“You’re wrong about that,” Ethan said so softly even her sensitive ears had to strain to make out the words.
And still he guarded the door. She very carefully kept her eyes off Harris, who stood naked just a couple of feet away. She’d never find the necessary strength to walk out of the house if she looked at him, so she concentrated on Ethan.
“Let me go.” Damn it, the demand sounded more like a plea. If she showed any weakness to him now, he’d pounce. She knew it, and she suspected she wouldn’t be able to resist.
“Where?” he asked sharply, letting that playboy facade that made her crazy drop. “Where will you go? To someone else? I’ve allowed this because of my relationship with Harris, but do you really think I’ll let you give yourself to another man?” There was incredulity in his voice, but it barely registered. For the first time, she thought there might be a way to defeat the heat. Fury. Pure, undiluted rage. The kind only a cornered female wolf would indulge in.
“Allow? Let? I don’t answer to you. Who the fuck do you think you are?” She’d moved close enough to punctuate her words with a finger on his chest, and she should have known better. He gripped her hips, hard, bruising, and pulled her closer. The eyes that stared down into hers glowed yellow, the tiny partial shift that indicated the wolf was more in charge than the man.
“Your mate,” he growled. “That’s who I am.”
It was said with fierce possession, commanding, and oh so dominant. Her heart thudded in her chest, heavy and fearful. But a secret, buried part of her was excited. Eager. He pulled the hem of her dress up so that it exposed her panties; then he slid his hands under them. Bare flesh.
She was still furious, but her body, her wolf, knew this man’s touch. Knew how right it could feel if she just let go. But letting go with a dominant male equaled giving in. Submitting. If she did it once, he’d expect it always. Especially if she did it now, while she was in heat. He would expect her to take a submissive role and not just in the bedroom. It would change the entire dynamic of their relationship in a way neither she nor her wolf could accept. Knowing all that didn’t change her secret yearning one damned bit, though.
She struggled to free herself, but it was a halfhearted attempt, and they both knew it. Ethan didn’t let her go, and from the corner of her eye, she saw Harris step up behind her. His erection pressed against her butt, and she didn’t know if she should groan or cry. They were insistent, and she was weak. She could resist the pull she felt toward Ethan most of the time, but she couldn’t fight the heat or the attraction she felt for them both now. Her usual emotional armor was useless with this need raging through her. The only recourse was to beg. She laid her hands flat on Ethan’s chest and looked up into his gaze.
“Let me go,” she pleaded. “Don’t do this to me, Ethan. Please. You know what happens with the dominant females when they mate. I don’t want to become that woman.” He looked stunned at her admission and a little hurt. “Gabby. Baby. You know I can’t walk away now.”
Because in a roundabout way, she’d admitted it, hadn’t she? Admitted she knew he was her mate, that she’d been fighting the bond for what felt like forever. She leaned her head back against Harris’s chest, and Ethan reached up to brush her hair out of her face. Maybe they would sleep, and she could sneak out later. Run fast and far. With enough distance, maybe she could free herself. She was strong and capable. Another pack would take her in.
“Whatever plan is going through that pretty little head, forget about it,” Ethan said softly.
“And it’s not all the dominant females. Liza isn’t exactly submissive. I don’t think she knows how to submit.”
“And it’s a constant problem. How many arguments have you walked into?” she asked.
Ethan didn’t look concerned anymore. Instead he smiled. “I asked Zach about that once.” Zach was the pack’s beta. “He said the arguing is fun, because then they have to make up.” She scowled. “That’s stupid.”
“But it’s probably the only time Liza will let them take care of her. Spoil her.”
“Even stupider. All that strife just to give in?”
“Maybe,” Harris said in her ear, “you should ask Liza how she feels about it.”
“I would hate it,” she grumbled.
Harris laughed. “You aren’t her, and we aren’t them. What makes you think our relationship will be anything like theirs?”
