I felt Isa tense, felt his mouth against my neck, his cock throbbing against me. I felt his hands clench into fists as he fought to keep from pulling me to him when he didn’t know yet if it was welcomed. “Yes,” I whispered, reaching out to touch Isa’s face with one hand as I touched Kavi’s hair with the other. “Yes, I want you both.”
Isa groaned, and I felt Kavi’s hand slide down my inner thigh, spreading my legs apart, the fingers of his other hand tracing my clit as I bucked against his hand, desire flooding me. I reached down for the laces of Isa’s trousers, and he groaned so deeply when my hand wrapped around him and pulled him free that for a moment I thought he might be in pain. He looked up at me then, his hand going to my cheek, his thumb brushing over my lips. “I’ve wanted you for a long time, Ravenna,” he whispered. “This isn’t how I imagined it, in a cave outside, in the freezing cold, unable to even call you by your real name.”
I put my hand over his, looking up into his golden eyes, shining through the darkness. I remembered long ago, when I was a teenager, and I had told him that his eyes were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. “I hate them,” he’d said, turning away. “They let everyone know what I am.”
“Do you remember what I told you when you said that you hated your eyes?” I asked, my voice breathless.
Isa nodded, hardly able to speak. “You said that was why you thought they were beautiful, because you could see everything that I was in them.”
“This isn’t what I imagined either,” I whispered. I reached down then, guiding him into me as I sought out his mouth with mine in the darkness. “It’s better.”
---
I was ready to scream with frustration when Isa finally thrust, sliding the rest of the way into me with one smooth movement that left me gasping. My back arched, pressing my ass against Kavi’s rigid erection, and he moaned, his fingers digging into my waist as his mouth pressed against my neck, and I felt him move against me, pressing me forward into Isa, and Isa rocked against me in the opposite direction, so that every inch of my skin was being touched by one man or the other, and I was left delirious with pleasure, on the very edge of an orgasm, and when Kavi reached between my legs again, running his fingertips over my clit, I gasped and shuddered, my entire body convulsing as Isa sped up, the tip of his cock caressing the one spot over and over that kept the pleasure coming in waves, until I thought I would lose my mind with it.
“I want you,” I heard Kavi whisper in my ear. “Can you feel how badly I want you?” He rocked his hips, his cock throbbing against me, and he dug his fingers into my hip. “I can’t touch myself, or I’ll come before I have a chance to be inside of you, but gods, do I want to.”
I reached behind me, wickedly, my fingers caressing the smooth skin of his shaft, trailing up to the velvety tip, and he shuddered. “Gods, Ravenna, don’t. I won’t last.”
---
I knew Isa wouldn’t last long from the moment he was inside of me, his cock swollen and throbbing, harder than anything I had ever felt. It must have been a very long time for him, I thought as he kissed me, his hands on either side of my face, his forehead pressed to mine as his lips brushed over mine, first softly and then harder, passionate and needy. I kissed him back with equal fervor, remembering sunny afternoons hunting berries as a teenager, when he would go with me, a sixteen-year-old shunned from his family for an accident that was no fault of his own. But our people believed him cursed, and only I would still call him my friend.
I remembered eating blackberries on the old hill, until our lips and fingers were purple and sticky with them, and the shiver that had passed through me when I had held one up to his lips and felt them touch my fingertips. I remembered hiding from a thunderstorm in the cave where he stayed, and how he had offered me a blanket to wrap myself in so I could strip out of my wet clothes until they dried, and the hunger in his face when he had turned away. I remembered, too, his eyes when I had told him about Kavi, and the sound of his voice when he had said that he was happy for me.
I remembered all of those things and more as he moved inside of me, and I felt suddenly that this was what was meant to happen—Kavi, and Isa, and I. I felt Kavi close behind me, his body melded to mine as surely as our souls now were, our lives and our deaths promised to each other, and I shuddered. “You’ll stay with us?” I whispered against Isa’s mouth, my body trembling with every movement of his. “Forever?”
