Spartan Resistance (38 page)

Her climax rose swiftly and tore through her with a roar of almost painful pleasure. She cried out again, her body wracked by violent tremors as the orgasm lingered, buzzing in her mind and tearing her nerves apart with silvered joy.

She could barely breathe, but neither of them let her relax or recover. Brenden picked her up as if she weighed nothing. “Put your legs around me,” he said. His own breath was ragged and the pulse was back in his neck, heavy and fast.

Mariana wrapped her legs around him and he slid his hands under her ass, holding her steady. His fingertips stroked the flesh under them, making her hiss, for they were very close to the cleft of her cheeks. She wound her arms around his neck.

Brenden carried her around the fire, over to the wide bench against the wall. Over his shoulder, Mariana could see that Billy was standing now. His chest was bare, gleaming in the fire light and the flesh bunched and flexed over the muscles beneath. He wasn’t as wide in the shoulders as Brenden—no one was—but he wasn’t skinny, either. She had run her hands all over those muscles, two nights ago. Now she would again.

Mariana’s heart gave another leap of excitement as Billy stripped off his trousers and shoes and moved around the fire, as naked as she. His thighs were as strong as his arms and his cock jutted from them, deep red in the firelight.

Brenden lowered her to the bench. It was a high platform and the long cushions on top of it made it higher. It put her almost at the same height as Brenden’s hips and she shuddered at the possibilities.

“Billy can take care of you for a while,” Brenden told her. “But I’ll be back.”

He moved away, his big fingers already working the fastenings on his shirt. Billy took his place and slid his hands beneath her hips and moved them forward.

It spread her open, exposed to his gaze, but she didn’t care. She wanted him inside her. She wanted both of them.

Billy kissed her again, taking his time with it. As his tongue stroked the inside of her mouth, the tip of his cock brushed her pussy, making her muscles quiver and the sensitized nerve ends fizz and stir.

She bent her leg around his hip, urging him to push forward and he chuckled against her mouth. “Greedy.”

“For you, yes.”

He let her guide him, his cock pressing against her moist cleft, then deeper. Her muscles clamped around him and made him hiss. He slid into her with utmost slowness, making her gasp and her hips shift, trying to pull him inside.

At last he was seated deep inside her and his pelvis was pressed against her. Billy stopped kissing her long enough to look down at where they were joined. He played his fingertips over her mound and up against her pussy, where his cock rested and she gasped at the intimate touch.

“Beautiful,” he said and his voice was distorted with the power of his arousal.

“Lift her,” Brenden said, from behind.

Billy lifted her just as Brenden had done and his cock stayed inside her. He also made it seem like she weighed nothing. Her legs were already around his hips and she clung to his shoulders.

Over his shoulder, she saw that Brenden had stripped and stood naked. For the first time she saw the true strength of him—the rounded shoulders, thick with muscle, the bulging arms. She had heard other vampires say of him that he was the strongest vampire ever known and gazing at him, she believed them. Even his thighs were powerful. His hips were lean and his cock jutted, no lesser in girth than Billy’s.

“Here,” he said. “Turn around, so I can support her back.”

Billy turned slowly and she felt Brenden step up behind her. His chest pressed against her shoulders. Even with Billy holding her up, Brenden was still taller. His mouth pressed against her shoulder and his tongue slid over the nape of her neck. He paused, his lips hovering just above her flesh. She knew what had made him pause. Her great artery ran just beneath the skin, there. He would have felt the pulse, which was thready, betraying her excitement. Perhaps he could even hear the blood rushing through her body.

Would he bite? She knew that vampires sometimes bit their human partners and the bite made sex incredible, although as far as she was concerned, the sex was perfect right now. But the possibility that he might bite her added a degree of spice to her anticipation. She wasn’t afraid, though.

But he pressed his lips against her neck one last time, then her cheek. “Do you know what I’m going to do to you?” His hands were stroking her back, down low by her hips, making her twitch.

Mariana smiled.

“She knows,” Billy said, sounding amused. Then he hissed, drawing in his breath.

“What?” she whispered.

“You’re not the only one he can reach from there,” Billy murmured.

Then she felt Brenden’s hand against her pussy and she arched, the muscled sheath squeezing around Billy’s cock.

