Consort of Thorns

by Eva Chase

  I nodded, my jaw working. Apparently this was a day of my former friends attempting to make amends. I hadn’t offered Gabriel anything in return, but maybe it was only fair that I admitted to Seth: “Yeah. Well. You might have had point. Just a bit of one.”

  It was Seth’s turn to lift an eyebrow. I glowered at him. At the same time, I couldn’t help thinking about Silvio’s guy and his insinuating comments… About the look on Rose’s face when she’d confronted me about how I’d set up Derek for that beating… My tongue loosened.

  “I don’t suppose the whole electrician assistant thing is still on offer?”

  “Do you actually want to give it a shot?” Seth asked.

  I looked at the ground, at my scuffed-up sneakers. It might be kind of cool, actually, learning how to channel electricity. Working with that wiring… There were a lot worse things. Was it really any better shifting stolen crap around for Silvio?

  Didn’t Rose deserve a guy with a job she could actually tell people about?

  “Yeah,” I said, raising my head. “Kind of stupid to pass up an opportunity like that, right?”

  The smile I’d thought I’d seen before came back. “I don’t think there’s any good way for me to answer that. I’ll talk to Mr. Lewis and let you know.”

  “Thanks.” I shifted my weight from foot to foot. It felt right to extend a little more of a peace offering than that. “You know where I’m going… Do you want to come? I’m pretty sure she won’t mind the extra, ah, company.”

  Seth blinked at me as if he couldn’t believe I’d been that generous. Just before I started to get annoyed, his smile widened into a grin. “Sure. I think I’ll do that.”

  Rose was waiting by the pond when we made it there, the breeze ruffling her dark hair. She turned at the rasping of our feet through the brush and let out a relieved breath, seeing me. Then her gaze found Seth. She shot me a questioning look.

  “I ran into this guy on the way over,” I said. “What is it Jin likes to say? The more, the merrier?”

  “Fine by me,” Rose said, the corners of her lips quirking up. “Hold on.”

  We stopped a few feet from the edge of the pond while she rotated on her feet there, weaving her hands through the air in that eerie dance that made the hairs on the back of my neck rise even as it sent a bolt of desire through me. What a fucking woman my consort was.

  “All right,” she said. “No one should come out this way any time soon.” She stepped toward us, and I moved forward, drawn like a magnet.

  She kissed me first, so long and lingering I almost forgot I did need to get some talking in before we moved on to any other activities. Then she turned to Seth. He stroked his hand over her cheek and leaned in with a tenderness that made me feel weirdly off-balance.

  I should be jealous that he got to have her as much as I did. But some part of me was glad she had a guy who clearly worshipped her as much as I did, just in some ways I wasn’t as good at yet.

  She needed me, but she needed him too. She needed all of us.

  She leaned into him as she looked back at me, his arm still around her. “What was it you needed to tell me?” she asked. “Why were you worried someone might be tracing your movements with magic?”

  “Well, I had a little visit from Mr. Cortland today.”

  Rose’s eyes widened as I recounted my conversation with the asshole and his accomplice, her jaw tightening when I repeated the insults he’d thrown at me. “I kept my cool,” I finished up. “I think I convinced them I had nothing to do with the phone getting stolen or with you. But… I figured it didn’t hurt to be careful. And I don’t know how much he’s keeping an eye on you too.”

  “Maybe more than I realized. The way you described the woman with him… That sounds like our new estate manager.” Rose rubbed her mouth. “Of course, it wouldn’t be strange for him to ask my dad for help with his missing phone, or for Dad to ask her to go do it… But yeah. I don’t like it.”

  “What do you think our next steps should be?” Seth asked.

  “For you guys? Nothing, right now,” Rose said. “Keep acting as if everything’s normal. But be extra cautious if you see him around. I’m… I’m going to be talking to my dad tonight. I’ll know the whole truth one way or the other by then.” She paused and sucked in a breath. “That’s partly why I wanted to see you. I’d like to have as much power as I can stored up, in case things go wrong. If you don’t mind, ah, contributing.”

