Some Like It Wicked (3 page)

“Declan.” She writhed on the vampire’s lap. He anticipated her need. Lifting her hips momentarily, he pressed his length to Aria’s wet slit and slid inside, moving slowly so that she could feel every inch stretching her flesh.

“Goddess, that’s good.” Aria spoke around Adam’s erection. With the pleasure of Declan inside of her came a sharp bite of pain on flesh that had been so long unused, but she liked it.

“Aria.” Declan’s voice was husky as he clasped her hips in strong hands and urged her to rock back and forth. The movements caused her mouth to slide up and down the length of Adam’s shaft, and she held her breath as he slid deep down into her throat.

“Declan. She’s so beautiful.” Adam’s voice washed over Aria as she let the pleasure take her over. Looking up through the tangle of her lashes, she saw the werewolf’s head thrown back in need, the cords of his muscled neck standing out in sharp relief.

He was the beautiful one, him and Declan both. If Aria hadn’t felt secure in her own skin she might have been insecure in that moment.

With two gorgeous alpha males looking at her like she was a goddess, though, she thought that that would be a bit ridiculous.

“Lie down, Dec.” Adam’s voice was thick with desire as, with a great groan, he pulled his cock free of Aria’s mouth. Aria wasn’t sure what he planned to do, but as Declan lay back on the bed, his feet still flat on the floor, she began to have an idea.

Her nerves began to hum with anticipation.

“Brace yourself.” Aria’s pulse quickened as Adam placed his hands gently on her shoulders and eased her back until she lay flat on top of Declan, his cock still embedded inside of her. The new position changed the angle at which Declan penetrated her, and she gasped as the head of his cock hit a sensitive area deep inside.

“Aah...” When Adam clasped his cock in his hand and began to brush it through Aria’s slippery folds and lower, she couldn’t stop the flinch, despite her arousal.

“I’m not sure how I feel about that.” She couldn’t form a more delicate way to put it. “I don’t know if I want you...there.”

Beneath her, she felt Declan vibrate with laughter. The movement caused an interesting friction where their bodies were joined, and she propped herself up, her elbows on Declan’s chest, as she looked up at Adam with wide eyes.

The grin he gave her was wicked and unapologetic.

“I don’t intend to put my cock
there
.” Adam’s voice was full of wicked intent. Aria frowned as he prowled over her. Where on earth else would it go?

“Holy goddess!”

Adam ran his cock along the exposed length of Declan’s before pressing the slick head against Aria’s opening. One thrust of his hips and the tip of his member had worked its way inside of her, pressed tightly together with Declan’s erection, and filling Aria so tightly that the pleasure and pain mixed and she saw stars.

“Oh. I don’t...I don’t think...” Adam began to withdraw, and Aria whimpered. It wasn’t an entirely comfortable sensation, but the razor sharp slash of pain was edged with dark pleasure.

“Go slowly, Adam.” Declan wrapped his arms around Aria’s waist from beneath her. He traced fingers over the plump undersides of her breasts as Adam again began to work his way inside of Aria, not stopping until both he and Declan were sheathed to the hilt.

For a long minute all that Aria could do was struggle to accept the physical sensations that were rioting through her body. Heat crackled through her veins when Declan lowered one hand from her breast to strum over her clit, his touch slow and sure.

“Yes.” She barely recognized her own voice, escaping from between her lips before she had time to think about what she was saying. “Yes. This is what I want.”

A groan escaped both men as Adam pressed his hips forward. At the same time, Declan thrust upward. Neither man could move very much, but the tiny slide of the cocks inside of her made tight coils of need spiral deep in Aria’s gut.

“Fuck.” From beneath her Declan brushed a damp kiss over Aria’s shoulder. “You’re so tight. So good. I don’t know how long I’m going to last.”

“That makes two of us.” Sweat beaded Adam’s brow as Aria bowed at the pleasure of another small thrust inside of her tight heat.

The two men timed their small movements, moving into her at the same moment, pushing until Aria felt certain that she would explode. Then they would recede, just enough for her to catch her breath.

Her need coiled ever more tightly. She needed something, just something more to explode.

