“Are you a med-tech too?”
“I’m a medical doctor.”
He grinned at her and she responded, unable to do anything but return that sweet joy he’d just gifted to her. “Your Mai and Dai must be proud.”
She blinked back tears and he understood. “I’m sorry. Did you lose them recently?”
“They were killed because of me.”
Julian gripped her shoulder. “No, they weren’t. They were killed because Ciro Fardelle is a heartless villain who figured it was easier to kill them than let out news that you were missing. And maybe to keep anyone from figuring out what he was up to. To hurt you. I don’t know the whole of it, but I sure as seven hells know it wasn’t because of you.”
“Sounds to me like your man here has the right of it.”
“Tell me, Mr. Candless, do you have a garden here?” She couldn’t deal with what Julian had told her. Not just then.
“Ach, that’s very nice.” He moved his fingers a little as she worked on the heel of his hand. “We do. Kenner, that’s Piper’s older brother, he set up the greenhouses some years back. We can feed everyone through the rough times. ’Course, Andrei, he set up the cisterns so now we have enough water too.”
“Until we can get some medicine to you, I can make a paste if you have the right botanicals. Put on a thick layer every night. Do you have gloves? Not heavy work gloves but something a little lighter. Wear them over the paste and let your body absorb. It’ll give you some relief. If you wrap them in hot cloths that would be even better.”
Piper approached. “There’s a whole lot of food to be eaten.” She bent to kiss Arch’s forehead. “Hello there. I see you’ve met Hannah. Already holding hands? Julian, you and Vincenz had better watch out. In his day there wasn’t a single man in Asphodel who could dance better than Arch.”
“Me and my lovely Bettina. That’s my wife. She passed three years ago.” He sighed heavily and Hannah felt for him. “Hannah here is massaging my aching hands. Says if we have the right green bits in the greenhouses she can make some goo that’ll help with the pain.”
“If we don’t, we’ll get them.” Piper’s gaze met Hannah’s. She’d talk with Piper about the medicine later. A man like Arch was likely not to want to have a fuss made, or to feel as if he was being given charity. So they’d make it happen quietly.
“I’ll do your other hand and then get some food. You can tell me about your Bettina while Julian goes and gets himself a plate.” She sent him a look and he narrowed his gaze. “I’m fine. I’ll just be right here. Go on.”
“It can wait. I’m fine here with you.”
She looked at him. Loving each feature of his face. “You’ve been working all day. You haven’t eaten in hours. Go on. I’ll be in shortly. It’s totally safe here, you know that.”
His gaze darted to the dining room and then back to her. “I’ll just be right there. Don’t wait too long; you haven’t eaten in hours either.”
Arch watched him walk into the large dining/living space only to be greeted by hails of hellos and welcomes. He was a lively man, Julian. His smile was quick, but not always to the bone. But this place seemed to relax him a little and she was glad for it. She wasn’t one for crowds really, but he was.
“He worries for you.”
She continued to massage his hand and wrist. “He’s a good man.”
“More’n that. Most men in this house are good men. But that one has eyes for no one but you.”
“He’s afraid I’ll lose my mind, I wager.”
Arch leaned in close. “Looks all right to me. I doubt that’s his worry. You got some pretty eyes, Hannah.”
“You’re a flirt, aren’t you?”
“I know a pretty woman when I see one.” He winked and she laughed. She laughed and it didn’t feel like someone else was doing it. It didn’t feel as if she had to laugh because if she didn’t everyone would look at her funny.
“Tell me about her. Your Bettina.”
“Vivacious. Oh, she could sing and dance. So pretty. She was no more than a kid when we met. I was a kid too, ’course. We courted awhile. Her Mai wasn’t going to be having the likes of me sniffing around, getting her daughter pregnant and taking off. We married when she was seventeen standard. I was nineteen. Had our first babe two years later. The land here is hard on a woman’s beauty. On her body and mind. But my Bettina was gorgeous until the day she left this world. Lovely. Had long pale hair she used to let me braid until my hands got too bad. We had six kids together. All of ’em here working this land with me. Some of ’em have kids of their own. Wives, husbands. Feels like I planted a crop with her and we still keep reaping the harvest.”
