As a cry launched from my throat, Devin yanked me backwards and away from Malachi’s touch.
“You didn’t tell me the marks ran so deep, Brother.” A primal hunger shadowed Malachi’s stare as he took me in from top to bottom.
Devin shot words from his mouth like bullets. “Where are our brethren?”
Pale hands emerged from the sleeves of Malachi’s cloak and pushed the hood from his head. Shining black hair slid forward on his face, along with the jewel-laden braids. “They have prepared the chamber and await you and your mate, of course.”
Devin’s arm clamped tighter around me, and a growl rumbled past his lips. “But we agreed I would have Katharine al—”
“Would you truly deny your people an ascent such as this? Do not keep us waiting.” Malachi’s lip turned up in a snarl, emphasizing his descended fangs. He pointed to a door on my right. “Prepare yourselves for your final bonding.” He turned and strode back the way he came.
Chapter Nine
Strangled for air, I turned to Devin. “What just happened?”
“Silence!” He grabbed my wrist and led me to the door so fast I had to jog to keep up. My heels clicked like gunshots off the tile, echoing back from the high ceiling.
Once inside the room, Devin slammed the door shut behind us and flicked on a light. The large white space held a bed with a red silk duvet. On top, lay one shiny black robe and one white.
He paced along the end of the bed to the far wall before returning to the place where we’d entered.
I shook my hands out, in need of some way to relieve the tension knotting my muscles.
Devin roared and kicked the wooden door. I screamed as it splintered into a thousand shards and exploded outward. He heaved out a breath and came to me, eyes filled with shadow. “Forgive me.” His arms gathered me to his chest.
My body remained stiff against his. Would he hurt me?
His hands slid along my cheeks and centered my face with his. “I would never, never hurt you in anger, Katharine. I just—I wanted us to have this night together, alone, and now…” Eyes clamped shut, his forehead settled against mine.
I swallowed around the sudden dryness in my throat. “And now, what?”
Devin stepped back, a nerve twitching in his left temple. All expression evaporated and left him unreadable. “We will complete the bond within the Circle. Once we have begun our ascent—” He scrubbed a hand across his mouth and averted his gaze. “—Malachi believes the two of us can take you higher than I can alone.”
My feet carried me backwards until I bumped into the bed. Wobbling on knees about to fold, I lowered myself down to the mattress. “What are you saying?”
“Don’t be naïve, Katharine.” His palm thrust up. “You know very well what I’m saying.”
“But—I don’t want to be with him.” My tone held more insolence than I’d intended, but I couldn’t help it. The primal, curious part of me wanted the experience, to be with two men at once, but the moral code I’d grown up with caused a knot in my stomach. I hated that I wanted someone other than my boyfriend.
Devin appeared before me, his lips pressed into a thin line as if in the grips of some excruciating pain. “You have no choice—we have no choice.”
I shook my head and folded my arms together. “This is going too far, too fast.”
“I know.” He reached for me, but his hand dropped before making contact with my cheek. “For years I’ve watched you from a distance, thinking it would be enough for me. I told myself you were better off ignorant of my world, of what we could become as a bonded pair.”
The block of ice forming in my chest melted a little. I glanced at him, at the sorrow darkening his eyes. “What changed? Why did you bring me here?”
He stepped back and leaned against the wall, and his shoulders wilted like a flower too long without rain. “I’d like to say it was because I found no meaning in your life. You rarely dated or pleasured yourself. Your writing lacked the passion I knew you had in you. You existed without truly living.” Devin shook his head and uttered a disgusted grunt. “If I’m truthful, it’s because I was lonely and wanted to be close to you, and a bond is the only way our laws would permit us to be together.” He pounded the stone wall with his fist.
A tear dripped from my chin before I realized I’d shed it. The truth in his words crashed in on me. I had few friends, none that I cared to go out with. My whole life I felt as if I waited for something—or someone. How long had I been waiting for Devin to unlock the dull prison my life had become? My heart and spirit had recognized him like a long lost lover, so how could it be wrong?
