Blood Knot (27 page)

“
Have you ever had to get your hair cut since you were made human, Sebastian?” Nial asked softly.

Sebastian covered his face with his hands. It was answer enough.

Nial drew Sebastian into his arms and held him. He lifted his gaze to Winter. “Have you seen your part in all this, Winter?”

“
That I failed to make Sebastian human enough? Thank you, my guilt is sufficient, Nial.”

He shook his head. “You could never have made him fully human. You aren’t one yourself.”

Sebastian sat back and ground the heels of his hands into his eyes. “That’s ridiculous. She was born of human parents.”

“
So were you and I,” Nial replied evenly. “And neither of us are human anymore. Winter never was human and now she is even less human than she was when she was born.”

“
Because of the symbiosis.” Winter grimaced.

“
Yes, but the changes were more far-reaching than you are aware of,” Nial told her.

Winter swallowed. “My eyes…”

“
You have vampire vision,” Nial said flatly. “And vampire hearing.”

“
Jesus,” Sebastian murmured.

“
Then on the plane…” Winter began.

“
There was no acoustic anomaly,” Nial replied. “But when I hear sounds very low on the human auditory scale, they do sound like you described, like something riding on air currents. So I knew you were hearing something no ordinary human should have been able to hear. And you’ve heard more like that since, including five minutes ago, just before I threw the glass at you.”

She nodded.

Sebastian sighed. “Then I still can hear in the same ranges, too. I was hearing air current stuff on the plane, just like Winter. I thought it was her acoustic anomaly, too.”

Nial crossed his legs and threaded his fingers again. “The final factor has been with you since birth, Winter, but it only became active since maturity.”

She held up her hand, halting him. She already knew. In her gut, she had always known. She smoothed the hem of Sebastian’s shirt out over her thigh, then looked up at Nial. “I’m immortal,” she said. “That’s what you were going to say, isn’t it?”

“
Nial?” Sebastian prompted, hope filling his voice.

The corner of Nial’s mouth lifted. “Just as you’ve always suspected, Winter. Immortality as we vampires count it. You can die in a small number of painful and difficult ways, but because you can control and adjust your biology, you will move through time essentially changeless. You told me you were born in Serbia on December 21, 1982. That makes you nearly thirty, but you have the features and body of twenty-two year old and absolutely no markers of passing time. You haven’t noticed yet because not enough time has passed for you, but as time moved on, as you neared forty or fifty, you would have. You are going to have to learn how to mask your lack of aging from others. And later, you are going to have to learn how to ‘die’ and move on to another life.”

“
We call it ‘the great charade’,” Sebastian added. “I suppose it is something I will have to continue now.” He didn’t seem upset anymore.

“’
We’?” Nial said.

“
Then what am I?” Sebastian demanded. “I am no longer vampire. I am not human, either.”

“
Ours,” Nial said. “Just be ours, Sebastian.”

Winter’s heart halted. So did her breath.

“’
Ours’?” Sebastian said, mimicking Nial’s tone.

“
Mine and Winter’s,” Nial replied.

NIAL HELD OUT a hand to her and Winter let him pull her into his lap while Sebastian stared at him.

“
Yours and Winter’s what?” Sebastian said at last.

“
Lover, friend, husband, mate. You can choose the tag or the role, or both. It’s up to you, Sebastian.”

Winter shivered and Nial’s arms came around her. The tension inside her was sending little strumming ripples over her skin like heat waves, as she watch Sebastian struggle with the idea that Nial had proposed.

I want Winter
, Sebastian had said. But when Nial had kissed him, he had groaned and reached for him, wanting more. He admitted to wanting Nial under duress. The need was there, buried under denial.

But he openly wanted her.

So Winter stretched up and kissed Sebastian, her lips meeting his full ones. They were warm and soft with surprise at first.

She thrust her tongue inside, tasting whiskey and Sebastian’s own unique flavor and met the soft wall of his tongue.