As her body tightened, Adam slid his hands down to her opening. Pulling the skin of her labia taut, he nodded at Declan, who increased his pressure and pace on Aria’s clit. In less time than it took to her inhale, the pleasure crashed over her, an out-of-control blaze that made her scream.

Though her haze she felt Declan’s fangs scraping over the tender skin in the spot where her neck met her shoulder. She knew what he wanted, but even through her need she wasn’t sure she could give it to him.

“Drink from me, Dec.” Adam bent lower, causing a second series of ripples to riot through Aria as he offered his neck to Declan.

Aria was trapped in the middle of the dense, dark bliss as Declan sank his fangs into Adam’s neck and began to suckle. Adam groaned, stiffened, then pushed all the way inside of Aria’s heat. The smell of musk scented the air as Adam came, and rich red blood dripped down onto Aria’s shoulder as the movement pulled Declan’s fangs from Adam’s skin.

Declan slowly laved his tongue over the spilled drops. The rasp of his lips on her sensitive skin made her shudder, and the small movement sent Declan over the edge. She felt him shoot inside of her, and a final shudder racked her body.

Though she knew that it wouldn’t last, Aria allowed herself to be held, to be pulled tightly against hard male flesh as they all collapsed in a spent heat on the bed.

It felt so good, felt so right that she didn’t want to think about what was to come.

She just wanted to bask in the bliss, and worry about returning to the reality of her own life later.

* * *

Hours later, Aria awoke feeling as if a brittle cold had seeped into her bones and was there to stay.

It wiped away the sweet glow from her encounter with Adam and Declan in an instant, turning the delicious warmth into shards of ice. Sitting up abruptly, she raked her fingers through her hair and looked around, her heart pounding wildly. She could see the energy in the room, Adam’s aura, Declan’s, the crimson haze of sex.

Something else was there too, but try as she might, she couldn’t see it.

Magic crackled in her fingers as she crawled to her knees, careful not to disturb the men who lay on either side of her, one cold as ice, one hot like a flame. Declan, she knew, slept like...well...the dead. Adam, she had no idea, but his animalistic snores told her that he was deeply asleep.

Crawling to the edge of the bed, she pulled the sword from Declan’s cane, a backup to her sometimes unreliable magic.

The sensation that she wasn’t alone, that something was watching her faded as quickly as it had come. Before Aria could blink, she knew, somehow, that she was once again alone.

Adrenaline coursed through her body as she looked down at the slumbering men. Her belly did a slow roll as she studied the lean lines of Declan’s face, a face she knew so well and yet seemed new to her all over again.

What had happened between the three of them had been more than sex. She couldn’t deny it. But she couldn’t think when she was around Declan and, more than that, the energy that had woken her had left her shaken. It had left an oily residue in the air, one that she could all but smell.

The energy hadn’t appeared to her until Declan had reappeared in her life. It was tied to him, but she was shaken enough by the tender, steamy encounter that she needed to clear her head before she questioned the men.

Warily Aria shifted on the bed. Declan, she knew, was well able to take care of himself—he’d been a soldier, a warrior, many times over his long years. Adam, she wasn’t sure about, but his rigid bearing spoke of military training.

Still, she wasn’t comfortable leaving them, vulnerable to the dark energy as they slumbered.

She closed her eyes and drew her desire to her mind’s eye. Unlike her sister, Aria rarely used words spoken aloud to channel her magic, preferring instead to rely solely on intention and will.

She pictured Declan and Adam sleeping soundly, so deeply that they did not wake as she slid from the bed, dressed and left the motel. They wouldn’t wake unless a malevolent energy made its presence known.

The surge of power in her fingertips, and the resultant blue light, told her when she had tapped into the stream of power.

Waiting a moment to make sure that the spell took hold, Aria then performed the actions she had envisioned. Once she was dressed she raked her fingers through her now messy bob of chestnut hair and turned to indulge in one final look at the two men.

She could see the energy trails of both, swirling together in a sensuous dance. Hers was there too, because sex entwined spirits.

The fact that she could physically see her energy twined in the rope that bound the two men was something she needed to think about. She wasn’t upset, exactly, that Declan had found Adam—the supernatural were sexual creatures, and needed the comfort of skin-to—skin contact. And she’d long ago accepted her part in their breakup.