“Yes,” he murmured, never breaking his rhythm as he kissed me, the words slipping out between each one. “You and Kavi both. For all of time.”
“Do you know what that means?”
“Yes,” Isa whispered, his voice ragged. “Kavi told me. I still mean it.” He thrust into me, hard, his fingers curled around the back of my head as his lips stayed a breath from mine, his eyes open and never leaving my gaze. “Forever.”
He was the moon, pulling at the tides of my body, and I went under with him, skin to skin, the pleasure rushing over us both like a wave. I felt Kavi’s hands on my waist, holding me to him as Isa made me his, too, and when the last tremors of it had passed through us both, I felt Kavi between my legs, ready to take Isa’s place. He rose up as he slid into me, his hand going to the back of Isa’s neck, and he drew the other man to him. “Forever, then,” he said, and he breathed in, his mouth meeting Isa’s as the other man leaned forward hungrily.
I had never seen two men touch one another before, and the sight sent a shiver of lust through me. Isa’s hands went to Kavi’s arms, and I felt it too, as the world spun and shimmered around us. I knew what Isa was feeling, and I clung to him as Kavi buried himself within me, his body linked to us both, and we held Isa as he convulsed, his lungs filling with Kavi’s breath.
I felt Kavi thrust hard into me, his own body trembling with pleasure as he fell over the edge, his mouth still locked to Isa’s, taking him too, and I felt the magic swirl around us, my own vision dimming.
---
Isa was close, I could feel it. “I want you both,” I whispered, arching my back to press against Kavi, and I heard him groan. I reached for him again, running my fingers down the hard length of him, gripping him until he pressed his mouth hard against my shoulder. “I want to have you both at once,” I insisted, and Kavi rose up obediently onto his knees. I rolled onto my back, Isa coming with me so that he was stretched over the length of my body, and I saw his eyes drift to Kavi and down the length of his body, admiring it blatantly.
I turned my head, taking the tip of Kavi’s cock in my mouth, and he groaned, burying his fingers in my hair. “I can’t…it won’t…” he tried to speak, the words catching in his throat as I slid my mouth down, my tongue sliding over every inch of him.
Isa was moving faster now, the muscles in his abdomen flexing, but he leaned forward, taking Kavi’s face in his hands as he drew the other man towards him. “I want to feel it when she makes you come,” he murmured, brushing his lips over Kavi’s as his hips rocked against me, bringing me closer and closer to the edge again.
Kavi groaned, his free hand gripping Isa’s bicep as I swirled my tongue over the tip of his cock again and then down again, until my nose brushed his abdomen, and I felt his hips jerk and shudder. I heard him groan, felt his fingers tighten in my hair, and then I felt him harden even more, and I moaned as I tasted him. I rolled my eyes up and saw Isa shudder as Kavi kissed him harder, his moans lost against Isa’s mouth as the orgasm washed through him, and I felt Isa bury himself inside of me then, his body bucking madly as Kavi’s reaction pushed him over the edge. I let go of Kavi as the pleasure washed over me, too, my hand still on his hip as I arched up and trembled, Isa falling forward to bury his face against my neck.
---
We lay in the pile of blankets when we had come back to ourselves, silent for a long time as we stared at the sky just beyond the cave’s mouth, the clouds beginning to part, the rain long since subsided. I felt Kavi reach for my hand, and I knew he was fearing the same thing that I did—that in the cold light o
f dawn, Isa would regret his choice. And deeper still, the fear that for us, dawn would not come, that tonight would be the night we were found.
But dawn did come, and there was no regret.
Only love.
16
Toven
In the days that had passed since I had seen—and kissed—Ravenna, I had tried to go back to my normal habits. I went to the flashier side of town, I gambled, I helped a few down-on-their-luck players turn it around, I charmed two women and one man into my bed…and I took pleasure in none of it. I could think of nothing except her, pressed against the stone wall of the bar, and the sound she had made when my lips had touched hers.
