Page 99 of Dragon Fight

“Usmeans different things to you than it does to the rest,” I said to Draven. “You want everyone, everything.”

His eyes darted from me to Brom.

“Not necessarily in the way you think. Part of my anger towards you, Pippin, came from the way you slotted so easily into the space I’d left in the wing. Amongst your men are my closest friends. They are the only ones I would want beside me in a fight. I’d die for each one of them, but love doesn’t always take the same form with each person. Ged would punch me through the wall if I tried to kiss him and I don’t think I’m to his taste any more than he is mine. Soren has always been a steadying influence, one that stopped me from indulging some of my worst excesses. I trust him deeply, implicitly. And Flynn and me? I’ve wonder what we could’ve been, if I wasn’t the prince and he wasn’t the son of a duke.”

“Then there’s Brom,” I prompted.

“Yes, Brom.” Draven let out a long sigh, loosening his own jacket now, tugging at the neckline of his shirt. “We haven’t… anything since the death of my brother. We haven’t talked, haven’t—”

“And perhaps not tonight,” Brom said. “It’s horribly late and Soren will be kicking down the door at first light, but…” He smiled at Draven, with a particular look on his face, and I wondered if my husband noticed the way the prince lit up? “We used to work well together. Very well from memory.”

I was about to ask about what, greedy for information about their past history, when they both turned to me, Brom’s expression mirrored by Draven’s. And I recognised it as that of the predator.

Oh.

“How the hell did you keep your dick in your pants with her in that dress?” Draven hissed.

“It’s no easier when she’s in a cadet’s uniform,” Brom shot back. “I’ve never even looked twice at one of the lads before her, and now… The way those pants show the shape of her bottom—”

“By the gods, I thought that was just me,” Draven groaned. “I was hard as stone when I had her training with the other cadets. Made me feel like an old lecher.”

“If you’re quite finished?” I said, putting a hand on one hip.

“Finished?” I think I saw some of the Draven he was before his brother died in his rakish smile, the two of them looking less like men and more like demons risen from hell to tempt me.

And gods, how they did.

“Sweetheart.” It was a term of endearment used often, but on Draven’s lips it became something else entirely. Something that transfixed and beguiled me. How else could I explain the fact I quivered on the spot as they drew closer, running their hands up and down my silken gown? But as I began to shiver, fingers went to the many, many little buttons down the spine, flicking each one open until the dress sagged around my feet and all there was, was me. “We have only just begun.”

58

Icraved the kisses of all of my men like air, but when Draven kissed me there was a whole other element to it. A desperate thing that involved lots of teeth and tongue. Finally, I drew back. Brom pushed forward, cupping my jaw in his hands and kissing me just as passionately, though in a much slower, more considered way. Draven was the waves crashing on the cliffs, and Brom was the stone, inexorable. And me? I was the light on the waves, or so I felt, flickering, flickering as I kissed one man, then another.

“I’m not going to be the only one standing here naked,” I told them between hoarse panting breaths. I reached for their clothes, pulling at the fabric until they laughed and took over, peeling off clothes and toeing off boots. At the sight of them revealed, together, I backed away, taking one step, then another until the backs of my legs hit the edge of Draven’s bed.

They were so bloody beautiful.

It hurt my eyes to look at them, padding closer like a pair of big cats and with all of their arrogance. They noted my stricken attention, taking it as their due, then scooping me up and laying me across the bed. They followed me down, each taking position on either side of me, just as they had in the saddle.

“Give me that impudent mouth,” Draven demanded, hand under my chin. “I’ve been dreaming of it for so bloody long.”

“Draven…” We both turned at Brom’s low rumble, but it was me my husband looked at, not his friend or lover. “Are you sure about this, Pippin? It’ll be different to what happens with the rest of the wing.”

“What happens with the rest of the wing? Do tell.”

Brom just ignored him, leaning down and kissing me gently.

“We don’t have to do anything here.”

Draven’s arms wrapped around me tugging me up tight against his body.

“Brom, you’re not taking Pippin from me tonight,” he snapped. “You’re not.”

“I will.” My husband stared steadily over my shoulder at the man beyond. “I’ll take her so far away you’ll never see her again, if that’s what she wants.” Some of the heat left Brom’s eyes and then he sighed. “I love her, Draven.”

“I know, I—”

“More than anything or anyone else I’ve ever met.” That was a simple enough cliche to describe your partner, but those words had a heavy weight to them here. “If Pippin isn’t comfortable, I’ll take her out of here, at any point in the night.” His attention shifted to me. “You feel out of your depth or this is too much, you say no, and it's done. I’ll make sure of it.”

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