Theirs To Claim (Predatory Desires Book 1) (21 page)

Emily let Gabriel help her move over until she was astride Noah’s lap, perched there so he could see her. He cupped her face and kept his eyes firmly locked on hers.

“I
cannot
make it without you, Emily,” Noah professed. “And that love and need to shelter you, is what made me deny any plan which might involve you getting hurt. I did not say those words to knock the supports out from under you. Far from it. It was an emotional outburst, and not logical thought at all. See it from our perspective, please. Men don’t sit and analyze their words before they pop out of their mouths like women do at times. We get riled, and sometimes words fly.”

“But hear these words, baby. I. Love. You. I’ve only ever wanted you, only craved you. You get me through so many nightmares and days of bleakness. You’re my ray of sunlight, and tonight I saw that light coming back into your eyes before and during dinner. Forgive us, and know that we can’t find this person without you. We can’t sort through it all, make sense of it all, or move forward as the family we are, without you. You, Emily, are a part of this team and a part of us, until we’re no more.”

“Tell me you hear me, and that you can move past this. Please tell me we’re not over. Not now that we’ve finally gotten the courage to tell you what’s always been there in our hearts. Please,” Noah begged. And he was most assuredly begging, he acknowledged, because his life would have no meaning whatsoever if she walked away from him now. Noah began to pray and beg God as well that Emily not be torn from his arms.

“I don’t want us to be over, Noah. That’s not what I said. I do love you,” Emily cried. She gave up the fight to hold it all inside as she closed the distance between her chest and his. Emily wrapped her arms around Noah’s neck and buried her face on his shoulder while the last of her bitter heartache tore free.

All of her remaining anger, desolation, and hopelessness poured out as he held her to his heart. If she’d thought the tears she’d shed earlier were a torrent, Emily knew then that she had been wrong. Her grief over all that had been lost to her was an ugly, living thing in the moment. And as her sobs constricted her airways, Emily saw her grief for the monster it really was.

She was letting this fiend, this stalker, actually take her from the two other people who loved her more than they loved themselves. She was giving up in a way she hadn’t before, not fighting for what was hers. And didn’t that truth sting and burn?

They’d always verbally sparred with each other, playfully bantered back and forth, and in the past she’d given as good as she got. But not this night. No, she’d let their hot-headed words, spoken in the heat of the moment, shake her newly formed foundations.

What had happened to her, Emily wondered? Where had she disappeared to in all this? Where was the Emily she knew? The fighter? The dreamer?

She’d done the one thing she’d sworn never to do when this whole nightmare had begun. She had given up, and Emily was sorry to admit that she was ready to send the guys on with their team while she hid somewhere else, far, far away.

The truth shamed her. She was the coward, not they. But she didn’t have to be, Emily told herself. She could be the Emily she was before this all started. She could be a fighter, someone that she and her family could be proud of.

At that thought, she remembered her Gram’s face. What would Gram say if she could see her now? Oh, Emily knew. She’d tell her to shake it off, get mad, and then get even. Hell, she’d stand there with her hands on her hips and demand that Emily find her backbone again. Because Emily not only had to fight this intruder, this interloper, she had to fight to keep Gabriel and Noah. She had them, but if she didn’t speak the words, she could lose their precious gift. Their promise of love and forever.

Emily leaned back and stared into Noah’s green eyes. He was crying right along with her, and she cupped his face and began to wipe the moisture away. She had to swallow repeatedly to get her voice to work, but finally there was enough there that she could speak to him. To them both.

She lifted her right hand from Noah’s face and settled it on Gabriel’s. Emily was shocked to feel tears there on his skin too, and she knew then that these men were worth fighting for. She held their hearts in her hand, just as they did hers, and she wasn’t letting go.

“I love you,” Emily said in a hushed tone. It was all she had after her gut-wrenching sobs. “I love you both. I want a life with you, a future with you, and I want to work alongside you to see this through – I
need
to, so I can reclaim my voice in all this. I want to be your partner in all ways and in all things. And that means we have to work together now to secure that future.”

“Hold me up when I’m weak and when I’m failing, guys, and I’ll try to do the same for you. And forgive me too, when I crumble, stumble, or fall. I don’t mean to, but sometimes the weight of all this becomes too much for one person to bear. Let’s move past this, because I cannot lose you too. I cannot, for you’re both the other pieces of my soul. Without you, I’m not whole.”

“Neither are we, Emily. Not without you,” Gabriel sighed.

