Dedication

Aisling Weaver

Dedication

Aisling Weaver

Published by Republica Press at Smashwords

www.republicapress.com

All rights reserved.

Copyright 2010 by Aisling Weaver

No part of this e-book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including emailing, printing, photocopying, or faxing without prior written permission from Republica Press

Cover Art: Aisling Weaver

To B & N. You know why.

To M…because you never will, and that’s okay.

To Ruby Kiddell for reasons enough to fill a book.

And last, but never least, to my readers. You’re the reason I write.

Chapter 1

Palimpsest

I had looked forward to this weekend for weeks, not my first with Elizabeth, merely the next in the succession of our passion, but time with her was cherished; relished. The emptiness of the house surprised me, though the note on the door asked for patience and promised reward for it. My evening passed with a growing sense of anticipation. The longer it went the more certain I grew of what state Elizabeth would be in when she arrived. She had known I would be coming, had known I would be spending the night. And still she tarried, still I waited, alone. The hours passed, I made a light dinner, sipped at some wine and finally retreated to her bedroom. I dozed, waiting in her bed, waiting to warm her, curl with her to sleep, at least. My eyes opened in the dark as I heard the soft whisper of clothes sliding to the floor, the pad of bare feet. I could smell her before she pulled the covers back; sweet sweat and sex. Arousal chased my spine like a caressing finger and I took a deeper breath.

She’d been with him.

Elizabeth moved with care, sliding under the sheet, her flesh, warm but still cooler than mine, touching me at arm, hip, thigh. I watched as she lay back, hands on her soft stomach and smiled, sated, at the ceiling. My clit pulsed. I knew, since I had imagined it often enough, voyeur that I am, how he fucked her. Hard and rough and deep, owning from the inside out, leaving marks on her, in her. Every nerve on my body shivered awake and I rolled into her, wanting to absorb that sated, pleased contentment.

Her arm lifted and I slid into place, thigh skating over hers, belly to her hip, breast to her ribs. I inhaled again, tasting her on the back of my tongue, her and him. My fingers, drawn, metal shavings to her magnetic being, danced over her skin in the softest of touches. Wind whistled in the eaves and abruptly we were cast in the silver of moonlight. My breath caught and I acted without thinking. My lips touched, a flutter of butterfly wings, each small bruise, his fingerprints, on her breasts. She gasped and shifted. In the moonlight, the dark splotched scattered like mottled shadows over her skin and I rose to my knees, lost in the pursuit of each one, chasing their outlines with my soft tongue.

My fingers fluttered up and down her curves; sensitive fingertips reading her skin, deciphering the Braille of his claim left there. My tongue found and counted the indents of his teeth left on her shoulder then the matching ring left on Elizabeth’s hip. Her fingers, threaded in my hair, twitched and flexed against my scalp, the bare whispers of caresses drawing soft sounds from her throat.

So close to her center, to his final claim, I could smell them both and my mouth watered. Not a word spoken yet and the near silence continued, broken only by gasps and sighs that betrayed mutual arousal. My lips danced down the crease of her hip and she opened with the barest of urging from my fingertips. There, too, on her thighs, her hips, were the darkening marks of his passion, imprints of his tight grip remaining, dark shadows of his hard fucking left on her inner thighs.

I kissed, touched, outlined every one. Her hips jerked, a touch, when I brought my lips close and inhaled her scent. That delicious, exquisite aroma that intoxicated me now underscored, threaded through with something saltier, muskier. My tongue brushed against her, soft as a feather, and her thighs parted, lips opening to deliver the first word, a hissed ‘yessss.’

The tip of my tongue drew through Elizabeth’s slick juices and I groaned. I traced the contours of her swollen labia, sucked softly at her tender outer lips, drawing shuddering gasps. Each stroke, lap, caress delivered with the softest of intent still drew sharp gasps from her mouth, her nerve endings raw and sensitive. Over and over I drew my tongue through her, pulling her flavor into my mouth to savor in complete sensual and voyeuristic bliss. When I finally sought her tender clit, her fingers tightened in silent command, her breathing ragged. I swirled my tongue round and round, tasting, curling it to her, following the Morse code of her fingers on my scalp and the language of her hips, eager to draw out one last orgasm.

My own clit pulsed and twitched in time with her hips and I slid a free hand beneath me, sliding my fingers against it, bracing so I could rock my hips onto my own touch in time with hers. I was so beyond aroused I groaned hard around her clit and she surged up into my mouth, bucking onto my tongue. My free hand followed her thigh up, fingers slicking and sliding into her, earning another hiss of encouragement and a tightening of her grip. My world contracted; senses narrowed to the contact of fingers and tongue and clit. We climbed orgasm’s ladder together, her pleasure pulling mine until I paced her, hips rocking, frantic, urgent, needy.

I came, moaning against her, into her, fingers thrusting hard against my clit and into her cunt, driving Elizabeth the last distance, shattering both of us into exquisite shared bliss. She marked me, cum slicking down my chin, flooding me, nails raking my scalp, our bodies exchanging pleasure. My mouth softened, stroked the last shudders from her body. Her hands urged me up, pulling my mouth to hers, and I moaned as she cleaned her own cum from my lips and chin. Aftershocks traced my spine, cunt still quaking at the intensity, when she tugged my cum-slicked hand from herself with a groan and turned the same attention on it. Another shared kiss and I tasted the difference, tasted him in her mouth, knew my fingers had found the depths where he’d spent himself.

We curled together like sated kittens, sharing soft, languid kisses, before drifting, finally, to sleep.

Chapter 2

Anointing

It was an accidental confluence, an unintentional meeting that set it all in motion. The day dawned bright and sunny but storm clouds sat on the horizon, pregnant with the promise of a wicked storm. I didn’t want to go to work, didn’t feel like dealing with the drama rampant in the place.

So I called off.

I sat for a long time gazing out the window, watching those marching, billowing thunderheads. I finished my coffee, pondering what to do with my unexpected day of freedom. My email chimed and I glanced at the coffee table. “Naughty girl,” said the email’s subject line and my cunt pulsed in reaction. That was where I wanted to be. The blank body of the message told me Elizabeth was merely tweaking me, but I sat, nibbling on my lip for a moment.

I wanted to see her.

My body still wore shadows of her passion, seven red streaks down my back just now fading, a bitemark on my nape slowly losing its distinct shape.

It didn’t take long before my thoughts had me following the roads that would lead me to her, watching the clock on the dash, plotting my route and a lunch time surprise.

The four-hour drive passed in alternating waves of arousal and anticipation. I drove in a state of liquid want, my thighs slick with desire, clit pulsing, craving nothing more than her taste on my lips, my tongue. My craving coiled and slithered inside me; a hot, wanton snake.

Another car crouched in her drive. I parked alongside, met my own dilated, hungry gaze in the rear view mirror and took in my high color, my tousled hair. I looked like I had already been fucked.

I didn’t know what to make of the other vehicle. It wasn’t hers, but then perhaps she had one on loan, her car in the shop? My brain fumbled through our conversations over the last week and drew a blank. My senses hummed; a live wire; shimmering and latent with energy. The stone path crunched under foot, the ocean breeze licked at my flushed skin, my skirt flowed and danced against my thighs, my nipples pointed, taut and ready. The stormclouds hung low overhead, a tempest near to breaking.

The door swung open before I could reach for the hidden key. “You must be Gwen.”

* * * *

They say great minds think alike; in this instance I thought perhaps it should be “lustful minds.” Connor leaned, hipshod, against the back of the couch, taking my measure. I would have thought finding him there would have doused my mood, my desire. But, somehow, knowing we both had bent our minds to having Elizabeth for lunch merely ratcheted my hunger still higher. I didn’t know what would happen when she arrived. He wasn’t quite what I expected.

He intoxicated her, I knew, with his dark, feral desires. She loved the way he fucked her, took her, owned her; just as I loved the way she did the same to me. But I wasn’t expecting his clear, intense gaze nor his powerful, lean presence. I pointedly mimicked him, letting my eyes roam, ignoring the warm shiver that traced my spine when his gaze lingered on my nipples, clearly outlined through the thin cotton of my shirt.

His voice interrupted my perusal. “It seems we are of the same mind today.” I licked my lips and met his disconcertingly direct gaze with a nod.

“I do believe so.” My voice had a breathy quality to it that made me blush. My mind couldn’t help wandering, thinking, remembering; I know what he tastes like. Can imagine how he likes to take, plunge, fuck, his desire left for any to read on Elizabeth’s skin…his claim inside and out…

His lips curved into a knowing smile. I realized, abruptly, that he knew. Knew what I did, what I loved, what I couldn’t get enough of. Knew I craved to write my own desire on her skin over his, turn her flesh into a testament of passion. I swallowed hard around the knot of awareness, jumping when I heard the low thud of a car door. Connor moved into my body space, close enough I could smell him, and captured my attention with one gentle finger under my chin.

“Follow my lead,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. I nodded and he pointed to a spot just inside the door, crossing to wait for her entry.

The door swung open. “Connor? Gwen?” I could hear the twist of curiosity and uncertainty in her voice. He reached for her, pulled her in, pushed her back with his body, using her to close the door. Her breath caught in the instance before his mouth captured hers and they kissed. It was one of those kisses that crawls up your spine when you see it; one that shared the intensity of passion, the familiarity of lovers, the hunger and promise of desire. If I had been hot before, I was molten now. Her eyes blinked open, dazed, when he lifted his head and looked at me, twitching it towards her.

I shivered and stepped into his place, pressing into her and kissing her with all my pent up hunger. Elizabeth gasped into my mouth, her fingers sank into my hair. I felt him close again, a large warm hand pressing to my back, holding me in place, his breath teasing against my cheek as he ducked to her ear.

“How does it feel, Liz, knowing we both set our minds to having you for lunch?” She groaned into my mouth, her fingers tightening. “Do you like that? Knowing I showed up here hard for you, needing to fuck you, that she arrived flushed, wet and wanting? Oh yes, you should have seen your Gwen with her parted lips and widened eyes when I opened the door.”

It was my turn to groan and he pushed me harder into her as Elizabeth’s thigh rode up between mine. He growled, a low, hungry noise that vibrated through me and she echoed it, a lighter note that lit my hunger on fire. My fingers tugged at her clothes, pushing past blouse and bra, slacks and panties to find her smooth silken skin. I sank, in increments, down her body, mouth and hands hungry and urgent, peripherally aware of the sounds of their passion as they kissed. Elizabeth leaned against his chest, thighs spreading in absolute willingness, his palms overflowing with her gorgeous breasts, her head tilted back against his shoulder, baring her neck for his teeth. He wrapped around her from behind and I shivered when our eyes met, my mouth hovering a breath away from her cunt, waiting to devour her.

“Do you want her tongue, or my cock?” he rasped, fingertips digging into her flesh, his hips rocking into her from behind. Connor didn’t wait for an answer. Somehow we flowed down and back, ending with her pinning me to the floor, straddling one thigh, her knee parting mine. He knelt behind her, our hands flowing together over Elizabeth’s body. I wished, briefly, that I could be watching this, watching her pinned between us, on the floor, just inside the door; her naked and writhing, he and I with garments shoved out of immediate interference.

But then I couldn’t feel it.

I captured her eyes, holding her face in my hands, devoured her expression as Connor filled her with his thick cock. Her lips parted in a throaty moan and I felt, down the length of my body, her reaction to it; a sinuous, rippling shiver. My hand traveled down her stomach, seeking her slick heat, and I captured her needy groan when I found her clit and my fingers began a practiced dance of pleasure. She arched over me, losing herself to pleasure, backing into Connor, onto him, meeting his thrusts, taking him deeper. I followed her body, mouth seeking her neck, her nipples, anything to add to her pleasure, to push her further and farther.

It was as if this was not our first time together, as if we were practiced at this, at pleasing her. Connor’s eyes slid from Elizabeth’s profile to my face and back, expression taking on that tight expectation of release, watching us, trying to drive us all together. I could feel the tremors building in her and slid my free hand down my body to my own cunt, wanting to come with her, with them.

She felt me, felt the back of my hand on her soft stomach, met my eyes and shifted, sliding her hand between us, snaking it over the back of my hand and into my slick heat. I cried out, arching up and heard a feral growl rip from Connor’s throat. I couldn’t think, couldn’t focus on anything beyond the perfect meshing of our bodies and pleasures.

Elizabeth pulled us over the edge, her orgasm rumbling up like a great geyser, vibrating through all of us. Her hips thrust back onto him, demanding, her voice lifting, taking us with her. She fucked into me as rough as she took him into her and I exploded, pressing fingers to both of our clits in synchronous need, screaming into skin, quaking. His bass roar and deep thrust reached through her into me, his final thrust sinking so deep into her he pinned my fingers in place against her cunt, tipping her finally over the edge.

We all shook, taken by each other to some new level of pleasure, shared, fucked, fucking, filling and filled. Elizabeth’s skin slid against mine, slick with our sweat, my cunt soaked with my juices and hers. She kissed me, once, soft, feeling the trembling of my lips; twisted, still sandwiched between our panting bodies and kissed Connor, murmuring into his mouth. He rocked against her, into her, setting off a rippling domino effect that ended inside me and I whimpered.

