ClosertoFire (12 page)

She tugged at her lower lip with her teeth. “I guess not.”

Bane set down his fork and stroked her cheek with the back
of his hand, suppressing a smile.
You have no idea, little one.

Lily curled against Bane, enjoying the feeling of his strong
thighs beneath her thin dress. She looked from his thoughtful expression to
Darek’s hungry one. What she wouldn’t give to be able to read their minds right
now… But then, maybe she didn’t really want to know.

Bane pointed at the black duffel bag and glanced at Darek,
who hefted it onto the couch beside them, piquing Lily’s interest. At last
she’d get to find out what was
in
there. She leaned forward, peering
inside as Darek unzipped it. Bane took her shoulder and gently pushed her back,
shaking his head. She huffed, frustrated, but his hand sliding up the inside of
her thigh turned her protest into a shiver. His fingers were warm and her
breasts felt suddenly heavy and tight. His cock hardened against her flank as
she explored the muscular landscape of his chest with her palms, feeling the
ridged scars as her fingertips brushed over them.

“Open for me,” he said against her ear as his hand reached
the juncture of her thighs. Feeling oddly shy, she opened her legs just enough
to admit his hand. A low, disapproving growl rumbled in his chest. He slid one
finger into her, palming the soft curls between her thighs, and bit down on the
sensitive skin of her neck just below her earlobe. Lily cried out, surprised by
the dual sensations of pleasure and pain, reflexively closing her legs on his
arm. Still growling softly, Bane bit down harder and found her clit with his
thumb, stroking gently.

“Open, Lily,” Darek repeated, and she realized through a
mild haze that he’d moved to the floor in front of Bane. Bane added a second
finger to the one already in her, stroking in and out. Her pussy clenched
longingly around his fingers and she obediently moved her knees wide apart for
him. His teeth released her neck and she sighed with relief, leaning her head
back against the arm of the loveseat. With Darek’s help, Bane repositioned her
so that she sat in his lap facing Darek, Bane all the while scissoring his
fingers inside her. Lily twitched and moaned softly, her hips bucking as
Darek’s hands moved under her knees, lifting her legs so that they draped over
Bane’s.

“Take this off,” Bane said, tugging at the hem of her dress
with his free hand. “I want to feel your skin against me. I want to see all of
you while he licks you.” Trembling with excitement, Lily tore the dress over
her head and tossed it aside, wriggling in Bane’s lap. She felt his erection
jerk under her bare bottom through the material of his shorts and she arched
invitingly against him, turning her head to look at him hopefully. His eyes
were closed as though in concentration and he groaned.

“Lily—” he began. Suddenly restless, she lay back against
him, reaching up to stroke the sandpaper stubble on his cheek and looking
plaintively at Darek.

“Please, one of you, fuck me soon,” she purred in a honeyed
voice she barely recognized as her own. “Or…” A thought occurred to her. “Can I
take
both
of you?” she wondered aloud, distantly aware of the strange,
uncannily smooth sound of her voice in the silence of the room.

Bane made an inarticulate, tortured sound beneath her. She
might be vastly inexperienced but she was an avid reader of the classics—the
Kama
Sutra
included. The physics of it dawned on her and her pussy clenched
hard, bathing his hand in slick, wet warmth. “Oh yes. One of you could—”

The remainder of her thought was lost in a shout as Darek’s
mouth replaced Bane’s hand, his tongue sliding so far inside her that she
thought he must have shifted. She sat up in Bane’s lap, her spine arching,
letting her head fall back as her breath came in helpless little gasps. Darek
groaned, the sound vibrating against her clit and sending a frisson of pleasure
through her.

“Shhh, Lily. Don’t talk,” Bane rasped, and she heard a
plaintive note in his voice that was new to her. He cupped her breasts,
brushing his thumbs lightly over her nipples. She fell silent except for the
occasional cry she couldn’t suppress. She didn’t think she could have formed words
anyway, not with Darek’s long tongue exploring her with skilled thoroughness,
touching nerve endings she hadn’t known existed. He paused and sat back,
pushing three fingers into her aching heat. The added girth felt
incredible—Lily swore she could see stars and her pussy clenched hard in the
first throes of an orgasm—and then he was gone. Lily cried out, shuddering and
gasping as the precipice receded.

