Page 40 of Reign of Four

“Better than others,” he rumbles, sucking on my bottom lip with a tenderness that catches me off guard. “I fit you best, yes?”

The man is fishing for compliments while he rearranges my guts. Ridiculous. But another hard thrust has me nodding along to anything he says. “Y-yes, so much better. Yes.”

Ezra hums his approval as he slows the pace, leaning back to take in my entire body, both of us bathed in silver moonlight. I feel like a sweaty mess, flushed and overheated, panting and restless with a need for release. He sees it all, and still he looks at me like I’m the most beautiful creature in the world. My heart clenches tight in my chest.

His expression breaks as he comes, the confidence fading for something much more tender, much more real. He cups my cheek in his palm and presses a sweet kiss to my lips, licking leisurely inside my mouth as his cock pulses heat deep inside me, painting my walls in a sticky-sweet promise. It’s not the way he fucks me that makes me come—it’s the way he holds me once it’s over, this mountain of a man who could crush me in an instant, hovering in place, being careful not to rest too much weight on me when it’s clear that’s all he wants. To bury me against his chest and hide me away from the others, even if just for tonight. To steal a sweet moment for ourselves. A moment that was, in the past, impossible.

I slide my palms up and down Ezra’s back, careful to avoid the exit bullet wound over his shoulder, and enjoy the way he purrs from the attention. Slowly, gently, he lowers himself on top of me. His voice slurs as he tells me the secrets of his heart—how much he loves me, how grateful he is that I’m safe, and how fucking good it feels to be in someone else’s arms.

I hold him close as he falls asleep in fits, his body fighting the drugs lingering in his system and the new rush of oxytocin from the sex. I shhh when he twitches awake, scratch his head and back until he relaxes, and snuggle close when his breathing slows.

Finally, my mountain falls asleep.

Chapter 14

Valentina

As a clatter from outside of our bedroom stirs me from slumber, Ezra bands his arm tighter around my waist and buries me beneath his naked chest, burrowing us both deeper into the blankets like he’s a bear preparing for winter slumber. My heart melts as he snuggles close, but the rest of me literally melts. Turns out that Ezra is merely masquerading as human; he’s really a furnace made of scorching hot muscles and testosterone, and I’m dying. I wriggle around until I find a blessed opening in the covers and snag a brisk lungful of cool air. “Ezra,” I wheeze, struggling to detach myself from the bear. “Too hot. Melting. Dying.”

He loosens his grip so I can scoot a few inches away, but right as I’m about to escape, he latches onto my hips and pulls me back. “Sleep,” he mumbles, voice rasping with fatigue. “Shhh.” With a grunt, he wedges my thigh between his and holds me in place. “Lisichka. Mmm. You are warm.” Slowly, he drags his stiff cock against my naked thigh, burning a brand into my skin.

I gasp for air as an inferno courses through my veins. My pussy throbs, despite the punishment she endured last night, and a whine catches in my throat. “I can’t, Ezra, please. I’m dying. It’s too hot. I will die if you so much as think about putting that thing inside me. Stop it.”

He grunts as I detangle my arms from the sheets and finally get a glorious burst of cool air against my flushed skin. Last night, the house was ice cold, but now that four bodies and a warm fire have invaded the premises and burrowed in for God knows how long, the temp has improved from frigid tundra to chilled mountain morning. Bright sunlight streams through the gossamer curtains. Is it morning? Afternoon? When exactly did we fall asleep last night?

The blankets shift beside me as Ezra reveals his face to the sunlight. “If they know you are awake, they will steal you away.” He slowly pries his eyes open, maintaining a stony expression despite the tousled hair and lingering imprint of the pillowcase on his cheek. His hands wander up and down my thigh as he holds it in place against his length. “I am not ready to give you back.”

A rush of heat as he continues the slow grind into my thigh makes my body flush hotter. I can still feel both Ezra’s and Mikhail’s cum inside me, slicking my thighs every time I dare move them. I never had a chance to clean up before falling asleep last night. Surely Ezra won’t want to go for another round when I’m already so . . . full. Besides, we’re all forgetting the most important fact in the face of our horny: Ezra’s injured. “You need to rest.” As I attempt to slip from his grasp, he grumbles dissent and drags me back until my ass is firmly planted over his raging boner.

Jesus, that thing’s a fucking weapon ready to pop off the first chance it gets.

“Ezra. Seriously. You need to rest.”

He presses tender kisses to my shoulder blades, continuing his sleepy mumble. “I will rest better beside you. Do not leave.” One of his palms dips between my thighs, and in a matter of moments, he’s spreading me open and teasing my entrance with one of his thick fingers. He grunts appreciatively as I push back against him, slotting two knuckles inside me.

I bite my hand as he curls, slowly edging my pleasure higher. I hadn’t planned for more sex so early in the morning, but now that we’re here, I can’t complain. My body temp rises and I’m grateful when Ezra drags the blankets off of me, leaving my body exposed to his intense gaze.

“Beautiful,” he breathes, shifting suddenly so that he’s sitting up on his knees. Grabbing my thigh, he holds it up at a ninety-degree angle against his torso. When the thick velvet length of his cock drags against my core, I moan at the blessed heat and the slick, wet sound as he glides easily by. He groans and repeats the motion torturously, brushing my clit in the slowest rhythm imaginable.

I’ve never been pulled open at such an intense angle, lying on my side as a man sinks deep with a simple thrust of his hips. He clasps his hands around my thigh to hold me in place. I reach for Ezra and touch the only part of him I can reach—his thigh—and feel the muscle contract as he moves.

I want to remind him that he’s injured. That he shouldn’t exert himself so much. That this isn’t actually resting, and that it’s not solving my overheating problem.

But all that comes out of my mouth is a series of stutters and broken words punctuated by deep moans as he touches the deepest parts of me and snares my pleasure within his own. He keeps the pace slow, and minutes pass in a beautiful crescendo of desire. I come before he does, clenching tightly around him and forgetting to breathe.

He chases his release with short, hard thrusts that fill the air with the slap of skin on skin and the liquid rush of desire dripping down our bodies. When he comes, I feel each burst as his cock twitches, an impossible warmth spilling inside me and leaking out onto the sheets. I’m too full of cum for it to be contained, although Ezra tries. He grinds his cock deep, getting as much of his seed as deep as he can.

As Ezra pulls out and even more cum follows his retreat, a shiver rolls down my spine. Where there should be post-coital bliss, instead, a flare of panic flickers in the back of my mind. Clarity hits a moment later, knocking the wind out of me.

I’m an idiot. What was it that Liam said,a week ago? That he wanted to be the one to knock me up before my men got the chance?

Icy dread wraps around the base of my spine, locking my body into place. I’m not on protection. Liam may no longer be a threat, thank god, but that doesn’t mean we can afford to be reckless and keep having unprotected sex without thinking about the potential consequences. Very permanent, life-altering consequences. The kind that takes nine months to bake and a million hours to finally pop out of the oven once the timer goes off.

I told Andrei that I wasn’t on birth control when we first had sex, but I never mentioned it to the others. Do they want me to get pregnant, or are we all fucking with reckless abandon because we can’t control our impulses? Do we crave each other so much that we conveniently forget that actions like these have consequences?

I take shallow breaths as my panic increases. I could be pregnant right now. It’s unlikely because I haven’t ovulated yet, but you never know. Stranger things have happened, right? Didn’t someone get pregnant from sitting on a toilet seat once? It doesn’t take much to fertilize an egg, and I’ve had three men inside me within the past twenty-four hours. Their sperm must be fighting each other for the first shot at my next egg.

It’s only a matter of time before it happens if we keep going like this.

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