Page 25 of Fool's Bargain

I peered into the basket and counted four more bottles. “Sixty years? You guys aged as well as this whiskey.” I gave them each an appraising look, my blood warming as much from the prospect of a night with them as from the liquor. Older men were always better in bed. Even better that these three looked like they had the stamina of twenty-year-olds. When my gaze landed on Dorian, his dark expression made me frown. “Don’t tell me this is only part of the collection.”

“There are more than three hundred bottles,” Dorian said.

I froze with the bottle tilted halfway to my mouth. Lowering it, I stared at him. “You were prisoners for more than threethousandyears?Doyou even age?” Then a more important question occurred to me. “Please tell me you’ve gotten laid since you got out. I don’t think I can handle the responsibility of being the first for all three of you after that long.”

Dorian leaned forward, his smile glinting as he drew another bottle out of the basket and uncorked it, then took a long swallow. His voice was warm and husky when he spoke. “We’ve fucked several hundred females, fathered dozens of babies, all within the last year and a half. Our duty to the nymphaea is fulfilled but for two things: training the Haven’s newest warriors and bringing home a soul mate. But we’ve been told we can retire from the training if we wish, once we’ve found that soul mate. Youarethat soul mate, so while this music is nice, this isn’t the best spot to show you that we’re serious. When we first make love to you, we want to be able to take our time so you understand what you mean to us.”

“I don’t know if I’m down for a mixed-family arrangement,” I said, completely downplaying my reaction to everything he’d just said. “Dozensof babies? Holy shit. What’s the child support like for that? Do you guys even do child support?”

“It’s a communal arrangement,” Kyril said. “I know humans aren’t used to that.”

I gave him a wry look. “Some might call it a cult, you know.”

He laughed. “So I’ve heard. But our situation was tricky. The nymphs could only mate with human men while we were gone, which only allows them to have female babies, so the males of our kind were never replaced after our enemy killed the majority of us. We were effectively sperm donors for the last year to make up for it.”

“My god.” I stared in shock as the scope of what they endured sank in, my face heating at how callous I’d been. But they didn’t seem the least bit fazed, especially not with those hungry looks they were giving me. I wasn’t sure I believed they’d been as oversexed as they said, but I decided I didn’t mind being looked at like supper. “Well, consider your sperm-donating days done. No interest in kids here. I hope that isn’t a deal breaker.”

“We want you. Whatever you want or don’t want is just part of the package,” Theo said, his earnestness so filled with barefaced desire that my loins twitched. Part of me wanted to dive in, but I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t just the part of me that hadn’t been laid in two years. That thought seemed absurd compared to the length of time the three of them had gone without.

“As crazy as it feels to admit it, I want you too.” The statement made my skin prickle with awareness of the three of them so near, so ready and willing. Yet I didn’t miss the fact that they kept their distance still, with Theo and Dorian on either side, a seat between us, and Kyril below me. They were all within reach, but just barely, and I appreciated the respect they were showing my boundaries. “I just wish there was a way to speed up this getting-to-know-each-other process. It feels silly to ask for a date before we sleep together, and I’ve never liked doing things the traditional way anyway. If it weren’t for the whole idea that this was going to bepermanent, I’d probably have had you take me home instead of coming out here to hear the band. A night of fun sex has never been a promise of commitment for me before.”

“You forget we aren’t human, Zarya,” Kyril said. “Thereisa way for us to know each other deeply in only a few moments, and if you don’t like what you learn, we can let you go, but that won’t change the fact that we’re already linked.”

I turned my gaze to the stage where Deva and Llyr were dancing while she sang. They were back to front with his hands on her hips, moving as if they were one. The drumbeat vibrated through me and I stood as though it had hypnotized me into dancing.

I moved into the aisle, swaying as I went, then turned and reached out a hand to Theo. “Show me.”

A smile spread across his face. “My pleasure.”

13

Theo

Itook the lead as soon as Zarya’s hand gripped mine, pulling her down the row to the terraced aisle. Dancing was something any nymphaea could do in their sleep, but I was more than happy to be awake for this. I spun her until she faced the stage far below us, then pulled her back against me, our hips swaying the same as Deva’s did with Llyr.

Her body molded to me and I moved my hands from her hips to her wrists, pulling her hands up to rest them at my neck, then dipped my mouth to her ear. “This is what you’re after, isn’t it? To see if we’re in sync as well as they are. What do you think?”

I slid my palms down the insides of her arms, wishing the barrier of leather between us would disappear. It was cold up here, but I craved skin-to-skin contact so much my fingertips burned with the need to touch her. When my hands made it to her waist, my wish was granted with the warm silk of her taut belly. I curled my hands around her hips, slipping my fingers beneath the hem of her sweater, which had ridden up with her upraised arms. My fingertips grazed her stomach and she sighed, pushing her hips back against me just a little.

My cock had grown hard the second I touched her and the added pressure made my pulse throb in my temples. I hazarded a glance at the other two and found them both watching us and not the band, but other than the fluid swirl of their irises, they were still.

It was as if they held their breath, waiting for Zarya to finally admit what we hoped she believed was true: she belonged with us. The warm pressure in my midsection was as insistent about that bond as my aching cock was that we’d bed her tonight.

I tried to ignore the urgency the Diviner’s mark cast over the moment. I didn’t want to rush things, but the creature’s words still echoed in my mind:“I’m subverting Fate.”That phrase suggested we may be party to a betrayal of the worst kind by obeying her instructions, but what choice did we have? Fate hadn’t seemed keen on helping us so far, and Deva and her hounds worked for it. The Diviner was the only one with the power to find us mates otherwise. If we wanted a mate, this was our best chance, and we didn’t have time to waste worrying about it if we didn’t want to risk Fate finding out before we cemented the bond. But now that I’d met the woman in my arms, I knew there was no going back, and Kyril’s and Dorian’s expressions told me they were just as invested as I was. If Fate wanted to punish us for it, we would happily take that chance.

As hungry as we were, we were not so starved we couldn’t grasp that Zarya needed to be given free rein to explore her introduction to our kind. She was more than just a treat, she was sustenance for our souls.

That thought made the sensation inside me flutter and warm, but despite the awareness of her desire, she still carried tension that spoke of resistance. As if part of her still refused to give in, and probably for good reason.

She took a shaky breath and her voice was husky with desire when she said, “I hope getting more deeply acquainted involves more than dancing.”

A low chuckle vibrated up from within me. “It does, but it’s not something we should do here. If we were in the Haven, a gathering like this would be ideal for a demonstration, but in the human world...”

“It would get us arrested?” She twisted her head around to peer up at me, one eyebrow raised.

I looked down at her, my lips quirked up at one corner. “Very likely.” My eyes locked onto hers and I slid my hand a little higher beneath her shirt. “But a small taste won’t raise any alarms.”

A steady throbbing settled in my erection, matching the heavy beat of the music. My eyes fell to her mouth, her lips full and supple, and I couldn’t help but lick my own. When I lowered my mouth to hers, she tried to turn and face me fully, but I held tight, one hand splayed over her stomach pressing her back against me while I raised the other to curl around her neck and jaw. She groaned when I slid my tongue into her mouth, and the bright spikes of her nails dug into the back of my neck.

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