Meghan shook her head. “Why don’t you two just try it?” She laughed. “Not the Porsche, of course. Try something simple. Or bring yourself something from your own apartment. If it’s already yours, there’s no reason not to do that, is there?”
“No, I guess there isn’t.” Ryan tilted his head and seemed to be lost in thought. Then he smiled. He held out his hand. A photograph in a frame materialized.
He was so startled he actually dropped it—but Meghan caught it. Or, rather, her magic did.
He nodded his thanks and then held it with both hands, staring at it. “This was taken the day of our high school graduation. I’ve kept this photograph on the dresser in my bedroom since we bought the house.” He met her gaze. “Jeremy and I bought a house together, more as an investment than as a place to live because we’re on the road so much.”
“May I see the photograph?”
He handed it to Meghan. She could tell that Ryan resembled his mother. But she couldn’t tell which parent Jeremy took after.
“I have a copy of that same picture, too, and that’s where I keep mine—in my bedroom on my dresser. But I have another photograph on my bedside table.” Jeremy opened his hands, and a smaller photo appeared. He looked at it for a moment and handed it to Meghan.
The people in the picture made her smile because she could see the love on the faces of the young couple. It appeared to have been taken on the steps of a porch. Between the man and woman, a young boy of about seven or eight sat, wedged in between them, wearing a grin that showed a tooth missing.
She opened her senses, just a little, and felt love, longing...and loss. She looked up and met Jeremy’s gaze. He looked...sad.
“That’s me, and my parents, Erin and Everett Smith. It was taken just a month before the accident.”
“Accident?”
“Yeah. When I was eight, we were on our way back from a trip into the city. I dozed off in the back seat. And I awoke just a few seconds before a drunk in a pickup truck slammed into us.”
Meghan’s reaction was instinctive. She reached out and touched his hand.
“I came through, not even a scratch on me. But Mom and Dad both died at the scene.”
“My mother and Jeremy’s mother were best friends since their childhood, just as he and I were best friends. After the accident, Jeremy came to live with us.”
“Ry’s parents formally adopted me when I was eleven. But I never called them that—mom and dad—not until the day Dad almost got killed by that tractor.”
Jeremy sighed, the sound so unbelievably sad. “And I can’t help but wonder, if I had known I had this power within me, if I could have somehow saved my own parents’ lives.”
Meghan couldn’t imagine the pain of loss this good man had been carrying around with him for so very long. She could, however, imagine what he must have gone through when he discovered he had something...and when he’d used that something to save Mr. Jones’s life yet had not been able to save the lives of his own parents.
She couldn’t do anything about what he’d endured. But she could help him now.
“Jeremy? It’s true that you were born with this magic inside you. But you couldn’t have used it then, even if you’d known you had it. No more than a newborn infant can run or jump or speak as soon as he or she comes out of the womb. All that is required for that baby to do those things are inborn in the child, but it takes years before that baby can actually use those faculties. The youngest I’ve heard of any of the Gifted using their magic is twelve—it usually happens on the day of their twelfth birthday, in fact.”
“So even if I’d known...”
“I’m sorry you suffered such a tragic loss at such an early age. But no, even if you’d known you had the power within you, you couldn’t have done a thing to prevent the accident.”
Meghan couldn’t read the expression on Jeremy’s face. It had always been her nature to reach out when she knew someone was hurting. But now she listened to her instincts and sat quietly and waited.
“All this time, you were down on yourself?” Ryan sat forward, his gaze riveted on his brother. There was a note of discovery in Ryan’s voice, as if he’d just learned something he’d never known. “Since that day when we made a miracle happen? My God, I knew there was something different in you afterward, but I never guessed it was that kind of guilt...”
“That night, before I went to sleep, it occurred to me that I could have prevented what happened to my folks if only I’d been awake. If only I’d been paying attention.” He looked down at his hands then up at his brother. “It was a logical assumption for me to make.”
“It was,” Ryan agreed. “But you and I both know that just because something is logical doesn’t mean it’s true.”
“Magic is.” Meghan waited until Jeremy met her gaze. “And destiny is. Even so, there are things beyond our power. We can’t, any of us, know our own futures, and we can’t undo the past.”
Jeremy ran a hand through his hair. The muscles on his arms flexed, as if he was trying to restrain something that was pushing against him with great strength. Then he sighed. He looked at Ryan and then met her gaze. The sheen of tears unshed made his eyes glisten. “It’s going to take some time to fully sink in.” He swallowed as if he had a lump in his throat. “Since that day, I had this feeling that I could have prevented what had happened. I always felt like I’d failed the two people I’d loved the most. But... I guess I didn’t.”
“No, you didn’t.” Meghan stretched out her hand, and Jeremy clasped it in his. His grip was more than she’d expected, and she had the sense that he didn’t intend to let her go anytime soon.
* * * *
Not my fault.
Jeremy had wondered what he would finally learn about himself, about the power within him and what had happened all those years before. Because he was human, a dozen scenarios had run through his mind. But not once had he ever considered that he would discover he wasn’t to blame for not saving his parents, that there was absolutely nothing he could have done to prevent their deaths.
