Authors: Virginia Nelson
The orgasm started at the balls of his feet and shot up to
the roots of his hair. Crying out, he came hard, hot jets of the Claiming
filling his mate, marking her as his.
A hand at his back made him look up. Rolling her back over,
he soothed a hand along her delicate spine as she panted off her own
completion. “Gage. Oh Gage. Mate.” She managed the words and kissed him again.
His heart sang, loving her acceptance of him.
He smiled.
“You’re not done yet, Tabby. You have two mates.” Even as he
spoke, Lancaster lifted her hips from behind. The other man pushed himself more
firmly between Gage’s legs and he moved them farther apart to give him room to
kneel and push inside her.
“Oh.” Her cheeks and breasts flushed and her hands braced on
his chest, eyes lighting back up with her mating glow. “I’m not sure if I can.”
Even as she said it, she arched her ass back, seeking Lancaster’s touch. He
rubbed his cock up the line of her slit to her ass, tormenting, but not
penetrating. She crooned.
Kissing her again, Gage braced his hands at her waist to
help hold her in position. “Oh you can, Tabby. You want to.”
And then Lancaster shoved into her from behind and they both
cried out above him.
Perhaps this day was as fated as the mating. Maybe some
part of me needed them both, had called to them in some primitive way and they
simply answered.
The white smoothness of Gage’s chest under her fingertips
slicked with sweat, making her grip on him tenuous at best. Luckily, he held
her in position, helping her push back into Lancaster as he shoved deeper
inside her. It surprised her, the gentleness she’d found in the dark man’s large
hands. It shocked her even more when he used those fingertips to tweak her
nipples, seeming to know just how to mold her body to dance the fine line
between pleasure and pain.
One hand fisted in her hair, holding her head still, the
other braced on her hip kept her from moving, but with Lancaster she didn’t
need to move. He seemed perfectly satisfied to play her body like it was a
musical instrument and she couldn’t find a single ounce of complaint at the
performance. As her breasts bounced in time to his thrusts, Gage reached up a
hand, giving one jiggling globe support. She bit her lip, tasting the copper
tang of blood, to keep from crying out again.
“Scream for him, Tabby. He likes it.” Gage didn’t seem at
all bothered by the other man kneeling between his legs to shove inside her and
she obeyed him. Opening her mouth, she allowed the mewling sounds to escape,
stunned to find herself nearing the edgy peak of orgasm.
One of Gage’s hands eased between her thighs, finding
unerringly the hot point of her clit and stroking it in time with his pounding
thrusts. “Fuck.” Her hands slipped and she allowed her face to drop to Gage’s
chest. Too much. The pleasure might just be too much.
Neither man stopped moving, keeping up the rhythm that
threatened her sanity and drove her higher into the sexual tension winding
tighter inside her. Biting down on Gage’s nipple, he hardened under her
fingertips, reacting to the Claiming above him in a way she’d never dreamed of
anticipating.
Then she shattered, the orgasm shaking through her even as
she felt Lancaster’s claim fill her. “Mate!” She shouted the word, calling him
even as he jerked and spent inside her. “My mate.”
“Mine,” growled Lancaster in response. He stroked up her
spine, easing her to lie next to Gage. “Ours.”
Breathing hard, she closed her eyes, trying to find her
center in the tsunami of sensations. The idea of two lovers and the reality
were two very different things. They’d claimed her, possessed her and she lay
between them in a limp puddle.
And yet…
She wanted more.
She should be sated. Seers had only one lover and she lay
with two.
Yet she twirled her hand across Gage’s pale chest while
Lancaster still stroked her hip and ass and she wanted more. She shook her
head, trying to make sense of it and fascinated by the sight of Gage’s icy-white
cock, still hard and ready between his legs.
“We can’t read your mind. Only each other’s. Care to share
with the class, Tabby?” Gage’s chest moved when he spoke, dislodging her from
her perch, and she lifted her head. From behind, Lancaster rained kisses across
her spine, raising goose bumps and making her more sure she needed something
more.
“I think we’re not done.” Putting into words the feelings of
spirit were never simple, and in this case she searched for better ones. “I
need more. I feel almost empty inside, incomplete…hungry.”
Lancaster laughed behind her. “Insatiable. I like you, mate.
You might have to give me at least a minute to recover, however.”
She curled toward him, their lips meeting in a long and
loving kiss. Again, he kissed her, this one open mouthed, and a shiver of
renewed desire quaked from her lips to his. She broke away, watching as he
shuddered out a breath, and saw his cock swell, reawakening to her desire.