He felt as if his entire world had just started spinning again. There was still some fight left in her. They hadn’t crushed it after all. And not only was she fighting this intruder, Emily was still fighting for the three of them as well. He was so damn thankful and happy, that Gabriel had only one singular thought which compelled him to move. He had to show her what she meant to them, not just tell her.

Gabriel leaned in and settled his lips over hers. A gentle brush of lips that felt like homecoming. Emily felt so soft and so tender as he swept his tongue across her lower lip, urging her to open for him. And when she did, he felt like a man truly reborn.

He cupped the back of her head and delved deeply. He tasted her, drank of her, made a feast of her. When at last Gabriel pulled back, Noah wasted no time turning Emily to face him again.

Noah understood Gabe’s hunger, because his was still a living thing too. It seemed to swell and grow there between them, as if their need to reaffirm and solidify their new bond was the only thing of importance. Nothing else mattered in that moment. Nothing else existed except the three of them.

Noah looked into Emily’s watery eyes, his gaze sweeping lower to take in her swollen lips after Gabriel’s plundering kiss. He shook his head as he cupped her face, and then lowered his lips to hers. Like Gabe, he began slowly. Tasting, nipping, and lightly brushing his lips against hers. He wooed her back to him with as much tenderness as he could produce, amazed that it came so effortlessly to him where she was concerned.

Yes, Noah thought, it was Emily. Always Emily that made him feel so sure of himself and so at peace. And she was his still, no matter what short-sighted thing he’d let slip through those same lips that were now mending their fences, and making it all better again.

Noah turned her face slightly and then ran his tongue deeper inside her mouth. He ate her up, needing Emily to want him just that much and more. When she whimpered low in her throat, he felt the last shreds of his composure slip away. Noah moved his hands down to her backside and pressed her against him as he rose in one swift motion.

He knew Gabriel would follow, so he made his way over to the door, ready to go inside and show Emily just how much she meant to him. To them both.

CHAPTER 22

Emily clung to Noah’s body, her arms wrapped around his neck and her legs locked firmly around his trim waist. He moved his lips down her throat as he walked them back inside, past the hot tub and to the bed. Slowly, so slowly that it made her breath catch in the back of her throat, he released his tight hold on her bottom and let her slide down the length of his muscular body.

Just as soon as her feet touched the floor, Gabriel was there at her back. He picked up where Noah left off, his lips scorching a hot trail down her neck while Noah reclaimed her lips with his. Emily felt his hands roaming over her body, and she lost herself in the sea of sensations that were coursing over and through her.

Noah’s adept fingers skimmed down her sides until he clasped the edge of her shirt. He and Gabriel lifted their heads away from her long enough to pull the t-shirt over her head. Then Gabriel reached around her and flicked the button of her jeans open. The soft rasp of a zipper was the only sound in the room, other than their labored breathing, and within seconds Emily knew he had it undone too.

Gabriel bent, trailing his hands along the smooth length of her legs as he pushed the denim down. Noah wrapped his fingers around her waist to steady her as Gabriel pulled each leg out of the material. He tossed her jeans to the side and then stood at his full height behind her once more. His hands ran down her back and cupped the pert globes of her ass, kneading and plumping them until she began to squirm.

They gave Emily no time to hold on to any one sensation, they just kissed, touched, and stroked her body until she was putty in their hands. Completely amenable to whatever pleasure they chose to bestow upon her. But Emily needed to connect with them of her own accord too. Give them what they were giving her.

She ran her palms up the contours of Noah’s toned chest and pushed his shirt over his head. He raised his arms and let her divest him of it, and then cupped her face to kiss her while her fingers began to work on his jeans. She opened the button and then the zipper, smiling as his stomach muscles contracted each time her knuckles brushed against his skin.

Noah stepped back only long enough to hook his thumbs into his belt loops and, in one swift motion, he shed his jeans and briefs. Emily licked her lips when his cock bobbed free, already fully engorged and beaded with liquid at its head. She reached out and clasped her hand around his shaft, hearing Noah hiss as she leaned over and closed her lips around the tip. Her tongue swept over the slit and she drank in the first dewy drops of his arousal.

He groaned as she took more of him inside her mouth, and Noah ran his hands into her hair to steady her as Emily slid her tongue over the sensitive area just at the back of the ring around his cock’s head. He moaned again, louder this time, when her teeth grazed lightly over him there.

She let him slowly glide from her mouth and then she turned to Gabriel. She found him already naked, and staring at her with hungry, smoldering desire in his blue eyes while his hand slowly stroked his erection. He was ready too, and Emily wanted to taste him just as much as she had Noah. She stepped forward and glided her palms over his chest, then leaned in to encircle his right nipple with her tongue.

