Winter Howl (Sanctuary) (32 page)

Renee was completely naked now, the first time she had ever been naked with Jake, who was obviously also naked behind her. It made her skin break out into goose bumps—whether that was good or bad was anyone’s guess. It was certainly different, unexpected, and she was not used to things being unexpected. Except Grant, from whom the unexpected was expected. But her shapeshifters were not that way. At least, they never had been before.

Britt turned on the water and waited for it to get warm as she continued, “After we get out of this shower, you have a choice. You can give in to whatever we come up with to make up for the torture that you’ve put me through these last few days. Or you can walk away, and I’ll move into another room. We’ll leave whatever we were creating before behind.

“This isn’t an ultimatum,” Britt added. “Until now, all I’ve ever wanted was to be what you needed. That’s what I’ve devoted myself to for the last eighteen years. And now I’m feeling a little selfish. I need to know whether you’re committed to this or whether I’m just your afterthought. This time,
I’m
the one who needs reassurance. You need to make that decision, babe. I can only do so much. Especially when you smell like this.”

She tested the water, made a little adjustment to the temperature, then led Renee in. Britt positioned herself in front of Renee, and Jake stepped in behind her. It was a tight fit, but Britt and Jake seemed to know what they were doing. They found the shampoo and the soap and loofah. Jake threaded his large fingers through her hair, rubbing them against her scalp as the lather ran down her back between them, making his body slippery against hers. The sponge was rough against her skin as Britt soaped her up. Renee held onto Britt’s shoulders when the taller woman bent down to clean her legs, her stomach, working her way up and being painstakingly thorough, as if she refused to miss a single spot. Everywhere she smelt Grant, Britt scrubbed him away. The sponge scraped between her legs, but Renee was too turned on for it to matter. She was only glad that neither of them could see where Grant had left marks, although she supposed they would notice eventually.

Britt passed the sponge over her breasts, where it caught and tugged on her nipples, and she couldn’t help but cry out with both pain and the way it made her clit begin to pulse. She hadn’t known she could be aroused by the anger of her friends—of all the things to get her squirming. Her cry was what made Jake’s cock begin to twitch against her. Renee wondered what had taken it so long.

Britt’s mouth was near hers. Renee could feel her breath, cold on her wet cheeks. But Britt did not kiss her, just ran the sponge over Renee’s arms, palms, between her fingers, then turned her around so that she could do Renee’s back. Jake seemed so much taller as Renee rested her cheek against his chest. In the darkness, it was so much easier to get close to him, when he wasn’t protesting or treating her like porcelain. She knew he loved her very much—first it had been like a brother to a sister or like a dog to its master, and now it was like a friend who could not help but be more than a friend. His body was unfamiliar to her, but she held it close anyway. He was not as hot as Grant, but his skin was warm, his heart beating beneath her ear. His hands were firm as he pressed them against her shoulders, digging his fingers gently into the muscle. His hardening erection made Renee a little anxious, but only because it was new. It was all new.

Except for Britt, who dropped the sponge and slid slick hands up the front of Renee’s thighs, slipping between Renee and Jake until Britt was stroking both of them, her breasts pressed up against Renee’s back. But she still would not kiss Renee as the showerhead rained down on them, slowly washing the soap and scent from their bodies and down the drain. They stayed in there like that until the hot water began to cool down.

Britt shut off the water, and Jake reached for one of the towels. They did not dry off completely, just enough that they would not drip too much as Britt and Jake led Renee into the bedroom. Water from her hair trickled down her back, like cold fingers. She shivered.

Renee was on her back on Britt’s bed before she knew it. Her heart leapt to her throat, though, when Jake pulled her arm to the side, where he tied her to one bed post with a piece of nylon cord. It was rough, but not chafing. Britt did the same to her right arm. Britt trailed her nails down Renee’s leg, and Renee thought the two of them were going to bind her ankles as well—she might have really protested if they had tried that, because she needed to move, needed to have
some
kind of out. To have her legs spread, her entire body at the mercy of anyone, even her friends…

She was already at a disadvantage. Several disadvantages, in fact. She did not need to have everything taken away from her.

