Dane (23 page)

The man stepped closer, so close she could feel his body‟s warmth, and she scarcely dared breathe. He smiled into her eyes. He was tall, almost as tall as Dane.

His gentleman‟s hands were smooth and warm and confident as they covered her breasts and rested there, unmoving. His gaze fell to them and he squeezed her gently, and again more firmly, and then again, flattening her nipples under his palms and dimpling her flesh with his long fingers. It was wonderfully strange, having two men hold her a willing captive between them in this way. It made her feel restless, eager for more.

After a long, ponderous moment, the man looked at Dane over her head. “Do you share?”

Eva trembled, her eyes going wide. She wasn‟t ready. And somehow Dane knew. She felt him shake his head and was relieved.

The stranger‟s lips curved regretfully. “You‟re a lucky man,” he said. “Perhaps another time.”

“Perhaps,” Dane agreed.

Giving her breasts a last, lingering squeeze, the hands reluctantly drew away. The two men nodded civilly to one another; then the stranger rejoined his companions.

Eva swiveled in Dane‟s arms and his gaze immediately dropped to the rise and fall of her bosom. He swallowed visibly.

“Would you really have allowed him to join us?”

“As he said, perhaps another time. If you want it.” His hands came, dark against the white of her breasts, and he held her as the stranger had, as if he enjoyed the memory of other masculine hands having held her thus. “It excited me to watch him desire you. To know you‟d promised yourself to me, and that I could limit the favors you‟d bestow on him. Or on another partner we chose, on another night.”Two fingers dipped in her shadowed cleavage, tracing a curve as if he were fascinated with her shape and texture.

She smiled, glad that he enjoyed her body. Never had she dreamed she might find a man like this, one whose desires aligned so well with her own. Before tonight, she‟d thought herself wayward, debauched even, because of the very hungers he so readily accepted and fostered in her.

“How lucky I am to have found you,” she said. “A man so exactly what I wanted. So handsome, so passionate. So honest.”

Dane froze. Honest. Her word bit at him. But he couldn‟t be completely honest with her. What would she think if he told her he was two men, not one? She‟d summon the polizia and have him locked up. He almost wouldn‟t mind as long as they locked her in with him. But where would that leave Luc?

“Come,” he muttered. She clutched her bodice together in one hand and let him lead her away.

“Where are we going?”she wanted to know.

“Upstairs to a private room, one exclusive to my brothers.” When they came to a door marked PRIVATO, his face hardened briefly and shadows of regret crossed his features like storm clouds. “There‟s something I should tell you first—something about me you should know,”

he ground out. But his bleak tone frightened her and she put her hand over his mouth, shaking her head. Then she grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the door he‟d sought and opened it herself, glad when he followed her inside.

Together, they hurried up the stairs. On the landing, they paused and he pushed her against the wall, kissing her deeply, as if he couldn‟t wait to have her. His hand went under her skirts and two fingers plunged inside her.

“Gods, you‟re so fucking wet,” he groaned against her hair.

With a rustle of petticoats, she hooked a knee around him. “Now.

Please.”

His aura had been silver for most of their time together tonight, with only occasional flecks of gold. But now the gold was flaring higher as if fighting free of some invisible restraint. She could feel his desperation, but he grimly pulled away and rushed onward and upward, dragging her with him. Finally, they reached the haven he sought. He threw open another door with one hand, and together they stepped into the magic beyond.

In the soft glow of muted light, she gained a vague impression of sofas and cushions, exotic spices, erotic frescoes. . and surreptitious movement! His two brothers were there, she realized, and their presence startled her into stillness. Each of them already embraced a woman. Sevin was lying atop his partner, moving on her, one of his legs between hers and his trousers lowered only enough to expose the dimples on either side of his lower spine. Bastian was nude—what she could see of him—and lying on a dais among velvet cushions like some sort of exalted sultan, his powerful hands roaming the scantily clad woman he held. Both men had glanced up at their entrance. Something significant passed between the three brothers, but then each went back to what they‟d been doing.

Eva looked at Dane, finding his gaze fixed on her like a predator‟s on prey. “This is how things will be for us at Moonful,” he told her.

“Does it bother you that they‟re here?”

She shook her head, so eager to have him now that he could have brought hoards of others—an entire audience—into the room and she wouldn‟t have objected.

He grabbed and kissed her then, deeply and with raw, pent-up passion that drove every thought from her head. And then her back was on pillows and he was forcing her wrists high over her head, his chin nudging her bodice lower, a hand ripping at fabric, and his mouth falling hot on her breast.

Cool air found her legs as he pulled off her skirt and pantalets. A hand shoved under her rear, lifting her. In one long stroke he thrust into her core and she cried out in relief. And then he was slamming into her over and over with a savage hunger he did nothing to disguise. She arched under him and then all too quickly was tumbling into orgasm, tripping and fizzing into splendor, her tissues rhythmically milking at him like slippery fists. Her breaths came in pants as she bowed with each thrilling wave of fierce pleasure. And he rode her all the way, giving her what she needed, plunging into her slick response in a measured rhythm that filled her in just. . the.. right. . ahh!

It was perfect. So perfect that her orgasm had nearly subsided before she realized that he had not come with her. She looked up at him, disappointed, for she remembered the heady feel of his spurting seed and wanted it again. His jaw was clenched and she stroked its sandpapery texture.

“What do you need?”she whispered.

His eyes searched hers for a long moment. When his voice came, it was low and dark. “I need you to do something for me.”

She felt the sudden arrested attention of his brothers, but she was beyond caring. “Yes, anything,” she pledged, his undying slave now, wanting him to find the same release he‟d given her.

He stood and lifted her to her feet, his body between her and his brothers. She wove her fingers in his hair and pulled his head away, her gaze questioning.

“I need you to put your mouth on me,” he rasped. “To suckle me for however long it takes.”

Grasping his meaning, her eyes dipped between them. His cock angled high, its thick stalk corded with veins and its crown flushed sanguine with need. She licked her lips, suddenly thirsting for a taste of this new pleasure. Her knees folded, but he caught her as she began to sink. “Don‟t stop, no matter what happens,” he urged. “Not until I finish.”

Her eyes widened, but she nodded. “I won‟t.”It was a whisper, a promise.

And then his hands were on her shoulders, pushing her to her knees.

His legs adjusted wider for her and a broad hand threaded her hair, holding her, as his other led his cock to her mouth.

“Take me.” His voice was rough and fierce, vibrating with hunger.

She wet her lips again and parted them, let his smooth strength stretch her kiss wide. She tasted herself on him and his own salty tang.

Her hands rose to the shallows on either side of his hips, feeling his muscles tense as he guided himself deeper. He leaned into her and the coarser texture of his shaft glided along her tongue.

When his crown nudged the back of her throat, she breathed through her nose and forced her muscles to go lax, allowing him deeper.

Both hands held her, fingers tense and tangled in her hair, his head bent to watch her take him. “That‟s it. Relax for me,” he urged in a tight, velvet voice. “I have more to give.”

And then he was in and then quickly pulling back, slick and slippery now. And then filling her again. And suctioning away, working in her mouth, back and forth in long, sleek strokes, in time to the rhythmic flex of his hips.

His pace soon began to quicken, his thrusts coming shorter and faster, his body straining. Anticipation filled her as she imagined him spilling his seed in her mouth in warm, wonderful spurts.

Gods! It was like burying himself in a fistful of warm honey, over and over. Dane had never been so desperate to shoot off. He felt Dante sharing the moment, but it wasn‟t like before. This time, they weren‟t vying for control. Rather, it was as if two men held the reins of a runaway carriage. Both enjoying the ride together. He‟d forced Dante into the background, but now Dante‟s hunger was his hunger, and it was pushing past his control.

Do you want to come? Dane demanded silently.

Fuck, yes! What do you think? You want it, too, you bastard, came the reply that only he could hear.