“I’m fond of you as well. I’m glad you both caught me and
Claimed me but…” No words came to her, so she simply shoved Lancaster back. “I
want something more.”
Lancaster’s cock stiffened to its full size, despite his
words regarding recovery time, as if he too felt the need for more. Biting down
hard on his nipple, she hovered over it and blew a soft breath on it just to
watch him react. Torturing them both with the sensation, she rubbed her aching
pussy against the hard line of his desire.
Gage slid his hands up her back, clawing her gently on the
down stroke so she very nearly shoved Lancaster inside her. A moan slipped out
and her eyes closed. She responded, it seemed, to even the slightest
encouragement from them. The passion between them seemed to amplify rather than
slowing with the transition from person to person. “May I touch you here,
mate?”
The soft-spoken question from Gage came only seconds before
she felt the slick feel of his fingertip teasing her asshole.
Her first thought was no. But before she could voice it,
he’d slid in as far as his first knuckle and a new hunger grated awake inside
her. Moisture soaked out of her, as if her body encouraged his trespass.
Instead of words, she pushed down harder, taking the fingertip deep. “Shouldn’t
that hurt or feel weird or something?”
When he added a second fingertip, she dug her nails into
Lancaster’s chest expecting pain from the invasion, but her body seemed made
for his strange touch and allowed him inside with no resistance. “I think we’re
on unexplored territory altogether. Perhaps the normal rules shouldn’t be
applied in this situation.” As if done with her torturing glide against him, he
chose that moment to push his large cock deep within her.
Her mouth opened but no sound came out. Her pleasure with
Lancaster buried deep and Gage’s fingertips teasing her ass nearly brought her
to another orgasm. She shuddered, trying to keep steady in the overwhelming
waves of sensation.
“Well, then, let me try this.” Gage’s fingers slid out and
she nearly cried out in complaint. The words died in her throat as she felt the
hard press of his cock at her behind.
“I don’t think—”
You’ll both fit
, she planned to say,
but then he was slowly moving inside her. She froze, orienting to the foreign
sensation. There was stretching, but it was good. Gritting her teeth, she
teetered on the edge of it feeling
too
good. As he made it all the way
in, his hands rubbed her thighs in a soothing way. Rather than easing her
breathing, it simply raced harder, her body ramping up for something she could
neither describe nor deny she ached for. Her fingernails dug into Lancaster
beneath her and she focused on the riot of feelings, trying to sort through
them and decide what she thought about it all.
When Lancaster pulled out, she opened her eyes, ready to
tell him to stop. Instead, the pleasure arced and she whispered, “Oh my.” Using
her grip on his chest, she tried not to dislodge Gage, but repeat the
sensation. “Lancaster, don’t stop.” It came out more an order than a request,
but she couldn’t regret it.
“Don’t plan to.” Lancaster’s jaw muscle twitched as he
obviously searched for balance in a situation fast spiraling out of anyone’s control.
Then they moved at once. Gage pressed in, Lancaster moved
out. After a moment, they were rocking her between them. Sometimes, at just the
right moment, her skin felt stretched tight as they both moved inside her. No
longer able to even pretend a modicum of control, her body bucked and writhed.
They held her, keeping them with her, and a low crooning noise filled the
darkness.
After only a moment, she realized the sound escaped her own
throat. Arching her neck back, she let loose more of the noise as it gave her
someplace to put all the building pressure and pleasure that boiled to an
eruption point within her. A light grew inside her, and she spindled the
sensation in the sound.
“Sing for us, Seer,” Gage whispered. Both men increased
their pace as if the words held some sacred meaning.
“Mate. Our mate.” Lancaster began chanting the words and
after a moment, Gage joined him.
The keening sound rippled higher and then slammed out of her
as the orgasm shredded her ability to think, to breathe, to move. Light shot
out of her, bathing her lovers and the clearing in a crystal-bright glow, as if
they hovered at the center of an agate. She crumbled, falling to Lancaster’s
waiting embrace, and felt Gage shudder above them. Soon both men held her,
their breathing as unsteady as hers as light drifted down to fall like
snowflakes of glitter around them.
“Apparently, our Claiming wasn’t done.” Lancaster laughed.
“Although we each claimed her, I think we needed to finalize it or something.”