Our relationship? She wanted to point out he was taking a lot for granted. She wasn’t agreeing to any kind of relationship with either one of them in her current state. But the point of no return was quickly approaching. She needed to get out of this room, out of this house. Though she admitted she probably didn’t have the will to leave anymore.
Harris’s cock still pressed insistently against her ass, and Ethan had moved his hands to cup her breasts. She was having a hard time sticking to one thought. Her arousal was growing, and she didn’t want to think, didn’t want to argue. She just wanted to feel. To feed the craving.
She wanted to be used and come so many times that she lost count. Until she couldn’t think anymore.
Ethan slipped the straps of her dress down her arms and pushed it to her waist. He bent, brushed kisses over the top of one breast, then the other, before sucking a nipple into his mouth.
His touch was soft, gentle. A caress. He took the opposite breast in his palm, circled the nipple with his fingers and squeezed. She gasped. The combined sensations of tender and hard were more seductive than she would have imagined possible. Weakness swept through her, and she clung to Ethan’s shoulders, certain she would melt into a puddle at his feet at any moment.
Harris wasn’t idle, either. He pulled her panties down her legs and lifted each foot free of them before pulling the dress the rest of the way down. It fell, pooling around her feet. Harris slid his hands up her inner thighs and nudged until she widened her stance. His fingers skimmed over her sex, back and forth, once and then again in a light stroking rhythm that made her pant.
He spread the lips of her sex and pushed one finger into her pussy. She was embarrassed by how wet and ready she was, but she couldn’t leave now if he paid her. One finger became two, and he stroked her, turning his hand so on each retreat and thrust his fingers dragged over her G-spot.
At the same time, Ethan suckled harder. She was swamped by sensation, the emotions she refused to acknowledge and the heat she couldn’t fight heightening the pleasure. Her orgasm was fierce and sudden. She cried out when it consumed her and was left trembling and stunned in its wake. Someone carried her to the bed, but she didn’t open her eyes to see who until it dipped on either side of her. She stared at the ceiling and tried to slow the rapid beating of her heart. She cracked a smile as hands moved on her. Exploring. Demanding. Well, she’d wanted to feel used, hadn’t she?
“What’s so funny?” Harris murmured, his lips moving over her neck, down to her collarbone, and then turned to nibble on the sensitive skin on the inside of her arm. Ethan moved her to her side so she faced him and lifted her top leg over his hips.
“Nothing,” she gasped as Ethan’s erection nudged her entrance. “Nothing at all.” He rolled to his back, pulling her so she straddled him, and with his hands gripping her hips, he lifted and lowered her on his cock. The first few strokes were so slow and careful. She grew slicker around him, her pussy clenching each time he tried to withdraw. Finally his control seemed to snap, as if he’d teased himself beyond endurance. She’d never seen Ethan lose control.
He growled low in his chest, and instead of scaring her, it excited her. He made her crazy. Why not return the favor?
She put her hand on the center of her chest and casually drew it down her body. His eyes, bright and feverish, followed the motion, mesmerizing her. Hell yeah. She could make him burn as much as she did. She paused at her pelvis and stretched one finger to flick her clit, watching as his eyes changed to neon yellow. She’d woken the wolf.
“Do it again,” he ordered. “Open your
self so I can watch.” It should have pissed her off. She’d never let him or Harris have control in bed. That was the first step of a long, slow slide. It should have angered her, but it didn’t. It electrified her, ratcheted up her arousal to a point she’d never experienced before. The heat. It has to be the heat. She knew that was a lie, but she didn’t have the power to delude herself again. She didn’t even want to.
She used one hand to spread the lips of her sex. With the other, she rolled a finger over her clitoris. Harris groaned, and she looked at the other man. She’d forgotten he was there, but he was impossible to miss now. He crouched next to them on his knees. His gaze was on her hands.
His hand wrapped around his cock, stroking up and down almost languidly.