He growled low in his throat as his hands cupped her face. His tongue came alive, toying with hers and stroking her lips.

Winter tried to stop the small moan of pleasure that ripped from her lips but couldn’t. It felt so good to have Sebastian kissing her and know that it was okay, it wouldn’t end, that there would be more….

His hands slid down her throat, stroking and fluttering. Teasing. Making her arch. Nial’s hands were on her hips, gently coaxing her to kneel, to bring her closer to Sebastian.

Sebastian let her mouth go. He was breathless as he slid an arm around her and pulled her up against him. “I may lack all sorts of finesse this first time. I’ve waited far too long.”

Nial turned Sebastian’s head to kiss him. “You’d better kiss her again,” he suggested. Then as Sebastian returned to kissing her, Nial slipped the buttons of Winter’s shirt undone and slid it off her arms. Essentially naked except for the stay up stockings, she perched in Nial’s lap as Sebastian finished his kiss and Nial ran his hands over her body in lazy, rousing circles. By the time Sebastian released her, she was starting to squirm.

Sebastian sat back, studying her. “Wow,” he said softly, as Nial brushed her hair back over her shoulders.

Winter crawled from Nial’s lap. “Kiss Nial the way you just kissed me,” she told Sebastian. She tugged on his arm.

Nial drew in a breath that sounded unsteady.

Sebastian’s eyes looked wide and glassy. He leaned forward on one arm and pressed his mouth to Nial’s. Nial kept perfectly still, neither encouraging him or moving away, but his hand lifted up toward Sebastian as if he wanted to pull him closer, and hovered.

Sebastian broke the kiss with a sigh. “Damn you to hell, Nathanial.”

“
That’s for certain,” Nial agreed. “But why this time?”

“
Two kisses and I’m hooked again,” Sebastian said and rested his head against Nial’s. He turned to look at Winter. “This time on both of you.”

Her heart leapt.

Sebastian reached for the buttons on Nial’s shirt, fumbling them undone. “Help me, Winter,” he said, his voice growing thick with arousal.

Her excitement jumped even higher. Winter slid the buttons undone beneath Sebastian’s larger fingers, moving nimbly ahead of him. Sebastian pulled the shirt from Nial’s shoulders and Winter spread her hands across Nial’s flesh. Sebastian pressed his lips to Nial’s chest, making Nial draw in another slow, deep harsh breath.

Winter pushed Nial’s shoulders to the floor, forcing him to lie down, while Sebastian removed the rest of his clothing. Nial’s cock was erect and ready.

Nial rolled to his knees and forced Sebastian onto his back. “Your turn,” he said, his voice low, controlled. But instead of stripping Sebastian, he held down his arms. “Winter,” he coaxed. “Do your worst.”

She smiled, her body tingling at the idea. She kissed Sebastian lightly on the mouth. His green eyes were narrowed suspiciously, although his muscled arms were not pulling hard in Nial’s grip.

Winter stripped Sebastian of the rest of his clothing. Like Nial, his cock was stiff and beating against his pelvis. But Winter ignored it and instead began to lick her way down his hot body from his sensual lips, her fingers teasing and outlining the path ahead, and stopping for interesting detours along the way. Long before she reached the juncture of his legs, Sebastian was panting and his back arching off the rug, but Nial’s grip on his arms kept him anchored on the floor.

“
Oh god, have mercy on me,” Sebastian moaned, his Irish sound much stronger than she’d ever heard it, as Winter spread his thighs and settled between them. A fine sheen of sweat showed on his temples.

“
I don’t think your god is listening,” Nial told him. “But pray if you like. You’ll need it.” He stroked Sebastian’s neck with his tongue as Winter curled her hand around Sebastian’s long, hard shaft. His cock was throbbing, with a wide head that flared with dark purple edges that promised all sorts of erotic delight.

She ran her tongue along the length of it, making Sebastian hiss and buck in Nial’s grip. His hands closed into tight fists.

Winter closed her mouth around the big head and pushed it deep inside her throat.

