Finally, Alex rested his head against Rafe’s and just looked at him. They were both breathing hard.
“Love you,” Rafe muttered. “Didn’t want to, but I do. Just like I love Sydney.”
“I know.” Alex straightened and picked up Sydney’s hand. “We’ve all been fools, but let’s end that now.”
Rafe stepped aside. “You know the way.”
Alex led her back through to the stairs, and Sydney knew where he was taking her. Rafe was just behind her and she shivered as she thought of what lay ahead. Was she really ready for this?
The one who loves them both. Taylor’s voice, slurry with the after-effects of feeding and being a newly awakened vampire.
Yes, she loved them both. And by some miracle, they both loved her. What came next would be perfect, no matter what happened.
Chapter Nineteen
It was very quiet in Rafe’s big house, as they made their way along the sumptuous hallway to his bedroom. Somewhere downstairs an old cuckoo clock chimed the half-hour then grew still.
Alex pushed open a door and stepped back. “Rafe, this is your place.”
Rafe brushed past them both. “What’s mine is yours. Get used to the idea.” He kissed Alex briefly, then picked Sydney up and carried her into the room and put her on her feet in the middle of it.
There was a large bed that dominated the far wall. It was a huge thing—larger than king sized. Sydney had never seen anything so big. “Why would you want such a large bed?” she asked Rafe. “You don’t even sleep in it.”
“But my family have. Many times. I’ve spent dozens of nights laying and watching children dreaming. There is nothing more peaceful than the sound of a child sleeping.”
Sydney’s heart lurched and Rafe must have sensed it, because he cupped her cheek with his palm. “Don’t trouble yourself about it,” he told her. “There are always ways to get what you want. For now, what do you really want?”
Alex was standing behind her. Sydney could feel him at her back. She took another calming breath. “Both of you,” she said. “But I have no idea where to start.”
Alex kissed her neck. “I think we can handle that,” he murmured. He turned her face up to his and kissed her properly. She sighed into his mouth. She had missed his kisses.
When Rafe’s lips touched her flesh between the opening of the robe, Sydney jumped. Rafe settled his heavy hands around her waist. “Shhh…” he murmured against her skin. “Relax and enjoy this.”
She had no idea how she was supposed to relax, especially when Alex’s mouth slid from hers and wandered down the side of her throat. Two mouths on her at once wasn’t just double the pleasure. It outshone anything she had ever experienced.
Her robe loosened and she wasn’t aware of Rafe untying the belt. But his lips pushed past the toweling, anointing the skin between her breasts, which were almost exposed, down beyond them to her belly, making her muscles twitch in response. He stopped and stood up again, and so did Alex.
“Definitely the bed,” Alex said as if he was agreeing with Rafe.
This time Alex picked her up and carried her over to the huge bed and placed her on what might have been the center, but it was hard to tell. There was plenty of room for both of them as they settled on either side of her.
Overhead, she could see herself spread upon the bed, and Alex and Rafe looking down on her. Her excitement spilled through her.
Rafe gently picked up the front of her robe and peeled it to one side, exposing her breast and her pussy. She had been naked in front of them both before, but now she felt like it was for the first time.
Alex gave a low growl and dropped his head to her breast and drew the tip into his mouth. Sydney rolled her head back as he played with the nipple, and groaned aloud as Rafe’s hand closed around the other one. Her pussy was throbbing, empty and unclaimed, but she watched in the mirror and could feel his hand sliding down over her hip, and onto her thigh. So close…so close! Her thigh fell open in invitation, but instead he moved his hand down to her knee. She groaned in frustration.
Alex lifted his head and looked at what Rafe was doing. She saw his quick smile. “Two can play at that,” he whispered. He straddled her other leg, and she caught her breath as he tossed his robe onto the floor. His cock was thick and hard, red with anticipation. As Rafe’s hand fluttered along her inner thigh, Alex tugged open his robe, and pulled it aside.
