with my children mattered if Summer doesn’t take her place. If we don’t fall through that painting, Marcus likely dies. Dev dies when the outer planes fall, and then we die.
The baby inside me is never conceived.
And the payment for all of that, the bill that came with survival, had been paid in full by Rhys and Lee and Evan and Fen. By my father.
“It’s okay to mourn now.” Dev had moved in behind me. “We’re alone. I know I feel it. I feel every year we lost with them.”
Daniel reached for me. “Please, we need to be together on this. I know I need you now, Z.”
I needed them, and I was letting my anger and fear keep us apart. I’d lost so much time with my kids. I couldn’t lose more because they didn’t agree with me. We’d all had a rough day, had rough days in front of us, and we needed to be together.
I let the tears roll down my cheeks as Daniel brushed them away with his thumbs. I stared up at him. We hadn’t lost each other. Our children were still alive, and there was another growing inside me. It might have to be enough for now. I wasn’t giving up on finding a way to change things, but for tonight I let it go and let myself be with them.
Daniel’s mouth found mine, bringing us together as Dev’s magic started to pulse through the room.
Daniel kissed me long and deep, his tongue sliding along mine even as his hands did the same to the curves of my body. I felt Dev behind me, felt the hard line of his erection against the small of my back. His hands moved around to cup my breasts as he kissed the nape of my neck.
Goddess, I needed this.
“I know this wasn’t the way you thought we would come home,” Dev whispered. “But it ends the same. No matter where we go, each day ends with me loving you. Me loving you both.”
No matter what happened, we were here together.
I let Daniel pull the shirt over my head and toss it aside. Before it even hit the floor, Dev had my bra off. His warm magic stroked over my skin, and it was easier to shove aside all my worries because they had no place here. This was a place for the three of us, a safe space where we expressed what we felt. Love. Passion. Need. Comfort.
We’d come so far from those first tentative days of sharing, those days when we skirted the edges of what we have now. I moved to the side, toeing off my shoes, and Danny moved right in without hesitation. His hand gripped the nape of Dev’s neck and he hauled him close, their bodies bumping against each other before settling in, as if they needed that tiny bit of conflict before they made the choice to be together.
But then Danny’s hand slid down Dev’s back to his waist, where he held him tight as their mouths played against each other, tongues tangling. I love to watch them kiss. So often we’re all together and they’re focused on me. But I like the reminder that while we’re a threesome, we have our own unique relationships with each other.
Danny and Dev needed each other as much as they needed me. They needed each other emotionally, and they’d come to need the physical act of sex together to feel complete. When they made love to me, even when they were rough, there was a delicacy to the act. When Dev and Daniel got it on, it was primal. Sometimes it was almost a fight between the two of them, and they needed it.
A low, sexy growl came from Daniel’s throat and his eyes had bled to blue, the vampire inside him coming out and wanting dominance.
And probably dinner. He hadn’t eaten all day.
Sure enough his fangs were out, and my arousal shot through the roof as I watched them drag across Dev’s skin. Daniel forced Dev’s head to the side, giving him full access to his neck. They should have been naked. Then I could have watched their cocks play against each other because there was no way they weren’t hard and wanting. The very nature of the feed was sexual. It was why vampires almost always had sex when they fed.
I was pregnant, and Daniel would be gentle with me even when I wasn’t. But Dev loved how rough Danny could be.