The Lion's Shared Bride (7 page)

CHAPTER SEVEN

Aedan grinned at the sound of Nina’s voice echoing through the hallway from the guest bathroom where she was ensconced in the deep tub, a glass of wine ready at hand. “We have got to convince her,” he told Soren.

“No question about that; in fact, it’s gotten more urgent.” Aedan raised an eyebrow and Soren picked up his phone, swiping a few times with his fingertips before extending it to him. Aedan read the messages from Anna and nodded.

“Okay, so we keep her fed and sexed up and happy, convince her to stay with us, and tell the Pride all our problems are settled. Alex doesn’t strike me as the type to throw a coup without backing, even if he does want Jordan back in.” Aedan handed Soren’s phone back to him with a shrug.

“Some of the Pride fully expected Jordan to win that challenge,” Soren pointed out.

Aedan grinned. “If Jordan couldn’t defeat you, I don’t think Alex will.” Aedan knew that Soren doubted his own ability to effectively lead—it was one of the reasons why he had been willing to have another Alpha-trained male in the Pride, particularly one without status, who wouldn’t be a realistic contender to take over the mantle.

Aedan had long since given up any notion of being in charge of any Pride. When he had been exiled from the group of lions he had considered his family, forced to roam as a lone male, the only thing Aedan had really wanted was a Pride to belong to. But until he was a full member of Soren’s pride, Aedan couldn’t defend the Alpha in any overt way because he was on probation. He had to stand back if Soren was challenged. He couldn’t be the other man’s second in any official capacity. Since the rest of the Pride distrusted him, Aedan wasn’t even in a position to talk to anyone in the Pride and drum up support for the Alpha.

In the bathroom, Aedan’s keen ears heard Nina turning over in the water, and the faltering in her voice as she shifted. He grinned at Soren. “Honestly, even if we didn’t need her, I’d want to keep her.” Soren chuckled.

“She’s staying in my bed tomorrow night,” Soren said firmly.

Aedan laughed. “Does that mean I get to keep her tonight?”

Soren shrugged. “Well, she knows you better than she knows me. It makes sense for her to sleep in your bed, keep her comfortable.”

“We could let her sleep in the guest room and accost her first thing in the morning,” Aedan suggested. The thought of it sent a rush of heat through him. Despite his diplomatic suggestion, the idea of Nina in his bed for the night, the possibility that he could truly have her to himself at least for a few hours, was almost enough to distract him completely.

“You got her here,” Soren said. “You charmed her enough to get her through the door, it’s only fair that you get the first night with her. I’ll stake my claim in the morning.” Soren grinned slowly and Aedan thought to himself that he could imagine pretty readily just how the other man was going to go about it.

“Boys?” Nina’s voice carried to them both from the bathroom. Aedan sat up straighter in his chair, glancing speculatively at Soren. “Someone needs to come and fill my wineglass, it’s very empty.” Aedan bit his bottom lip, shaking his head with a chuckle.

“Two men and one woman and she’s ordering
us
about.” Soren laughed.

“Well, we set it up that way. And if it keeps her around, I’m happy to let her order me around as much as she wants.” Aedan stood.

“Since she’s mine for the night, I should be the one to take care of her,” Aedan said. “It’s getting late, anyhow. Maybe I’ll be lucky and she’ll be up to another go ‘round before she passes out for the night.” Soren rolled his eyes, settling against the couch.

“Just remember: tomorrow she’s mine. I have to make up for lost time.”

“Oh, sure. Just don’t be surprised if she comes hurrying back to me at the end of your time together.” Aedan stepped into the kitchen and retrieved the bottle of wine that Soren had opened for Nina. He gave the other Alpha a brief wave as he passed back through the living room and into the hallway, turning towards the guest bedroom Nina had chosen.

The sight of her, neck-deep in the hot water, sent a hot jolt of desire through Aedan’s body as he walked through the open door. Aedan suppressed the groan that pushed up from somewhere in the pit of his stomach and strode across the tile floor, his gaze trailing over Nina’s body. The scent of her filled the small room, adding to the instinctive arousal he was starting to feel coursing through him. “As requested,” Aedan said, bowing slightly towards her. He sank down to sit on the floor next to the bathtub facing her and picked up Nina’s empty glass.