She blinked back tears. “She sounds wonderful. I bet she loved you just as much as you loved her.”
“We got on. She had a big job, you know. Me and six kids.” He grinned again and her heart wanted to burst. “My grandsire used to say every lid had a pot. You know every person had their match. She was my lid.”
Julian poked his head around the corner to catch sight of her kissing Arch’s cheek.
“Do I need to keep an eye on you, Arch?”
“If you can’t keep her, you don’t deserve her.”
Piper came in again. “Vin just finished up. He’s asking after you. Come and eat.”
Arch stood, holding his elbow out for her to take, which she did. “My hands sure do feel better. Thank you, very much.”
“I can do the same tomorrow. Teach a few of the others, your grandchildren perhaps? To do the same. Then we’ll work on that paste. Do you have a doctor here? A med-tech?”
He led her into the chaos of the dining room. Vincenz had come in from wherever he’d made his super-secret connection back to Ravena and only had eyes for her. Her heart tripped, slamming into her chest as he turned every single bit of his attention her way.
“We have a traveling med-tech. There’s a clinic in town, but it’s hard to make the trip very often.”
She’d get the info about his medication and go from there. If she had to visit Asphodel twice a year to see to him, she would.
The doctor she was before they’d taken her stirred in her belly for the first time in longer than she cared to remember. The sharp relief of it brought her to halt a moment and take a deep breath before she could move again.
Chapter 20
Vincenz wanted her all to himself. They’d been surrounded by people every moment for the last few days except for the hours when they’d fallen, exhausted, into bed after hours of planning and preparation.
Julian had taken him aside when he’d completed his comm with Daniel and explained Hannah was with Arch, tending to his hands.
She was a medical doctor; it was her path. He knew this. But she’d been hesitant when he’d brought it up before, asked if she wanted to practice medicine again or work in a lab. It had been the first time he’d seen her tend to someone as a doctor. Not as triage, not because she had to, but because it was what she was.
It warmed him. Helped him believe they could get through all this, that she was getting better and that when all this was over and things slowed down, they had a future where all three of them did what made them happiest and came back together at the end of each day.
They’d shared a raucous meal with Piper’s crew. She’d sat between him and Julian, content and relaxed. She’d clearly charmed Arch and because of that, pretty much everyone else.
But things finally got quiet. She and Piper headed out to the greenhouses, Andrei shadowing them along with Vincenz. Then she’d spent another hour making the paste for Arch, showing several of his grandchildren how as well.
This had been the first time he’d seen her in a social situation—apart from work, which was different. He liked watching her smile. Was gladdened that no one seemed to be the slightest bit bothered by the way she sometimes spoke or phrased things. He knew they were overprotective, but she was special, and theirs.
She came into their bedchamber smelling of sa
ge and lavender. Pausing, she bent to kiss Julian’s temple. “Thank you. The soap was perfect. Just what I needed.”
Julian paused, his fingers on the keyboard halting before sliding up and into that river of dark hair. “Smells good.”
Julian, the jokester. The man who pretended to never take anything seriously brought her gifts. Vincenz was sure Julian told himself it was for her, to make her happy. And it did, no doubt. But it did something for Julian too. Softened him, gave him that connection with her. Took him outside his normal reaction—pain, anger, defensiveness—and into something else. It wasn’t reaction. It wasn’t defense. It was just that he was happy pleasing her.
All that artifice slid away. With Hannah, even more than with Vincenz, Julian could be vulnerable.
She looked up to lock her gaze with his. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in hours.”
He was on his feet, pulling her into his arms before he’d even made the conscious choice to be there.
“I’ve been greedy for you. But instead of burning the place down to get you all to myself I had to be content enough to wait until the still of night when you were ours again.” He brushed his lips against her mouth and she opened to him with a sigh.
