A Valentine for Two

by Lia Davis

  “He’s... he’s not well, Charlotte.”

  “Not well?” She narrowed her eyes. “Does he have the clap?”

  Vance looked pained. “He damn well better not.”

  Charlotte glowered at him.

  “He makes that same face, you know.”

  “Are you going to tell me how he’s sick?”

  “Inside. He’s...”

  “Angry? Dark?” she supplied.

  “He knows he’s going to hurt you.”

  “You know what I say to that? Hmm?” She pursed her lips together as if they were trying to hold the words back that her tongue was determined to speak. “Bullshit. We make choices about who we are. We choose our actions. He won’t hurt me unless he wants to hurt me.”

  “Maybe he does,” Vance answered softly.

  “Bullshit to that, too.” It felt very good to say it and even better to mean it. She shrugged. “I will never believe he wants to hurt me. He loves me.”

  “Which is why he wants to hurt you. Feelings make men like him weak. It takes away his control, his power and it gives you a hold over him.”

  “I’ve given him the same hold.”

  “It’s not the same. He had his power taken—“

  “Oh?” Her temper flared. “You think I don’t know what that’s like? I may not have gotten as many visible scars, but it happened to me, too. I’m not some princess in the sky who knows nothing about the big, bad world outside.”

  “Have you ever thought he needs to believe that’s what you are?”

  “The same as I need to believe in Prince Charming,” she snorted.

  “Don’t you?” he taunted quietly.

  “No. There are good men and there are bad men. Some are princes. Some are not. Some are charming. Some are not. The first has nothing to do with the second.”

  “That doesn’t change the fact that deep down, he’s still broken. The rage is all he has. Do you understand?”

  “If that’s all he has, then that’s what I want from him. He’s mine, Vance. And I’m his.”

  “You think you know him—“

  “I do.” Charlotte cut him off. “I know him better than he knows himself.”

  Vance breathed. “I think there’s a part of him that you don’t know because he doesn’t show it to you.”

  “The part that would kill a man for trying to hurt me?” Charlotte sighed.

  “Don’t you want to know how I know about his rage? How I know what it does to him?” he said.

  “I assume he told you.”

  He grabbed Charlotte and jerked her close so that his face was only inches from hers. “He told me while he was fucking me, Charlotte. He told me how he was going to fuck you with my pretty face and my cock. Does that sound like a man who loves you?”

  Charlotte remained unimpressed. She’d seen Jace rage. His words, though, were another matter entirely.

  She was torn between needing to slip her fingers into her panties and being angry that they’d been with together without her. She didn’t want there to be any part of them that didn’t include her.

  Then she was forced to imagine it and in her mind, the things she saw, they were beautiful. So much male animal, powerful and...

  Charlotte managed to get control of herself, although she reached out a steadying hand to his shoulder and exhaled heavily. “If it was any other man, I’d say no. But it’s Jace.”

  She barely got the words out before another wave of images hit her. Of the three of them together.

  Of Jace doing as he’d promised, his masterful hands guiding them all toward completion.

  “Charlotte,”

  “If it’s what he wants, I’ll do it.” Charlotte wrapped her other arm around him. “Don’t tell me you don’t want it too.”

  “You’re a dangerous woman,” Vance replied.

  “It would serve you both well not to forget it.” Charlotte heard the door creak open, but even if she hadn’t, she would have felt Jace’s presence. His intensity burning into her.

  “Do you still want this, Lamont?” Vance asked, his gaze never leaving Charlotte.

  Jace moved in behind Vance and splayed his hand over the top of his own and he drew their fingers up to Charlotte’s face.

  Her eyes fluttered closed and she sighed into the touch. It was so clear now, he was afraid to touch her. Afraid he’d hurt her, afraid the world would take her away like it did anything he wanted for his own.

  Their joined hands drifted down the curve of her neck and her fingers made quick work of her dress.

  Vance kissed her then, his mouth hot and hungry on hers. When they broke apart, she tilted her face up for Jace’s kiss, but she waited in vain.

