Beauty

  But Shim was right there with him. “They intend to kill Torin and take over the plane.”

  Charlie held out a hand, and his father helped him to sit up. “Yes. What the big guy said.”

  The phooka laughed and fell to the bed Charlie lay on. “The big guy is the Unseelie prince, Charles.”

  Bronwyn stared at the phooka. “Why are you here? You’re the same creature who convinced me to run.”

  “Then he is the same creature who I am about to throttle.” The fucking phooka seemed to have his hand in everything. Lach was ready to put the little shit out of his misery.

  “I am simply more adept at this game than any of you,” the phooka replied, his midnight-black tail twitching. “I am certainly smarter than the Unseelies. Princess Bronwyn is the most important piece to this little game we’re playing. If you take her off the board, this plane falls to Torin and Torin to the hags. The only reason the hags haven’t taken over yet is the fact that they lost a sister. Everyone knows they’re stronger in threes, but they found a way around it.”

  “To become soul eaters,” Gillian said hollowly. “I don’t understand what any of this has to do with Bronwyn. Is she going to hum the hags to death?”

  Bron looked up at Shim. “How do you send power to me?”

  Shim frowned. “I don’t think I do. I feel you pull it from me. The first few times I fought it a little and it went wild. When I realized what was happening and let it flow, I could control it a bit more.”

  Bron took Charlie’s hand. “Don’t be afraid.”

  The young Fae had a wisp of a smile. “I know what fear is. I’ve moved long past it. Fear is something you get through or you die. So feel free to experiment, Your Highness.”

  Bron took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

  “Damn it, Bron.” Shim gritted his teeth. “Fine, but this is a mistake.”

  Even Lach could feel it. Bron reached and held the connection. She drew on it, passing up his cold power for Shim’s hot one. Lach was fascinated. Now that he knew what was happening, he realized it had happened before. His power was buried deep, deep down inside, but Shim’s simmered at the surface. It was easy to reach and hold. It was easy to share.

  Charlie gasped and looked down at his hand. “Bugger me. I’m on fire and it doesn’t hurt.”

  He wiggled his fingers a little, flames at the tips. His fathers both stared.

  Dellacourt cursed. “She’s a conduit. Gods, she isn’t a broadcaster. She’s a bloody conduit.”

  Bron’s whole face lit up. “I can help us win. Lach, Shim. I can win this war.”

  Lach shook his head. “Absolutely not. You’re going home and there you will stay. Roan, if you don’t have us in Aoibhneas by dark tomorrow, I will find my own way. If any of you thinks for one bloody second that I intend to let you use my mate as a fucking psychic cannon, you’re insane. She is not going to any battlefield.”

  Lach turned before Bronwyn could curse him.

  Curse him or not. She would be alive at the end of the day.

  * * * *

  Bron approached Lach with no small amount of trepidation. Shim walked behind her, his boots shuffling along the ground. Shim hadn’t argued, hadn’t said much at all. He’d just watched Lach walk away after ordering Duffy to not walk past the river.

  The gnome had looked up with a sad look on his face until Gillian had taken his hand and asked him to sit with her while she healed Charlie.

  A curious excitement flowed through her, but it was tempered with sadness. She had one more play to make and then it would be over.

  She would lose her kingdom or her men.

  “Please don’t be angry with him.” Shim reached out and grasped her hand.

  Funny. His hand felt right tangling with hers as though all these years it had been waiting to be entwined with his. She’d only been physically with them for a few days and already she knew she wanted them forever. She was happy just being around them, but happiness wasn’t the only thing important in life.

  She respected the fact that they would one day rule a kingdom. They owed their people. Couldn’t they understand that she owed hers, too?

  “I’m not angry, Shim. I’m sad.”

  His eyes turned down, watching the place where their fingers met. “I can feel it. It’s worse than mad. Please, Bron. Can’t you understand?”

  “I can’t. Don’t you love your people? Wouldn’t you do anything to keep them safe? You will rule over them one day.” She remembered her father’s words. “A king is only good to his people if he is useful.”

