Raoul comes first, driven to the peak by the stimulation of my pussy and Erik’s cock. He cries out, sobbing “Fuck” again and again while shivers run over his skin. The sensation of him throbbing inside me is more than I can take. I touch my clit while I surge against him, and I come in a rush of languid pleasure, like a warm tide foaming through my body.
We both feel it when Erik comes. It’s violent, powerful, shaking all three of us, sending tremors through the bed, the room, maybe the entire motel. I have a momentary vision of the aftershocks thrumming through the realm of the dead, all the way into the deepest hollows of the universe.
Raoul collapses forward on me, his body still full of Erik, mybody still full of him. He presses my face into the curve of his neck and whispers, “Drink.”
At the invitation, my fangs emerge before I can think twice about it. I press the pointed tips against his hot flesh, puncture the skin, penetrate the muscle. His blood pumps into my mouth, hot and salty, rich and wild. I can taste the wolf, its ferocity and its loyalty, and I know, with a certainty beyond words, that Raoul’s monster understands mine.
Raoul groans when Erik pulls out, a note of pain in the sound. I withdraw my fangs and lick the puncture wounds on his throat.
“Face down on the bed,” I tell him. “Ass up.”
Moments later, we’re rearranged, with Erik cradling Raoul’s head in his lap while I tend to the sore flesh between the cheeks of Raoul’s perfect ass. I take long licks of the Angel’s cum, which is slipping from Raoul’s puckered hole, and then I press my tongue deep into Raoul so my vampire’s saliva will soothe any lingering pain.
He breathes easier, relaxing, and I move alongside him so both our heads are in Erik’s lap. When Erik grows hard again, Raoul and I take turns sucking on him until his cock is wet and glistening, swollen with need. Then we run our mouths along the length of it together until he comes.
Over and over, we pleasure each other, and between orgasms, I feed from them both until I’m so thoroughly sated I can’t move. When we’re straining for climax, we snarl the most wickedly erotic curses, and in the delirium of the afterglow, we murmur the most poetically ridiculous words of love.
I’ve never been happier. And this time, the sex is underpinned by confidence, by the commitment we each made tonight.
Erik has given us his whole self, unmasked.
Raoul has broken free of his past.
And I have embraced the family I never wanted—the family I desperately needed. The two people who know my secrets and love me recklessly, obsessively, worshipfully.
This time, I don’t have to hide any part of myself, no matter how dark or unpalatable it may seem to me, because they accept it all, and I accept them in return.
It’s the most naked, monstrous, indestructible kind of love.
26Raoul
The next day, none of us are quite ready to return to Nashville. Even once we’re all awake, it takes us hours to get out of bed. I spend long, blissful minutes with Christine’s breast in my mouth and Erik’s vibrating tongue wrapped around my dick. When I come on his face, Christine licks my release off his cheeks while riding his cock.
An hour later, she’s on all fours with his cock buried deep in her pussy and mine in her mouth. Erik reaches for my hand right before he comes. Holds it tight when his orgasm hits, and it makes my own climax so much sweeter.
Checkout is at eleven, though, so at last we clean up, pull on some clothes, and leave the room. We find a nearby diner and take a corner booth, all of us famished from hours of sex.
We talk about music mostly. Nobody mentions driving home. Back there, this new relationship of ours is going to be put to the test. Shit is going to get real, fast. I’ve got about two hundred emails and messages to deal with, Christine will have to step into Carlotta’s role permanently, and we’ve got to figure out how to bring Erik into the light, so to speak. Honestly, just thinking about all the complicationsgives me a headache.
And that’s not even counting the shitstorm that my sister will cause when I tell her I’m leaving the family, exiling myself from the Shifter Collective, and rejecting the entire list of potential mates she selected for me.
She’ll probably kill me on the spot. And that’s the best outcome I can envision.
I pledged myself to my muse and my god last night—made a vow with my body and my heart. I don’t regret it, but I won’t lie—in the harsh morning light, I’m scared of the consequences. I can’t help it. I spent too many hours in the dark closet under the stairs or in the torture chair in the basement while my father, Jean-Luc, or other supernatural “specialists” tried to figure out how to trigger my shift. As a result, fear of my family is an automatic response, like blinking or swallowing.
“Look,” says Christine suddenly, pointing to the wall of the restaurant. A bunch of flyers have been tacked up there. “A hoedown. Today. It’s not far from here.”
“Hoedown?” Erik frowns.
“Line dancing.” Christine throws me a secretive, delighted grin. “You’ll love it.”
“I don’t dance,” Erik says.
“Of course you do,” she counters. “Someone who adores music as much as you domustdance now and then. Raoul and I will teach you. Come on, it’ll be fun.”
And it will postpone our return to the city.She doesn’t say it, but we all feel the unspoken thought. She’s offering us a temporary escape, and I for one am ready to take it.
I nod to Erik. “Let’s go.”
