Total pages in book: 260
Estimated words: 247882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1239(@200wpm)___ 992(@250wpm)___ 826(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 247882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1239(@200wpm)___ 992(@250wpm)___ 826(@300wpm)
“I do.”
“Good.” He kissed the space below my ear. “Going to ask you again. Going to ask you a lot. You want to do this?”
Throat dry, I nodded.
His lips grazed the shell of my ear, sending a shiver through me. “We need to hear you speak the words, my Queen.”
“Yes,” I said, clearing my throat. “I’m sure.”
He pressed a kiss to the sensitive spot below my ear as his fingers brushed the skin at my throat. He unclasped the hooks, and the weight of the cloak fell away. “We can stop this at any time.”
“I know.” The touch of his fingers against my bare shoulders and sliding under the thin straps of the slip sent a jolt through my body.
He curled his fingers around the straps. “Nothing will happen—absolutely nothing—that you don’t want to take part in,” he said, kissing the underside of my jaw. “No matter what you think we may want or what you feel from us.”
“We expect nothing,” Kieran said, his voice close.
“I know.” My heart beat so fast, it was like the fluttering wings of a wild bird taking flight. “I’m safe with both of you.”
“Always,” Kieran confirmed.
Casteel’s lip brushed my chin. “And forever.”
A ridiculous surge of emotion swelled in my throat, and with my senses locked down, I knew the sweet rush was all mine. Tears crowded my eyes. I loved them. Both of them. In different ways and for different reasons that I didn’t understand, but I really did. And that knowledge left me a little unsteady.
Casteel’s hands lowered, and cool air followed the slip, sluicing over my chest and stomach and farther still until only moonlight dressed my skin. I shivered, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with the cool air. Casteel’s mouth touched mine, and it was another sweet and soft kiss.
When his mouth left mine, he whispered, “You can open your eyes whenever you’re ready.”
He stepped back, and that wild flutter in my chest moved to my stomach. The urge to cover myself was there, but I resisted. With there being a quality of unknown to how the Joining worked, some magic that wasn’t about blood or words, I didn’t want to do anything that might risk it not working.
I felt their stares almost as if they were a physical caress, soft and warm and…worshipping.
In those moments, I heard nothing but the bubbling of the nearby river and then the nightbirds calling to one another from the trees above in a chorus that felt ancient—primal—a little magical and wholly tempestuous.
My eyes opened.
I saw Casteel first bathed in the silvery moonlight. He truly looked as I had always believed a god to appear. A raging storm of flesh and bone, all exquisite angles and lines. His eyes were pools of honeyed gold as they locked onto mine, and I felt it slip past my shields. A sweet taste gathered in my throat, reminding me of chocolate-covered berries with a hint of cinnamon. His love and his pride filled me, and a wealth of emotions swelled once more.
Then I saw Kieran standing beside Casteel, shoulder to shoulder. Like they had been before I entered their lives. Like they always would be. I took in the proud, untamed planes of his face and the strong curve of his broad jaw. His skin was a mesmerizing silvery brown in the moonlight, and he reminded me of some otherworldly being I’d conjured from my imagination. Captivating and impressive in both forms, his eyes were the blue of winter, and the glow of eather behind his pupils was vibrant. My shields slipped again, and what I felt from him was the same as I’d felt before—sweet and soft. Not as intense as what came from Casteel, but no less meaningful. Nothing about Kieran was less.
Both had discarded their clothing in those silent moments while my eyes had been closed. Their bodies showed years of training and fighting in the lines of muscle and the marks upon their skin. Casteel carried more reminders in the countless scars that always tugged at my heart upon seeing them, but Kieran bore his fair share. I hadn’t noticed them before, the faded claw marks across his chest, the long-ago healed punctures near his waist. Kieran was leaner, the cut of his body more formed even with Casteel only beginning to put his weight back on. I wondered if it had to do with all the running he did in his wolven form. I almost asked but stopped myself before I opened my mouth.
Kieran would probably appreciate my self-restraint.
Then I looked lower. In the back of my mind, I knew that it probably wasn’t a wise choice. Not because they wouldn’t want me to, and obviously not because I didn’t want to, but because I was looking. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen either of them naked, but I tried to be appropriate about it when it came to Kieran.