by Eva Chase
I had just enough wherewithal left to murmur the protective spell over my core. I pumped my hand up and down Connar’s cock, grinning at the precum already slicking the delicate skin, and sank down onto him with a gasp of delight.
Connar kissed my sternum. “You always feel perfect,” he mumbled against my chest.
I let out a shaky breath as his solid length stretched me in the most delicious way. But this wasn’t anywhere near enough. I wanted us all together in this act, the way we should be, the way I hoped we always would be.
Jude had shown me how that could be possible. As I lifted myself and sank even more deeply over Connar, I pulled the other guy closer, catching his eyes.
“Like before,” I said. “You take me too.”
A sharper desire flashed in his eyes. “Ask and ye shall receive,” he said in a teasing tone.
Connar spread his legs to make room for Jude to approach me from behind. Jude massaged my ass, letting his thumb dip between my cheeks. With the murmur of a spell, the muscles there warmed and relaxed even more than they already had been. When he curved his thumb right into me, I bucked harder over Connar with a whimper.
Malcolm had settled onto the sofa beside us where he could fondle my breasts as I rocked with the other guys. I grasped his shirt and tugged him higher. He followed my motion with a hint of confusion in his eyes. They darkened when I jerked at the zipper on his slacks.
“You’re a fucking marvel, Glinda,” he muttered, all heated affection.
I peered at him through my eyelashes, which fluttered of their own accord as Jude tested me with a second finger. My voice came out with a hitch of a swallowed moan. “Right now I’m just aiming for marvelous fucking.”
His chuckle turned into a groan when I bent my head to swirl my tongue around the head of his cock. His fingers raked into my hair, holding on but not propelling me, letting me take the lead even as they tightened with his pleasure. I sucked him deeper into my mouth, high on the pleasure already racing through me and the musky flavor on my tongue.
Declan was still with us too. I reached out toward him, and he met my hand with his. My squeeze of his fingers appeared to tell him exactly what I wanted. He knelt on the other side of the sofa and guided my hand to the bulge in his pants. Oh, yes. I could take all four of them—and I would.
With his help, I delved farther. His breath hitched as my fingers closed around his cock. Jude teased my opening one last time and then eased himself in with another murmur that turned the motion slick, the burn only enjoyable.
They were all mine, these brilliant, devoted men setting off flames everywhere we touched.
I had to keep the rhythm of my rocking slow so that I could focus on all of them amid the pleasure whirling through me from every end, but all the same, that pleasure seared hotter with every movement. Declan stroked my back, and Connar cupped my breasts; Malcolm traced desperate patterns on my scalp with his fingertips. Jude kneaded my ass and thighs as if to work the sensations even deeper into me. We were a maelstrom of bliss, colliding and swaying together toward our breaking points.
Connar came first with a ragged sound, his hips jerking up as he plunged farther into me. He stayed inside me in the aftermath, one hand dipping down to toy with my clit. Another moan quivered out of me as I licked along the underside of Malcolm’s cock, and he gripped my head tighter with a curse and a hot spurt of release.
As soon as he’d pulled out, he was kissing me, our tongues tangling together so tightly he must have been able to taste himself in my mouth. Connar pressed on my clit harder, Jude thrust into me at just the right angle in the same moment, and I cried out with the final surge of ecstasy.
My grip on Declan tightened, the pump of my hand speeding up. I pulled my lips from Malcolm’s to add my mouth to my efforts on the Ashgrave scion. As I shuddered through the echoes of my orgasm, he and Jude reached their peak at almost the same moment.
We tumbled together into the sofa, a mass of torsos and limbs. I sprawled across Connar’s lap with my head on Declan’s thigh and Malcolm cradling my legs, Jude half sitting, half cuddling against me. No longer a maelstrom but a mass of love. It radiated through me so strongly my throat closed up.
Maybe we were only dreaming. Maybe in the end, no matter what we did, we’d find ourselves pairing off apart from each other to fulfill the demands of family and politics. But right now the possibilities ahead of us were endless. I might not know where we’d end up, but we couldn’t have been more united in the face of our future.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Malcolm
My parents’ rigidity about my sister’s and my activities had irritated me plenty of times, but just this once, I was thankful for it. My sister had been attending this yoga and active meditation class for years, just changing the date as she aged up from one level to the next. I’d attended the same one before I’d come into my magic. A lot of the families felt the techniques left you better prepared to handle your power.
I parked across the street from the unassuming building that held the studio and ambled over through the thickening darkness. A streetlamp cast a pool of yellow light on the sidewalk by the door, giving off a faint hum. I stopped at the far edge of it, staying in the shadows.
Other young teen fearmancers headed up the stairs to the doors. After a few minutes, I spotted one of the Nightwood cars down the street, dropping Agnes off. The chauffeur would drop off the car and go home for the night now. Agnes pretty much always stayed over at one of her friends’ houses on yoga nights.
Which meant, conveniently for my purposes, she was carrying an overnight bag. It bounced against her back as she trotted up the stairs, her pale hair gleaming in the stark light. I waited until the car had driven away around the corner and then hustled after her, catching her just inside the door.
