by Maia Dylan
Xanthe’s eyes narrowed slightly. “What do you mean by ‘get somewhere with them’ and that they ‘swap places’?”
Parris threw her hands in the air in exasperation. “Exactly that! Just when I think I’ve got them close to losing control and making love to me, they’ll swap places. It’s like a damn wrestling tag team some nights. All that’s missing is the goddamn tap-out and high five to switch out. I get exhausted going from one to the other trying to excite them enough to do something wickedly naughty to me.”
“And that’s what you want? You want them to do something wickedly naughty to you?”
“Whoa!”
Parris spun toward the door that led to the back storeroom and met the eyes of Xanthe’s startled and embarrassed mate, Dane.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to barge on into your conversation. I was talking with Hunter, and he was, well, um, distracting me. Yeah that’s it—he was distracting me, and I didn’t realize that the two of you were having a distinctly female heart to heart.”
Dane turned to leave but stopped when Xanthe spoke to him. “Dane, baby, wait. You might be able to help with this conversation. It might helpful for Parris to get a different perspective, a man’s perspective.”
Dane and Hunter were Xanthe’s mates and lovers, and the three of them were a true triad with Hunter and Dane mated in every sense of the word to each other just as much as they were to Xanthe.
Dane turned and walked back to his mate, pulling her back against his chest. Parris felt a sharp pang of envy at the level of comfort they had with each other.
“I’ll do anything I can to help, and I have to admit that, when the conversation turns to doing something wickedly naughty, I’m all about being a part of it.”
Parris giggled at his exaggerated eyebrow waggle. Xanthe rolled her eyes at him. “So anyway, our beautiful Parris here wants to know how to get a man to lose control and make him want to do wickedly naughty things to her.”
Dane frowned. “Um, would it be completely wrong of me to answer that with the word...breathe?”
Parris frowned as Xanthe laughed and reached up to kiss her mate on the cheek. Parris was confused as hell. What did that mean? If it was so easy to turn a man on that all a woman had to do to turn them on was to simply be breathing, then what the fuck was she doing wrong?
Still laughing, Xanthe shook her head at Parris. “What my handsome, huge-hearted lion is trying to say is that you are so beautiful that you would make any man want you by simply breathing. And I think that Rhys and Jase know that all too well. They are tag teaming you because they want things to progress in your time, not in theirs.”
“Why do I get the feeling you don’t mean tag teaming in the wickedly naughty sense?” Dane asked with a frown.
Parris figured she could either give in to her shy nature or take the lion by the tail, eh, and take this opportunity to get advice from her two friends. “Because I don’t. That’s what I am trying to get Xanthe to help me with. I want to make them both lose control. I want them to be completely turned inside out with desire for me that the only thing they can do is make love to me.”
Dane nodded, and his face softened into a smile. “I think you’ve hit the nail on the proverbial head, my Xanthe. Rhys and Jase are so determined to give you time to get used to them as your mates that they have held back waiting for you to show them it’s time. Have you told them what it is that you want from them?”
Parris grimaced as she shook her head. “Not really. I figured that they would just, you know…know. From what I’ve seen in movies and read in some of the books Melaina’s got upstairs, men seem to just know what a woman wants.”
Dane and Xanthe laughed, and Parris grinned sheepishly.
“Yeah I know. They’re not psychic, so how would they know, right?”
“Right,” Dane said as he stepped away from his mate and made his way toward her. He lifted hands to cup her shoulders and leaned down slightly so he could look her directly in the eye. “I’m going to let you in on a little secret here Parris. A woman who will tell a man exactly what she wants and how she wants it is the hottest damn thing on the planet. If you can find the courage to share with Rhys and Jase exactly what it is you want, I think you will find yourself very much in the middle of something wickedly naughty.”
Xanthe stepped up beside her mate, wrapped an arm around his waist, and laid her cheek against his bicep. She looked at her and Parris saw a distinctly devilish gleam in her eye. “And I think I can give you with a few things to help you make your point.”
* * * *
Jase had to fight himself to keep from running up to the house. He and Rhys had just finished for the day and were heading home to their mate. And wasn’t that just the best damn sentence in the whole entire world. When they had left this morning, Parris had said good-bye at the door as she usually did, but she had this excited look, and her eyes had gleamed in a way that told him she was up to something. He and Rhys had been wondering about it all day, and they were both anxious to find out what it was she had planned.
Yesterday, she had spent the day over at Xanthe’s store and had come home with a bag that carried the store’s logo. He figured it was filled with all kinds of womanly things that he had no business asking about and figured it was confirmed when she had squirreled it quickly away in her room. They had spent the rest of the evening chatting and hearing about her day. When the time came to turn in, both he and Rhys had kissed her good night. Jase both loved and loathed that time of night.
He longed to simply sweep her into his arms, carry her into her room, place her on the bed, and then spend the night worshipping every inch of her, but they were waiting for the right time. When he and Rhys had first spoke about waiting until they knew that Parris was ready, it had seemed like a great idea. Now, two sexually frustrating weeks spent with blue balls and the risk of a sprained wrist due to the amount of time he spent jacking off in the shower, not so much! He and Rhys had taken to showering at the shop before heading home to take the edge off.
