by Rena Marks
The two of them screamed together and collapsed, Aric’s mouth on her neck.
And then, Beau felt Aric’s warm tongue on his own neck, flicking and tasting. Testing, just once.
They were a tangle of arms and legs. They needed to soak in a hot tub, but Beau never felt better than he did at that moment.
“Who’s showering first?” Aric asked.
“I’ll do it,” Sara volunteered and left them alone to talk.
There was an awkward silence after she rose from the bed and Aric rolled onto his back, lying beside Beau.
Neither knew quite what to say.
They lay, silent and panting, for long moments while she showered.
“You tasted me,” Beau said and then seemed to regret his impulsive outburst. “My neck. When you licked Sara’s, you reached out for my skin, too.”
“I was curious,” Aric admitted. “And when else would I have ever had the chance to satisfy that curiosity?”
“Why would you be interested?” Beau asked incredulously.
“I have never had wolf blood.”
“Are you, um, hungry?”
“Yes.”
“Will you feed from Sara again?”
“She is human. I’m afraid to take too much and weaken her.”
Beau was quiet for a few heartbeats, before he said, “Feed, then,” and thrust his arm at Aric, while not watching.
Aric’s laughter was repressed, rumbling the tiniest bit from his chest. “Thank you, but next time I shall have your neck.”
He bit, the sound of his fangs crunching through Beau’s inner forearm.
Beau felt the same connection he felt through Sara when Aric had taken her blood. A sense of intimacy, of need, both feelings from Aric. And then the regret at not offering his more sensitive neck, the feeling from him.
It didn’t seem like very long when Aric finished. He lapped gently at the fang marks on Beau’s arm, sealing them shut and lay back on the bed again, satiated.
“I know you love her as much as I do,” Beau said. It went without saying—he felt it through the feeding.
“I love her more than my own life.”
“I’d do anything for her. Even be with you.”
“Obviously, me too.”
When Sara finished, she stood in the bathroom doorway, looking at the image on the bed.
Beau and Aric were deep in conversation, seeming unconcerned with their nakedness and the beauty of their perfect bodies. They had no idea what this image did for her.
“Working things out?” she asked lightly and they looked up, surprised that she was done.
“Yes. A schedule, I guess you could say. We think you should give up your apartment permanently and spend your time between the two of us.”
“How?”
“It may take some working on, but maybe a week here, a week there.”
Aric rose. “Talk to Beau about it, I’ll shower next.”
Sara lay next to Beau on the bed and cuddled with him, but Beau waited until the water was running in the shower before he spoke.
“I don’t understand how you could have and still do now, love two very different men, Sara. It’d be different if I at least got along with the guy. But don’t get me wrong, we’re working on that.”
“Beau, I don’t know how love works. I only know what I feel. I love you with a passion so intense it frightens me. And I love Aric with a feeling so deep, I feel lost without it. Let me explain how being forced to choose felt.”
She paused, wondering if she could go there.
“Go on,” Beau encouraged.
“You know the feeling you got when you found out I died in that other lifetime?”
The horror invaded his eyes and he gave his head a quick jerk. “I still can’t talk about it, much less think of it, baby.”
“That’s the exact feeling I get when I think about choosing one of you.”
Beau finally understood and pulled her to him, where she felt his body quiver against hers. “Okay. Then I guess we share. So now the last thing left to sort out is what to do about your mortality.”
“My mortality?”
“You have to pick one of us to become. Either vampire or werewolf. You can’t remain human, because you’ll die. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe in fifty years. But the fact remains, you’ll eventually die.”
Aric returned from the shower, catching the last of the conversation and Beau rose from the bed to take his own turn.
“Hottest person here gets the coldest water,” Aric murmured, a teasing lilt in his voice.
“Benefit of being a wolf. I always take cold showers,” Beau returned.
Sara and Aric made their way to the kitchen while Beau cleaned up.
“He’s right, you know.”
“Don’t start with me.”
Aric caught her lower lip with his teeth, nipping lightly to draw a bead of blood and then sucking the pain away. “Just think about it, sweet. That’s all I’m asking. And don’t take too long. Humans age quickly.”
* * * * *
Sara made it back to Francesca’s room after a long while.
“About time.”
“Sorry. I was involved in a very satisfying threesome.”
“You’re kidding? Aric and Beau?”
Sara took a deep, satisfying breath and nodded, the pleasant memories stole across her face as she relived the event.
Francesca was still amazed. “At the same time?”
“Yep. Hopefully they’ll get used to it. Because now I can’t be Aric’s constant blood donor, so I’m hoping Beau will volunteer. That’d certainly bring them closer.”
“Sharing you will bring them closer, although they’ll fight about it still. Now, let’s get busy,” she said and lit several candles.
“I wish we could do this outside,” Sara said, breathing deeply.
“Can’t help that, but we can let the moonlight in and we can frolic in the nude, like we used to.”
Sara dropped her clothes and Francesca soon followed suit. They sat cross-legged, facing each other and arranged the candles in a diamond shape around them.
The wax began to drip down the smooth length of the candle.