He might have left her, but she’d pushed him until he did.

But if he left her again, could she survive? Could she turn away now that she’d experienced the tenderness of the man she’d once loved, and another man as well?

She needed to think. And she needed to do it alone.

Chapter Three

The chill of the fall air outside the cocoon of the motel room added to the desolation that Aria felt. Shoving her hands into the pockets of her leather coat, she strode down the sidewalk to her motorcycle, which was still parked in the now-empty lots of Harry’s.

As she pulled her helmet from the storage beneath the seat, something that felt like a million tiny needles showered over her skin. She stiffened, waiting to see if the now-familiar sensation passed.

It didn’t. Inhaling deeply, she discovered the scent of something otherworldly on the air, something that wasn’t werewolf, vampire or magic.

The blow struck from behind, causing pain to explode through her skull as, caught off guard, she fell to the sidewalk. The concrete kissed her skin, and she could smell blood—her blood—hanging on the air.

“Stop!” She didn’t have a chance to picture what she wanted as, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a blur of gray rushing at her again. Throwing up her arms, she managed to catch the blow there and save her face.

Rolling away quickly, she sprang to her feet and whirled to face her attacker.

Her mouth fell open when she saw that it was. She didn’t know what it was. It had the form of a person, but was misty and gray. It didn’t look like a solid entity, though it had certainly felt like one when it had hit her.

“What do you want?” Aria tried to distract the thing as she pictured the gray thing disappearing, and the sensation of safety surrounding her.

Her magic sparked fitfully, and Aria knew it was because she couldn’t focus.

The gray thing didn’t respond, just swung back and forth fretfully...stalking her, Aria realized. There was something off about the being.

There was no sense of sentience. It was as if this creature was no more than a shadowy zombie, programmed to do only one thing.

“What do you want?” Aria repeated herself, and there was still no reply—there wasn’t even a sense that the creature had heard her, let alone acknowledged her.

This was her chance. Drawing everything that she had into her will, she pictured the scene again, and this time the heat of her magic streamed blue light from her fingers.

The gray mass charged at her again, swinging its ghostly fists as she lifted her hands and willed the streaks of blue light to make the creature disappear. With a great roar and the stench of burning flesh it did, fading away to little more than remnants of smoke.

As her heart pounded in her chest, Aria scrambled backward, still crouched at the ready, the light of magic still streaming from her fingers.

“What the fuck just happened?”

Aria groaned. From behind her she heard the crash of the motel room door slamming open, and recognized Declan’s voice.

Casting a new spell had clearly broken her previous one. The men were awake, and they were not impressed.

“Aria.” Declan was at her side before she could blink, and his arms were around her, pulling her tightly. Her heart skipped a beat. This—this touching without lust—this made her want all kinds of things that she couldn’t have.

She batted his arms away, then crossed her own over her chest.

“Are you all right?”

Aria could see the wolf in Adam as he crouched, sniffing the air. He growled, the sound more animal than human, and a shiver skated over her skin.

“I’m fine.” Her magic was still giving off feeble, last-minute sparks from her fingers. She saw Declan glower at it, then at her, and she knew that she’d been caught.

“What the hell did you think you were doing?” Declan was nothing if not alpha, and his male pride was quite clearly wounded at the thought that she had run out on the pair of them.

“Leaving.” Her words were defensive.
Like you left me before
, her brain silently added, a knee-jerk reaction before she could stop it. From the way Declan’s pale brow furrowed, she knew that he’d made the connection.

“I don’t recognize the smell.” Clearly frustrated, Adam rose to his feet, scrubbing his strong hands over sleepy-looking eyes. “It stinks of dying flowers, and it’s not something I’ve scented before.”

Dying flowers
. Aria frowned, not sure what to think of that.

“It looked like a person, but...not.” Suddenly weary, she fisted her hands in her hair and tugged lightly. “I don’t think it was fully...I mean...it was like it was attacking on instinct. I don’t think it had any thoughts of its own.”

Declan caught her chin in his hand, and his vampire vision scrutinized the skin of her face, which was thankfully unmarked.

Her elbows, knees and forearms were another story.