“You’re not the only one in danger of that, bro. The problem is,” Rhys said as they reached the stairs that lead to their houses wrap around porch and Jase realized he must have projected his thoughts to his brother, “that I have no clue what the sign will be, how she will tell us that she’s ready for us to take our relationship to the next level.”
“I know. Me neither,” Jase said on an exasperated sigh.
He and Rhys had never had problems with women before, so this whole sexual limbo they found themselves in was uncharted territory and Jase was only too happy to admit that he hated the feeling! “Parris has something on her mind. I know this whole thing with Melaina is weighing on her mind pretty damn heavily. We both feel that down our bond when she starts to withdraw into her own head and think too much about that. But this is something more. When we are intimate with her, it’s like there’s something that she’s dying to tell us but just can’t seem to find the words.”
Jase trudged up the stairs, his thoughts on the woman inside. Everything within him told him that she was holding something back from them, and in a way, he and Rhys had been holding back from her, too. Those precious moments where the three of them had been together and he and Rhys had been able to explore her body a little, and let her explore them, he and Rhys had been careful to remain in perfect control. Whenever their mate aroused them too much, and they flirted with the edge of their control, the other would take over. It probably wasn’t the most romantic notion in the world, but they were just so damn scared of doing something wrong, or too damn fast.
“Hopefully, she’ll find a way to tell us soon, Jase,” Rhys muttered as they reached the front door to the house. “I don’t know how much longer I can handle having her in my arms, but not taking her completely. Damn, she turned me inside out with wanting her. And my wolf? He’s riding me hard to claim her. Do you think we’ll be able to convince her that we’re in this for the long haul? That she can trust us to know wh
at she needs?”
Rhys opened the door to the house, and Jase stepped in, he was about to answer his brother and then call out to their mate to tell them they were home when he came to an abrupt stop and his jaw hit the ground. He felt and heard Rhys walk into him from behind as the door closed, obviously not expecting Jase to come to an abrupt stop just inside the door, but the curse he uttered was left half unsaid as Rhys caught sight of what had struck Jase as soon as he stepped through the door.
The living room was lit with the light of the fire, and what looked like hundreds of lit candles, all bunched around the room. The light they gave off giving the room a soft glow, and from the aroma that filled the air, the candles themselves were perfumed. The room was filled with the most intoxicating scent. There were hints of vanilla, cinnamon, and a citrus that he couldn’t quite name.
Jase closed his eyes and breathed deep, taking the fragrance into his lungs. His dick filled within seconds as the scent did amazing things to his senses, and he quickly realized why. The scent was a mixture of all the things his wolf detected in his mate the moment the Quickening struck and was enough to send him into arousal overload.
“Fuck.” Rhys growled from beside him, and Jase could tell from the spark of desire and need that hit him down their familial link that he scented the same damn thing.
“Parris,” was all that Jase was able to say at that moment. Just as he swallowed to try to clear the lump that had formed in his throat, a vision of perfection stepped out from the kitchen and crossed the living room, stopping in front of what looked like a pile of blankets and pillows that had been piled up on the floor. She wore this creamy white robe made of some kind of see-through material that floated alluringly around her thighs. Beneath it, she wore a negligée in the same color, with spaghetti straps and a strip of lace around the hem that fell just low enough to cover her pussy. She was hotness personified.
“Yeah. Fuck, Parris. That’s what this is about, and what I want to tell you.”
Jase’s cock hardened even further at the rasp of desire and heat in Parris’s tone.
“We’ve talked about what being a mate means, and I am committed to finding out what that can mean between the three of us. I have wanted to be with you both in an intimate way, for a long time now, in the most intimate of ways. But I have hadn’t had a clue how to tell you. I figured that you would just simply know and then take me. I’ve come to realize that I need to tell you what I am feeling and how you both make me feel, and then we need to take each other.”
Jase bit back a groan and Parris’s words. She was so goddamn perfect for them, beautiful, loyal and her shyness just made him lover her even more. Jase didn’t even flinch at the word. He had known he was in love with her for a while now, but seeing her standing there like she was, opening herself completely to them and what they could be together and telling them she was ready for them to take each other, had him in awe of her.
Jase took a step closer. “This is what you really want, sweetness? Because once we do this, and you are ours in every sense of the word, there will be no turning back for us.”
Rhys stepped up behind him. “We also want to make sure you don’t feel like this is something you have to do. We can wait for you to be completely ready for a sexual relationship with the two of us. Parris, darlin’, you’re it for us. Everything we want for our future, everything that we can see happening in our future, you feature in all of it. But we have to know that this is what you want, too, that you can see us in your future as clearly as we can see you in ours.”
Jase held his breath as their mate tilted her head to the side and nibbled on her bottom lip in that way she did when she was thinking about something. Fuck, if she decides that she’s not ready, Jase thought, I might just drop to my knees and cry like a baby. One look down the bond that link him and Rhys, and he figured he wouldn’t be the only one on his knees.
