Page 548 of Shadowblood Souls
“Where’d you learn to make cocktails?” Zian asks Andreas, sipping from his own glass. It’s a fair question, considering we haven’t exactly had access to liquor for the vast majority of our lives.
Dominic chuckles. “You know Drey. He probably taught himself out of some bartender’s memories.”
Andreas holds up his hands. “Hey, we’ve got to make use of our talents every way we can, right?”
Griffin smiles at him. “We’re nothing without our memories, so you’ve got a pretty important one.”
The casually friendly conversation wraps around me with a different sort of warmth. A lump rises in my throat that I can’t quite wash away with the last of my lemonade.
Andreas catches my expression, and the happiness in his fades. “Is everything all right, Tink?”
“Yeah,” I say around the lingering ache. “It really is. Even with all the crap we’ve had thrown at us, even with Balthazar carrying on like a maniac… It’s amazing that we’re here. That we’ve got each other. We really made it out. No one’s controlling us anymore.”
A glow lights in the guys’ faces as they absorb those words.
“We made it,” Dominic agrees in a soft voice. “Maybe there’s more that we’d want to do than we’ve accomplished yet, but this—this is as far as we ever dreamed four years ago.”
Griffin tucks his fingers around my elbow and guides me closer to him, his sky-blue eyes sparkling. “And I think we should celebrate that fact—and the woman who made sure we got here.”
I’d protest that all of us worked together toward this goal, but then he’s drawing my lips to his. I can’t refuse the tender passion of his kiss.
The desire that first kindled at Rollick’s suggestive proposal flares low in my belly again. I kiss Griffin back hard and then glance around at the others.
“We should definitely celebrate. It’s the first time we’ve been totally free—let’s make it the first time all six of us consummate this crazy relationship together too.”
Andreas’s gaze turns more intense as he comes around the island. “I’m not going to argue with that suggestion.” His attention veers to the other guys, his mouth curving slyly. “We should show Riva just how well we can all work together.”
From the rush of desire coursing through the air around me, I can safely assume that the others agree.
Jacob leans in to press a kiss to the side of my neck and then raises his eyebrows at Andreas. “Should we take this celebration to one of the bedrooms?”
Drey taps his lips and nods toward the thick black rug that sprawls across the living room floor. “I don’t think any of the beds are big enough for us to put all our skills to optimal use. Rollick said we’d get our privacy.”
Jake turns toward the living room’s expansive window. At a motion of his hand from afar, the curtain hisses into place, cutting off any outside view of our activities. “Sounds good to me.”
“No objections here,” I manage to say before he’s claiming my mouth himself.
We walk toward the rug with halting steps, pausing as each of my guys steps closer to steal a kiss. Dominic winds one tentacle around my waist and down across my ass. Zian sets a steadying hand on my back, wild relief in his eyes at getting to take part in this shared moment without hesitation.
His kiss is absolutely searing. I give myself over to it, my knees wobbling with the sensation of melting, and he eases with me down onto the thick fibers of the rug.
The other guys cluster close around us. Dominic slips his tentacle upward, tugging my shirt up with it. Andreas grins in approval and adds his hands to help strip the top off me.
“Of course,” he murmurs, dipping his head to nibble his way along my bared shoulder, “it’s even more fun if we can mix things up.”
With those last three words, he brushes his fingertips across my back—with a thrilling prick of claws he must have borrowed from Zian. Pleasure quivers over my skin with a jolt of excitement, and I seek out his mouth to muffle my whimper.
That’s all the prompting the rest of my men need to get in on the fun. The next thing I know, Zian is grazing his hand overmy hair, sending a ripple of telekinetic force to stroke across my scalp. Griffin’s eyes flare with a carefully modulated waft of heat that glides down my chest and licks one of my nipples to a pebbled nub.
And Jacob simply gazes at me. A swell of emotion fills me, heady with devotion and hunger, and I realize he’s projecting everything they’re feeling into me. Wrapping me up in their eagerness from the inside out.
Dom kisses the crook of my neck. “I think I’ll stick to the fun I can’t share.” He lifts both tentacles to wind them around my breasts, simultaneously plucking at the peaks. Giddy shivers race through my chest.
At my shaky breath, Andreas cups my jaw and captures my lips again. He coaxes them apart with a heated swipe of his tongue.
The feelings coursing through my body meld together as if I’m making out not with five different men but one being formed out of all of them. Their talents dart from one to another at the edge of my awareness.
This hand sprouts claws, then that mouth forms fangs that tease me to delightful effect. Invisible caresses join the regular ones at unexpected moments. My entire being has come alive with the flood of sensations.
