This is serious shit. Logan realized he needed to do more than defend himself. He’d never trained as a warrior, but he had a healthy imagination. He dove for cover behind a boulder and raised his power another notch. Then he vanished, and appeared again, this time behind Fortuna.
The warlock spun on his heels and sent out a ball of fire that broke into tiny lightning bolts, each one headed straight for Logan.
Logan used his magic to sizzle each of those shards of power and hurled another punch at Fortuna.
Fast and furious, forth and back, jabs of power, some multi pronged, some widespread, defined a battle Logan hadn’t truly been prepared to fight.
The old man began chanting words in a language Logan didn’t understand but one that felt familiar. Whether they were ancient spells or he was just cussing creatively, Logan had no idea. Maybe Fortuna was sliding deeper into madness. There was no doubt in Logan’s mind the man wasn’t anywhere near sane.
Damn it, Logan, stop shielding us. We can help you.
Diana’s command pierced his consciousness. He didn’t want to listen, but the slight pause in his concentration made Fortuna laugh. Logan lowered that wall and felt his family there with him.
“I have you now! Your power is broken!”
Fortuna had felt the collapse of the wall between Logan and his family. He misinterpreted it, something Logan bet the man did all the time.
It happened in a blur. Logan felt a surge of power, channeled to him by Cam and Diana. There was something else there, too, something…different. As if another power, for just a moment, gave him a boost. The sense was gone in a heartbeat. Logan focused on his adversary.
Fortuna reached down, and Logan knew he was going to hurl all he had at him. There was only one thing to do if Logan wanted to avoid the stain to his soul that killing the man would bring.
At the same time Fortuna hurled a giant fireball, Logan lobbed a charge of raw power—sort of the equivalent of hurling a hand grenade into the stream of a blowtorch. Just as the explosion unfurled, Logan linked with his brother and vanished once more, this time following the link to the penthouse in L.A.
Chapter 9
“What the hell were you thinking?” Diana didn’t wait for an answer. She waved her hand, and Logan’s shirt disappeared.
Diana knew Cameron was just as mad as she, but he stood back, silent, letting her take the lead, and for that, she was grateful.
She’d never been so terrified, or so angry, in her life.
Logan’s chest was covered in small nicks and cuts, some inflicted by Fortuna’s magic and some by the sharp rocks Logan had rolled across when that bastard’s powers toppled him.
Diana used her magic, sending healing from her hands to his chest, moving her hands to cover each and every cut. One, on his upper left arm, looked jagged and dirty. In less than a heartbeat, she’d cleaned it and then poured her power into mending the torn flesh. Though he acted stoic, she knew he was in pain from his injuries.
“I was thinking to protect the two of you.”
“We’re not immortal, Logan. He could have killed you!”
“Did you think we would appreciate your sacrifice, brother?”
Oh, Cameron was in a fine rage, and that suited Diana just fine. “Before you answer that question, Mr. Firth, think how you would have felt to be here while Cameron faced off against that madman. Or I did.”
“No way, Diana, you’re not getting anywhere near—” Logan stopped speaking, and his eyes went wide.
“Yes, I bound your speech. We are either equal, Logan, or we’re not. Would you make me a widow before I’m even a wife?”
Her own words echoed into the sudden silence. She hadn’t meant to say that. Shock and actually speaking aloud what she thought curtailed her magic, releasing Logan from her spell.
He cupped her face in his palms and used his thumbs to wipe at the tears she hadn’t even felt there.
“No. Not just no, but hell no. I knew I’d made a mistake the moment Gregor took me to that stupid cave. I just keep remembering how I felt that first night, when Cam and I got to the beach and I believed, for just a moment, that we were too late. Damn it, Diana, don’t you know you’re the one person on this earth I would lay down my own life for?”
“Do you think it makes me feel all romantic and mushy that you’d die for me, Logan Firth? I don’t want or need you to die for me, Logan. I want you to live for me—live with me. I love you.” She’d thought to hold off the words, maybe, a little, to make him suffer with the lack of hearing them. How else could she have gotten back at him for hiding his powers so well from her all these past years?
Knowing that he’d come so close to death this day changed everything. She was tired of pretending and tired of always being the strong one, the one everyone turned to, to lead the way.
Tired of the role she’d staked out for herself when she was barely old enough to wipe her own nose.
Only seconds had passed since she said it, but the sense of freedom, of rightness, was intoxicating. She looked at Cameron. “I love you both.”
“Well now.” Cameron stepped closer and ran his hand down her back. He looked at Logan, one eyebrow raised. Curious, Diana followed his gaze.
Logan placed a very small kiss on her lips. “You’re everything to me, woman. I love you so much. I have for a long, long time.”
“My eyes barely beheld you, and I knew we were meant to be together. I love you, Diana Reynolds, with all that is in me.” Cameron’s kiss was just as small as his brother’s had been.
She met his gaze and knew his heart had been in his words and now shone for her from his eyes. She turned back at Logan.
“Show me.”
They didn’t speak because no words were needed. A wisp of air and they were all three naked. She was standing between the men she loved, flesh on flesh on flesh.