Parris straightened her head and smiled at them. “I love that you both have talked about giving me time, and wanting me to be sure. I really do appreciate it. But I am done waiting, and I am certainly done not telling you both what I want. So be ready, because from this moment on, you will be dealing with a Parris who is going to ask for what she wants, and if that doesn’t work, or if you don’t hear it clearly, then know that I am just going to take it.” The thought of her pushing him flat to a mattress and having her wicked way with him, had Jase groaning.
“Now, you hold all the cards, boys. You want this to stop all you have to do is say so.”
Jase couldn’t stop the grin when he heard their mate using the same words Rhys had that first day they kissed her.
“I’m going to count to five, and then I am going to expect you both to cross this room and kiss me the way I’ve dreamed about since the moment I woke up in that hospital room. One…”
“Five!”
Chapter 7
“Five!”
Parris laughed as both Rhys and Jase shouted at the same time, and then strode with a purpose in her direction. She thought she might have been nervous, but all she felt was anticipation with a heavy dose of ‘it’s about time’! And that was all the time she was allowed for thought. Jase stepped right up to her and placed his mouth over hers.
She moaned as he slid his tongue along the juncture of her lips, and she gasped at the feel of him gently nibbling on her bottom lip, slipping his tongue into her mouth, and tangling it with hers. She was so lost in the taste and flavor of him, she squeaked in surprise when she felt Rhys press up against her back, the heat from his body penetrating straight through the soft gauze of her robe and nightie.
“Damn, Parris,” Rhys’s voice was harsh with desire, and she could feel his lips moving against her neck. “You smell fucking fantastic.” She felt the rough sweep of his tongue over the sensitive tendon, making her gasp, throwing her head back and pulling her mouth from Jase’s. “Jesus Christ, you taste fucking fantastic, too. What the hell is that on your skin?” Rhys began to devour her neck, pressing open-mouthed kisses along her neck and shoulder.
Jase reached out and opened her robe. “Did you buy this sexy little outfit for Rhys and me, sweetness?”
His voice was deeper than normal, and the tone of it had Parris shivering with delight. Unable to find her voice, she simply nodded and whimpered as Rhys continued his assault on her neck. As the robe slipped from her shoulders, he followed its path and began to press open-mouthed kisses, with small bites of suction to her shoulder.
“And I have a feeling that Xanthe gave you a little something for us, too. Am I right?” Jase said. He lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss to her inner wrist. When he pulled back, his eyes started to flicker with the blue that signaled his wolf was near, and she moaned when his tongue swept across his bottom lip, and he growled at the taste of her in his mouth.
“It’s a lotion that carries the flavor of the scent,” Parris breathed, her body a whirl of sensation as the pleasure built within her by the second. “Xanthe made it especially for me. The candles, the lotion and the shampoo I used, all have the same blend of—”
“Vanilla, cinnamon, and oranges,” Rhys finished for her, and she nodded. “I can taste every individual flavor on your skin. Damn, that woman has a talent.”
Parris swallowed as Jase began to quickly strip off his clothes in front of her. As more and more muscle of his torso was revealed, her mouth became drier. Rhys slid his fingers from her hips and rested them against the outside of her thighs, and she felt his fingers begin to draw the hem of her nightie up, and bunch it in his hands.
“You skin is like warm silk, so fucking soft,” Rhys murmured against her neck as he raised her nightie up over her hips.
Jase’s hands stilled, and his gaze dropped before he exhaled sharply. “Holy mother of all things hot as hell, that is the sexiest damn thing I have ever seen.”
Parris frowned a little and tilted her head in confusion. Jase dropped to his knees in front of her, and her breathing became harsh. Parris
wasn’t sure why, but the sight of him kneeling at her feet had her softening and her pussy growing wet.
“I think our mate is a little confused as to what it is that has driven you to your knees, brother.”
Rhys’s voice sounded loud in her ear, and Parris swallowed at the heat in the tone of his voice.
Jase’s gaze flickered to her face, and the grin he gave her was wicked. “There are not many things on this earth that would bring me to my knees, sweetness, but it seems the sight of your beautiful naked pussy looking all hot, swollen, and wet is definitely one of them.”
“Shit,” Rhys whispered. This time, his voice was filled with wonder. “She’s bare?”
“Bare and beautiful, brother,” Jase murmured as he reached out and Parris jerked at the feel of him gently sweeping his finger across her girliest of girl parts. “You are the embodiment of perfection, sweetness.”
“I–I’m…um…I’m not perfect. I have scars,” Parris whispered. She still carried some raised and slightly puckered scars left behind by Wheeler all those years ago. She had never given them much thought until right now when she knew she was about to be naked in front of two men she desperately wanted to think she was beautiful.
“Darlin’, we’ve seen glimpses of some of those scars, and we would very much like to earn your trust enough to share with us the story behind each and everyone,” Rhys said as he gently pulled her nightie up and over her tummy.
It was a natural reaction for Parris to simply raise her arms and allow him to pull the garment over her head.
“But you should know, that scars or not, to us, you are now and always will be stunning. You are so goddamn beautiful you make me ache.”
Jase reached out to gently tug her hips forward so that she stepped closer to him. Her thighs pressed against his chest, and she shuffled her feet apart when he gently nudged them with his hands.