As heartbeats and breathing slowed, we untangled; Connor puling back to sit on his heels, Elizabeth doing the same, leaving me spread, skin cooling rapidly at the loss of her skin. She pulled her fingers from me, smiling knowingly at my whimper, swiped them through the puddle she’d left on me, mixing us, the three of us, together. With a smoldering look she reached, touched two slick, sex coated fingers to my lips and drew a line down my body to my cunt, bisecting me. “Mine,” she whispered. I nodded, lips parted, breathless. Connor smiled darkly when she turned to him and repeated the motion, drawing a line of cum, our cum, blended, down his body, ending with a grip on his cock. “Mine,” he growled, thrusting into her hand, leaning in to kiss her with his annointed lips. She purred into his mouth, murmuring an assent.

He pulled back, hips still rocking into her fist, expression dark and passion fierce. “Do you have to go back to work?”

Elizabeth met his gaze for a moment and I sat up, sliding my hands up her back, over her hips. She turned her smoldering gaze on me and my gut coiled with hunger. “They’ll make due without me,” she said, voice rich with desire. “I’m needed elsewhere, today.”

Chapter 3

Consecrate

Tangled. We were naught but a tangle of limbs, sated, humming with the aftershocks of our last shared orgasms. Elizabeth wrapped around me, an arm under my neck, leg tossed over mine, knee pressed to my mound. Connor twined around her, a thigh between hers, shin pressed along the length of mine, arm draped over her hip and my belly.

It was dark; the storm that had raged robbing us of electricity, the candles we lit long extinguished. I had no concept of what time it was; nor did I care. Rain still pattered against the window panes; calmer, a soothing sound that matched the quiet synchronicity of our breathing. I felt a small chuckle ripple through her body and turned my head, pressing lips to her temple. Her cheek flexed against me in a smile.

“What are you laughing at?” Connor’s voice, sleepy, was low and close, tucked into her shoulder.

“What an unexpected turn of events,” she responded and her hands tugged at me, pulling me onto my side. My skin sang to life again, my thigh riding up over hers, and I ground slickly onto her smooth skin.

“I can hear how wet she is, you know,” he whispered and she chuckled again, this time low and sexy. I shivered.

“What do you think we should do about it?” A thrill shot through me at the tone of her voice, the low, burring hunger that matched the hands pulling me closer.

“I think we should make her come again.”

I groaned. My cunt was already sore, tender even, nerve endings beyond sensitive, but I couldn’t think of arguing, of begging for a reprieve.

Her lips found mine in the dark, tongue teased me open, delved into taste and explore. We tasted the same, she and I, a combination of flavors, the three of us mixed and shared, licked and sucked from each other’s cunts and fingers and mouths. I felt them shift, him into her into me, accepted her gasp into my mouth, tasted the pleasure there; heard her own slickness and knew he’d slid into her, filled her, again.

Our kiss deepened, intensified, and Connor reached, pulling my thigh over his, opening me for her, holding me tight. “Fill her,” he growled and she gasped. I wondered if his teeth had found her neck, again. Every time I traced one of his marks he made another one; I thrilled to the thought, knew she did too.

Elizabeth’s fingers found their way between us, sliding between sticky stomachs and over my mound. She plunged fingers and tongue into me in sync, fucking me, claiming me, even as Connor thrust into her from behind. I cried out at the penetration, the sharp burst of scraped nerves quickly melting into exquisite pleasure, my muscles stretching for her, hips tilting. They wrapped around me, her arm curling me closer, his arms over and under both of us, enclosing us, binding us together. Somehow we always ended up like this, rippling into and through, matching tempo and pleasure, Connor taking Elizabeth taking me.

Her hips rocked her fingers into me, fucking, and I gasped, tilting into her, wanting more, wishing I could pull her inside me, come wrapped around her. My lips delivered words, what words I didn’t know, and Connor rumbled a sound somewhere near a growl.

“Elizabeth.” He stopped, seated deep, and I shuddered when his fingers flexed into my thigh. Connor pulled out with groan underscored with the sucking, slick sound of her cunt. “I saw a strap-on in your toy box.”

Her growl ripped through me and she moved so quick I was left gasping and shivering, muscles twitching where her fingers had been. I could see him, a dim shadow, kneeling on the bed beside me; see her, hear her, rummaging in that bottom drawer of her nightstand where countless sensual goodies hid. My breath rasped loud in the room, my heartbeat drowning out every other sound. The bed dipped and a hot shudder poured down my spine when her hands urged me onto my back.

“Perfect,” she whispered, her lips close to mine again, the cool head of her strap-on, her cock, skating up my inner thigh. I whimpered. I knew what she could do to me with it, knew intimately its girth, length, how deep she could drive into me.

Her mouth captured mine, hands wrapped around my wrists, pinning me down. I lurched against her, instinctive resistance, even as my thighs widened and my hips tilted in wanton acceptance. My back pulled into a desperate bow when the head pressed inside, stretching inch by inch around it, around her, moaning into her kiss, struggling against her grip, wanting to cling to her.

“Fuck, I have to see this.” Connor’s voice reached us, ragged with lust, and a match flared across the room. He relit candles, working around the room until our bodies, mine spread, hers sinking into me, glowed in the bath of warm light. His harsh whisper of “Jesus” preceded his return to her bed.

Elizabeth sank the last of her cock into me, my hips rocking up to take it, my eyes glazing, for a moment, as she pressed against my clit. “Don’t you come yet, my Gwen,” she purred, and I felt her shift, her thighs widening, spreading me still further. Her fingers bit into my wrists as she arched up, and over her shoulder I watched Connor close his eyes, sinking into her once again.

Her mouth gaped when he bottomed out and she sank against me, brow pressed to mine, trembling. I could feel her imminent orgasm, feel how intensely she was experiencing both of us, trapped between us in this way. We hung, motionless, him over her over me, reeling ourselves back from the edge, both of them commanding, “Not yet” in a low chant, him to her, her to me.

I didn’t know if I would be able to obey.

At last our breathing calmed, my trembling subsided, and she moved. With a slick slide she pulled from me, pushing back into him and returned with a thrust that found the center of me and made me cry out. Connor draped himself over her, reaching, his long body a perfect fit, his hands closing over hers, doubling the grip on my wrists, pinning both of us in place. My knees drew up, opening in surrender. Perfect, the last word I could think as they found their rhythm. Elizabeth pulled from me to push onto him, his stroke harder, deeper, finished at the bottom of her thrust, taking her deeper into my hungry cunt.

I couldn’t move, pinned there, spread there, a cunt for her taking, for their taking. The slow, sensual fuck escalated; undulations deepening, quickening, until they crashed together and into me with feral ferocity. His hands tightened, squeezing her fingers around my wrists, drawing a hiss from her, a whimper from me, pain blooming, rushing through me, twisted and tied with the plowing of my cunt, sparking blossoms of colors across my vision. My muscles started to flutter and her mouth descended, teeth catching my lips in the instance before her tongue dove into my mouth, tasting my surrender, feeding on my moans.

Connor sank his teeth into her shoulder, again. “Come on her, come on me,” he said, his voice harsh and hard, matching the thrusts he drove into her that ended somewhere inside me. She cried out and her eyes opened, snaring mine with dark blue stormy hunger.

“Come for me,” she commanded and my body exploded, clamping tight, surging up, heels digging into the bed for purchase as she drove into me. My ears rang with their combined roars of arrival and I felt, deep inside, his hilting into her, sheathing his and her cocks. My body convulsed, fighting against their combined grip, against the bondage of their fingers and bodies, wanting to wrap around, envelope with legs and arms as well as cunt. They rocked together, urging the last of his seed into her, forcing the last of my orgasm from me, and I quaked with the intensity of it, teetering at the edge of awareness, of consciousness.

The aftershocks rolled through me; her tremors singing through her cock into my cunt, rolling up my spine, delivering whimpers and gasps from my lips. My wrists remained where they’d pressed them when he unwrapped his long fingers, rising, stroking his hands down her spine, over her ass and hips. She shifted, pulling back, her thick shaft sliding, sending a shockwave of sensation through my cunt; my breath caught in a gasp.

Her fingers touched my cheek, brought my glazed eyes to hers. She traced the line of my lips, kissed me with exquisite gentleness. “Perfect, Gwen,” she whispered. My lips trembled with overload and she pulled from me, sinking back against Connor, onto him. He groaned and buried his face into her neck.

“You both were perfect,” she said, reaching up to clasp the back of his neck, turning to kiss him. He sank his teeth into her instead, making her gasp and buck back onto his cock. I shivered at the look on her face and pulled myself to my knees, rising to press against her. Connor met my eyes, feral and possessive, his teeth digging into her skin further, her fingers finding my wrist and squeezing, awakening the tender flesh once more. Her cock jutted, bumping into my belly and I felt a fresh wave of cum warm my tender cunt.

She let out a low needy moan when he freed her flesh and my cheek brushed his as I leaned in to trace the fresh teeth marks with my tongue. Her hand flew to my shoulder, nails digging in and I shivered, anticipating the four, perfect crescents.

Connor still rocked into her, each nudge skidding her still slick cock against my belly. She moaned and a hot waterfall of desire rolled down my spine. My fingers found the buckles of the harness and loosed them with deft movements. Elizabeth jumped when I pulled it free, eyes seeking mine.

“It’s time we fucked you,” I whispered, settling the cock into place, buckling it, meeting Connor’s eager, darkened gaze over her shoulder. He smiled, sharp and dark, and pulled her down onto him.

“You always wanted to be full, right, my Liz?”

Chapter 4

Sanctify

Her expression flowed from wanton surrender to molten desire and back, lips curving into a slight smile. My stomach coiled in anticipation. Elizabeth’s eyes never waved as she lifted herself from Connor’s still hard cock, though her lips parted in a sharp gasp. Her palm impacted my shoulder and I tilted backwards, landing on the bed, on my back, with a soft exhale. She prowled up my legs and Connor and I shared a groan when she slithered her tongue around the cock waiting for her.

“Mmm.” Her smile deepened and a soft cry erupted from my lips when she shoved my thighs wide and took a vicious swipe at my clit. My hips bucked up, twisted, both trying to escape and seek her mouth. “Delicious,” she said, arms and legs on either side of my body, moving up to straddle me.

Elizabeth brought her mouth to mine and I groaned, eagerly, willingly, sucking my own flavor from her lips. Her hands traced the curves of me, her pelvis pinned the hard length of the strap-on against my stomach. She drew back, leaving me panting, breathless and met my eyes with an intense look; after a moment’s scrutiny she reached for the nightstand, offering a small bottle of lube to me. I gasped, surprised, and she smiled. My thoughts spun for a moment, searching for purchase on the idea, on the thought that it was going to be me buried in her tight ass; Connor brought me back, touching my shoulder, urging me up so he could slide a couple of pillows behind me, propping me against the headboard.

“Trust me, you’ll want those,” he murmured and slid from the bed, backing up with the clear intention of having the best view.

Elizabeth turned, kneeling, facing away from me and I felt a repeat of the hot wave of desire that had urged me to take the strap-on from her. I sat up, let my hands roam over the full swell of her hips and ass. I adored every inch of her, found every curve delicious—but her ass is divine. I slicked my fingers with lube and sought the tight rosebud I would tease open. A low needy sound rumbled through her and Elizabeth pushed herself back onto my fingers. I groaned as she gripped my fingers, flexing around me. There would be little preparation needed, her lovely tunnel still stretched from Connor’s earlier deep fucking.

The cock, my cock, slid through my hand with ease, combination of my cum and the lube coating it. I tugged at my lover’s hip and she followed my fingers, lowering herself onto the stiff shaft. The head eased in, pressing, opening her, urging low moans, urgent whispers of ‘Fuck!’ from her throat. She worked herself onto me, shoving her hips down, stretching herself open. My hands roamed with a will of their own; dragging nails down her back, stroking her hips, reaching around to palm her breasts.

We both moaned when she settled back onto me the last bit. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the thick cock that had just plunged my cunt; thick and generous; buried so deep inside her. My body shook with tremors, my hands drawing her back, craving more contact. Elizabeth settled against me, back to my breasts, a hand reaching up to thread through my hair as my mouth settled against her neck, sucking, nipping. I spread my legs, bracing us, and she tilted her head back against my shoulder. I looked down the length of her body, the sight of her spread making my clit pulse.

A low growl drew my attention up. Connor stood at the foot of the bed, watching, face dark with feral passion. She trembled at the sound and I, taunting, almost, drew my hands down her body, sliding both of them between her spread thighs, urging her wider. She moaned and lifted her gaze to his.

“God, you’re so wet,” I whispered, sliding the fingers of one hand then the other through her, over and over, swirling them around her clit. “How much of that is you, how much is him, I wonder,” I mused, feeling her breath catch, her body jerk with each touch, each caress. They both heard me, both reacted; she groaned, thighs widening; he surged onto the bed, cock rigid and rampant. He moved with animalistic efficiency, forcing her thighs apart still further and thrusting into her with a movement so powerful and deep he drove both Elizabeth and I into the bed. His mouth descended on hers, near vicious, lips meeting with a distinct sound of impact. Her body reacted instinctively and I steadied her, hands on her hips, lips pressing kisses to the skin behind her ear. He groaned into her mouth; his body trembled so fiercely I felt it through her.

His tension evaporated as quickly as it exploded, their kiss shifting, softening into something tender. Elizabeth melted between us, one leg hooking over his hip, accepting him deeper, her hands cupping his face as their lips played together.

We lingered there, locked into her body, Elizabeth locked between us, unmoving. My lips and teeth worked up and down her neck and shoulder, drawing low moans as they kissed. When he lifted his head, he moved inside her for the first time, eyes locking with mine. It was odd, this language we spoke, silent yet powerful, of how to love her together. We both tilted into her, together, and she arched in willing surrender, head dropping over my shoulder, one hand digging into his shoulder, the other into my hip. He settled closer, deeper, our faces inches apart, and we began to rock. It was spontaneous music; Elizabeth our instrument. Each whimper, moan, ragged exhale sang through me. She lifted her head, pressed a kiss to my temple, another to his. He leaned in to kiss me, lips soft, a whisper of contact, little more than an an exchange of breath and shared promise, purpose.

