Page 76 of Dark Space
‘If you tell me what they are, I’ll make them come true.’
Her eyes blinked open slowly, then fixed on mine. ‘I don’t doubt that for a moment, Tall, Dark, and Looming.’ Her hand came up, tracing over my cheek. ‘What made you take me, Callan?’
I froze, but her voice was curious. ‘You smell like spring,’ I blurted.
She looked startled. ‘Likespring?’
‘Like …’ I tried to search for the right words. ‘Your scent is blossoms, and hope, and rebirth, and … I can’t really explain it. But I knew that I wanted it, that I had to be near you, that I couldn’t walk away.’ I reached out and touched a lock of her hair. ‘I know it was wrong, Anna. But everything about you feelsright.’
‘You needed me,’ she said softly. She seemed to think about it for a moment. ‘Alcide and Vesper did, too, in different ways. I suppose I don’t mind,’ she went on with another smile, ‘because I think I need you right back.’
I stroked her cheek. ‘That’s lucky,’ I said. ‘I’ve been yours since the moment I saw you.’
Vesper sat up suddenly behind her, stretching. ‘I slept,’ he said in surprise.
I took in his dishevelled curls, the deep flush on his cheeks, the way his eyes were glowing.
I’d never seen him lookunguardedbefore, and it took my breath away.
But I realised something else, too.
I’d gone to sleep cradled around Anna’s back, with Alcide facing her. But Vesper was where Alcide had been, which meant that the warmth behind me and the heavy arm slung across my waist was –
Lips pressed to my shoulder, then brushed a line up my neck. ‘Morning, Cal,’ Alcide murmured.
‘Cide,’ I croaked.
His hand splayed over my stomach, then stroked the line of scales there. I lay beneath his touch, still with surprise.
Icouldn’tbe this lucky, with my springtime human in front of me, Alcide behind, and Vesper’s eyes hot on my skin. Anna had talked ofdreams, and surely I was still asleep.
‘Mmm.’ Vesper watched Alcide’s hand make its way up my chest to spread his fingers across my collarbone. ‘If you promise to wake me up this way, I’ll sleep more often.’
Alcide held me gently in place, his teeth scraping down the back of my neck. ‘I think I like claiming,’ he said softly.
‘I think I like being claimed,’ Anna murmured, her eyes a slit of light blue as she watched us.
Alcide’s free hand trailed down my spine; my scales rippled beneath his touch. ‘Do you want me to stop?’
I shook my head, trying to keep myself from trembling.
Alcide’s hand quested further down. ‘I’ve wanted to touch you like this since we were striplings,’ he breathed. He pushed a knee between mine to open my body to his caress.
‘Don’t let me stop you now,’ I grated out.
His fingers found my entrance and traced a circle around. Vesper had touched me there last night, seeming to read my desires from my mind, and it had lit a flame of craving inside me.
‘You’re wet for me,’ Alcide whispered.
‘I –what?’ I said, pulling away.
His hand pressed against my collarbone, keeping me in place. ‘Shh,’ he murmured. ‘I read about this in a history book. Roth males self-lubricate, just like females do. They just stopped teaching us about the way our bodies work.’ He pressed inside; I groaned at the feeling, pulling Anna closer as he moved, stretching me. ‘So hot, Cal,’ Alcide breathed. ‘You’re so hot here.’
He withdrew. I protested wordlessly until the pressure returned, wider and flatter than his fingers, andmovingagainst my sensitive skin as his scales fluttered.
‘Oh, fuck, Cide,’ I said, as I realised what he wanted.
‘Yes or no, Cal?’
