“That too.” Nikolai shrugged as he closed the book again and stuffed it down under the tabletop. When he dusted off his hands, he found Katarina sagging against the table. Her gaze roamed out across the room with relief. Nik smiled softly, nudging her with his elbow. “Hey.”
“Yeah,” she whispered, her eyes still on the stack of parchment in the corner used for forging spell books or runes.
“You were scared to find out who it is you were sleeping with?” Nikolai stepped back from the table. He put his back to one of the few concrete pillars in the rooms. It was the only one that wasn’t used as magic carpet re-rolling or other circular projects.
Katarina spared him an apologetic smile. “I think I knew somewhere in my gut you guys could never, but there for a second I worried I’d gotten out of bed with a violent abuser only to get into the bed of two masked villains, you know? I was worried maybe I couldn’t trust myself to know people like I thought I did.”
Nikolai beckoned her with a curled finger. She slunk toward him before sinking into his chest. Wrapping his long arms around her, he pressed his cheek into her hair. She smelled of sunshine and sweat and metal, which was practically home scented.But deep underneath, I can smell something uniquely her.He shifted his face to kiss her scalp and caught her perfume under all the smell of work. Like orange blossom, slightly tart but fresh, a hint of cashmere, and vanilla, a mixture of sweet and smooth with just enough bite to make his mouth water.
He replayed that morning over in his head as she snuggled down into his chest. Seeing her staring off into space, the playful confession, the look on her face…How did I even doubt that she could handle this?Granted, that morning she told him she liked messy.But there’s messy…then there’s us.Jessie especially; Nikolai thought himself as a simple guy.
I like soft things. I like my lovers saucy. And I want people I shouldn’t.He shouldn’t keep Katarina, but he couldn’t help it.Would her life be better living in some apartment away from all this mess? Absolutely. Would he hate the hole she left in his chest when she left? Most definitely. Had she possibly opened his eyes to the possibility that maybe Jessie was ready for more? He wasn’t ready to answer that.
Because if Jessie was ready for more, Nikolai was about to feel like an oblivious idiot. If Jessie wasn’t ready for more, it meant…that he didn’t want that with Nikolai. And the mechanic absolutely could not let himself find out the real answer.
“So, this is what you meant when you said you guys were messy,” Katarina sighed against his chest. Nikolai snorted and nodded but didn’t respond. She leaned back in his arms, peering up into his face with a broad smile. “How does this work now?”
“How does what work?”
“Us,” she giggled. Her hands roamed up his sides then down the front of his overalls till she had the rumpled fabric curled up in her fists. She tugged him away from the pillar. Nikolai let her lead him to the table till it was pressed in the small of her back and his hands caged her against it. “Jessie’s still in heat, of course.”
“Of course,” Nikolai parroted.
“So, one of us is going to have to take his knot—”
“One of us?” Nik snorted, shaking his head. “Wicked girl, how many times have you been through a minotaur’s heat?”
Katarina’s eyes widened but her lips curled wider. “This would be my first.”
“Then let me be the first to tell you, that knot? It gets more frequent. It gets more demanding. At his peak, he’ll knot you, and while you’re laid spread out on the bed, dripping with cum, you’ll watch me take it a few moments later. You said you liked messy. I hope you mean that, because that pretty pussy of yours is about to know the full meaning of sore here shortly.” Nikolai studied her face, relishing every change of her face. He embellished a little more than he should, but the way her eyes blew open, and her rubies were mostly inky black by the time he finished with a raspy whisper…he couldn’t help himself. Their lips crashed swiftly after. She yanked him into her and he eagerly met her. Their tongues twisted up with each other. A moan rumbled up his chest at the feel of her hands tugging him out of his overalls roughly.
He was still sweaty from work and then from the rush of endorphins of the fight. It didn’t seem to matter as she raked her fingers through his chest hair. She grabbed a fistful of him and tugged on him again. He growled that time. Her skin under his palms broke out in goosebumps as he followed her example, roughly undoing her shorts. The second he got them off her plump hips, he ripped back from her mouth. “How we work is we just work.”
