Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 121008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
If asked later, a few of the villagers will remember that I was at the festivities all night long. I will be sweet and friendly, but a little sad. They’ll shake their heads and feel sorry for the woman who lost her husband to an accident and her lover to the queen.
I hate their pity, but it’s a useful thing.
I withdraw to the woods as Ain curls herself around Bri’s ankles. It won’t be long, and I have to be ready.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Meg
I follow Beck into the bedroom. He moves slowly and deliberately, but I’m well aware that carefulness has nothing to do with the ale he imbibed and everything to do with the act he’s determined to perform.
“Beck,” I say quietly, tugging on his hand. “We can wait, if you want. I’m happy with the relationship we have. I don’t have to do a mental tour of your life if it makes you uncomfortable.”
Beck’s gray eyes are grave as he looks down at me. “I would be seeing into your soul, too, wife. Do you only want to share yourself with Cian?”
I roll my eyes. “Now you’re being deliberately obtuse. I wasn’t trying to hold myself back because of my grand passion for Ci.”
“Hey,” Cian says, tossing his big body on the bed.
“Though I do love him passionately,” I declare.
“That’s better.” Cian pats the mattress beside him. “Stop worrying about Beck. He’s nervous because he knows my half of our soul is prettier than his.”
“I remember our teen years, brother,” Beck snorts. “I’m sure our poor wife was assaulted by the sheer number of your sexual encounters.”
“It was an education,” I allow with a grin.
Cian shrugs, obviously unaffected by anything as ridiculous as shame. “I was a curious lad.”
“You were a pervert,” Beck shoots back, but Cian’s mocking has done its job. Beck seems more relaxed.
Cian sits up on the bed, crossing his legs as he did the day we bonded. Beck takes the opposite position. They’re near-perfect twins, and I’m going to be in the middle. I start to climb onto the bed.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Beck’s eyebrows arch in arrogant surprise.
“What Cian told me to do,” I reply. “He said I had to sit in the middle with my legs around your waist, since you’re the one I’m bonding with. I’ll be in the circle, touching you both so it flows from you to me to him.”
Cian explained how the formation of a permanent total bridge between the three of us will work. I’ll fully bond with Beck, and then Cian will open the connection between them. Once both brothers are connected to me, they’ll be able to tap into each other’s strengths. I’m the intersection connecting all our roads.
“All that’s fine, wife,” Beck says. “But I wanted to know what you’re doing wearing clothes when we’re alone in our bedroom.”
I definitely created a monster. He isn’t hiding from his nature anymore. He made that plain this evening. Beck was true to his word. He kept me close to him all night, kissing me, touching me whenever it suited him to do so.
When one of the village men requested a dance with his queen, Beck sent him such a dark look I was surprised the poor man didn’t pee himself. I was forced to content myself with dancing with Beck and Cian.
“You two are still dressed,” I point out, knowing it wouldn’t do me any good.
“That can change,” Cian offers helpfully.
Beck simply stares and sends his will outward.
There’s no fighting it. He’ll want me naked as often as possible. It’s his nature. He likes my vulnerability and softness. He wants me naked and draped across his lap. I’m glad all my time with Cian got me comfortable with my body. It made it simple to pull my clothes off without the added weight of self-consciousness. I drape them over the small chair to the side of our bed.
“That’s better,” Beck comments as I climb onto the bed without a stitch of clothes.
Cian’s hands “slip” and tease my soft pink parts as I settle onto Beck’s lap.
“Damn it, Ci,” Beck admonishes his twin. “This is a serious ceremony.”
“I’m completely serious about fucking our wife again,” Cian replies.
Beck pulls me onto his lap, and Cian leans close, completely encircling me. “I swear, brother, I have no idea how they consider you to be the intellectual half of us. Your brain is constantly full of sex.”
“I’m also calculating the approximate amount of rainfall we’ll need in order to bring in the spinach crop within the month. If we don’t get it, I have diagrams in my head for an even better irrigation system,” Cian explains. “Another part of my brain is giving careful consideration to the argument I got into with Flanna about the monarchial system of government and its impact on the peasant class. I’m thinking about the fluctuations in the vampire stock market when they realize we’ve bonded. Sue and Dante are going to make a killing. But mostly, it’s just sex.”