Page 143 of Gemini Queen
“Not complaining a bit,” Ronin murmurs, because we’re all speaking softly, like we don’t want to break this fragile spell and shatter what’s about to happen between us. “But now we’ve got your basic psychic defenses shored up, love, we’d better bloody work on your technique. So you can protect yourself without shutting us out. None of us much fancied that.”
“Bring it on,” Zara says firmly. Her hair’s been floating since she took Zerxes down. When she reaches for the doorknob to let us into her room, I mean our room, tiny violet sparks crackle and pop in the darkness. “I intend to be the most badass queen the witching world’s ever seen.”
And right there on her doorstep—ourdoorstep—I’m overcome with happiness.
We’ve all been tiptoeing around the complicated issue of Zara’s future since she summoned her lightning, which was a really tectonic shift compared to what she was saying before, when she wanted to reject her power. We haven’t addressed it yet because we’ve all been afraid to crowd her. Even though the witching worldreallyneeds her. But I know she’ll tell us when she’s ready.
And now she has.
“Babe, I’m so happy,” I whisper.
The bedroom’s cloaked in shadow, but there’s so much moonlight streaming through the glass doors you can almost read in here. Tonight’s not only a full moon, it’s a supermoon, and that silvery orb floating in the sky is ginormous.
Ronin prowls over to crouch by the hearth and breathes the coals to life with a flicker of his fire gift. There’s a skill to managing fire when you rely on it like we do, and we’ve all had to learn it, given the geriatric furnace. But no one summons fire like a Leo.
I can definitely feel his alertness, because he’s a telepath and he has a link open for me. He’s right on the edge of giving in to his own mating heat, though he’s thinking it’s more manageable today than it was yesterday, and maybe it’s going to pass soon, at least until the moon waxes again (not that he needs to be in heat to be totally sexy to me).
Now he’s thinking it’s going to take all of us to break Zara’s heat and we should focus all our energy on her tonight.
Needless to say, I’m totally on board with focusing on Zara.
But he’s also determined to please me, so I can enjoy my first time. My first time with a guy, I mean, which I’ve been thinking about and obsessing about all day.
My first time with any guy. And especially with him, my secret crush. I still can’t believe this is really happening.
My body floods with sudden heat.
Zara shuts the door softly behind us to keep out the cold. But she doesn’t lock it, because Vasili and Master Aries are coming. She closes the distance between us with a smile and winds her arms around my waist.
“I know, baby.” She rests her cheek against my chest and sighs. “Right now I’m pretty happy too. Even though we still have a ton of shit to deal with. That queen killer’s still out there, and now Zerxes has a score to settle. I don’t even know what my dad’s gonna do when he finds out I’m queening it. Because he doesn’t give a shit about the fate of the witching world. Like, will he call off the hit for my head, or will he just raise the bounty?”
“We’ll deal with that lot tomorrow,” Ronin says firmly. “Tonight’s for us. For our queen and her mates.”
He’s got the fire kindled, and the warm light dances over the pretty rustic frescoes on Zara’s wall and bathes her big canopy bed in shifting shadows.
I can barely even bring myself to look at her bed.
Our bed.
The bed where I’m going to worship my beloved. The bed where Ronin’s already whispered every steamy detail of what he plans to do to me in there. The bed I guess I’ll also be sharing with my history prof, which seems so scandalous I blush every time I think about it (but everything makes me blush). The bed I’ll apparently even be sharing with my nemesis Vasili, who shivered and moaned deep in his throat so beautifully when I did what Zara wanted and kissed the back of his silky neck. But what if he—?
“You’re doing it again,” Ronin whispers in my ear, which makes me shiver myself.
“Doing what?” I whisper back. With Zara snuggled up to my front and Ronin hovering at my back, my dick takes instant notice. I know Zara can feel my heart pounding against her ear.
“You’re thinking so hard we can blooming hear.” His soft breath teases my hair. “Take a breath, Red.”
Obediently I suck in a breath and do my best to think about something (anything) else. “Why do you call me Red? My hair’s not red anymore. It’s been purple for months now.”
“Oh, I don’t call you Red because of your hair.” Ronin’s hands land on my waist. “It’s because of the way you blush. Go ahead and blush for me.”
Right on cue, warmth sweeps up my neck and floods my face. Zara giggles and starts nuzzling my neck. Her mating heat’s really close to overwhelming all of us. She’s restless and squirmy and hot to the touch, and she’s starting to sweat through her pretty dress. I was thinking she’d want to wait for Vasili and Master Aries, but now I don’t think she’s going to make it that long.
She isn’t,Ronin murmurs in my head.She needs to come hard as fuck for us tonight. And plenty more than once. Why don’t you help our girl out?
“Is that what you want, babe?” I ease my hands down her curvy hips to the hem of her dress. When my fingers graze her naked thighs, she gasps.
“I’m so hot I’m burning up,” she says into my neck, grazing my skin with her sharp little teeth. Which makesmegasp. “You wanna help me out with that?”