“That’s not an answer,” she grumbled, kicking her shorts aside.
“You want answers, you ask Jessie.” Nikolai hooked her by the back of her knees with his fingers and hoisted her up onto the table. She hissed at the touch of cold steel to her backside.I know that feeling all too well.But it was a good sting.Great sting.He grinned against her mouth smugly.
“What do I come to you for then, huh?” she teased, pushing his overalls off his shoulders and down to his waist.
“A rough fuck? Piggyback rides? Shoulder to cry on?” He shrugged as his right hand found her cunt. Her curls were damp and he recalled how drenched they were that morning. How much more drenched they’d be if one of the neighbors didn’t stop by to ask him a question. Nik would love to play in that sweet pussy of hers, but his fingers weren’texactlyclean. Instead, he opted for tracing her slit with the back of his knuckles. She shivered at the touch. His cock was begging to be in her again, and Nik was nothing if not a glutton. He used his other hand to tug on his overalls till they piled down by his boots. Nik continued to cover up his less than graceful dropping of trousers, “When that ex of yours gets out of jail—”
Her eyes flashed open, sharp and dangerous. “Okay, ground rule, we don’t talk about Gill when my panties are off.”
Nikolai put up his other hand as a white flag. “Duly noted…we’ll go over my other duties after I get you warmed up for the boss.”
Katarina looked like she wanted to talk back, so Nikolai took away her chance. He pressed his cock to her cunt and watched the fight fall away. Slipping through her damp curls was easy, keeping himself from picking back up where they left off in the kitchen was damn near impossible. He eased in as slow as he could. Her head fell back, her pretty red hair falling down to sweep across the table. He hummed with appreciation, “Good girl.”
Nikolai took his time, knowing Jessie was on his way. Hewantedthe boss to catch them fucking.Desperately. He needed to see Jessie’s eyes grow dark as the night sky and his breath hitch as he found the pair in his safe space. It made all the hair on the back of Nikolai’s body stand on edge. Katarina whined, desperate for more. He gave in, just enough to make her call out and fill the room with her pitched siren’s call.
Like he’d summoned him, the safe door groaned behind them. Jessie’s boisterous laugh echoed around the room. “Now, what do we have here?”
“Just a good girl getting all warmed up for your knot, boss.” Nik wiggled his brows suggestively at her. Katarina panted for air. Jessie sauntered through the room, finally standing at the other end of the table. To Nikolai’s delight, Jessie’s eyes were hooded, dark like a moonless night, and nostrils flared. His overalls were tented.
“Ooooh, I can see that,” Jessie chuckled, leaning his hip against the table. Katarina grabbed onto Nikolai’s shoulders as he knocked into her sharply. Her body turned to a tense coil, already on the edge. Leaning into her, he took hold of her throat and sank his teeth into her supple flesh. She gasped his name, following it with prayers for more.Harder. Faster. Right there.Nikolai didn’t think he was aput on a showkind of guy…until he felt Jessie watching him like a hungry panther and he was a wounded gazelle. Nikolai’s balls tightened up against his body.
He spilled with a moan against her jugular. His tongue flicked out against her goose bump riddled skin as an apology for the pain of his teeth digging into her. Thankfully, well-fed Succubi tend to heal over flesh wounds quickly.Not that I won’t mind giving her a lover’s bruise she can’t heal…maybe on the inside of her thigh…if she’ll let me.
Nikolai dragged himself away from her. He was a vampire forcing himself to stop drinking from the neck of a victim. All drool dripping down his chin and taking ragged gulps in as he stared at the masterpiece that was Katarina Witchbane. Dripping with his essence, legs splotchy with his fingerprints and a slowly healing hickey on her neck. Her eyes were a dangerous, glowing red as she stared him down hungrily. The bugbear realized two things fairly quickly in that moment:
