by Ophelia Bell
Her head bobbed on his cock and he made out the slightest nod and another low moan that he interpreted as an eager yes. She sucked him with renewed vigor as he finger-fucked her backside. Her body shook with the pleasure of his attention, but hopefully she’d only hover at the edge without going over as long as he steered clear of her clit. Suddenly her ass tightened and she pulled away, slipping her lips off his cock.
“Too much,” she gasped. “Want to make you come. Want to taste you.”
“Be my guest,” he said, removing his fingers from her and straightening up to look down his torso at her pretty mouth descending on his cock once more. The sight itself was orgasm-inducing, and it only took her a few more strokes before she had him at the edge. He rumbled her name in barely coherent syllables, growling low in his throat when she cupped his balls. He tensed when she ventured beyond, a slick finger probing at the tight flesh just in front of his own rear opening.
The ecstasy of awareness shot through his body, and it was all he could do not to come just from the gentle exploration she’d embarked on. He hadn’t asked for this, but now that she was intent on going there, he wanted it like he couldn’t believe. He shifted his stance just enough, spreading his legs for her. She found the sensitive opening a second later, her finger probing lightly.
“Baby, the second you go in, I’m shooting everything I have right down your throat. Just fair warning.”
Her eyes widened with excitement and she seemed to smile at his acknowledgment of her adventure. She sucked harder, drawing a groan from him, and a second later her finger pushed past the sensitive barrier of his ass. Pleasure shot through his body at the long-missed contact, and true to his word he let loose, crying out as his balls tightened and his orgasm exploded from his cock.
Lights danced behind his eyes as she continued to suck him dry, her fingertip barely breaching his ass, but teasing in and out nonetheless in a maddeningly delicious rhythm. When she eased off him and sat up, he crumpled bonelessly into the chair, returning her curious look of amusement with a crooked smile.
“You’re right, you do taste different,” she said, licking her lips. “You taste like some kind of juicy, exotic fruit. Kiwis maybe, but not quite. His flavor is more like mint.”
Taking a deep breath, Neph gathered his attention to her words and nodded. “That sounds about right. You taste like apricots, by the way, as long as we’re comparing.”
She shifted around and sat up, dangling her legs off the edge of the table so they hung between his splayed knees, her shins brushing his thighs. She chewed on her lip and darted her gaze to the side, a cute tell that she wanted to ask a question she was embarrassed about.
“What is it?” he asked, leaning forward and resting his hands at her hips.
“So, what I did that time … was it something he likes?”
He sat back with a chuckle. “Kitten, there’s nothing you can do that he won’t love. As for that … yes, he does particularly enjoy that. Even more if it’s this that’s doing it …” He gripped his half-hard cock and pointed it at her. “At least once upon a time, he did.” He frowned, wondering if Aodh still enjoyed the same things after all this time. Was he truly being faithful to his old lover’s quirks? He hadn’t seen the man in forever, after all.
“I can’t imagine I’d stop enjoying that. But then I haven’t been properly fucked yet, so maybe that’s just a substitute. Will you really both be able to … you know. Will he mind sharing, do you think?”
She was straying into complicated territory he wasn’t quite ready to deal with yet. Keeping her on track, he said, “He’s your claimed mate. The better question is whether you mind sharing him with me. I won’t lie … we didn’t part on great terms. What he and I had was special, but I won’t pretend he’ll welcome me with open arms. If you want us both, you just have to say so and he’ll eventually come around.”
Her brows twitched and she gave him a dubious look. “How could he not still love you, after what you’re doing to help him?”
“I doubt it’s as simple as whether he loves me or not. Fate had a hand in what happened between us. I didn’t exactly handle things well because appearances mattered too much when we were together before. We couldn’t just be together. Not without undermining the power we had as rulers of our races. We made a bad decision and suffered the consequences.”
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to hold her steady gaze. She had the most serious look on her face, and for a split-second, he worried he’d said too much.
“I think you’re full of shit,” she finally said.
His eyebrows shot up and his mouth fell open in a surprised laugh. “What?”
“Listen … I’m not dumb enough to not know you’re Neph wearing an Aodh suit right now. I’m also not dumb enough to not realize your sister locked you out and banished Aodh for a damn good reason. She wasn’t exactly forthcoming about it when I talked to her, but Assana kept insisting her mother wasn’t always like that, and that she didn’t feel like she could adequately fill her mother’s shoes. I haven’t been in this world for very long, but I have paid attention.”
Neph sat up straighter in his chair and nodded. “All right, fair enough. Tell me what you know.”
“Not enough.” She gave him a sheepish shrug. “But I don’t want to wait until I inherit the spirit of Summer in a few months to learn what I need to know. All I can guess is that somehow you and Aodh are tangled up with this elusive enemy we have. The Ultiori or whoever leads them … I keep getting mixed up details. Something called a Lamia, which is chilling if that means what I think it does. Or there’s someone named Mary?”
“Meri … like the ocean, and yes, the Lamia moniker is as terrifying as it sounds. She survives by drinking the blood of potential hosts and stealing their bodies afterward.”