She couldn’t answer him. The outburst of power released a
vision that swept her under as surely as passion had moments before. Her own
voice, but in a monotone, played over the flickering images. “Time spins out,
like a video on fast-forward, filled with more triads, threesomes of power. A
darkness, coming fast and hard at our people. The queen will See and save us
all, but only if the triads join in time. Only the triads will be strong enough
to stop it.”
The fast-forwarded and unclear images vanished, leaving her
panting and sandwiched between mint and brandy spice. Their warm bodies fought
off the chill of her Sight and she burrowed closer to them. Their hearts beat
as if in tune with hers. “Sorry,” she mumbled, not surprised her voice was
husky after all her yelling. “Vision.”
“Seemed like an important one,” Gage soothed. “Not that I
have any clue what it was about.”
“Me either. I think we need to tell the elders, though.”
Lancaster sighed. “There are a few who will be surprised by our choice, but the
vision suggests it may become more popular in the coming days.” His laugh
rumbled up. “Triads of power. If others are going to have something like this
for their Matings, the next gathering could be very amusing.”
“I’m sorry I ran for so long.” Finding her voice again, she
swallowed hard. The aftermath of the emotional and passionate moments seemed to
leave her lost in their wake, floundering. Tears threatened, but she wasn’t
sure why. “I knew you were both coming for me.”
Gage’s hand, warm and safe, smoothed the hair back from her
face. “We would have waited longer to claim you if you’d needed it. Why did you
run from us for so long, little Seer?” He might be soothing her, but hurt
resonated in his tone. No action happened without repercussion. She’d known she
hurt them by stalling their union because of her view of the time stream, yet
fought destiny anyway, fearing they wouldn’t work out. Better to leave her
mates alone and wishing for her than to have them catch her and be disappointed
with their choice. Although her fears seemed almost foolish when in their arms
and surrounded by the peace of their connection, it didn’t diminish her regret
for waiting.
Burrowing deeper into Lancaster’s arms, she blinked hard at
tears tracking hot lines down her cheeks. “I knew what I wanted, what I
needed—”
“Us.” Lancaster’s growl sounded both proud and arrogant in
one breath.
Her smile wavered out, but she didn’t lift her head. “Yes,
you
both
. But see…that’s the thing. I’m just me and, well, you’re both
pretty exceptional men. And no one ever bonds in threes.”
“Thanks.” Gage’s purely masculine chuckle caused goose bumps
to rise on her arms and she reached back to hold his hand in hers.
“I guess…I worried I wouldn’t be enough. Not when I wanted
you both…”
“You’re enough.” The men spoke in unison and pulled her so
close she could barely breathe for a moment. Instead of being smothering or making
her doubt her independence, the sensation brought her peace.
“So you’ve claimed me. Now what?” Trying for brevity, she
inhaled the mixed scents of them, her mates, satisfied to have been claimed and
planning to repeat the Claiming as soon as her legs worked again. Just because
the ceremony had been completed, it didn’t mean she couldn’t spend as much of
the near future naked as possible. They had a lot of lost time to make up for.
“Well, now we have forever, until the stars crumble from the
sky,” Gage whispered. “I’m pretty sure we can come up with some interesting
ways to pass the time.”
Lancaster’s laugh echoed against the sound of the waking
forest and a hint of sunrise teased at the horizon.
Just as she’d Seen, the light of it burst color onto the mountain
and sparkled against the glittering remains of magic. The light revealed the
three of them sprawled on the forest floor, united against whatever the future
might bring.
Virginia Nelson believed them when they said, “Write what
you know.” She’s a small-town girl writing small-town romance. Her characters
are as full of flaws, misunderstandings and flat out mistakes as Virginia
herself. When she’s is not writing or plotting to take over the world, she
likes to hang out with the greatest kids in history, play in the mud, drive far
too fast and scream at inanimate objects. Virginia likes knights in rusted and
dinged-up armor, heroes who snarl instead of croon and heroines who can’t
remember to say the right thing even with an author writing their dialogue. Her
books are full of snark, sex and random acts of ineptitude—not always in that
order.
Virginia welcomes comments from readers. You can find her
website and email addresses on her
author
bio page
at
www.ellorascave.com
.
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Ellora’s Cave Publishing
Taming Tabitha
ISBN 9781419949852
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Taming Tabitha Copyright © 2014 Virginia Nelson
Edited by Elizabeth London
Cover design by Allyse Leodra
Cover photography by Q59
Electronic book publication March 2014
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