STORY EXCERPT

Once he’d driven her into town and up to the apartment, he brought her cases in and set them down in the big hallway, the one on the other side of the elevator bank to Thierry’s room.

He took her hand. “Your room is here.”

The moment took on an air of importance. He flung open the door to a room she’d never seen.

It was a bedroom, and it could have been made for her, the décor so lovely it immediately felt like home. The floor was of polished hardwood, and the huge bed low, covered with a celestial blue quilt.

Amanda gasped and stepped inside. “Is this a guest room?” Not any more it wasn’t. It was hers the moment she saw it. Big windows spread over two sides of the room, since this was a corner room, with low chests of drawers and window seats beneath. Two doors, both open, led to a walk-in closet and a bathroom.

It didn’t escape Amanda’s notice that everything here was big enough for three.

Harlen took her hands, making her face him. “This is our breedmate’s room. Every shape-shifter residence has one of these, whether the men have found their breedmate or not. When breed partners find each other, they tend to move in together, anticipating the day they will find their mate and bring her home.”

“—I’m not your breedmate.”

“Amanda, I want it, Thierry wants it, so it only remains for you to make up your mind. You threw yourself at me today, and now you’re here to take the consequences,” he said with a smile. He took her hands. “Sugar, I want us to do this together. Either you sleep here alone, or you sleep here with both of us. Or you come to my room, or Thierry’s room. Your choice. How does that sound?”

She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I’m not sure. Being with both of you one at a time is—strange but wonderful. As if something inside me told me this was the right thing to do. When I was with you this afternoon, something settled inside me. It was as if someone said, ‘Oh, well that’s all right then.’” She shook her head, with the hopelessness of trying to explain and forced a bright smile to her lips. “So you’re staying here now? Not at the apartment at the offices?”

He nodded. “I couldn’t bear knowing you were here and not with me as well as Thierry.” Drawing her gently toward him, he kissed her, but the embrace felt more like a solemn promise than the precursor to passion. “You go unpack, and I’ll get us something to eat.”

“Do you cook?”

He gave a shame-faced grin. “It’s one of my ways of relaxing. Thierry wouldn’t know a paring knife from a bread knife, but I do a bit better than him. How about prawns and noodles? Do you like chili?”

“Love it.”

This time his kiss was playful, something Amanda would never have suspected Harlen of being before today. “It’s just as well. After all, you are in Texas!”

By the time Thierry arrived home, Amanda had unpacked and delicious smells were wafting through the apartment. He walked out of the elevator talking. “Glad you’re back, Harlen. I can smell something great so I know you’re home. I want to shower then I’ll go fetch Amanda. Do I have time for that?”

He walked through the narrow passageway between the elevator block and the stairs, so he didn’t see Amanda coming out of the breed partner’s bedroom. She hurried to the kitchen. Harlen stood in the kitchen, wearing jeans and a black T-shirt, a tea towel slung over one shoulder. He glanced up as she approached and smiled. Thierry had his back to her. He was still in his work clothes, designer suit and tie. His butt looked great in those pants.

When he turned, he caught her looking. He smiled, and took a step toward her, but then stopped, the smile freezing on his face. “Amanda?” He flicked a glance at Harlen, and then back to her. “Have you two fucked?”

“No,” Harlen said from behind him. “We made love.”

He really thought that?

Thierry caught her in his arms and gave her a smacking kiss. “I’m proud of you.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Harlen strode to the bed, beckoning to her with a crook of his finger.

She swallowed again, and obeyed, standing before him, gazing up into his face.

He dragged her close and kissed her. His kiss was savage, his tongue plunging into her mouth to take her whirling up into sensation.

Behind her the bed dipped, and hands touched her back, large palms smoothing over her buttocks and thighs. Thierry was caressing her while Harlen kissed her. Her mind boggled.

Thierry slid his hands around her waist and slid up to cup her breasts, tweaking her nipples between thumb and finger, delivering delicious little shots of pain, and then soothing them with sweet strokes of his hands.

He moved down again, around her waist and then to her buttocks, cupping their curves as he had done to her breasts a moment before. She moaned into Harlen’s mouth. He moved closer to her, pressing his powerful body against hers, squashing her breasts against the hard planes of his chest. I want you.

She flinched when Thierry grazed her anus. He did it again, then lingered to trace gently around the hole. Shivers coursed through her. She shouldn’t like that. It shouldn’t feel so good. It did.

What he was doing was sinful, forbidden, but then, people tended to ban things that were the greatest fun.

His gentle caresses turned a little more insistent. While Harlen kissed her mouth, neck and throat, lavishing caresses on her breasts, Thierry concentrated on her tiny hole. It didn’t feel so tiny any more. He withdrew briefly and when he returned, his fingers were slick. He’d used lubricant. The scent of roses, very faint, wreathed its way up to her. Rose scented lube?

Uh-huh. Thierry’s voice echoed in her mind, then he spoke aloud. “You are so beautiful here, lovely girl. When we take you, we’ll do it together. You’re soft and hot and beautiful.”

“Is that tradition?” she managed to choke out. Harlen was sucking her nipple now and caressing the other one, adding those tiny nips that drove her wild.

“Nope.” Thierry kissed her shoulder blades. “Nothing you don’t want, bébé. Nothing you don’t like. If it does work, we won’t do it. Hold still now.”

He thrust a finger inside her. The shock turned her rigid, but the men stroked and soothed her, kissing her until she relaxed once more. Thierry stretched her a bit more with each rotation of his finger, and then he added another, and sighed, his breath hot against her back. “I can’t wait to get inside you,” he said.

She shuddered. He worked his fingers inside her, gently stretching, adding more lube which dropped cold against her ass, but warmed quickly as he worked it in.

“This once, bareback,” he said to Harlen, who nodded.

Amanda was so far gone they could have done anything to her. She hadn’t had sex with Thierry since yesterday morning. Shape-shifter sperm didn’t remain viable for long, so she shouldn’t get pregnant from bareback contact. Shape-shifters didn’t carry human diseases, either. So she could indulge herself. She’d come off the pill a while back, when she’d considered her sex life temporarily at an end. Even if she did meet someone, they’d use protection. She hadn’t considered taking shape-shifters as lovers. The rules were different then.

Thierry kissed up her spine as Harlen kissed her lips and slid a finger into her cleft, then deep inside her cunt. She groaned into his mouth. Two men, two sets of fingers—two cocks. Fuck, just thinking about that heated her like never before. That these men would work with each other to make her happy humbled her.

Harlen finished the kiss and smiled down at her. “I’m moving you now. I’ll lift you on to the bed. Go up on your knees.”

Thierry put a hand on her hip, and as Harlen lifted her, she curled her legs under her. Thierry kept his fingers inside her, but moved back with her. Still he went deeper as Harlen smoothly lifted her. She put her hands on his shoulders. In this position, she could take Harlen without him having to stoop.

“Open your legs,” he murmured. She spread her thighs. He slid his fingers inside her cunt and worked them around.

Thierry touched a spot deep inside her ass that made her shudder. Harlen groaned. “That feels so good. You tightened. Thierry, if you don’t fuck her in the ass soon, I swear I’ll do it.”

“Oh no,” Thierry said. “This is mine. At least it is for now. You’re ready, bébé.”

To take him?

Before she could register her doubts, he withdrew his fingers, and replaced it with his cock. He nudged at her entrance. “Bear back against me, Amanda.” His voice was strained. He held her hips, and worked the tip of his cock inside.

“Fuck.”

“That’s the idea,” Harlen said.