I stood, closed the distance to him, and traced his brow with my fingertips. He sighed, leaned into my touch, and placed his hand over mine.
“You’re right about my life—it had no meaning. I didn’t understand that until I met you.” A sigh whispered from my lips. “Yes, you scare me, and the idea of being with two men at once in front of a crowd petrifies me, but… it also excites me.” My face blazed.
Devin met my gaze and came away from the wall. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of, Katharine. Within the Circle, watching you enjoy the touch of another would please me.”
A frantic giggle bubbled in my throat. “I think I know that, but this is all new to me. I feel…dirty somehow. And even though something about Malachi turns me on, he also scares the hell out of me.”
Devin kissed my forehead. “I will keep you safe. You are mine to protect.”
I tried to smile, but it didn’t come. My trembling hand sought his and held on tight. “Just don’t leave me alone, okay? As long as I can see you, that you’re not angry with me, I think I can let go of my moral hang-ups.” Warning bells screamed at me. What was I saying? Would I really allow two men to fuck me at the same time when I’d never done more than heavy petting with anyone before?
One glance at my immortal boyfriend, and the answering jolt of belonging and approval rattled my soul. Malachi would be the icing on our lustful cake. “I trust you.”
He nodded, and a smile bowed his lips. “I love you, Katharine.” His mouth pressed a tender kiss to mine. “Now, we must hurry.”
* * * * *
Dressed in nothing but the white silk robe and my silver heels, I waited before a towering set of arched doors, where Devin had left me five minutes earlier. He’d disappeared around the corner after telling me one of his brethren would come for me.
The cool breeze spiraling down the hall puckered my nipples until they showed through the light material. I wrung my hands together, shifted my feet, and willed the terrible rolling in my stomach to cease, though it didn’t listen.
A clank sent my heart into my throat a moment before the doors whispered inward to reveal a dark room pulsing with golden light.
From the strange aura, a shadow emerged, hidden beneath a dark red cloak. “Your Dom calls for you, Katharine.” The male voice held no emotion, yet it crawled along my skin. He offered a pale hand. “Come.”
The wooden poles my legs had become refused to move me forward. What would I find beyond the doors? Would everyone have begun their festivities?
Something gripped my wrist. I yelped and looked down to find my escort’s hand around it.
“Come, or I shall take you over my shoulder.” Within the shadow of his hood, only the white of his teeth revealed his grin. “Perhaps you would prefer that.”
“No!” I held up my free hand palm out. “I’ll come, just let go of me.”
He offered a subtle bow and stood aside, sweeping his arm to usher me into the room.
I swallowed the cotton from my mouth, took a deep breath, and started forward. The instant I crossed the threshold, the downy hairs along my arms and on the back of my neck stood on end. A force similar to static swept over and through me, crackling and popping through my veins. Blood rushed to the surface of my skin as if trying to escape a stalking beast within.
A golden halo pulsed out from the center of the room, warmin
g my front each time it washed over me. My lungs heaved under my efforts to breathe as the broad rays pressed on my chest the way water pressurized my body when I submersed up to my neck.
All of the immortals and their humans formed a large circle around a raised platform positioned in the center of the space. Some bent over, swallowing down a cock and taking another from behind. Moans and sighs mingled with wet slapping sounds. Mouths dropped open, slack with ecstasy, and some of their eyes glowed like embers in a fire. The chain continued on, hands, mouths, pussies or asses giving and receiving in vigorous fashion.
Devin stood on the platform next to a table topped with what appeared to be white velvet upholstery. Black leather belts dangled down in several places along its length. To his left waited a naked Malachi. His thick cock stood at full attention as he stared at me.
I froze in place, both from the intense, yet enticing, scene before me, and the energy that continued to assault my every cell with alternating waves of heat and cold.
