The Power of Three (11 page)

“
Really?” She looked up at him. “I
don’t know if it’s possible to separate the two. When Esca kissed
me…”

His cock jumped at the unstoppable visceral
image that passed between them. He carefully put the plates down on
the counter and turned back to her. She’d risen to her feet and was
regarding him warily.

“
Why don’t you kiss me,
Soreya?”

“
What?”

“
Maybe you won’t feel the same as you
did for Esca, and we can just be friends.”

“
Is that what you want?”

“
I want you to have
choices
. You’ve been denied that opportunity all
your life. If you don’t want me, then I’m okay with
that.”

Liar.
His
conscience whispered and he thrust the thought away. He would give
her space. It was the least he could do considering that he’d do
anything to fuck her, own her, meld with her—anything at all. That
wasn’t like him. Perhaps he was saving himself as well.

She rubbed a hand over her mouth and
approached him as warily as a hunted animal. “I’m not sure if this
is a good idea.”

“
It’s just a kiss.”

“
And what if I immediately want you?
Does that mean that every time a Pavlovan telepath kisses me I’ll
want to fuck them?”

“
You’re afraid of that, aren’t
you?”

“
That I’m so desperate to be with my
own kind that I’ll whore myself out to anyone? Yeah, that scares
me.”

“
Did you fuck your way through Esca’s
team and Trenx’s crew?”

“
No, but none of them kissed
me.”

He leaned back against the counter and put
his hands on the edge. “Kiss me. I won’t even touch you.”

She came even closer, her gaze fixed on his
mouth. He held his breath as she went up on her toes and touched
her lips to his…

Gods…

Her tongue flicked a shy line along the seam
of his lips and he opened his mouth and let her in. Closing his
eyes, he gripped the counter in an effort not to bring his arms
around her and press her against him from head to toe. She leaned
closer, her breasts brushing his chest, and his cock thickened,
throbbing between them. He couldn’t stop kissing her, would’ve
killed anyone who tried to interrupt—including Esca.

Eventually she pulled away, her breathing as
ragged as his own, her pupils so dilated that there was almost no
color left.

Tentatively he reached for her with his
mind. “
Soreya
?”

She pushed at his chest.
“
Dammit Ash!”

He made himself smile at her, his mask firmly
back in place. “See? That wasn’t so bad, was it? We’re not rolling
around naked on the floor.”

She turned and walked away from him.
Her door slammed loudly in the silence. It took everything he had
not to storm after her and fuck her brains out. He concentrated on
breathing, on
surviving
the
onslaught of emotions he hadn’t expected from such a simple
kiss.

He didn’t do emotions. He left that to
Esca.

Who would be coming back soon, and was far
too perceptive not to notice that something was up. Ash stacked the
dishes in the sink, dressed as quickly as he could, and made his
way out to the relative sanity of his office at the senate
house.

* * *

Esca closed the front door and listened to
the unusual quality of silence in the huge apartment. Chase was out
for the night, but someone had cooked supper. Had Ash and Soreya
finally gotten together? He contemplated the closed doors and
headed for Ash’s. There was no one there and Esca frowned. His mate
was supposed to be keeping an eye on Soreya.

Turning, he walked across the apartment to
Soreya’s door and knocked. When he heard a faint response, he went
in. She was curled up on the couch and looked as if she’d been
crying.

“
What’s up, Lang?” He walked around and
sat next to her.

“
Nothing.”

He raised his eyebrows at her. “Female answer
one hundred and twenty ranks right up there along with ‘fine’. What
happened?”

“
Nothing
.”

He wrapped his hand around her ankle. “Did
you fight with Ash?”

Her color rose. “Why would you think that?
What did he say, I’ll—”

“
He’s gone out. I haven’t heard a thing
from him.” Which in itself was unusual.

She buried her face in her hands. “Gods. I
drove the poor man out of his own house. That’s exactly what I
didn’t want.”

“
You’re not making much sense here. No
one drives Ash out of anything. What happened?”

“
He cooked me dinner.”

“
It was so bad that you’re
crying?”

“
No! He was charming and the food was
excellent. I just…” She sighed. “I kissed him.”

“
And?”

“
And I wanted to rip his clothes
off.”

“
So?”

She finally looked at him. “That doesn’t
bother you?”

“
Not at all.” He looked down at his
thickening cock. “In fact it makes me very happy.”

“
That I’m a telepath slut?”

“
The fact that you’re attracted to the
two males in a triad usually means you’re their female.”

“
So you say.” She scowled at him. “It
just seems like a damned coincidence that the only two males I kiss
happen to be ‘the ones’.”

“
That’s fate.”

“
That’s
meershit
. How do I know that I’m not going to
feel like that about every telepath I meet?”

“
Kiss a few more?”

She threw a cushion at him and he ducked.
“Okay it is unlikely but that’s what’s happened,” he said.
“Sometimes you just have to go along with what’s fated.” He eased
closer and slid his hand up to her thigh. “So how come you and Ash
aren’t in bed together?”

She slapped his hand away. “Because after I
kissed him, he made some banal comment and let me walk away from
him as if it had meant nothing.”

Esca stared at her. “Ash did?”

“
No, that must have been some other
poor male I forced myself on. That’s what I do you know—force
myself on unsuspecting Pavlovan males because I’m so desperate to
be fucked.”

He crawled over her and pinned her down onto
the couch. “Did he make you wet?”

She clamped her knees together but not fast
enough leaving him free to inch his fingers closer to her mound.
“Gods you’re soaking.”

“
I’m—”

He kissed her, filling her mouth with his
tongue, thrusting and owning her in the same way he’d be fucking
her as soon as he got his pants undone. She moaned as he pulled off
her sensible underwear and slid two fingers inside her, his thumb
on her clit. She came almost immediately. He had but a second to
wonder whether her arousal was for him, or for Ash before she
unfastened his pants and gripped his cock.