“You know, it may be the multiple orgasms and the wine speaking, but this is starting to look like a pretty sweet gig.”

Aedan grinned, pouring wine into the glass and setting it carefully within easy reach. “Two men at your beck and call? I should hope that would make your outlook rosy.” He watched as Nina sat up in the tub, drinking in the sight of her breasts floating just above the water, her damp hair hanging around her face, the flush in her cheeks from the heat. “I think we should talk a little more serious-like.” Nina brought the glass of wine to her lips and sipped, and Aedan clenched one of his hands into a fist.
God if I could have met her any other way… I wouldn’t have to share her with Soren. But I didn’t and I do.

“Go ahead,” Nina said, leaning back again. Aedan licked his lips and glanced at the still-open bottle of wine in his hand. He drank down a heavy slug of the cold, tart white to steady himself.

“I think you need to understand how things work in the group that Soren and I belong to,” Aedan said, setting the bottle down.

“It would be nice to know what I’m getting myself into,” Nina said, nodding slightly in agreement. Aedan felt himself smiling.
I could devour you right now, love. I could bury my face between your legs and never want to come up for air.
He took another gulp of wine.

“First of all, you can be your own person. You’d be our mate, and yeah, both of us would have certain expectations but if you want to work, you can work. If you want to lounge around the house all day eating sweets, you could do that too, and anything in-between.” Nina raised an eyebrow and the look in her eyes made Aedan wish the bathtub was just a little bit bigger.
We should get Soren to put in a hot tub out back.
“If you decided to be our mate, both Soren and I would expect you to have at least one child with each of us.” Nina sat up, setting her wine glass down and staring at him.

“Wait—this… you didn’t mention that before.” Aedan sat up and reached out, pushing Nina gently back into her reclining position in the tub.

“I’m not saying we’d expect you to do it immediately. But we both need kids. Sort of a feature of the group we belong to.” Aedan paused. “Of course, if you can’t carry, that’s neither here nor there.” Nina blushed from the roots of her hair down to her chest, and Aedan watched in a mixture of amusement and concern as she looked down into the water.

“I… I am almost definitely fertile.” Aedan made a mental note to ask her more about that later. But for the moment, he decided it would probably be better to leave the subject alone.

“Another thing: in private, you can run Soren and me around as much as you like, but as a member of the group we belong to, you would have to at least pretend to have some respect and deference for us—Soren in particular, since he’s the leader.” Nina looked up and Aedan found himself smiling once more at the defiant look in her eyes.

“Just what kind of group is it?” she crossed her arms over her chest, both eyebrows raised, and Aedan once more felt the Alpha urge to take her then and there.

“There’s a certain hierarchy, that’s all. Women are respected in our group, but you would be coming in at the bottom, just below me.”

“This is sounding decidedly less appealing now,” Nina said, reaching out and picking up her glass of wine again.

“Ah, but remember: in private we will be your slaves if that’s the way you want it.”
Though I doubt, little love, that you really want it that way.
Aedan thought of the way she had reacted to them, the way her pulse had quickened when she had been trapped in his arms, the way she had melted into an eager, almost wanton kind of abandon when Soren and he had brought her to bed. “By the way, you’re bunking with me tonight.”

Nina’s eyes flashed. “What if I want to sleep alone?”

Aedan shrugged. “Personally, I don’t think you want to. But if you insist, you can sleep in my bed and I’ll sleep on the floor. But I do think I should remind you that you agreed to give this trial run a fair shake. If you agree to be our mate, you will be sharing a bed with Soren and with me most nights.” Aedan scented the air, taking in the sweet-spicy depths of Nina’s pheromones. He knew, deep down, that Nina was more than a little attuned to him already. He could smell the lingering arousal she was feeling.
Time to show her what she’s getting with this arrangement.

Aedan stood quickly, setting down the bottle of wine and reaching for the towel Soren had brought into the bathroom for their guest. Nina started as he leaned over the bathtub. “Come on, love. I won’t hurt you, but it’s late and you’re tired. And more than a little tipsy.” Nina crossed her arms over her chest and scowled up at him.