“Why were you leaving?” Avoiding his stare, Aria looked over his shoulder to where Adam stood. Her eyes moved to the bite marks that marred his neck, and she felt as though her heart was being squeezed by a giant fist.

Aria shrugged off Declan’s touch, shaking like an angry bird, though she was more unnerved by the tender touch than angry. She didn’t answer, didn’t know how to express what she was feeling.

“I’m going back to Belladonna. I want to make sure that Lori’s okay.” Aria didn’t make it five steps when she found herself scooped off her feet and dangled ass over teakettle, her stomach pressed into Declan’s shoulder.

Rather than kick and scream, which she knew from experience that he’d enjoy, she growled, the sound full of the wrath of woman.

“Save it, sweetie.” Adam fell in beside them, protecting Aria’s exposed side as, together, the two men broke into a supernaturally fast run down the street, Aria bouncing over Declan’s shoulder the entire time.

“We told you why we were back here. We’ve had a taste of you now, and we’re sure as hell not letting go.”

Wrathfully, Aria stared at the fantastic view of Declan’s ass, which was at eye level. Declan had done what she couldn’t—had acknowledged the intensity of what had happened between the three of them.

But she wasn’t the only reason Declan was back. And until he told her more, she would hold her heart close.

* * *

“What the hell?” Aria heard her sister’s exclamation as she was carried upside down into the closed shop, accompanied by a werewolf and a vampire.

Still, Aria didn’t miss the quick flicker of glee that sparked in Lorelai’s eyes as she no doubt saw the sexual red energy threads binding the three.

“It’s a long story,” she began, glowering at Declan as he slid her down his body.

She tried to ignore the lust that ignited as she felt the skin-to-skin contact.

“I’d love to hear this, too.” Adam crossed his arms, looking just as irritated as Declan, and Aria blinked in surprise.

She’d been so lonely, how on earth had she wound up with two pissed-off alpha males in her company? She was so not in the mood to deal with even one right at the moment. She was edgy and emotional, and she couldn’t quite quell the nausea from her race down the street at vampire speed.

“It’s a story I’m happy to share with my
sister
, after the two of you leave.” Aria pointed at the door, and neither man moved so much as a whisper. Frustrated, she cast a look at Lorelai, who was staring at Adam in disbelief.

“Do you really have to hog both of them?” Aria was darkly amused to see Adam shift uncomfortably beneath Lorelai’s frank perusal. “Obviously I’d never go after Declan, but this one? Hello.”

“Lori!” Her twin wasn’t often so frank, but then, these two were fine specimens of manhood.

“And I didn’t have a choice. They’re sort of...a package deal.”

Lori furrowed her brow

“Oh.” Understanding seemed to dawn, and Aria felt her cheeks flush scarlet under her twin’s frank perusal. “Well, that worked better than I had intended.”

Lorelai’s eyes widened as the words fell from her lips. Knowing her twin as she did, Aria narrowed her eyes, honing in on what her sister wasn’t saying.

“What did you do?” Her words were a whisper, but one she knew that the two men would pick up on.

Whatever it was, she knew that she did
not
want them to hear it.

“Could you two please go somewhere else?” She thought of the shadowy gray figure and felt her pulse speed up. She wanted them to go so that she could talk to her sister, but she was a little bit afraid of being left alone.

It seemed to be the story of her life.

She thought that they would refuse, but Declan instead inclined his head to one side, his version, she knew, of an enthusiastic nod.

“We’ll be right outside.” She only hoped that that was enough distance to put a damper on Declan’s vampire hearing.

As soon as the men left, she whirled on her sister, her finger pointing accusingly.

“I smell roses. I smell strawberries and jasmine. A lust spell, Lori? Am I really so scary that my own sister thinks I can’t get a date?” Anger trembled through her, as did disappointment. She would forgive Lorelai, she knew that already, because her sister never acted with anything but the best intentions.

But now she understood why the two men were so focused on her. They were being compelled by a spell. None of it was real.

Trying to fight through a crushing depression, she looked her sister square in the face. Lorelai was eyeing her warily.

“I only wanted to make you happy.”

