“I think…” he said as he used his fingers to tilt my chin up, and he kissed me long and slow. “…I can help with that.” He lifted me like I weighed nothing and carried me to my bed, my flat sandals falling off with a wiggle of my toes, and he set me down, stepping back to look me over for a second time, with a highly increased level of interest considering my breasts were on full display this time.
Without breaking eye contact with my body, he pulled his shirt off, revealing his well-cut frame that was a sight to behold all on its own. So many dips and curves I wanted to explore with my tongue, especially when he unbuttoned his pants and those fell to the floor as well, leaving him more exposed than I was.
Oh dear goddess.
A quick glance at his equipment told me it was much bigger than his height suggested it would be, and while I would’ve preferred staring at it for much longer, I tried to look anywhere else so he wouldn’t think I was gaping. But I totally was.
Smirking slightly, just enough where it was sexy and not annoying (Alec, take notes), he leaned over me, hovering at my lips. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, just the sound of his voice making tingles run all over me. “Every time I look at you, I can’t believe you’re mine.” His hot breath went down my chin as he pulled at my hair, exposing my throat so he could suck at the sensitive skin on my neck, running his teeth over the marks he was making, and I didn’t even care that I’d be covered in hickies and bite marks the next day.
Just give me more.
As if he could hear my thoughts, he went back to my lips for a short kiss, his fingers running down my sides until they hooked my panties and he slowly slid them off my hips, down my legs, and flung them once they were past my toes. It left him at the perfect position to look up at me from my knees, and the glint in his eyes said his wolf wanted to devour me whole.
If he put his mouth on me, I was literally going to die.
He kept his eyes locked on mine, and when he parted my legs I could barely breathe. He stalked up my body, pushing my thighs apart until he could fit between them, and he held eye contact with me while sticking his tongue out and flicking my nub with it. It felt like I’d been stuck with a hot wire, I was frozen and limp all at once as pleasure rushed over me.
“You’re so wet for me, Jaz,” he said against my clit. “I could eat your pussy all day.”
Already on edge from his tongue and his words, I was very close to exploding, but I had no intention of letting that happen just yet. Using his hair, I gently brought him back up to my lips, and I kissed him deeply, tasting myself on his mouth. I put a hand to his chest and got up, feeling a bit dizzy from the pleasure, and he let me turn us around so I could guide him onto the bed. He sat against the headboard and watched me climb on after him, moving up him until I was in the right position to spread my legs over his hips.
“We should probably…” he started, and broke off with a gasp as I reached a hand between us, curling my fingers over his cock and moving them up and down, drawing a very prolonged moan from him. His hands came up to fist in my hair, and he pressed our noses together to gain enough control so he could finish his sentence. “…condom.”
“Birth control spell,” I told him with a whisper, and positioned him to slide into my waiting heat with one stroke, making us both moan against each other’s lips. Maybe it was the fact that we were soulmates, or that our attraction was so intense, I still felt ready to burst without us even moving, and I was certain it wouldn’t take me long to climax.
“Shiiiiit,” he drew out with a groan, his fingers digging into my ass as I started a slow rhythm up and down, every single movement making my toes curl as his cock raked along my walls and hit all the right spots. Going slow was torture, I wanted him to take me hard and fast, but I couldn’t for fear of ending it too quickly. I needed this to last as long as possible, just to have more time with him.
Pierce’s hands helped me maintain our gentle speed, and his fingers were definitely going to leave a bruise on my hips, but I didn’t even care. My head started going hazy with pleasure as my nub brushed against him, heightening everything until I couldn’t think straight. He sensed the shift in me and tossed us forward on the bed, turning me over on all fours and spreading my legs for him to slide back into me.
“Jaz, fuck,” Pierce moaned out as he pounded me like a madman, exactly like I’d wanted. My curls fell over my face, and my fingers gripped the sheets, delicious heat spreading over me as I got closer and closer.