Her chest jerked in a gasp and he pulled back, pressing his brow to hers, back bowing, starting a deep, slow, sensual fuck, my hips matching his rhythm, hands moving, finding places that made her gasp and writhe. She twisted between us, lost to the thorough fucking, our bodies sliding together slickly, covered in sweat and cum. Salty beads dripped from his brow as he struggled to hold back, our eyes meeting, gauging her pleasure, determined to take her further, farther, more completely than ever before. His thrusts drove her down onto me, deep, delving plows of his cock into her cunt that I could hear, that spilled her wetness onto my cunt, driving me insane. My teeth caught her ear as I slid my fingers down her stomach, seeking her clit, swirling, circling just the way I knew she loved it, matching our tempo, matching the intense deep reaming of her cunt.

His eyes met mine one last time, a last check, and we set her loose, thrusting harder into her, deep intense filling, driving her to buck between us, my hands holding her, guiding her. She drove all of us that last step over the edge, her clenching muscles pulling a roar from Connor, the pounding of the strap-on against my mound loosing my orgasm, both of us wrapped around her, holding her as she clenched us, our cries of pleasure rising, spiraling, pulling the last of our breaths from our lungs.

We collapsed in a heap, chests heaving. Connor laid his head against her shoulder, Elizabeth leaned hers against his and reached back to twine fingers into my hair.

I nuzzled my face into her neck, my tongue snaking out to taste her skin, earning a husky laugh. “No tickling,” she warned hoarsely. Connor chuckled, a hint of devilish intent to it, and she slapped him lightly on the shoulder. Our breathing slowed and I think we all began to doze when a low buzz followed by a hum announced the return of electricity.

“Oh hell,” Elizabeth growled as her alarm clock started beeping.

Connor slapped the top of it, pulled open the nightstand drawer and shoved the offending electronic inside. “There.”

“How will we know what time it is?” I asked, hiding a yawn in her shoulder.

“Are you that concerned?” she asked, tilting her head, bringing out lips together in a slow, tingle-inspiring kiss. I hummed with pleasure, my fingers, pinned to her by Connor’s stomach, twitching against her clit.

She hissed against my lips and I chuckled softly. “No, not really.”

“Good. Let’s get some sleep then.”

Chapter 5

Vigil

Sleep claimed all of us, at last, overcoming desire and lust with sated fatigue. We slept in a tangle of limbs, his arms around her, hers around me, until morning’s light nudged me to awareness. It was an intimate way to wake; so at odds with how she and I usually slept. Her body spooned mine, breath brushing against my neck in soft feathery exhales. He spooned behind her; I knew this because his leg tangled through hers, capturing mine. Their fingers had twined in their sleep and rested against my stomach.

I barely suppressed a shiver of awareness.

It took a concerted effort to untangle myself, moving with slow caution, easing from their embrace in inches. They sighed and shifted together, around each other, when at last I stood beside the bed. My skin shimmered with desire, stirring my nipples to peaks; I wrapped my arms around myself. They needed sleep; I needed to take a step back.

With a light blanket wrapped around my shoulders I tucked myself into her reading chair near the window and sat watch over them. Clouds still hung low outside; a perfect reason to stay inside, stay in bed. The cool light bathed them, revealing aspects their expressive faces hid when awake. Silver peppered his dark hair; something I’d not noticed when his vibrant eyes were there to catch and distract. Morning stubble darkened his jaw and lip; I couldn’t help thinking it would leave her skin roughened soon. He looked peaceful, wrapped around her; I wondered, idly, what complication in his life kept him from her. I wondered, too, if I could just ask, later. I wasn’t sure what dynamic he and I would find in the light of a new day. My eyes traveled from him to her, my heart stumbling, as always. Asleep I could almost believe us the same age with her wise eyes hidden. She smiled in her sleep, corners of her mouth tucking, and I smiled in response.

The overcast day stole my ability to gauge the passage of time; the alarm clock stuffed in the nightstand, still blinking, when the power returned just as we were falling asleep. Still I let my gaze memorize their features, absorbed them. Chances were likely that this weekend would never happen again. I shifted carefully in the chair, tucking my legs under me. My body ached with the remnants of our tripled passion. I traced a finger around my right wrist, examining the bruises there, my skin darkened in livid stripes. More than once they had clasped my wrists together, her hands under his, each time deepening the marks. I found my mind turning, early, to my return home, to my lover there. How would she react to this? I would tell her, that I knew. Honesty, openness, transparency were the price I paid for the freedom to be here.

Elizabeth shifted in her sleep, body stretching, reaching. I watched the fine muscles of her face, absorbed her waking in increments, tension returning, her brows twitching; I knew her sharp mind worked on overdrive, pulling together sensory input, analyzing; I’d watched her sleep, wake, often enough. When her eyes opened, clear blue and aware, they focused on me. I smiled, pulled a knee up to my chest and propped my chin on it.

She held me with her gaze, weighing what she read in my expression. Elizabeth never failed to stun me with what she divined in my face. Connor shifted behind her, pulling her tightly against him, hips rocking against hers in my peripheral vision. Her lips parted in a soft gasp, eyes unfocusing, briefly, before zeroing in on me once again. A brow arched in silent question and I wrapped my other arm snuggly around my knee and settled more comfortably. Elizabeth gave me a tender look, pursed her lips at me in a kiss and let her eyes drift shut. Connor’s gaze replaced hers, meeting mine from behind her shoulder as he tasted the length of her neck with soft kisses, drawing low sighs. He measured me, much the same way he had yesterday, but with a gaze that simmered with the shared intimacy of the night prior. My pulse quickened as he slid his hand along the sinuous curve of her waist and hip and I licked my lips. At his arched brow I shook my head, sinking deeper into the chair, rooting myself there.

I wanted to watch, to witness, to see how they were together.

Connor blinked in acknowledgment and turned his attention from me. I felt their awareness of my presence melt from their minds as he kissed her. Their lips played together in sensual, languid greeting; so exquisite, so evocative I could read the language they spoke. Her touch said, ’I’ve missed you,’ as she cupped his face, rolling onto her back. ’I know,’ said his hands when he slid between between her thighs, settling against her. Elizabeth pulled her calf up the back of his leg, a slow opening, a blossoming. His hips twitched at the invitation and I nearly sighed with them as he teased her further open, sinking into her.

She closed around him, legs and arms, pulling him deeper, gasping his name. “I’m here,” he whispered, rocking in that way spoke less of thrusting than of deep, owning penetration. My skin shimmered in the intensity of it, lips parted, eyes dilated to take every detail in, imprint it on my mind, remember every second. Brow to brow they held nearly immobile, the only betrayal of the depths of their embrace the sheen of sweat on his back and the fine, tiny tremors that traced their bodies. Their lips, so close they could kiss, delivered words, soft words, hard words, words that shared their intense passion for each other.

I devoured them; each shiver of pleasure that traced his spine, each gasp that escaped her lips; each word they exchanged. “Fill me, Connor,” she whispered when they both panted from the anaerobic exertion, their bodies trembling on the edge. He cupped a hand behind her knee, unwrapped her from him, hooked it over his elbow, spreading her wide and revealing their slick joining to me. Her fingers dug into his back as he began to slide in and out, her breath revealing her desperate nearness to orgasm, so close it would take little to tip her over. His arms shook, flanks trembled like a winded horse, and I held my breath as he tilted up into her, growling, “Come for me, Liz.”

Her cry ripped from her and Connor sank deep, hilting himself, hips jerking, coming with a hoarse shout with her. I shook at the intensity, trembling in the circle of my own arms, refusing to blink, to breathe, as they quaked together.

It was the most beautiful, heartstopping vision I’d ever witnessed.

They clung to each other; Connor buried his face in her neck, whispering so soft I couldn’t divine the words. I smiled and unfolded from my chair, slipping from them unseen and unheard, leaving them to bathe in their afterglow and turning my attention to nourishment.

* * * *

They found me in the kitchen some time later; Connor half dressed in a pair of flannel pajama pants that sat low on his hips and Elizabeth in the matching top, two buttons holding it closed, the length of her legs and swell of her hips bared. Her arms closed around me, one at my waist, other at my shoulders, as I slid a pan of scones into the oven; I leaned back against her willingly. “You’ll tell me what that was about, my Gwen?” she whispered into my hair, tightening her grip, lips grazing my temple. I nodded and she turned me in her arms. Her eyes examined my face, looking for tension, I knew, and she smiled when my lips curved in easy response. She captured my lips in a lazy kiss that coiled through me and settled into a deep throb inside my cunt. “Sit,” she instructed after freeing me, nudging me towards the table where Connor sprawled, a languid lion.

“I can do—”

She flashed a look past me. “Connor?”

I didn’t have enough time to worry at her tone when a pair of hands grabbed me by the waist and settled me on his lap. I struggled instinctively; he slapped the curve of my ass, huge palm leaving a glowing heat in the wake of the sharp crack.

“Sit still,” he growled. I swallowed and froze, eyes wide until Elizabeth started to chuckle and he joined her. I glowered at him over my shoulder, rubbing the curve of my ass and he winked at me. “You weren’t listening,” he teased.

“I was to, I just wasn’t—” Elizabeth interrupted me this time, silencing my excuse with her lips. I shivered and leaned into her, grateful, suddenly, as Connor balanced me, his hands still at my waist.

She lifted her head and I met her eyes, breathless. “You were being obstinate,” she said, touching a finger to my lips. My tongue snaked out to taste the tip, lips closed over it, sucking lightly. Her expression grew sultry.

A ringing phone interrupted; my cell phone. Elizabeth grumbled and grabbed it, wincing as she looked at the screen.

“You want me to take this?” Her expression had softened to one of concern and my stomach lurched; that meant it was Emma. She didn’t wait, merely flipped the phone open.

“Hello?” Elizabeth closed the distance between us, glancing past me to Conner who sat up, seating me more securely on him and letting her slip closer. My eyes remained glued to her face.

“Yes, hello Emma….Mm-hmm, she’s here….Oh? Well I’m sure it just slipped her mind….well, what time?….Eight?….I’ll make sure she leaves in time then. Okay, goodbye, Emma.”

She closed the phone with a snap and tossed it on the table. “Her mother’s birthday party is tonight?”

I frowned. “It was supposed to be next weekend.” Elizabeth shrugged one shoulder and twined her fingers into my hair. Connor’s arm slid around my waist and they pinned me between them.

“Apparently not anymore, my Gwen. So we’d best get you something to eat, so Connor and I can take you in the shower.”

My brain stumbled, split between the phone call and her announcement. She touched my jaw, drawing my gaze back to hers and smiled in reassurance. I hated it when they collided, Emma and Elizabeth, my past and my future, trapped in the strangest sort of limbo.

“It’s okay, darling,” she whispered. I shivered and Connor rubbed his thumb soothingly against my arm. The timer chimed and she smiled, turning to the oven.

“We’ve three hours. Lets make the best of them, my dears.”

Chapter 6

Invocation

We ate scones fresh from the oven; exhaling steam from the hot interior, inhaling to cool our mouths. Elizabeth caught my hand as I reached for marmalade, sliding my sleeve up.  ”Oh my,” she exhaled, sliding a gentle finger over the bruised skin, sending a shiver down my spine. Connor took my other hand; I trembled when he fit his large hand around my wrist, fingers lapping his thumb.

“Good thing I can wear long sleeves.” My voice came out sparse, hushed, and Elizabeth lifted my hand, kissing my wrist.

“A good idea,” she said, sharing a knowing glance with me. Emma would not like seeing such reminders. “Speaking of,” she continued, rising with a sultry smile, “I do believe we’ve a shower to attend to.”

They pulled me to my feet, a wrist captive to each, and my mouth went dry. There was premeditation in her gaze, a plan lingering in her smile; a hot shiver traced my spine. My brain scrambled, searching for thought, and Elizabeth shook her head at me. A hot slither of arousal coiled through my stomach and I followed without comment when she tugged me after her, Connor falling in step behind.

She stood me in the middle of her bathroom, pressing a finger to my lips when I tried to speak. “Hush, my Gwen,” she said softly, my spine tingling as it always did at the possessor. Connor’s hands dropped to my shoulders and my breath left me in a sharp exhale. Her fingers freed each button of my faded, well-worn denim, sneaking in to stroke the revealed skin, dancing against my nerve endings like the kiss of summer’s warm rain. When she reached the last one, his hands bunched in the fabric and pulled it down my shoulders, leaving me bared to both of their gazes. I trembled.

Elizabeth stepped into me, one hand unbuttoning her flannel top the other tangling in my hair. Some part of my mind heard the patter of water behind me as her lips caught mine in a languid kiss. I groaned and melted against her when she shrugged the shirt from her shoulders, letting it fall to the floor. Connor herded us into the shower, big warm palm radiating into the small of my back, guiding Elizabeth under the spray then me. The hot drops exploded against my skin and slicked our bodies, a sensual caress combined with her hot, exploring tongue. I wanted to drown in her. Her hands reached past me and I groaned into her mouth when Connor fit himself against my back, his flesh hot and hard. She pulled from my lips, nipped at the swollen curve of the lower, pushed against me, pinning me between them as their mouths met by my ear.