Alex was as ragingly erect as Rafe was. Sydney caught her breath as Alex slid his hand over Rafe’s thigh, up high, almost brushing his balls. His thumb teased, closer and closer, and Rafe began to breathe harder. At the same time, he slid his own hand up higher and higher, closer to her tormented pussy lips. Then Rafe rolled away with a groan, pulling his hand away from her and Sydney stifled her own moan of disappointment.
Alex smiled and sat up on his knees. “That sounded like a protest,” he said and leaned over and picked her up, his hands around her waist. Sydney stifled a gasp as he lowered her down over his knees, spreading her thighs wide. His cock reared up between them, but she wasn’t touching him at all. “I can feel you,” she said. “I can feel heat.”
Alex kissed her. “With a strong enough heartbeat, we can feel as warm as a human. But we can’t sustain it for long.” His hands slid up from her waist to her breasts and he began to stroke them, his fingers sliding along the swell, and bumping over her nipples. It was a light touch that never stopped moving, and Sydney arched, her breath coming fast, her whole body tingling at the touch. She wanted more, but Alex continued the light torture.
“Rafe,” he murmured.
“Would love to,” Rafe said from behind her. Alex’s hands were replaced by Rafe’s and he did not continue the featherweight teasing. Instead, his hands cupped her breasts and squeezed gently. He shifted his fingers so that her nipples were captured in between and squeezed again, drawing them out.
Sydney caught at Alex’s shoulders for balance. She couldn’t stop shifting on his thighs as the shooting sparks of pleasure made her body tingle. Her clit was throbbing heavily.
Alex slid his hand between her thighs, and stroked the length of her cleft, from anus to clit and she gasped. Then he did it again, only this time, his fingers dipped into her pussy. She could hear the slick sound and could feel the way his finger slipped inside her with no resistance. “Mmm…” Alex murmured. “Clearly, you don’t like this at all.”
“Let me feel,” Rafe said and one of his hands dropped away. He ran his fingers over her ass cheek, then between them and deeper, between her thighs. She felt his bigger fingers push up inside her, along with Alex’s.
“The heat is amazing,” Rafe said. He kissed the back of her shoulder. “Alex is right. You hate this.”
Sydney couldn’t answer. Her whole consciousness was focused upon the hands on her body…in her body. Already, she could feel her orgasm blooming.
Rafe drew his hands back through her cleft, bringing with them her copious juices. He pressed against her ass and she responded by pressing back. It was instinctive, and it would tell him how much she wanted him to push deeper.
He stroked the opening of her pussy, gathering more moisture, his fingers tangling with Alex’s, then he drew backward once more and plunged them into her.
Sydney clamped down on both of them, a deep groan pulling out of her.
Alex was watching her closely, measuring her responses, and her groan made him smile. Then his thumb touched her clit and Sydney grasped at his shoulders quickly, drawing in a shocked, choked cry.
“Together,” Rafe murmured.
Their hands—all their hands—began to move in synchronized beats. They had a hand each on her breasts, and they did not neglect her nipples, drawing them out in steady strokes. Rafe plundered her back passage, while Alex drove his fingers deep into her pussy. With each withdrawal, his thumb stroked her clit.
The delicious chafing and probing was overwhelming. Sydney threw her head back, her eyes drifting closed. She started to tremble almost v
iolently as the pleasure washed through her in increasingly powerful waves. Her climax gathered, leaping to life.
But just before she came, Alex whispered, “Slow, very slow,” and both of them eased their assault on her.
Sydney groaned, as she hovered on the verge of what felt like the most powerful climax she had ever experienced. It was just out of reach, and her nerves were fizzing, every one of them at the peak of sensitivity.
Alex and Rafe slowed their touch, teasing her, keeping her quivering on the very point of coming, in exquisite agony. Sydney lost all sense of externalities. She floated on the pleasure, moaning almost constantly. She might have stayed there for days. She didn’t know, and didn’t care. Time had lost all meaning.
“Now,” Alex said, and they battered their way into her, their strokes speeding up, roughening. Devouring her.
Sydney’s climax swirled and rose over her, encompassing every sense. She might have screamed, she couldn’t hear for the thundering in her head and the pleasure tearing through her. Her whole body clamped and held still for an aeon, bathing in the ultimate delight.
