He undid my bra and slid his hands around to cup my breasts with a confidence he hadn’t had a couple months ago when we’d first come together like this. I leaned over Damon and trailed my fingers over his chest. He watched me with languid eyes, his gaze hot enough to burn. Then Kyler pinched my nipples—not too hard, like he was testing my reaction—and I gasped as a much more pleasurable sort of pain shot through me to my core.
“Yes,” I managed to say. “Just like that.”
I stroked my hands back up to Damon’s shoulders and farther to pin his arms in place. Ky kept working over my breasts, kneading and pinching a little harder each time, as I leaned down to kiss my other consort. Damon kissed me back hungrily. His arms flexed as if to reach for me, and I pinned them to the mattress with an extra jolt of magic. My body tingled with the thrill. He must have enjoyed it too, because he groaned against my mouth.
Ky bent to press a kiss to my back with a scrape of teeth that sent an even sharper tingling through me. Sandwiched between the two guys, flooded with heat, I rocked my sex against Damon’s hard-as-steel erection. He let out another groan and bucked up to catch my lips again.
I fumbled with his boxers to free his cock. The feel of it, so silky smooth and rigid at the same time, had my panties soaking with arousal. I yanked their thin fabric to the side and lowered myself onto Damon with a stuttered sigh.
It felt so good, being filled by him. So good, the way he thrust up to meet the pace I set. So good, the way Kyler’s hands moved with us, finding every sensitive spot on my upper body and teasing it to the limits between pleasure and pain.
But not good enough. Every time I thought my peak was in sight, it faded away into the distance again. I couldn’t quite let go. Couldn’t quite rock fast enough, absorb enough sensation, to completely drown out the deepening agony echoing through me.
One of my consorts was gone. Really gone, because he’dwantedto leave. Because I’d made him stop loving me.
A lump filled my throat. I tried to ride it out, but my eyes went hot. My inner battle must have shown on my face, because Damon slowed. He shifted his arm, and I let him go so he could touch my cheek.
“Angel…”
I crumpled over him, and he stopped thrusting altogether. His strong arms came around my shoulders while Ky’s softened to hug me around my waist. My breath shook as I fought the tears.
“It’s okay,” Damon said hoarsely. “It’s okay. You don’t have to— I just thought—”
I nodded to show I understood, my forehead brushing his chest. Kyler hugged me tighter and planted a gentle kiss on my spine.
Damon eased to the side, rolling us so we were lying next to each other. Ky snuggled close against my back. I tugged them both closer, wanting to be enveloped by their warmth. Wanting to drown in it so I didn’t have to remember those moments after Gabriel had stopped the car yet again.
“I don’t know what to do,” I whispered into the space between us. A few tears leaked out with that admission.
“You just keep doing what you were doing,” Damon said. “He’s the one who had a problem.”
“And if you want to try something else, we’ll try something else,” Ky added. “We’re here for you. All of us.”
As if on cue, there came a light rap on the door. Seth’s voice carried through tentatively. “Hey?”
My heart squeezed. There wasn’t any cure for the pain I was feeling, but I knew what I wanted while I rode out this first wave of it.
“Can you tell Jin to come up too?” I called. “I need all of you.” All of them that I could have now.
Damon didn’t protest, just ran his hand over my hair in a soothing gesture. Did he even realize how tender he could be when he wasn’t trying to show how tough he was? I hugged Ky’s arm where it was slung across my chest and nuzzled Damon’s shoulder. One thought pierced through the pain.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” I said, a little more steadily, “but there are too many people depending on me now. Too many people who don’t even know they’re depending on me. I can’t back down now.”
Chapter Sixteen
Rose
Iwoke up foggily, the way you do when you’re fighting off a cold. My eyelids were heavy and a bit sore; there was an ache in my throat and my chest. It took a moment before the memory surged up: Gabriel’s accusations, our argument, the way he’d stormed off.
The bed around me felt empty. A splinter of sharper pain shot through the ache. I rolled over, opening my eyes, and found I wasn’t alone after all.
Kyler scooted closer to me. When I reached for him, he pulled me into his arms. I nestled against him, skin to bare skin, wrapped in his warmth and his faintly minty smell.
“You slept late,” he said. “The other guys got up to grab something to eat. But we didn’t think you should wake up alone.”
“So you volunteered to go hungry?” I said.
He chuckled. “I traded off with Damon. It was hard enough convincing him he wasn’t going to be much comfort if he was starving. How are you doing?”