My head spun in confused arousal. “Now,” she whispered after they parted, capturing my ear in her sharp teeth, drawing a gasp,“relax, darling.” My spine hummed with tension as Connor stepped back and let her turn me in her arms. She pulled me back against her, leaned us against the wall of the shower, water raining down over my chest, dripping from my tight nipples, flowing in rivulets down my stomach. Her hands reached around, tracing me, outlining my curves and dips, ending with both her palms full of my breasts. She rolled my nipples between thumb and forefinger until my head fell back against her shoulder, my knees wobbling at the surge of arousal. “Just let go, Gwen, and enjoy…Connor is so very talented with his mouth.”

They both caught me as my knees buckled, her arm about my waist, his hands on my hips, kneeling already before me. His eyes caught mine through the fall of water and I swiped the hair plastered to his forehead back. “Open up for me, Gwen. It’s your turn for pleasure.”

Elizabeth’s mouth sucked the water from my neck, teeth raking against my skin and she growled against my skin. “Spread your thighs, darling,” she said, sliding her fingers down to the join of my hip and thigh, teasing them inward, urging. Connor leaned in, stumbled jaw rough against my tender skin, and swiped his tongue against me, rewarding me. My thighs spread wider still and Elizabeth moaned a sound of encouragement as I arched over her shoulder in surrender. His tongue twisted around my clit, making my hips jerk, pulling harsh gasps from my mouth.

“Good girl,” she whispered and I shook as she slid down, guiding my shoulders back to the warm showerwall. Her fingers slid into me from behind, finding my hot, tight, liquid center, pushing farther and farther until I pressed up on my toes, shuddering. Connor’s tongue slid around them, tasting where our flesh met.

They balanced me between them, fingers and tongue, hands holding me still, water cascading over me, slicking my hair to my face. I wanted to collapse, my legs shaking with the exertion of remaining upright. I dropped a hand to her shoulder, another to his crown and rode against them, finally letting go as Elizabeth fucked deep into me, as her own sounds of pleasure joined mine. I could feel Connor’s arm snaked between my legs, knew he was fucking her even as he tortured my needy clit with his talented tongue, pushing her as she pushed me, as I bucked into him.

Her mouth closed around my nipple, teeth seized it, tongue tortured it. She tugged it, held it, let it go with a snap, called to me, her voice low and ragged. “Come for me, Gwen!”

My head hit the wall so hard colors blossomed on the inside of my eyelids as my orgasm erupted in a shockwave from my clit. I screamed, voice breaking, knees giving way, heard Elizabeth’s release rise to twine with mine even as I sank to the shower floor. Pleasure rolled through my body, over my skin following the path of the water, narrowing and expanding in pulses around her fingers, against his tongue. They caught me, cradled me there in the artificial rain, Elizabeth across Conner’s lap, both of their arms around me. She whispered my name, touched my face, calling me back to her.

* * * *

Sometime later they stood me back in the middle of the bathroom, drying me me with soft towels against my protests. I winced when Connor squeezed the water from my hair and his fingers prodded the knot on the back of my head carefully. Elizabeth frowned, touched my chin. “Look at me,” she said firmly. My eyes had drifted and I focused on her, smiling when she traced my lower lip with a finger. “Hmm, well, we at least didn’t give you a concussion,” she teased. I laughed softly, mindful of the dull throb. She finally surrendered the towel to me and I gratefully turned my attention to drying her creamy skin, happy to turn the focus back on her. Connor met my eyes with a knowing smile when I glanced over her shoulder and flushed.

She arched a brow at me when I held her robe up, a matter of habit, and she laughed, padded past and into the bedroom beyond. Connor waved me ahead and followed, snapping a towel at my bare bottom, making me yelp. Without thought I turned and snapped mine back at him, the wet tail snaking out to bite the inside of his thigh. He grunted and I suddenly realized who I’d just snapped and backpedaled as he advanced. He lowered his head and pinned me with a dark glower, the corner of his sensual mouth betraying his true goal. Elizabeth’s arms closed about me from behind and I froze as her lips brushed against my neck.

“You’d be in trouble, darling, if you didn’t need to leave soon.”

Her words poured like cold water over my skin and I watched as Connor’s face reflected the same. I turned in her arms and sought her mouth with mine, hungry for her still, as always. She let me lose myself in her, mouth to mouth, breast to breast, hip to hip, until the need for breath forced us apart. I caught my lip in my teeth at her smoldering look and shivered, closing my eyes on the fervent desire to ignore the summons home, to just stay, immersed. Her fingers brushed my cheek, thumb teased my lip free, and she leaned in close. “I know.”

It took an act of sheer willpower to dress, to keep my eyes focused on nothing further than my hands could reach as they did the same. Leaving was always hard but this seemed harder still, as if something hung, unresolved. I packed the clothes from my drive out in my worn out backpack, retrieved my cell, and slid into my light coat. I had my keys in hand when Elizabeth pulled me back to her, wrapping her arms around me and kissing me until I whimpered into her mouth. “Just three weeks,” she whispered against my lips, reminding me, giving me that length of rope to hold onto that I could follow back to her.

Connor stepped up behind her and pulled us both to him in a hug, long, strong arms enfolding her and I in an embrace similar and yet so different from any so far. He kissed the top of my head and tickled his fingers against the nape of my neck. I pulled back and looked up at him, catching his brilliant eyes with mine. “Take care of her.” I felt her body jerk in response and ignored it, knowing he and I already spoke a different language. He nodded and leaned down, pressing his lips to my brow.

“Always,” he whispered against my skin. I shivered, swallowed and carefully extracted myself, pressing a hand to her side to keep her close to him. With my heart in my throat I hooked my bag over my shoulder and ducked out the door, refusing to look back until I reached my car. They waited in the door, his arms wrapped around her from behind, her hands flattened over his. I waved as I slid into my car, the seat warming to me slowly. They waved back and watched as I backed around their cars and pointed my car at the road. My eyes kept flickering to the rear view as I pulled down her drive, watching them watch me drive away.

My phone rang less than a mile down the road. “You will call when you get home.” Her voice sounded like I felt.

“Yes.” I couldn’t seem to manage more than a whisper.

“And call if Emma gives you any hassle.”

I swallowed, eyes sliding from the road to the marks on my wrist. “I will.”

Silence hung on the line for a stretch as I snaked along the narrow country lane that would deliver me to the highway. She hadn’t yet, but I’d never taken off unplanned like yesterday, nor had I ever come home so thoroughly marked. My clit pulsed at the memories and I trembled.

“Okay. Drive safe, my Gwen, and we’ll talk Tuesday night.” Our normal time, our weekly phone call while Emma attended one of her meetings.

“I will, and I can’t wait.”  I knew how my voice sounded; hushed, quiet, intent, my words whispered as a prayer, an invocation.

“Me either.”

She hung up and I snapped my phone closed, tossing it to the seat beside me. I slid a CD into the radio and turned it up, letting the deep bass and powerful melodies drown out my thoughts. I had enough time to think later.

Chapter 7

Confession

Four hours passed like eight. I pulled into my own drive at a touch past seven, my stomach coiling with nerves. A squeal greeted me as I rose from the car and I turned, smiling, to watch my four-year-old niece barrel out the door, legs and arms churning.

“Winnie!” she shrilled, pitching herself off the steps at me, trusting, as always, that I would catch her. She knocked the breath from me as I caught her and twirled her around.

“Hi there, poppet!”

She giggled as my fingers tickled her sides and wrapped her little arms around my neck. She, Sarah, was one of the many reasons I stayed.

“Aunt Em said you weren’t going to be here.”

I looked down into eyes as grey as my own and tweaked her pert nose, chasing the pout from her lips. “Ah, well, I wouldn’t miss your Nan’s birthday, sweetie.” I set her on her feet and she tugged me up the stairs by my fingers, the details of her day babbling forth. Emma waited for me in the hall.

“Will you take this to my room, poppet?” I handed my backpack to her and she clutched it, beaming as she rambled off on her task.

“Thank you for coming home.” Emma’s lips thinned with tension and I frowned stepping closer.

“What happened, Em?” Her face fell and she eliminated the space between us, thudding against me, arms twining around my waist. It was the first embrace we’d shared in months and my breath caught as I wrapped my arms around her shoulders.

“Jacob’s back.”

My spine stiffened.

“Please, Gwen. I can’t deal with him on my own.”

Jacob. Emma’s brother and Sarah’s father, who spent more time locked up away from society for his crimes than not, who loathed me and our relationship.

“Mum changed the party to celebrate.”

Jacob, the youngest child, the only son, who still twisted his mother about his tiny finger.

“Okay.” She exhaled and I leaned my head against hers, closed my eyes against the turmoil. “Let me go change and let Elizabeth know I’ve arrived, Em.”

She nodded and stepped back, reluctance clear on her face. Her dark chocolate gaze held mine for a moment as Sarah’s rapid footsteps approached.

“How is Beth?”

I swallowed and reached out to tuck a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. “I’ll tell you everything later.”

* * * *

Midnight had long passed by the time we sat down with a bottle of honey wine. The party was excruciating, dragging on and on, Jacob practicing his digs and jabs whenever his mother wasn’t near enough to hear. It was exhausting. Still neither of us would sleep without this ritual, this confession. Golden liquid rippled, a ribbon of sunlight, from the bottle into the glasses and I handed Emma hers with a wry smile.

“So what happened?” she asked softly, handing control of the reveal to me.

I sighed, swirled my wine and began to speak.

I told her everything. From my spur of the moment decision to go to the last hug. She absorbed it all, asked no questions, waited for me to finish, refilled our wine glasses half way through. We’d gotten good at this; I knew how much to tell her and what didn’t need to be shared. It was necessary.

“Did you like it?” she asked quietly, plucking at the fringe of her shawl.

“Yes.”

“Will it happen again?” Her eyes met mine this time and I held them unwavering.

“I don’t know. I think it’s likely.”

“Will you fuck him?” Her voice delivered the words in a low hush and I shivered, blushing. We both knew how long it had been since I’d been with a man; six years, when we were determined to start a family, before everything began to fall apart. It had been my only time, too.

“If she wants me to,” I swallowed, “yes, I will.”

Emma blinked at my answer and I stretched out to set my glass on the coffee table. Her eyes followed my arm and she gasped as my sleeve pulled up, revealing the dark purple bruising. “Jesus, Gwen,” she whispered, taking my hand, unbuttoning my shirt and rolling the sleeve back. It looked even worse than it had that morning, the clear impressions of fingers stark and livid.

“Em—” my words stuttered when she leaned down and kissed the edge of the bruising.

“It’s okay,” she whispered, eyes still focused on my skin, fingers as soft as her voice tracing the marks. “It’s just…she marks you more and more as hers every time, doesn’t she?” Emma didn’t wait for my answer. “I worried you wouldn’t make it back, that I’d have to come up with some story of where you were. I can’t exactly admit my wife’s off fucking another woman, can I?”

My heart tightened at the rawness of her words and she continued before I could interrupt.

“I know it was my idea. I know you need it. I know it’s more than sex. And I know we aren’t what we were, that my…illness has taken all of that away from us. I’m glad you have her, that she’ll be there to hold you together when…” her voice trailed off, leaving unsaid that inevitability we lived with, the elephant in the room.

In that split second I let myself see her frailty, how pale and thin she was, how faded she’d grown. Then I stuffed it away, locking that truth up tight.

Quality of life was what we lived for, now.

“And I’m here to hold you together.” I took her glass from her, set it on the table and pulled her to her feet. “Let’s get some sleep, my love.”

* * * *

Two weeks later…

“Tell Beth I said hi, okay?” Emma brushed her lips to mine, smiling into my eyes. We’d found an odd new balance since my impromptu visit to Elizabeth, since the night with her and Connor. It was nice to see her smile again.

“I will. See you later on, sweetheart.” I closed the door behind her, watched through the curtain as she backed out of the drive. I puttered around, tidying the kitchen from dinner and starting a load of laundry, finally letting myself dial Elizabeth’s number when the clock reached the top of the hour.

“Hello, darling.” Her voice, honeyed and warm, sent an immediate shiver of heat through my body. My mouth went dry and I had to lick my lips, searching for moisture, to reply.

“Hi there.” I laid back on the bed, dropped my head to my pillow. “Em said to say hi.” I heard the soft sound of surprise.

“Hmm. Coming full circle again, it seems. Give her a hug for me, my Gwen.”

I smiled, hearing my relief echoed in her voice. Emma and Elizabeth had attended school together, had shared a brief, hot affair, had carefully tended over the years a long distance friendship. When we reached that point of breaking, when I teetered at the edge, crumbling under the weight of responsibility and frustration, Emma had called Elizabeth, asked her to meet me, to consider a proposal, divining a need in me I hadn’t yet acknowledged. Elizabeth accepted.

That was a year past. Now both women knew the secrets of my psyche.

“I will be sure to do that.” A comfortable quiet settled and my smile deepened as I heard her stretch. “How was work?” I asked, curling onto my side. The days were finally piling up behind me higher than those ahead and in four I would be with her once more. I craved the upcoming time with her.

“Tiring.” I knew that would be the most I got for an answer. Elizabeth worked as a child advocate and her work often left her weary and mentally drained. “I have a question for you, darling.”

My eyes popped open and I stared out my bedroom window, watching the evening colors paint the sky. “Ask away.”

“There’s a chance Connor will be home this weekend.” She paused and I could almost see her twisting a strand of hair around a finger, her one tell when she’s not absolutely certain of my answer. It was a rare sight for me anymore. “Maybe for the whole weekend, but at the least Friday night.”