  It was a lesson her uncle hadn’t learned.

  “After Lach was burned and I was weak, I think my father decided we would never be fit to rule. Bron, we weren’t brought up to lead. We were hidden away because my father feared we would either be killed or judged as too weak to rule. So we concentrated on the one thing we had.”

  “Me.” She understood that much. They loved her. She accepted it. Over the last days, they had treated her with an affection that went far beyond courtesy. They seemed to anticipate her needs. When they had stopped in a village, they would bring her favorite cheese and bread and fruit. When her feet hurt from walking, Lach had dropped down, removed her boots, and rubbed the soles of her aching feet until she was purring.

  She’d never felt so loved and taken care of. They held her at night, passing her between them. Lach would hold her with a possessive strength that made her feel safe and Shim with such delicacy that she felt adored.

  Why couldn’t they see to her soul? She could answer that question. Because she’d been too afraid to show them.

  That ended tonight and she would either have them on her side or she would have a decision to make—one she feared she’d already made.

  “Shim, I am sorry for how your father handled your illness and Lach’s injury, but you have to see that I can win this war.”

  He used his free hand to touch her face. “I see that you can die. Gods, Bron, a handful of days wasn’t enough.”

  She was just going to have to show him. She couldn’t tell him what she was going to do. They would shut down. But she knew them. She knew what they longed for. She would make love with them and when they reached out for the true bond. She would take it, give them her soul.

  And she would have her answer.

  There was no more point in talking. She went to her tiptoes. Shim was so tall. He made her feel small and delicate though years of hard work had proven to her how sturdy she was. She brushed her lips to his. It was good to feel feminine. They reminded her of all that should have been hers.

  She should have been a fragile thing, a sweet princess who waved at her people from the palace walls as her husbands made the decisions. She should have laughed with her maids as her mother had. Her whole world would have been wrapped up in children and love and making things beautiful.

  But she knew too much. She couldn’t go back. She wasn’t that dainty girl.

  She was a warrior. She had to fight.

  And, in this case, the battle would be a sweet one.

  “Bron, you’re killing me.” Shim kissed her again, his tongue playing along the seam of her lips. “We need to talk.”

  “There’s nothing to talk about.” She ran her hands up his chest, reveling in the feel of his ripped stomach. For all his previous weakness, he was a muscular man. Every inch of him was lean and hard. She let her hands drift to his tight waist and pulled his hips to hers. It wasn’t something she could get away with when making love with Lach. He would turn her over his knee and tan her ass red if she thought about taking over, but Shim liked it when she got aggressive. She could feel how much it made him feel wanted.

  She let her tongue forage deep as she rubbed against Shim.

  She adored the differences in them. Because they were split, she could really know every aspect of the man. His dominant half and his softer heart. She was welcomed to both sides of his souls. He was right there, a whole man laid out in two parts ready for he
r to love, to adore, to worship. She couldn’t think of anything better.

  Yet she had something she had to do. She had a plan in her brain and it was a horrible thing. But it just might work.

  She felt Shim’s hands skim her breasts as he came up for air.

  “Please tell me this isn’t good-bye.”

  It wasn’t. She hoped it wasn’t. “Can’t we just make love?”

  He sighed and she felt the moment he gave in. He leaned over and picked her up, his strong arms lifting her high on his chest. He walked toward their little base.

  Lach sat on the bed Shim had made, his head in his hands. He looked up as they approached. For a single second, she could see his naked pain before a mask of cold will settled over him.

  “It won’t work, Bron. I won’t accept good-bye.” He straightened his shoulders. “You should just go to bed because we have a long trek in the morning. I’ll find a way into Aoibhneas. I will find us a way home. I know what Roan’s been doing. He’s using the fact that the guards are patrolling to start building an army for Beck and Cian Finn. I won’t allow you to be used.”

