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“Aye, I would,” she retorted, wielding
her voice like a
rahke
. “You already
think I would cut you out of my life because of a simple disagreement, so why
would I stop short of breaking your bond entirely? If you want to be free…”

“Never.” His control came crashing down
faster than she’d breached the Shining Walls with his blood and his pleasure
years ago, his bond roaring wide open in her mind. “Never free me,
na’lanna Qwen
, I beg you. Never release
my bond. I’d rather you cut open my chest and hack out my heart this very
minute than ever force me to leave you.”

Lightly, she touched his mark over his
heart. His entire body jolted as though she’d plunged a
rahke
between his ribs. In many ways, she had.

“You were right,” she whispered, casting
her breath across his bare chest. “I shouldn’t taste his blood. Even if he’s
not the Black Dragon of my Dreams, he’s certainly Shadowed. I don’t want
another blood bond.” Gently, she brushed her mouth over her mark in his chest,
looking up at his face. “I only want you.”

His eyes flew open. He held his breath,
staring into her eyes.

“I’m sorry.” She paused to swipe her
tongue fully over the old white scar. “I was afraid and ashamed that I’d hurt
you, which always makes me angry. I wasn’t truly angry at you, certainly never
enough to send you away.”

“The thought of losing you turns me
inside out.” He trembled beneath her, his voice ragged but adamant. “If you
want this man who smells of sandalwood and dragon, I’ll find him. We nine will
pin him flat on his back at
rahke
-point
so you may have your way with him.”

“Tonight, the only warrior I’m going to
have my way with,” she slid her leg over his hips so she straddled his abdomen,
“is you.”

“And me?” Sal’s voice quivered,
eagerness and desperation in equal doses.

“And then you,” she agreed. “Isn’t that
how you threatened the nobles who thought I should take a king?”

Dharman closed his hands on her thighs.
“Why now?”

Her mouth quirked. “Are you saying no?”

He laughed out a groan that vibrated his
stomach beneath her. “I shall never refuse you, but I want to know why. Why
this night after that horrible Dream and our argument? Why now?”

“I almost lost you,” she whispered, her
voice thick with unshed tears. “I could have killed you in that Dream. I’d
never forgive myself if something happened to you because of me.”

“Vulkar, is that all you needed to
change your mind?” Sal pressed closer, earning a low rumble of warning from
Dharman. “I would have let you rip me apart in your Dreams, too. Better, I
would have enjoyed it.”

She shifted her weight, and Dharman’s
hands clamped even tighter. Now his low growl was aimed at her, as though he
thought she might be moving to Sal first. “Take your hands off me.”

His ground his teeth so loudly she could
hear it, but he finally slammed his arms flat on the mattress.

“Before we begin, we need to discuss
limits.”

“I’ll do whatever you ask,” he growled
out. “I’m going to die if I don’t get inside you.”

Carefully, she stood up with a foot
between his legs and one between his and Sal’s, balancing on the soft mattress.
She grabbed the hem of the nightgown and slowly lifted it toward her waist.

Both warriors stared at the growing
expanse of skin like they were starving wolves who’d just laid eyes on a
wounded deer. Dharman’s hands twitched. Sal made a sound very like a whimper.

“So if I tell Sal to lick you some
more…”

Dharman narrowed his gaze at her, his
whiskey brown eyes smoky with desire. “Aye, but only if you watch and enjoy it.
Otherwise, Sal can keep his Vulkar-damned mouth on you, for I know we shall all
enjoy that very much indeed.”

She glared back at him and let the cloth
drop a few inches. Sal reared up desperately, but froze at the look on her face
and quickly lay back down. “I don’t want you doing something just because you
think that’s what I want.”

“Why not?” Dharman shared a genuinely
confused look with the warrior beside him. “That’s all we care about. If you desire
something, we shall do it without delay, without question, without hesitation.
All you need do is ask.”