“And you’d like to know if he can join us again?” I finally completed her thought, blushing at the huskiness my voice acquired.

“Mmmm. Yes. I would. Would you enjoy that?” Hearing her voice turn molten at the thought reinforced my answer.

“I enjoy anything that gives you pleasure.” She exhaled in a soft chuckle that darkened my blush.

“You might need the assistance, anyways, my Gwen. I’ve seen neither of you since your visit.”

I could hear the need darken her voice and a thrill sang through me. I knew that he’d been away, sent to Hong Kong then on to Sydney the evening I returned. The thought of fucking her into exhaustion rushed to my cunt so fast I gasped.

“Ah, what are you doing, darling?”

“Just thinking.” I squeezed my thighs against the pulse of my clit; the pressure only intensified it.

“About?” I heard movement and my mind painted her lying back on her bed, naked, fingers wandering. My heartbeat doubled.

“Fucking you with Connor again,” I whispered. Somehow I couldn’t find any more voice than that. “Pinning you between us, filling you, finding that perfect spot again where you’re lost to us.”

Elizabeth made a noise that was half moan and half growl. “Fuck,” she muttered and I could tell by the stutter in her breath that she was touching herself. My fingers twitched, wishing for the same. “Lie on your back, Gwen. I’m going to fuck you this time.”

At her direction I stripped, lay bare atop my blankets, flushed skin glowing in the sunset. Last week I’d whispered to her as she stroked her clit, reminding her of my voracious tongue, my devoted mouth, my filling fingers, fucking her with my words until she came, voice breaking, breath catching, carrying me with her, her pleasure triggering my own, an orgasm that blossomed deep within and took me by surprise.

“Your fingers are mine, Gwen.” Her voice rippled through me, as much caress as her touch might have been. I shivered and my fingers twitched against the blanket, waiting. “My fingers trace the curves of your breasts, teasing, swirling around your nipples, urging them into points.” Gasping, my fingers followed her words, the slightest touch on my needy nerve endings making me groan. “I pinch and tug them, straddling your waist, pinning your hips to the bed.” A low keen rose from my throat and I swore I could feel her there, holding me down, that they were her fingers torturing my sensitive nipples. “You’re going to come for me, aren’t you, Gwen?”

“Yes yes yes,” I rasped, squirming already, my cunt slick and throbbing.

“My fingers drift down, find those slick curls I know are waiting.” I could hear her arousal and it tightened mine like a tuned string until each syllable she uttered stroked through me, my fingers acting as her fingers, plucking the harpstrings of my nerves. I wanted her, needed her, so badly I thought I would come at the first touch of my clit.

“Don’t you dare come yet,” Elizabeth growled. I whimpered. “Not yet, my Gwen. My fingers skip your needy clit, swirl into your hungry cunt, pressing inside, feeling your muscles clench.” My spine arched, the bow string of my arousal pulled me taut, and my lips formed soundless begging words.

“Wait,” she whispered and I heard her low moan, the distinct slick sound of her own cunt. “Filling, stretching, fucking deep, claiming you inside.” Her voice rose in cadence and my fingers drove into me in time, hips rocking, breath shattering, lost to her spell. “Now, Gwen! Come for me, on me!”

I tapped my clit twice and exploded, mouth stretching in a silent scream, hips lifting up off the bed, body touching only at shoulders and heels, fingers driving hard and fast into myself. Elizabeth’s orgasm erupted into the midst of mine and I rocked to it until we both subsided, inhaling in ragged gasps.

“Is it Friday yet?” I whispered into the calm that settled, earning a low, soft chuckle.

“Soon enough, darling, soon enough.”

Chapter 8

Veneration

The stars twinkled in an inky black sky when I pulled my car into Elizabeth’s drive. Work had kept me well past normal, a pipe burst in the bath at home and an accident on the freeway held me fast for an hour. The moon set while I wove my way along winding roads finally delivering me close to midnight. For a moment I leaned against my car, tilted my head back and let the vastness of the universe press down on me. I adored it when I could escape the light pollution of the city, could witness the true beauty of the night sky. It always seemed so close and yet so far, all encompassing and breathtaking.

“You should see it from the air.” Connor’s voice reached out to me from the shadows and I jumped, heart racing.

“God, Connor!” My hand pressed over my pounding chest and he chuckled.

“Sorry, thought you’d hear the door. Are you coming in? You’ve been out here for a while now.” I shook the fog from my head and retrieved my bag.

“Can you really see the stars up there?” He held the door for me, hand falling to the small of my back in a familiar gesture, turning me towards the bedroom.

“Mmmhmm,” he answered. “Above the clouds, no light pollution, little atmosphere, just you and the stars. It’s beautiful. Part of the reason I became a pilot, actually.” He followed me close enough his heat radiated into my back. I looked over my shoulder at him.

“You became a pilot so you could see the stars better?” I smiled and he tickled my sides, making me jump.

“No, I became a pilot because I couldn’t make it into space.” His eyes were serious above his smile and he pulled me to a halt in the doorway to Elizabeth’s bedroom, nodding past me. “But that’s okay. I’ve found there are more captivating, brightly burning entities on the ground.”

I turned to follow his gaze. My breath caught and I reached back, fingers closing around his wrist, holding on to him for balance. “Wow,” I whispered.

Her room glowed with the light of candles, sending the memory of my last night here, with them, shimmering through me. Elizabeth’s skin shone golden in the warm light, sprawled in the middle of her bed, a hand resting on her belly, the other tucked beneath her cheek.

Connor propped his chin on my shoulder and I leaned into him. “She makes me consider giving up flying,” he whispered. My stomach flipped in empathy, understanding her gravitational pull. “Shall we wake her together?” he murmured close to my ear. Desire coiled through me and I nodded in wordless agreement.

In silence we stripped, our moods matched in intensity. I could smell them in the air, the combination of her sweetness, his musk, knew that initial edge of keen longing had been eased. Connor eased onto the bed with her, laying along her right side, I stretched along the other. Elizabeth shifted in her sleep, a smile touching her lips. Together we enveloped her, hands sliding over her skin in worship, lips descending to taste the slope of her neck, contour of her collarbone, line of her jaw. She arched, a low moan of pleasure parting her lips and we each tasted a corner of her mouth. A tremor rippled through Elizabeth’s body and her hands reached to cup our heads, holding us close.

She turned, lips opening for Connor’s probing first, the motion baring her neck for me. My teeth nipped a trail down the graceful column, ending when her fingers urged me back to her. “You’re here,” she whispered in the breath before our mouths met and a hot liquid rush crashed through me. I gave up on breathing, concentrated on the touch of tongue and lips, the twist of her fingers in my hair, the grip she maintained, holding me fast even when my lungs began to beg for air. It was a perfect, exquisite drowning.

Together we worked hands and fingers, mouths and tongues, across her body, teasing her, pleasing her. I read the same desire, the same longing, the same missing in his expression as I felt inside. She was our Goddess and we were bent on worshiping her.

Connor urged her onto her side, to spoon back into him, when we parted long enough to gasp for air. He slid into her slowly, lips at her ear, voice a growl of desire and adoration.

“I never get enough of you,” he said, big hands reaching to pull me against her, pinning her between us. I hooked my knee inside hers, opened her for both him and my touch. Her head fell back against his shoulder at the penetration.

I wanted to taste every inch of her, lick and suck her skin, taste her kiss, her sweat, her essence. Her fingers remained in my hair as my mouth worked a thorough path of reverence across her skin. I skated the slope of her neck, tasted the edge of her collarbone, dipped into the hollow of her throat. With hands and mouth I marked the landscape of her breasts, teasing her nipples into rigid buttons that drew moans with each flick of my tongue. Her grip began to tighten as I slid down her belly, nuzzling the curves of her ribs, the soft swell below her navel, the perfect fullness of her hips. All the while Connor stroked with careful measure, just deep enough, just slow enough, that our pace held her enthralled to the pursuit of her pleasure.

His big hand pulled her wider when I settled, nuzzled, at the junction of her thighs. He met my gaze from behind her shoulder, face tight with his control, eyes smoldering. Elizabeth’s eyes flicked open in the pause before my lips touched her, looking down her body, taking in the promise of my proximity. “Yesss,” she hissed and pulled me against her. “Devour me, Gwen!”

A hot shiver poured down my spine; I brought my lips to her slick, ready flesh in a soft kiss that made her hips buck and Connor groan. My tongue slipped between her lips, following the contours up and around her ready, needy clit. “Oh fuck,” Elizabeth groaned, her hold on me tightening until my scalp sparked. I settled closer, hand resting on Connor’s inner thigh, following the flex of his body through it, riding my tongue against her, matching my caresses to his thrusts. I could taste him mixed with her, smell his lust, could feel her body stretch and pull at him just beyond the stroke of my tongue.

Elizabeth’s body began to shake, a growing tremble, a fight to hold still, to stay pinned between his cock and my mouth. Connor drove into her deeper, sinking his full length into her ready cunt. With a hand on each of them I felt them wind up, pulling closer, her fingers pulling me against her, wordless sounds urging, begging both of us for the last push.

“Come on us, Liz,” he growled in her ear and she bucked once against his hands, into my mouth, my teeth skating against her tender flesh, body set free, rocking, rippling with the force of her orgasm, soaking both of us in a flood of desire.

He fucked through her convulsing muscles, deep, owning plunges that pushed her into me, filling my mouth with her cunt. His leg tightened under my hand and he held himself deep, announcing his arrival, his spending, with a hoarse shout. He clutched her to him, face buried beyond my sight in against her shoulder and I smoothed my tongue over her, soothing the last tremors from her, the tip of my tongue skating the joining of their bodies, tasting their mingled flavor. Her hips jerked and she tugged at me. “Come here.” Her voice rippled with her pleasure and I willingly retraced my path back to her lips, groaning as she kissed me, sucking her own juices from my soaked lips. “Can I wake like that more often?” she teased, earning a chuckle from both Connor and I. Her fingers slipped from my hair and traced a languid line down my body, snaking between my breasts, swirling around my navel.

“Now, my Gwen,” she whispered, bringing her lips close to mine, tongue tracing the line of my lower lip, sending bolts of pleasure zinging to my clit. “It’s time you come for me.”

Her fingers settled onto my clit at the moment she spoke. My body erupted in wanton answer, orgasm rolling out in a shockwave that left me gasping, eyes watering from the intensity, muscles fluttering. I met her eyes in astonished bewilderment and she gave me a broad, charmed smile.

“Well, darling, that was unexpected, but absolutely delicious.” I blushed, the tips of my ears warming, and she pulled me to her for a soft, reassuring kiss. “I told you we’d get there,” she whispered against my lips and I shivered in memory of that promise. My blush deepened when Connor reached over her, tucking my hair behind my ear.

“That. Was. Damn. Exquisite.” A hush of awe shredded his voice to a sexy burr and I trembled again. Overwhelmed I burrowed into her, burying my head against the curve of her neck, pressed my lips to her pulse. Elizabeth wrapped me up in her arms and Connor wrapped both of us up in his longer reach. The exhaustion of the day dragged at me; I’d been awake since well before dawn. When I began to drift, I felt her press her lips to my brow, shifted when the bed dipped, hear Connor blow out the candles. A blanket settled over us and Connor’s arms returned. I could feel Elizabeth’s smile against my cheek, knew my own lips curved to match, and surrendered to sleep knowing tomorrow would be amazing.

Chapter 9

Catechumen

I woke wrapped around Elizabeth, my hand under hers on the flat of Connor’s stomach. She was awake, her body reacting to mine with a slow wiggle. I nuzzled my face into her neck, breathing her in, earning a soft chuckle. She nudged back into me and I rolled back, smiling as she followed me, urging me from bed. We made our way silently from the room, leaving Connor deep asleep, padding naked into the kitchen. Not for the first time I silently blessed Elizabeth’s old cottage with its AGA range and its gentle, constant warmth. She pulled me to her, stealing my breath with a hungry kiss, and I slid my arms around her waist for balance.

“I want to do something today, and would like your help, Gwen, if you would enjoy it.” Her eyes held mine, serious and searching.

“I’m always will—”

She pressed her lips to mine. “Shh. Don’t answer until I explain what I would like.” She examined my face, watching, as she explained her desire, her wish. Arousal coiled through me by the time she finished and she met my eyes, a smile tugging at her lips. Elizabeth chuckled softly, tracing the line of my jaw with a finger. “I do adore how clearly your desire shows on your face, my Gwen.” I blushed. “Shall we go wake Connor up, together?”

“Yes,” I answered, my cheeks darkening further at my husky voice. She smiled, eyes twinkling, and we returned to the man still sleeping soundly in Elizabeth’s bed.

* * * *

Connor had rolled onto his side while we talked, taking over the middle of the bed, an arm outstretched. Moving as Elizabeth’s mirror image I slid behind him. My belly fluttered with nerves and anticipation. She settled herself along his length, hip to hip, breasts pressed to his chest. I mimicked her, spooning against his back. Connor’s body glowed with heat; his arms closed automatically around Elizabeth, face nuzzling into the crook of her shoulder, hips twitching against the pressure of her body. He exhaled in his sleep when my body eased into place.

I didn’t realize I’d caught my lower lip in my teeth until she reached over him, sliding fingers into my hair, pulling my face to hers. Our bodies shifted, skin sliding, caressing him, and he stirred between us as she kissed my lip free of my teeth. Lost in the taste of her my nerves settled; my hand slid down the slope of his body, following the lines where their skin met, fingers mapping the differences. I’d never had a man for a lover; every part of this morning would be a learning experience.

