by A. K. Koonce
“My brain is perfectly sound, I’ll have you know. It’s the other one that’s the least stable of the three of us,” Latham quips.
A smile pulls at my lips slowly, laughter lying hesitantly against my lips.
Aric’s soft snore confirms his lack of care and worries . . . and possibly rational stability.
“His irrational mind is my favorite part of him, honestly,” I admit to the two of them. They both tilt their heads to look at me as if to check if I, too, have lost my mind. In these realms, I don’t know how anyone stays sane for long.
“It’s true. Sometimes I wish I had that freedom. That liberty to look at the rational world around me and not acknowledge a single dejected part of it.” The smile on my lips is a ghost of happiness now. The real world and the very real problems surrounding us are pressing in a little too hard tonight.
Latham’s hips shift across the smooth, metal roof until he’s pressed against my back. Then his arm wraps around me, melding me to his chest so perfectly that the rising anxiety quells. It quiets inside. It’s strange how he has that ability to calm a rocking storm within me.
“The real world has its good too, Rhys.” His words fan against the back of my neck.
Torben’s sigh tells me he doesn’t much agree with that statement.
He’s more bruised than the rest of us. He’s been here longer. I can tell. Or maybe he’s just seen the worst of it in the shortest amount of time.
Hela uses him in ways I don’t even want to think about. Gods know he can’t speak about it.
My hand slips out, and I slink my fingers through his calloused palm brushing against mine like a soothing balm skimming across his rough flesh.
Our eyes lock hard. Confusion hoods his gaze.
“Come here,” I whisper, barely speaking the words at all.
His hesitation lingers, hanging between us.
“Just let it go already and roll your big ass over here,” Latham scoffs when Torben’s uncertainty drifts on for a second too long.
The cloudy confusion in his eyes never leaves my gaze as he very purposely slides closer. And closer.
And even closer until he’s full-on hugging me against his broad chest. The scent of ash is all I smell, but the warmth of their bodies enveloping me is too good to mind anything else.
His nose trails over the crown of my head as he breathes me in too. Widespread fingers slip down the curve of my hip before settling against the softest part of my body. And then he pulls me. Hard. His grip tightens against my ass, and a gasp tears from my throat as he rolls us. My palms dig into his shoulders, and before I know it, I’m straddling my enormous, wild warrior. I’m looking down on the most beautifully rugged man I’ve ever laid eyes on.
And he’s smiling.
“You look good like this,” he whispers almost shyly, his palms brushing up and down my thighs just below the hem of my shirt-dress.
“Like what?” I ask.
His lips part with that hesitant but sexy smile. “On top of me.”
My mouth falls open, and I have no idea what’s gotten into him. Who is this deviously delicious man, and what happened to my safe and strong god that I’m so used to?
“Ahh,” Aric hums sleepily to himself. “Someone finally realized he can live sometimes. Hela doesn’t own him fully . . . Not entirely.”
A line creases Torben’s brow at the reminder of his abuser. Maybe that was his thinking. Maybe just like me, he understands that tonight might be our very last night of almost freedom.
We shouldn’t waste it, should we?
My fingers lower slowly, pressing to the hardness of his stomach just over his shirt. Torben’s gaze drops to my touch before swinging recklessly back to my eyes. It feels teetering to touch him. Like I’m standing at the edge of the world, and I suddenly want to jump.
And so I do.
His shirt wrinkles beneath my palm as I push slowly at the material, exposing the bronze planes of his stomach one little inch at a time. Lean hips shift beneath me. My own thighs tighten around him, wanting more than what we have, wanting to feel every single part of him against every single part of me.
The night is electric with emotions and adrenaline that sets my mind and heart ablaze. The warmth of his hands is even more fiery to my flesh, pushing higher and higher until the cool wind is skimming across my hips, abdomen, ribs. His traveling hands mirror my own. And when I slide my palms across his pecks, his own big hands cover my breasts fully. The air in my lungs wooshes out as my lashes flutter, and the coy hesitation we once held flies away into the night.
As good as he feels, I want to make him feel better. I want him to know what it feels like to be touched by someone who cares about him. All I want is to make him feel good in this moment.
I abandon the lean lines of his chest and pull back from his addicting touch. With both hands, I trail down his body like I’m bending down to worship a god who deserves my mind, body, and soul. And soon, he’ll have all three.
But not yet.
Confusion hoods his brow as I lean over him and ever so slowly, unbutton his dark jeans. That confusion lifts high into surprise as he watches me with rapt interest.
No one says a word, but I feel all three of them waiting with heavy attention.
The zipper pulls low in my hands. Only a thin layer of clothing separates me from him. My fingers hook under the elastic band, and I pull hard on either side of his hips. His eyes close, and I watch as he swallows hard, his head falling back with a weight that I know has too many thoughts and worries pulling at his pretty mind.
Just below me, his length is there and waiting and yet . . . all I can focus on is the torment he’s struggling with. He . . . wants me . . . but he doesn’t know how to let himself have me.
Without the dark past of her staining his thoughts.
“Torben?” I whisper, trying to ground him here with me instead of whatever clawing memories might be slicing against the back of his mind.