  “Kiss me?”

  He didn’t answer, so she kissed Vance again, stroked her tongue over his bottom lip. “Give that to him,” she whispered.

  And Vance obliged. He turned between them toward Jace, who didn’t didn’t move away, but allowed Vance to brush his lips against his.

  “Give it to him as I gave it to you, Vance.”

  She watched his tongue stroke the edge of Jace’s lip, push past the ruined skin. And Jace didn’t close his eyes as most did when sharing a kiss, but let Vance work his mouth while he watched her and his other hand slid to Vance’s hip.

  It was almost as erotic as when he’d stroked himself.

  When Jace finally pulled away, he guided Vance down to Charlotte’s breasts. His hot mouth closed over a peaked nipple and she gasped as the sensation shot straight to her clit.

  She reached out to touch him, but he shrugged her off. Although, Charlotte wouldn’t be denied. She took his other hand, as he’d done to Vance, and guided him to remove Vance’s shirt.

  Charlotte wondered what they’d been like together. There would be no soft touches and caresses and she was glad. Those were for her alone. If Jace had found some joy in the Brat Prince, she didn’t begrudge him that.

  But she wanted him to find joy in her.

  Deep inside of her.

  “Move onto the bed,” Jace spoke quietly.

  Vance moved to her other breast. “Said you could watch. Not direct it like a rugby play.”

  Jace backed away from them, his eyes like the sky during a winter storm.

  Charlotte pushed her hands through Vance’s golden hair and he slipped a finger between them into her slick folds.

  “I thought you were going to fuck me with his cock?” Charlotte was proud of how brave she sounded, how unafraid. As if she were used to saying things like that in every day conversation. “Isn’t that what you told him?” He’d detached himself from them, she knew if she didn’t draw him back in, she’d lose him.

  Even if that meant pulling his tail hard enough to make him bite.

  “I told him that when I was fucking him. Is that what you want? Me to fuck your lover?”

  I want you to be my lover, too. She whispered inside her own head. “What I want? I already told you what I want, but you don’t want me. Because you were fucking him when you could have been with me, but I’ll take whatever you want to give me. If all I can have,” she paused to gasp as Vance pushed a digit inside of her. “Is you fucking him as he fucks me, I’ll take it.”

  His face was unreadable, but her words drew him over slowly. In that moment, he was every inch a dog who’d been kicked once too often. She wanted to reach for him, but she didn’t.

  “That wouldn’t be wise,” he said quietly, looking to Vance.

  Charlotte stilled Vance’s hand because suddenly it was all clear. He envied Vance so much, he hated him. Then Vance coming to her telling her that Jace was sick with rage. Jace had hurt him and they both believed he’d hurt her too.

  “Is that what you like then, Jace? Pain? Is that what it will take?” she asked. “Hurt me, then.”

  Jace flinched at her words and she didn’t mean to be so sharp.

  “Or do you want someone to hurt you? Tell me.”

  “Charlotte,” Vance admonished.

&n
bsp; “No, I want to know. I deserve to know.”

  She knew she’d pushed him almost beyond endurance, his hands were fisted, the vein in the side of his neck pulsed with his quickening heartbeat and there was something wild about him now.

  “What you deserve?” Jace snarled.

  Charlotte tilted her chin up defiantly. “Yes.”

  “What you want?” he rasped as if she hadn’t even spoken.

  Vance moved to step between them, but Charlotte stopped him with her palm on his chest.

  Jace bent down, his face so close to hers she could feel the heat radiating from his skin. “This is what you want? This face, this body? These hands?”

  “Yes.”

  “What if I wanted you to take both of us because you’re not dirty enough yet?”

  She leaned back against Vance, his chest broad and hot, a wall that anchored her in place and Charlotte reached out to Jace. “Will that make me dirty enough? Will that knock down the pedestal you’ve put me on?” Jace allowed her touch now and she pulled him against them. “Will that let you love us?” she whispered.

  “I don’t love you,” he snarled. “You’ll just be a slut who let me fuck her.”