Vrishti grimaced and shivered, the sticky red substance that coated her skin seemed more macabre suddenly. “So why did Nyx do what she did? Why did she put Aodh in that prison?”
“Because Meri wants him as a host. Or she wanted him once. She was one of us. A nymph. When Aodh and I were together, we wanted a third to keep up appearances. She was going to be that for us.”
“You needed a beard to hide your gay relationship.”
He frowned. “I don’t see what facial hair has to do with it, and our relationship was plenty lively when we were together. We loved each other.”
Her mouth quirked to the side and she regarded him for a moment.
“How old are you?” she finally asked.
He blinked at her. “Ah … older than I look?”
“Neph, my own mother says she gave birth to me when she was almost five hundred years old. I know we live a long time.”
“I’m about as old as any gods you’ve heard of. I was many of those gods, at one point or another, when I was younger. So was Aodh.”
She shook her head in mild irritation. “You’re a little out of touch is all I’m getting at. I was born at the end of the twentieth century, and raised in the human world. Where I come from, you and Aodh were in a homosexual relationship—a secret one—and you needed a female for legitimacy. I take it that plan backfired.”
Understanding dawned on him and he smiled. “Yeah, that’s pretty close, except I wouldn’t classify us as homosexual. We’re pansexual. We enjoy sex with all genders, all races. Always have. We just happened to fall in love with each other.” More like Fate made them fall in love with each other, then spent the next three thousand years fucking with them.
His heart thudded heavily in his chest at the other unspoken sentiment he’d nearly blurted out on the tail end of his explanation. He’d never deny that he loved Aodh and had never stopped loving him, but that empty hole in his heart beside the one Aodh owned was already swiftly being filled by this lovely, syrup-coated ursa female before him. He almost admitted that he’d fallen in love with her too.
He slouched back in his chair and swiped his hands over his face, simultaneously shedding the dragon disguise he wore. She didn’t seem the least bit fazed by the transformation, which gave him a little confidence to stick with honesty.
“Meri tricked him and stole his body. She told him I wanted to blood meld with the two of them … something nymphaea only do when they’re deeply in love and wish to demonstrate that love with a permanent bond.”
“You two didn’t love her.”
“Not even close. She was a means to an end, and one we hadn’t even decided on yet. I had an obligation to produce children and believed she’d be a good mother. That was all. We had no idea she had another agenda until it was too late. After it happened, Aodh had to leave the Haven and never return. And I had to stay.”
“No farewell kiss, I take it?”
“It was a rather abrupt parting, and we haven’t seen or spoken to each other since. That was more than three thousand years ago.”
“Whoa, all right. That’s just a little beyond my ability to comprehend.” She fidgeted with her hands at the edge of the table, her lower lip disappearing behind her front teeth.
He sat forward and gave her an earnest look. “Maybe you can understand that my love for him never diminished. I never found another mate worth blood melding, or even procreating with.”
Her frown deepened. “I …” She paused and looked directly at him again. “Does this mean you and I are in competition? Am I going to have to compete against you for his love?”
“Dion’s balls, I hope not. I don’t think I’d stand a chance. Besides, I think you know better than that. You’re an ursa. What do you think is the most likely outcome here?”
She swallowed, her expression sinking inward as she pondered his question. Finally she tilted her head and smiled. “That’s what you meant when you asked if I’d be willing to share him. Ursa females usually take two mates … a bonded pair. Would the two of you be that for me?”
Neph’s entire body buzzed with elation at her question, but he carefully kept the feeling buried. “I can’t speak for him, but that would be my hope.”
Her pretty mouth fell open and her gaze grew distant. She rubbed the back of her neck and let her hand drop to her breast. A sharp jolt of arousal shot to Neph’s dick when she squeezed her sticky breast and delicately brushed her fingertips over her nipple.
“I would like that,” she said, her gaze sliding from his crotch back up to his face.
“Would you?”
“Yeah …” she said huskily. “I mean, I’ve enjoyed having him here in place of you, but I knew that was all you all along. To have you both … To have you as you, like last night. I want that.” Her brows twitched and her face grew pinched as though she were in pain.
“Vrishti? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing … I just. I’m going to go get cleaned up. Can we talk more after?” She slid off the table and he shifted backward in his chair to give her space to move past him.
“Sure. We can do whatever you want.”
Her smile seemed strained and she practically ran up the stairs, leaving him alone and bewildered by her hasty retreat after such a frank conversation. He let out a deep breath and scrubbed his hands over his face, almost laughing at the thought that for once it had actually been his face she’d been looking at when she expressed her desire to have both him and Aodh together.
The sounds of the shower kicking on and the curtain rings sliding across the bar kicked him out of his hopeful reverie and he got up to clean up the mess. He wished like hell that he could see a vision of how things would turn out for the three of them. The lack of knowledge might mean they would be together, but it might not. He could only assume his lack of accessible visions on their futures indicated as much, but the visions were Fate’s messages, he knew that much, and he’d learned long ago not to trust Fate. It had been Fate’s fault he and Aodh had chosen Meri, after he’d learned she also had no discernible presence in his visions.