Agnes startled when I caught her arm. Her expression shifted from nervous to concerned when she saw me.
“Malcolm?” she said in a low voice. “What are you doing here?”
“Getting you,” I said just as quietly. “I’ll explain in the car. You’re skipping class. Go along with it, okay?”
Maybe I hadn’t been there to provide as much big brotherly support as I’d have liked since I’d started at Blood U, but she trusted me enough to nod, thank God. I walked with her to the second floor, skipping the large room where the students were warming up for the instructor’s office next door.
The head instructor was just on her way out. She blinked at the sight of me. “Mr. Nightwood. Feeling nostalgic and decided to rejoin us?”
I chuckled and shook my head. “Unfortunately, no. I actually have to call Agnes back home early. A family matter. Sorry to interrupt her practice.”
“No, no, if something urgent has come up, that has to take priority. Don’t let me keep you.”
Easy enough. But then, I’d always known that would be the easiest part of this whole scheme. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about her calling my parents to inquire about Agnes’s absence.
“See you next week!” Agnes said, and we hurried back down the stairs. She had enough discretion to keep her mouth shut until we were in the car. She tossed her overnight bag in the back seat and peered at me. “What’s going on? Are we in some kind of trouble?”
“Not exactly. Not yet.” My hands flexed as I gripped the steering wheel. I revved the engine and cruised down the street, feeling more secure as soon as the fearmancer assembly place was behind us.
I drove out of the city and parked on the side of a country lane I’d picked out ahead of time. There, I turned to face my sister. Agnes frowned at me in the dim light, her hands balled on her lap. She knew how things worked in our family well enough to realize I wouldn’t have gone to these measures if I’d had good news.
“It’s your choice what we do now,” I said. “There is going to be trouble either way. I’m just trying to get you away from the worst of it. But it’s going to be coming because of me, so… you decide how you want to handle it.
”
“What do you mean?” Agnes said. “What kind of trouble?”
The kind of trouble I’d tasted on the horizon from the first moment Rory had looked around the scion lounge and told us she wanted all of us not just now but always. The memory sent a little thrill through me, even if it came with a twist of my gut.
I couldn’t tell her I wanted to stand by her, to fight for the right to keep her as a lover as well as a colleague and friend, and keep kowtowing to my father’s demands. Sometime soon she and him would openly be on opposite sides again, and I’d have to side with her. I didn’t need a fortune teller’s prediction to know he wasn’t going to be pleased about that.
Fuck him. Jude and Connar had cut themselves off from their parents already. Why the hell should I keep playing along? But I’d had reasons, and one of them was sitting right there across from me.
“Dad and I are going to have some… differences of opinion,” I said. “Ones that’ll make him pretty angry. I can keep myself out of the range of his wrath, but if you’re still at home, you’ll be an easy target. If he can’t punish me, he’ll punish you. I don’t want to see that happen. If you give me the go-ahead, I’ve got an apartment set up not too far from Blood U. You can hide out there for the first little while until we figure out a more permanent solution.”
Agnes stared at me. Her hands clenched even tighter. “You don’t have to act like some kind of bodyguard. I’m not that weak. If he comes at me, I can deal with it, just like you already have.”
She was trying to be as tough as my parents had always taught us to be. Her defiance brought a swell of affection into my chest even though it wasn’t at all the reaction I’d wanted. But I had other angles I could use.
“What if you look at it this way?” I said. “I’m not asking so I can protect you. I’m asking so you can protect me. If Dad can threaten to hurt you… it’ll be a whole lot harder for me to go through with anything. I don’t want that on my conscience. So actually I’m being selfish by asking for this.”
Her eyes widened as she considered my words. Her jaw worked. “You really think it’d be that bad?”
I let out a hoarse laugh. “I’ve never openly defied him before, and you’ve seen what he’s capable of even when we’re trying to appease him. Do you really want to stay in that house any longer?”
Her gaze slid to the windshield. She peered into the darkness beyond it for a minute as if searching for the answer there.
“No,” she said. “I don’t. Not if there’s someplace else. What would we need to do?”
I let out an inward sigh of relief. “I’ve already transferred all my funds over to an account Mom and Dad can’t touch. I think we can do the same for yours in the morning, if we get in there quickly enough before they realize what’s happened. If not, I’ve got enough to cover both of us no problem. Anything that’s not that important—clothes and whatever—we can buy new. But I’m going to swing by the house and grab a few things I don’t want to leave behind. If there’s anything you want me to get from your room, I’ll pick that up too. Nothing big and not a lot, you understand.”
“Of course.” Before my eyes, she was switching into fugitive mode as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She straightened up in her seat with a thoughtful frown. “I don’t know. I mean, there’s stuff I like there, but not worth risking you getting caught over. I’ve got my phone and my wallet in my purse. There is… if you’re going to go back anyway…”
“What?” I prodded gently.
Her hand rose to her neck. “That necklace with the rubies that was Grandma’s. It’s the only thing she gave specifically to me.” She paused. “Well, maybe you should grab my whole jewelry box. Some of the other stuff in there is expensive. If we ever do need more money…”
I had to laugh again, with more humor this time. “I don’t think it’ll come to that, but if it makes you feel better, I can handle one jewelry box.”