  His words were spears through her heart, but she knew he didn’t mean them. And he was doing what any cornered beast would do. He was afraid.

  “Then that’s what I’ll be,” Charlotte said and leaned her head back on Vance’s shoulder to expose her throat and belly in submission.

  Jace’s arm came around them both and Charlotte had never felt so desired. With one hand on Vance’s thigh and the other splayed on Jace’s chest, moving beneath his shirt, she rubbed herself against them both.

  She drew her leg up around Jace’s waist, uncaring of how brazen she was. Charlotte was determined to feel everything and to be anything he wanted.

  Anything he needed.

  Vance reached around her and tugged at Jace’s jeans.

  Jace froze. “Even after—“he broke off.

  “Yes, even after. I told you I wanted it,” Vance said gruffly. “We’ve come too far to stop now.”

  He dragged Jace’s hand to Charlotte’s breast. “Isn’t she beautiful between us?” Vance dipped his head to the swan arch of her neck, his mouth hot and desperate.

  Jace bent his head and kissed the other side of her throat as he deftly removed his jeans. He hauled her up, supported her slight weight and she wrapped both legs around him. His cock was hard at her entrance, but so was Vance’s.

  Vance was behind her, his cock teasing her wet channel.

  The idea of taking them both thrilled her and frightened her all at once. She’d been afraid one would want to take her anal, and she didn’t find that appealing in the least.

  But both of them inside her at the same time, cocks working against each other, filling her...

  She shivered delicately.

  “Tell him how much you want this, Charlotte.” Vance’s breath was warm on her ear.

  “Please,” she begged.

  “Your bed,” Jace rasped. “Ride him for me.”

  Charlotte obeyed, leading them to her bed and straddling Vance and taking his cock inside of her. She turned to look at Jace as she rolled her hips.

  His hands were gentle on face, but firm. “No, don’t look at me. Look at pretty Vance.”

  Charlotte’s heart shattered. He still didn’t understand. Suddenly, she wanted to stop. This wasn’t what she’d intended.

  She bit her lip and swallowed hard as he followed his command.

  Vance’s eyes were kind as she met his gaze and he touched her face softly.

  Jace’s hand dipped between them and he ghosted his fingers over her clit. The heat of his body was against her back and he was poised to enter her from behind.

  Vance’s soft understanding was too much, she felt too exposed, too... everything. Charlotte bent to kiss him to keep her mouth busy and to close her eyes. It also allowed Jace better access.

  She had to see this through. If she stopped now for any reason, Jace would never believe it was anything other than his face.

  A thick digit slid inside of her easily with Vance’s cock. Vance bucked his hips up into her with a groan and she gasped aloud as Jace pushed another finger inside.

  Charlotte paused her movement as her body stretched to accommodate the girth. Sweet Jesus, his cock was wider than two fingers. It was more like three. She inhaled and exhaled.

  “More?” he growled, sounding angry as ever.

  Fear paralyzed her. She had to remind herself she knew he wouldn’t hurt her on purpose. No matter how angry she made him, no matter how she...

  “Little one?” Jace’s rasp was oddly tender. It gave her strength.

  “Yes, more.” She bore down on Vance’s cock and pushed back against Jace’s hand.

  He teased her clit faster and Vance continued to plunge up inside of her. Jace worked yet another finger in her slick channel and Charlotte clenched hard as they thrust in tandem.

  “Do you still want it?”

  Do you still want me, was what he was saying.

  “Oh yes, Jace.” She tried to twist to kiss him, but she was met with the same resistance.

  Although he pushed her hair aside and brushed his lips against the back of her neck.

  Jace eased inside of her and she felt she’d won a great victory, until she realized it was only the head. He was slow, careful with her and while Charlotte knew he had to be, part of her wanted him to be moving, to be impaling her fully. She’d waited so long for his touch.

  She was stretched wide and it felt good to be so full, so claimed. But it hurt too, it was almost too much. Then she thought about the cocks slick and rubbing against each other inside of her and it made her walls clench tightly and pull them impossibly deep.

