Of course, it’s Briony who does break it.
She takes my right hand in hers, pulling up my sleeve and examining the marks tracing across my wrist. She leaves my arm hanging in the air and then does the same to Thorne, exposing his marks and bringing his arm so it’s touching mine. Then she does the same to Dray, to Fox, and finally she pulls up her own sleeve.
Our arms make a circle like the spokes of a wheel, and you can see how the pattern runs across our skin from one person to the next – a never-ending loop with no break, no beginning, and no end.
“This is it, then,” she says. “The five of us now.”
She lifts her vibrant green eyes from our arms to our faces, looking each one of us straight in the eye.
“None of you are going to make any grand announcements, are you? The need to go off on some adventure? The revelation of some secret wife or girlfriend? An undisclosed solemn vow to dedicate your life to the temple?” She shakes her head. “There’s nothing else stopping us from being together?”
“Nothing,” I whisper.
“Nothing at all,” Fox adds.
And then what she does next sets my heart thumping.
She takes the front of Thorne’s shirt in her fist, yanks him toward her, and kisses his mouth. It’s a kiss full of passion, full of desperation and need, a kiss that has Thorne moaning into her mouth. Then she pulls away, her hand still gripping his shirt, and steps a little to the side.
She stops in front of Fox. Thorne’s eyes are dark as night as he watches her rise up onto her tiptoes and kiss the Professor. Her free hand rests on his chest, but he seems to know not to touch, to understand that she hasn’t invited him to yet. Shekisses him just as hard as she kissed Thorne, ending that kiss with a bite of his lip.
Then she steps to Dray next.
“Hey, Little Kitten,” he says, bouncing up and down on his toes with eagerness, a smirk hovering on his lips. “Gonna kiss me too?”
“What do you think?” she says, wrapping her hand around his neck and pulling his mouth to hers.
Their kiss is wet and noisy, and it’s clear as day how hard Dray is fighting the temptation to gather our mate into his arms. When she tries to pull away, he’s a little reluctant to let her go, but she sinks her fingernails into his hard abdomen and he gets the hint.
“Love your claws, Kitten,” he murmurs. “Love it when you play.”
She steps to me next, her right hand still gripping Thorne’s shirt. I lift my gaze to meet Thorne’s momentarily, seeing all the desire, passion, and want I’m feeling reflected right back at me before I drop my gaze to hers.
There’s just as much want, passion, and desire in those green eyes too.
“You want this?” I ask her. “You want all of us?”
“I’ve never wanted anything so much in my life,” she says.
My hands ball into fists.
She kisses me too, her lips soft and gentle, but eager and hungry, her tongue delving deep into my mouth. I want to touch her so badly. I want to touch all those places that make her squirm and squeal and scream my name. Fuck. I want to hear her scream Thorne’s and Dray’s and the Professor’s names too.
I close my eyes and let her kiss consume me completely. I dissolve into it, so much so, that when she stops, I blink my eyes open, completely lost.
She steps back to stand in the middle of the four of us.
“I don’t know exactly how this is going to work between the four of you and me,” she says. Dray goes to answer, but she gives him a look and he slams his mouth shut. “But it’s going to work,” she continues. “I know it, and I feel it, and I want it. I want it really bad.”
Dray’s always had the weakest restraint and the feeblest self-control, but it isn’t Dray who breaks first.
It’s Thorne.
He lets out a growl so deep it rumbles in his chest, his shadows flickering around him. He steps forward, lifts Briony in his arms, and marches her straight out of the room.
The rest of us stare at one another, a little shocked. I’ve never seen Thorne act that way before.
“Come on, dickwads,” Dray mutters, already scurrying to chase after our bond brother. “What are you waiting for?”