She could see a little bit more now. The light from the living room made it through the loft curtains, and Jake and Britt were moving figures of dove-grey skin. Jake watched from the foot of the bed as Britt stroked Renee’s legs with her fingertips. Renee felt her weight shift as he sat down, his hand encircling her ankle. But his presence was soon less of a concern for her as Britt bent down to take Renee’s big toe into her mouth, sucking lightly and swirling her tongue around the tip. Renee’s light arousal spiked into something a little more fervid. Her breath caught, and Britt moved on to the next toe, running her teeth over the oddly sensitive nerves, then moving to lave the in-step, rubbing the arch with her knuckles. Renee’s clit throbbed and tingled with every stroke.

Following Britt’s initiative, Jake bent down to do the same. Renee bit her lip as she received similar but somehow completely different stimulation from both Britt and Jake. And they were only at her ankles now, their tongues tracing her veins until their hands found her calves. Britt nipped lightly, pulling at the skin and sucking with the most obscene noises before withdrawing into an almost chaste kiss. She more than made up for Renee’s silence with deliberate slurping and sucking sounds, deliberate moans, deliberate movements to make the mattress creak. She was a writhing and undulating ivory ghost, and just watching her was enough to make Renee want to squirm. Jake used his lips to feel the outline of her kneecap, tickling the crease behind her knee with his tongue, making her leg jerk involuntarily, but he still held her ankle firmly.

Now they were at her thighs, taking their sweet time, as though every inch of her skin were covered with a thin layer of fine, dark chocolate. When their mouths found the scratches on the insides and backs of her thighs, Renee hissed. They didn’t sting anymore, although the healing skin itched a little. It was more that she did not want them to see what Grant had done, what she had been perfectly happy to let him do. She did not want them to get the wrong idea…or to look at her as though she had somehow disappointed them. But she couldn’t cover herself up, although she reflexively pulled her wrists against the rope.

Britt and Jake traced their tongues over the rough lines where Grant’s claws and nails had torn the flesh. There was a pause. Jake pulled away, and his breath was cold where he had licked her. The tip of Britt’s tongue stayed against her, sliding over each slightly raised hill of healing flesh. She seemed to be counting. Renee tried not to count with her—she wondered if the wounds tasted salty or bitter.

“He didn’t…?” Jake began.

“He did,” Britt answered him before Renee could. “But she didn’t mind, did she.” It was not a question, but perhaps the tone in Britt’s voice was not as bitter as it could have been. “No, my dear, we already know she likes things rough. But let’s leave him out of it. I don’t want to even smell his name.”

She bit the top of Renee’s inner thigh hard, and Renee cried out at the sting. But it was close to where she was aroused, and she was not surprised that the warmth after the pain only made things better. Air swirled against her wetness as Britt breathed in.

“See,” Britt murmured. “She likes it. She’d beg for it if that was what I wanted to give her. Or what she wanted me to give her. But for now…”

Jake’s mouth was on Renee’s leg again, though he seemed a little hesitant. Renee thought that Britt had guided him down again.

But although she could feel their breath against her, they paused when they reached her folds, the open lips of her cunt. Britt only licked at the crease at the top of her leg before she took Jake’s mouth and kissed him. Their chins rubbed against the top of Renee’s mound. Britt was still making those noises, and Renee could almost see the details of their faces after growing used to the darkness.

Slowly, Britt laid their heads against Renee’s stomach. Their wet hair tickled and tangled against her as they kept kissing each other. Only their hands remained on her, stroking the length of her legs as though stroking each other’s bodies. And sometimes, they did touch each other, breaking away from her altogether, but always coming back to her. Renee could feel Jake’s erection hard and high on the side of her leg, rubbing lightly. She pulled against the restraints, but not too hard. All she could do was wait until Britt was ready. All she could do was lie there with her cunt clenching in the cold air, waiting for something that Britt was not going to give her yet.

