Blackthorne, Fiona - Moonstruck [Blue Moon 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (5 page)

“Now, you’re gonna come, love,” Robert said with a growl, bestowing sharp little bites on her nipples. He ground himself into her, and with his hand he began to stroke her clit with long, steady caresses. She felt the rhythm of her pleasure building, spurred to higher and more jagged peaks as Sean kissed her deeply, his tongue invading her mouth and demanding her surrender, and Declan unrelentingly biting and pinching her nipples.

Everywhere were fingers and mouths, touching her, teasing her, taking her where they wanted her to go…where she desperately wanted to go now.

“Come, love,” Robert panted as he pinched her clit hard, holding on to her hips with his other hand and slamming into her.

Ecstasy broke through her, shattering her nerves like a million bits of glass, sharp and clear. She cried out helplessly over and over again as the waves of pleasure kept coming because none of them would stop touching or stroking her, even as Robert came with a roar and a shudder.

Her heart raced and jerked, as if being pulled at by invisible strings…three strings that pulled her to the three men around her.

Finally, the tide of pleasure turned and gently ebbed out, leaving her stunned, sated, and sleepy. She felt pillows and blankets being wrapped around her as she floated in a pink, fuzzy bliss. Two warm bodies cradled her on either side, as the blaze in the hearth settled to a warm, steady burn.

Dimly, she heard a voice say, “I’ll take first watch,” and the others murmur assent. One of the strings of her heart seemed to stretch, to grow taut with a sudden distance, but, by that point, everything was fading softly and slowly into an easy, simple darkness where everything was finally right in her world.

Chapter 5

The sky was still heavy and gray, but the first hint of sunrise had faded the inky black night into a sharp blue light. Robert could see his breath as he ran up the path from the woods to the cottage where his lovely Ava slept.

He could hardly wait to see her, and it had been with extreme reluctance that he had left her side during the night at all, but when Declan had come back, cold and grim faced from his patrol, he knew that he had to go out there to keep
Them
from getting to Ava.

He had sensed the change in the air the moment the earth spun day over the night. The oppression of the darkness and the presence of
Them
had ebbed, leaving behind only an uneasy mist over the frost-crisp ground. He stopped behind the woodshed to shift back to his human form and quickly throw on his clothes before continuing on to the little white guest cottage.

Glancing back over his shoulder, he saw the huge, rambling white farmhouse that stood next to the woods. All the shutters were closed on all three stories and all along the wings of the house. He breathed a sigh of relief that Ava was at least in the cottage and not in the main house. That would have been unbearable. It was bad enough that she was here and not safely with them, but the idea of her left unprotected in that damn farmhouse scared the shit out of him.

He approached the cottage and quietly let himself in, the pressure his heart felt from being apart from her easing as he drew nearer to his Ava. He felt cramped in the small space. It was one large room, with an old kitchenette, a small table and chairs in a dining nook, and then a tiny living room with a battered old sofa, a rocking chair, and a faded easy chair by a fireplace. Even the huge bearskin rug in front of the hearth seemed too big for this little room. There were two small bookshelves filled with moldy paperbacks, probably left behind from various summer vacations, some old crockery on the mantel, and a tiny television on a stand. He noticed there was a satellite box. Probably there had been a satellite dish installed somewhere by the farmhouse.

Yet, while he and his brothers were almost too big for this cottage and filled the space with their large bodies, it was perfect for small, delicate Ava. His heart beat faster as he thought of her desire-drunk eyes and the sensation of being buried inside her, the tremendous connection he felt to her now. Was what he felt love? He couldn’t answer that yet. He’d never truly loved any woman. All he knew was that since the moment she walked out of the woods, his entire existence had shifted, tilting on a new axis that bent his whole being toward her. She had to be the one.

Sean turned from the counter where he was brewing up a pot of coffee. The bitter smell was warm and inviting after being out in the predawn cold.

“Everything settled?” Sean asked quietly.

“Yes,” Robert replied. “Is she still sleeping?”

A tender smile touched Sean’s lips as he nodded. “Declan is in there with her, keeping her warm. I thought she’d want some breakfast when she wakes up.”

“She’s going to want more than breakfast,” Robert said ruefully. “She’s going to want answers.”

“She won’t believe the answers we give her. She’s not ready.”

“We have to tell her some of it.”

Sean nodded glumly then poked his head into the fridge. He brightened up as he emerged with eggs and bacon.

“I like a girl who likes bacon,” he announced with a grin.

Robert grinned back. Thank goodness for Sean’s unfailing good humor. He had kept Robert and Declan afloat for years after the reality of their curse had settled in on them, dragging them down into a bottomless despair.

There was a crash in the bedroom, followed by a muffled cry from Declan and a sharp,
“What the fuck?”
from Ava, and both he and Sean ran to the bedroom, only to see Ava scrambling to stand up, frantically wrapping the quilt around her.

She looked up at them, and terror and anger and humiliation were written all over her sweet face. Robert’s breath caught in his throat. His cock sprang to life at the sight of her, half draped in a faded homemade quilt, her slate gray-brown hair hanging loosely over her bare shoulders. He was almost crazy with the need to kiss her luscious mouth and inhale her frantic breaths.

