Breath froze in my lungs, blood stilled in my veins.
My entire existence balanced at the top of a trembling, cresting wave.
Then I crashed down, pleasure turning into a heedless rush of darkness and buttery warmth, spreading through me from chest to fingers, settling deep into my bones, anchoring me to the here and now.
I was a bundle of shaking ecstasy, safe in the hands of two males who loved me. I was Lyrae Antares, made of flesh and blood, with a warm beating heart that had ached for this moment for a hundred years.
“Gods, Ly, I didn’t know I could love anyone as much as I love you,” Varian took a deep, shuddering breath, and then,with obvious relish, licked his fingers one by one, eyes gleaming with hunger.
“That’s one,” Ryland nipped my nose, releasing my caged wrists. “Now…how can we serve you, little fox? Or we could all go back to sleep. We do have the rest of our lives ahead of us, you know. Many more nights like this one.”
The rest of our lives. I blinked at that, letting the truth settle into me.
“I want…” I closed my eyes, tears coming, hot and sudden, along with the rush of all the things I did want. A home. Family. Nights like this, so perfect in their simplicity. I wanted so much I felt almost greedy.
“I want to taste you, Var. I want you to come in my mouth.” I cupped his chin, running my thumb along the faint cleft, breathing in his warm, amber scent. “May I do that?”
“Gods, yes,” he muttered. “Just…tell me where you want me, and I’m there.”
“Roll on your back,” I ordered, running my hand over his flat, rippled stomach, tracing that line of dark hair leading to his cock—so hard the crown was purple, veins running the thick length. I licked my lips and he groaned like he was dying, hips lifting from the bed.
“Did I say you could move?” I asked sternly, as Ryland chuckled, skating his hand down my spine, tugging me up onto my knees. “Now lay back and don’t move. And no touching, Varian. Let me see how good you can be.”
“Okay. Okay, I promise.”
He closed his eyes and bit his bottom lip, neck muscles straining as I took his cock into my mouth, swirled my tongue around that swollen crown, a surge of salt and musk filling my mouth before I pulled away.
“I will tell you when you can come, Varian Kronos. Until then, you will control yourself.”
“Gods,” he mumbled. “Gods, Lyrae, you’re killing me.”
“While you torture him, may I play with this beautiful pussy, little fox?” Ryland purred, fingers skimming over my ass. “I really feel like I owe you at least one more orgasm tonight, although you do smell absolutely delicious…”
His lips landed on me the same time I took Varian back in my mouth, sliding down his cock, tracing those veins with my tongue until I was stretched around the sheer girth of him and that big, blunt crown hit the back of my throat.
“Argh…gods, Lyrae. Fucking gods.” Varian cursed, hands twisting the covers into knots, a faint sheen of sweat gleaming on his perfect body. He was mine. All fucking mine, and I tasted and teased, licked and sucked until he was making little mindless noises and begging me to let him come.
“Not yet,” I warned, going down even deeper while Ryland feasted, spreading me further apart, making me remember how I once thought I might write an ode to his tongue.
Then Ryland was pushing in, slowly shunting himself inside my pussy, so swollen now he had to work at it, grunting as he took me. Varian forgot his promise of not touching, wrapped my hair around his hand, and started fucking my mouth in short, shallow strokes.
This time, the world didn’t stop—it exploded.
Into a shower of sparks and ash and crushing pleasure that rippled into every empty place inside me, filling me with light. Filling me up so full, I felt invincible, untouchable, eternal.
Then I was bundled into Varian’s waiting arms, Rylandpulling the blankets back over us, tucking us back into our safe, quiet refuge.
Varian’s lips brushed the shell of my ear, as soft as butterfly wings. “Far be it for me to ruin the mood right now, but I think you should talk to Rooke before he leaves,” he murmured, stroking his hand absently over my belly.
“None of us have had the best lives, Ly, but at least we had each other. We know what it feels like to share love and friendship and look out for each other. Rooke never had that, so…”
His chest moved behind me with a deep sigh. “I just think he deserves a chance, at least.”
I squeezed my eyes closed, wishing he was wrong…but he wasn’t.
After everything we’d been through, he did deserve that. At least.
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