She blew a breath out, frustrated and so
damned aroused she could smell her own scent rising from her body. Lady help
her, it had been so incredibly long since she’d felt a warrior’s strength,
filling her up and holding her tight. Now that she’d made up her mind to let
her two nearest Blood fully into her heart, her body had slipped into a hard
gallop toward the finish line. “But I want
you
to enjoy it.”

“We shall,” Dharman replied.

“Immensely.” Sal nodded his head
vigorously. “Without question.”

“There’s absolutely nothing you could
ever ask us to do that we wouldn’t enjoy.”

She decided to test them. “If I bind
your hands and feet to the bed so you’re unable to move, you would enjoy that?”

“If
you
did it and tormented me with your luscious body, aye; I know Sal would love
it.” Dharman replied with a wry look at the Blood beside him fairly quivering
at the thought. “You would enjoy it for awhile, and so, then, would I. However,
you want a
warrior
in your bed,
na’lanna Qwen
. A warrior who takes what
he wants and ensures his woman has a most pleasurable time while he does so. A
warrior who touches with upmost confidence because he knows exactly what you desire
down to the smallest caress and he’s more than up for the challenge.

“I’ll take your orders without question.
In fact, I’ll gladly take anything you give me: pain, pleasure, commands,
surrender, whatever you desire. Eventually, you’ll want me to be First. You
need me to be First. I’m more than able to control both myself and Sal to give
you the greatest pleasure possible.”

Indeed, perhaps her virgin Blood did
know a thing or two about what she wanted. Her hands were trembling, but she
managed to get the nightgown up and over her head. Her skin burned with their
fervent stares.

“Except perhaps this first time,” Sal
admitted on a low, reverent sigh.

Dharman cleared his throat, but his
voice still cracked with desire. “On my honor, we’ll more than make up for it
by sunrise.”

“Forgive me,” Sal whispered. “I was
entirely mistaken.” At the confusion that flickered through her, he grinned. “I
much prefer no drawers at all.”

* * *

ON
MY HONOR, I SHALL not release until she does
, Dharman swore.
On my honor, her very life!

She tugged his
memsha
loose, found the extremely strained loincloth beneath, and
worked on the ties until his vision darkened and the room spun. Roses, melting
velvet petals, her scent smoked hotter, driving him mad. He kept his hands at
his side as she’d ordered, but only because he gripped fistfuls of sheet.
Vulkar, he ached to slide his palms over her full breasts, to feel the weight
of those curves in his hand and the heated glide of desire between her thighs.

Her hands closed over him and he
shuddered, his breath exploding from his chest.

“Shhh,” she whispered, shaming him, but
he couldn’t respond, not with the vicious pounding of his heart that threatened
to crack his ribcage. “It’s all right if you can’t wait this first time. We
have all night.”

“I’ll come inside you or die,” he ground
out. “Let Sal touch you. I want to feel your release with mine.”

She nodded, and Sal scrambled up to take
her breast in his mouth as his fingers slid between her thighs. Her head fell
back on a low, ragged cry that sent the blood pounding even fiercer through
them both. Her hands convulsed on him, but what made his back arch, hips rising
off the mattress, was the desire blazing in her bond.

Liquid silver and moonlight blazed in
his mind, her pleasure a beacon brighter than the full moon on a clear night.
Sal touched her like he’d always known exactly what she’d enjoy, which
surprised her.

“We know,” Dharman whispered. “We
watched and felt Khul love you for years.”

“Now,” she whispered, rising up to
position herself, “it’s your turn.”

Dharman could only gaze up at her. She
hesitated a moment, her gaze locking with his, and he felt a horrible moment of
panic and desperation. If she changed her mind, if she felt pain, regret,
heartache…

I
can never be Rhaekhar. I can never be Gregar. I can only be—

“Wasn’t there something you wanted me to
say first?” So slowly he wanted to bellow at the top of his lungs, she slid
over him, her smile breaking into a cry that was the sweetest sound he’d ever
heard.