  The reason was dire, but the understanding of what she meant stirred up that flame of desire inside me anyway. I stepped right up to her, setting my hand on her side just below Seth’s arm. The warmth of her, the heat that flared in her dark green eyes, was too delicious for me to ever imagine resisting it.

  This, this part I was good at.

  “Take everything you need, angel,” I said, and bent my head to kiss the side of her neck.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Rose

  I tipped my head to the side as Damon marked a scorching path down my neck, and Seth was right there, ready to meet my mouth with his. As their heat enveloped my body, my spark shot up through my chest with a fresh rush of energy. The magic sizzled through me alongside the bronze-y scent of Seth's skin and the hum of pleasure in Damon's throat as he reached my collarbone.

  He didn’t stop there. In one swift movement, he yanked down the straps of my tank top and my bra, baring my breasts almost all the way to the nipples. A sigh stuttered out of me as his mouth continued downward.

  Seth claimed my mouth even more deeply. As his tongue slicked over mine, the arm he’d looped around my waist slid up under my shirt. With a flick, he undid my bra completely. His other hand stroked up over my belly to tease the underside of my breast.

  His thumb reached my pebbling nipple at the same time Damon’s lips did on the other side. Damon grazed his teeth over the peak of that breast and Seth swiveled his thumb, and a whimper broke from my throat. Flames of pleasure washed through every nerve. I was drowning in sensation and soaring on it all at the same time.

  A jolt of need that had nothing to do with my spark spiked up from my core. I ran my hand down Seth’s chest to cup the bulge straining his fly. He groaned against my mouth. Then he was tearing his lips from mine to tug my top right off me. It and my bra dropped to the ground with a faint thump.

  Damon captured my mouth, squeezing my nipple between his fingers at the same time. Pleasure raced through my chest. I whimpered, and he took the opportunity to tangle his tongue with mine.

  Seth nibbled his way down my chest, stopping to slick his tongue over my breast. He lingered there until I moaned, lost in the pleasure the guys were provoking together. Then he continued on, down, down, his fingers hooking around the waist of my jeans and easing along the sensitive skin of my belly to the snap. Without hesitation, he popped it open and peeled them off me. He nuzzled the front of my panties, his nose brushing my clit.

  “If you taste half as good as you smell, this is going to be heaven,” he said in a rough voice.

  “She’s heaven, all right,” Damon said. He played with one nipple and then the other as his other hand teased down my back to squeeze my ass. His fingers dipped between my legs from behind. I gasped as he tested the damp fabric between my legs.

  “God, angel,” he said with a groan. “So fucking ready.”

  I whimpered in agreement, pressing my lips to his again. Seth kissed me through my panties and then yanked them down to devour me skin to skin. A cry wrenched out of me as he swiped his tongue over my clit. My spark blazed and pleasure swelled, singing through my veins.

  I reached for Damon to pay him back in kind. He pressed his erection against my eager hand. “That’s right,” he muttered. “Oh, fuck.”

  Every caress of Seth’s mouth against my sex was building the wave of bliss inside me, but I already knew that wasn’t going to be enough to satisfy me. I curled my fingers into his short, tawny waves and tugged him up for another kiss, lips to lips. Damon slid his hand ar
ound my thigh to finger my clit and then dip inside my opening. I rocked against his hand, still kissing Seth. My own hand fumbled with Damon’s jeans.

  He jerked them open and stepped out of them, kicking them and his boxers to the side. My fingers closed around the silky skin of his rigid cock. He made a strangled sound as I stroked him from base to tip. The head of his cock was already slick with precum.

  “You want this?” he said, and plunged his fingers even deeper inside me. “You want it here?”

  I whimpered in agreement and turned from Seth to lock gazes with Damon. “As deep as you can go, as hard as you can go.”

  Lust flared in his eyes. “What the lady wants, the lady will get. Bend over, angel.”

  We ended up on the ground, on a thick patch of softly tangled grass. I tugged at Seth’s jeans, and he stripped them off. “Rose?” he said.

