“Who is your mother?” Cheri asked that and then looked at her sisters. “You said she was Gifted, implying that she came here from the home place. We’d considered that as a possibility when we found out that you were Gregor’s seventh son and that he and your brothers all believed you were without magic.”
“My mother’s name is Rowena Johns.”
But who is she? Logan heard that question in mind space, asked by Diana and Meghan at the same time.
One look at Roman’s face and he knew the man wasn’t going to be any more forthcoming than giving them her name, something he’d known they already had.
“What will you do now, Roman?” Meghan asked. “You’re the only one among us who’s suffered a real loss through all of this.”
Of the three women, Logan would judge that Meghan, perhaps, had the softest heart.
“I have no idea what comes next. I’ll make a life, I guess. Do what I can here and there—likely the same way the nine of you will—since the next stage of the first part of the unification prophecy doesn’t begin for years yet, does it?”
“Because it will be our children who will be in place at some future crucial moment,” Diana said. Then she shook her head. “It’s like what we’ve all just been through was the ultimate case of hurry up and wait.”
For the first time since they’d known him, Roman smiled. “I never thought of it that way. I was going to explain about myself, and why I couldn’t stop what was happening from happening. But I sense you’ve figured it out, for the most part, for yourselves.”
“We have,” Cameron said. “And we understand the position you were in. I can’t imagine being there, having to take steps against your own father and brothers.”
“As it turns out, that wasn’t the most devastating part of this entire adventure for me.”
“No,” Logan said. “We know it wasn’t. You didn’t expect your uncle to step in. I get the feeling he was very much a father to you. It doesn’t offer you much comfort, but do you know what? I think that how things played out was destiny’s plan all along.”
“Sometimes we’re tested,” Ryan said. “And sometimes the entire point of the test is to answer the question of whether or not we’re willing to act.”
“For each of us, that was a question we all had to answer.” Max sat forward. “We were given the choice of whether or not to accept our destiny. That was our hurdle to cross.”
“It wasn’t just a guy thing, either, I’ll have you know,” Diana said. She sent sly glances to him and Cameron.
Logan grinned. “You’re still ticked that you didn’t get to help the raw neophytes discover their powers, aren’t you, love?”
Diana’s cheeks turned the cutest shade of pink. “Maybe I am, a little.”
Roman tilted his head as he looked at her. “You’ll have your chance with your children.” Then, as they watched, his eyes seemed to go out of focus. Logan knew he was having a vision of some sort—though he wouldn’t pry. The man had likely saved all their lives. He deserved his privacy.
Besides, I have a feeling I’d be blocked if I tried.
Then Roman blinked, and his gaze turned gentle. “All nine of you have years and years to live and laugh and enjoy each other’s company—and to train the next generation of those gifted in our ways.” Then his smile sobered. “There are difficult times ahead for the people of this planet. It will take everyone—powered and unpowered alike—working together to defeat those coming, as yet unknown evils.”
“Then I guess in a very real sense, our futures begin today,” Diana said. She looked at Cameron and then met Logan’s gaze. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Chapter 15
“In the end, everything that happened came down to our individual choices.”
Soft light filled the gazebo. Diana looked from her sisters to those who’d come to mean so much to her—their men, who were now her brothers. Logan and Cameron, who were, and always had been, her men, her mates.
And her men’s parents, whom she already loved, and for whom knew she would spend the rest of her life being grateful.
Each one of them—herself included—had faced a moment of being at destiny’s crossroads and had made a choice. Those choices combined had brought them to this place, at this time. Some of the consequences of the choices they’d made they’d been able to anticipate. But some had truly been blind.
“Destiny brings us to a place and steps back and allows us to choose. Hindsight sometimes allows us to look back and see how everything fits together perfectly.” Cynthia smiled. “As you get older, you begin to see that nothing happens by chance. It’s all part of a greater plan.”
“Decisions,” Diana said, “taken one at a time, and sometimes just on faith.”
Logan picked up her right hand while Cameron took her left.
“I can see a part of the pattern now,” Cameron said, “beginning with when my parents came here to this country, to give me a better life.” He turned his gaze on his father. “And then, after Mam passed, the way we roamed about until you found Cynthia.”
“We feel the press of destiny, which only takes us so far,” Alistair said. “Your mother and I were compelled to come here, aye, though we didn’t know why at the time. And, afterward, aye, I was looking, because Gwendolyn, on her deathbed, made me promise I would. I didn’t know why at the time, or what the future could possibly have in store for us, for me. But I’d given my word, and I kept it.”
Diana thought that was more information on the subject than Cameron had ever had. She hoped that, someday, in the not-too-distant future, Cameron and Alistair would have private time and would talk of those things long past.
Every step taken had been important and needed to be understood. How could one recognize the hand of fate or learn from the past, otherwise?
“Thank you for allowing us a part in this.” Cynthia rose from her seat, and as she did, they all stood. She walked around the table, kissing each person on the cheek. “You’ve given both Alistair and me closure on all we’ve worked toward since our time together began and we understood some of what was to be.” Then she grinned. “And you may as well know right up front, you six—she pointed at Cheri, Meghan and their men—“we intend to be honorary grandparents to all your babes.”