“Oh god, don’t stop,” he whispered when she began to withdraw from me. She nipped the fullness of my lip and smiled as she turned her attention to him. She captured his mouth in a deep, hungry exploration, earning a low groan that rumbled through his back into me. I jumped when he slid a hand back to grasp my hip, pulling me more firmly against him as he pulled Elizabeth tighter.

I watched in fascination as they kissed, the same deep, owning kiss I’d witnessed before. I could feel it through my entire body, that he kissed with every inch of himself. She kissed the same way, and a part of me, that unresolved aspect I’d felt hanging for three weeks just let go. She was his. He was hers, just as much if not more so than I. And for the morning my hands, my mouth, my body, would adore him, treasure him, just as hers did. I pressed my lips to that sensitive skin just below his hairline. A tremor traced his spine and sent a thrill through me. He rumbled in a growl when my teeth skated down the side of his neck, not biting, but an almost sharp caress. Her hand dipped between their bodies and he arched from their kiss. My eyes met hers and she smiled. He rocked into her grasp, our lips leaving warm imprints over and over down his shoulder, opposite each other.

“Come here.” Her voice stroked my nerve endings and I leaned over him again. Connor twisted between us, broad shoulders pressing us apart briefly.

“You have to let me watch this time,” he said, voice hoarse with morning and arousal. She chuckled and we let him settle onto his back, rearranging to drape over him inside the curves of his arms. “Oh yes,” Connor groaned when we both slid a thigh over his, pinning him down.

Elizabeth pulled me back to her with a look. “Give me your hand,” she breathed against my lips. His breath caught, though whether it was at her instruction or the kiss she parted my lips with I knew not. Our hands met on his chest. Her fingers twined loosely through mine and guided my touch, our touch, over his chest. His muscles twitched, he sighed, face so close to ours as we tasted each other that his breath fanned against my cheek. Connor rested a hand tentatively against my lower back, fingers moving, I thought unconsciously, along the column of my spine. My nerves skittered, dancing like water on a hot pan.

Our fingers traced the line of his stomach down, pressing into a firmer touch; his stomach still jerked; ticklish spot. Elizabeth freed my fingers as our lips parted. “Touch him, my Gwen.” A hot flush of goosebumps raced the length of me, chased by his sharp exhale. I looked; her grip had already closed confidently around him, stroking his cock from root to tip in slow motion. I reached, let my fingers stroke the length tentatively; the heat of him chased my breath from me. Connor’s hips surged up off the bed, his fingers dug into the soft skin of my back and I jerked my hand away, eyes flying to hers then his.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered and she laughed, low and sexy.

“God don’t apologize,” he choked out and I realized the muscles of his stomach were taut. 

My touch returned and he exhaled. The silken skin of his cock fascinated me, so soft over the hardness of him. His body twitched, powerful thighs tensing, flexing in reaction. I felt Elizabeth shift on the bed and her lips brushed my temple. “Some other time we’ll torture him with our mouths, my Gwen,” Connor groaned, his cock twitching in my grasp, “but not now…” She slid her leg over his thighs and I shivered, her scent filling my nose. Elizabeth sank onto his cock with a slow, torturous slide; Connor’s fingers dug into me in unconscious response. Her head fell back, lips parting in a sigh of pleasure and I rose, straddling his stomach, bringing my lips to the column of her throat.

We ground together, rocked atop him, my slick desire marking his stomach, hers enveloping him. Elizabeth brought our mouths together in a deep, searing kiss, her fingers tracing the outline of my breast, waist, and hip before skating over the gentle curve of my belly and finding my clit. I moaned deep in my throat and my hips bucked, my breath catching, when Connor’s fingers teased along the back of my thigh, searching and finding the source of my juices, sliding inside me.

“Oh fuck,” I whispered against her lips, losing track of time, of whose body was whose. Connor’s body flexed beneath both of us, fucking his cock up into Elizabeth, his fingers into me.

“Slide back, my darling,” she whispered, eyes smoldering, the bright, hot blue of a flame’s heart, “Tease his lips with yours.”  The needy noise that came from my throat drew a sharp kiss from her and a hungry growl from Connor.

“Come here, Gwen,” he rasped, fingers slipping from me, his hands urging me to move.  I shook with arousal already, body trembling. She followed, lips still on mine, leaning forward, her change in angle drawing a hoarse groan from Connor, his exhalation teasing my flushed flesh in the moment before his tongue found me.  I cried out at the heat of his mouth on me, spine bowing, hips tilting to open wider, seeking more of his tongue, so different from Elizabeth’s, yet still so exquisite.  

“That’s my good girl,” she whispered against my cheek, her lips sliding in a caress as she rode him, stroking him as he stroked my clit.  ”Wait for me,” she ordered in a low voice, her breath catching with her own passion. The command alone pushed me to the edge and I teetered, tethered by her words, giving in to her desire, lips parting to beg wordlessly for release.  

She held us both in her thrall, Connor and I, his hips lifting up into her, seating deeply, striving for her release, my hips twitching against his tongue as he fucked the length into my slick, tight cunt. He’d heard, knew, that three words would release me and kept me on the edge, my need so urgent so close to explosion, I shook in their grasp.

“Come in me, Connor,” she called him to her over my shoulder, her teeth raking my flesh. His growl into my flesh sent sparks through me, blossoms of color lighting up the inside of my eyelids, my release held by her will, so close and yet unreachable. His hands slid from my hips to hers, pulling her down onto him, and I felt the energy unleash from him. “Now,” she gasped into my ear, her body shaking against mine, driven to her own orgasm by his hot release, “come for me!”

The release ripped through me, a tidal flood let loose at her command and I cried out into the curve of her shoulder. Our bodies rocked together, contracting around each other in the tight grasp of our shared pleasure. Connor thrust one last time into both of us, his hips lifting Elizabeth into me, his tongue sending me lurching into her, a final shudder of pleasure leaving me spent and gasping.

I curled over, boneless, head falling to rest on her thigh, breasts to Connor’s stomach, gasping for breath. Elizabeth draped over me, hand stroking my head, her other arm stretching beyond my hips. Connor’s chin grazed me as he kissed her fingers.

“I need to kiss both of you,” he whispered, hot breath on my clit sending a shiver up my body. They helped me rise, my muscles quivering as I forced them to action. Elizabeth pressed herself over him, still locked intimately together, sinking into a kiss that stole their breath and mine.

“Your lips taste good,” she said as I settled alongside them. Her fingers threaded into my hair, pulling me to her and she kissed me with lips that tasted of my own juices. My clit thumped in reaction and she guided us to him, pulling me into their kiss. His arm curled around my waist, her fingers clutched at my nape and I moaned into the three-way kiss. For an eternal moment nothing existed but their lips and tongues.

Chapter 10

Contemplation

I woke to the murmurs of lovemaking. We’d fallen asleep, again, after a morning and afternoon of immersion. My lashes lifted and I watched with my breath caught in my throat, my heartbeat stumbling. Connor’s left arm lay trapped beneath my body; his fingers twitched against my spine as they moved together. Elizabeth straddled him, her thigh pressed against my belly, hand planted well about my head. “Come, Liz,” Connor whispered, their lips a breath apart, brows together, locked in a close, intimate embrace. A flush of heat rushed down my spine; they were close, oh so close.

“Come with me.” Her voice trembled, betraying how near the edge she hung. Connor’s body flexed up into her, his palm flattened against my back, fingers pressing into my soft flesh. Elizabeth smothered his low groan in a kiss deep and hungry. Their bodies trembled together; I could feel their restraint, they’re attempt to be still.

“Come for me,” I whispered, voice hoarse with sleep and arousal. Their hungry gazes slid to me; Connor’s arm scooped me closer, pulled me against them. In the space of a breath their careful movements let loose and Connor thrust up to meet Elizabeth’s hips, coming with a deep growl, his release sending her cascading. My body shimmered with arousal, pulsed with surprise at their powerful reaction, their exquisite beauty together.

She slumped boneless atop him, gasping for air. “Nice nap, my Gwen?” she asked softly, reaching out to smooth my hair from my face. I nodded and turned to graze her palm with my lips. “Good.” Elizabeth leaned over and kissed me, a slow brush of her lips against mine; did the same to Connor. “I’m going to go get some coffee going. Stay here.” The instruction was leveled at both of us with a firm tone and I laughed and dropped my head back to Connor’s shoulder.

“And when she returns it will be time for you to come for her, Gwen.” His words caught me by surprise and Elizabeth purred in response as she crawled from bed. But my body’s reaction took all three of our breaths away as an orgasm blossomed immediately on the heels of his statement, startling a cry from me. Elizabeth prowled around the bed, hungry gaze taking in my trembling frame with a smile.

“Oh, my Gwen,” she whispered, leaning down to pull me to her for a deep, sensual kiss. “That. Was. Exquisite.” Connor chuckled and Elizabeth flashed a smile at him before turning away.

We both watched her walk from the room.

“Why is she making coffee?” I asked after I managed to pull my mind back from the edge, realizing the darkness beyond the windows.

Connor reached out and lifted his cell. “I have to leave soon.”

“Oh. How long this time?” I turned to my other side at his urging and he spooned behind me. My hands sandwiched his for a moment, idly noting the difference in size.

“A while, I think,” he murmured.

I sighed. “Elizabeth’s not going to like that.”

His chuckle rumbled against my back and I traced the lines of his palm with a fingertip. “You never call her anything different, do you?” I rolled back, twisting so I could meet his eyes. “I call her Liz, even Emma calls her Beth, but I’ve never heard you call her anything but Elizabeth.”

“No, actually, I don’t.” My brows tucked together and he smiled, reaching to massage the pucker away. “It just doesn’t feel right to call her anything else.”

“Take care of her for me,” he said in a low tone, his expression suddenly serious.

“Always, Connor,” I promised. “Though I’m not sure how much good I’ll do from four hours away.”

“Tell me, if she called you and said she needed you, would you come?” His expression was so intent I shivered.

“Of course I would.”

“That’s the important part. You…,” Connor paused and held my eyes with that same gaze that weighed me the first time we met. “You feel the same for her that I do. I can see that.”

He said nothing more, just held my eyes for a moment longer before pressing his lips to mine in a soft kiss. A shiver ran through me and I felt a flutter of relief as Elizabeth’s voice reached out to us from the kitchen.

* * * *

The sun’s final explosion of color, that last vibrant reaching of orange and red, began its reluctant fade into the purples and inky blues of night; a backdrop of breathtaking beauty mostly lost on us. Connor’s departure left Elizabeth’s house feeling oddly empty, despite our own presences and we soon surrendered to a need to leave as well. Now we sat on a bluff overlooking the ocean watching the day end, night creeping across the sky behind and above us; the world pulling a dark blanket over us. A bottle of wine sat beside us, glasses dangled from loose fingers, and Elizabeth leaned back into me with a sigh.

“Three weeks,” she murmured, not for the first time, and I twined a strand of her hair around one finger absently. It was rare that his job took him away for quite that long, in fact two weeks was the longest I could remember her ever relaying to me.

“It’s doable,” I whispered against the soft skin of her neck. “Trust me, I know.”

She chuckled, more a soft exhale of air than sound and squeezed my fingers twined with hers. “I know, I know,” she sighed.

We sat on that cusp, that edge of the world and let night fall until the stars picked themselves out against the velvet blackness. At some point we lay back on our blanket and curled together, staring up into the endlessness above. It was something we did often, surrendering to the absolute certainty that we belonged to something so vast and unfathomable, especially when life swirled into chaos. This wasn’t chaos, though, this was vacuum. I could feel her reluctance to return to her home, knew it would still echo with his presence, that his scent would still linger.

My mind turned Connor’s words from the morning over and over until Elizabeth nuzzled into the soft skin below my ear and my body shivered awake with alacrity. Her fingers danced down my spine, teased open my jeans, slid into to find my heat. I shivered as she swirled gentle, beckoning circles around my sensitive nub. “Come for me, Gwen,” she whispered and a sensual flood rippled through me, startling a gasp from my lips. She purred into my skin, pulling me, closer, fitting us together. No human heartbeat for hundreds of yards in any direction; we could do anything we wished here. I sank into her kiss, against her, groaning as her tongue slid against mine.

Elizabeth smelled of jasmine and ginger, of my scent and hers and Connor’s. I could smell us on her and surrendered to the desire to taste the cocktail we made, the three of us. In increments I revealed her flesh to the night air, my mouth tasting each square inch of pale, near luminescent skin. Her flesh seemed to gather starlight and reflect it back to me; she glowed, pale and glorious against the dark field of stars, against the dark shadow of our blanket. When I knelt back to shed my clothes, my breath caught in my throat.

“You look like an angel,” I whispered, my voice a match to the soft rush of the waves on the sandy beach at the foot of the bluff.

Elizabeth laughed, soft and husky, and pulled me back down to her. “There’s no halo here, my Gwen.” Her skin slid against mine, velvety soft and smooth, warm curves that fit me like puzzle pieces. I couldn’t do anything but answer the siren call of her desire.

Chapter 11

Reclamation

“….No, no, you were right to call, really, stop apologizing.”

Emma’s voice reached me as I closed the front door. I could smell our lunch, the rich aroma of stew filling the house, and followed it and her voice into the kitchen. Her eyes sought mine and she held her hand out to me in silent entreaty.

“….I know how you feel about him, honey, you’ve alot of history there.”

