Page 144 of A Game of Veils

I meet his eyes with a skip of my pulse that’s not only desire. “Are you okay with this? I never meant to mislead you…”

He draws my chin toward him. As his mouth melds against mine, his voice weaves through my thoughts. “I made my own assumptions. If this is what you want… all I want is to see you happy. There’s no one in the world other than these two I’d trust to look after you.”

When he pulls back, a sly smile crosses his lips. “It’ll be interesting to see how much pleasure we can offer you together.”

“Gods, yes.” Raul guides my head around so he can claim my lips for himself.

His kiss is just as fierce and demanding as I remember, hot enough to make my head spin. I’ve barely caught my breath when a wisp of air tingles across my neck beneath my hair.

My eyes lock with Bastien’s where he’s still standing a couple of paces away in the small room. He doesn’t move, but the breezy current trails down my skirt and wraps around my ankle. It gradually spirals higher, stroking around my bare calf to my knee like the lightest of fingers.

“Loosen her dress,” he says in an even but firm tone that rings with understated authority.

Raul’s grin widens. He follows his older foster brother’s orders without complaint, working at the spots Melisse pinned the slightly over-large dress around my waist and bodice.

Lorenzo presses a kiss to the corner of my jaw and follows suit at my other side. As he fiddles with the fabric, he grazes the back of his knuckles against my breast, stirring more flickers of desire.

This is really happening. I am wanton, inviting three men to indulge in every carnal pleasure we can imagine.

Why should there be anything wrong with that? Why should my husband-to-be get to enjoy every woman who catches his eye while I wait patiently in the wings?

These three men and I understand each other as no other could. We’re pampered pawns, bound to our duties on gilded leashes.

We can take what we need from each other and recognize how much it matters… and how much it can’t.

As the gown slackens around my torso, Bastien steps forward. He teases his fingers along my jaw and kisses me with an intensity that feels more pensive than Raul’s but just as potent.

Then he eases back half a step and flicks his hands upward.

Wind ripples under my skirt. It courses across my legs and lifts the dress with it.

I raise my arms instinctively, and the silk flows over my body as pliant as water. The gown floats up over my head and then drifts down into a puddle of cloth near the doorway.

A heady shiver races over every inch of my skin in the wake of the conjured breeze.

All of these men have seen me naked before, but I feel abruptly shy stripped down to my chemise and drawers. I grip the front of Lorenzo’s shirt and tug, surest of the reaction I’ll get from him. “If clothes are going to be flying, it’d better be more than just mine.”

With a chuckle, he helps me peel off his shirt. Then he dives in for another kiss, wrapping his arms around my waist and hooking his fingers beneath the bottom of my chemise to trace my bare belly.

Raul hums low in his throat. “I like the way you think, Shepherdess.”

He yanks his own shirt up over his head, ruffling his sleek ponytail. When Lorenzo releases me, I can’t resist drinking in the larger man’s uncovered form—all that massive muscular brawn on full display, even more impressive than when it’s hidden beneath his clothes.

I reach toward Raul and glide my fingers across his chest, noting the paler lines that mar his tawny skin where weapons in the arena or perhaps elsewhere pierced his flesh around the sigil of Kosmel slanting over his sternum. He makes a rough sound and lowers his head to nip the shell of my ear.

One of his hands settles on the small of my back, the other cupping my breast. He squeezes the pliant flesh through my chemise and rolls the peak beneath his thumb to shock a gasp out of me.

His husky murmur tickles into my ear. “I’ve wanted to attend to this perfect chest since the moment I saw it. So many possibilities in the right hands…”

He pinches my nipple to set off a spike of bliss. I can’t hold back a whimper, my fingers digging in where I’m gripping his broad shoulder.

At my other side, Lorenzo leans in and nibbles a path down the side of my neck. He massages my other breast and then slides his fingers along the top of my chemise. When I turn my head to seek out another kiss, he drags the thin fabric down over my shoulder.

Our mouths meld together. His hand dips beneath the chemise to fondle my breast skin to skin, and my sigh mingles with his eager groan.

“Nothing has ever felt as good as touching you, Rell. Or as having you touch me.”

With a quiver of pleasure, I tease my fingers over Lorenzo’s scalp through his thick hair and glance toward Bastien. The eldest prince is watching his foster brothers from the same spot right in front of me.

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