Everything clicked into place.
Julian snorted from his place on the comm and Vincenz peered around her body. “Yes?” He helped himself to two handfuls of Hannah’s ass as he did, snugging her to him tighter.
Julian growled but kept his fingers on the keys. “Not fair while I have to finish this.”
Vincenz moved, his front to her back, spinning her to face Julian.
He unbuttoned her sweater, sliding his palms against her breasts through the material. She made a soft sound and rested her head against his shoulder.
“So many layers of clothing. Thwarting me,” he murmured into her ear before he bit the lobe and her knees buckled just a little.
Julian continued to type but his gaze was locked onto Hannah, onto Vincenz’s hands all over her.
He stood back enough to slide the sweater off and then came back to her, dealing with one of Julian’s shirts she liked to wear. It was warm from her skin, scented of Julian and her both. Vincenz bent his head and kissed her shoulder as he bared it, sliding the shirt back.
All she had on beneath was a tank. He could see her nipples, pressing, begging for attention against the thin material.
“Mmmmm.” He pulled the tank off and she was totally naked to the waist.
“Julian,” Vincenz said as he thumbed her nipples, back and forth, back and forth. “You need to come over here and eat her pussy. I want you to bury your face between her thighs. Surround yourself with that sweet cunt. Make her come.”
She shivered, writhing back against him, her ass sliding over his cock.
“You know she’s wet. And she tastes so fucking good. If you don’t, I will.”
Julian stood and the chair clattered behind him. His pupils were so large they swallowed the color of his eyes. He moved to her like a starving man and fell to his knees with an anguished groan.
Vincenz slid one of his hands up, collaring her throat and she jumped a little as she moaned.
Julian pulled off the sleep pants she’d put on after her bath, leaving her in her pretty blue panties and nothing else. He slid his palms from her ankles up her legs. Pausing to bend and kiss the inside of her knee, the middle of her thigh, to breathe over her pussy but not touching.
“Take your cock out,” Vincenz said quietly.
Julian’s gaze locked with Vincenz as he unzipped his pants and pulled his cock from his shorts. He fisted it a few times until Hannah whimpered, reminding them she was in need.
“Eat her cunt and fuck your fist. But don’t come yet.”
Vincenz took two steps back to angle her body better as Julian pulled the panties from her legs, spread her open and took that first lick, his eyes still on Vincenz.
Hannah’s fingers clutched the waist of Vincenz’s trousers as her eyes fluttered closed.
Vincenz didn’t know where to look. Julian on his knees with his mouth on Hannah’s pussy made him so hard he thought he’d lose it. But Julian on his knees, his cock in his hand, pumping up and down slowly as he devoured Hannah was also ridiculously beautiful. Hot.
Tender.
He touched Hannah like she was something precious. Just watching it made Vincenz happy. This big, tough man filled with all the rage an army of angels could produce on his knees, his heart laid bare not only to Vincenz but to Hannah. She was that piece that had been missing.
She gasped in a breath and began to tremble. It wouldn’t be long now, he knew. After her initial fears that she wouldn’t be able to come, it happened that the two of them were quite good at making that happen. As good as she was at coming, though he realized he didn’t know if she could make herself come when she was alone and needed to remember to ask. Maybe even to get a demonstration.
“Does she taste good, Julian?”
“Gods, yes,” he managed against that slick, tender flesh.
She sobbed a moan as her nails dug into Vincenz’s side. He continued to collar her throat. Her pulse beat steady against his open palm. Her nipple beaded hard against his fingers as he rolled and tugged.
She hitched a breath and arched, her upper body pushing back against him. Julian let go of his cock and hauled her close with both hands, his fingers digging into the flesh of her ass to hold her to his mouth as he brought her off.
“Shhh, remember we’re surrounded by people sleeping.” Vincenz smiled against her ear as she turned her face into him and whispered her cries until she went limp.