“And also—there’s that rare book on illusion magic Mom got me for my birthday last year. I don’t know where I’d find another copy of that. It’s not too big.”
“Got it. That’s everything?”
Her chin firmed. “Yeah. The rest can be replaced.”
I started the car again. “Are Mom and Dad at home?”
“Mom had some dinner she was going to be a special guest at. It sounded like she’d be home late. Dad was working in his office when I left, so he’ll probably still be there.”
Typical. And thankfully not too tricky to work around. No, the real challenge would be after they realized both of their kids had flown the coop.
“Okay,” I said. “I’m going to park out of the way and slip in on foot. I need you to stay in the car while I’m gone, all right? It shouldn’t take me more than half an hour. Even if you wanted to help, it’ll be easier for me if I only have to worry about covering my own tracks.”
She made a disgruntled sound, but she knew how much of an advantage I had when I could use magic and she hadn’t come into hers yet. “Fine.”
The house was only twenty minutes away. I left the car and Agnes in it near the start of the drive and jogged the rest of the way to the gate on foot. With a whispered spell, it opened silently. I slunk across the asphalt and the lawn to the front door.
That door opened just as quickly, the security spells recognizing me as a Nightwood. I cast more magic around me to soften my footsteps as I slipped inside.
A peek down the first floor hall showed me that Dad’s study door was closed. There was no sign of him elsewhere in the house. With a little luck, he’d stay there until I’d gotten what I needed and left.
Upstairs, I started with Agnes’s room, figuring I owed it to her to make sure I got at least the little bit she’d asked for. The jewelry box had heft but fit inside the backpack I’d brought along; the leather-bound book slipped into an outer pocket with no problem at all. Since I was there anyway, I grabbed a few changes of clothes out of her closet so she wouldn’t need to replace her entire wardrobe immediately.
I’d brought pretty much everything that was important to me to my dorm room on campus before now, but I’d never seriously considered not coming home. There were a couple books on my shelf I didn’t want my parents reclaiming, an ancient stone conducting piece I’d never been bold enough to use that had been passed on to me by my grandfather, and, because I was already here, my favorite headphones that I’d forgotten during my last visit.
The whole scavenging run took five minutes at most. My spirits started to lighten as I crept back down the stairs. I was almost home free.
Then a door creaked in the hall below. I froze on the third step from the bottom and crouched down, casting another spell to blend my form into the shadows.
A low laugh carried to my ears—a woman’s laugh, but it didn’t sound like my mother’s. My body tensed. What the hell was Dad up to now? I could criticize a lot about him, but he’d always appeared fully united with his wife.
His voice reached me next, with that coaxing tone he took on when he was talking to someone he wanted to impress. “It hasn’t changed much since you were last here, has it?”
“It really hasn’t. You’d think you might have changed a thing or two in the last seventeen years.”
The voice and the words struck me with a chill straight to my gut. I had to see, to confirm what my mind was telling me, even if it was risky. Braced to run if need be, I eased the rest of the way down the stairs and edged into view of the hallway.
My dad was standing across from his study door, leaning over a woman who’d propped herself against the wall with her arms folded loosely over her chest and a coy smile curving her lips. A woman with the same dark brown hair and elegant bearing as the one I’d left back on campus. He’d brought Rory’s mother over to visit.
Not just to visit. That in itself might not have been so strange, but before I could dismiss it and back away, he leaned even closer, letting his lips brush the line of her jaw. She closed he
r eyes and tipped her head to the side to allow him access to her neck. One of her hands came up to trail over his chest.
“We have time,” he murmured. “Don’t think I’m done with you yet.”
“Maybe I’m done with you,” Baron Bloodstone said with a teasing tone.
Dad grasped her waist and pulled her flush against him, gazing down at her with a hunger I’d never seen on his face before—and never wanted to. “We both know that’s not true. There never was anyone who could satisfy you like I can. That dolt Pierce certainly never came close.”
Rory’s mother shrugged, her eyes gone heavy lidded. “He was useful for a few things. He did as he was told. That’s what I needed.”
Dad’s voice dropped to a growl. “Not all you needed. Let’s not forget how well I took care of you. Now we’ve got seventeen years of catching up to do.”
His hand dropped down her thigh to slide between their bodies, and I really didn’t want to watch that. My stomach lurching, I pulled away. At least he was well distracted at the moment.
No one called after me when I snuck out the door. Still, nausea chased me past the gate and up the drive. The comments I’d overheard spun in my head. I stopped just before I reached the road, my hand to my stomach, a much more horrible idea than that of my father cheating coming over me.
He and Rory’s mother had a thing. It probably wasn’t the first time two barons had dallied on the side. But… they’d clearly been dallying before her supposed death. He’d suggested they’d been seeing each other while she was married.
How careful had they been, if they’d been careful at all? Because if they hadn’t, then Rory Bloodstone, perfect Rory with her four magical strengths and spirit to spare, might just be the product of the two most powerful barons currently living.
Which would also make her my half-sister.