“Don’t stop,” I begged in a gasp. “Fuck me harder.” My elbows wobbled, almost making me topple forward, and Pierce twisted my hair around his fist, pulling me back into him with my curls until I was arched against him, my breasts bouncing with every thrust of his cock inside me.
He pulled my earlobe between his teeth and brought his hand up to clasp my neck. “Come for me. Come on my cock,” he whispered into my ear, making my eyes roll back into my head as I strained towards the edge, craved it so much I felt black coming over my eyesight.
Keeping me steady with his hand on my throat, he brought the other one around and rubbed my clitoris, bringing me so high I forgot to breathe, and I screamed out a climax that had me writhing against him. The Lycan bit into my shoulder and sped up his thrusts, announcing his own orgasm as his fingers drew out every dredge of mine that he could until I went limp in his arms.
Our chests heaved as we tried to catch our breath and he pushed my hair away from my sweaty back to plant kisses along my spine before he clutched me around the waist and laid us down on the bed, settling me into the crook of his body.
“I won’t go out onto a limb and say I love you,” he said, planting more kisses along my tender shoulder. “But I look forward to the day when I can, Jaz Neck.”
Even with delicious warmth running over every inch of my tired body, I still tensed. I’d never said ‘I love you’ out loud to anyone except my parents. And for the first time ever, with the warmth settling over my chest, I could sense myself moving towards that feeling of love. For both of the men in my life.
“Me too, Pierce.”
I woke the next morning with a warm body pressed against my back. With it being years since I’d spent the night with a boy, I panicked at first before I remembered who it was. Pierce’s arm tightened around my waist, and he sleepily kissed along my bare shoulder.
“Morning,” he whispered in my ear, his hand trailing up my bare stomach, no doubt about to start round two of our escapades.
“You slept with the Lycan?” Gilbert yelled above our heads where he was hovering.
I peeked one eye open and scowled at him despite the heat starting to pool in my lower half from Pierce’s hands on me. “It’s eight in the morning, there is no coffee, and you’re yelling. You really want to start the day like this?”
Gilbert pressed his lips together and didn’t answer me, so I lifted two fingers and waved them around, bringing one of my nightgowns to me that I slipped on under the sheets before tossing them off of me and standing up. Another finger wave started my coffee machine as I rummaged through my drawers for some underwear, and picked up Pierce’s pants for him to put on.
“Sorry, Gil,” he said once he had his lower half covered. “I know how you feel about her.” He propped himself up against the headboard and watched me pick our clothes up from the floor while my coffee brewed. “Can’t really help myself when Jaz is involved.”
“Alec is going to wreck you when he finds out,” Gilbert told him with a smirk, one Pierce echoed without shame.
“Oh, he’s already had some fun with her on the train.”
If a ghost could turn beet red, Gilbert did so, shrieking loudly enough to wake the dead. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?”
My eyes rolled to the back of my head at their antics, and I ignored them while I poured myself a cup of fresh coffee. I sipped it while hoisting myself up on my dresser so I could keep both men in my sights.
“Gil, babe, you’re being a bit immature about all this,” I
told him after a large gulp of bean juice that almost scalded my throat. Worth it.
The ghost turned to me, looking as serious as I’d ever seen him, and for the first time ever I felt a reaction deep in my stomach with his transparent eyes on me. “I’ve been in love with you since the first time I laid eyes on you, Jaz. You were alone and hurting, and I sometimes wished I hadn’t returned as a ghost because I couldn’t hold you in my arms the way I wanted to. I didn’t have to kiss you to know you were my soulmate. I felt it, deep inside me. It’s the only emotion I’ve ever been able to feel.”
“Can a magic user be soulmates with so many people? Or with a ghost, for that matter?” Pierce asked from the bed, and I took another scalding sip before answering.
“It’s very rare, but yes, we can be soulmates with more than one person. As for the ghost part, I have no idea. Only necromancers can see ghosts, and seeing as how I’m the only one, I don’t exactly have a basis for comparison.”