Billy groaned in reaction. “So good….”

Brenden stroked her flesh, teasing her, gradually drawing backwards toward her ass. She was already spread open, so he could caress the tiny aperture. There was a difference in his touch. Now his fingers felt slick. He had lubricant on them.

He pressed one inside her.
Just
inside.

Mariana closed her eyes, as the thrill of his touch bolted through her whole body, making everything clench.

“She hates it,” Billy said.

“Good,” Brenden replied. He pressed his finger deeper and Mariana moaned. This was better than she had imagined. Better than she would ever have guessed. “Hurry,” she begged.

“Not this time,” Brenden rumbled. “You don’t heal like us.”

A second finger slipped inside her and now she could feel the sense of fullness that Deonne had warned her about. But the delightful sensation of being stretched and the pressure against all the nerve endings there was incredible.

Brenden spent long minutes preparing her, stretching the muscle and stroking the flesh, while she wiggled and her muscles quivered with impatience. Until finally, he withdrew.

Mariana caught her breath and looked over her shoulder. “Now?” she asked.

Brenden gripped her hips. “Now.” His voice was low and tight with excitement.

Billy kissed her then slid his lips down her throat. “Keep still for a bit,” he warned her.

She tried. But when the tip of Brenden’s cock pressed against her, she drew in a shuddering breath and everything tightened in a dizzy spiral of pleasure.

“Relax,” Brenden breathed.

His cock pushed inside her slick entrance and paused and Mariana caught her breath. This was exactly as good as she had thought it might be.

Then he thrust deeper.

“Oh….” she whispered.

Billy was watching her face, his own tight with arousal, his jaw clenched to control his reactions.

She closed her eyes. “This is perfect.” And it was. The fullness, the sensation of being plundered so completely, was joyful.

Both of them were breathing hard. Mariana looked at Billy, then over her shoulder at Brenden. “Fuck me,” she told them. “As hard as you can.”

Billy let out a shuddering groan. Brenden’s hands tightened on her hips. “Very well.”

When they both began to thrust inside her, Mariana’s pleasure didn’t just rise. Her orgasm leapt into life with a roar. She shook with the sensations exploding through her. It was as well the pair of them was holding her up, for she couldn’t have supported herself—she was barely aware of anything except the two cocks inside her and what they were doing to her.

Her climax slammed into her like a runaway train. Her breath hitched and hitched again, as she scrabbled to draw in enough air to compensate for the way it had suddenly evaporated from her lungs.

Billy lowered his head and she saw the flash of his teeth, as he clamped his mouth over her neck. As the same time he bit her, she felt the twin spikes of Brenden’s teeth punch into her neck.

But that was all she noticed, for the heated wave of intense, primal pleasure tore through her, lifting her up and up until all she could see was stars….

* * * * *

When she opened her eyes once more, she was lying on her side on a soft mattress. It wasn’t the bed she had used that morning, for the room felt bigger, even though there was no light for her to see it. She suspected that this was Cáel’s own bedroom, chosen for the size of the bed.

“She’s awake,” Billy murmured.

The bed shifted. A darker shadow moved, blocking the light from the doorway. Brenden’s big hand stroked her cheek. “How do you feel?”

Mariana stretched, feeling tendons pop and muscles stretch. She felt good. Better. Glorious.

The stretch also told her she was still naked and that Billy was behind her. His hand settled on her hip as she snuggled up against him.

“I want to do that again,” she said. “All of it.”

Brenden laughed. It was an astonishingly happy sound, for him.

They did do it again. Many times, over the next four days, for they barely left the bed except to prepare food and to use the bathroom. Not every minute of the four days were spent locked physically together, for Mariana found she simply had to sleep for some of it. She did her sleeping in a series of cat naps, stolen between sublime sex.

When she was not dozing or having sex or watching Brenden and Billy together and
wishing
she was having sex, they talked. About everything.

Sex unstoppered the dam in all of them although Mariana realized that this new, garrulous Brenden was a man she would have to get used to. He talked. He laughed. He told stories about his long life, voluntarily and without coaxing. He didn’t even seem reluctant about it.

That encouraged Billy to tell his own tales. Mariana loved the quiet times when one was talking while the other held her, or stroked her.