I wanted to hear her make that sound over and over and over again. I wanted to find out all the other sounds that she might make. All of the sounds that she was probably making right now, in that damned werewolf’s bed, and whoever else lived there, too.
Envy was one of the seven deadly sins, mortals said, and I could understand why. It was eating me alive.
I tossed back the rest of my scotch and ordered another, ignoring the expression on the bartender’s face. One perk of immortality was that while I could get drunk, it took much longer than it did for the average mortal.
I was on my fourth, staring morosely into the facets of the glass and thinking of turning in for the night, when I looked up and saw her.
She walked through the hotel lobby doors, looked to her left, and spotted me immediately, perched at the bar. I had never seen her in street clothes before, and it was all I could do to keep my jaw from dropping open.
She was wearing tight, dark blue jeans, a white v-neck t-shirt made of some soft cotton that clung to her, and a stonewashed denim jacket, her hair still braided away from her face. I could see her work uniform stuffed into her bag as she strode right up to me, stopping next to my barstool.
“They should just let you wear that at work,” I said before I could stop myself. “They’d sell twice the drinks.”
She eyed me, and I could tell that she was trying her damndest to keep from smiling. She succeeded, but I saw the quirk at the corner of her mouth. “That’s one way to say hello,” she replied, her voice dry.
“Do you want a drink?” I asked, nearly stumbling over the last word.
Smooth, very smooth.
For a god who had the power of charm, I was really knocking it out of the park.
“I would love one,” she said. “Whatever you’re having. Meet me at that table, over there?” She inclined her head to her right, and I nodded, glancing at the bartender. He was already fixing two more drinks.
When I turned back around, I half expected for her to be gone. She wasn’t, to my relief. She’d sat down on a velvet bench against the wall on the other side of a low table, and I met her there, setting our drinks down as I pulled up the chair across from her.
“I didn’t expect to see you,” I said as I pushed the glass of scotch towards her. “I hope you like scotch, I don’t find that many women do.”
“I do like it,” she said simply. She looked around then, taking in the décor of the hotel. “I should have expected you’d stay somewhere like this,” she said, laughing softly. “You don’t strike me as a man who enjoys the simpler things in life.”
“You might be surprised,” I said, shrugging. “I just left somewhere where things are…difficult, not long ago. A little luxury is nice, after seeing the stark opposite.”
“Makes you feel better about your place in the world?” she asked, her tone cutting. Anyone else might have been offended, but I liked it. There was nothing artificial about her. In a city full of facades and games, she was entirely, undoubtedly real.
“I suppose,” I said, looking at her carefully. “Life is easier if you know what that is, I think.”
“You might be right.” She took a sip of her scotch, and I heard her small sigh of pleasure as she swallowed it. It sent a jolt of lust through me, and I wanted to hear it again.
“And what is your place in the world?” I watched her carefully as I said it, wanting to see her reaction.
There was nothing. She had as good of a poker face as I had ever seen. “Here, for now,” she said.
“And later?”
“Who knows?” She shrugged, taking another sip of the scotch. “Does it matter?”
I set my drink down. “It matters to me,” I said quietly.
She balanced hers on her knee, eyeing me cautiously. “It shouldn’t,” she said finally. “Why should I matter to you? You don’t know me. You’ve talked to me twice in as many weeks, longer, even. You kept me from a nasty fall and kissed me behind a bar. That doesn’t mean I owe you anything.”
“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed. “But there’s something else here, Ravenna. You know that as well as I do. That’s why you’re here, after all.” I leaned back against my chair. “I told you I wouldn’t come looking for you again, and I meant it—and what’s more, you know I meant it. That’s why you came here, because you wanted to find me, and I told you where to look.”
She looked embarrassed. “I shouldn’t have come,” she said quietly, tracing the condensation on the side of her glass with one fingertip. “I don’t know why I did.”
I stood up then and walked around the table, taking a seat next to her on the bench. There was plenty of room, and I was careful not to sit too close. “You do know,” I said gently. She was silent, and I looked at her curiously. “Why are you so afraid just to say that you wanted to see me again? There’s nothing wrong about it.”
