THE GEMINI
It was a sudden current, outshining every point of reference I had. Hotter than the burning iron handle of a pan I'd grabbed bare-handed, deeper than the broken bone of my arm when I'd fallen from a ladder, sharper than the claws of a dragon that had raked down my back in accidental passion. I couldn't scream because I couldn't breathe.
Surely no one could survive this pain. This was a hell of a thousand knives and the strike of lightning, and yet there was nothing to feel at all because it was too strong.
And then a hand brushed down my cheek, cool and gentle, and the room landed all around me, Antin's ruby face above me, bare brow furrowed. I gasped, trembling between two simple touches—one excruciating, and one just blissful enough to cut through the blinding agony. I opened my mouth to scream, and that gentle hand covered my lips.
"No, sweet creature," Antin whispered.
Con's hand stroked up the back of my jerking, kicking leg, and I let out a high whine, the world flashing white again as he tapped against the back of my knee.
"Settle, it's all right," Antin said, bending. His lips pressed to my forehead, another hand brushing over my shoulder, sliding beneath the collar of my dress, and I understood.
Antin's touch was divine—my head dizzy and my thoughts soft as he kissed the spot—but when he drew away, the torture of Con's touch and the pleasure of Antin's gift found a balance again. I moaned into Antin's hand and blinked in a daze as he smiled at me.
"We will start gently with you," he said.
A tear slipped out of the corner of my eye at the words, in devastation and gratitude. If this was gentle, I would not conquer rough. Con's single touch at the back of my knee rendered me both weak and vibrating with the need to escape. It was one long resonance of stabbing versus the sweet and velvety-soft waves of relief Antin provided. But Antin touched me twice for Con's single point of contact. They were being merciful.
Antin's hand on my chest was moving my dress down my shoulders and his lips grazed my cheek, drawing a shudder through my body, my back arching into the careful pass of his fingers, aware of what they promised. Con's hand drifted up beneath my skirt, grazing the insides of my thigh, and my eyes widened as an unexpected and potent arousal pooled in my cunt. The shock of the initial pain was transforming from a stab to a heavy pound, a profane ache that I associated with the frenzied height of fucking.
"More?" Antin asked.
My gaze flicked down to where Con sat between my thighs, kneeling on the floor at the foot of the bed. His gaze was a warning, his body tense and trembling, and I wasn't sure if he was restraining himself from the urge to destroy me or preparing to fling himself away at my request. I jerked my head in a single nod. There was a sudden smirk in Con's stare and that still hand swiped up, barely grazing my sex.
I screamed behind Antin's hand on my mouth at the sudden bolt of electric torment throbbing through my cunt, hips kicking and breath snapping through my chest with every one of those brushing touches. Then Antin ducked down again, hand moving away and lips just barely landing against mine, and the pain fused with an ecstasy so sweet it made me sob into the kiss.
I came, weeping and shaking on the bed, my arms reaching up to cling to Antin. I found his skin under the swathes of fabric and moaned at the sudden rush of delirious pleasure, and then cried out into his lips as a long digit pressed up inside of me, violent only in the sensations it drew out of me.
This was horrible and it was a gift, and it was only a kiss and one finger pumping carefully into me. I was terrified, and I needed to know more.
"More," I gasped against Antin's lips.
Instead they both tore away from me at the same moment. The whine in my throat was broken, pathetic, and I swiped at the tears blurring my eyes with a rough slap against my cheeks.
But the Gemini wasn't leaving me.
Con stood from the floor, and I watched with wide eyes as he pulled a leather belt free from his trousers.
"For your screams," Antin said, sliding off the bed and meeting his other half by my spread legs.
He took the belt from Con and leaned over me. It was folded in half, and I stared between the two men and the leather warily.
"Unless you would rather it was Con's hand covering your mouth," Antin said.
I opened my mouth immediately, and Antin smiled. The leather was thick and pliable as Antin placed it between my teeth. It wasn't the first time I'd had leather in my mouth, but it was the first time I shook and shivered as I bit down, the flavor heady and musky and unpleasant.
I yelped as Con moved to the bed, barely touching me as he yanked down my dress, exposing my breasts to the cool air of the room. I stared up and his animal eyes were on mine, impossible to escape, a wild excitement in his gaze.
Antin knelt between my thighs, and unlike Con, he had no reservations about touching me fully as he pushed my skirt up to my waist. His hands on my thighs set off a sudden explosion of bliss inside me, and my hips lifted from the bed, arching toward him, my eyes fluttering shut as I moaned around the leather, ignoring the taste in favor of having something to suck.
I was at the edge of coming when fingers dove into my hair, scratching against my scalp. The deep, dense wave of simple pleasure was split with the momentary knife stab of pain from Con's touch, and my scream was strangled. But Antin had two hands for Con's one on me, and I was learning quickly that the pain was just a lightning rod of sensation that added to the pleasure, that my body adjusted and transformed it into something glorious.
Antin's hands pushed at my shaking thighs, and my face was hot, eyes open and fastened to Con's stare as I came with a gush, exposed and pinned between their demonic powers and strength.
"Beautiful," Antin murmured.
Eston came suddenly to mind, pretty and clumsy and simple, and I let out a crazed giggle, comparing him to Constantine. This was power, horrible and beautiful, unlike any belonging to the demons I'd met before. I was writhing between their hands and already aware of a dangerous truth.
I wanted more.
I swallowed my cry as I stretched and leaned into Con's hand at the top of my head, my whole body tensing as the cut of pain grew sharp again. But I held my eyes open and watched his own widen in surprise. He glanced up toward Antin and then back down to me.
Antin's hand landed on mine, and I gasped, toes curling at the decadent lick of sweetness, aware of how firmly he held me down. Con reached for the other, and I tried to force myself to relax, but my muscles refused and I thrashed as his fingers tangled with mine, drumming slashes of agony rushing through me to meet Antin's opposing pleasure. They clashed in my chest, my heartbeat stuttering before finding its rhythm again.
"She is…" Antin whispered.
Con only lunged forward, arching over me, and I screamed in expectation as his cheek landed on my breast. He nuzzled the spot briefly, and I thought my lungs might collapse. Then a slick, hot tongue stroked up my sex, and I sucked in a sudden breath.