What was I doing? Was I insane? I wanted Devin to push me beyond my limits, but what I witnessed delved into otherworldly places I wasn’t sure I wanted to experience, at least not so soon. Devin had been hinting around something—our ascent he’d called it. Why hadn’t I asked what that meant? Did I not want to know?
A chuckle sounded behind me before my escort scooped me onto his shoulder. Panic wrapped a tight fist around my throat as he started toward the ring of people fucking.
I pounded against his solid back. “Put me down!” I tried to kick him, but his arm looped around my thighs, pinning me in place. “Devin!”
My captor crouched and, in one powerful bound, leapt us up onto the platform. He pulled me down from his shoulder and steadied me on my feet before bowing to Malachi and disappearing.
Devin extended his hand to me. “Come to me, my Katharine.”
Despite his beautiful face, those full lips begging to be kissed, and the need once again zinging through my pussy, I couldn’t make myself move forward. Malachi remained in my peripheral vision, ever watching. His stare heated my body almost as powerfully as Devin’s.
A tentative step backwards sent my heel over the edge of the platform. I yelped as I fell, but Malachi appeared and gripped my forearm before I hit the floor.
Wearing an infernal grin, he tugged me back to my feet. His thumb stroked my marks, filling me with fire. “Your Dom has given you an order. I suggest you obey him.” Malachi shot a malicious look to Devin. While unspoken communication passed between them, Devin’s lips pressed tight together and his shoulders hunched up.
Pressure built in my abdomen as Malachi guided me to my boyfriend, still caressing the pulsing nerve that ended in my deepest crevice.
“What just happened?” I thought at Devin.
“Defy me again, and I’ll be forced to punish you.” Devin reached out, snatched my hand, and tugged me against him. His chocolate eyes held a warning that injected ice into my heart.
As the silence stretched on, I got the impression he waited for a response. “Yes, Dom. F-forgive me.”
Something slid beneath the edges of my robe and brushed my collarbone. Heart in a sprint, I grabbed the silk and gripped it as Malachi tried to slide it down my shoulders from behind.
Devin held my chin. “It’s okay, Katharine.” Between the energy pulses from the others and the drunken pleasure of his touch, my fingers released their hold on the fabric, and it disappeared from my body.
A nude woman with white hair appeared behind Devin, tugged him backward, and took his covering in the same manner. My eyes swept over every inch of his exposed playground. Thoughts of what he could do to me with the strength of his muscular chest and defined arms sent my juices flowing. The startling girth of his shaft made my mouth water, and my fingers itched to stroke it.
Devin grasped my hand and led me to the table. “Now we finish this. Are you ready to belong to me mind, body and soul? Are you ready to become part of the Circle?”
His smooth voice broke my trance. No, I wasn’t ready. Oh, God, what was I doing?
A sigh rushed from my lips as his fingers brushed over my tattoos, beginning a renewed throb in my pussy. Need outweighed my fear and doubt. I wanted him like a cool glass of water to soothe my parched existence. A shuddering breath escaped me. “Yes.”
A brilliant smile broke across his face. He held my waist and set me on top of the padded table as he nibbled at my throat. His fingertips caressed the curve of my shoulders and down my back before laying me down on the soft fabric. A tremble born from deep within me rippled to the surface.
Eyes closed, I savored his electric touch, along my stomach, over the tops of my thighs.
Something tightened around my leg. I sat up, thoughts caught in a whirlwind of confusion. A glance down revealed a leather strap securing my thigh to the surface of the table.
With wide eyes, my fingers dove to release it, but Devin whipped both my arms behind my back. “This bite will be intense. I must tie you so you don’t move and risk me tearing your flesh.”
I opened my mouth, but closed it again. “Is that supposed to comfort me? Where are you going to bite me?”
Devin busied himself securing my other leg while avoiding my stare. My throat ached under the storm of questions begging to be released.
Cool fingers slipped around my throat and pressed me back down. Malachi’s upside-down face appeared above mine. His fingers locked around my wrists and pressed them to the velvet above my head.