Julian stood, pulled her up and into his arms and laid her out on the bed. “I’ll be right back.” He kissed her hard before turning back to Vincenz. “You’re in trouble now.”
Julian’s trousers were still open. His cock out, still hard, so hard it tapped his belly. His chest heaved as he nearly panted. The impact of all that arousal, of that utter supreme maleness hit Vincenz with so much force he grabbed Julian’s forearm and suddenly it was all teeth and tongue as they met in a collision of a kiss that seared Vincenz right to his bones.
“You taste like our Hannah.”
Julian’s tongue slid along Vincenz’s lips and then he nipped, hard enough to bring a gasp. “I do. And now you do too.” Julian took his hand and led him back toward the bed. “You’re going to suck my cock now, Vin.”
Hannah hummed her pleasure. “Yes, please.”
She lay there, tousled and mussed, a pinkish glow on her skin from the flush of climax. Totally comfortable as she watched her two men love each other. There was no shadow on her features. Just adoration.
“I’m trying to think of a way I can suck your cock and fuck that pretty pussy at the same time.”
Both men got into bed as Hannah tried to roll from the way. Julian caught her and pulled her back, wedging her between them and she shivered and went into that soft place of submission and compliance.
“I like you right here. Your softness against me as I kiss Vincenz.” Julian walked his fingers down the curve of her side and paused to crack her a sharp slap on her ass.
She sucked in a breath, her eyes wide. He traced his fingertips over the reddened skin and she broke over in gooseflesh. “Mmmm, do you like that too, beautiful Hannah?” Julian licked up her neck and met Vin’s mouth as he kissed across her jaw. She liked being there between them, the pressure of their bodies against her. Loved watching them touch and kiss, loved the way the scent of their skin mixed and mingled into something deliriously sexy.
“You need to put his cock in your mouth, Vincenz. I need to see that too.” Hannah ran her hands all over Vincenz’s torso.
“I do. Roll over. Ass up, head down. I need in you first.”
He moved back a little and she quickly obeyed. Julian got to his knees behind her and traced a fingertip down her spine. “So pretty.” And then he scored his short, blunt nails down her back as she gasped and shuddered, making
noises into the pillow instead of her normal vociferous cries.
“I love the way that looks.” Vincenz kissed over the light red lines and then took himself in hand to tease around her gate. “The bed is low. If you stand next to us while I …” Vin’s head tipped back for a moment as he pushed all the way into Hannah’s cunt. “While I fuck Hannah, I can turn and suck your cock. Just how you like it.” Vin’s mouth tipped up into a knowing smile.
Julian scrambled from the bed, grabbed Vincenz by the hair and angled his mouth near enough to get his cock into it.
Hannah squeaked. “I can’t see!”
“You don’t need to see. You need to be fucked.”
“Hmpf. Who says?”
Julian laughed at her cheek. “I say.”
She pushed up to her elbows and Vincenz groaned, frustrated, around a mouthful of cock. “You do?”
“You’re so in for it when … seven hells, Vin, yes, yes, fuck yes, swallow my cock, baby.” Julian brushed his hand over Vin’s hair as he watched his cock slide in and out of Vincenz’s mouth, dark and wet.
Hannah moved, pulling forward and Vincenz growled.
“I want to see.” She moved to her back and Julian couldn’t argue with this view either.
“Fine. Make yourself come,” Julian challenged and Vin hummed his agreement.
She blinked up at him, her mouth losing some of the sass she’d worn only moments before.
Vincenz pulled back. “Aw, baby. You come so beautifully. We know you’re not shy. At least not with us. Are you worried you can’t?”
“I can’t. I mean, I can, obviously.” She indicated her pussy and then Julian’s mouth. “But not … I can’t do it myself. I think I’m broken.”
“The last thing you are is broken. I keep telling you that. Vin, get that mouth back on my cock or I’m going to get vexed.”
Vincenz snorted but turned back to Julian’s dick and got back to work. Julian kept his gaze on Hannah, on the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. On her eyes, glossy with unshed tears of frustration.