  He wouldn’t allow her to be in a moment’s danger no matter how important it was to her soul. He needed his arrogance, but it got to her sometimes. She wrapped her arms around Shim’s neck and kissed him, knowing just how to get to Lachlan McIver. She let her tongue play against Shim’s, allowing it to show as they kissed. She could feel Lach’s interest rise.

  “It won’t work, Bron. You can’t fuck your way out of this.” Lach’s voice was hoarse.

  She didn’t intend to fuck her way out of it. She intended to show them the truth of her.

  Shim lowered her to the bed, his weight coming down on top of her. She opened her mind to him. His had been open from the moment she’d kissed him. His cock was hard, pressed against the leather of his trousers. He loved the feel of his own arousal. He loved the fact that it wouldn’t be long before he would be inside her. He craved it.

  Shim broke off the kiss long enough to pull the shirt over his head. “Take it off.”

  He wasn’t normally dominant. She felt her eyes narrow. “Why?”

  His face went hard and he reached down and flipped her over. A loud smack filled the air. Bron gasped. Shim had never spanked her. Never even hinted at it. But he knew how to do it. He slapped her ass in three quick successions and then he flipped her back over. “I said take off your shirt.”

  Bron felt Lach’s eyes on her. He watched her with a heated stare. Sweet and slow didn’t do it for Lach. He liked it hard. He liked it rough. He might be able to ignore them, to hold on to his righteousness if Shim kissed her and petted her and treated her delicately. Shim was trying to draw his other half in with his show of dominance.

  And Bron could help him by being difficult. “I don’t want to.”

  He ripped her shirt off, holding it between his hands and tugging it into two pieces. He bared her breasts and then caught her nipples in between his thumbs and forefingers, twisting with force. Her eyes watered and her pussy got soft and moist.

  “This is my time, Bron. We agreed to it. You obey in our bed because you won’t obey anywhere else.”

  She bristled a little at the accusation. “I’m not given much of a chance to disobey.”

  Her nipples were tweaked again, pain making them throb with awareness.

  “No back talk.” Shim drew his hands back. He got off the bed and put his hands on the bottom of her skirt. He tugged it off and tossed it aside. “Turn over and put your ass in the air.”

  “What do you think you’re doing, brother?” Lach asked. He was standing over them, his arms crossed over his massive chest and a frown on his face. “You don’t believe in discipline.”

  Shim didn’t. Bron had figured that much out. He believed in play and fun and studying. He was an odd combination of sweet, playful, and intensely smart. He reminded her so much of Cian, though he held a wealth of soul-deep guilt her brother didn’t have. There was a river that ran between Lach and Shim. They loved each other, held on to each other, but she wasn’t sure they trusted each other.

  Bron wanted to know why.

  “If you’re not going to make sure she behaves, then I have to.” Shim looked at his brother, an arrogant expression on his face. “Feel free to leave. I can handle her just fine. When she doesn’t behave, I’ll simply torture her for a while.”

  Shim picked up her ankles in both hands and flipped her over, forcing her to her stomach. Her ass was naked and cool air caressed her skin, but only for a moment before Shim smacked her fleshy cheeks again, the sound cracking the air around her.

  “Damn it, Shim,” she complained. “That hurt.”

  It had, but now there was a sweet heat in the place of the pain. She wriggled her hips.

  Lach seemed to decide to be the voice of reason. “Damn it all, Shim, can’t you see what she’s doing? She thinks she can manipulate us with sex.”

  Shim’s hands were on her ass, tracing the curves and making her shiver a little. “She can try. It doesn’t mean it will work. More than likely she’ll play the siren and call me to her and get a cock up her ass for her troubles.”

  He parted her cheeks. Bron tensed. “Shim, I don’t know about this.”

  Three smacks made her howl. He was serious.

  “Where did you think this was going, a chumann?” Shim spread her legs wide. “Did you think I would be satisfied with your pussy? Never. I want to fuck every part of you. I want your mouth and your pussy and I definitely want that tight ass around my cock. I’ve watched it. I watched it one night in my cousin’s club. A pretty sub was being initiated. Her dominant partner tied her down. Legs and arms. She couldn’t move. She was draped over an ottoman. He was a vampire, of course, as was she. A little blonde thing and I wondered how she would take it. His cock was so big, but she allowed him to tie her down.”