“You just finished telling me that in private I could do just as I pleased and order you and Soren around, and now you’re making demands.”

Aedan grinned down at her. “You haven’t agreed to be our mate yet, first off. Secondly, I reserve the right to figure out what you really want, despite what your pretty mouth says.” Aedan reached out in a movement too quick for Nina to see and pulled her quickly out of the water, lifting her carefully over the ledge and depositing her on the bath mat inches away from him. He wrapped the towel around her tightly and brought her face up to his, kissing her hungrily.

In an instant, Nina’s demeanor changed, and Aedan fought back the urge to laugh at her sudden compliance as he plunged his tongue past her lips. “I know you don’t really want two grown men to be your slaves, little love,” Aedan murmured, barely breaking the kiss. “You want your needs filled, not your whims catered to.” He lifted her into his arms, settling her weight against him and chuckling as Nina instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist to hold onto him. He reached down blindly and grabbed the bottle of wine before carrying both it and her out of the bathroom. Aedan could feel his animal essence simmering underneath his skin, driving his desire to greater heights. Soren would have her in the morning, and have plenty of opportunity to give her even more reasons to trust them both. For now, he was going to speak not to her wary brain but her very incautious body.
You can’t fool me, love,
Aedan thought.

He kicked the door to his bedroom open and barely closed it behind them before he brought Nina to his bed once more, covering her body with his. “Tell me exactly what you want, little love,” he said, nipping carefully along the column of her throat. “Mind you don’t lie because I’ll know.” Nina writhed underneath him, moaning softly as Aedan lapped at the sweat that had started to form along her jawline, bringing his lips back to hers.

“You,” she murmured, her voice breathless. “Right now, I want you.”

*

Nina stared up at the ceiling of Soren’s bedroom, her heart gradually slowing down from the rapid pounding of moments before. “Okay,” she said, struggling to catch her breath. “Okay. I am officially calling a break for the next hour.” Next to her, Soren chuckled, and Nina felt the bed shift underneath her as he turned over, his arm moving to coil around her waist.

“Having trouble thinking clearly?” he asked her, his voice playful as he caressed her. Nina shivered, smiling despite herself, unable to find the energy or the desire to be irritated in the face of the bone-deep pleasure zinging through her veins.

“You’re doing this on purpose,” she said, turning her head to look at him. “It really isn’t fair. How am I supposed to make an objective decision when either you or Aedan is constantly either getting me off, stuffing me with delicious food, or plying me with wine?” She gave him a half-hearted shove.

Underneath her joke, Nina felt a flicker of very real concern. Everything about the two men who had asked her to let them share her was too good to be true. They didn’t expect her to be some kind of domestic slave, they were happy to let her work or not work as she pleased, they were both incredibly good in bed. In twenty-four hours she had had more sex than she’d enjoyed in the previous three months, at least. Her hips ached, but the pain lingering from repeated penetrations was nothing compared to the tingling pleasure she felt all over, all the time.

Soren had gotten her out of Aedan’s bed in the middle of the morning, waking her up with a kiss that had briefly disoriented her.
Oh god, I am constantly going to wake up not knowing who the hell is kissing me if I agree to this.
Nina shook her head at the thought, there were definitely worse problems to have, but she wasn’t sure how exactly she felt about constantly hopping from one man’s arms to the other’s. It had surprised her that Aedan, waking up at the sound of her startled cry, hadn’t seemed even a little bit bothered at the fact that Soren was there, or that he was clearly intent on extricating her from the other man’s company.

Soren had given her long enough to put on one of Aedan’s tee shirts and her panties from the night before. Nina had been startled again when she smelled the scents of a delicious breakfast the moment she walked out of Aedan’s room. Soren had been up early cooking, making good, at least temporarily, on the assertion from the night before that she wouldn’t be expected to take over all kitchen duties. As she sipped coffee, Nina’s concerns from the night before had come flooding into her mind. There were still a number of points she wanted to have clarified before she decided one way or the other.