He’d felt the moment that her emotions had burst forth. All of it rushed through the link between the three of them and he’d nearly come sitting in the room downstairs, on the phone with his business manager. He needed her with such intensity that he shook with it.
Naked, he picked her up and stalked into her bathroom at the end of the hallway and turned on the taps as Nate watched from the doorway, amused and also sympathetic.
When Rhett saw how pink her back and ass were, he made the water cooler and had her stand facing the spray to ease any sting. His eyes moved to Nate’s and an understanding passed between them. Rhett appreciated what Nate had done to break down Holly’s defenses, understood that while they all needed time alone, they also needed to be together as a unit, to strengthen their bond.
“Shhh, let me help you,” he murmured as he gently washed her body and hair and helped her out, even let Nate envelop her in a towel.
“Can I stay?” Nate asked and Rhett knew how much it cost him to make the request. He could feel Nate’s need for connection. To both of them.
In that moment, Rhett realized that Holly wasn’t the only one who had problems letting herself be loved. Nate, for all his arrogance and good looks, needed reassurance too. Needed to know that Holly and Rhett loved him. Sharing Holly became easier to bear suddenly because Rhett felt an equality to Nate that he hadn’t before.
Rhett nodded and they walked into the master bedroom that they had yet to christen. The bed was large—vampires did love their comfort—and dominated the center of the room.
“Honey, are you all right? Would you rather just rest?” Rhett wanted her more than his next breath but he knew that she’d taken a huge emotional beating that evening and that she’d already had sex with Nate. He didn’t want her to suffer in any way.
Her eyes softened and she pushed him back onto the large bed. “I think I can manage,” she said with a smirk and Nate chuckled.
“Turn around and sit astride Nate, facing me,” Rhett said quietly. “No cocks inside you just yet.” He looked at Nate. “Her pussy is mine, Nate, you’ve had your time. Just slide it against her.”
They were both very dominant. Nate had never really realized that. Rhett was so laid-back but the way he was handling the situation showed that he was a top too. They’d have to work out the very complicated situation that caused.
Nate took in the glory of his handiwork on her back and ass and rubbed his cock through her slippery folds. She hitched a breath and he took her hips under his palms and pushed her to him tighter.
Rhett leaned down and with the help of a few pillows ran his tongue through her pussy and over Nate’s cock, bringing a surprised gasp from both of them. Rhett chuckled for a moment.
He wasn’t opposed to having sex with a man, it just wasn’t something he’d felt an urge to do before more than once or twice. He and Nate had had a few moments over the years they’d known each other. Sexually charged moments when their cocks brushed against each other when they’d had threesomes. But Rhett could feel Nate through their link and he wanted to connect with him in that way as well as Holly.
Holly leaned forward to watch Rhett’s tongue slide over her and Nate, watch the edge of his teeth lightly graze her clit. One of Nate’s hands sifted through Rhett’s hair and she felt such tenderness for them both at that moment that it felt like her heart was squeezed. Aside from that, it was really hot to have Rhett’s tongue in her pussy at the same time that Nate caressed her clit with the blunt head of his cock. Even better, watching Rhett’s tongue move over Nate’s cock, and feeling that slight jerk of sensation from Nate through their link.
Rhett tickled the underside of her clit with the tip of his tongue. Over and over, he stroked it, drawing pleasure from her with each quick, wet pass. She could feel that her climax was coming but she wanted him inside of her when it happened.
“Rhett, fuck me, please. I don’t want to wait,” she begged softly and Rhett circled her clit one last time and moved up onto the bed.
He knelt beside her and pulled her into a kiss. She tasted herself on his lips. Nate’s hands were on her hips as he ground his cock against her over and over.
Rhett broke the kiss and moved to sit back against the headboard, legs spread out. She took the hand he held out, coming to sit astride.
“Take me inside then, honey. Let me in,” he said softly and she slowly slid down onto his cock as she also threw herself open to him mentally and emotionally.