It seemed to take forever for the climax to subside. Little aftershocks of pleasure rippled through her, leaving her panting.
Alex was shifting underneath her, and this time Rafe lifted her, but not far. She was inched forward and lowered again, and this time, Alex’s cock slid into her with no resistance at all.
Alex lay back on the bed and pulled her down against his chest and Sydney looked into his eyes. He kissed her.
Rafe was behind her. She felt him settle over her. His weight didn’t touch her, but his arm pushed into the mattress by her shoulder, the tendons quivering. His cock pushed up against her, and it was slippery with lubricant. He pulled her hair back over her shoulder. “Relax,” he said. “This will feel very different compared to anything you’ve ever tried.”
He nudged his way inside, a small fraction of an inch at time.
“Breathe,” Alex murmured.
Sydney tried to remember to breathe, but her attention was almost purely on the delight she was feeling. As Rafe slid fully inside her, she sighed. “I so hate this,” she whispered.
Alex laughed and she could feel his chest reverberating with his humor, beneath her.
“Very tight,” Rafe remarked, settling his hand on Sydney’s hip. “This will end both of us much too fast.”
“There’s always next time,” Alex said. “Like Sydney, I think this is a terrible thing. We should repeat it often.”
“Very often,” Sydney murmured.
“I can feel you, inside her,” Alex said, as Rafe shifted.
“Very fast,” Rafe muttered. He gave another small thrust and Alex caught his breath.
Sydney had never felt so full in her life, and she loved it.
“Together,” Rafe said.
Sydney gasped as they both withdrew, then pushed back into her. As they began to thrust together, she gripped the bedcover under her hand, breathing in hard little pants. She couldn’t breathe any other way.
Her orgasm didn’t build, this time. It grabbed onto her, arriving fully formed and huge. She stopped breathing as it stormed through her with the rage of a tornado, tearing at nerve endings and swirling through her mind, stealing thoughts and senses. She heard a woman scream and realized the low, throaty and used voice was hers.
She had to blink to bring her sight back into focus and saw Alex’s eyes were narrowed, his jaw clenched. Then he threw out his arm and gripped the cover just as she had done. His knuckles were white as he strained and she could feel his cum spill inside her, for it was hot.
Rafe lasted only one stroke more, then he came with a groan that seemed to be torn from deep inside him. Then he withdrew from her and lifted her off Alex. They fell on to the bed next to him, and Sydney closed her eyes, breathing hard.
“I think I’ve died and gone to Valhalla,” Rafe said.
“Aren’t you Christian?” Alex asked.
“I wasn’t anything. Then I met a pagan Northman, who told me about philosophy and history and…a great many other things,” Rafe said. “He wasn’t a believer, either, but he liked to joke about being taken to Valhalla when…he enjoyed himself.”
Sydney turned her head to look at Rafe. “You’re talking about Veris, aren’t you?”
Rafe nodded and rested his hand across her waist. “A very long time ago, that was.”
Alex pushed himself up on to one elbow. “I have envied those three for years,” he said. “And I envied you for having known them that way.”
Rafe shook his head. “It was centuries ago and besides, now you have what they have. So do I. So do we all. We had to back into it, but now we’re here.” He turned to look at them both. “We’re here,” he repeated and his smile slowly widened.
Sydney bit her lip, trying to hide the little jolt their talk of envy had delivered, but Alex must have sensed it, for he touched her face and traced her jaw softly. “Our family won’t be like their family,” he said. “There will be children. Many of them. We’re family men at heart, so the matter will be arranged, one way or another.”
“You’re talking about adoption?” Sydney said. “It’s not the same.”
“It is. It is exactly the same,” Rafe said. “Ask Brody, who is the father of Marit, who is not his daughter by blood. Do you have any doubt that he doesn’t love her as a father does? Or that Marit isn’t devoted to him?”
Sydney shook her head. She didn’t have to think about it. Marit’s bond with Brody was as strong as the bond she had with Taylor or Veris. “I hadn’t thought of it that way,” she said, then hesitated again. “You…don’t mind? That children would not be of your own blood?”
