here,” Ranulf said to Raven as he followed Brady outside.
A second later, the sound of the garage door reached her ears, and she shut the front door.
The timer went off in the kitchen, so she went to grab the potpie out of the oven while the guys dealt with Brady.
She hoped they were gentle with him. It wasn’t his fault he’d gotten turned on. It was her mating heat hormones that had affected him. And then his desire had had an effect on hers. It was a vicious cycle. But really, it wasn’t like she was in a relationship with either Ranulf or Chase. They’d been having fun, but they never talked about relationships. For all she knew, the two men were still sleeping with other women.
That thought made her ill. She didn’t want to picture them with anyone else. She looked down at the potpie she was cutting into pieces. She no longer had an appetite.
Ranulf waved good-bye to Raven’s parents’ neighbor as Chase leaned close to him.
“Should we kill him?”
Ranulf snorted a laugh. “Tempting, but no. It’s not really his fault.”
“Yeah, wrong day, wrong time, wrong female.”
“Agreed. It’s a good thing he knows how to keep his hands to himself.”
In fact, once they had gotten him away from Raven, he’d almost seemed perplexed by his reaction to her. And Ranulf and Chase had pretended like nothing had happened. The guy probably wouldn’t have believed it if they’d told him anyway.
Once the neighbor was out of sight, they shut the garage door and headed back inside.
Forbidden Hunger (Forbidden #8): Siya & Ram Page 8