CELINE
This is happening. It’s really happening. I’m about to go from a months-long solo tour to a full-on group act. My heart pounds in my chest, my wings arching toward Alistair in an embarrassingly desperate way.Maybe you should take your show on the road.I tell my brain to shut up. It doesn’t.
It’s a terrible idea to jump into bed with not one but two men I know. At least if they were strangers, I could toss them out after and never see them again. But if this goes poorly, I’ll have to clean up a mess.If this goes poorly, you’ll be dead.
The unhelpful thought projects across my mind—neon-sign-on-a-marquee style—complete with a halo of flashing lights. I imagine ripping it down, then bashing it to pieces, and I feel slightly better.
“I was going to keep stroking your wings, but it seems they’re otherwise occupied. Did I do something wrong?”
Alistair’s voice pulls me out of my head and back to the threesome I’m about to have. Because I’m definitely about to have a threesome. If some assassin slits my throat tomorrow, I don’t want to drown in my own blood while regretting all the threesomes I didn’t have. I’d much rather relive my best orgasms.
“I’ve never seen them do this,” Luca says, laughter in his voice. “Her face is blank, but her wings are flipping through settings quicker than I can track.”
Shit. He’s right.I close my eyes, focus on making my turbulent emotions settle, then clear my throat. “My wings aren’t a massage chair, Luca. They don’t have settings.”
“If you say so.” Luca pulls me up from the couch. “Now will you please treat me like a chair? I don’t know if I have settings either, but I’m happy to show you all my moves and let you decide which ones you enjoy the most.”
The ridiculous joke does exactly what he intended, pulling me out of my head and back into the moment. “Are you asking me to sit on your face or telling me?” I ask.
“Whichever one makes you the most inclined to do it... Obviously.”
I kiss his grinning mouth, grab Alistair’s hand, then drag them down the short hallway to my room. I changed the sheets yesterday. If this is as good as I expect it to be, I’ll be changing them again tomorrow too. Undecided about the lighting, I flip the overheads on, then off again. Luca turns both lamps on instead, raising his eyebrows at me in question. I nod, then take a beat to look at him.
I’m about to fuck my friend. This changes everything, no matter what he says. I wait for the realization to turn me off or freak me out, but it doesn’t happen.
Luca pulls his lip ring into his mouth, a nervous habit he does when he’s unsure of himself, and I melt. Imani was right. I trust him. With this and everything else.
Alistair waits patiently at his side by the bed, bending his head as Luca whispers something in his ear. I strain to hear, but can’t make out a single word. When they both focus on me, it’s all I can do not to squirm. I’m confident in myself, but seeing the dirty promises in their eyes is almost too much honesty. They can both lie. Why don’t they bother hiding how badly they want me?
“Undress her,” Alistair orders.
“Like I don’t know how to strip myself,” I mutter sarcastically, irritated by the wave of vulnerability. It’s true, though. They’ve already seen most of my body in a setting that’s far from romantic.How special can it really be for them?
In a flash, I find myself boxed in, tall, warm stacks of muscle surrounding me on all sides.
“I love to watch you take your clothes off,” Luca says.
“But we’ll handle it this time, if that’s all right with you.” Alistair’s voice is more growl than anything else, and I shiver, nodding like a puppet.
I expect them to yank my clothes off. But they don’t. Luca’s hand on my waist drifts under my sweatshirt, his thumb stroking my lower belly infuriatingly slow. Alistair zeros back in on my wings, his fingers exploring the feathers confidently until I’m shaking with desire.
Wanting to touch them too, I wrap my arms around their shoulders, tilting my head back to kiss Alistair. His lips are confident against mine, but his hands never stop petting my wings. When his fingers narrow in on a specific feather, rubbing both edges at once, I moan.
He echoes the sound at a lower octave—as if I’m the one driving him crazy—then repeats the motion. Luca, meanwhile, seems to be mapping my torso with his fingers like a cartographer. Their simple touches set me on fire... My eyes drift closed, and I float in the sensations. No one rushes me. Would they really be content giving me this simple pleasure all night?
When my left arm loses its support and drops, I find Luca on his knees in front of me. His hazel eyes are achingly familiar, the horizontally slitted pupils the only hint that he’s not as calm as he appears. It silences the last flicker of anxiety in my body.He’s mine.
My shoulders sag, and my face softens. Luca looks up at me, his expression filled with wonder, his hands several shades darker against the pale skin of my stomach. He tightens his grip possessively.
I roll my hips toward him in a slow, blatantly sexual invitation, and it’s all the encouragement he needs. Without blinking, Luca dips his fingers beneath the waistband of my sweats and pulls them to my ankles. I didn’t bother with underwear when I changed clothes after the fight, and his groan as he comes face-to-face with my bare pussy is music to my ears.
“Alistair,” he hisses. His gaze crawls up my body impatiently, and he narrows his eyes at the vampire who seems content to spend the whole night playing with my wings. Even though I want him to keep touching them, my urgency is building too. I need to come. Badly.
“Yes, yes, okay.” Alistair’s voice is raspier than I’m used to, and another wave of arousal rolls over me. Individually, they’re each a walking wet dream. Together—gods, I’m a confident woman—but the truth is I might not survive this.
A second of concentration is all it takes to pull my wings in. Alistair frowns like I’ve taken away his favorite toy.
“I’ll put them back,” I promise him, already feeling the frustrated itch on my back. “Just take off my shirt.”