“A child can never have too many grandparents,” Jeremy said.
“I think our children are going to be spoiled, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.” Tony’s words made Cynthia smile.
“We’ll leave you now,” Alistair linked hands with his wife. “We’re family, all of us. Don’t be strangers.”
Diana felt the shift in the air, and the tingle of power, as the older couple vanished.
“We’ll be going home, now, too.” Cheri grinned. “You three have important business to see to.”
Diana loved her sisters. She had loved them from the time they all were small playmates together, and she knew they would be in her heart and in her life until the end. But just right then, she very much approved of their leaving.
She hugged them each in turn, and then the air moved once more, and it was just her and her men alone at the cabin.
She turned to them and reached out. Logan and Cameron each took one of her hands. She felt it, as she always did, had, in fact, felt it from the first moment they each held one of her hands this way.
They were connected—heart and mind and body and soul. She’d understood that for fact that night at the Weymouths’ when she’d turned and realized the magic she’d sensed had come from them, that they truly were her destined mates.
Now she also knew they were her forever mates.
“I love you both so much. That sense of foreboding I had, that certainly that something horrible was going to happen?” She had to pause for a moment, get her emotions under control. “I was terrified one of you would be taken from me. I had the sense that a heavy price would be demanded in order for everything to be resolved.” She
licked her lips. “The whole time, I was on guard, ready…ready to do whatever I had to in order to keep you both safe.”
“Diana.” Logan’s one word, her name, had emerged from a throat strangled by emotion .She knew Logan and Cameron both understood the deeper meaning behind her words. She would have surrendered her life if it had meant keeping them safe.
“We were all of us of the same mind, then,” Cameron said. “Because I know Logan and I both would have done the same for you—and for each other.” Cameron lifted her hand and kissed it. Then he turned to look at his brother.
It was the hardest thing she’d ever done, staying out of mind space, letting her two men have this moment to communicate in private. After only a handful of seconds, Logan met her gaze again.
“I’d always had it in mind, when this moment came, to take us someplace exotic, someplace special. But right now, I know the only place I want us to be is in that cabin, and naked. It’ll be special, simply because it will be my brother and me, with you.”
He hadn’t even finished speaking when they were exactly there, naked, next to the bed. Logan cupped her face and used his thumbs to gently stroke her cheeks. “There are so many things I want to say to you, my love. I love you. I’ll never stop loving you.” He leaned in and placed a very gentle—no, a reverent—kiss on her lips. “I figure I’ll have a lifetime or more to express all my heart is aching for me to tell you.” His gaze sobered. “But for now, these are the words my soul longs for me to say.”
She felt his hands tremble, just a little. Reaching up, Diana grasped his wrists, held his gaze, and waited.
“You are my mate—for life, for love, forever. No other heart shall beat with mine. Diana Reynolds, I claim you.” Then he kissed her, a sweet, sultry kiss that stirred her heart and her libido. He lifted his head, smiled, and then looked at Cameron. Then Logan turned her so that she faced his brother.
Cameron reached for her hands and brought them both to his mouth. He kissed them as he met her gaze. Such passion he had in his eyes! She trembled, and he grinned. And then, as Logan’s had done, his gaze turned serious, and she saw not just his passion but also his heart in his eyes. When he spoke, his voice was clear and strong, his brogue just barely there. “You are my mate—for life, for love, forever. No other soul shall dwell with mine. Diana Reynolds, I claim you.” He kissed her, sealing his promise against her lips.
Diana reached for Logan so she was once more holding on to both of her men. She never knew she could love like this, but more, she never knew such peace could exist for her. She’d always been a restless soul since her earliest memory. Now she understood she’d been restless because she’d been incomplete.
She was incomplete no longer.
“You are my mates—for life, for love, forever. You are the beating of my heart, the pulsing of my soul, and no others will my eyes ever see. Logan Firth, Cameron Gilbert, I accept your claims, and acknowledge you both as my husbands, my mates. No other heart, no other soul, shall twine with mine.”
There was but one vow left to be spoken, and it was a promise, soul brother to soul brother. Diana stepped back, and the men grasped each other’s forearms—a symbol of unity that found its origins back to the beginning of their kind.
Logan spoke first, his voice strong and sure. “We are brothers, united, together.”
“We will remain brothers and become husbands and fathers united, together.” Cameron’s voice was just as solid. They nodded to each other, and it was done.
“And now, wife…” Logan raised one eyebrow.
“Yes, husband?”
He didn’t answer her. He just grinned that wicked smile and reached for her. He’d lifted her a time or two with magic, and that was nice, but this, when he picked her up in his arms, this was her favorite. She wrapped herself around him, arms and legs, and felt her pussy leak her juices onto him when his cock nestled close between her labia.