Gabriel made an inarticulate sound of pleasure when Emily closed her lips and began to suckle him. She loved the texture of it in her mouth and she moved over to taste his other. It was flatter and broader than hers, and she marveled over the differences in their bodies. He ran his hands into her hair and held her to him, murmuring his encouragement as she teased and lightly bit the engorged nub.

“Harder, Em,” Gabriel rasped, and she applied more pressure as she tugged back a little, pulling on his nipple with her teeth. “Yes!” he gasped in approval. “Just like that.”

She moved over and tugged on his right nipple again, then she began to trail kisses over every dip and contour of his ripped abdomen. Emily sank to her knees, her hands gliding down his muscular thighs along the way, until she knelt directly in front of his fully, erect cock. He was so large, but not that much larger than Noah she realized, now that she really compared the two. Yet there was enough of a difference for her to feel it when he was inside her.

Gabriel clasped her head in his hands and waited until she leaned in before he helped guide her movements. She stared up into his eyes while she ran her tongue over the head, needing to have the connection with him so she could share in his pleasure. And as she took more of his length into her mouth, Emily understood why Gabriel had wanted to stare into her eyes when they’d made love earlier. With every motion, she watched his response to the pleasure register in his gaze, and it was a heady feeling to know that she was giving that to him. She and no other.

Emily sank back on her heels and let Gabe’s cock slip from her mouth, just as Noah moved closer to her. All she had to do was turn her head, and she could take him back into her mouth. And so she did. Emily clasped a hand around the base of his cock and then took him to the back of her throat.

“Oh, baby,” Noah breathed. “Don’t stop.”

Emily hummed and shook her head, and continued her tender massage. She used her free hand to slowly stroke Gabriel’s hardness, keeping him ready, but also giving him pleasure so he was a part of it all. Not left out while she concentrated on Noah.

When she pulled her lips away from him, she recaptured Gabriel’s cock. She remembered to let her jaw go lax and she felt him push in until he rested at the back of her throat. He held himself there and she swallowed so she wouldn’t get overwhelmed. The action made Gabe groan loudly and then he pulled himself out of her mouth.

Gabriel hooked his hands under her arms and lifted Emily in one swift motion until she stood between him and Noah, and then he bent to seal her lips with his. Gabe began to walk her backward until she felt Noah hook an arm under her knees and his other under her shoulders. Gabriel gently pushed her backwards and Emily fell into Noah’s strong hold. He lifted her and then placed her at the bed’s center.

Both men slid onto the mattress with her and descended on her body in the same instant. Emily ran her hands into Noah’s hair as he claimed her lips, kissing her deeply and stealing her breath. Gabriel trailed kisses over her nipples, stomach and lower still, but he skirted around her pussy and licked over the inside of her left thigh. He moved down, tracing her knee with his tongue and placed tender kisses down the length of her calf.

Emily moaned when he closed his lips against the inside of her ankle and sucked - hard. Her instinct was to jump, but Gabriel’s fingers encircled her leg and he held her steady as he teased her skin. Then he moved his tongue to the arch of her foot and Emily felt moisture flood her pussy. She cried out and Noah lifted his lips from hers so her sounds could be clearly heard.

“That’s right, baby. Let us hear you. Let us hear it all,” he praised and then swept lower to close his lips around her nipple.

There was no buildup, no teasing this time, just the sure and steady pressure of Noah’s lips against the sensitive peak. He suckled her until Emily speared her fingers into his thick hair and moaned loudly.

“Noah, I’m going to come,” she panted.

She felt him hum against her nipple, and then he increased his suction just as Gabriel’s lips found her clit. Emily yelled a hoarse cry as her back bowed off the bed. Noah moved his mouth to her left nipple and she came once more. Gabriel’s tongue laved over her quivering folds and then he pushed up inside her, drinking and sucking her arousal as she peeked yet again.

Without a word, Gabriel moved up her body as Noah clasped her shoulders and turned Emily towards him. Noah fused his mouth to hers while he slid a hand down her body, past her hip and to her knee. He gently lifted her leg and draped it over his hip, then fitted his cock to her entrance and pushed inside her with one deft, long stroke.

Emily gasped again at the sensation of being filled so completely and so suddenly, but Noah kept her face cupped in his right hand as he pulled back and then arched up inside of her once more. His eyes bore into hers, just as his thick member did, and every movement in and out of her body caused them to breathe in time with each other.

Just when Emily thought it couldn’t get any better, Noah moved his hand from her leg to her buttocks and he pulled her cheeks apart as cool gel smoothed over her. She gasped when Gabriel’s finger began to massage her tight rosette again and again. She stared into Noah’s eyes, seeing so much love, but also his deep seeded need and longing for her. And she knew he could see the same in hers.