She rubbed her finger over her clit again. And again. Ethan growled and fucked her harder, and Harris, eyes hot with passion, moved into position behind her. He squeezed her ass, then spread the cheeks and pressed a finger against her rear entrance. Her heart, already racing, felt like it would explode from her chest. Could she handle both of them at once? The fantasy took root in her mind, and she rubbed her clit harder, rougher, until she felt her body tighten with another orgasm. She froze as the pleasure swept over her. Ethan’s cry of release only increased her satisfaction, but she didn’t have time to bask in it.
Harris picked her up and arranged her on her hands and knees next to Ethan, who leaned up and kissed her, deep and long. It was a thorough and intense kiss. She felt marked, and for a moment, panic intruded. She wasn’t ready to be claimed. As if he sensed her misgivings, Harris thrust into her pussy from behind, and wherever her thoughts might have gone vanished into a cloud of renewed lust.
Her hands curled into fists in the blankets as he moved inside her. His strokes were deep and forceful; his hands holding her still were strong and branding. She’d never been with him like this before. He’d never lost control, never gotten rough. Never gone all dominating and alpha male on her. It scared her a little because she liked it. Liked it a lot.
Is this what Harris meant when he said their arrangement wasn’t working for him anymore? Was it as simple as he wanted to change the nature of their sexual encounters?
Possibly.
But that wasn’t what Ethan wanted. He watched them with avaricious eyes, but he didn’t join in. His hand wrapped around his cock, already hard again, giving it easy lazy strokes. A pearl of cum was on the head, and she was tempted to lean forward and lick it off. He gave his patently sexy, wicked smile.
“You want a taste, baby?”
Harris’s strokes slowed, gentled. She moistened her lips. Suddenly she wanted that taste as much as she wanted Harris pounding into her. She nodded, and he rose to his knees, moving into place in front of her. She breathed deeply, taking his scent into her lungs, then leaned forward to lick the drop. Salty and tangy. Pure male. She sucked the head of his cock into her mouth, ran her tongue over the slit, and was rewarded with another drop.
His hand twisted in her hair and tugged her forward. An unspoken demand, but a demand nonetheless. She wasn’t giving in. No way. But she decided she could indulge his need, and maybe retaliate a bit for his overstepping her boundaries while she was at it. She gripped the base in one hand and, starting at the slit, licked her way down his shaft. She took her time, explored every vein and bump and ridge. Then she lightly scraped her teeth over the underside of the head.
With a low snarl, his hips jerked forward, the hand in her hair gripping hard now. If she wasn’t so consumed by the same lust, she’d laugh at his impatience and her ability to instill it.
But teasing him turned out to be just as torturous for her. She decided to give in a little. She took the head into her mouth, sucked it lightly while running her tongue over the slit, back and forth, gathering the precum weeping there. Then she took him farther into her mouth. She stroked her tongue down the underside of his cock, coating him in his own fluids. He tried to hurry her, so when she bobbed her head back, she used her teeth. Not a lot. Just enough to warn him to stay still. It had the opposite effect.
Ethan growled. “Stop teasing, Gabby.”
That was definitely an order, but instead of anger and resistance, it inflamed her. It didn’t make any sense, but she didn’t have enough active brain cells to think it over right now. Harris began thrusting inside her again, and his fingers squeezed her clit. She gasped, and when she did, Ethan thrust into her mouth. Even with a hand still around the base of his cock, he nudged the back of her throat. She fought the urge to gag. Then he started moving, and the reflex disappeared. Hard, fast strokes that Harris matched while keeping rough fingers rubbing over her clit.
There was no way she could last, no way to delay the orgasm rising in her. She tightened her grip on Ethan. Part of her knew it was probably hard enough to hurt the tender organ, but he didn’t seem to care. With a cry, he came in her mouth, but he pulled out before she could swallow more than a few drops of his cum. He reached under her, found her breasts and her nipples. Caressed. It was an exquisite combination of pain and pleasure. Coupled with Harris pounding into her and his attention to her clit, it unleashed the orgasm building in her body. She cried out, and her muscles seized. Harris, groaning, fucked her through it until he too spent himself, quieter than her and Ethan, but his groan no less satisfying for knowing she had a part in it.