Rafe laughed. “I really must introduce you to my family.”
Sydney frowned. “You’ve mentioned family before, but I didn’t realize…it’s a real family?”
“Five children,” Alex said. “Seventeen grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren…so far.” He looked at Rafe. “Did I get that right?”
“Five great grandchildren,” Rafe amended. “Emily had a boy two days ago.” He turned Sydney’s head so she was looking at him. “None of them are my blood, but all of them are mine. Now they are yours…and Alex’s.”
Sydney didn’t know what to say. It was too overwhelming. So she kissed him, letting her lips provide the answer. And once she was done, Alex took over, kissing Rafe as long and as hard as she had, even as his hand curled around hers possessively.
* * * * *
She woke to the distant sound of rain on the roof and against the windows. Moonlight filtered through the sheer curtains at the window and Sydney blinked, trying to orient herself.
An arm curled over her waist and she realized that there was a hard body at her back. “It’s barely three,” Rafe whispered against her ear. “Sleep.”
“Where is Alex?”
She felt him chuckled. “He’s gone to walk Bruce. He suddenly remembered him and got all guilty and worried about neglecting him. He’ll be back.”
“Are you staying here in the bed because of me?” Sydney asked.
“Of course.”
“But you don’t need to sleep. You could be doing something. Anything.”
“But you need me to sleep.” He kissed her neck, just below her ear. “Humans sleep better with someone and one of the privileges Alex and I have is to keep you company while you sleep. So sleep. Nothing can reach you here.”
Sydney was already drifting into sleep, put at ease by his soft voice and the crooning words. She woke to daylight and Alex’s arms around her, and knew that she had found the place where she wanted to spend the rest of her life.
Chapter Twenty
“I have to go home and change,” Sydney protested. “I don’t have a stitch to wear that isn’t covered in blood or torn. I’m going to have to go home in a bathrobe as it is. Better to walk through the apartment building when it’s early and there are not too many people around.”
; Alex put a big mug of coffee in front of her and kissed her. “Tell me if needs improvement,” he said gravely. “I’ll get better, I’m promise.”
“I washed your clothes last night, while you were sleeping,” Rafe said. “It so happens I know how to launder, as well as cook, two essential skills Alex seems to have by-passed in all his long years. So you have something to wear home, but no, I don’t think you can wear them to the office. They’re a little ratty, now. But no blood stains.”
“I spent my years doing something meaningful,” Alex protested, although he didn’t sound upset at all.
“Raising a family isn’t meaningful?” Rafe asked.
“You’re forgetting, he’s one of the youngest appeal court judges ever appointed,” Sydney pointed out.
Alex snorted. “I save lives.”
“I saved Brody’s,” Rafe pointed out.
“True,” Alex said, sobering.
“Anyway,” Rafe said, standing up and stretching. “What we are and what we do is all back on the table now, isn’t it?
Sydney looked at him, started. “You mean…not work?”
“Or do work you really want to do,” Alex said. “It probably hasn’t occurred to you yet, my lady, but Rafe is filthy rich and I’m doing okay, too.”
Rafe laughed. “He puts Onassis to shame.”
“We all do,” Alex said. “All that time and all that compound interest…it adds up. And we don’t have the incidentals humans do so the money tends to accumulate.”
Sydney put down the jelly covered toast she had picked up, staring at them. “I guess I hadn’t thought about that.”
Rafe gave her a brief smile. “And all your reasons for joining the force have gone, haven’t they?”
Sydney pulled in a deep breath, a feeling of lightness, of relief, building inside her. “Yes, they have,” she said.
“Eat up,” Alex told her. “You have some thinking to do. So must we.”
* * * * *
In the end, Alex drove both her and Rafe to her apartment. Sydney’s car was still at Veris’ house and while she changed, Alex was going to drive Rafe there and he would bring her car back. It meant she would be slightly late for work, but as she was always screamingly early, Sydney didn’t bother stressing about it.
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