Her mouth parted open when Gabriel’s finger pressed inside her core. Slow and questing at first, then deeper and firmer. He added more gel and a second digit, and she had to lean in to kiss Noah to keep from crying out again. Noah stilled his thrusts as Gabriel prepared her, and he drugged her with a kiss that wiped away any worry she might have about impending discomfort.

Then, Gabriel’s fingers left her back passage and she felt the blunt head of his cock pressing against the tight rosette. Noah lifted her leg higher on his hip and he remained still as Gabe worked to enter her, one slow, shallow thrust at a time.

Emily couldn’t help but whimper as he stretched her open further than Noah had when he’d filled her there. Gabriel slowed his movements and they petted and stroked her skin as she let go of the tension that had suddenly gripped her. When Emily relaxed and exhaled, he pushed inward. The burn was there, yes, but there was also another sensation right on its heels that overrode any pain the invasion caused.

Her head fell back and she grasped Noah’s shoulders as Gabriel’s pelvis finally met her backside. Emily felt even more filled than she had when they’d first tried this, and she could hardly breathe from the spasms already rippling through her abdomen.

“Hold on for us, Em,” Gabriel murmured in her ear. He licked and kissed the delicate skin there and then ran his tongue down her neck. “Let’s make this last, honey.”

“I’m trying,” she breathed. Emily reopened her eyes just as Noah’s tongue swept into her mouth. He groaned loudly while he rocked backwards, his cock barely rimming her pussy’s entrance when he came to a stop. Gabriel slowly drug his erection over her hypersensitive tissues, pulling away from her until she felt empty from the loss of both their shafts.

“I need you,” she whispered. “Come back.”

“We haven’t left you, baby,” Noah reassured her. He smiled and smoothed a hand up her cheek and into her hair. “We’re just getting started. Hold on to me, and feel how much we love you. Feel, Emily,” he intoned as he pushed himself in to the hilt. She gasped and he smiled as he nodded at her, watching her eyes as he rocked backwards and Gabriel filled her core.

“See,” Noah grinned. He nipped the end of her nose and then her chin as he slid inside her velvety heat. “We’re here, Em. Always here. Always inside you, inside your heart.”

“I know,” she nodded and gasped again when Gabriel pulled back. “I believe you. I believe you both. Trust you both.”

Gabriel seemed to lose a bit of his carefully guarded composure at those words. He grasped Emily’s waist and pushed back into her, as far as he could go. The movement spurred Noah forward, and the pace of their rhythm began to increase.

Emily could only stare into Noah’s eyes while they glided into her body, one after the other. She was buffeted between the two on a gentle wave of pleasure and the slight burn of something edgier that stirred her blood into a fevered pitch. She caressed Noah’s chest and shoulders as he moved against her, strong and solid as always. She saw his eyes flicker over her shoulder to Gabriel, just as their hands tightened on her and they took her together.

She clutched Noah’s shoulders as their thrusts moved in time with each other, each man filling her in unison until the pressure became immeasurable. Gabriel’s hand slid between her and Noah and she felt him press down on her clit. She was shocked that his hand was there, touching her, yes, but his knuckles were also grazing Noah’s skin at the same time.

Noah seemed so lost in the moment though, that he never batted an eye. Gabriel’s fingertip began to glide across her super-sensitive nub in a circular pattern, and Emily could bear it no longer.

Her body took on a life of its own. Every muscle within her felt as though it locked in a massive spasm, and Emily opened her mouth on a silent scream as the first wave of her release crashed over her. She felt Gabriel’s teeth sink into the column of her throat just as Noah surged into her pussy so hard that the wave built into something even higher, something almost frightening.

Emily began to cry out their names and buck between them. And the sensations of her inner muscles clenching and clamping down on them spurred their own orgasms. Gabriel groaned and Noah shouted hoarsely as they gave in and filled her with everything they had. They continued to pump into her until every last drop of their come was rested from their balls, and then they slowed their movements until they lay against her. Still connected and still a part of one another.

No one wanted to draw away and interrupt the amazing moment, and so they didn’t. They just lay together, holding, touching, and kissing as they came down from the heights they’d soared to collectively. Emily felt so cherished there between the two men who meant everything to her. So loved.

“I have never felt so at peace, as I do now.” She opened her eyes and looked up to find Noah staring intently at her. She lifted a hand and trailed it through his damp hair, smiling slowly in response to the grin she saw lifting his full lips. “I will never give the two of you up. Never want another day that doesn’t have you both in it with me.”