“Mmm,” he says vacantly.
My fingers tangle with his once more, and at the last minute, I push his hand through my long, blonde locks.
“Will you hold my hair for me?”
His eyes open slowly at that request, and he stares down at me with innocent eyes.
“Of—of course,” he says on a low rumbling tone.
His grip on my locks becomes more serious and serving.
“Watch me?” I ask as I tilt my head at him, and his confusion deepens, but he nods. “Eyes on me,” I whisper as my breath fans against the thick shaft of his waiting cock.
His exhale is rugged and desperate. It’s the same desperation I see in his eyes as I keep my attention locked with his, part my lips, and lower my mouth over the slick head of his member.
The groan that drags from his throat is a delicious sound I can feel at my very core.
A swirling of my tongue is all I give him at first. A slow taunting that builds anticipation even through me. Heated attention burns across my features as he takes me in where I kneel with my head lowered to him in the most submissive way.
But I hold the power here.
My tongue slides all the way down him until he’s pressing against the back of my throat, and still I try for more. I take as much of him as I can over and over again, wanting to give him more than he’s ever had before.
“Fuck,” Aric hisses from somewhere, but I don’t look away from those hooded, green eyes.
Torben’s mouth parts with empty breaths, and just when I think he’s forgotten how to speak . . .
“Fuck, don’t stop.” His hand on the back of my head guides me down faster and faster, my throat wanting to constrict around him. A reflex is right there within me, but I refuse to give into the sensation of it.
Just when all I can do is focus entirely on Torben . . . someone reminds me of myself. And my own selfish needs: rough hands slide down the outer curves of my hips, trailing down until my ass shifts up into a higher position.
“Perfect,�
� Aric praises on a rumbling tone of pure, sensual appreciation.
I close my eyes to Torben’s intense attention and try to keep pace as a slight salty hint of him meets my tongue.
From behind, warmth spreads me farther open. The thick lapping of a tongue slides from my clit over my sex and all the way back until I tremble in his hands. And still he keeps going. Aric devours me from behind, taking me while I’m vulnerable and weak, lowered down and unable to even see the beautiful work he’s doing between my thighs.
Nails dig into my hips as Aric holds me firmly against his mouth and fucks me with his tongue, slipping out to taste my clit before dipping right back in where he was.
Whimpers hum within me with nowhere to go. The moans at the back of my throat seem to reverberate through me and right into Torben. His growls rumble into the night. His hold on my hair turns demanding and needy.
Just the way I feel.
And then it all stops. The deep swirling of Aric’s tongue can no longer be felt against my slick, swollen sex. My thighs clench with a pitiful sadness of what I’ve lost. The firm grip Torben has threaded through my hair turns loose, and when my lashes open slowly, I see him no longer watching me, but looking over me.
My lips hover above him, and just when I’m about to turn my head to look, the smooth feel of something between my legs slides down my opening and against the most sensitive part of me.
A gasp tears from my throat, fanning over Torben’s cock. My head tilts, and from over my shoulder, shining, smiling eyes meet mine. It’s a smoldering look that burns between us. Aric’s hips shift, and he brushes his length against my wetness once more. My clit pulses for more of his taunting teasing. The shuddering breath within my lungs amuses him even more, it seems.
My attention drifts to the quiet, beautiful man sitting a few feet away, watching and taking it all in.
My mouth parts to say something . . .
“Don’t worry about me.” Latham leans back to fully take it all in, but there’s something confusing about his gaze. Something I can’t quite explain.
I always feel that way when I look into the hidden part of him just beneath the surface of his beautiful, mysterious features.
Maybe we should stop.
This can’t end well for the four of us. Everything feels right and safe with them when nothing else in my life ever has. In the end, will we all be brokenhearted, or will we look back on what we shared like a fond memory?
Just when too many thoughts slam through my mind, Aric sinks in little by little, stretching me with every deep inch he takes. A moan parts my lips while my eyes flutter closed of their own accord. A low, animalistic growl carries through the night, and I peer up to see a hooded look in Torben’s gaze as he watches his friend pump into me slowly from behind. Heavy breaths part his lips, and the want in his gaze alone sends shivers down my arched spine.
My mouth lowers to him, and his hungry attention settles back on me. With one hand, he helps guide my pace down his thick cock. His palm isn’t pressing against the back of my head, but instead, it feels like he wants to feel me on a deeper level.
He wants to feel me how Aric feels me in this moment.
My tongue slides down him as far as I can go, sucking and swirling all around him until he’s groaning my name into the cool night air. My own wild pleasure reverberates against his shaft, and the thrusting of Aric’s hips urges me even further down Torben’s length.
Pulsing need throbs within my core, and just when it heightens on a sharp edge, Aric eases his slamming speed. He leans over me, his smooth chest meeting my back. One hand remains on my hips . . . while the other skims up my side. Long fingers explore my body before settling ever so slowly around my throat. From behind me, he clutches onto my neck, and I continue to work up and down Torben’s throbbing cock. I can’t explain it, but just knowing Aric can feel every move I make for his friend, it sends a shameful, sexy feeling all through my body.