A click came from where Devin stood at my feet. He stared at me with need-darkened eyes as he gripped the end of the table and pulled it apart, forcing my legs open with the hinged arms they were attached to. Trailing fingertips along my exposed inner thigh, his breath caught, and he uttered a moan.
The pounding and slapping sounds of sex joined with a hum that resonated in my chest. While playing his lips across my belly, Devin secured another leather strap around my waist and jerked it tight. His fingers never broke contact with my skin as he returned to stand between my splayed legs.
Malachi breathed across my ear as he pressed my hands harder into the cushioned surface. “I can hear your heart racing, Katharine. Use your fear to propel us higher.”
I shook my head with no understanding, my desire pulsing stronger along with the humming and the golden flashes of light encircling the three of us.
Devin leaned over me, the silky skin of his cock pressing against my leg. Lips and tongue explored my erect nipples, one, then the other, back and forth in a bewildering pattern of soft, wet licks and sucks.
Malachi suckled my earlobe. He gripped my arms with one hand and tickled fingers along my forearms. Delicious fire travelled along my shoulders, joined with the sensations Devin bestowed upon me, and sent my clit aching harder.
The chanting by the immortals synchronized with the light pulses and seemed matched to my frantic heartbeat. Devin descended along my stomach, leaving kisses that tingled even after he’d moved on.
I tried to raise my hips to encourage him lower, but the binding around my waist kept me in place. Grunting my frustration, I tugged at my hands only to have Malachi lock his lips over the place where Devin had bitten me—the origin of the marks and most intense pleasure center other than the one I hoped a tongue would soon find. Malachi’s free hand gripped my breast, pinching my puckered nub between his thumb and finger.
My whimpers came between gasps as Devin nuzzled the crease where my leg met my abdomen, so close to my twitching need, yet not touching. Malachi’s moans and oral manipulation of my skin injected fire along the hot nerves leading through my heated core. Intensity grew like a water balloon about to burst.
Devin’s tongue lashed one long stroke over my slit and stopped.
Groans fell in a continuous wave from my throat as I found no way past the euphoria to the part of my brain that processed speech.
His hands clamped onto my right knee a moment before his fangs pierced my inner thigh.
A sc
ream tore unbidden from my lips. Intense pleasure took me over the razor’s edge of pain. Conflicting sensations dominated every thought and drew my muscles taught.
Mouth clamped around my wound, Devin sucked a few times, came back to my pussy and lavished it with licks and kisses.
Ripples of warmth cascaded from my center to my extremities, the edge of oblivion so close I managed to relax my body in preparation. As I neared the ultimate burst, Devin stood and eyed me like a starving man before a feast. His lips appeared to have a ruby gloss from my blood.
I shook my head. “Don’t stop. Please! I’ll do anything you want, just don’t stop!”
Malachi released my hands and unfastened the bindings at my waist, while Devin freed my legs. What were they doing? It couldn’t be over already.
“I—I need you, please!”
“Patience, my love.” Devin licked his lips and scooped me off the table into his arms. After a moment of locking me in his gaze, he set me in a nest of soft bedding on the newly cleared floor.
He knelt between my legs while I jittered under his flaming red eyes. Malachi appeared beside him, wielding the same curved blade as the last time I’d been in the Circle. Devin winced as his sovereign raked the edge of the dagger along Devin’s outer thigh.
What would happen? Our blood would mingle as he fucked me, but how would that change us? I already wanted him in a way that frightened me. Would I cease to be myself? I glanced out at the crowd to find Devin hadn’t been the only one enjoying a human delicacy. Blood streaked every pale body.
Before I could allow the fear to ascend from the background, Devin hovered over me, propped up on hands and knees. “Do not fight me, Katharine.”
My voice squeaked out. “What does that mean?”
“We will become one. It can be…bewildering, so I’ve been told.”
I smoothed my hands up his chest and nodded. “I’m ready.”
The Circle Page 7
