"Not tonight."
I started with Torvyn because he'd waited longest. I straddled him, settling my weight across his thighs, and leaned down to trace my tongue across his chest. Learning the stories written into his skin. Here, a scar from a blade. There, the raised edge of a burn long healed. He shuddered beneath me, fists clenching in the cushions as I worked my way down his body, kissing, licking, biting gently at the ridges of muscle along his stomach.
When I finally took him in my mouth, his growl reverberated through the Tether, setting off cascades of sensation in the others. And in me. I felt Kaedren's frustration spike, a sharp edge of need that made my core clench. I felt Vaelix's desperate hunger, felt him fighting the urge to touch himself. Felt Lyrin's breath stop entirely as he watched.
But Torvyn didn't just lie there passively. His hands found my hair, guiding without forcing, showing me what he liked. When I did something that made him gasp, he rewarded me by sending a pulse of pure pleasure through the Tether that made my toes curl.
"Like that," he said roughly. "Just like that."
His hips trembled with the effort of holding still, the trust in that restraint making my heart ache even as it made the heat between my thighs pulse with need.
I took him deeper, hollowing my cheeks, swirling my tongue, learning what made him groan and what made him gasp. His fingers tightened in my hair, not pulling, just holding on, and through the bond I felt his pleasure building like a wave about to crest.
When I finally released him, close but not over the edge, he made a sound of loss that went straight to my core.
"Not yet," I whispered against his hip.
"Tease," he said, but there was warmth in it.
Kaedren didn't wait for me to turn to him. He surged up and flipped us so I was beneath him, my back pressed into the cushions, four arms working in concert. Two pinned my wrists above my head while the others traced fire down my sides.
I gasped at the sudden shift, at the feeling of being held down, helpless and wanting.
But even at the edge of his control, he hesitated. Waiting for permission. Even now.
"Yes," I said. "Take what you want."
He pressed into me inch by inch, and the stretch was exquisite. The fullness making me gasp, making my back arch, making my toes curl. Through the Tether, I felt his pleasure layered over my own. The tight heat, the desperate need to move, to take, to claim.
I felt how it affected the others watching. Lyrin's breath caught, his hand pressing against his own chest like he could feel Kaedren inside him too. Vaelix bit his lip, his hips shifting restlessly. Torvyn watched with eyes like banked coals, his hand wrapped around himself, stroking slowly.
Kaedren moved, and I let myself feel everything. His body against mine, the weight of him, the heat of him. His desire pulsing through our bond in waves. The way his discipline cracked when I arched against him and wrapped my legs around his waist.
"Harder," I demanded.
He obliged. His hips snapped forward, driving deeper, and I cried out, the sound swallowed by his kiss. Two of his hands stayed on my wrists while the others roamed, cupping my breast, gripping my hip, sliding between us to press against the bundle of nerves at my center. I writhed beneath him, overwhelmed by sensation, by the four points of contact, by the relentless rhythm of his thrusts.
The pleasure built like a storm, pressure gathering low in my belly, and I felt myself racing toward the edge.
"Stop," I breathed when I felt him getting close, felt his rhythm faltering, felt the tension in his body coiling toward release.
He stopped. Trembling with the effort. Jaw clenched tight. But he stopped.
"Good," I said, and through the Tether, I felt how that single word affected him. Pride and frustration and desperate devotion all tangled together.
I pulled him down for a kiss, gentler now, a reward for his restraint. Then I slid out from under him and turned to Vaelix.
He grinned, but the expression was strained, his pupils blown wide with need. "If you make me wait any longer, I'm going to lose my mind."
"That's the point."
But I took pity on him, straddling his lap and pulling him close. I wrapped my hand around him, feeling him pulse against my palm, watching his face contort with pleasure. He was vocal where the others were quiet. Gasps and moans and half-formed curses spilling from his lips like he couldn't hold them back. I swallowed his sounds with kisses, felt his hips stutter against my palm, his fingers digging into my thighs.
"Please," he gasped against my mouth. "Please, Kira, I need..."
"I know what you need."
I shifted, sinking down onto him in one smooth motion, and we both groaned. He filled me differently than Kaedren, the angle different, the sensation sharp and sweet. I started to set the pace, but he gripped my hips and changed the rhythm, taking back some control.
