Page 33 of Hidden Dragons

“Why do we want you to be our mate?” he repeated the crux of her question, gently. “I can speak only for my own feelings, though I’m pretty sure Robert feels the same. I want you to stay because…I love you. I will love you for the rest of my days, whether you decide to share your life with us or not. You are the only woman in the world for me, and if you leave, my heart will shatter, never to be healed.”

Tears welled in her eyes and he used his thumb to wipe away one that fell down her cheek. He tried to smile at her, even as his future hung in the balance.

Robert’s hands settled on her shoulders and Bear let go of her face, knowing they could never be complete until both knights had committed to their mate. She turned to Robert and Bear silently encouraged his friend to seal the deal. Robert was the eloquent one. If he couldn’t convince her to stay, then no one could.

Robert opened his mouth and then seemed to freeze.

“Tell her, you fool!”Bear sent urgently to his fighting partner’s mind.

Robert started as if he’d been poked. “I love you too,” he blurted out.

Bear wanted to shake his head and groan. His supposedly silver-tongued partner didn’t seem to have much to say.Idiot.

“I’ll love you forever, sweetheart,” Robert added, whispering as emotion filled his gaze.

And then Bear understood. Robert was so overcome with the intensity of his feelings, it scrambled his brain. That was the only excuse Bear could give him in this situation. Bear, on the other hand, was pushed by emotion to say things he normally kept inside. Love gave him courage, whereas it seemed to steal all of Robert’s usual polish.

“You see what you’ve done to him?” Bear whispered, leaning close to Isabelle’s ear. “I’ve never seen Robert at a loss for words. You did that to him. Loving you has wiped away all the pretense, and left him speechless. And it seems to have given me the freedom, for once, to say what’s in my heart.” Bear turned her head with one finger under her chin and kissed her deeply.

When they broke apart, he saw the happy tears in her eyes and his heart rejoiced. “I love you with all my heart.”

“I love you too. Both of you,” she said, lifting his spirits and giving him confirmation that his love life was not about to end in a bright ball of flames.

“Then I think we have an accord,” Bear dared to say. “Do you agree to be our mate?” He had to have the words, just as she had needed to hear them speak of their love plainly. So there could be no chance of confusion.

Isabelle’s smile lit his world. “I do.”

Happiness filled him as the realization hit. They were going to be a family. She loved them.

“Then I suppose we’d better start planning a mating ceremony,” Bear said, thinking more about the wedding consummation than the actual ceremony.

“But we don’t have to wait until then, right?” Isabelle said with a shy little smile that made him want to purr.

“No, milady,” he agreed, moving closer to her on the couch and untying the closure at her neck that kept her blouse together. “As long as we all want the same thing, nothing is forbidden to us. You do want us, don’t you?” Bear asked playfully as he noted the way her breathing hitched as he cupped her generous breasts in his hands.

“I do,” she repeated her earlier agreement. “Sweet heaven, I do.”

Her voice trailed off as he lowered his head and licked his way down over her throat to her breasts, playing there for a good long time. When he looked up sometime later, Robert had turned her head and claimed her mouth. The sight of his fighting partner kissing their mate was incredibly exciting.

Bear had known for a long time that he would end up sharing a mate with Robert—if they managed to find one—but they had never before shared a woman between them. That was something they had agreed to preserve for their mate alone. Bear was glad now that they had waited. Most knights didn’t, but they had both wanted to keep something special for when they found their mate.

It was special all right. Bear had never felt the level of excitement that was riding him now. And the dragons weren’t even involved yet. Bear could only guess at the frenzy their mating flight would induce in their human counterparts. All in all, it was a good thing that the three of them get a little practice in before the dragons reunited. Bonding with their mate now might mean the difference between having her join wholeheartedly in the mating flight frenzy—or being scared out of her wits by their possible aggression.

Neither Bear nor Robert knew how they were going to react when the backwash of lust from their dragon partners hit them. He hoped they would be able to keep their heads, but stories abounded in the Lair of near-mindless coupling inspired by dragons among the mated trios. With Isabelle so new to passion, Bear feared frightening her with the intensity that was said to develop to an inhuman height when the dragons became involved.

Better to start off slow. Well, as slow as they could manage. It felt like the three of them were about to reach heights of passion Bear had never quite realized existed. Just the fact that they were all together. Mates. He couldn’t get over it, and that one thought added a new dimension to their time together that could never be replicated by any of the encounters he’d had up to this point.

Robert moved to the far corner of the couch, pulling Isabelle downward to lie with her back to his front, serving her up for Bear on a platter, as it were.

“You take the front this time,”Robert sent to him privately. Bear could feel the tension in the words—the shaky control in his tone.

Bear rid Isabelle of the rest of her clothing, kissing his way down her body. Robert helped by serving up her breasts in his hands, holding them while Bear sucked at first one peak, then the other. When Bear moved lower, Robert continued to pluck at her distended nipples, making her writhe and moan in a most satisfying way.

Moving lower, Bear spread her legs and zeroed in on his target, smiling against her clit when she gasped as he licked her, then moved even closer. Nibbling on her most sensitive places, he was careful with her, but still strove to push her just a little bit higher with each movement.

When he stuck his tongue into her channel, her hips rose as she cried out, coming against his mouth.Oh, yeah.That’s just what he wanted. He wanted to drive her out of her mind—into new realms of desire and lust—before they all joined in their first adventure as a trio.

He rode her through the small orgasm, gentling her with his hands on her hips. Then it was Bear’s turn to move back to his corner of the couch, taking Isabelle with him.

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