“Okay, sweetie, now it’s time. Concentrate and whisper this after me…”
Before Francesca could share the words they would whisper, a wind blew through the room and a now familiar voice spoke.
“What are ye doing?”
Sara groaned at the interruption.
Francesca smiled. “Gwynneth. We could use some help to simplify matters here. I’m out of practice and Sara doesn’t even remember the ritual. We can’t go outside, Aric and Beau don’t know I’m here.”
“What are ye doing?”
“Making Aric thirsty. So thirsty that perhaps Beau will bail him out, since Sara’s not around to feed him.”
“But we don’t want to accidentally hurt Aric,” Sara mentioned, unnecessarily.
“Ye can use the blood of a pig.”
“Ugh.” Sara winced. “No thanks.”
“’Tis the safest way.”
“We don’t have pigs.”
“Aye, the future is difficult.”
“What else can we do?” Sara asked.
“Seraphina, all I needed was ye to ask for help and it shall be done.”
She vanished, leaving a puff of smoke much like the candle smoke that had filled the room.
“What was that?” Sara asked Francesca, puzzled. “Did she perform something? Will she?”
Francesca shrugged a bare shoulder. “She is powerful, Sara. She will handle matters. Now, watching is a simple feat that I can handle. Wait here.”
She rose, gloriously nude and walked to the restroom, grabbing a large glass bowl from the dresser. Sara sat, her knees folded up to her chest and listened to the sound of running water in the bathroom.
Francesca returned, carrying the bowlful of water and set it down between them.
She dimmed the lights and re
lit the candles. After whispering a chanting rhythm for several minutes, she poured a drop of wax into the water.
It swirled and formed shapes into the water. Sara wanted to ask what she was doing, but she was afraid to interrupt the spell.
Suddenly, the image of Beau and Aric appeared in the reflection of the water. Clear as a picture, like a modern-day television set inside the bowl.
“Where is Sara?” Aric asked.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen her. What’s wrong, are you sick?” Beau said, staring intently at him.
Sara panicked and nearly reached into the bowl of water.
“Shh,” Francesca said and clasped her fingers with her hand. “Shh,” she whispered again.
“I feel odd,” Aric said. “Sick, as if I haven’t fed in a while.”
“You are pale. But you took blood from me earlier,” Beau reminded him.
Aric took blood from Beau? Sara’s eyes flew to Francesca’s and the other woman returned her astonished gaze, motioning her finger to her lips to remind Sara of the silence needed.
“Maybe the blood of a wolf didn’t agree with me,” Aric said, his face pale.
“Your fangs are out. Are you sure you’re not just hungry? How much did you take? I’ve never been bitten, I don’t know how much that was.”
“Just a taste. I didn’t want to scare you.”
“Dammit, I didn’t offer for nothing. Come feed for real, I can’t have you dropping dead. Sara would never forgive me.”
Aric gave a wan smile and Beau sat on a stool in front of him. Aric stepped around him, awkwardly, as if he was afraid of touching him.
Beau wore a collared dress shirt, making it difficult to get at his neck. Without looking once behind him, Beau quickly unbuttoned the shirt and whipped it from his torso.
Both women gasped at the sight of his muscular chest and biceps.
“Goddess, he’s beautiful, isn’t he?” Francesca whispered, breaking her own demand for silence.
“Mmm,” Sara agreed, watching the gorgeous cut of muscles across his tight abdomen.
Aric leaned over Beau’s neck and they watched his breath curl across Beau’s skin. “You are sure, wolf?”
“I am.”
Aric lowered his sensual lips to the tanned throat before him and his fangs extended. His bite was swift and Beau closed his eyes, ecstasy unknown to Aric stealing across his features.
Aric brought his arm across Beau’s wonderful chest, pulling him tight while he sucked. Neither man complained at the contact.
Sara had to squeeze her thighs together at the sight of the two men pressed so intimately, a muscular forearm across a tight chest.
Aric moaned while he fed and Sara wondered what he felt. Was it sexual pleasure? Was he sharing the intimate feelings with Beau? Or were they both too scared of the unknown to acknowledge it?
When Aric finally did pull away, it was to mutter, “Your blood is so rich. Full-bodied. Blood of a supernatural.”
He leaned over Beau again and licked at the pinpricks to seal them.
The pricks were long sealed from what Sara and Francesca could see, yet he continued to lick, soothing long laps across the neck of the man before him.
* * * * *
Sara did agree to give up her apartment, permanently this time and while moving her into the separate households, both guys continued dropping hints and nagged her constantly, each trying to sway her to his race. Competition revved up again between the two of them, although they were careful not to let it get ugly.
Aric glorified the life of a vampire, while downplaying the fact that she would never have sunlight, or eat and must drink blood.
“How is it that we had dinner parties? I met you in a store that prepares food, for heaven’s sake.”
“We fake it. You never actually saw me, Francesca or Rafe actually bring food into our mouths, your brain simply assumed we did. Why else would we be in on a dinner party, if we didn’t eat?”
“I love food,” she protested.
“Baby, I can eat a lot of it,” Beau taunted, over Aric’s voice. “Higher metabolism means I eat constantly. Great benefits for the werewolves.”