She swallowed, nodding. “I suppose you’re right. There is nothing wrong about it, strictly speaking. My relationship has no rules to speak of, we are all free to do as we wish, although to my knowledge none of us ever have in,” she stopped herself, tensing, and continued, “in a very long time.”
“So is that why? Because your lovers don’t see anyone else, and you haven’t in the time that you’ve been together, and you feel guilty?” I watched her face, but there was still nothing. She’d make a killing in this town, I thought grimly.
“Guilty, yes, but not because of that.” She took another sip of her drink, setting it down on the ornately carved wooden table in front of us harder than strictly necessary. She looked at me then, her gaze wary. “There is something else here, Toven, and that frightens me. If you were an ordinary man I could have a night with you, and there would be no harm done. But I do not think you are an ordinary man, and I think that if we have what we both want, there may be some harm done.”
What we both want. It was hard to think past the implication of those words; harder yet to think of what I ought to say after that. I felt precariously balanced, as if one right word might give me everything I wanted, and one wrong one might shatter the moment, sending her away from me forever. “What do you think I am?” I asked slowly, my pulse beating in my throat.
“I don’t know,” she said honestly. She was quiet for a moment, and then she looked up, meeting my eyes squarely. “Tell me, and we will go from there.”
I stared at her. “And what will you tell me?” I asked teasingly, stalling as my mind whirled. How can I tell her the truth? I didn’t believe for a second that she would buy that I was a god. And yet I felt that she would know if I lied, no matter how practiced I was at it. I could charm her into believing me, whatever I said but I didn’t want to do that. I wanted nothing false between us, even if it meant losing her.
“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “But tell me, and I’ll think of something.”
I hesitated for a second longer, but I could think of nothing to say but the truth. I could hear my heartbeat hammering in my ears, my throat so tight that I wondered if I would even be able to speak, to say out loud what I would never have thought I could plainly say to a mortal. And yet I could say it to her. That, in and of itself, sent a rush of emotion through me that surpassed desire and went far beyond lust. To be able to say plainly the truth of what I was, and perhaps be believed.
“I am
a god,” I said simply.
She didn’t so much as flinch. “The god of what?” she asked curiously.
I stared at her unbelievingly. “Did you hear what I said?”
“Obviously,” she said, an edge to her voice. “I asked you what you were the god of?”
My mouth was hanging open in a very unflattering way. I closed it sharply and cleared my throat. “Luck, in short,” I said simply.
“So this is an ideal place for you, then,” she said, laughing softly. “And that’s how you kept me from falling and spilling those drinks. Luck.”
“You can’t mean that you actually believe me?”
She shrugged. “Are you lying to me?”
“No, but…” I couldn’t think of what to say. “Humans hardly believe in any of the gods anymore. They don’t believe in spirits, or ghosts, or anything supernatural, and those who do rarely admit it.”
“I do,” she said flatly. “And I have good reason to.”
I raised one eyebrow. “Oh? What’s your story? Childhood haunted house? Creaking windows at night?”
“Don’t make fun of me,” she said sharply, reaching for her glass.
“You’re right,” I acquiesced. “I’m sorry. It’s just…most people would have laughed at me for saying I was a god. Called the police on me, maybe, thinking I’m insane. They wouldn’t believe me.”
“I like scotch and I believe you’re a god.” She shrugged. “Maybe I’m just religious.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I don’t think it’s that. If you were, you wouldn’t believe me then, either. Hardly anyone believes in the pantheon, even if they do believe in something.”
Her expression didn’t waver, and I felt my breath catch in my throat. She did believe me. It sent both a wave of relief and fresh curiosity crashing through me—the relief of being believed, of being taken at face value, and fresh curiosity over who—or what—she might be. No ordinary woman would have believed me so simply, I knew that in my bones. And yet—Nathan had said she was a mortal woman.
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