“Don’t speak,” she heard Bane say after a moment, sounding
as if he’d regained his composure a little. Hers, on the other hand, was
shattered. “Your—your mother’s kind have a siren call… Irresistible,” he said,
his voice still rough, running his finger slowly down her spine as she tried to
catch her breath. “Apparently you’ve inherited that little skill. You’ll have
to learn to control it.”

They
hadn’t known she could do it?
Lily thought
vaguely. Well,
she
sure as hell hadn’t known. And as for learning to
control it, oh yes, that she intended to do. The smile that curved her lips
felt positively wicked and she giggled.

Bane smacked her flank and she jumped. “Don’t get ideas,
Lily,” he warned. “We can handle you.”

She shivered, remembering the silver rope. Yes, she was sure
they could. She sighed.

Watching her carefully, Darek leaned forward again,
feathering kisses up the inside of her thighs. She twitched, desperately
wanting to beg for more but not daring to speak for fear he’d stop. After what
felt like an eternity, he spread her lips apart with two fingers and placed a
kiss squarely on her aching clit, his dark, ravenous gaze holding hers.

Lily moaned, a fresh wave of wet heat dripping from her
pussy. Darek lapped up the liquid, his gaze never leaving hers. Watching his
long, serpentine tongue curving lovingly over her throbbing flesh, she realized
he had partially shifted shape. He also had long, white fangs on the top and
bottom, which he kept carefully away from her. Dizzy, a little afraid she’d
fall over, she lay back against Bane.

“That’s it,” he purred approvingly. “Let go. He’ll let you
come when he’s ready.” He splayed one hand flat over her belly, stroking her
thigh with the other. She whimpered, a helpless, keening sound. When
he
was
ready?
She
was ready now!

Time became irrelevant as she lay captive—whether to them or
her own desires, she didn’t know—in Bane’s strong arms. She lost count of the
number of times Darek brought her skillfully to the edge of orgasm, only to
back her down.

Hands—Bane’s or Darek’s, she didn’t know anymore—stroked,
kneaded, explored her entire body, until there was no part of her that didn’t
belong to them. At some point, when she was very close to coming, she felt
Darek’s fingers slide lower, circling the tight rosebud of her anus.

Bane’s voice came from somewhere near her right ear. “Do you
want to take us both later tonight, Lily?”

She nodded vehemently, bumping his chin with the crown of
her head.

He chuckled, a low, satisfied, silken sound. “We’ll need to
get you ready then,” Bane said, stroking her thigh.

Darek’s hands were on her knees. Their touches, their skin
against hers, their hands and arms holding her up seemed like the only solid
things in the universe.

Bane’s voice came to her again and she turned her head to
meet his steady blue gaze. “Lily, I know you’re far away, but I need you to
listen to me. Next time you’re close, Darek is going to put something in you, a
safe, smooth toy that will help you relax where I’m going to take you later.”

Lily began to shiver all over at the thought, somewhere
between arousal and agony, and felt Bane’s arms tighten around her. “If it
hurts, we’ll stop. Okay?” She nodded. “Good girl,” he said gently, stroking her
hair. The praise was a salve on her aching, hungry soul. She wanted so badly to
come. Her body felt like one big, raw nerve ending. She felt a tear slide
silently down her cheek, then another.

“Please,” she managed. “Don’t make me stop again. I can’t—I
just can’t,” she said softly.

Something in his expression shifted and he stroked her jaw.
He looked up at Darek, who nodded.

“It’s all right, love. You’re not the only one who’s been
suffering,” Darek said, smiling at her with comfortingly human teeth. “Come
here.”

Together, Bane and Darek lifted her to the floor where she
knelt, facing Bane. Darek’s hand pressed down on her back and she bent
willingly, tilting her hips to give him access. She heard the hiss of a zipper
and her breath came in short, sharp, hungry gasps. She reached for Bane’s fly,
tugging at it with fingers that felt numb.

Mercifully he helped her, freeing his erection for her mouth
and hands. She grasped him firmly, worshipfully kissing the salty tip, running
her tongue under the sensitive ridge of the head and finally taking as much of
him as she could handle into her mouth and wrapping her hands around the rest.

