by Maia Dylan
Chapter Thirteen
Josie was lost in a sea of sensation. She had no real recollection of she came to be back inside the pride house and lying naked on their bed, but here she was. Liam was kissing her senseless, licking into her mouth and claiming every inch of it as his own while Kieran’s attention was a little further south.
“Oh, God!” she cried out, ripping her mouth from Liam’s as Kieran sucked her clit into his mouth. She felt her whole body start to shake as he flicked his tongue over the swollen nub, driving her insane with how good it felt.
“Is Kieran making you feel good, kitten?” Liam murmured in her ear, moments before he bit gently on her earlobe.
“Y-yes,” she panted, no ounce of embarrassment at the arousal and need that echoed in her voice. “That feels so good!”
“You taste fucking amazing,” Kieran growled, never moving back from her so that she felt the movements of his lips and the puffs of air against her swollen, sensitive flesh. “I want to feel you come on my tongue, Josie.”
Josie had a moment to draw in a deep breath, then lost the ability to think when he put his mouth back on her. He used his tongue, his teeth, and just the right amount of suction to have her lifting her hips from the bed.
“Bloody hell,” Liam whispered, and when she looked up at him, his gaze was focused completely on her. “Go over, love. I want to watch your face as you give yourself completely to your mates.”
Josie felt the rush of her approaching orgasm slam into her, and she fought to keep her eyes open and her gaze on Liam, wanting him to feel a part of this moment, too. The moment was the most erotic and sensual of her life, and Liam must have felt the same way because he moved forward, claiming her mouth with his own, and sliding his right hand up her torso to grip her breast. Josie moaned into his mouth as the last explosions of her release rocked her.
When Liam finally released her so she could draw in air, she could scent her own arousal on the air in the room. Kieran continued to lick her slowly, keeping the fires of her arousal burning and growling his own pleasure against her.
“Please,” Josie whispered, not flinching from the desperation she heard in her own voice.
Despite having just come so hard the very foundations of her world had been rocked, she wanted more. She needed more. Proving that her mates were very much in tune with her, they moved in unison. Kieran slid from between her thighs with one last, biting kiss to the inside of her thigh as Liam moved off the bed completely.
She giggled when Liam gripped her ankles and tugged her off the mattress.
“The was the fucking hottest thing I have ever seen,” Liam all but growled as he sat on the end of the bed, tucking her against his hips and sliding into her all in a move that had Josie gasping even as she wrapped her arms around her lover and clenched her inner muscles against his cock.
“Christ!” Liam roared as he fell back against the mattress, pushing his hips up to drive himself in and out of her pussy. “Do too much of that, kitten, and this will be over before it’s begun.”
“No, it fucking won’t,” Kieran growled from behind her as Liam continued to fuck her in smooth, steady strokes, and she moved with him to increase the pleasure for both of them. “You will wait until I get inside our mate and we can show her what it is like to be the sexual focus of her mates at the same damn time.”
Liam growled against her neck, his fingers clenching on her hips almost convulsively. “Goddamn Alpha and his bloody orders. Fine! Then hurry the feck up, you bastard. Watching her shatter like that has me on the edge.”
Kieran laughed, the raspy sound filling the room. “Imagine what it felt like to have her quivering on your tongue and you’ll know my pain. Now, man the fuck up and stop being a pansy cub. Get some stamina. I have a feeling our mate is going to need that from both of us.”
Josie grinned, nodding in agreement and listened as Liam called his cousin a few unsavory things. This camaraderie and laughter during sex was not something she had ever experienced before, nor had she expected it, but she loved it.
“Just a little cold, sweetness,” Kieran’s said as something cold and wet landed against her ass. Josie gasped at the sensation, then moaned as Kieran used his fingers to spread the lubricant around her back entrance, pushing his fingers in a little way to ensure she was completely coated. “I want to make sure you’ll feel nothing but pleasure from this because we want you to enjoy this.”