“Isn’t it painful to change?” Aric mentioned, earning a glare from Beau.
“Childbirth is painful too, but women still do it, correct?”
Sara shuddered. “I can’t imagine going through childbirth every full moon, twice to switch back and forth.”
“Isn’t it just as bad to never again lie in the sun?” Beau asked, flexing his own tanned muscles enough to make her drool.
“I do not miss the sun. I can be exposed to it for short periods and tanning is not all it’s cracked up to be,” Aric said.
“Ahh, but how old do you have to be to build up exposure? Sara will have to avoid it completely for a long, long time.”
“You know,” Sara interrupted, “neither of your lives sounds all that glorious.”
“A human servant, then,” Aric suggested.
“A what?”
“My human servant. You tie yourself to me, my blood donor throughout eternity. You gain immortality with our connection, for my food source must live as long as I.”
“Bullshit,” Beau protested, anger in his face. “Tell her the rest.”
“What’s the rest?” Sara asked, alarmed.
Aric hurriedly reassured her. “Not that bad, sweet. It’s just that you and I, well, we’ll have a permanent attachment to each other. Forever. An increased need for each other. It’s nature’s way of ensuring that a human servant will always be there for her master after she gains immortality. That she won’t make off with a wolf afterward,” he said, with a pointed look at Beau.
“In other words, Sara,” Beau said, “your choice is taken away. You’ll crave Aric more than you’ll crave the very air in your lungs.”
Sara shuddered. “That’s not fair to Beau, Aric. We don’t know how I’ll feel about him should I be drawn to you.”
Aric inclined his head, stiffly. “It seems to be the only option we have, if you don’t wish to become vampire or werewolf.”
“It’s not an option at all, if I lose from the mix,” Beau snarled and Sara placed a calming touch on his arm.
“We’re not doing it. I think the three of us need to table this discussion for tonight. Let’s show Beau to his room,” she said to Aric, “and then decide where we’re having sex, because I just spent all this time with Beau flexing his enormous muscles while moaning about suntanning.”
Beau groaned. “We have to do another threesome?”
“Of course not. You have the option of passing, but I didn’t think Aric would pass just because you’re here. This is his night. I thought maybe he’d share his night with you.”
“If that is what you desire,” Aric said, easily making her happy.
And making Beau aware that he was not.
“I’d love to share your time, then,” Beau said, just as graciously.
“Okay, you guys head upstairs and wait for me. I’ll grab a little something from my suitcase and be up in a snap.”
They walked up the stairs, stiffly, as if they were afraid to talk to one another, while Sara unzipped one of her suitcases that were stacked on the floor.
She was searching for her new black negligee and its matching red twin. They were both sheer gowns, cut exactly the same.
Finally, she pulled it from the case and fingered the soft, expensive material. She rubbed it sensuously against her skin, imagining it skimming over her erect nipples. And then she smiled.
Quickly, she strode from the room.
Aric and Beau were still seated in the master bedroom when she poked her head in the door. Awkwardly, side by side and fully dressed. Obviously remembering the intimacy of their feeding which they had no idea Sara knew about.
She opened the door fully and stepped in dressed in the sexy negligee, just to find them in the same old discussion they’d agreed to table.
“Not again,” she groaned, rol
ling her eyes.
“We’re not trying to make you choose, but we have to ensure your immortality,” Aric said. “You never know when an accident may happen.”
“Guys, I took care of it.”
“What?” Beau asked, his brows knitted together. “How? I don’t smell wolf on you.”
Sara glared.
“Or vampire,” he hastily amended.
The door opened and Francesca walked in. She was dressed completely as the opposite of Sara. Black hair, dressed in a sheer red negligee which allowed glimpses of her nude body to be viewed. Sara had red hair that flowed down her back, with the negligee matching Francesca’s, but in black.
She rose and moved toward Chessie and greeted her by pressing their soft, full breasts together. The sensation of another woman’s soft body against hers was incredible and Sara was already revved up from thinking of this earlier. From watching Francesca prepare herself, slowly stripping while Sara watched. And now, Sara understood what it was like when Francesca watched Sara dress and undress for dinner once.
“What—” Aric began.
“I’m immortal now.” Sara reached out and cupped the full breasts of her master in her hands, fingering her nipples.
Francesca leaned her head back and moaned. The link of her human servant increased her sensitivity to her touch, ensuring the bond between them. It made her crave Sara’s touch, much as she now craved her blood as her only food source.
Chapter Thirteen
“Another woman?” Beau asked, incredulous.
For her response, Sara stepped behind Francesca and wrapped her arms around her best friend.
“That is so sexy,” Beau said and his eyes blazed with fire.
“Sexy enough for the four of us to enjoy ourselves? Aric, what about you?” Sara asked.
“I knew you and Francesca were best friends and had a deep relationship previously, but I didn’t realize you were so close now. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted you to be together again, I find it incredibly erotic to watch two women make love. I have to confess my disappointment that you will never be my human servant, though. Still, I respect your decision.”
“Thank you. Now, are we ready for playtime?”
Sara pressed her pelvis against Francesca’s full buttocks, moving her forward slowly to the bed, thigh pressed against thigh.