My brow crinkled in confusion as I slid my hand into hers and let her curl against me, her head against my shoulder, phone to her ear, as the conversation continued. She plucked at the heavy cabling of my sweater as she listened and I slid my hand up and down her back soothingly.

“….Okay, okay, just put me on hold, dear, I’ll hang on a bit.” Emma waited a moment before tucking the handset against her chest and looking up into my eyes. Her expression perplexed me and her lips quirked in a slight smile.

“What’s wrong, Em?” I whispered, leaning down to press my lips to hers. She chuckled, leaning into the kiss for a moment, making my heart trip, before withdrawing; she smiled wryly.

“I never thought I’d be doing this.” She untangled our limbs and gave me a soft shove. “Go pack.” She held up the phone. “It’s Beth and she needs you. She hasn’t said as much, but she’s just gotten home from two nights spent with Ian.”

My heart dropped and I know my face hardened when Emma brushed her fingers against my cheek. “Yes. So, go, my love, and pack. I’ll get a bowl of stew ready for you before you go.”

It took me all of five minutes to pack an overnight bag. I tried not to worry.

Ian. The lover from Elizabeth’s past, the man she had danced a long, drawn-out courtship with years and years ago. Ian; who wasn’t Connor, who was an interloper, who tried to consume Elizabeth whenever their orbits tangled.

With a simmering sense of unease, I made my way back to the kitchen and caught a far off look in Emma’s eyes, the phone resting on the counter.

“Em?”

My wife blinked and smiled at me. “She’s going to call back. Come eat, darling.” She had two bowls of stew and slices of crusty bread waiting for us; it reassured me that she was eating, too. Her appetite was far from regular anymore, and I would have hesitated leaving if she wasn’t eating. I still was hesitant to leave, starkly, painfully, away of the purple smudges beneath her eyes and her pale skin.

“Are you sure, Emma?” I asked, my voice quiet.

Her dark eyes met mine and she smiled, gaze warm with affection. She pulled me to sit next to her and I scooted my chair close enough that she could settle in the curve of my arm.

“I’m sure, sweetheart.” She lifted my spoon with a teasing grin and I opened for it. “How’d I do?” I closed my eyes as the perfect flavors of the stew filled my senses. “I’m thinking that’s good, hmm?” I cracked an eye at her and nodded, reaching to retrieve my utensil.

Knowing she’d resist discussion until the meal was finished, I tucked into my lunch, taking my time and relishing it. Leaving right away or leaving after lunch would still deliver me at the same time and save me the hassle of sitting in rush hour traffic.

Forty-five minutes later I nuzzled my lips against Emma’s temple, earning a soft purr in response. “Time to go,” I whispered, a pained smile curving my lips as her grip on me tightened. We lay in a lazy tangle on the couch; regret and frustration twisted strangely inside me.

“I know,” she replied, lifting herself up to meet my eyes. Her dark gaze held mine for a breath; my lungs seized when she brought her lips to mine in a crushing, sharp kiss. For an endless moment I forgot everything but the taste of her mouth, the slide of her skin under my fingers and the feel of her slender body. Emma raked her nails down my ribs, searing lines that made me groan and we drew apart, both gasping for air. Desire sheered at my control; I wanted to carry her upstairs, remind her what we once were, what we once shared.

The ringing phone pulled us back into reality. “I imagine that’s Beth,” she whispered, sounding as frustrated as I felt. Reaching for the handset she untangled our bodies. “Hello?…Hi Beth…yes, no, it’s not a problem….”

Our eyes met as Emma reached to slide her hand along my cheek. I swallowed around the sudden lump in my throat and pressed my lips to her palm. “Go,” she mouthed, eyes still tinged with lust now tight with frustration. The spell was broken.

* * * *

The drive to Elizabeth’s was excruciating. My thoughts tore between the two women, stomach tied into knots over Elizabeth, heart aching for Emma. Until my phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Stop.” Emma’s voice tripped my heartbeat.

“Em?”

“Stop beating yourself up, Gwen, okay?”

I swallowed hard, my vision blurring at the edges. “Em,” I sighed, looking for a place to pull off the road.

“We’ll talk when you get home.”

I aimed my car down a narrow lane and parked under a copse of trees. “Emma.” Her name came out as something of a prayer and I heard her breath catch. In that moment I hated myself. Hated that I was driving to someone else instead of home, rediscovering the passion we once shared. So much time had passed since she’d felt desire for me…

“Sweetheart,” she whispered and I leaned forward, pressing my head against the steering wheel. “Just…come home to me.” I didn’t answer, let the silence stretch, uncertain what action I could take that wouldn’t leave the copper taste of regret on my tongue. “Go take care of Beth, then…” My eyes opened, staring unseeingly at the dash display. “then come home to me.” Her voice dipped into a timber I hadn’t heard in more months than I wanted to recall. My body responded, heart thumping against my ribcage as I remembered once again how desperately I loved her.

“I will,” I answered, and I knew my own voice betrayed my desire and more. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, baby.”

The phone went dead as she hung up and I stared at it, feeling the sands of our relationship shifting beneath my feet.

* * * *

It was strange to pull into Elizabeth’s driveway. This time it was empty, no other cars awaited. Connor was on his way, would arrive shortly thanks to a hastily placed phonecall after I spoke to Emma.

I still wasn’t sure that I was in the right place; I was trusting Emma. Gravel crunched before I made it to the door; I turned, watching Elizabeth’s car pull down the lane. My mind spun, searching for a reason for coming early, seeking the words that would explain my presence. For the first time I wasn’t there in the safe confines of our well-defined relationship. I leaned against her doorframe as she made her way up the walk, her eyes on my face, inscrutable expression on hers. She stopped an arm’s length from me and cocked her head.

“She sent you.”

I held her piercing gaze and nodded, hearing the distinct squeal of a car taking the bend down the road far too quickly. “Yes, she did,” I replied, erasing the space between us, reaching to sink my fingers into her hair. A sob hitched her shoulders and she resisted the tug of my hands.

“I don’t understand you two,” she whispered, eyes suddenly shimmering. I let out a wry chuckle and leaned in to press my lips to hers.

“Neither do we, anymore.” Elizabeth’s body jerked again and I folded her into my arms, feeling her stranglehold on her emotions begin to fail. Then Connor’s low-slung sedan swung into the drive, barely slowing until he ground to a stop beside our cars.

“Oh my god.” Elizabeth twisted in my arms and we both watched Connor stride up the walk, his footsteps almost jerky with agitation. I knew what state he was in; knew he was furious, at himself and at Ian. The two men had a history where Elizabeth was concerned of which she was unaware. His eyes flicked from hers to mine and I reached back to unlock the door.

“Let’s get inside, honey.”

* * * *

Connor’s agitation was palpable. His body hummed with tension beside me, like a bow fired empty, all of the energy left to reverberate within him instead of expelled at a target. “He knew I was away,” he growled, the statement barely audible above Elizabeth’s fussing over tea in the kitchen. I reached to touch the back of his hand and his tortured eyes met mine. “He knew, Gwen.”

I nodded and leaned into him, felt some of his furious energy ease. “Are you angry with her?” The muscles in his arm twitched and I tilted my head, holding his gaze.

“No. I’m angry with myself.”

The rattle of cups and footsteps announced Elizabeth’s return. Connor’s expression tightened for a moment then settled into something akin to resolution. I watched as he stood, took the tray from her and set it on a nearby table. His demeanor silenced her.

Connor caught her face in his hands and he closed his eyes, fighting for control. “Why him?” he asked, his voice a rough, raw exhale. His lashes lay against his cheeks; his jaw flexed beneath the shadow of a day-old beard. My fingers curled into the cushion and every muscle in my body tensed.

“I went dancing,” Elizabeth answered, her hands rising to press to his. “He showed up after one too many glasses of wine. It was like old times…”

“And the second night?” Her eyes flickered to mine, something akin to anger flaring, turning them into a pair of deep blue flames. I met them without remorse.

Connor held her in his hands, holding her still and close but preventing an embrace, eyes still closed.

“The second night was a mistake,” she whispered, “more so than the first.” She returned her gaze to him, reaching to press her hands to his face in mirror image of him. His eyes opened and flickered to me. My stomach twisted and I answered the pull of his gaze, rising to step behind Elizabeth.

“I’m going to resist finding him and making him regret taking advantage of you,” he growled as I fit myself against her back, sliding my arms around her waist, feeling her breath catch at his words and my touch. “He knew I was away, Liz. I know Ian. We have…history.”

History indeed. His fury when I called had left my ears ringing. Connor had put Elizabeth back together more than once after Ian left her shattered. And she always forgave him. The man knew how to sugarcoat words.

“Tell me, Liz,” he continued, a fragment of composure threading through his voice, revealing how little he was holding himself together, “how would you feel if you discovered Gwen were with someone other than you and I, or Emma?” Her body jerked, my gut twisted and I wished I could see her expression. “Or if I revealed I’d taken a lover on one of my long trips?” Another lurch of her body and Connor slid his fingers to the back of her neck, threading into her hair.

His eyes were the color of clouds when tornadoes threaten, an odd green, dangerous. “Tell me, Liz, yes or no, for once, no other words to complicate and obfuscate. Are you mine?”

Chapter 12

Absolution

“Yes.”

Elizabeth exhaled her reply, little more than air shaped into an answer all three of us knew for truth but had never been acknowledged. Tension flowed from her body, a change of state from solid to liquid, and she melted against him as Connor captured her lips in a kiss so deep and claiming I felt its echoes climb my spine.

This was not the first time I’d felt a sense of spirituality when the three of us converged; I felt certain it wouldn’t be the last.

I would have withdrawn, would have slipped back and let this moment belong only to them. My emotions still swirled in a riotous mess over relationships here and home. But Connor slid his hand from the back of Elizabeth’s neck to mine, gripping me in a way that made me feel little more than a cub in a tiger’s mouth, a silent but irrefutable command to stay. I tensed, torn between breaking his hold and flowing into the tangle they made, and he rubbed his thumb in a circle against the side of my neck. He still held her captive with his mouth; I could feel, even scent, her growing desire.

And yet still the torment of my own heart held me back. Nothing barred me from applying my own lips to her neck, sliding my hands under her blouse, grinding into the back of her. But, as much as I wanted to be here, to surrender to the intensity that never failed to overtake me in their embrace, I couldn’t help but feel that this moment was theirs and mine waited four hours away.

Connor withdrew from Elizabeth’s lips, drawing a low sigh from her as his lips softened from devouring to the tenderest of touches. When his eyes met mine, I knew he understood, knew he could feel the torment inside me.

“I’ve got her.” He leaned over her shoulder, pinning our lover between us and kissed me with such gentleness my knees threatened to give way and my eyes prickled with tears. When he pulled back, Elizabeth turned in his arms and brought her hands up to capture my face between them, eyes piercing, searching.

“Give Emma my love and gratitude,” she said after searching my gaze for an eternal moment. “And call us.”

My eyes lifted to Connor’s and he nodded, our strange understanding stretching to include this moment. “I will,” I whispered, turning my lips into her palm before stepping out of their embrace. A shudder wracked my body, one of regret and desire and everything these two meant to me twisted up with a nervous, urgent need to leave.

* * * *

Night held the world tight in its grasp when I pulled into our driveway at last. My tongue was a swollen moisture starved thing in my mouth and my heart pounded, staccato and syncopated against my ribs. Our bedroom window revealed Emma’s location to me, a golden, beckoning beacon I hoped to answer. With quiet care I made my way into the house, locking the door, leaving my bag in the hall and climbed the stairs. Each step creaked slightly in admonishment.

‘How could you leave her?’

‘Why did you have to need something else?’

‘Do you think she’ll forgive you? Hmm? Leaving her frustrated and wanting?’

That vicious inner voice tore at me until my chest tightened up like a fist around a sob. And then there was the door to our bedroom, a sliver of light landing at my feet, offering up a path to follow.

Emma looked up at the sigh of the hinges, eyes widening in the instant before she saw me.

“Em?” I licked my dry lips, struggling for enough saliva to get my tongue to work. I could only imagine what my face looked like.

“Gwen.” She slipped from bed and swayed, reaching for the bedpost. The reminder of her weakness shocked me into action and I caught her against me. Her arms curled around my neck; the feel of her body pressing against mine rekindled the desire worry had gnawed away at on the long drive. “What happened?” she asked, fingers slipping into my hair, palm sliding along my jaw.

The smolder in her eyes was unmistakable and chased my inner undermining demon back into hiding. “I needed to be here,” I answered, leaning down to brush my lips to hers.

I teased her, played with her lips, her tongue, until her fingers tightened in my hair and she slanted her lips to mine in a kiss somehow rough and adoring at the same time. Each plunge of tongue unearthed another layer of desire, another treasure of want and need. She whimpered when I wrapped my arms around her waist and lifted; her legs twining around my waist.

Emma tugged at my shirt, pulling it over my head and pitching it aside; a rush of hot goosebumps raced down my spine. Suddenly I wanted to taste every inch of her as if I’d never done so before, to rediscover her landscape, remap the path to her passion’s completion. I sought out her pulse, sucking at it softly, tasting the jump of it against my tongue.

“Please, Gwen.” A pleading edge sheered at her voice, her need climbing my spinal cord to fracture across my mind like so many shards of glass. Her hands pulled my lips back to hers and she kissed me with a sharp intensity we’d never shared before. “Please,” she whispered again, lips brushing mine as she stared into my eyes, her brown gaze so dark I couldn’t tell iris from pupil. “I’m not glass,” she rasped, her hips rocking against my stomach, her nightshirt sliding up to let her bareness slide against my flesh. I growled and she nipped at my lip. “I’m not going to break.”