  “I remember.” Lach’s voice was a low roll of thunder. Shim’s plan was working. Bron could see Lach’s erection tenting his pants. “Her ass was in the air, like it was the center of her whole being. He spanked her first. He used his hand and then a paddle. He got her nice and pink. I thought he was hurting her, but then he held his fingers up and they were coated in her cream. That spanking had made her pussy all juicy.”

  Bron gasped as Shim smacked her ass. He struck again and again, never giving her a moment to take it in. He slapped her ass, the fleshy parts and then right at her center, along the crack. Heat bubbled up from within, making her heart race. The pain each time was brief like the cusp of hurt that quickly turned to something erotic before flaring again. Wave after wave of pain and heat and sparks of pleasure hit her as Shim continued his torture.

  Goddess, she wouldn’t have expected it from him, but she was the reason for this dominant show. She bridged them and they could access each other, understand each other, so much more now that they were all on the same plane. Shim could understand Lach’s need to dominate and temper it with his need to worship.

  That’s what this was for them. It was a revelation to Bron. This play, as they called it, was another form of deep affection, a way to show her their love.

  Bron lost count at fifteen. She simply gave over to all of it and felt the pain melt away. Everything melted. The past and the future. The war. Their own problems. All that mattered was the smack of Shim’s hand on her ass. A dreamy feeling took over. She didn’t have to be a princess here or on the run. She could exist fully in this one moment, forever held in their love and admiration. She only needed to serve them and be served by them.

  This was a safe place.

  Shim stopped, but it didn’t matter. Bron was exactly where she wanted to be.

  “Show me,” Lach commanded.

  Bron sighed as she felt Shim’s hand on the folds of her pussy, pressing in and around. He moved easily because like the woman in the fantasy, she was juicy and ripe.

  “Here. She enjoys discipline,” Shim said. Then she could hear as he softly sucked the juice off
his fingers.

  Lach chuckled softly and she felt the bed dip. “It’s a good thing since she obviously will require so much of it. But you remember the rest, don’t you, brother?”

  “I do.” She felt Shim’s hands on her hips. “Higher, love. And spread your knees.”

  He forced her knees wider until she was in a position that left her utterly vulnerable. She curled, bent over with her ass high in the air and her legs spread wide so her cheeks split and exposed her asshole to the cool night air. She might have protested, might have felt a deep shame, but the spanking had taken her past that. It had placed her somewhere it no longer mattered. Silly things like shame and embarrassment held no sway here. There was only sweet submission.

  “I remember the way the other dominant men admired the sub’s pretty hole.” Shim was talking around his fangs now.

  Bron shivered at the thought. Those fangs were delicious. They carried her somewhere else as much as their cocks did. When her men fed, she was pierced by sweetness and a deep, bonding intimacy.

  “It is beautiful,” Lach said. “But she’s so small. Do you think she can take a cock?”

  “I’ve played around. I’ve stretched her a little, but Julian told us the discomfort can be replaced by our pleasure.”

  They would share it with her, the feel of breaching her tight asshole. They would send out just how good it felt.

  “Yes, love,” Shim said, obviously picking up on her thoughts. She would have to learn how to not think so loud around her husbands. “We’ll share the feeling.”

  Lach growled a little as his fingertips traced the line of her spine. “We’ll let you know how hot your ass is and how tightly the muscles of your anus clench down on our cocks. Gods, Bron. It’s so intimate. I remember the little consort’s face as she first took a cock.”

  “She whimpered and cried a bit as her lover forced his dick in. He had to be careful, so careful. He had to seduce her ass, an inch here and a little more there until finally it opened to its master and swallowed him whole.” Shim’s fingers rimmed her hole, and sure enough a whimper was forced from her throat.