Sisters of Flame

A sharp, vivid curse echoed through the lantern-lit chamber. Trevor glanced distractedly toward the door while still keeping up his rhythm in the tangle of Rafe and Rowan’s limbs. Erika’s colorful syllables echoed through the bath house, enhanced by the water in the pool.

Trevor, Rafe, and Rowan were wrapped around each other on the edge of the large, steamy pool, in a configuration Trevor might not have believed possible if they weren’t actively doing it. But Rowan was limber, and when she said, “Fill me up,” he simply asked, “How deep?” His cock didn’t give a crap about the interruption and he kept moving his hips even though his mind told him to stop. He’d been raised to be polite and not ignore a beautiful woman when she entered a room. But Christ, how could he ignore the hungry Red whose snatch he was buried balls-deep inside?

Lately Rowan wouldn’t accept simply being fucked by one of them at a time, and while she enjoyed anal sex more than any other woman he’d known, she seemed to have very little appetite for it lately. So “I want you both inside me” only meant one thing.

“Jesus, don’t you guys do anything but fuck? Ever heard of just taking a bath?” Erika tossed her robe aside and lunged into the pool, taking a lap through the warm water to the other side and coming up spewing mist.

Rowan’s lush laughter made the muscles holding Trevor’s cock captive clench. Trevor and Rafe both let out harsh curses at the way her pussy squeezed them together in the sheath they were currently sharing. Trevor nearly pulled out, and Rowan seemed to sense his shift.

“Don’t you dare,” she said, her voice husky, her hand swiftly moving to grip his hip where he plunged into her from behind. Rafe held her up from the front, perched on the edge of the pool with her legs wrapped around him.

Erika didn’t say another word from her seat at the other end of the pool, but she didn’t leave. Trevor shifted his attention back to the task at hand, his head already spinning with the need to fuck Rowan harder. He was sure he heard Erika let out a sigh as she plunged beneath the water for several seconds. Her sigh hadn’t been one of relaxation, either. It dripped with loneliness and a longing so deep he’d have tried to comfort her in any other situation.

She’d been there only two nights, her first visit in the month that had passed since the ritual that resulted in Rowan’s pregnancy. The lovely archaeologist’s demeanor had been a far cry from the straightforward woman he’d first met who clearly wasn’t afraid to take life by the horns.

Or a dragon, he thought.

Geva was conspicuously absent, however. While Erika’s mood wasn’t precisely sulky, she did seem deeply introspective in a way that was out of character for her.

At first, Trevor blew it off. He barely knew her, how could he pretend to know what the hell was going through her head? It must be something heavy, though.

Rowan’s nails dug into him and a second later Erika’s mood was the last thing on his mind.

Rafe fell back to the stone floor at the edge of the pool, pulling Rowan along with him. Trevor was forced to follow if he wanted to keep his cock inside her, but the change in angle squeezed his hard length in a way that nearly split his skull from pleasure. He struggled to keep focused long enough to ride Rowan through her climax and finally give in to his own.

His cock erupted inside her in the same instant as Rafe’s. The rough surge of fluid from their tips converged and the flesh seemed to merge together for one brief, cosmic moment. He’d have kissed the other man if he could reach him. He abstractly wondered if they might have become welded together inside the molten heat of the woman sandwiched between them.

After the intense, energetic rush of their orgasms faded, he let his half-hard length slip out of her, enjoying the way her flesh seemed to hold onto him. He sank back into the pool, resting his head back on the smooth stone and closing his eyes. God, making love with Rowan was beyond anything he could have imagined. Making love with them both was even better … and to think he’d struggled with the concept of sex with a man at first. Now it seemed so pointless a thing to reject. He couldn’t imagine his life any other way than it was at this moment.

Rowan’s wet curves slid back into the water and she nuzzled against him, finding a seat on his lap and letting him cradle her in his arms. She was truly a tiny, delicate thing for being so much larger than life in his mind, and his long, muscular arms encompassed her, holding her with ease.

Rafe sat on the edge of the pool with his feet dipped in the water and leaned on his knees, letting one hand drape casually over Trevor’s shoulder. The contact lent greater weight to the contentment Trevor felt in that moment.

Rafe was the first to speak, directing a question at Erika that Trevor had been pondering and thought he already knew the answer to.

“What’s made such a beautiful woman look so dark today, love?”

Erika stared out the arched window across from her and didn’t answer, though Trevor could see a slight twitch in her features that let him know she had heard.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Trevor said. “She’s not with him. If you guys weren’t here right now, I’d probably be in the exact same mood.” To Erika he said, “Why isn’t he here, anyway?”

She gave him a sad smile. “It isn’t his fault. It’s Kol’s.”

That elicited a chuckle from Rafe. “Kol’s been taking advantage of his dominion over Geva for more than a month now. What’s the task this time? Or is he simply tied up in the Shadow’s basement for his personal use?”

Erika shook her head. “If that were the case I’d be there enjoying the show, not here feeling sorry for myself. No, it seems there was an elder who didn’t commit hari-kari when the rest of your parents did. Geva says the guy is still alive out there somewhere and Kol wanted his help finding the man. I had no idea you guys ever stayed bachelors, but I guess this guy did.”

“I suppose I should feel lucky Kol’s not taking it out on me,” Rafe said.

Erika snorted. “Well, Geva could have told him no, but Kol said it was him or you, and you are mated to his pregnant sister, so it wasn’t a hard choice for him to make.”

Rowan’s body shook with laughter against Trevor’s side. “Was he always such a kiss-ass?” she asked.

“No,” Erika said, a warm smile crossing her face.

From the corner of his eye, Trevor caught Rafe shaking his head and grinning.

“He was a troublemaker. The worst troublemaker of the brood, in fact,” Rafe said.

“I love that about him,” Erika said. “When I met him he was chained to an altar because he was such a bad boy. God, I miss him.” She grew quiet and the shadow darkened her face again. After a moment she stood. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ruin your bath with my mood. And getting the Court to agree to open up the vaults for me isn’t a favor I want to waste, so I should go.”

She left silently while they watched, and two hands slipped into Trevor’s, twin promises that loneliness would not be something they would have to weather, if any of them had a choice.