He surged forward into her palm, enjoying the
friction, already wet himself.

“
Let me inside
you
.”

She sighed and let go of his dick. He
rearranged them on the couch to his satisfaction, angling her leg
high over the back of the sofa, and pushed himself deep in one
fluid motion. He growled as she started to come again and kept
coming as he pumped himself in and out.

“
I wish Ash could see
this
,” Esca groaned as her nails dug into his shirt.
“
I wish he was behind me right now fucking
me as I’m fucking you.
”

She climaxed again and he drove her through
it, deliberately opening his mind both to her and Ash, letting them
experience his pleasure alongside him. Ash’s startled reaction
before he pushed back and shut him down made Esca smile and Soreya
gasp. His smile turned to a groan as he started to come hard and
long, his rigid length buried as deep in Soreya as he could
manage.

It took all his strength to peel himself off
her and roll helplessly onto the floor. “Better now?”

She looked down at him but didn’t speak

“
You want him, Soreya, don’t
you?”

“
That’s irrelevant.”

“
He wants you. The fact that you’ve got
him running scared is actually quite funny.”

“
Not to me.”

“
Because you think you’ve just got the
hots for any Pavlovan male who kisses you.”

She sat up and pushed her hair away from her
face. “You are impossible.”

He winked at her as she flounced off into her
bedroom and slammed the door behind her. She was just as rattled as
Ash. It kind of amused him to be the only one who knew how he felt
for a change. He wanted them both, period. And he was going to
succeed.

The sound of a door opening made him grin and
get off the floor. He left his clothes where they were and strolled
out into the central area to find Ash about to go into his own
suite.

Esca sauntered toward him, his cock reviving
as Ash inhaled the sharp scent of sex, of come, and of Soreya.
Halting just out of reach he ran a lazy hand down his stomach to
his cock and stroked it.

“
If you fuck me now, you’ll taste her,
smell her on me.”

Ash’s expression hardened. “Why would you
think I’d want to do that? You should go and shower.”

Esca moved closer and cupped the bulge of
Ash’s cock. “You saw me. You wanted to be right where I was, your
cock in my ass as I fucked her cunt.”

“
I—”

“
You can’t even lie about it, can
you?”

Esca started unbuttoning Ash’s shirt. His
lover didn’t say anything, but he didn’t stop him, which was enough
encouragement for Esca. He undid Ash’s belt and worked on his
pants, falling to his knees to draw the garments down to the floor
so Ash could step out of them. Ash’s cock was too tantalizing to
resist and he licked at it like an ice cream.

“
You’re wet, too, just like she was.
You two make my job so easy.”

He slid his tongue into the slit of Ash’s
cock and smiled as his lover’s hand fisted in his hair. With his
soldier’s sense for danger, he sensed a movement to his left and
registered Soreya’s door was now ajar. He didn’t know if Ash had
noticed, but he was going to give the female the show of her
life.

* * *

Soreya put her hand to her mouth and
contemplated turning around to run back to the safety of her
bedroom, but how could she turn away from this? A naked Esca on his
knees in front of Ash lapping at his cock. Ash’s eyes closed as if
he couldn’t bear the pleasure. She stayed where she was, watching
as Esca straightened and stripped Ash out of his shirt. Such
different bodies, but both so in tune.

“
Fuck me, Ash. Right here, by the
window where anyone can see us.”

Esca walked over to the window and braced his
hands against the floor-to-ceiling window; his cock was so long
that it almost touched the glass. Soreya shivered as he played with
the crown, drawing the gathering moisture onto his fingers. He’d
given her the perfect view of his rear. He slid his hand lower,
between the cheeks of his ass, and played with his puckered hole,
dipping his finger in and out.

Ash took a step toward him and then another
and another, his breathing as harsh as Soreya’s, his gaze fixed on
what Esca was doing to himself.

“
Fuck
me
.”

“
Not like that.”

She almost jumped at Ash’s low reply. He
seemed as rigid as a statue, as caught up with the sight of Esca
pleasuring himself as she was.

“
Smelling of her?” Esca
taunted.

“
No, raw.”

“
But that’s what I want.” Esca added a
second wet finger and rocked himself back and forth, the tip of his
cock catching the glass with each sway of his hips. Ash moved even
closer.

Esca groaned and arched his back until his
ass thrust against Ash’s unmoving body. Ash’s breath hissed out and
he wrapped a hand around his own shaft.

“
I’m ready enough, “Esca murmured. “I
want to feel you.”

Ash’s cock was as wet as Esca’s now, and
Soreya had a sudden image of herself holding them both in her
hands, making them come. Her nipples hardened and her hand crept
between her legs, where she was already sensitive from Esca’s
lovemaking.

“
Do it, Ash. I know you want to.
“

Gods, Soreya wanted to go over there and beg
Ash to go ahead herself. Would he be able to resist such blatant
provocation? She’d never seen two men together before and now she
wanted to more than she wanted to breathe.

Ash made an odd sound and grabbed Esca’s hips
rubbing his cock back and forth between the other man’s buttocks.
“You drive me insane.”

“
I know.” Esca reached back and took
Ash’s hand. “Teach me a lesson. Make me cry out, make me
beg.”

“
Gods…” Ash guided his cock toward
Esca’s hole and started to edge in and out. “You’re still too
tight.”

“
Not if you want to be in me.” Esca
inhaled sharply. “Gods, yes do it harder, make me feel every
stroke.”

Soreya’s fingers slid uselessly through the
thick wetness Esca had left behind and she almost cried out with
need. Ash moved again, his ass flexing as he pushed himself deeper
and deeper into his mate.