Bullet Page 0,43

My life worked without him in it.

Jean-Claude breathed through me again. “Do you want him to stop?”

The answer was yes, and no, and that had been Richard and me from the beginning almost. Yes, and no; no and yes, until we both almost went mad with it. Yes and no.

Richard spread the unzipped dress open and lowered his face toward me, his eyes still on my face, still waiting for me to say something. Jean-Claude’s hands continued to soothe down my bare arms. I realized they were both treating me as the one most likely to blow this. It was almost as if they’d discussed it, but Jean-Claude had been surprised tonight, too, hadn’t he? The moment I thought that, I tensed.

Richard kissed the edge of my thigh, still watching my face. Jean-Claude leaned over me and whispered, “I swear to you that I did not know he would come tonight, but I do want this, ma petite, I do want this more cooperative Richard. It is sex tonight, not a change in our living arrangements. It is sex and magic, nothing more.”

There was a time when that would have pissed me off, but that was before Micah and Nathaniel. Before we’d made some peace with Jean-Claude, before so much, and now his words made me relax a little.

Richard kissed up the inside of my thigh, still gazing at my face, still being cautious. I let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding, some tension went away, and when I relaxed so did he. He smiled at me, his hands sliding along my legs, so he could put his hands on the outside of them, his arms underneath my legs. He lowered his eyes as he kissed my thigh. He startled, his fingers digging in just a little, but not like he did it on purpose.

He looked up the line of my body at me. “You’re not wearing anything under the dress,” he said, voice a little strained.

The look on his face made me smile. I couldn’t help it. He looked so startled. I said, “No, I’m not.”

He finally smiled back at me and lowered his face, and he wasn’t trying to look at my eyes anymore. Jean-Claude relaxed against me, as if even he had been holding the breath that he didn’t always need to take.

“Were you really afraid I’d fuck this up?” I asked, sliding my head against his thigh so I could see his face. His face was unreadable and pleasant, but he said, “Yes.”

Richard licked the hollow of my thigh and didn’t stop until he licked between my legs. The sensation of it closed my eyes, caught my breath in my throat. He licked in long, slow strokes around the edges of me, coming over that one small spot at the end of every stroke. He made his strokes smaller, more circular, and my breathing changed, speeding up with my heartbeat.

Jean-Claude moved underneath my head. It made me open my eyes and look at him. He was smiling at me as he slid pillows underneath my head. “I cannot leave our Asher neglected.” He bent and kissed me as he slid off the bed. The movement pulled my gaze to the man bound to the side of the bed so close to us, but almost forgotten. I caught Asher’s look, and it was still that predatory look, but with more anger to it. I had forgotten him, and that was probably truer than was pretty to think of between us all.

Richard put his mouth around me and began to suck, and suddenly all my attention was staring down my body at the man between my legs. His brown eyes were turned up so that he was staring at my face as he sucked me. There was a darkness, a fierceness, a possessiveness in that look. It wasn’t possession of me by Richard, it was a man’s pleasure in I’m making her do that. I’m bringing her pleasure. She’s making those sounds because of me. It was all there in his eyes, as he licked and sucked me over that edge of pleasure that bowed my spine, threw my head backward into the pillows, my hands scrambling for something to hold on to, as the feel of his mouth brought me in wordless, ragged screams.

He sucked me until I lay limp against the bed, boneless with the pleasure of it. He licked one more time, and it made me cry out.

“I love that,” he said,