Page 81 of The Shattered Kingdom
Mason taps his fingers against the papers he’s flipping through, and he exchanges a silent look with Kie before handing the faerie the stack and rising. I hold my breath, afraid the slightest movement will ruin things.
Mason continues forward, not stopping until I’m pinned between him and his wardrobe. My heart is pounding with hard, rhythmic thumps that block out my loudest thoughts.
I’m sweating. “I want this,” I blurt out. My eyes dart toward Kie. “I want you both.”
“You already have us,” Kie says.
Mason tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “We want to have you, too. Do you want that?”
I’m going to vomit. “Yes.”
Mason blinks down at me. It feels like he’s reading into my soul, and I don’t like it. I’m scared to give either of them access to my emotions, to my heart. I’m terrified of the power it gives them.
But I’ve made my decision.
I want to let them in—even if the thought is petrifying.
Kie finally rises from the floor, and my gaze darts between his approaching form and Mason’s. The shifter glides to the side as Kie nears, making room for both men to trap me against the wardrobe.
This would’ve terrified me once, but now my heart is pounding for an entirely different reason.
“Are you certain?” Kie asks. “Mason and I aren’t perfect, and we’ve made plenty of mistakes with you. Don’t tell us we have you if you aren’t certain. We’ll wait as long as it takes until you are.”
Fingers graze the back of my hand. I’m not sure which man they belong to, and I highly doubt I’ll ever get used to the energy that vibrates between us.
“I don’t want to be afraid of disagreeing with you,” Kie continues. “I don’t want to live life afraid of your anger, terrified if I say the wrong thing, you’ll pull away with the excuse that you never truly forgave us in the first place. I don’t want to feel like a monster for the rest of my life. I can’t erase our history, I know I can’t, but I—"
“I don’t think you’re a monster,” I interrupt. I mean it, too. They made terrible decisions, but I don’t think either of them is anything close to monstrous. “And I know what I’m agreeing to.”
Mason isn’t saying anything, and he sucks in a long, shaky breath before stepping away and stacking the spare mattresses on top of one another. Then he kicks them aside, and he makes sure I’m looking at him as he slides into his bed.
The message is loud and clear. I’ll share the bed with him and Kie tonight, and probably every night thereafter.
It’s intimate. Sex is one thing, especially when I know how much of it they’ve had in their lifetimes, but cuddling is different. Cuddling is meaningful to the faeries, and to the shifters. It means touching. It means hope.
Kie nudges me forward. “Go.”
I take only one step before pausing. Kie’s words from earlier today need to be addressed.
I make eye contact with Mason. “Do you expect me to touch your asshole?” Mason blinks. I gesture toward Kie. “Kie said you need to ready your asshole for me.”
Silence. Nothing but awkward, painful silence. It’s broken by a sharp intake of breath, then a cackling laugh from Kie. It comes from deep in his belly, and my face immediately turns a thousand shades of red.
Mason doesn’t justify my question with a response. His stare is full of judgment, though, as he pulls back the sheet covers and gestures for me to join him in bed.
Kie continues snickering, clearly proud of himself. I want to be annoyed, but the emotion is impossible to find. This is my first time hearing Kie’s genuine, unrestrained laughter, and something sweet pours through my veins as I climb into bed with Mason.
The sheets are already warm. I enjoy it, and I preemptively tug off my clothes and toss them onto the floor. I’m going to be hot, especially if Kie joins us. I assume he will.
Once he’s done laughing at his bad joke.
Mason wraps an arm around my waist and pulls my back flush against his chest. He’s wearing only his underwear, and so much of our skin is touching. I refuse to let myself overthink it as I relax against him.
“I would die for you,” Mason whispers, “but you’re not welcome to touch my asshole. I will push you to the ground if you try.”
Kie’s shoulders are shaking with the force of his snickers. They’re practically giggles. My big, royal faerie mate is giggling because I fell for a joke about Mason liking ass-play.
“That’s enough,” Mason eventually says.