Declan sat up, holding his head in one hand and the alarm clock that had evidently been thrown at him in the other. During the night, he and his brothers had carried her into the bedroom so she wouldn’t be stiff and sore from sleeping on the floor, tucking her in carefully against the chill in the room, despite the fire blazing in the living room.

“Get out,” she said fiercely, and Robert’s heart ached to see tears welling up in her eyes. “All of you, get out!”

“Ava, please,” Sean said gently, holding out his hand to her. “Please, let us explain.”

“I don’t think there’s anything to explain,” she snapped, then bit her bottom lip before the sob in her voice could spill out.

“We know it was a lot for you last night,” Declan pleaded, putting down the alarm clock and getting out of bed. “But, it wasn’t what you think.”

“It wasn’t just sex,” Robert said, mentally adding that it was the best, most amazing, most meaningful, important sex of his life.

“We don’t just want you for a one-night stand or a fling,” Sean chimed in. “This is more than that.”

“You all are crazy,” Ava whispered, shrinking back from them as Sean took a step toward her. “Please, you got what you wanted, now leave.”

“We will leave,” Robert said, “but, first, you have to hear us out. If after that, you still want us to leave, we’ll go.”

“There is no bargaining here!” Ava cried, her shoulders starting to shake. “I’m sorry if I led you all on last night, but what happened is…is done and over. I don’t want to talk about it, and I don’t want to see you, any of you, ever again.”

Robert couldn’t stand it any longer as the tears spilled out of her eyes and rolled in great raindrops down her pale cheeks. He crossed the room in three strides and wrapped her in his arms. She struggled against him, but couldn’t do much as she was trying to hold up the quilt around her body.

In a second, Sean and Declan were there beside them, picking up the rest of the quilt and wrapping it around her, stroking her hair, kissing her shoulders and rubbing her back, and Robert held her tightly to him.

Ava broke down in gut-wrenching sobs, each cry like a knife to his gut. This was all going so wrong, suddenly! They were supposed to make her happy, make her fall in love with them, and so far, she feared and mistrusted them to the point of trying to recoil from their touch.

“Hush, sweetheart, shhhh,” Declan murmured, rubbing her back and smoothing out her hair. “It’s all going to be okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to be afraid of.”

Robert listened to Declan’s words, grateful for his brother’s insight. He would never have guessed that part of Ava’s anguish was from believing she had done something bad, something deviant. He watched as Sean grabbed a pair of Ava’s jeans, a top for her, and some underwear and sped to the bathroom where he heard the shower start running. He marveled at how she brought them all into perfect balance finally, with Sean’s humor and energy, Declan’s patience and insight, and his strength and ferocity.

“Come on, sweetheart,” Declan said, nodding at Robert to release her to Declan’s arms. “Sean’s got a nice hot shower for you.”

“I’m showering alone!” She hiccupped between sobs.

“Yes, Ava, absolutely,” Declan reassured her. “Come on.”

Fifteen minutes later, showered and dressed, Ava sat rigidly at the table as Robert put a cup of coffee in front of her, and Sean slid eggs and bacon onto her plate.

“Eat while it’s hot, baby,” Sean said with a grin. “Cold eggs are worse than remorse in the morning.”

“This isn’t funny,” Ava snapped. “You have five minutes to tell me what you insist on believing I need to hear from you, and then you are all leaving.”

 
Robert and Declan sat on either side of her while Sean leaned against the counter. Robert reached out to touch her face, something in his heart breaking as she flinched and pulled away. Declan tried to cover her hand with his, and his eyes were tortured when she yanked her hand back.

“Don’t touch me,” she snapped. “Just talk.”

“Eat, and we’ll talk,” Robert ordered.

She shot him a cringe-inducing glare that made him feel like a barbarian for ordering her around, but damn it, she needed to eat! Instead of eating, she took a sip of coffee, as if to spite him.

“What happened last night was…” Declan’s voice trailed off as he searched for the right words.

“Amazing!” supplied Sean with an enthusiasm that seemed to make Ava cringe.

“Was good and right for so many reasons.” Declan finished his sentence and shot a warning look at Sean to shut the hell up. “Believe me, Ava. We are not perverts or into swinging or orgies or anything like that. That was new for us, as well. I
am
sorry it happened so quickly, before we had a chance to tell you things you should have known first.”

Ava paled, and her hand holding the coffee mug shook so badly that Robert had to grab it before coffee went everywhere. He held it to her lips for her, but she turned her face away. Every wolf instinct in him howled to bring her into line with him, to love her until she surrendered and submitted to him, to being his mate, his soul mate, his to care for and protect. He had to take a deep breath to calm the wolf and reassert his humanity.

“It’s not what you think,” Declan said quickly. “We didn’t use protection, but we don’t have anything you need to worry about. All of that is fine, okay? Don’t worry about that.”

Even Robert could read the look on her face as she glared worriedly at Declan, now, clearly concerned about the other consequences of not using protection. He prayed to God that one of their seed had taken root in her, though he didn’t have much faith that it would have happened so quickly after just one night.

“Look,” Declan said, “what we really needed to tell you is why we are so worried about you staying here at White Farm.”

“Finally,” Ava muttered, and Sean grinned tenderly at her.

“It’s because of
Them
,” Declan said softly.