Third Time Lucky

“What do you think, darlin’?” Harris drawled. “Being submissive isn’t so bad.” Harris lay down on the bed next to her, his hand moving to cup her breast while his teeth grazed the skin on her neck. Ethan smiled at the display. She shivered, tiny goose bumps rising all over her body.

“Gabby,” Harris said in a voice that was way too calm, grabbed a fistful of her hair, and forced her to turn to face him. “You didn’t answer me.”

“You’re asking me to think at a time like this?”

“No. I’m asking what you’re feel, darlin’.”

Ethan wanted to know the answer to that himself. She took a long time to respond—so long he was sure she wouldn’t.

“Don’t…stop. Please.”

Harris leaned forward and rolled his tongue over her nipple until it was a sharp, wet point.

Then he bit her. Ethan’s eyes widened, jealous, as those teeth closed over her soft, creamy skin.

He wanted to do the same, wanted to take his time and leave evidence of his desire, his love over every inch of her body. Harris looked at him with a grin as if he knew exactly what Ethan was thinking. Next he bit her stomach, right above her belly button, sucking the skin in hard and leaving it wet and red when he sat back.

“‘Don’t stop’ isn’t an answer,” he said sharply.

She groaned and opened her eyes, pleading silently. Begging to keep some of herself private. Ethan could read it so well he was amazed.

“What do you want from me?” she whispered.

“Everything,” Harris answered, and Ethan sucked in an excruciating breath. Fuck. He’d ruin everything. She wasn’t ready to go that far yet. She may never be ready to go that far.

She shook her head. “Too much.”

Harris looked brooding and thoughtful, but eventually nodded his head. “Now it is. But I’ll keep pushing, Gabby. Right now I’ll settle for you trusting me with your body. Hopefully you’ll give me your heart later.”

She tugged her arms but was too secure to get free. Her face went pale with alarm, and her gaze shifted between the two of them. No. A soundless response, easy to read on her lips. Ethan had never realized before that she was afraid of falling in love. He didn’t like that. He was crazy about her. Had been since she was sixteen. It seemed only fair that she return the favor.

“Later is not good enough,” he snarled, at her or Harris, he wasn’t sure.

He crawled up her body. Resting his elbows on either side of her head, his torso pressing against hers as a cold fire raged through him. He’d marked her, claimed her, loved her for years, and just when he thought she was coming around, she’d made it clear that was light years from the truth. She would make him mad. Crazed and insane.

“What will it take to make you open your eyes, Gabby?” he asked, desperate for some sign of affection. He stared into lust-filled eyes, and while he loved seeing that look on her face, he wanted to see clear reason right now. The Gabby he could always count on for sound advice and a level head. The one who always gave him the complete, unvarnished, ugly truth.

“To what, Ethan? What do you want me to see?”

“How I feel about you. How I’ve always felt. What you deny.” She focused on his face just a moment before her eyes once again glazed with desire. He looked over to see Harris leaning on her other side, his fingers pushing in and out of her cunt in a slow, rhythmic pace.

“I’m trying to have a conversation here,” he snapped.

Harris grinned. Shrugged. “Go for it.”

Right. Because she was so receptive now with Harris playing with her body. Flushed and sweaty, eyes closed, head tossing back and forth on the pillow while she moaned. Gods, that was hot. He stretched out next to her and skimmed his hand over her torso. When he brushed by her nipples, she froze, and he went back for a second go- round. Again and again.

When she was panting and begging, he stopped so he could lean down and claim her lips.

But he whispered in her ear first. “I’ve loved you for years, Gabby. Don’t you love me just a little?”

And he poured everything he felt into the kiss. Years of watching her, admiring her, wanting her. Loving her. He’d run a gauntlet of emotions with this woman. Love, fear, anger, jealousy, amusement, possessiveness, and protectiveness. The amazing thing was, as he deepened the kiss, as his tongue swept into her mouth, he felt that emotion reciprocated. His heart kicked hard in his chest. She did feel something. She returned all those complicated, messy feelings, even if she hated it and hated to admit it. He broke away and stared into her eyes, deep whiskey- colored pools of frustration.

“Why are you stopping?”

“You didn’t answer me.”

She looked more than a little desperate. He liked that look. “What question?” He rolled over on top of her. Harris who’d been fingering her pussy and clit, deftly turned his hand around to stroke Ethan’s cock. It jarred him for a moment—that sudden, sweet contact—and he turned to press a quick kiss against Harris’s lips, getting that sinful, mysterious grin in return before the wizard released his grip.

Then Ethan refocused on the woman beneath him. The woman who was his world, his everything. Her eyes were wild, bright and blazing with passion and what he hoped like hell was love. He needed the words, though. He needed her to say it. He pressed the head of his cock against her entrance and held her hips still when she arched to take him inside her.

“Gabby?”

“Why aren’t you moving?” she whined. “Fuck me, Ethan. Quit teasing.” Harris chuckled. “I think you’re missing a few key elements of submitting, darlin’.” Her pussy tightened around him, a slick, hot vise. He gave her a short, shallow, teasing thrust in retaliation. “Can’t we talk about that later?” Gabby was losing her last grip on her mind and her control, and she knew that was exactly what they wanted from her. She even wanted to give it to them, but reversing an entire lifetime of conditioning was harder than it looked.