I hold out a hand, and she takes it without a word. We sit down on the couch, her legs draped across my lap. I wrap the blankettighter around her shoulders and run my palm slowly along her calf.
“You okay?” I ask.
“I think so.”
“Not sure?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt this safe before. Which is…a lot.”
Safety shouldn’t be new to someone like her. But it is. I hate that for her, but I’m glad I can be a part of it. “We’re in this now. You know that, right?”
She looks at me, searching. “You mean…Ivy?”
“I mean all of it. Ivy. You. This.”
Her eyes shine in the firelight. “You’re sure? I mean, it’s easy to say things in the heat of the moment?—”
“You’re not just someone we slept with. You’re not a job. You’re family now.”
She presses her lips together. “That’s terrifying.”
I smirk. “Yeah. For us too.”
She exhales a laugh, then rests her head on my shoulder. We sit like that for a while, watching the fire crackle, letting the silence settle into something comfortable. And then she shifts.
I feel it in the way her thigh tenses against mine, the way her breath changes, the way her fingers slide beneath my shirt.
I look down at her. She’s already looking up.
“I want more,” she whispers.
My throat tightens. “More what? Commitment? Devotion? Victor is the one with the pretty words?—”
She smirks up at me. “I want you. Now.”
She takes my hands and pulls me to the bedroom, back into the warmth of the bed, where Victor stirs. Nikolai rolls closer and kisses her shoulder, then her neck. And we begin again.
This time, I pull her onto my lap backwards, entering her reverse cowgirl. Victor stands on the bed, his cock entering her mouth while Nikolai plays with her clit. I love this—that we can give her every pleasure as a unit. That we can make her come apart again and again. That she’s tight and wet and aching for me right the fuck now.
I feel it when she comes. The squeezing, the throb of her orgasm. Her back goes tight, and Victor cups the back of her head, forcing himself deeper into her throat as she gags and comes harder. She practically locks on me, but she’s so wet that I can buck and add depth.
Nikolai curses under his breath. “Fuck, she’s squirting on my hand.”
“Mm, fuck,” I grumble as it trickles down my balls. This fucking woman is going to be the death of me. It’s not long before that burst of heat travels up and down my spine, and I launch inside of her again.
“Dibs,” Nik says as he pulls her off of me and onto himself.
I lie back and watch them each take her. Nikolai crawling behind her, Victor still at her mouth. Like those steel beams on the side of a locomotive, chugging back and forth in rhythm. It’s enough to get me hard again when she comes time after time.
Round three is less graceful. The scent of her skin is still on me when the phone rings.
It’s just past seven, and Saffron is curled tight against Victor’s chest, half-asleep and mumbling about pancakes. Nikolai is already upright, one leg over the side of the bed like he’s ready to take on the world or wrestle a bear. He might be sleepwalking again.
I grab the phone from the nightstand, not bothering to check the screen until I’m in the bathroom with the door shut.
It’s Renner. “Ruger’s at the gallery. Warrant in hand.”
That pulls me fully upright. “What’s he looking for?”