“That’s a hell of a turn-on, knowing you’re so wet for us.” He maneuvered them onto the bed, taking the bottom and bringing her down on top of him. “Will you let us both be inside you at the same time?”
“This will be the first time we join as one as official mates. My mother told me it was a very special experience.” Diana was more than ready for that to happen.
“Every time with you, love, is special for us,” Cameron said.
“That will never change, Diana.” Logan pulled her down into his kiss. She surrendered to him, sucking his tongue into her mouth, stroking it as sexily as if it were his cock. She loved the suction of his kiss and especially loved the way his taste, his essence, awakened every libidinous nerve ending in her body.
He eased her back from his lips and then lifted her slightly. “Take me inside your body, love. I need to feel your hot pussy gripping my cock.”
Diana reached down and took his hot, hard cock into her hand. She couldn’t resist the urge to squeeze his turgid flesh, to let her hand pump him a little. She loved the feel of his cock and marveled at the way he could be so hard, yet so soft.
Logan hissed, pleasure written across his face. Fascinated in his response to her, she moved, brought the head of his cock to her slit, and then slowly sank down upon him.
The smile that blossomed on him spoke of a fine pleasure. That matched her feeling as well. The sensation of his cock within her—his heat, his vibrancy—was surely the greatest sensation in the entire world, save one.
She closed her eyes for just a moment, head thrown back, as she savored this joining, this communion, with one husband. Then she sighed, opened her eyes, and looked at Cameron.
“You are so damn sexy, Diana, riding Logan’s cock. You turn me on as no other woman ever has.”
“Cameron, I need you inside me. I need to feel your cock in my ass. Come, my love, join with us. Be one with us.”
Cameron joined them on the bed. He moved toward them and didn’t stop until he was kneeling next to her. Combing his fingers through her hair, he tilted her head back and laid his lips on hers. Cam’s kiss was just as addicting, just as arousing and delicious, as his brother’s. He slid his lips against hers, a back and forth motion, a seductive tango that drew her deeper and deeper still. When he eased his lips from hers and kissed a trail down to her breast, she arched her back, pressing her nipple eagerly into his mouth.
He nipped and then suckled, and Diana wondered that she didn’t come right then and there.
Cameron lifted his head. “Down, my love. Give me that gorgeous ass of yours.” He placed his hand on her back, and with Logan’s hands on her arms, they positioned her just how they wanted her.
Cameron caressed the globes of her ass with his hand, a soft and rhythmic invitation to pleasure. Logan held her waist as he moved within her, his fucking slow and measured.
When Cameron’s fingers slid to the crevice between her cheeks, when his fingers found her anus, she shivered with pleasure.
Drops of warm gel turned the scratching sensation into a smoother, silkier one. His provocative caress awakened all the pleasure receptors located just there in her anus. He pressed against her rosebud, two strong fingers that delved, inexorably, inside her. She felt her anus open, and it was all she could do not to push back, not to force this pleasure. The burning came and then eased, and as Cameron continued to prepare her for his cock, she surrendered control of her body to her mates.
“That’s it, love, just relax.”
Logan stilled his movements as Cameron moved, as he eased his fingers from her and then tented her. The heat of his cockhead against her anus was a thrill all its own. More lube and a steady invasion sent her arousal soaring.
“So good.” She couldn’t begin to describe the way this act—the stretching of her sphincter by her lover, especially when her pussy was also full—sent her nearly over the edge, all by itself. As her body accepted Cameron’s cock, the exquisite pain wound around her erogenous zones—her nipples, her clit, even her G-spot—stimulating all three at the same time.
> “Oh, yes, please!”
And then, with a final push, he was completely embedded within her. They fucked her in unison so that she was never without a cock inside her body. She trembled from the incredible excitement, but this time, this time, there was another level of joining, one she’d never suspected existed.
They slipped into mind space, as if they were in a circle, drawing closer and closer still, one to the others. And as arousal blossomed into need, their magic awakened, pouring out of them. Every color of the rainbow shimmered as their magic pooled and blended and formed a ribbon of power that bound them, closer and closer still. Around them, through them, the magic danced as if celebrating the very essence of life itself.
“Oh…Oh, Logan! Cameron! Do you feel it?”
She rejoiced in her own pleasure, and theirs, because the magic made them one, made them each feel their own joy of this consummation, and each other’s as well. Diana experienced not only her own burgeoning climax but also the pending orgasms of her men.
As they moved, as they danced, as they loved, all barriers between them disappeared, and for this one shining, rapturous time, they were truly one in heart and mind and body and soul…and in magic.
Together they cried out as the enormity of the ecstasy they shared burst upon them, as wave after wave of the most amazing crescendo moved them, changed them, and bound them together, forever. And in the tiny space of time they shared the shivers of climax, resurrected within them was the knowledge and depth of every other first time they’d joined as pledged mates, three into one, an eternal bliss.
Afterglow settled. Diana’s heart still pounded in her chest, beating in cadence, she knew, with the hearts of the men who were her forever mates.
The Gifted 3: Passions Ascended (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 14