Renee felt Jake’s leaking pre-cum on her leg before he and Britt broke apart. Their tongues dipped into her navel in a swirl of hot, wet velvet flesh. It was so sudden that Renee gasped, her hips canting up into nothing. Jake groaned, biting lightly at the thin skin and tugging. It was as though his groan went straight to the bottom of her spine, spreading in warm pleasure between her legs.

They continued to move their tongues up her body, along the lines of her ribs until they reached the undersides of her breasts. Britt began to circle the skin around the areola. She slid her hand up Renee’s leg and her stomach until it cupped the underside of her breast, lifting it so that the hardening nipple pointed to the ceiling. Renee whimpered as Britt bypassed her softly aching nipple entirely, but Jake had no intention of ignoring her. He took the tip into his mouth, sucking it hard before loosening his lips to taste the entire nipple. Renee’s head fell back against the pillow. She did not care if he could feel the scabs there on the edge of the areola, or whether Britt did not approve. The cold air between her legs only accentuated how much she wanted something—anything—there to satisfy the urge that she would have thought had been quenched over the last week.

Britt moved on, licking up Renee’s sternum to dip into the hollow of her throat before following the line of her collarbone, teeth testing the length of the bone. Jake released her breast reluctantly and took Britt’s lead up Renee’s bound arms, licking underneath in the oddly sensitive and arousing place, to her elbow, to her wrist where her pulse thrummed. She could feel it there, feel her heart in her hands as they tasted her palms, then took her fingers in their mouths the way they had her toes.

Renee watched Jake watching her as he slid his mouth up and down her forefinger. She thought of how Grant had said something about wanting to put Jake in his place, show his dominance. Renee had a vivid image of Jake fellating Grant—he would never do it, but the image was explosive. A minor tremor rocked her body with arousal. Her fingers clenched in reflex.

“You smell like us now,” Britt whispered in her ear, pulling Jake down from Renee’s hand to lie next to Renee on the bed. “I couldn’t stand the smell of him all over you. It’s like walking into the barn on a hot day. And you’d been with him for a week, rubbing that body all over him, letting him mark you and do all sorts of nasty things to you. I almost worried that the smell had reached all the way to the bone. And I was even more worried that you were lost to me. I was worried that you wouldn’t come back, that you would have let him change you and you’d leave us behind. That you’d leave
me
behind.

“But you came back.” The words hummed through the skin of Renee’s throat. Britt’s mouth found bruises where Grant had bitten, and she knew where Renee was still tender when Renee winced. “You came back.”

Britt guided Jake to Renee’s lips, and although Renee had kissed him before, it somehow seemed new again. Unlike Britt, who knew what Renee could and could not take, and unlike Grant, who didn’t care, Jake was still hesitant, soft. The slight stubble on his chin brushed against her lower lip as he took a shallow breath before bending down again. His chest was broad and his body stretched even beyond her feet. He seemed indeterminably large to her—he could cover her like a great, warm, smooth blanket. As he tentatively touched his tongue to hers, she wondered what his cock would feel like inside her.

Lying between the two of them, here and now with their combined scent all over her, the darkness making everything seem unreal, all the time since she’d last seen them…she felt free. Her body was completely separate from her mind, although her body still gave her pleasure. And, free from her body, her mind was free from all anxiety. This was so much different than the way that Grant had taken away her fear. Here, she was simply separate.

Jake pulled away, breathing heavily, and Britt took over without the hesitation Jake had shown. She consumed Renee’s mouth until Britt was the only thing that Renee could taste, smell, see, think of. The weight of her breasts against Renee’s was beautiful, as was the slow rub of her nipples on Renee’s skin as she moved. Renee had not forgotten how much she’d missed sex with Britt, but it had grown fuzzy in her memory. In real skin, real time, it was still amazing. More than ever, Renee wanted the use of her hands, and she whined when she could not wrap her arms around Britt and pull her closer.

At the sound, Britt pushed herself up and settled herself between Renee’s spread legs. She gripped Renee’s thighs firmly, holding them still, and looked at Jake. “Fuck me,” Britt ordered.