His body jerked, his hips bucking. “Oh God, Lily, that feels
good. Thank you, love,” he murmured.

Behind her, she felt the head of Darek’s cock spread her
apart, filling her slowly and completely until the silken skin of his balls
tapped her clit. She whimpered, tilting her hips in invitation. She was so
close…

With a sound that spoke of snapped male control, he dug his
fingers into her hips and fucked her hard, his cock pounding into her waiting
body. She came at once, howling with sheer release, moving her mouth away from
Bane for fear she’d hurt him. Darek thrust in deep, waiting, giving her pussy
the entire length of his cock to squeeze, suck and stroke.

She was still twitching and whimpering, utterly relaxed,
when she felt Darek spread her cheeks. The tip of something hard and smooth
slid into her ass and she tensed. She half turned awkwardly to look at him,
letting go of Bane.

“Relax, Lily. Push against the plug a little,” Darek told
her.

“Okay.” There was a second of pain and then just a strange,
full feeling as it settled into place. She wiggled experimentally and heard
Darek groan.

“You’re even tighter this way,” he murmured and she felt him
playing with whatever he’d put in her. It was uncomfortable but the thought of
being able to take them both made her more than willing to tolerate it.

“Are you okay?” Bane asked, studying her from beneath
half-closed lids.

She nodded. “It feels weird but it doesn’t hurt.”

She returned her attention to his erection, licking him from
balls to tip. Darek fucked her slowly from behind, playing with the toy he’d put
in her as he did so. It felt unexpectedly good and she moaned around a mouthful
of Bane’s cock, relaxing her throat as Darek had shown her earlier, letting him
slide in until her lips were wrapped around the base of his shaft.

Darek sped up, his breathing getting ragged, and she sucked
Bane hard, wanting to feel him come. She didn’t have to wait long. With a shout
that rang through the room, he stiffened and bucked, his fingers digging
white-knuckled into the cloth of the couch, the length of his cock throbbing in
her mouth and throat as he came in long, sweet pulses. Behind her, Darek’s
shout echoed Bane’s as he climaxed deep inside her. Her own renewed orgasm
wasn’t far behind.

Bane watched as Darek gathered Lily’s weary, pliant form
into his arms and stood, inclining his head toward the entrance to the bedroom
wing.

“The garden room?” he asked. Bane nodded, attending to his
fly. He stood, picked up the duffel and followed Darek through the archway.

The garden room had originally been designed several hundred
years before by the
sovrán
of the water dracambri for his new wyrmate.
All in all, it was one of the more stunning architectural feats the dracambri
had to their credit—and very few of them had ever entered its locked doors. In
his role as a physician, however, Bane had made many friends, the
sovrán
among them. His handprint would grant him access to the wing.

Darek led the way down the long hallway, stopping at the oak
double doors that led into the suite. Bane laid his hand on the surface and the
doors swung inward. Darek followed Bane through the doorway with Lily. As they
entered, Bane illuminated the torches along the walls. The water dracambri’s
sovrán
had a taste for the medieval and the décor reflected it.

The suite’s most impressive feature—and the one that Darek
likely had in mind—was the grotto. With the help of the fire dracambri, the
sovrán
had created a perennial hot spring. Around the stone-lined spring he’d built
the impossible—an underground greenhouse, complete with a perpetual irrigation
system and an ingeniously engineered lighting system. With the lights off, the
bioluminescent moss on the ceiling even created a skylight effect. All of the
females had been forced into hiding, sometimes spending months in underground
locations like this one. The
sovrán
wanted to give his mate a retreat.

Bane smiled. At the time, he remembered thinking that the
suite, which took months to build, was beautiful and a kind gesture. But he
realized now that he hadn’t really understood the
sovrán
’s profound need
to see his mate happy. Watching Lily’s sleepy eyes widen as she took in the
room’s grandeur, he thought he understood now. A massive canopy bed lined with
featherlight tulle curtains dominated the room. Brilliant, richly colored
swaths of silk and velvet were fastened above the chandelier at the room’s
center and ran from there across the ceiling in great, sweeping, feminine arcs
attached at the walls, where the fabric seemed to spill down to the floor in a
river of inviting texture.