  “Sit down. I want you too.”

  I urged him down in front of me. Damon knelt behind me. He rubbed the head of his cock over my sex. I lowered my head over Seth’s jutting erection, taking it all the way to the back of my throat. Then Damon drove into me, filling me, stretching me, so every nerve inside me quavered with bliss.

  It was some kind of heaven, all right. The salty musky taste of Seth in my mouth, twitching as I swirled my tongue around his length. Damon’s cock searing pleasure into me with every thrust. He gripped my hips with one hand and tucked the other around to finger my clit as he rammed into me again, as hard as I’d asked for. My spark blazed through every pore with the cresting pleasure.

  Seth wove his fingers into my hair, supporting my head. His hips rocked in time with the bob of my head. His breath was ragged, his hold trembling as I sucked him harder.

  I had that power. I could make this controlled, careful man come apart.

  “Rose,” he murmured. “I’m going to— You don’t have to—”

  Oh, but I wanted to. So badly. I clamped my lips even tighter around him, dragging my tongue all up his length, and his cock spasmed with a salty flood at the back of my mouth. As I swallowed, Damon gave my clit a pinch that sent an electric jolt of pleasure through my core. I shuddered, so close to my peak. So desperate for it.

  Seth eased my head up to kiss me on the mouth. He stroked my breasts as Damon tweaked my clit again, thrusting even harder. I dipped lower, shifting the angle, and Damon’s cock plunged against that perfect spot of pleasure.

  My spark crackled like a firework. I came with a cry, toes curling and body shaking. Seth held my shoulders and Damon clutched my hips, driving even harder, even faster, sending the flames inside me searing even higher. A gasp slipped out of me, and that first orgasm tumbled into another, even stronger. Stars danced behind my eyes.

  “You’re the best I ever had,” Damon said in a choked voice. “I could never want anyone else, not while I have you.”

  A groan spilled out of him, and his cock spilled after, a hot rush inside me. He rocked to a stop, bending over me. The kiss he pressed to my spine was so gentle after the furor of our coming together that it almost made me come all over again.

  I rolled over to sprawl between my guys, pressing a kiss to Damon’s shoulder. “Do you always get sappy when you’re about to come, or is that something special just for me?”

  A halting chuckle tumbled out of him. “There’s never been anyone else who’s made me feel sappy, angel,” he said. He tilted my chin up to claim my mouth, and Seth scooted closer against my back. Magic thrummed through me as if I were made of it.

  Then the clearing of a throat several feet away turned my blood to ice.

  I scrambled up, instinctively grabbing my tank top. The guys leapt to their feet to shield me.

  A tall figure with sandy blond hair was stepping out from behind one of the trees on the other side of the pond. My former fiancé looked us over, his eyes dark amid his fading bruises and his cheeks a little flushed. His lips pulled back in a sneer.

  “So this is what all those walks in the woods were really about.”

  “What the hell are you doing here?” I snapped. Panic was clanging through my body. I wrenched the top over my head and groped for my panties, an unpleasant burn prickling my skin at the thought of Derek seeing me naked. At the thought that he might already have seen a whole lot more than just that. How had he gotten past the spell I’d cast?

  “I thought I’d try a little walking myself. Clear my head. Then I saw you heading out here looking very purposeful, so I decided I’d see exactly what you were up to. Good thing I did.” He folded his arms over his chest. “I think I’ve seen enough.”

  He turned on his heel to head back toward the house—to do what? Tell my dad? Call the Assembly? My heart lurched.

  But he hadn’t broken through my magic. He’d simply already been inside the area I’d closed off when I’d cast the spell. I had plenty more power at my disposal.

  “Stop!” I said, with a flick of my hand. Derek’s legs jarred as his feet froze in place. His head jerked around to aim a glare at me, but his expression just sent a wave of angry heat through me.

  Who the hell was he to try to claim some kind of moral high ground? Who the hell was he at all?

  This was done. He’d seen us. So it was time he found out exactly who I was.