Aria heaved a sigh and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“I know.” She was more disappointed than she wanted to be, knowing that the two men—especially Declan—weren’t acting of their own accord. “I’m pissed, but let’s talk about it later. “

“Why are you all scratched up?” Seeming grateful for the distraction, Lorelai reached out and ran tentative fingers over her sister’s cuts. The worst of them were still tacky with blood.

“Have you ever come across any mention of a gray, shadowlike creature in any of the books?” In the back room of the apothecary the twins kept all the volumes of their family’s history, the diaries, the
Books of Shadows
.

“What kind of gray shadow?” Lorelai had paled at the words, and Aria knew with a sinking sensation in her gut that she wasn’t going to like what she heard next.

“It looked like a person. But it was more of a mist...and it wasn’t sentient. I’m sure of it.” Aria resisted the urge to press her fingers to her temples as Lorelai uttered a curse.

“One of Gran’s diaries mentioned the exact same thing.” Lorelai tugged on the length of her ponytail, the golden curls springing back as soon as she released them. “I don’t remember which one, though. Let me look.”

“It’s from the spell, isn’t it?” They’d never been able to keep secrets from one another.

Lorelai shook her head stubbornly.

“It can’t be. We’ve both cast thousands of spells and nothing like this has ever happened.” Lorelai looked as though she might cry when she looked at the blood on Aria’s arm.

“I think it might be, Lori.” She couldn’t sugarcoat it, not even to save her sister’s feelings. Her intuition was telling her that this creature was cued into her specifically, and she had a sinking certainty that it was an unwitting result of the lust spell.

“Let me go look through Gran’s diaries.” Lorelai set her chin, as if she knew that her sister would argue. “If I made this mess, then I need to clean it up.”

“No.” Aria’s voice was firm, and she made sure that it was loud enough that Declan would be able to hear her outside. “I don’t want this thing anywhere near you.”

“It would be best for you to go upstairs, Lorelai.” Declan was in the room so quickly that Aria blinked, startled. Once upon a time she’d been used to the speed with which he moved, but it had been so long. “Go to bed. We’ll talk again in the morning.”

“Do you think she’ll be safe up there?” Aria asked.

Lorelai grumbled and insisted on at least dragging the box of Gran’s diaries out of the back room. She placed a stack of them on the counter for Aria and the men to flip through.

“We’ll be able to hear her.” They’d also be able to reach her in time, Aria knew, if anything happened. Or at least, Declan would—she didn’t know about Adam.

The werewolf entered the shop as Lorelai passed through the door to the stairwell which led upstairs to the apartment that the twins shared. He paused to lock the door behind him, and to draw the blinds over the glass.

In his hand he held a coffee cup from McDonald’s, the only fast food joint in the small town.

“I thought you might need a boost.” He handed the steaming cup to Aria. The heat seeped through the thin cardboard to singe her fingers.

She was floored by the thoughtfulness of the gesture.

The reserves that she had built over the years began to melt.

“Did Lorelai have any insight into your assailant?” Declan raised an eyebrow at her, and she squirmed under the intensity of his stare.

She wanted him again, damn it. She wanted them both, even though she’d just had them.

She couldn’t have them. They didn’t know what they were doing.

“She remembered a mention of something similar in one of my Gran’s old books.” Aria gestured nervously to the pile that Lorelai had left on the table. Aria recognized the look in Declan’s eyes.

He wanted her, too.

She didn’t know if she had the strength to resist him.

“Did she have any idea of why?” One look at Declan’s face as he crossed the small space between them told her that he already had a pretty good idea of the answer, and she wondered how much he had overheard with his vampire hearing.

She couldn’t, just couldn’t, admit that her twin had cast a spell to get her laid.

“It’s to do with a spell.” Aria kept her tone deliberately vague. She was distracted as Declan stalked the remaining distance between them, then lifted her onto the counter.

With one quick movement he’d unsnapped her jeans and his own and was pressing his cock against her entrance. She was already hot and wet, and all of her common sense fled as, without any warning, he seated himself inside of her.

“Declan!” Aria’s voice echoed off the walls of the shop as she clung to his shoulders and looked over his shoulder at Adam. After what had transpired between them, she knew it was ridiculous to feel embarrassed that the werewolf was watching.