“
Ah…
god
,” Sebastian cried.

“
Don’t come yet,” Nial said softly.

Winter began to work Sebastian’s cock, keeping tabs inside his body on his growing arousal and backing off whenever he came too near to climax so that she was able to keep him at the brink for minutes on end.

Sebastian writhed in helpless desperation, his breath growing short.

“
I’m going to let him up,” Nial warned. “You’ve been cruel long enough.”

Winter sat up. “Wait just a moment. I have an idea.” She straddled Sebastian’s chest and leaned forward to whisper in Nial’s ear behind her hand.

After thirty seconds of whispering, she felt Sebastian shift under her. With a roar, he sat up, bringing her with him. Nial had apparently forgotten to keep him pinned while she was whispering to him.

Sebastian dumped her on the carpet on her back, lifted her thigh and buried himself in her pussy in one hard thrust that made him grunt and Winter moan and clutch at the rug, her fingers digging in.

Sebastian paused, looking down at her. Winter knew what he was thinking. Three years of denial and here they were at last, locked together physically. It felt every bit as good as she had fantasized it to be. But this moment was not at all how she had thought it might happen. Or Sebastian either, she guessed.

Sebastian touched her lips. “This is even better,” he whispered.

It was.

“
Stay still,” she murmured back.

Nial’s arm wrapped around Sebastian’s waist from behind.

“
It’s about to get even better,” she told Sebastian.

He sucked in a breath, his eyes drifting shut. “You set me up,” he said, his voice hoarse.

“
Yes,” she agreed. “The only time I’ll do it, Bastian. For fun, for pleasure.”

He drew in a shuddering breath and thrust into her with a groan.

Winter rolled her head to the side and looked at their reflections in the long lounge window. Sebastian spread over her, urgently fucking her with his body all sinews and muscles. And Nial, his shaft sliding into Sebastian in a coordinated erotic dance of male muscles and strength, tension showing in every tightly held joint.

Winter came with a scream as her climax slammed through her with unexpected and profound impact. And a second climax tore through her as Sebastian’s cock continued to impale her with harder and harder strokes, his pelvis kissing her swollen clitoris.

Sebastian came with a pent-up roar a heart beat after her, his fingers clawing the rug, his head thrown back, the tendons in his neck standing out.

Nial lowered himself to the rug beside them, breathing hard. His cock was still jutting, hard and ready, but he wore a small smile and brushed the hair from her face. He picked up her hand and kissed the back of it, then kissed Sebastian’s temple as he lay recovering over Winter.

“
Amici mei
,” he said.

Sebastian smiled and kissed Winter, then eased himself from her body. “I’m not done with either of you, yet.”

Nial snorted. “I should hope not.”

* * * * *

“
I’m assuming ‘amici may’ is Latin?” Winter said as she luxuriated in hot water up to her shoulders.

The huge spa bath was built for at least six people and right now held three. Her hair was pinned on top of her head and she was feeling relaxed…and very horny and aroused, for both Nial and Sebastian were stroking her legs under the water. Just gentle strokes, around her ankles and insteps, but two pairs of hands, one to each leg, was driving her quickly insane.

“
Amici mei
,” Sebastian said. “It means ‘my lovers’. Yes, it’s Latin. Once, Nial used to call me ‘
D
ilect
us
’—‘my lover’.”

Dilecta
. Nial had used that word with her, too.

“
And now I can again,” Nial said easily.

“
There was another word you used,” Winter said. She frowned. “I can’t remember it now.”

Nial picked up her hand and kissed it. “I doubt it. There are few endearments I can use from Latin. They sound ugly to English speakers.”

“
It’s the way you speak it that is the problem. You haven’t got a romantic bone in your body, for all you’re a hot-blooded Roman,” Sebastian told him. “You’ve got lazy. You haven’t had to woo a lady for centuries. You couldn’t whisper sweet nothings in Winter’s ear and make her swoon if you tried.”