  “Rose,” Damon started, his glower still fixed on my ex-fiancé.

  I shook my head as I tugged on my jeans. “I’ll deal with him. Everything will be just fine.”

  Derek laughed. “You think so? How much can your spark be lit from these clowns? They’re not even witching folk, are they?”

  Damon all but bared his teeth, and Seth’s hands clenched. But I strode right past them, right up to Derek, stopping just a few feet away. Fury churned in my stomach. It must have shown in my gaze too, because the arrogance in Derek’s expression faltered.

  “Don’t try me,” I said, letting my magic crackle into my voice. “My consorts have given me more than you ever could have.”

  Derek’s eyes widened. “Your consorts?”

  “But let’s not talk about that,” I said. “Let’s talk about you. Where should we start? Maybe with Polly? Exactly how witching is she? What did you get out of those little liaisons, other than your dick wet?”

  His jaw twitched and then firmed. “I don’t think you’re in any position to complain when—

  “Sure,” I said, cutting him off. “We’ll skip the ‘who betrayed who first’ argument. Because I have a contract that shows it was definitely you, months before we even got to this estate. What bothers you more, Derek? The fact that you didn’t get to claim my body or that you won’t get to take over my magic?”

  The color drained from my ex-fiancé’s face behind the bruises. He didn’t seem to have anything to say about that.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I know. And you’re not getting one shred of my magic—if you still thought you had any chance of it now that Celestine is gone. Did you expect this to still somehow work out in your favor? That my dad would arrange it for you?”

  I tried not to put any special emphasis on that last line, not to give away how much I still needed that confirmation, one way or the other. Derek wet his lips, his gaze darting from me to the guys who’d come up behind me and back again.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I was committed. I was going to see the consorting through, however it turned out.”

  “And what did my father think about that?”

  “What would he think?” Derek shot back. “It was all Celestine. He had no idea about anything except the regular consorting.”

  A tight band of worry that had been wrapped around my gut released. Dad had nothing to do with it. I’d gotten worried again with Celestine’s “accident,” with Mrs. Gainsley going around helping Master Cortland, that he was involved somehow.

  But maybe the crash had been an accident—or if it hadn’t been, someone had pulled the strings without Dad knowing. I’d bet Master Cortland had been worried Celestine would turn him in for his assistance if she were caught
. He’d already been in contact with people who’d arranged for “problems” like that to be solved in murderous fashion before. Blaming him made more sense anyway.

  “Great,” I said to Derek. “Then we’d better fill him in on all the details of your crimes. We can go have a word with him right now.” But I couldn’t let him reveal what he knew about my consorts. I had to bring that to Dad in my own time. And the last thing I wanted was anyone in the Assembly finding out.

  “You won’t say anything about what you saw out here, though,” I added. “Nothing about my behavior or my magic or who may have kindled it.”

  Derek scowled. “All right,” he said hesitantly.

  I stepped closer. “Of course, I can’t just take your word for it. So why don’t you have a taste of that magic you wanted so much?” I gathered my power in my throat and poured it into my voice. “You, Derek Conwyn, will never communicate anything you saw me say or do here at the pond, or the implications of anything you saw or heard, or make any indication of those things to anyone. Accept.”

  “I accept,” he croaked, the words driven from his mouth by my magic. It hissed in the air between us and clamped around his mind, seeing my will be done.

  I left him there, his feet still frozen to the ground, and turned to Seth and Damon. “You’d better leave. I’ll let you know as soon as this is over.”

  “If there’s anything we can do by staying…” Seth said.

  “No. One thing at a time.”

  I brushed a kiss to both of their mouths. Damon held me a moment longer. “Don’t give him an inch,” he muttered.

  “Not planning on it,” I said. “You stay safe too.”

  As they faded back into the woods, I made a motion to release Derek’s feet and bind him at a safe distance from me. He’d have to follow me to the manor, but he couldn’t get close enough to hurt me.

  “Let’s get this over with,” I said. “The moment I never have to see your face again can’t come too soon.”