Jasper and I locked gazes, and I knew the exact passage he was thinking of.
She’d written in one of her journals about the time the emperor, well,Matthieu,forced her to stay in the Lethal Forest forthree monthsuntil she had eradicated the dragons from it—which she did. But it didn’t last long since dragons migrated to and from the desert and forest once again.
My magic stirred within my spirit with blood lust for Matthieu.
“We love you, sunshine,” I murmured, my lips resting against her temple. “You’re never going to be forced into something again.”
“We really love you, goddess.”Jasper kissed her other temple. “You won’t be forced into a mission or anything else you don’t want to do.”
“Thanks.” She sucked in another deep breath and smiled. “I love you both. So, you grew up in the Lethium Empire, right?”
“We did,” we answered at the same time, not moving away from where we had her caged in between us.
The scutterfly seemed less important with her around.
“We lived in a village out of the capital, closer to the Lethal Forest,” I told her. “Jasper loved coming and playing here when we were kids.”
“And Casper loved making trips to the Crescent Desert,” Jasper chuckled, moving even closer and running his fingers over her collarbone. “Mom and Dad freaked every time they found out, though, since dragons inhabited both territories.”
“But once we mastered our light and dark magic, they relaxed a bit,” I mentioned, thinking of how proud they had been.
“Our parents had been attentive, but they were also busy. They helped run our village with Dad’s brother.” Jasper dropped a kiss to her shoulder.
“Dad and his brother were also twins—light and dark mages.” I kissed her head again. “Dad was a light mage. Ironically enough, they hadbothfallen in love with our mom.”
Jasper lifted his gaze to meet mine. “They all grew up and lived together, but Mom fell for Dad first. We grew up watching our uncle long for our mom. They acted like we were a full family, but it was hard to watch her try not to show affection to our uncle. It was obvious she loved them both, but she felt like she was betraying our father by falling for his brother, too.”
Her breath caught, and she glanced between both of us. “So that’s why you didn’t hesitate to pursue me together?”
“Exactly, sunshine.” My heart squeezed. “We never wanted the other to long for a woman we both loved. Dad told us when we were adolescents to find someone we both could see ourselves with and to show her from the start what our intentions were.”
“When we saw you in the adventurers guild, we knew it would be you,” Jasper told her with a vulnerability in his voice that I hadn’t heard much. “Dad made sure to get it through our heads that the woman we would fall for would be able to love us equally.”
“We just didn’t expect to add on to our brotherhood.” I inhaled her sweet scent, dropping my head against hers. “They fell for you too, and you fell for them.”
Jasper rested his head against ours. “We don’t mind because we know that you don’t love us any less.”
“I never knew that about your parents, but I’m sorry you had to go through seeing the love being there but unattainable for all of them.I love all five of you the same,” she whispered. “But you two were the ones that opened my heart to loving multiple men.”
Heat prickled at my eyes, and I wanted to say more but words couldn’t come out. My heart was full of all the emotions I’d shoved down for so long, and from the bond, I knew Jasper felt the same.
“We love you so much, Fawn.” I ran my finger down her cheek as I studied her face. She smiled, leaning into my touch, and it filled me with the warmth I’d only dreamed of having and sharing with my brother. “You are so beautiful and so fucking strong—so much better than we could ever be for you. You deserve everything good this world has to offer, and that's why we want to give you the best we can. We need you to know what you mean to us.”
“You mean more to us than you couldeverknow,” Jasper rasped, kissing her cheek.
“Let us show you the best we can,” I murmured as we gathered the bottom of her dress and tugged it up over her head.
She let out the sexiest gasp when it slipped over her body, revealing nothing but her supple curves beneath. “Cas, Jas…”
“Bless, goddess, you’re fucking otherworldly,” Jasper groaned.
Her pale skin glowed with a thin layer of sweat from the heat generated between us.
My heart raced at the sight of her as I ran my fingers through her beautiful blue hair and leaned in to kiss the back of her neck. “I love that you wear nothing underneath your dress.”
She shuddered and let out a breathy moan, pulling us both closer.
“Quite possibly one of my favorite things you do.” Jasper trailed his fingertips down her stomach.