As he’d just said, it was going to take time for that truth to sink in.
He looked down at the delicate hand that gripped his. Meghan might look like a pixie, but she possessed amazing strength.
Here is a woman who understands me, and what I’m feeling. It didn’t matter that he’d never had a thought about another woman like that before. Jeremy was a man who liked women—a lot. But he’d never considered them as partners. They had their place, and while he always treated the women in his bed with respect and made sure that they enjoyed their time there, he wanted them for only that and nothing more.
He’d been careful to always pick a woman who felt the exact same way.
Meghan was different.
Great, just great. You’re buying into that whole prophecy thing just because you’re grateful to not feel guilty anymore?
Was he? Jeremy didn’t think so. He really didn’t know for certain one way or the other. And there was, to his mind, only one way to find out.
With every other woman, it didn’t take more than a couple of rounds doing the mattress rumba for his hunger to be sated. If what he felt for Meghan Clark wasn’t real, he’d know it soon enough.
Holding her gaze with his, her hand still clasping his own, he pushed his chair back and drew her toward him.
“Jeremy?”
“Yes, Meghan?”
“What are you doing?”
“Come here and I’ll show you.” He gave her a half-grin, not letting go of her gaze or her hand.
He didn’t tug hard, just kept the pressure constant. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the way Ryan grinned. Good, we’re on the same page.
He put all his focus on Meghan. She tilted her head to the side and studied him for a moment. She didn’t try to read his mind. Aside from the fact that he knew he’d feel it if she used her powers, he believed her when she said she would never do that without his permission.
S
he must have liked what she saw on his face because she nodded and stood up. He very carefully guided her to his lap.
“I’m going to kiss you. And after I kiss you, Ryan is going to kiss you. Do you have a problem with that?”
He liked the way her pretty gray eyes shone and the hint of pink that colored her cheeks. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you going to kiss me?”
“The truth? Because I need to know how you taste. I’ve wanted to kiss you since the first moment I got out of the car and saw you.” He frowned, the need to be totally honest something new and different for him. It was a compulsion he couldn’t ignore. “No, the full truth is the first moment I saw you I wanted to pick you up, lay you down, and plunge my cock balls deep into your pussy.”
Megan’s eyes widened, her breath shuddered, and her nipples turned into hard little points trying to break out of her clothing. Then her expression turned serious. “You were both furious about the idea that some unseen puppeteer had led you here—exactly for what you’re about to start. Are you sure you really want to do this?”
Jeremy ran his hands up and down her sides. “Do you want to kiss us?”
“Want is such a weak word.” Meghan licked her lips. “You’re the first men I’ve ever been drawn to. That’s not our way. It’s just the way it’s been for me.” Then she looked off to the side for a moment. When she faced him again, he got a glimpse at Meghan’s inner strength. “This doesn’t bind us as mates. That’s a decision that is still yours to make. We can be lovers, and you can walk away at any time. Becoming mates isn’t about the physical act of making love, although doing so will bring us closer to each other. Becoming mates is a conscious choice. But making love will bring us closer on all levels and will begin the process that leads to mating.”
She was telling them they could have her and then walk away, if they wanted to. That had always been Jeremy’s line. He decided not to think about the fact that he didn’t much like having it used on him.
“Hush now, little tiger, and give me your mouth.”
And since she looked just a tad unsure how to go about doing that little thing, Jeremy took the first move away from her. He wrapped his arms around her, drew her close, and melded his lips to hers.
Chapter 6
Meghan had been kissed before, of course, and, apparently, in hindsight, by a couple of men who didn’t know what they were doing.
Jeremy’s taste, the heat of his body, and the strength of his desire for her meshed together and sang to her through the melding of his mouth on hers.
Powerfully potent, his flavor sank into her, entered her bloodstream, and pulsed through her heart. Then he opened her lips by spreading his own on hers, and his tongue slid into her mouth. Meghan’s tongue caressed his, a shy greeting of welcome.
Jeremy groaned, and then he overwhelmed her with passion. Hot, hungry, his tongue taught hers to play as he drank her down. Needing that same sensation, she explored his mouth, marveling at the arousal that swirled through her, rushing through the vortex of passion he opened in her.
More heat enveloped her as a second male body pressed close to her side. Jeremy pulled his mouth from hers. Meghan whimpered, a sound of loss that turned in a heartbeat to one of excitement when Ryan combed his fingers through her hair.
He tilted her face up, and she had one moment to appreciate the hunger in his eyes. Then he laid his lips on hers, and she was lost once more, drowning in flames of passion.
More potent than magic, the taste of both men on her tongue sent shivering spasms of delight racing through her body. The strength of the erection pressing against her hip matched the potency of the one rubbing her side as Ryan bent to her. Everything inside her turned hot and syrupy. Her nipples drew tight, and she felt moisture seep from her slit to soak her panties.
Ryan lifted his mouth from hers, and for one moment, their gazes locked as their lungs struggled for air.
“We want you, Meghan. We want you naked and between us and under us. Tell us no now if you’re going to.”