For all he knew Vrishti could be another enemy, but somehow he had a hard time believing that. Even without actually melding her, he believed he knew her mind. She was honest and open, and would not hide her desires or her love if that’s what she felt.
He should offer to meld this evening. They’d shared enough of each other’s essence for a strong melding, but he’d hesitated so far for fear it would ruin the illusion he’d chosen to give her to push her to her estrous. He could fake Aodh rather convincingly, but there was no way he could fake the inside of the dragon’s head. But if she wanted to learn what made Neph tick, a melding would be the surest way to share who he truly was.
His mind wandered to a delicious fantasy of tasting her again as he dried the dishes. He thought he’d only imagined the orgasmic cries at first, but his eyes shot to the ceiling when they rang out again … an agonized wail that was more pain than pleasure, then his name carried on a broken sob.
He dropped the dish and ran, taking the stairs two at a time. When he reached the bathroom, the shower curtain was closed, her cries coming from inside. He tore the curtain open and found her on the floor of the tub, huddled into herself with one hand between her thighs.
“Please, make it stop! I can’t … Nothing I do helps!”
Chapter Eighteen
Vrishti
Vrishti winced and pressed her palm to her belly. She worried that she’d suddenly gotten her period and was experiencing the worst menstrual cramps of her life. The spasming in her lower abdomen came on strong and acutely painful at first. She ran to the bathroom, but once there discovered no blood. The only red coming away on the tissue was the raspberry syrup Neph had drizzled all over her. The wave of pain subsided, leaving her core simply aching with need for an orgasm, which was nothing new after the past two days of teasing she’d endured.
Shaking off the strange buzzing heat that lingered, she turned on the shower, hesitating with a hand over the hot water knob before opting to leave it cold before she climbed in. Icy water streamed out and it hit her skin, cooling some of the heat. Yes, that’s what she needed … just a few minutes to cool off.
She stepped beneath the stream and shut the curtain behind her, simply standing beneath the water and drinking it down, hoping to cool herself from the inside too.
A sudden wave of agony gripped her, making her double over with the force of it. She let out a sharp cry and shot her hand out to grab at the tiled wall, clutching her other hand around her midsection. The current of the shower hit her skin, every tiny stream pounding at her. It didn’t hurt, though … On the contrary, it felt even more tortuous than Neph’s touch, every single sharp pulse sending a fresh jolt of need straight to her core, which clenched and released spasmodically.
She pushed her hand between her thighs, pressing her palm against her flesh and rubbing as though trying to simply work out a kink in a muscle, but something told her this wasn’t the kind of kink a simple massage could work out. Another wave of agony ripped through her and she fell to her knees with a harsh cry. It wasn’t supposed to hurt, was it?
With an involuntary, shuddering moan, she pushed her fingers into her soaked channel, finding some relief from the spasming when her fingers stretched her muscles open. But try as she might, she couldn’t ease the ache completely.
“Neph!” she yelled, her voice catching on a sob when another spasm wrenched her core. “Oh, god, please help me!”
Her cries barely had the strength to carry over the sound of the rushing water, but when the pain of a fresh spasm hit, the resulting cry felt like it was ripped from her throat. Please let him hear her.
The heavy beat of her pulse hammered in her ears, but beyond it she thought she heard footsteps pounding up the stairs and coming toward her.
When his shadow filled the space beyond the curtain she let ou
t a sob of gratitude. He wrenched the curtain open.
“Please, make it stop! Nothing I do helps … please!”
“I’ll take care of you, kitten, just hold on.”
He stepped into the bathtub behind her and bent down, resting a large hand against her back. The contact immediately eased some of the pain, but it left behind the pulsing ache of need between her thighs.
“This is it, isn’t it?” she asked. “Why does it have to hurt so much?”
She clenched her eyes shut as another wave passed, and opened them again, her gaze fixed on the water swirling down the drain.
“Its purpose is to get you breeding as early as possible. The good news is that it only happens every four years, and it gets easier.”
“Oh. Good.” She let out a halfhearted chuckle.
“Better news is that it’s time for you to come.”
“Is—is it going to hurt? Because I can’t handle this.”
His laughter didn’t make her feel better, but the way his hands squeezed her hips made her entire body respond with a tingling wave that was more pleasure than pain for the first time since it had started.
“Come here, kitten. Let me give you what you’ve been craving. We’ll ease into it since it’s an ongoing ordeal.”
She relaxed and relented to his touch. He pulled her backward and she sank against his warm chest, leaning back between his bent knees. The cold shower still streamed down over them both.
“How long does it last?”
His big hands roamed down her breasts with only a cursory caress before sliding over her belly and between her thighs. He immediately sank two big fingers into her and she moaned in gratitude, spreading her legs and draping them over his thighs to rest on the edges of the tub as he began to finger fuck her steadily.
“It’s different for every female,” he said. “Your first time is always hardest, but I have heard that if an ursa gets pregnant right away, it’s done.”
