Page 32 of Queen Takes Queen
I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and couldn’t help but stare a moment. A scar the size of Rik’s fist lay between my breasts, the skin still pink and fragile. A reminder of what I’d endured to protect us. Something I would gladly do again when the timecame.
“Goddess,” Rik whispered, pulling me back against him with a shudder. “Let there never be another time that you must suffer like thatagain.”
I turned in his arms and lay my head on his chest. “Now I have a scar to match the one I gaveyou.”
“What you did…” He breathed deeply, his big hands gentle on my back. “It was impressive. I mean literal goddess-level shit. Growing Morrigan’s Grove, here, in America, in the middle of fucking Arkansas of allplaces…”
I blew out a sigh. “Yeah. I didn’t know that’s what She would do. Only that if I was willing to make a sacrifice, She would use it. I didn’t know that I’d basically die, stabbed to death by a gazillion rosethorns.”
Even if Gaia had forewarned me… I still would have done it. I couldn’t imagine anything getting up through the ground into my nest again. Evidently ant carcasses were almost as good for fertilizer as my blood and the trees had made good use of both, towering both above and below theground.
“I didn’t know about the new Blood, either. We could have won without him, but one of you would have had to feed me again to get me upright.” I watched Rik’s face in the mirror, listening to his bond for any concern about the new man. “I guess he and Daire were athing.”
One of Rik’s eyebrows arched and he shrugged a little. “Maybe. It would have been before we becamesibs.”
“Does it bother you, having Ezra herenow?”
His eyes widened even more. “Because he’s with Daire? How couldit?”
“Ezra still cares for him, though I get the impression Daire doesn’t have aclue.”
Rik snorted. “Typical. Winning hearts left and right without a care, never even realizingit.”
I turned in his arms so I could press against him, soaking in his body heat. His strength. My rock. Unshakable. “It’s just getting complicated. I don’t want to offend anyone by taking one to bed but not another. I don’t want to have to think so hard about it, you know? I just…” It seemed silly but I had to say it out loud. “I just want to love everybody. I want everybody to feel loved and happy andincluded.”
He tightened his arms around me and pressed his lips against my forehead. “And that is why we love you so much, my queen. There can be no mistakes when you call one or many of your Blood to your bed. All will come to you gladly, eager to experience and share any desire you may have. The only combination I would hesitate to suggest right now is Mehen and Ezra together, though as long as I’m there, I’ll keep the two of them inline.”
I tipped my face up so I could see his reaction. “So if Daire and Mehen fucked for me, you wouldn’t mind? Or him andEzra?”
Rik’s eyes smoldered, his lips curling in a sublimely arrogant smile of a man fully confident in his ability to constantly blow my mind. “How could I, when you’ll be fucking me at the sametime?”
I leaned up on my tiptoes so I could brush my mouth against his, letting my words become a caress. “Would Dairemind?”
“You don’t really need to ask thatquestion.”
:I’m mortally offended that you even thought I might mind,:Daire whispered in my mind, sending me an image of his delectable bottom lip in a pout. His warcat rubbed inside me, wicked fur winding around my heart.:Which one would you like to see first, my queen? Big, mean Leviathan, pounding me to a pulp? Or the grouchy, obstinate no-good bear who’s actually the biggest softie you’ve ever met? He’s so hairy and rough, it’s sometimes hard to tell when he’s a man and when he’s abear.:
Um. I couldn’t think. My brain had turned to mush. My nipples ached and I pressed harder against Rik, groaning at how hard he was. Everywhere, not just his dick. He was rock-hard muscle from top to bottom and I suddenly couldn’t wait to have his weight on me, crushing me into themattress.
:I think her answer is both.:Rik’s bond rumbled like anavalanche.
:Sounds good tome.:
“You need to eat first,” Rik said, pulling me up tighter against him. “You lost too much blood tonight. And while we eat, you can decide how you want to arrange your loverstonight.”
“It seems ridiculous to waste time on something as mundane as eating when I could have you. Or Daire. OrXin…”
“You’ll have us.” He set me firmly aside, though he tucked my arm around his and kept me close as we walked downstairs to join the rest of myguests.
Sitting down at the formal table in the dining room dressed only in a robe was strange to say the least. All my Blood stood as I came to join them, including Ezra, complete with a scowl leveled at the room in general. He’d even cleaned up a bit. His shaggy hair was pulled back into a trendy man bun, his beard tamed with a comb. He’d put on jeans like the rest of my Blood, but had gone with a flannel shirt instead of a T-shirt. Not unexpected, given his wild manpreferences.
But he’d left the shirt unbuttoned, tucked into his jeans, but gapingopen.
Which revealed loads of chest hair, a thick curly line that naturally led my gaze downward. I wasn’t sure if Ezra had left the shirt open to temptDaire…
Orme.
Because I had a hard time lookingaway.
