I don’t know when it moved from being an insult to an endearment, but Lyra comes to him, Eres following with his hand locked in hers. There’s heat in her eyes, but uncertainty, too. The flames burn brightly, dancing in her irises as she looks between us.
Kaelen turns her hand, pressing his lips to the pulse in her wrist. In the low light, her riftlines almost gleam silver. “Remember what I said?”
The fire in her gaze banks. “It should not hurt.”
My heart turns over. I’ve seen what she keeps secret inside her head, the memories she fights against. “Was he your only experience?”
When she nods, her arms shifting to wrap around herself, I have to breathe. To focus on it, to force the air in and out of mylungs before I let the emotion free. “Kaelen is right. It should never,everhurt.”
I’d cut my beating heart out of my fucking chest before hurting her. “Eres.”
His lips are already on her neck, tasting her skin. “Do you want to try?”
“You can say no,” Kaelen says steadily. “It’s your decision.”
Her eyes travel over me. To where my wrists are still pinned. Down, to my cock straining against my trousers. Her lips purse. And then she steps up beside me, lifting her hands above her head and looking to Eres. “Like this?”
“Yeah,” he croaks. A moment passes, all of us stilling. “Just like that.”
Lyra
My heartbeat thuds inside my chest, so loudly that they must be able to hear it. But then Eres drops to his knees beside Kaelen, and I realize it’s not only my heart that feels that way.
His hands cup my hips. “You’re sure?”
At my nod, a ribbon of erevas climbs up my arms, wrapping around them and embracing my elbows to create a comfortable knot.
“Comfortable?” Kaelen asks.
His fingers are playing against Darian’s skin. Tracing the thin pelt of hair below his navel, tugging on it. Darian’s head bangs against the wall beside me, hips shifting.
I feel… hot. The pulsing between my legs that began when I watched Kaelen and Darian together only grows when Eres rubs his thumbs over my hipbones. “Tell me if you want to stop. Any time. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, Lyra.”
My tongue refuses to work properly, so I jerk my head. Eres slides his fingers between the trousers and my skin, dragging them down and over my hips and knees, until they reach my ankles. His breath hisses out. “Fuck, you’re beautiful.”
I’ve never thought of that area of my body as beautiful. Never thought of it much at all, except during those days in a room. With Cindral. My body tightens involuntarily, and Eres pulls his hands away.
When I look down, he doesn’t move. “Only when you’re ready. And if that’s not now, there isnothingwrong with that.”
“But—”
“No buts.” He doesn’t look away. “We won’t get any pleasure from this if you’re not enjoying it, Lyra. If it’s hurting you, I don’t want it.”
My eyes blink away moisture. “It’s not hurting me. Just… slowly.”
He raises his hand. But instead of touching me there, he traces a mark at my hip. “Your riftlines are everywhere.”
His finger follows it, stroking over my skin. “Watch them for me.”
My head rolls to the side. Kaelen is tugging Darian’s trousers down, Darian pushing his hips away from the erevas wall behind us. My breathing grows tangled when his cock springs free. It’s thick, and slightly curved, rising away from him with a nest of dark, curly hair behind it.
Kaelen mutters something. And then says it again, as if in disbelief. “Your Binding riftline is on yourcock.”
Darian looks torn between desperation and laughter, his lips tugging up but his brow creased as he stares down. “You never asked. Where’s yours?”
Kaelen shakes his head. “Later.”
Eres’s fingers continue their slow exploration, tingles dancing across my skin as Kaelen wraps his hand around Darian’s cockand squeezes. His moan is overtaken by my gasp when I feel Eres trace his finger between my legs at the same moment.