“We really want you to love it, Josie-girl,” Liam added, and Josie heard the hope in his tone.
She would have ribbed him about it but lost her train of thought again as Kieran added another finger to his ministrations, working his fingers in and out of her, and the flashes of sensation it sparked within her had her moving with his fingers.
“I think our mate likes having her ass played with, Liam,” Kieran said, and there was no missing the joy in his voice.
Josie felt her body release a hot wave of moisture as the double stimulation of Liam’s cock buried within her pussy and Kieran’s fingers in her ass took her arousal to a whole new level.
Liam groaned out loud, his hips flicking up a few times in reaction. “Holy Mother of God, from the way our mate just released that hot, sweet cream of hers I’d have to agree. Shite! You’d better get this show on the road, Kieran, or you’ll miss the final act!”
She heard Kieran growl something about patience, but froze when she felt the blunt head of his cock pressing against her. “Push out against me, sweetness.” Josie concentrated on his voice, forcing herself to relax and follow his instructions. “That’s it, sweetness, that is so fucking it.” Josie gasped when she felt Kieran push past the tight ring of muscle and slide into her ass. “Fuck, that feels so fucking good.”
Kieran’s voice was more growl than anything, and with a few short thrusts of his hips, Josie felt him bottom out with her, his hips nestled tightly to her butt.
She felt a wet, open-mouthed kiss pressed between her shoulder blades. “You have me, Josie. You have every inch of me. Which is only fair because you’ve had my heart and soul from the moment we met.”
Josie let a sob escape as she reached back to lay her palm against Kieran’s thigh. “I love you, too.” She looked down into Liam’s lust-glazed eyes, reveling in the love that shimmered there as he gazed up at her. “I love you both—so damn much.”
“Hold on, sweetness.” Kieran’s voice shook. “I’m going to try to be gentle, but I don’t know how long I can be.”
Josie inhaled as he drew back, then pressed inside her again in a smooth move. “Don’t hold back. I want you. Both of you, and I want to know what it feels like to have you both. Take me. Fuck me!”
Those were the last coherent words she was able to utter for a while as both her men took her at her word and began to move into her, taking her harder, faster, and at first in perfect unison. But as the tsunami of pleasure rushed toward her, she recognized that both of them had lost their synchronicity and were slamming into her with abandon. This was the moment she’d dreamed about, Liam and Kieran both losing control over her. It was in these moments, when a woman is at her most vulnerable, that she realizes the power she holds over her lovers, and that realization simply added to her release when it finally hovered just out of reach.
“Open yourself to the bond, Josie,” Kieran growled as he continued to move. “I want you to feel what you do to me. What you are to us!”
Josie screamed as she tumbled into her release, shuddering and shaking between her men, her lovers, vaguely aware that they roared their completion moments after hers. She then opened herself up to the bond that connected her so completely to them both. When the wave of white-hot emotions that slammed down the bond and rolled over her, she threw back her head and screamed a second time.
She was loved. Josie knew that the depth of her love and what she felt for her men was like nothing she could ever quantify or explain, but she had no clue that it was reciprocated. She saw how fiercely Kieran loved her, how she w
as the most important person in his life, even over his beloved pride, and was left reeling at how much Liam cherished who she was. They were perfect for each other, they completed each other, and she would never doubt how much they loved her, and knew they could never deny her love for them.
As the pleasurable grip of her orgasm finally let her go, she slumped forward, falling onto Liam’s sweat-soaked chest, heartened to feel that he was gasping for air just as much as she was. When Kieran lay across her back, she grinned at the feel of his heated breath rushing across the sensitive skin of her back, telling her he was just as winded.
“Do you see now, sweetness?” Kieran said breathlessly. “I know that you’ve wondered or feared that you might not be enough for us, but can you see what you are to us now.”
“You’re everything, Josie-girl,” Liam murmured.