Then tell me what I want to know. What you know about Luc.

Where is he? What happened to us thirteen years ago?

I don‟t know!

Liar.

Grimly, Dane pulled out of her, his cock still fat and hungry, and glistening from her mouth. Leaving her just then seemed the hardest thing he had ever done in his life.

Dante shrieked inside him, calling him every foul name he knew.

Tell me what I want to know and I‟ll let you have her mouth again, Dane promised, praying Dante would agree and end their mutual misery.

“Dane?”It was Eva. Her voice seemed to come from miles away.

The memories you seek. They aren‟t mine. They are yours to unlock.

“Is that some sort of riddle?” Dane said, unaware he was speaking aloud now. “Are you saying you don‟t know what happened to us years ago?”

That‟s right. I don‟t keep that secret.

“Then who the hell does?”

“Dane, what‟s wrong? Who are you speaking to?” It was Eva again. She had stood and pulled on her skirt and was clutching her gaping bodice together in a belated attempt at modesty. The prim schoolmarm had returned. And she was afraid.

With a part of his mind, Dane noted Sevin ushering the other two women out of the room, heard the soft whoosh of the door closing after them. Noted Bastian go to Eva and put a hand at her back, soothing her.

She struggled briefly, but he curved his palm at her cheek and bent his head to hers, murmuring, casting a Calm over her.

But by then, Dane‟s thoughts had turned inward. Caught up in his private nightmare, he left his brother to manage her. “Answer me,” he demanded of Dante. “Who knows these things if you don‟t?”

Daniel. The young one.

“Daniel?” Fingers of terror walked down his spine. There was someone else inside him? “Is he here now, with us?”

He‟s always here, just asleep. That‟s all I know.

“Is there anyone else? Anyone besides us and him.”

No! Now let me come!

Sevin‟s hand came at his shoulder, jarring him back to reality. “Are you all right?”

Dane flicked a glance at Eva, who was leaning against Bastian.

“Don‟t let her leave.” He turned his back on them all and took himself in hand. In an efficient series of jerks, he spent himself. Dante cursed with relief and then was gone. Wearily, Dane went to the stack of linen toweling neatly folded beside the corner washstand and cleansed himself.

“Well? What did you find out?”Sevin demanded.

“Who the hell is Daniel?”Bastian gritted at the same time.

“Another personality apparently,” said Dane. He went to Bastian and took Eva, and holding her against him, felt himself grounded again.

“What happened?”she asked woozily.

“You need to tell her,” said Bastian. “Or let her go.”

“More orders?” Dane grumbled.

“Tell me what?” Eva asked, pulling away. Averting her eyes, she fluttered a hand in their direction to indicate her discomfort with their nudity now that matters had gone serious. “And would you all please.. ?”

Dane watched her fasten her corset, hiding her breasts away, and it felt like a repudiation of what they‟d shared. His eyes narrowed.

Sevin tossed Bastian‟s trousers to him and then revealed some of the truth. “My brothers and I were orphaned here when our parents died of the Sickness. Dane was lost shortly before then, at age twelve.”

“Lost?” she echoed. Dane turned away, running a hand over his face, wishing she didn‟t have to hear this.

“Abducted and found again a year later,” Bastian said, taking up the tale as he slid into his shirt. “We had—have—a fourth brother, Lucien, who was lost with him. He hasn‟t been seen since. And Dane has no memory of the year he lost. So now you know the part of the story that belongs to all of us, but any more is only his to tell.”He nodded in Dane‟s direction.

Eva was closing her bodice now, almost dressed. And when she was all trussed up and respectable again, she would leave him. Perhaps forever, if he didn‟t explain. If he didn‟t at least try to make her understand the incredible truth.

“Dane, earlier, who were you speaking to?” she ventured softly.

“Your aura changed then, from silver to gold and back again. It has happened before with you. As though you were two different people in one body.”

“I am.” His curt admission cracked in the room like quiet thunder, and then words were pouring out of him as if from a lanced wound.