Gilbert came down from the rafters and hovered in front of my perch on the dresser, and I had to sip my coffee again so I didn’t have to stare directly at him. “We were able to touch before, use your powers again. I want to kiss you. Please, Jaz. I need to know if I’m right about my feelings.”
Goddess, a ghost is trying to kiss me. And I kinda want him to. Are you sleeping on the job again?
I held out one finger to him and tipped my cup back, gulping down the rest of my drink before slamming it onto my dresser. “Okay, I’m game. If it’ll get you to stop being so whiny.” He scowled at me, but it disappeared quickly under a grin that had my heart picking up speed.
I hadn’t really done anything the last time we’d touched, merely put my hand out to him, but I had a feeling that wouldn’t cut it for prolonged contact.
Okay, I had to focus my powers. Maybe if I visualized him as real, he’d gain enough substance to be touched. Shutting my eyes, I pictured what it would feel like to reach out and touch his arms. To feel the soft waves of his long hair between my fingers. And most importantly, I imagined what it would be like to kiss him, to feel his lips against mine, lips as real as my own.
Holding those thoughts in my head, I reached my hands out for him, squeezing my eyes shut to hold my concentration, and… I felt something. I felt Gilbert’s arms underneath my hands. I could feel the scratchy fabric of his shirt as I moved up his biceps and onto his shoulders, and then his cold hands were on me, gently sliding up my limbs until his palms stroked my cheeks. It was like being touched by a popsicle, but I felt as warm as a bonfire.
My fingers stopped at his neck, and I pulled him closer until my entire front grew goosebumps from the drop in temperature. I scratched along his stubble with my thumbs, and he was so close I could feel his icy breath on my face. When his lips started to hesitantly brush against mine, I felt my world explode.
Our kiss deepened into a frosted passion, my magic burst from me, and his responded in kind. He had indeed been a warlock when he was alive, and there was just enough of his magic left to escape his ghostly form and clasp against my tendrils, claiming me as his.
There was no guessing now, Gilbert was my third soulmate, and I made a promise to myself then and there that I would find his body and bring him back to life so he could be in my arms for real. So I could truly feel his stubble, run my fingers through his hair, and feel the warmth of his body against mine.
His lips were gone and I opened my eyes to see if he’d pulled away, but he was still touching me. I couldn’t feel him anymore, and a whimper escaped my throat as I grasped at him, but he had gone incorporeal again.
No. No, I needed more of him. I pushed off the dresser and tried to visualize him as real again, my fingers reaching for him but finding nothing to grab onto. He looked as forlorn as I did, but he was used to being unable to touch me.
“Jaz, it’s okay,” he soothed, smiling even as ghostly tears appeared in his eyes. “That kiss was worth a thousand days by your side and not being able to touch you.”
“No,” I shouted, my trembling voice echoing in the small room. “I should be able to make this work. I’m so effing useless. I’m the only necromancer in existence, and I can’t get better on my own. I’ll never be able to do anything right except raising stupid rabbits.” Maybe that evil demon had been right. Maybe I shouldn’t exist.
Pierce jumped off the bed and came to me, holding me in his arms while I was too distracted to push him away. “Jaz, stop being hard on yourself. No one expects you to be perfect. Gilbert knows this will take time, and while I have no idea how to help you because I don’t really know that much about magic, I’m always here for you. All three of us are.” I held my Lycan mate to me so hard, he was sure to complain, but he stayed silent as he brushed my hair back with his fingers.
“Jaz,” Gilbert said after I’d calmed down slightly, and I turned in Pierce’s arms enough to see him floating in front of us, always just out of reach. “I love you. No matter what happens, even if I can never touch you again, I will always love you.”
My need to have him in my arms again was going to drive me insane. I couldn’t deal with this, I had to get away.
I left the warmth of Pierce’s embrace and grabbed my jacket, swinging my door open and slamming it behind me before either of them could stop me. I went down the hall stairs so fast I almost fell several times, and narrowly escaped a faceplant as I got to the entrance hall. Some of the younger students were out playing in the front courtyard, but I walked straight past them, veering off to the right to bypass Highborn Village and the forest. I stopped at the lake and removed my shoes so I could walk out onto the shallow water.
