My toes pressed to the floor for leverage as I pushed into their faces, their hands pinning me in place, a torrent of conflicting sensations snapping and stroking through every muscle, every bone, licking and biting over every nerve. They were the gentlest touches I'd ever been granted at the theater, feather-soft, and yet they blinded my vision and transformed my body into a jerking, thrashing, foreign creature.
These weren't orgasms, they were deaths and rebirths, teased and tickled out of me, more the result of the crashing aches and sweeping soothes. I shuddered and rocked into Antin's sweet lips, while my shaking hand pushed Con's touch to my breast. He leaned back, found my stare again, and watched me as he pinched my nipple gently.
I screamed, saw only light, expected my heart to stop and my body to cleave in two, even as I flooded Antin's tongue with my release.
I tried to spread my legs even farther apart, to tear myself open for them to fill me, but I was entirely boneless now. Con's almost playful pinch and release of my nipple was spiking pain through me, my body twitching with each press, light flashing like the booms of cannon fire.
"Enough," Antin murmured, drawing away.
But Con continued. Without Antin, the pain stole my breath again. And yet it was right too, simpler than the pleasure, grounding.
"Enough, Con," Antin repeated, but the words were spoken so gently.
I whined, not capable of more, and Con stroked my other breast. Shockingly, I felt another flutter of my cunt on nothing, the pain a strange stimulus.
Suddenly, all touch was torn away. There was no sense of the bed beneath me, and I was blind, or my eyes were shut on the vivid light. I heard a whisper of a voice, but it was buried beneath the echoing pound of my blood in my veins and the sudden gusts of my breath.
And then those were lost too, and the bright prism of light behind my eyes faded, then I fell into nothing.
* * *
A cool touch roused me,drifting down from my cheek to my throat. I hummed, the taste of leather still on my tongue, and turned my face into a soft pillow—too soft to be my own. My body was still throbbing slightly, but not with pain, just awareness, like the volume of sensation had been raised.
"Wake up, Nix," a low voice called, both unfamiliar and yet…
I stiffened briefly, my arms curled against my chest, and shifted on the mattress. My dress was righted, and I opened my eyes to find myself lying on my side in Constantine's dressing room. But it wasn't Constantine at my side. A heavy, spiked black tail was swishing in agitation against the floor, kicking up dust one of the girls had missed during cleaning.
I turned my head slightly to find three eyes on me, their corners creased with worry. Nireas.
"We—they've been looking for you. The Gemini left hours ago."
I curled in on myself, still lost in the empty place Con and Antin had brought me to, and Nireas's hand passing down my side barely registered as the shocking event it really was. How long had it been since he'd touched me?
"Did he hurt you?" The words were rough.
I let out a muffled laugh and Nireas's fingers gripped at my waist, too tight for a moment, and then pulled away completely.
Yes, Con had hurt me. Changed me, even. I shook my head against the pillow and licked my lips, surprised to find some of Antin's sweetness still remaining.
"No," I whispered. Yes. But I had no complaint. Only a strange and concerning new craving.
"Nix."
"Her name is Hazel," I murmured, repeating what he'd snapped at Constantine just hours ago.
There was a huff of irritated breath, and then Nireas froze as I sat up suddenly, facing him. He had two hands braced against the bed on either side of me, one against my waist, and another hovering in the air between us. I suspected his other two hands remained clasped behind his back, where he often hid them.
His eyes were wide and his lips were parted, a peek of the beautiful iridescence of his skin just below the buttons of his collar.
"He didn't hurt me," I said, and Nireas blinked, wiping away his surprise. "It's going to be quite a scene, though. Better to know a little of what I'm in for before rehearsals."
Nireas's expression hardened at my words and his lips opened, but my head was still dizzy with Constantine and his nearness was only making that worse.
"Who was looking for me?" I asked, before he could speak.
"I was."
Nireas stiffened and drew back, a sudden rush of cool air surrounding me and replacing his warmth. His gaze dropped down and mine drifted to Ronan, standing in the doorway, wings tucked and gaze glowing.
"Everyone's heading home. I'd like to walk with you," Ronan said, glancing between Nireas and me.
There's nothing to see, I told myself. "You don't have to—"
"Don't be a pest and argue, nut," Ronan said, smiling, but with a hard edge to the words. "We'll all feel better if we know you make it home safe."
Nireas cleared his throat, and two of his eyes stared at the wall behind my head, but the third at the center was still fixed to me. "He's right."
I sighed and nodded. Beth had been killed. Mr. Reddy certainly couldn't risk the same thing happening to me. I scooted back on the bed, and Nireas stood abruptly, hurrying for the door without another word. I kept my eyes down as I slid off the mattress and headed to Ronan, but he caught me in the middle of the room, and there was no teasing as he searched my face and neck.
"You're all right?"
"I'm fine," I said. It was harder now to believe how much pain I'd been in, how shockingly ecstatic every touch from Antin had been, like all the sensation they'd thrust into me had just evaporated. My thighs were a little sore, probably from tensing, but otherwise, I was…practically untouched. "He splits into two men, did you know that?"
Ronan blinked at me, the tension in his wings relaxing as they folded tighter to his back. "He gives the other girls the shivers."
He gave me the shivers too, but now I was anticipating them with something a little too much like excitement. I opened my mouth to tell Ronan about the difference between the pair, how careful Con had been to keep his touches balanced with Antin's, how the mind-numbing pain had crashed and blended into the body-melting pleasure to create something higher and grander than either. But Ronan's brow was still furrowed, and he was still searching my skin for bruises or wounds.
I stepped into his chest, just catching the bounce of his brows as I wrapped my arms around his middle and tucked my face into his throat. "I'm fine, Ronan. Really. It's just another act. Reddy knows what he's doing."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Ronan growled in my ear before pressing a rough kiss to my temple. "All right, nut. Let's get you home."