Her nails raked down my nape and across my spine, shredding the last vestiges of my control. The day had been too long, too fraught with emotion and frustration. I tipped her back onto the bed, climbing after her, between her thighs, yanking her top up and capturing her nipple between my teeth roughly. Emma hissed and arched, twisting as she yanked the fabric over her head and threw it away.

My fingers slipped between us to delve into the slick heat of her. For the first time I didn’t take it slow, didn’t worship her, make love to her. I fucked into her, using my hips to press my own fingers deep as she twined her legs around me once more, her hands fisted in my hair as I tortured first one nipple then the other.

Emma gasped and writhed under me, grinding up into my thrusts. We abandoned ourselves to raw need, words surrendered for feral noises of pleasure. Each thrust tightened her muscles around me until I barely moved, my thumb pressed to her clit and fingers rolling against that spot deep inside that made her mewl and keen.

Her orgasm rolled up her like a wave, a rush of slick heat soaking my fingers as her grip tightened on me, pulling my lips to hers, feeding her moans and cries into me, letting me devour each sound, consume the rush of her pleasure. We were, in that one moment, more one, more together, than we had been in what felt like forever and I couldn’t stop the tears that slid down my cheeks to flavor our kiss.

* * * *

“Are you okay?” Elizabeth and I asked the question to each other simultaneously, drawing low laughs from each of us.

“Gwen?”

I met Emma’s eyes across the room, my stomach taking a lazy tumble as she smiled and turned her attention back to our breakfast, the movement letting her robe gape open. Shadowy marks, my marks, darkened the slope of her neck and curve of her breast, and I knew there were more. “I’m very much okay,” I answered, hearing Elizabeth’s relieved sigh echoed by a deeper one. “You?”

Her chuckle tripped warmth down my spine. “Oh yes, very much so,” she replied and Connor’s familiar laugh reached me through the phone, a low, sexy rumble. I could hear the smile in her voice and my lips curved in response.

“So things are good now?” Emma slid the pan into the oven and crossed to me, sliding into my lap when I offered a hand. My breath caught when she slipped her fingers beneath my own robe, seeking and finding the warmth of my skin.

“Very much so,” Elizabeth answered, her voice taking on a sincere intensity. “Will we see you next month?” The gentle way she asked the question tugged at my heart just as surely as the way Emma looked down into my eyes, the most beautiful, serene smile curving her lips.

“I don’t think so,” I whispered as Emma twined my hair around her fingers.

“Ahh,” Elizabeth exhaled, “that’s good, my Gwen. Very good.” I hung in the space between her words and Emma’s grip on me, hearing more in Elizabeth’s words and seeing more in my wife’s brown eyes than I thought possible. “Keep in touch, okay?”

“I will,” I promised and then shivered as Emma’s lips met mine and she slid the phone from my grip.

“Thank you, Beth,” she said, her voice breaking slightly on her friend and my lover’s name. “Don’t worry, we will.”

As she bid goodbye, I wrapped my arms around her waist and pressed my ear to her chest, listening to the steady rhythm, letting all thought leave my mind. If I’d learned anything over the months since meeting Elizabeth, it was to live in the moment. And in this moment, Emma sought my lips with hers and peeled my robe open, hands roaming, catching my breath in my chest and sending a zing of desire through me.

“I love you,” she exhaled into our kiss and I answered, guiding her to the couch beside me.

Chapter 13

Extreme Unction

Seven months later I knelt beside our bed. We were gifted with six months of remission, of bliss. Her fingers stroked the crown of my head, bare movements yet still enough to twist my heart. Another tear dropped to dampen the sheet covering her. “Gwen.” Her voice held little of her tone; the cancer had settled into her lymphatic system, stripping weight from her as the tumors fed on her vitality.

“I’m here, my love,” I breathed, taking her hand and kissing her palm softly. “Would you like something?” She’d barely eaten in the four days since I’d brought her home from the hospital, respecting her wish to not spend her last days in that sterile, yet sick, environment.

“Mead,” she whispered, lips curving into a teasing smile.

“You got it.”

The house barely seemed to breathe beyond our bedroom door. Even the stairs seemed to creak less, as if the imminent death of the home’s mistress held all in its grips. Just as my foot hit the last step the drop of the doorknocker broke the silence and I paused, staring. No one visited; Emma expressly requested no one be allowed to as the tumors devoured her, instead she wished to be remembered as she had been. Only I bore the burden of watching my heart’s mate surrender to the inevitability of her own mortality far too soon.

Shadows shifted beyond the door and the wrap of knuckles on wood split the quiet this time. I crossed the entryway, still confused, and opened the door.

The sight of the couple waiting there took me to my knees. Connor rushed to my side, catching me before I hit the floor and Elizabeth closed the door with a soft snick.

“Shh, darling,” she said when I tried to stammer a greeting. “We’re here now.” As her arms closed around me, surrounding me in the safe, quiet sanctuary of their embrace my sparse grip on composure dissolved and the tears that I had managed to restrain to only emerging singly began to stream in earnest.

* * * *

“Hold me?” Emma’s fingers, twined with mine, tugged, kitten-weak. I’d been sitting next to her, tracing the lines of her palm over and over. With a gentle smile I turned and leaned against the headboard, curling her thin frame against me. Distant noises drifted to us, reminders of Elizabeth and Connor’s presence in the house. “What are you thinking?” Her lips brushed my jaw and I turned to press mine to hers.

“I was thinking about our wedding vows,” I whispered. Her breath caught and my heart stumbled as she turned my hand palm up, her finger tracing a crease across my hand.

“I, Emma,” she began, her voice just as soft and full of emotion as it was so long ago,” swear to you, Gwen, that I am yours, forever and always, so long as your lifeline crosses your palm and breath fills my lungs.” My chest jerked with a sob before I could catch it and she looked up at me, deep brown eyes just as warm as ever. “I will always be with you, Gwen.” Her arms slipped around me and for a breath her hug squeezed me with all the strength I thought was gone.

“You called her, didn’t you?” I asked against her hair, kissing her crown.

“I did,” she answered, her grip lessening as she tilted her head to offer her lips. I kissed her with slow, thorough intensity until she pulled back, cheeks flushed and eyes bright. “You weren’t taking care of yourself,” she continued, only the husky rasp in her voice and high color betraying the effect of the kiss. “And you need her.” Emma brushed her fingers along my cheek and I caught my lower lip between my teeth as they trembled. “You need both of them.”

“I need you.” The words slipped out before I could stop them and her breath caught, eyes welling with tears.

“Thank you for coming back to me.” Emma pressed her brow to mine as I wiped the droplets from her cheeks.

“Thank you for loving me.” With care I lifted her into my lap and curled her against me, sighing as she tucked her head under my chin and twined her fingers with mine.

* * * *

Emma faded in her sleep twelve days after Elizabeth and Connor’s arrival. At her request and against my reservations we all bundled into the car and made the trip to the beach. She was so light I carried her with ease to her waiting chair and tucked a blanket around her, smiling into her eyes when she caught my hand and kissed it. I sat on a blanket at her side and watched as Elizabeth and Connor played in the surf, chasing each other into the foam of the crashing waves. I could feel the impact of them through the sand and, for that time, felt a sense of peace descend.

Until I rubbed my thumb across the back of Emma’s hand and she didn’t squeeze my fingers back. I knew before I touched her neck in search of a pulse that she was gone; her expression held no echo of the pain that had tightened her eyes for the last month and her eyes didn’t even flicker behind her lids.

“Goodbye, my love,” I whispered, leaning up to kiss her softly.

And, then, with the absence of her need for me there to hold me together I dropped my head to my arms and fell apart. Elizabeth and Connor found me, still sobbing, as the sun slipped horizonward. He carried me to the car as Elizabeth made the calls that needed making.
If not for them, I imagine I wouldn’t have managed the next few days. Even with all the arrangements made beforehand it seemed there was always one more thing to tend to, one more question to answer. Elizabeth tended to all of it with her customary competence and Connor stubbornly refused to let me sink into oblivion.

“Gwen.” The box of Emma’s ashes sat on the coffee table. I couldn’t seem to get past the size of the box; there was more and yet less left than I expected of the woman I’d spent years loving. “Gwen.” Connor’s deep firm voice penetrated the fog I existed in and I blinked, turning as he sat beside me on the couch. “Come home with us.” My brows tugged together and I shook my head. “Yes, Gwen, you can’t stay here by yourself.”

“Emma wouldn’t want you to, darling.” Elizabeth settled on the other side of me and I shivered as their hands slid down my back in soothing strokes. My body remembered them, wanted them, but my heart, my soul, was fractured.

“I can’t,” I rasped, my voice raw from my grieving.

“My Gwen,” Elizabeth exhaled, capturing my face in her hands and pulling my eyes to hers. She pierced me with her gaze, leaving me pinned and on display like a butterfly specimen. “What will you do?” Her change of tact caught me off guard and I took a shuddering breath.

“I don’t know yet.”

“Will you come to us later?”

I blinked and looked, really looked, into her blue eyes. I saw and heard her uncertainty, for the first time, about me, us. Connor’s absolute stillness beat against my back. “I think so,” I answered, my honesty drawing a grunt from him and sent a flicker of expression across her face too quick for me to discern.

“Okay.” She pulled me to her and pressed her lips to mine, a soft promise of a kiss. When she freed me, Connor caught me and did the same. “We have to leave in the morning,” she said quietly before standing and walking away. Connor stayed and I drew a shuddering breath when he held my gaze for what seemed an eternity.

“Don’t do anything rash,” he warned in a low voice before following after Elizabeth.

* * * *

I let them leave and avoided all mention of the future. I had no clue what I would do, how I would move on. The still, silent oppression of the house crashed around me as they backed out of the driveway, Elizabeth raising a hand in farewell. I waved back, uncertain how long it would be until, if, I saw either of them again. I just couldn’t think past the hole in my life. Against all common sense I wandered through the house, the shell that had been our home, and let myself sink into memories. I sat in Emma’s favorite chair and wrapped the shawl she’d knitted our first winter here around my shoulders. Her perfume lingered in the fibers and a tear blazed the trail down my cheek for the rest to follow. At that moment I wanted nothing more than to fade away.

Chapter 14

Epilogue

It seemed only right that I was on a beach again, watching wave after wave arch, curl and crash into the tail of the one before it. Spring’s chill still hung in the air but the sand beneath my bare feet radiated warmth from the sun above. My thoughts swirled in gentle eddies as I followed the edge of the waves along the strand, a reach of cliffs to my right, stretch of ocean on my left, narrow, golden sand ahead. The endless grains sprayed out from my footsteps, the chill wind whipped my hair and skirt around me. I felt scoured, cleansed, renewed.

I paused as I drew close to the two I sought. Connor stood rooted in the sand, his feet dug in, I thought, deep enough to feel the perpetual chill of the ocean. Elizabeth leaned against him in the circle of his arms, her head tilted back against his shoulder, a slight smile on her lips. They basked in the sun, eyes closed, unmoving. A thread of uncertainty looped around my heart, hobbling my feet, and I caught my breath at their beauty. I could see the change in them, the confidence of their embrace, the rightness of their selves; I wondered that I dared disturb it.

There was no way they could have heard me approach over the waves but somehow they both knew. As one they opened their eyes and turned to catch me in their gazes. Elizabeth smiled; an expression so exquisite it made my heart split. She held her hand out to me and I crossed the last of the space between us.

“My Gwen,” she said, her voice so soft the thunder of the waves nearly devoured it. I caught my lip in my teeth and she cupped my jaw with a hand. “It’s been a long time.” No reproach colored her voice.

“It was a dark winter,” I answered, forcing the words past the lump in my throat. The wind tossed my hair around my face and Connor reached past Elizabeth to tuck the unruly strands behind my ear, sliding his hand to the back of my neck, tugging me closer.

“How does spring look, our Gwen?” His use of the possessive sent a shiver down my spine, one they both felt, and Elizabeth pulled me still closer, enough that her warmth radiated into me though a breath of distance separated us.

“Brighter.” I licked my lips, my stomach tumbling with nerves. Eight months prior, as summer gave way to fall, they’d asked me to come home with them, trying, in their way, to hold me together as best they could. I wondered if their invite still stood after so much time had passed. I’d come apart, fallen into my grieving, until somehow I pulled myself back together, knowing Emma wanted me to live. As the longest night of the year ticked by, I let all the tears out then let them go, beginning the process of accepting my soulmate’s departure and her actions. She wouldn’t have called Elizabeth and Connor to my side if she’d not accepted their places in my heart.

“Are you staying?” Connor erased the last of the distance between Elizabeth and I with a slight tug and I couldn’t help the sigh of relief as she caught me against her, one arm sliding around my waist as her lips caught mine in a kiss both tender and rough.

“Yes,” I whispered when she freed my lips, my eyes searching hers and his. “If you’ll still have me.”

Elizabeth spun me and my breath caught in surprise as she pinned me against the solidity of Connor’s chest. His lips dropped to my neck, teeth catching the tender skin as she nipped at my lips, the sharp caresses making me gasp. In the span of breaths they had me squirming and twisting between them, one hand hooked around his neck, the other around her waist. My months of abstinence saw my body crackle, a writhing live wire and I gasped, trembling when they paused.

His rumble of laughter matched the crash of the waves, her eyes twinkled, bright blue, bluer than the sky above. “You’re ours, my dear Gwen,” Elizabeth said, quiet and solemn, “and we’re going to take you home and show you just how much we mean that.”

~finis~