Aric’s hold on me tightens around the lowest part of my jaw. Torben’s fingers in my hair suddenly tangle, and he forces me down as far as I can go. A salty release meets the back of my throat, and I swallow it down without trying, but still I keep going until his hips are jerking uncontrollably beneath me. Then the pounding feel of Aric’s thrust enters me so deeply, it hurts as it sends waves and waves of reckless energy soaring through me until I tremble in their clutches, both of them using me and giving me as much as I can take until I can’t take anymore.
It all shatters within me. It bursts free in starlight colors behind my eyes as my limbs become weak, and both of them pull back from me. Aric groans as he slips out of me entirely. His hands slide up my chest, and he pulls me against him. My palms rest on Torben’s wide shoulders as he, too, wraps his arms around my hips.
They hold me like they’ll always take care of me.
From between their shoulders, my eyes lock with Latham’s heated attention as he sits, giving us a few feet of space. But there’s still that confusing look hidden beneath.
Is it because he, too, knows that this won’t work between us all?
The pounding of my heart is a romantic thrumming, though, as I look up into the sated eyes of my warrior. There isn’t anger there. Not even a hint of his dark past shadows his beautiful eyes.
I still want all of him. I want it all, until I know for the rest of our tormented lives that a beautiful piece of him will always be mine to keep.
And I will keep him.
All three of them.
11
The One
Latham
Heavy thoughts weigh me down far more than when I sat in that cell with the weight of Hell Magic binding me in place. She looked right with him. Aric will only get her into trouble. Even if he does bring out more happiness in her then I’ve ever seen. The laughter he gives her won’t keep her safe.
Torben can though. And I never even considered it until tonight.
She belongs with him. Torben’s just too dense to see it.
And she’s too blinded by the two of us stepping in her way. Aric will never step back. He’ll ride the good time until it all shatters around him, and then he won’t even have any part of her left in his life.
I won’t let that happen. I’ll keep her. Even if I have to watch Torben love her for the rest of my miserable life. At least I’ll still be there with her.
It just won’t be the way I want. And I can live with that.
As long as she’s safe.
“What the fuck’s your problem?” Aric whispers as we trail behind the two lovebirds, Torben leading the way, as he always does.
He guides us down the last mile of the metal wall that spans on like the big wall they built in China once upon a time. We’ve hiked along in the dense darkness for hours without Aric prying.
I should have known he’d crack eventually.
“Nothing,” I say casually, not letting the regret in my throat sting my words.
“She would have let you join. Why didn’t you want to join?” he asks stupidly, as if I was left out of a good game of double Dutch instead of a damn Eiffel threesome.
I turn my head slowly and really take the idiot in. He’s lucky the gods blessed him with a strong jaw and nice eyes, or he’d never make it in life.
“It’s not about that. I’m fine.” I shrug and try my best to ignore the prying look he’s throwing at me.
A beat passes without another invasive question, and for once, I think he’s gotten the hint.
“Rhys, Latham’s back here crying because you didn’t fuck him too.” Aric tattles. Literally fucking tattles.
The sigh that shoves from my lungs is just as exhausting as the asshole striding next to me.
“No. No I’m not,” I say quickly as she looks back at me and completely stops walking.
Shit.
“I’m fine. He’s being ridiculous,” I try once more.
But she’s still looking at me with big eyes like an emotional alarm bell has sounded here in the secon
d ring of Hell.
Shit.
Torben nods Aric forward, and with a cruel smile, the dragon jogs forward to join him at his side. The two of them walking in sync like asshole soul mates. Rhys lingers until I meet her, and there’s a reluctance in me to walk with her through the last part of our trek. I’m dreading speaking to her more than I’m dreading seeing Hela again.
I’m a mess.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, her emotions shadowing across her face with a mixture of worry and regret.
No! Dammit!
My hand grips hers until we stop just yards from the cliff up ahead. The long span of the rambling wall finally stops.
“You have nothing to be sorry for.” Her lips part, but I continue on, blurting out what I should have said to her from the very start. “I’m not the one, Rhys. I’m the friend. I get it. My magic can’t protect you. Aric. Gods, Aric is definitely not the one. If you hear anything I say, please listen when I say the good-time guy is never the one.” I shake my head and can’t reach the anxious breath that stuck in my lungs. “Torben’s the one, Love.” Her eyebrows lower heavily with a hard line etching between her pretty eyes. “You and I both know it. We all know it,” I say so quietly, it fucking hurts.
It rips my heart right out just to speak those words to her.
But they’re true.
“Hey, we have to go. One last portal leap over here,” Torben calls back to us before she can say whatever confused words are clearly stuck in her throat.
“Come on.” Her hand is gentle in mine. It feels delicate and breakable suddenly.
I don’t want to let it go.
And so I don’t.
I allow myself to touch her for a little longer one last time. I guide her forward to the edge of the cliff that will lead us back to the woman who will end everything for us all. I’ll protect her one last time too.
I’ll give everything I have for her.
The look in her eyes alone nearly breaks me as I stare into those stormy, blue eyes. I pull her close with both hands held between us. I just didn’t expect to see the dampness shine in her gaze.