  Jace’s first true thrust hit the core of her and she cried out. Vance growled his own pleasure and soon they were moving together. Charlotte wanted it to stop, but wanted it to last at the same time.

  Vance came first, his body stiffening and tensing as he shot inside of her. As his cock softened, Jace lifted her off of him with one arm around her waist and moved her to the middle of the bed.

  She braced her palms on the bed and he began to fuck her in earnest. Charlotte felt a kind of relief when Vance finished, but a strange sense of loss too.

  He drove into her relentlessly, he fucked the same way he did everything else. She was tender from the use, but she wouldn’t ever ask him to stop. In fact, she’d beg him for more until he couldn’t deliver.

  Feeling his tight abdominals against her ass, his large arm wrapped around her waist pulling her down onto his cock as he thrust, the pressure of his thighs on hers, it was a feast of sensation and she catalogued every detail. It felt so good, so right to be with him.

  She shuddered when the first wave of her culmination hit her and she may have even screamed something profane. She didn’t know, because it was like all of her sensors were located in her pussy. She couldn’t hear, or see or feel anything but the radiating bliss that was between her legs.

  “Come for me.”

  Charlotte couldn’t hold herself up, but he did it for her, positioning her as he wanted her as the pleasure ripped through her. She was vaguely aware of him finding his own pleasure and spending inside of her.

  She collapsed boneless between them and fell into a stupored sleep.

  Chapter Eleven

  Jace

  Jace awoke in darkness and a with a woman in his arms.

  She was so delicate, but he didn’t make the mistake of thinking she was fragile. That woman had steel where her spine should have been. He watched the moonlight move over the smooth plane of her brow, the arch of her cheek, over her slightly crooked nose that was still somehow perfect.

  Charlotte had come a long way from the pretty child she’d been lost in dreams of knights and princesses. He remembered when she’d asked him to save her. Asked if he was a hero.

  He almost didn’t believe she
was there, that she was real.

  Jace knew he’d been cruel, he’d pushed her away as hard as he knew how and she’d pushed back, even more determined. As tiny as she was, she was the one thing he couldn’t defeat.

  Jace knew better than to take anything he wanted without being prepared to pay mightily.

  What would the price be for this night with Charlotte and Vance? Jace couldn’t resist running his callused hands down the silk of her skin. She arched into his caress and made sweet little noises as she sought more of his touch. Part of him wanted to argue that she thought it was Vance touching her, but he knew better. As incredulous and far-fetched as it seemed.

  “Jace,” she murmured sleepily and pressed herself closer to him.

  As his eyes roved her body, he felt like the lowest bastard. He’d hurt Vance, hurt him badly and the Brat Prince had still touched him and wanted to be touched in return.

  And Charlotte... Charlotte. She trusted him, sought him in her sleep and yet there were marks on her body. From him. From Vance. Finger-shaped bruises on her upper arms, her hips, love marks on her breasts and neck.

  He had what he wanted and he was miserable. There was no joy in it because he was waiting for someone bigger and stronger to take it away. And he knew if they didn’t, he’d fuck it up anyway.

  Vance shifted as he awakened and their eyes met over Charlotte’s banner of hair.

  “I’m going to go,” he said quietly.

  Jace found things welling up in his mouth like bile, but they were words. Words he didn’t know how to speak, couldn’t allow himself to speak. They were dipped in guilt and sorrow. So he shook his head that no, he didn’t want Vance to leave.

  There was something between them now. Something more than Charlotte and something less. He couldn’t explain it.

  Vance flashed an easy smile. “You never did want me, did you?”

  “You didn’t deserve what I did,” he half-snarled, the words ripped from him.

  Vance froze. “I offered,” came his stiff reply.

  “I did want you, I wanted all of this so much, it hurt. I’d never been with...” he trailed off. Jace preferred violence to words, although both were sharp.

  “I know. And I kept pushing you. I wanted to see what was under the mask and I did.”