She’d asked Logan to show her, but right at that moment, she needed to show him. She needed to let him know how grateful she was he’d survived that battle and how much she wanted him, wanted every part of him. Sliding to her knees, she licked his already erect cock, balls to tip. Her tongue dipped into his cock’s eye, scooping up the drop of pre-cum. That tiny teasing taste was enough to get her juices flowing thick and fast.
She sucked his cock into her mouth, adjusting her hold of him when he suddenly sat on the edge of his bed.
She hadn’t even noticed him moving them there, to the bedroom. She’d been too engrossed with giving him pleasure. Cameron moved to the side but stayed close. She felt his gaze and knew he was watching her suck his brother’s cock, giving freedom to his inner voyeur. It was the easiest thing in the world to lift her mouth from Logan’s cock and take in Cam’s.
Back and forth, she lavished attention and affection on the two men who had already changed her world. She felt them quiver beneath her oral ministrations, and her feminine power soared. Who needed to be the warrior brandishing the sword when, with just her lips and tongue and hands, she could bring these two strong alpha males to the point of trembling?
“Vixen.” Logan combed his fingers through her hair, exerting just enough pressure to communicate what he wanted.
She slid her mouth off his cock and smiled up at him. There could be no mistaking the passion burning in his eyes for her.
“It’s time to let go of that control of yours, woman, and let your men show you just how much they love you.”
Logan didn’t wait for her to agree. He simply picked her up, turned, and laid her on the bed. He stood above her for a moment and then came down over her, his passion now edged with the feral intent of a predator.
Something about that look, and the heat pulsing off of him, sent shivers of delight up her spine. When he used one knee to spread her legs wider, she gave over and opened to him completely.
“Mine.” He thrust into her, one solid push that buried his cock in her pussy to the hilt. He felt so good there, and when he began to move, when the force of his friction touched her
clit and the edge of her cervix at the same time, her arousal exploded into white-hot need.
Diana wrapped herself around him, meeting each thrust, the shivery sensations growing so huge she could no longer contain them.
Logan slid a hand under her ass and pulled her closer, then closer still, to his thrusting, sweating body. Their heat combined, making a furnace-like melding of male and female, creating a new scent and a hotter arousal beyond anything she’d ever experienced.
Then Logan kissed her, his lips and tongue dominating hers, and the combination tossed her over the edge. Her orgasm exploded, rapture so all consuming and intense that it burned away her fears, filling every inch of her until she overflowed with pleasure, sharp and sweet and sure.
On her, Logan stiffened. In her, his cock pulsed, and the hot stream of semen bathed her womb with liquid fire, renewing her ecstasy, making her come and come until she knew she had no strength left in her body.
Logan collapsed on her, clearly spent and fighting for air. A soft smile played on Diana’s face as a sense of peace and rightness filled her. To cradle a lover in her arms and between her thighs, holding him, sustaining him in this one moment of male vulnerability surely was the greatest thing a woman could do for her man.
Yet, even sated and replete, she knew she wasn’t complete. She needed more.
She needed Cameron.
“Here, my love.” He kissed the words against her arm. He’d dipped into her mind and read her thoughts. Under the circumstances, it was hard to mind that.
Logan raised his head, grinned, and gave her another of those too-short little pecks. Then he eased off her body, moving away slightly, moving away just enough.
Cameron reached out and rolled her onto him. “I want you to ride me.” He helped her to sit up, and Diana wasted no time. Reaching down, she placed his hard cock at the entrance of her body. As she slid down onto him, she closed her eyes and sighed. The feeling of fullness, of having this lover inside her body so soon after her other, stirred her arousal as nothing ever had. This was what she’d needed all her life and never known it.
I was always destined to be mated and never knew.
Cameron took her hands in his, his gaze never leaving hers as she began to ride his cock, pleasuring them both. She’d never felt this level of connection, never known that two could truly become one. Now she knew it was possible, and the bliss that filled her just whet her appetite for more. She wanted the ultimate ecstasy when they all three would be one.
As if he, too, had read her mind, Logan moved, drew closer, and caressed her back. “Soon, love, soon we’ll all be joined.” It became a craving in her soul, the mating of three into one. The sense of it, the wonder, was just for now out of reach.
Logan’s fingers caressed her ass and then slid down to tease her anus. Something cool and silky dribbled down, and she knew he’d conjured lube. The sensation of him caressing her, of his fingers pressing against her rosebud, made her tremble. Arousal shot through her, connecting all of her erogenous zones. The sound that escaped her needed no words because it was a sound that begged for more.
“Come here, love.” Cameron eased her down until her head was on his chest. He took control, thrusting up into her, fucking her in a constant slow and deep rhythm that commanded the beating of her heart and the drawing of her breath.
And then Logan’s finger penetrated her ass, and the chill of it, the dark and dangerous thrill of it, erupted within her, a climax so compete Diana cried out in joy. She heard Cam shout, felt his ejaculation within her, and rejoiced that they’d come together.
Mind space rose up, a shimmering presence, one filled with heat and lust and love, as her men showed her, in a new and stunning way, just how very much they loved her.
* * * *
Orgasms had always been fun. Cameron was a man who’d enjoyed sex, enjoyed every aspect of it from the seduction dance to the afterglow.