All three of them collapsed onto the bed. Harris murmured something about a shower, and a few seconds later, she heard water come on. She kept her face pressed to the pillow and refused to move when one of them slapped her ass. Like she could move? They were both smoking crack. Hell no. She was staying put and enjoying the aftereffects of good—okay, incredible, mind-blowing—sex. It wouldn’t be long before her energy returned and the heat once again took over. Though she’d never experienced it like this. She groaned. They better not get it into their heads this was a regular arrangement. She didn’t think she’d survive.
The water turned off, and a few minutes later, Harris bullied her until she slid under the blankets. Then the light went off, and they left her alone. But probably not for long, she hoped, as she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Three
Ethan paced in the kitchen. Back and forth and back again. He glanced at the rear wall for the umpteenth time, wishing he could see through it, wondering if she still slept. He should feel calmer. He should be back in control. But he was wound tight. Her scent permeated everything.
It was usually sweet and intoxicating, but with the heat it was more. Rich, piquant, irresistible. It was making him mad. He felt his wolf side clawing for freedom, demanding he claim her. Mark her. No wonder she'd stayed far away from him when it took her over.
“You’re going to wear a hole through that floor,” Harris said drily.
He spun around, hands fisted at his sides. Harris leaned back in a chair, casual, one eyebrow arched in question while Ethan struggled to control his wolf. He wasn’t jealous exactly.
He’d known for a couple of years that if Gabby ever gave in, they’d share her. But knowing that didn’t stop possessiveness from ruling him. She was in heat, and she was his mate, but she remained unclaimed. He’d damned near bitten his tongue off not marking her. Maybe this intensity would recede after he did.
“This is pretty out of character,” Harris pointed out.
Fuck yeah it was. He didn’t get bent out of shape over women, not even Gabby. It had been hard, but even as a teenager, she was fierce and independent, determined she’d never take a mate. He’d trained himself not to get too consumed with her, because he’d known it was unlikely she’d accept him in her life like they were meant to be. Now, however, all those hard years of training, of denying himself, seemed to have vanished.
“I’ve known for years she’s mine. I think I’ve always known.” He’d never felt torn between Harris and Gabby before, and he didn’t now. It was common in the lupine world to have two mates. It was something their wolf sides craved, like being part of a private pack inside
the larger one. He’d repressed his desire for that for years, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to lock it away again.
“I get that,” Harris said. “So why are you struggling so hard with it now?”
“I also always knew it was unlikely she’d ever accept a mate. I learned to live with it.”
“And?”
“And she hasn’t accepted. She still might not, and it’s gonna be damned hard to go back to being indifferent about the status quo.”
That finally got a reaction from the wizard. His eyes narrowed. “I will not go back from tonight.”
Ethan figured his smile was just as bitter and frustrated as Harris’s voice. They wanted the same thing, but no matter how much he wanted Gabby, he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. He wouldn’t allow her to be hurt even if it meant going against Harris. “You can’t force her to accept you. If you try, you’ll be fighting both of us.” Harris didn’t take offense. Instead he smiled. “I had something else in mind.” His words seemed to break the spell Ethan was under, and he paused to examine that startling thought. It made sense in a way. Werewolves were created by magic, so mating and the heat would be a kind of magic, right? He shook the idea away—it wasn’t important now—and sat down.
“What?”
“Persuasion. Seduction.”
He cocked an eyebrow. Was Harris serious? “I’ve seduced her before. Look where it got me.”
“You’ve talked your way into her bed. I’m talking about getting into her head and her heart, Ethan.”
He snorted. “She won’t let me that close. You either. How do you propose to change that?” With a grin Ethan could only describe as diabolical, Harris stood and walked to one of the cabinets. Ethan joined him when he started pulling out supplies. He knew what was kept in there.
Seeing the bottles made him uneasy. It was one thing to know your lover was a wizard. Another to have it shoved in his face.
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