Well, my grandmother had been correct. I was to have three men in my life. One of them had kissed more people than everyone else at school combined. The second was risking his life to be near me, and we were one mistake away from him being captured and executed, no matter that he was my soulmate. And the third was an effing ghost. How was I supposed to build a life with a ghost? We’d barely been able to kiss, there was no way we’d get beyond that, and just knowing that was going to upset me to the point of not even wanting him around.
But I did. I needed all three of them like I needed coffee in the morning.
Gilbert had been in my life for years, but I didn’t know that much about him. My relationship with Alec only was a few weeks old, and we still had a lot to learn about each other. Pierce was even less time, mere days since we first met.
I shouldn’t need them this badly. And the fact that I did terrified and excited me all at once. I was eager to get to know them and see our relationships grow, but having such a strong pull to them… what would happen to me if they got hurt and died? I wasn’t skilled enough to bring them back, and I’d seen what happened to my mother when she lost her magicae equidem. She loved Bosley and Aldrich, but she never recovered after my father died. She missed him every single day, she ached for him, and he would never come back.
If I lost any of my men, I would never survive.
Goddess. You never told me falling in love would be so terrifying.
Was falling in love worth it if I knew that living without them would be hell on earth? I might as well throw myself into the demon portal if my soulmates were gone.
The only other question I had was could I truly give them all of me? Could I trust them enough to let them in? To tell them my secrets. To show them my heart.
I stared out onto the lake and watched the water ripple towards me, splashing my feet in a wave, and the answer came to me as if the Goddess herself was watching my inner turmoil and deemed me worthy of a response.
Of course I could.
A smile formed on my face, the entire thing feeling insignificant now, and then a crash came behind me and the world went black.
10
My throne awaits
My head ached as I woke up, and I clutched my hand to it to try and ease the sting. What had happened?
The last thing I knew I was at the lake whining about ha
ving three incredibly hot guys all to myself, and then a swift crack to my skull led me to… wherever this was. I opened my eyes and looked around me, the dark walls of a cave surrounding me from all sides.
“Our apologies, necromancer,” someone said behind me, his low voice echoing around us. “Is your head okay?”
“Is my head okay?” I spun in a rage and the candlelit room swirled around me. “I don’t take too kindly to people who kidnap me! Oh god, does anyone have a bucket?” My stomach heaved but everything stayed down. For now.
“Here, let me help you,” a woman said, so close to me I recoiled and almost tipped over from another dizzy spell.
“No, no one is touching me, you psychos.” I called up an incantation and spoke a few words that helped heal my head a little. I’d need a healing potion, but it would hold for an hour or so. Now that the world was still, I was able to steady myself against the cold cave wall and stand up, only to find the cavern was full of people wearing robes like this was a cult meeting or some shi—oh god, was this a cult meeting? Couldn’t they have just knocked on my door like good little evangelists and left me a pamphlet I was absolutely going to throw away?
“We do apologize for all of this. We know it’s not exactly the best way to get your attention, but we’re just so… I’m not sure what the word is.”
“Excited?” someone offered.
“Enthusiastic?” another gave.
“Desperate?” I chimed in, trying to look around the people to see where the exit was. “I’m not into cults, I’m a proud Wiccan, just ask my Abuela, so if you’re here to recruit me, I’m flattered you want me enough to kidnap me, and I respect the effort since I’m definitely awesome, but hard pass. Now, could you be so kind as to show me the exit? I need to get back to school. My boyfriends are not going to be happy about this, and you’d better be glad I don’t know who any of you are or they’d wreck your asses.”
“You misunderstand us,” the first man said, and when I turned towards his voice, I discovered it belonged to a satyr. An honest to god satyr. Then I noticed all across the group were magical beasts, mixed in with the witches and warlocks, and no one seemed to think it was off. There were even a few Lycans. How were they all here together without fighting? “We brought you here because the only reason our group exists is you.”
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