Until she said, “Dharman.” Her voice
caught, rising louder on a cry of pleasure that drove his hands to her hips so
he could thrust, hard, as deep as her body could take him. “
Na’lanna
Blood.”

* * *

PLEASURE RIPPLED BACK AND FORTH in their
bonds, building and feeding her desire in a way she’d never felt through a
na’lanna
bond before. So much blood and
honor lay between them. So much love.

Dharman released his fierce grip on her
hips and cupped her face in both hands, pulling her down so he could kiss her.
He inhaled her mouth, sinking his tongue deep, his passion telling her he
wouldn’t be long in recovery. Not that she doubted him. However, she had
promised the other Blood…

He smiled against her lips.
:Stay right where you are. Sal comes to
you.:

She felt Sal’s hair first, the glorious
spill of his auburn hair across her naked back. That incredibly skilled mouth
pressed in the hollow of her spine and her hips lifted, her breath quickening
all over again. Sal trailed his mouth up her spine, licking and nibbling
delicately, dragging his hair up her skin until she shivered and twisted
against Dharman’s hold on her head.

:Who
should we bind to the bed,
na’lanna
?:
His bond shone in her mind, his warm honeycake scent mixing with
Sal’s spiced gingerbread until she wanted to bite him, fill her mouth up with
muscle and sink her teeth deep.
:Your
wish is my command.:

He released her head, sliding his palms
down the column of her neck. Somehow he managed to miss the old mark on her
neck that Rhaekhar had given her. The heat of those big, powerful hands sank
into her skin, the red silk of Sal’s hair caressing her back and falling down
to pool on the other Blood’s chest like blood.

Dharman reached up and pulled her braid
aside, unraveling it with one hand while Sal kissed the bared side of her neck.
Again, he avoided the mark on her neck. The spot ached, the cord that connected
neck and shoulder incredibly sensitive, vibrating with tension.

On his hands and knees above her and
Dharman both, Sal nestled his cheek against hers, lowering his chest so he lay
fully against her back. Her breath rushed out. Heat and muscle, front to back,
such incredible strength.

“Sal,” she panted, “what are you waiting
for?”

He licked the small depression behind
her ear and gripped her lobe gently in his teeth.
:Permission.:

His bond swelled, prowling fur winding
in and out of Dharman’s, shining so brightly the world dripped with blood.

The shy yearning in his bond cracked her
heart in two. “My
na’lanna
Blood,
yes, I want you. I need you. I—”

His hands covered hers, pinning her
between him and the other Blood, and on a deep, endless thrust, he slid inside
her. She lowered her head so she could grip Dharman’s shoulder in her mouth,
lifting her hips back for Sal at the same time. All pretense of slow tenderness
had fled from his body; he withdrew, groaning, slammed back in hard and fast,
his arms corded on either side of her.

The mark on her neck throbbed. She
gripped Dharman harder with her teeth.
:Touch
the mark.:

:Are
you sure?:

His hesitation made no sense to her.
:Yes!:

Dharman closed his mouth over the old
bite mark. His teeth grazed that tender spot, and a red-hot wire blazed from
her neck to her breasts and down to where Sal was buried inside her. His hips
jerked, his pleasure pouring into her on a hot wave that flowed back up that
invisible cord to Dharman’s mouth at her neck. He gripped her harder, working
the spot with his teeth and she screamed, muffled against the mouthful of
muscle she held tight. Back and forth, pleasure spilling, pooling, fed by their
bonds and that mark.

Trembling, she and Sal both collapsed on
top of Dharman. His chest heaved, damp with sweat, and she definitely felt the
return of his need. She laughed breathlessly, squished beneath Sal but not
caring if he never got off her. Keeping two young, healthy, vigorous warriors
well satisfied might prove to be the death of her.

“What?” Dharman’s voice was only
slightly strained. “I don’t mind Sal on top of me if you’re between us.”

“That’s good to know,” she gasped,
desperate for air. Dharman touched the other warrior’s shoulder and Sal
immediately tumbled off to the side.