Rose stepped up to the pine tree with its newly restored bark and spun in a slow circle, her eyes closed. When she opened them, she beamed at me. “You did it. How do you feel?”
A gentle humming that wasn’t magic but more a simple sense of freedom traveled through my limbs. As it reached my chest, I realized it was more than that. It was joy.
“Their influence is gone,” I said. “As far as I can tell.” I flexed my left arm, studying the skin as well as I could. I might as well have never been scarred in the first place.
Gabriel brought his hands together in an emphatic clap, and within seconds the other guys added to that smattering of applause, the sound that should have been sparse echoing among the trees. “That wasamazing,” Ky said, with an awe I didn’t think he could have faked. The poor guy had probably dreamed a gazillion times of getting to use magic himself after all his studying. Not that I would be using any more of it myself. Not that it’d ever been mine.
Thank God for that, was all I could think now.
“The fiends never stand a chance when you’re in the mix,” Gabriel said with a grin. “Come on—let’s get back to the house where we can really celebrate one last victory.”
Getting inside, out of the dark and the rustling sounds of the woods, sounded like the perfect idea until we started walking. Rose strode along beside me with her silky hair swinging against her shoulders and her cheeks living up to her name with their delicate flush, and the happiness that had come over me expanded with a pang of desire.
I’d taken on the demons and won in the end, yeah, but only because I had the support of the woman beside me. This spectacular, gorgeous, powerful woman. I wanted to have everything our future together could hold, and I didn’t know why we’d waited so long.
When the lights in the garden gleamed into view up ahead, I motioned for the others to stick with me and headed to the right instead of continuing straight on. With each step, the direction I’d picked felt more right. Jin let out a chuckle at the sight of the gazebo, its brilliant colors flashing in the artificial light from the phones.
“Come here,” I said to Rose. I led her up the short flight of stairs and into the sheltered space with its circle of benches.
My consort studied me with a puzzled but pleased glint in her eyes. The other guys came up behind me. I cast my gaze across them.
“Any of you can disagree with me if you have a problem with this, but”—I shifted my attention back to Rose—“I don’t think there’s any reason to hold off on making this family even more a family. We’ve met every challenge the evils in this world can throw at us and come out on top, and I’m ready to move forward from all that. To create our own challenges that we’ll actually enjoy.”
A hopeful smile spread across Rose’s face. She checked the other guys’ expressions.
“No argument here,” Seth said quietly.
“You know I’m all in, Sprout,” Gabriel said.
Jin’s grin didn’t leave any room for doubt, and neither did Ky’s cheeky thumbs up. Rose laughed. “So you’re saying…”
“Do whatever you’ve got to do to quicken that spark of yours, angel,” I said. “And then let’s put this present of yours to good use.”
My desire flared with those words. An answering hunger warmed Rose’s eyes. She eased a little farther away from us, and then she started to dance.
The motions of the quickening spell took her all across the varnished floorboards of the gazebo—a twirl here, a swoop there, power singing from every movement of her limbs. With every graceful motion, I wanted her more.
My consort. My love. This was the only magic I ever needed in my life.
As she eased to a stop, a thrum passed through the air around us, potent enough that I felt it right through my already rising cock. I didn’t wait for more than the invitation that shone in her gaze as it settled on me. I stepped forward and tugged her to me, claiming her mouth.
The other guys moved with me. Jin pressed his lips to Rose’s shoulder, Gabriel teased his hands up her back as he lifted her blouse, Seth slipped an arm around her waist, and Ky flicked his thumb over the peak of one of her breasts. We surrounded her with so much love and passion that it echoed through me, fanning the flames of my longing even hotter.
No,thiswas all the magic I needed. The magic of our connection to Rose and to each other, the understanding that we stood together no matter what lay ahead of us. A bond I’d thought I’d lost or broken that resonated through me now stronger than ever.
Rose’s breath was already coming quicker. She whimpered against my mouth as every one of us applied our best efforts to draw pleasure from her body. Her hands dropped to my jeans to release my fly, and Jin tugged down the zipper on her slacks with a faint rasp.
Another deep certainty flooded me. I eased back, my lips grazing hers as I spoke. “We should all have the same chance. If you can take all of us tonight.”
Rose’s smile turned sly. “I think I’m up for that.”
“Then I call first dibs,” I said, and brought my mouth down on hers again.
As I dipped my fingers between her legs, stroking more slick arousal from the slit my body was clamoring to plunge into to make this union whole, one last tiny prickling raced through my other forearm. A slight lingering thread of the power I’d wielded and that had wielded me for longer than I’d realized.
An impulse gripped me to put this one last shred to good use. I could bring Rose to heights of ecstasy she’d never felt before—that no other guy had ever offered her. It would be so easy…
No. I clamped down on the impulse and the selfish twinge that had fueled it.