Suddenly he was in the link fully with both Holly and Nate and it was amazing. He felt his cock slice through her body, felt the heat of her back, the contrast of his cool skin beneath her thighs. He pinched a nipple and he felt it echo to her clit. Nate watched them, his hunger rising, but he stayed back, letting Rhett have this moment, content with just being there.
Rhett leaned in and kissed the fluttering pulse at her throat. The heat from her back, the blood so close to the surface, was driving him hard. He worried that Nate had taken more than he should have and that he’d be injuring her if he took from her.
“Do it,” Holly whispered as she arched, taking him deeper. “Please.”
“Nate…”
She put her finger over his lips to silence him. “He didn’t take too much. Feed from me. I want it, I need it.” She leaned in and spoke with her lips against his temple.
Rhett looked over her shoulder at Nate, who licked his lips. He felt Nate’s hunger—his bloodlust and his desire for them both. He nodded at Rhett and Rhett kept his eyes locked with him when he dragged his incisors over Holly’s jugular and the first jolt of her blood hit his system.
Suddenly she was writhing in his arms, squirming against him as she came. Her pussy was a silken vise around him as he laved over the wound, closing it.
“I love you, Rhett. God help me, I love you both so much I’d die without you,” she said in a whisper and it was too much to bear, the weight of worry lifted from him, the words settled inside of him with certainty and he arched up as she moved down, getting into her as deeply as he could, pouring into her.
When he laid her down Nate came to lie next to them, on the other side of Holly.
Rhett rolled to his side and held his head up on his hand. “I love you, Holly. More than I can put into words. But you know that, you can feel it here,” he took her hand and put it on his heart.
“And here,” Nate said and put her other hand over his heart and she looked between them, eyes filled with unshed tears.
“Yes,” she said in a quiet voice. “I can feel it. It’s so miraculous. I…I’m sorry that I held back.” She looked from one man to the other, needing desperately for them to understand.
Nate traced over a nipple with a fingertip. “I know why you did. It’s in the past now. From now on we’re three. Right?”
She looked from him to Rhett and nodded. “Right.”
Chapter Six
“She’s here in New Orleans, sir,” the man said nervously as he watched his boss’s reaction to the news.
“She’s what? Has she made contact with the witches?”
Piven wasn’t fooled by the calm demeanor of the white-haired man behind the large desk. He gulped. “Yes. They met her at the airport. But she’s not with them. They’re at The Château.”
“They? She’s got those damned bloodsuckers with her?”
“Y-yes, sir.”
“Have they bonded?”
“It appears so.” Piven surreptitiously rubbed his sweaty palms on the thighs of his pants. “We sent some men into the hotel, it’s been warded so tight none of them were even able to get on the elevator.”
A meaty fist pounded on the desktop and Piven jumped. “Incompetents! I thought you were a high talent wizard, Piven. Why such bumbling? You allow her to escape the first attempt, even having her find out about our anger toward the witches, and now this?”
“I’m sorry, sir. She’s protected by the vampires and a bodyguard at all times. She has some kind of protection around her. It??
?s difficult to even see where she is, impossible to scry. I’ve never seen anything like it. We’ve got men on the hotel right now and men on the witches too. We’ll try once she leaves.”
“I don’t want you to try, Piven. I want you to succeed. Now get out before I cast you into hell itself for failing me yet again.”
* * * * *
Holly woke slowly and stretched. It took her a moment but she remembered that they were in New Orleans and that she had to set up a time to meet with the Charvezes—she still didn’t think of them as her family although she had to admit that she felt some kind of connection to them, especially when Isolde Charvez hugged her.
More than that, the memory of the night before, of the way she’d come to totally accept Rhett and Nate, flooded through her, leaving her smiling. It gave her strength to face the rest of the stuff in her life she needed to fix.