But on the fourth day, she was aware of a growing uneasiness in her gut and her heart. “We’ve been away too long,” she told Brenden. “They need us.”

Brenden paused from kissing his way down her spine and lifted his head. “You, they can’t live without. I have lieutenants.” He went back to kissing her.

Billy, who had been watching what Brenden did with close attention, while Mariana trailed her fingers along his cock, put his hand on Brenden’s shoulder. “She’s right. You’ve been gone too long. Especially given what’s happening at the moment.”

Brenden settled on the bed with curse.

Mariana sat up to face them. Brenden looked unhappy. She realized that in the last couple of days, she had seen many different expressions on his face. Pleasure, amusement, even simple happiness. Had she got better at reading him, or had he let down the shield?

Brenden looked at Billy. “You said ‘you’. You meant ‘we’, right? If I must return, then we’re
all
going back.”

Billy looked down at the sheet and plucked at a fold. “You want me to come back with you?”

Brenden gave another soft curse and leaned over to hook his hand around Billy’s neck. “Of course I do.”

Billy looked up. He was smiling and trying to stop it from growing. “Very well, then.”

Brendan grabbed Mariana’s ankle and drew her toward him. He pushed on her shoulder, so that she was forced to lie down. “I’m not going back until I’ve finished here,” he said and kissed her. His gaze caught hers. “
We’re
going back, right?”

Mariana smiled. “Yes.”

His lips moved down her throat, between her breasts and over her belly and Mariana caught her breath as he spread her thighs and settled between them with a wicked smile.

Billy shuffled over to the edge of the bed. “That’s a good idea,” he declared and positioned himself behind Brenden.

Brenden’s breath caught as his lips brushed over Mariana’s hipbone and she closed her eyes and relaxed, happiness bubbling in her chest and her mind.

Chronometric Conservation Agency Headquarters, Villa Fontani, Rome, 2265 A.D.

Cáel asked Mariana to make whatever arrangements necessary to ensure they would be alone. He knew exactly how difficult it was to shepherd agency members anywhere they didn’t want to go. He wouldn’t have known how to orchestrate it himself, but Nayara said that Mariana was in a class of her own when it came to problem solving, so Cáel asked and forgot about it.

As Nayara and Ryan and he made their way to the south cavedium, they came across no one. The corridors were empty, the galleries silent. Not only had Mariana emptied the cavedium, but she had cleared out the entire route from Ryan’s quarters to the south wing.

He had no idea how she had done it, but he was pathetically grateful for her initiative. Ryan was walking once more and for most of the steps he took, he didn’t use the cane in his hand. But his progress was slow and erratic.

Nayara stayed by his side and managed to make the pace they were moving seem like a leisurely stroll. Cáel made himself stay on Ryan’s left and fought to show none of the uneasiness he was feeling, or the concern that would spurt each time Ryan’s balance wobbled.

At last they reached the long south gallery and the doors to the cavedium, which Mariana had thoughtfully shut so that the surprise would not be revealed until the right moment.

The contractors had left late yesterday, after Nayara and he had toured the cavedium and inspected Mavourneen’s work. Now, the gallery no longer looked like the bomb site it had appeared to be yesterday. Mariana must have worked most of the night to get the rooms cleared and back to normal. There was nothing to tell Ryan what lay beyond the doors.

Ryan raised his brow as he saw the closed doors. “What are you up to?” he asked Nayara.

“Come and see,” she suggested and put both hands on the doors and pushed them open with a sweep of her arms. She stepped back.

Cáel experienced the same rush of surprise and pleasure that he had felt last night, when he saw the view beyond the doors. Cool, damp air fanned his face. It was a salty, tangy breeze, that reminded him oddly of Spetsopoula,
except that this air was thick with moisture and almost chilly.

Ryan’s lips parted in surprise as he looked beyond the doors. “It looks…it
smells
like Cathair Saidhbhín,” he breathed. He worked his way down the broad stone steps into the cavedium itself. At the bottom of the steps, it was like stepping into a different world. The strong Italian sun shone overhead, but atmospheric filters and adjusters turned it into a pale disk in a grey-colored sky. Mist was hovering by the roofline. The tiny breeze that blew in their faces was shifting the tendrils slowly out of the way.