And now he knew, as he held his woman in his arms, that what he’d just experienced made every previous sexual encounter he’d ever had before Diana as nothing.
He’d not been a man slut exactly, but until he’d known his mate was near, he’d indulged. Now he wanted nothing more than to indulge in only Diana for the rest of his life.
He wanted a good, long life with her—and with his brother. He ran his hand down Diana’s back, the touch of her flesh beneath his fingers a fine thing indeed. She levered herself up, kissed his chest, and then rolled onto her back. They’d all three collapsed on top of the bedding. His thought brought the sheet and comforter out from under them to cover them, cocooning them within the soft cotton.
“I’m still pissed.” He didn’t worry for one moment that Diana would think he’d directed that comment to her. She was smart enough to know better.
“I get that.” Logan sighed. “I didn’t expect the old man to be that strong—or to be that crazy. Once I stepped into the boardroom, I was committed. I couldn’t protect the innocent and square off against him, too.”
“Next time, it has to be the three of us.”
Diana’s words chilled Cameron to the bone. Like Logan, he wanted to shout, “oh hell no!” But he realized that would be wrong. Diana was right. They were either equals or they were not.
“It’s more than just the principle of being equals, Cameron.”
Cameron had felt her there, at the edge of his thoughts. He couldn’t take issue with her when he’d done the same thing earlier.
“How is it more than us respecting you as our equal in all things?” He asked.
“It’s the way they operate, those so-called warlocks. Cheri and Meghan both observed that the twins they faced either couldn’t or wouldn’t work together. They didn’t trust each other. Of course, now we know why. From the short glimpse I had into the blackness of Gregor Fortuna’s mind, it seemed he was raised to believe they have to, as a final rite of passage, kill their own twin—kill him or render him powerless. But how can they believe they’d then have their victim’s magic?”
“Just another corruption of the truth,” Logan said.
“Exactly. We know better. We can and will combine our magic when we need to, and combined, we will be able to defeat him.”
“Did you feel the other there?” Cameron turned on his side so he could see both his woman and his brother. “When we joined you, Logan, just before we pulled you out, I felt another.” He looked down at Diana. “Your sisters were right. It was a power neither light nor dark. I don’t know if it was from a past denizen of that cave or if it was another being present with us in the moment—magically.”
“Yes, I felt it. It seemed familiar to me, and in hindsight, I think I had a wisp of it that night on the beach,” Diana said.
“Yes, I felt it,” Logan said. “But I couldn’t examine it. I was rather busy at the time.” Then he frowned, and Cameron knew he’d just realized something he himself had sensed at the time. “I don’t think Gregor was aware of it at all.”
“I don’t think he was, either.”
“Why do you think he came after you himself?” Diana’s question, softly asked, startled him. “Think about it for a moment. Three sets of twins, and each set had targeted a single triad. Cheri and Meghan both said their adversaries came at them a couple of times and wouldn’t quit.”
Cameron thought about it for a moment. “Perhaps when those two, Rick and Ed, said they were done, they really meant it.” He and Logan had both had the sense they’d meant that very thing.
“Do you think Gregor killed them? Killed his own sons?” Diana shivered, and both he and Logan pressed closer to her, giving her their heat.
“The man is crazy, and he’s evil. I think he didn’t really care that his other sons died, not the way a father should care. But did he actually go so far as to kill any of them, including Rick and Ed outright?” Logan shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“It’s hard for me to wrap my head around such a thing,” Cameron said.
“This entire sit
uation is hard for me to wrap my head around.” Diana sighed. “There was no mention of any kind of a challenge when we were given the option to come here.”
“It could be, living separate from this world, that the Concilium wasn’t aware that some of the descendants of the Scorned—or the Chosen, for that matter—were still empowered.”
“I wonder how many more there are.”
“I have to believe that, if there were more like Gregor, they’d be coming after us, too.” Cameron couldn’t imagine that there wouldn’t be.
“I think it’s destiny again.” Diana met his gaze and then looked over at Logan. “Remember, we three with the others—my sisters and their mates—we’re all just the first part of the prophecy.” That was something the First Mother had said a couple of times before she and her sisters had embarked on their adventure.
“You know the rest of it, don’t you?” Logan asked.
“No. Don’t you?”
“Mother only spoke of the first part and our role in it,” Cameron said. “We’ll have to ask her the next time we meet.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Diana yawned.
It didn’t surprise Cameron she was exhausted. It had been a hell of a morning, all told. They were all tired and could all use a good, sound sleep.
“Take us back to the cabin, love. It’s the only place we’ll all feel safe enough to rest completely.”
“Good idea.” She took up his hand and then Logan’s. In a heartbeat they were there—in the extra large bed they’d enjoyed over the weekend, in a cabin in the woods in Colorado.
Cameron felt the net of magic cradling them and knew that not even Gregor Fortuna and his madness could reach them here.
So here they’d stay, for a little while at least. He moved closer to Diana and felt Logan do the same. Knowing his woman was safe between him and his brother, he let go of wakefulness and slid gratefully into sleep.
The Gifted 3: Passions Ascended (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 9