Gently, she moved the arms banded across her body and slid from the bed. She stood watching them both for a moment. They did not stir, nor did they look dead. Rhett’s rakish ebony hair was tousled about his face, long lashes lying against his cheeks. One of his hands was open, fingers just touching one of Nate’s dreads.
He was so good to her. Patient and loving as well as suave and handsome. He took his time with her even when it was clear how much he’d wanted her to just accept their connection. He accepted her fears and did everything he could to help her past them. Often just before dawn, he’d brush her hair until it gleamed. The way he touched her made her feel cherished and loved. But when they were naked together, touching and loving, he was creative and tireless and it seemed as if he couldn’t get enough of her. She smiled and touched the spot where he’d fed some hours before.
Her gaze shifted to take Nate in. The sheet was low on his abdomen and it showed the hard muscle of his body. The ropes of his dreadlocks were spread about the pillows and mattress, his lips still in their natural smile.
He was so much more complicated than he wanted to show. Underneath all that leather, past the floggers and the paddle, there was a deeply sensitive man. She’d felt his yearning the night before when she and Rhett had gotten out of the shower. Felt how much he needed to be assured that both of them loved him and wanted him. That, and the way he’d so skillfully destroyed her defenses against them both, made her adore him.
So very different, her men. But each filled a space within her that she’d never had the courage to even look at before. Both had been family to each other and now she was theirs too. In so many ways the three of them needed each other so much. Needed that connection and that belonging.
Reaching out, she pushed a lock of hair from Rhett’s face and kissed his lips gently. Her fingertips trailed down the muscle of his arm and she squeezed his hand and pulled the blanket up. She knew he’d wake up cold, they both would.
Walking around to Nate’s side of the bed, she pulled the blanket up over him as well but didn’t resist the urge to slide her palm up his stomach and into the perfectly manicured beard and mustache. She pressed a kiss to his forehead and tried not to think about the fact that they’d still need donors. She knew they’d most likely be gorgeous women and sighed as the familiar specter of her self-doubt raised its head.
She felt Rhett stir along the link and pushed it away quickly, relieved when she felt him return to rest.
After showering, she called for lunch. She still felt uncomfortable taking their money but for now she had no other choice and she’d have to find a way to deal with it when they converted her and she couldn’t work and go to school at the same time. They’d both assured her that it wasn’t a big deal.
Nate came from money and consulted with the FBI. Rhett had built up a nice portfolio and ran a lucrative business designing websites. Both men were very, very well off. Still, it was difficult to allow herself to depend on anyone.
Jax brought the food in and ate with her. Holly liked the former Navy SEAL. He was mellow and had a very dry sense of humor but she didn’t doubt for a second that he could snap someone’s neck in moments and without a qualm.
“How are you feeling today? You looked wiped last night. Some big family you got here,” he said as he poured them both a cup of steaming coffee with chicory.
“I didn’t expect it. It was…overwhelming.”
He looked up and nodded, waiting for her to elaborate if she wanted.
“I don’t know what to think. What to feel. They seemed genuinely happy to meet me, which is at odds with people who’d just cast a fifteen-year-old girl out into the street. I don’t understand it. And it doesn’t erase the fact that we struggled my whole life. Alone.” Her voice trembled a bit at the end and she saw the compassion in his eyes but he respected her space and merely nodded again.
“It’s gotta be pretty hard to take. But you’re going to let them explain?”
“Yes. I have to figure out what is going on at the very least. Someone is trying to kill me and that’s connected with them. They strong-armed me to get me down here, they’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”
They finished their meal in relative quiet. That was another thing she liked about him—he respected that she liked silence. He didn’t have to fill up every moment with something to say.
“It’s nearly four. I’m thinking that we should just wait until Nate and Rhett wake up and then go meet with them. They’ll be awake in about forty-five minutes anyway. This way they won’t feel so out of control.” Jax watched her casually as he said it. He phrased it in a way that made her feel that she was making the decision rather than someone else doing it. She knew it and appreciated it.