“I need you—both of you. I’ve never felt this way, but I don’t know what happens next.” She didn’t even feel vulnerable letting them see her uncertainty. That had to mean something, didn’t it?
“You don’t have to.” Jeremy turned her face toward his. “All you have to do is trust us. Can you do that, Meghan?”
Meghan thought it was telling that she immediately knew she could trust them with her body, just as she realized she still wasn’t sure if she could trust them with anything else.
“I can trust you in this.” She met his gaze and tried to let him see her heart in her eyes.
“Aw, little tiger.” Jeremy cupped her cheek. “We really messed up with you yesterday, didn’t we?”
“No, not so much. I know I’m making you pay for the sins of another. But I...” She really couldn’t finish the sentence.
“Shh.” Ryan squatted so that he was at a level where she could see his eyes. “One day at a time, one level at a time. I have the feeling we’re all really on the same page. We all have trust issues that have nothing to do with each other and everything to do with ourselves, our own histories.”
Relief flooded her. They understood her. “All right, yes. One day at a time.”
“In that case…” Jeremy finished his sentence, not with words, but with action. He got to his feet, cradling her in his arms as if she were a child.
Though the way he’s looking at me is definitely sending the message he knows I’m all woman.
“Which way to your bedroom?”
“Just down that little hall.” Meghan’s house had two bedrooms, both down the hall off the kitchen, toward the back of the house. Jeremy found her bedroom easily and stood with her in his arms as he looked down at the standard double-sized bed.
“This could be a challenge.” He grinned at her. “Unless you can make the bed bigger?”
Meghan chuckled and then followed through his suggestion, her magic replacing her bed with a much larger one. Fortunately there was enough space in the room to accommodate it, although she could have changed the room size with her power as well.
“When you use your magic, I feel a tiny skitter of electricity running down my spine,” Ryan said.
“Me, too.” Jeremy looked at his brother then her. “Is that normal?”
“Yes.” Meghan discovered she could tell the truth without a broader explanation. Feeling another use magic the way they described was normal—between mates. “I felt your power when you brought your photographs to you.” She didn’t tell them that they would, in time, be able to sense any magic being used close by but would only feel that being used by each other. That discussion was for another time.
Ryan walked around to the left side of the bed and stripped the blanket and top sheet down. He nodded to Jeremy. “Lay her down. I want to try some magic of my own.”
Meghan had an idea what he had in mind and so, too, did Jeremy. He laid her in the middle of the bed and stepped back. Ryan waved his hand, and her clothes vanished.
“Best trick ever,” he whispered. Then he gave her a once-over that left her in no doubt that he liked what he saw.
“The two of you better get undressed as well.” Meghan could almost feel their gazes on her flesh. She couldn’t help the blush that covered her.
“I had wondered if that blush colored your breasts, too,” Jeremy said.
She felt a skitter of power from both men. Her mouth went dry as she took in the sight of the two of them, completely naked.
Just because Meghan had never had sex before didn’t mean she didn’t know how it worked. And even though she knew they wouldn’t hurt her, she was a woman and this was the most vulnerable she would ever be. Gazing at their very big and fully erect cocks made her feel both excited and uncertain.
“Unlike magic, baby, there are rules here, but only two.” Ryan stretched out on her left side. “The first is, if you don’t like what we’re doing
to you, you have to tell us.”
Jeremy lay down on her right. “The other is, if you want to stop, just say the word, and we’ll stop.”
“Everything else”—Ryan leaned over and gave her a fast kiss— “is okay as long as we all enjoy it. There are no taboos here, just choices that we make, together.”
“Do you think I will enjoy it?” Maybe she shouldn’t have asked that. It was one of the things she’d worried about as she’d gotten older. She’d never met a man that made her feel the way these two did. Once people reached adulthood back home, there was no reason not to enjoy the physical side of relationships. Virginity wasn’t a falsely prized commodity in the homeland the way it was here. But no male had ever attracted her. She’d never felt her hormones racing, and she’d never had an orgasm.
Until she’d been summoned to the Concilium, she’d assumed that she was one of the many who would never find two mates.
She’d thought she’d been okay with that, but now she knew better. Now she knew what it felt like to crave two men, and she really, really wanted to enjoy every minute of this and have them enjoy it too. It wasn’t lost on her that, in this most important moment in her life, she wasn’t being blissfully naïve. Maybe that was as it should be. And she certainly wasn’t going to assume that, just because they made love, they would end up like Cheri and her men—mated for life.
Ryan and Jeremy were very strong willed. They could walk away from her at any time. She bit back the sob that thought nearly drew from her.
One day at a time, and on this day, you’re naked between two scrumptiously naked men. Mind in the moment, Meghan.
“We know you’re going to enjoy it.” Jeremy bent over and kissed her, just a light, over-too-soon kiss that left her licking her lips to chase his flavor. “You’re a passionate woman, Meghan Clark.”
Meghan knew she would overthink everything if they gave her half a chance. So she said the only thing she could think of to get them to act. “Show me.”
She wondered if the two men were communicating between them and wouldn’t be surprised if they could do so even without magic. Then Ryan nodded to Jeremy.
The Gifted 2: Passions Aflame (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 6
