I looked for any sign to stop, any minute discomfort, a word from my lover who could feel what she felt. Nothing. My heart hammered in my chest.
“The Lawsons have built a massive wall around their compound, though their lands are expansive, stretching far south. But yes, compared to the other families, we have little information, and it’s the root of the rumors about their inbreeding.”
Xan’s gaze drifted to Quinn’s crisscrossed legs and my fingers. Each pass made me braver until I slipped a finger under the boxers she’d borrowed from Xan. My gaze dropped to the sweet junction between her legs. I hadn’t taken my time with women before. Quinn made me want to.
I glanced at my lover, only to find his face the color of a tomato as he pulled out our map of the Lawsons’ borders. I willed him to follow my lead, to move closer or tell me to stop, any clue of what was going through his mind. But like Quinn, he focused on the map.
“The Lawsons are both in control and not.” A husky tremor shook his voice. “Very little is actually known about the family. But they are wealthy, and one of the few producers of wine on the island.”
I didn’t want to be talking about her too-close friend anymore. I ran my palm up her thigh, tantalizingly close to that sweet junction, and up her hip, tracing its shape and memorizing it.
Quinn didn’t pull away; if anything, she leaned toward me.
“…they keep to themselves,” my lover continued. “But I estimate their fortune to be bigger than the rest of the families combined, as well as their numbers. Based on Cayden’s abilities, the family’s magic has not diminished at the rate of the Abernathys or the McDonalds. But Cayden is the first Lawson to leave the compound in…”
I could feel her attention split between my lover’s words and my motions. I slid higher. Under cloth. Heat waiting.
She closed her eyes, her breaths speeding up.
“…the placement of the families…”
I looked pointedly at my lover, who glanced at me and then at her, his lecture never stopping. I needed to know he wanted this too.
‘Touch her.Or stop me.’
For a moment, I thought he wouldn’t. He turned back to the map.
His hand joined mine.
Blood rushed. Weeks of tension cracked open.
“Quinn, are you paying attention?” he asked.
Quinn opened her eyes, studying my lover’s hand, then mine, before turning her attention back to her studies. “It’s just a lot of names. Can we go over it again?”
She hadn’t asked him to remove his hand either, nor had she commented on my hand, which was still under her tunic, running up and down her spine. My lungs fought for air. We had to go slow. Quinn’s first instinct was to run; I couldn’t give her the chance.
“Of course.” My lover rotated his palm and caressed the inside of her thigh, just like I had.
I dragged my nails lightly down her back, out from under her tunic, over her hips, and down, this time brushing her junction so lightly the fabric didn’t even dent. My nails skimmed her back. His palm pressed her thigh. She trembled between us, caught in sync.
Xan caught my gaze and held it. I’d watched and waited long enough. It was time to move, to act. If he didn’t want this, if she didn’t want this, it would stop.
We hovered, all three of us, on the edge. No words. Just breath. Just want.
She pressed her hand to the map, shifting her hips. “The four families, again?”
“McDonald…” my lover started, still copying my motions as he explored under her tunic.
I purred. Xan pressed closer, squishing her between us as she learned.
Chapter 19
Quinn
Anhourlater,mybody thrummed between Xan and Ezra, every nerve alive and sparking. Even without being touched, my nipples throbbed against Ezra’s tunic. I rolled my hips forward, desperate for friction.
But there was no relief here, at least not for me.