“They need to eat first.” Her voice had a slight edge to it.
“You know it’s nothing to them.”
She held up a hand to cut him off. “I don’t want to talk about it. It is what it is. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
He shrugged. “That mean you want to go now?”
She gave him a shrug in return. “Let me call them and see what we need to do. I take it you’ve seen to the arrangements for their donors?”
“Yes, with some help from Bell’s people. Someone will be coming here every night. And before you ask, yes, I checked them all out myself. They’re all male by the way. Nate specifically asked for that this morning before he went to sleep.”
Holly hid her smile. “Of course you did. I wouldn’t insult you by assuming that you’d done anything less than your normal fabulous job with security.” Inside she leapt with joy that Nate took care to make sure she wouldn’t be hurt by the issue of donors.
She went to the phone and dialed Lee’s number.
“Hello?”
It was Alex.
“Hi, it’s Holly. Uh, is Lee around?”
“Holly! How did you sleep? Is the hotel all right?” Alex was warm and his questions sounded genuine.
“Oh fine I guess. The hotel is beautiful. Thank you for asking.”
“Good. Let me get Lee for you,” he said and Holly heard him call to her cousin softly.
“Holly, it’s lovely to hear your voice. Can we have you and the guys over for dinner here? Of course you know that being with vampires, dinner means around nine. We’d like to see you before that. Have some tea maybe? We can meet here or at The Grove. That’s the family’s magic and herb shop in the French Quarter. It’s up to you. We all want to make this as easy as possible. We could come there for a while, talk. Then decide.” Lee desperately wanted Holly to give them a chance. Especially after the problems of the night before.
“I think it’s best that I not leave the hotel without Nate and Rhett. I don’t want them to be worried.”
“Okay, that sounds reasonable. So, why don’t a few of us come to the hotel for some tea? They do a lovely tea there. I know, funny considering it’s a vampire hotel and all. Then we can decide what the next step should be.”
“Few of you?”
“Well, me and my grand-mére and my sister Em. Of course Alex and Aidan and Con too. And I swear to you on my
life, well, on Aidan’s life, that there will be no repeat of last night and I’m so very sorry about…”
Holly interrupted, “That’s fine. Can you give me about an hour? They’ll be waking up soon but will need to feed.” Holly was still working through just how angry she was over the way her men had been treated. She wanted to address it but on her terms, her timeline, her turf.
Lee bit her tongue. She could hear the icy tone in Holly’s voice when she brought up the whole scene from the night before. “We’ll see you in an hour then.”
She hung up and turned to Alex, who raised his brows and gave a sigh. “She’s pissed?”
“Yes and hurt. And she should be. We brought her here and then we treated her like crap by treating her mates so poorly. Can you imagine Aidan’s family treating me that way? She may be shy, but I get the feeling she’s one of those people who takes a lot to get angry but once there, watch out.”
Alex quirked up a corner of his mouth and moved toward her. “Hmmm, seems that we’ll have to think up some ways for Aidan to make amends.”
Lee laughed as he pulled her into his arms.
* * * * *
Rhett sat up, felt Holly nearby and relaxed. She walked into the room and smiled at him.
“Hey, babe. The bathroom is heated up and your donors are here. Go on and shower and feed.”
He kissed her quickly and jogged into the huge bathroom, pleased that she’d followed him. He’d been waiting for her to accept them this way. It felt really damned good.
“I’m glad to see you waited for us to wake up.” He groaned long and hard when he stepped into the hot spray. “You should come in here,” he invited.
She laughed. “I’d love to but your donor is waiting and after that the Charvezes are coming over. I’ll take a rain check though. I do love washing your back.”
Rhett let her dry his hair, reveling in the tender ministrations of her hands, and he left the bathroom as Nate strolled in.
He leaned in and kissed Holly until her knees felt like jelly. “After I feed, I’m bending you over,” he whispered and got into the shower.