Josie felt that last sliver of darkness within her that she hadn’t even know existed burst beneath the bright white of their love. Josie Cadman was mated to two dominant lion shifters, and she was exactly what they needed. It turned out they were exactly what she was looking for, too, even when she had no clue she had been searching for them.
****
Kieran lay in the semi-dark of dawn, watching his mate sleep where she lay pressed tight to his side, with Liam crowded against her back. She had given him and Liam everything she had to give and more, and he was humbled by it. He had no idea what he had done in his life to warrant such a mate, but he would be forever thankful for it.
“Rossi’s not going to stop coming at us,” Liam said quietly.
Kieran sighed and looked at him over his mate’s shoulder. “I know. And from what Kamon and Rune were saying today, Vincent Caruso is heading this way, too. Which means our mate is going to be placed in the line of fire once more because of me.”
Liam huffed a quiet laugh. “It’s not just you, Kieran. Rossi’s out for my blood, too. When I took the contract to take you out, there was no out clause. Not until one of us ended you. He’s gonna come hard and fast at both of us.”
Kieran knew Liam was right. Criminals like Santiago, Rossi, and Caruso had a code. Hard to believe considering how immoral they were, and the devastation they wrought on innocent people, but even Mafia had a code. Liam had broken that code when he stepped away from the contract, and for whatever reason, this Caruso guy had it in for Kieran. He just had to try to think what the connection was. A vague memory floated into his mind, one from around the time when Santiago’s men first started vying for control of Chicago. Crime had risen sharply in the city, and women and children were going missing. Kieran’s father had been beside himself trying to find a way to put a stop to it all. There was this one man, a young Italian man who—
“If you two are going to love me into unconsciousness, could you think a little quieter afterwards?” Josie said in a sleepy tone.
Kieran laughed as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Sorry, sweetness. Now that the bond is open between us, it makes sense that you will capture thoughts and images from us.”
Josie snuggled a little closer, and Kieran’s lion practically purred within him.
“No, it’s okay,” Josie said on a sigh. “When my parents were killed, I figured I would never have a connection with anyone ever again. Or even be open to the thought of losing someone again. But you guys make the risk worth it. What my mother told the man who killed them rings true.”
Kieran froze. “What?”
Picking up on his sudden tension, Josie moved back to look up at him with a slight frown on her face. “My parents were killed on their anniversary. One, ironically, I had demanded they go out and celebrate because we had all been dealing with my sister Darla’s disappearance. They were walking in Loyola Park after dinner.”
Kieran’s blood ran cold. “Jesus.”
Josie nodded, her expression grim, and Liam frowned. “What am I missing here, guys?”
“Santiago moved against my father in a big way ten years ago. It started with a turf war that took place in Loyola Park.” Kieran could heart the strain in his own voice. “A lot of good men and women, shifters and non-shifters alike, lost their lives in that park. It was war in the city that night.”
“It was,” Josie said sadly. “And my parents were in the thick of it. They called me to tell me how dinner was, and so that I wouldn’t be worried about them. I was on the phone when the riot and fighting began in the park. My parents ran, but never dropped the phone. I could hear the shouting, and growling, and gunshots. My father cried out, and I think he might have fallen or was s-shot. My mother screamed his name, and then she, too, cried out in pain. I heard this man laugh before he ridiculed my mom for lying over my father. Risking her life for his. My mother told him that love was worthy of any risk. Then I heard the shot that killed them both.”
“Fuck,” Kieran growled, tugging her closer to him, not knowing which of them was trembling more. “I was there that day, too, baby. I am so sorry I couldn’t save them.”
Josie sniffed, tears falling down her soft cheeks, his heart cracking further with each one that fell. “Although I appreciate the sentiment, don’t be ridiculous. You would have been fighting and trying to save the city. You had no clue that two innocent humans were caught in the crossfire, let alone they were the parents of a woman who’d one day become your mate.”
Kieran exhaled shakily. “I am still sorry, but we are connected through loss in that day. I lost my dad in that fight, too.”
The two of them cried for the loss of their parents while Liam stayed silent, a stoic force of strength and support that ironically, they both needed. There was still so much they didn’t know about their enemies, but whatever that memory was, if was connected to this Caruso or not, it would come to him. It always did. According to the ESE they had a few days before Caruso would make it to the city, so there was time.
Chapter Fourteen
Time was running out. Rossi was no fool. He knew that if Murphy and that Riccitelli bitch were still alive when Caruso arrived in a little over twenty-four hours, then his life was forfeit. Not for the first time since he stepped foot into this city, he cursed that dumb shit Santiago. If that asshole had drowned his bitch daughter at birth none of this shit would be on him.
He missed New York. He wanted to go back and continue with his own damn life, but that would not be possible if he didn’t see this through. Reaching out, he pressed the button that would call his guards into his office and stood when the four of them stepped into the room.
“We’re moving on both Murphy and Riccitelli,” he said as he stepped out from behind his desk. “Now.”
All four of them nodded, their eyes flashing with the love of violence he fostered in the men that worked for him.
“You have a plan, boss?” Enzo, his oldest and most skilled guard, was the one to ask that question, and it wasn’t surprising. Out of all his men, there was a reason he’d lasted longer than any of the others. He was smarter and meaner than most.
“We’ll attack the bitch first,” he said as he reached for the large wall safe that housed his own stash of weapons. “While Murphy’s abominations are scrambling to get to her, and keep her safe, I want three of the street gangs loyal to us to start a war on the streets. Everywhere you look I want to see fighting, and blood, and death. I want there to be absolute mayhem on the streets of Chicago.”
“You want us to lead the assault on the woman’s building?” Enzo asked, reaching for his phone, no doubt to start gathering the troops. “I figure Murphy will go straight there to help protect her, so we can get two birds with one stone. We’ll have the advantage because we’ll surround the place and see the bastard coming.”
“No, send those crazy shifter bastards. Let’s see if they were worth the coin I dropped on getting them both.” Rossi closed his safe and turned back toward his men, sliding his weapons into the purpose-built holsters beneath his jacket. “And don’t worry about Murphy. That big bastard is not going to put up a fight. In fact, he’s
going to come to me, no weapons, no claws, and welcome the swift death I’m going to pretend I’m gonna grant him.”
Enzo frowned in confusion. “I’m not sure I understand.”
Brett and Hugh were gone, but the bastards weren’t a complete waste of money. Their last report to him gave him a pawn in the game that would definitely turn the advantage in his direction.
Rossi sneered. “We won’t have to lift a fucking finger to get that bastardo. While the pride and the rest of the city are fighting on the streets, we’re going straight to their fucking den and taking the one thing Murphy will surrender for.”
Enzo grinned, an expression that was more bloodlust than humor. “That sounds like a plan. And if that Irish asshole’s there?”
“Then we get the added pleasure of killing that prick, too. A hundred grand to the man who can bring me his head. I’ve always wanted to mount a lion’s head above the fireplace in my den. All going well, but the end of this day, I’ll have two.”
****
Josie stepped from the shower and reached for the towel she’d hung over the rail in the massive bathroom. As she moved, she could feel muscles she had never known she had protest, and the memory of the reason why had her smiling. Her mates had reached for her a few times during the night, and in the spirit of equality, she had done her fair share of reaching, too. There was a certain heady freedom in being able to reach, touch, and kiss her men whenever she felt like it. They were hers, and she was theirs, and nothing was off limits.
At that thought, the moment her mates had taken her at the same time, and she had opened herself to their bond came to mind, and she shivered. She had never understood what Violet had meant when she talked about being bonded to Mason and Jacob on more than just the physical realm, but she got it now. The mating bond connected the three of them on a level she hadn’t even been aware of.
