She'd taken down her hair and brushed it out, the task she usu- ally preferred him to do. The long strands wove down the smooth cream skin of her arms. Her lips had been touched by red. The dress she wore now was a black formfitting satin, her breasts high and clefted deep from whatever creative underwear she wore beneath it. As she leaned against the wall next to the open door, her hands were folded behind her back, the position tilting her breasts upward. As she watched them, she rocked one foot back and forth on a stiletto heel, riding the skirt up, showing a hint of garter. Pure sex. Any man would have been stirred by the sight. Don't do this. But it was a weak whisper against the desire being conjured in him against his will. For once, she was using compul- sion on him to override his defiance. His cock could care less about right and wrong. In fact, wrong was looking damn appealing. "What are you--" Gideon had backed up a couple of steps, was shaking his head, trying to shake off the magic. Lyssa moved for- ward. When she did, her approach was like a wave of heat. Gideon planted his feet, his expression defiant. She kept coming.
Closing her fingers over the towel, she tugged it away and let it drop as her eyes lowered with blatant appreciation. He was already pow- erfully aroused. When her fingers closed around him, her nails teas- ing his testicles, he closed his eyes, a growl emitting from between his lips. "So full of anger and pain, " she whispered. "Your body is starved for a woman's touch. But you don't trust yourself anymore. You're afraid you'll want her so much, you'll hurt her. " Gideon's hands had closed into fists, his muscles taut, resisting whatever it was she was stirring to life inside him. "You don't want her to give you her body. You want to take it. Feel her surrender to you, open her heart, but you're terrified of what you'll do to that fragile thing . . . "And so tired, " she murmured even more soft ly, now so close her leg brushed his, the hem of the snug dress touching his bare thigh, her stiletto planted between his braced feet. "You can't hurt me, Gideon.
I know the kind of loss you're feeling. Like you, it has made me into the creature I am now. " "What if . . . I want it to hurt?" "I can make it hurt. " Her lips curved, wet sin, as she twisted his meaning. But Jacob wasn't sure she hadn't answered his brother ex- actly the way he needed her to. "I can give you a night of true rest. The kind of rest a man gets after he's fucked a woman past the point of thought. When the body is so exhausted he has no energy left to hold on to anything. " "No . . . No biting. " He opened his eyes, triumphant with the ef- fort of making the demand. Darker things dwelled in his gaze. He almost looked demonic, a handsome, ravaged man willing to do whatever things Heaven or Hell demanded of him just to have some- thing to distract him from his own emptiness. "No biting. " She nodded. "You're safe from that. You're safe from everything here tonight. I'm going to take care of you. So is Jacob. " Come to me, Jacob. I need to feel your touch. He wanted to turn her over his knee and spank her, but he moved forward, a whirl of thoughts in his mind. He noted Gideon's body, hard and lean, crisscrossed with scars, a man who could never be mistaken for anything but a warrior. A man who'd been fighting all his adult life. A man who'd been trying to get himself killed since he was barely grown because he wasn't the one who'd died in an alley, like the girl he'd loved. Or on a beach, like the parents he'd needed. Angry. Resentful of always having to fight. Protect. Jacob paused. He resents me. Of course. Her thought was matter-of-fact, almost a sigh of impa- tience. The older brother, required by his honor to protect you. Of course he was angry that they left him. That he alone was charged with worrying about you. That he found love, something of his own, and it was taken away. That he was left by the brother to whom he'd given so much. None of that has to be here tonight, though. Not be- tween any of us. There is only need. Despite his resistance, his anger at her manipulation of the situa- tion, he was now standing just behind her. Leaning in, he buried his nose in her hair. The ache in his gut from looking at his brother's suffering lessened.
With her free hand, she found his arm, guided it so his hand gripped her hip. Which inspired him to do the same with the other hand, sliding them both around her waist. It brought his body against hers, his hardening cock pressing against the cleft of her ass, so accessible in the soft satin. She rubbed against him, a slow, sinuous circle, even as her hand turned, her knuckles feather- ing up Gideon's hard belly, his broad chest. Her other hand was still wrapped around his brother's thick cock, her thumb teasing the head so he was already shuddering. Jacob brought his hands under her breasts, lifting them, squeez- ing, drawing his brother's gaze there as she arched in aroused re- sponse. Savage male instinct compelled Jacob to do what he did next. Seizing the neckline of the dress in both hands, he tore it open, baring her breasts to Gideon, holding the fabric in tight fists so she was pinned against Jacob's chest, her body fully leaning against him, head settling into the curve between his shoulder and throat. Gideon's gaze lingered on the ripe curves, held up so temptingly in the satin demi-cup bra. His brother had always been a breast man. While small, Lyssa's were superbly shaped, firm, full. Jacob slid his hand down the satin, over the hint of hard nipple. Catching the slen- der strap between the cups, he yanked the bra up, freeing her breasts with a rough wobble of motion that added intensity to his brother's dark blue eyes. Jacob pressed the heel of his hand against her throat, his thumb teasing her there, eliciting a soft mewl of desire as her breasts quivered. Gideon's hands came forward now, his fingers dusting the tops as Jacob gripped one beneath with his free hand and offered it up. Gideon hesitated, then bent and closed his mouth over the nipple. His other hand captured the free breast, taking pos- session. She undulated beneath their hands, her head arching back even farther as Gideon suckled, squeezed. He couldn't know what Gideon was thinking. Jacob wasn't sure if that was a place he wanted to go anyhow. Something hard to define was pumping through his own blood. This was the woman he loved, that he considered his, even though he knew his possessiveness amused or irritated her by turns. Over the past few weeks, she'd offered his body to others.
Commanded him to submit. Taught him that plea- sure could be found in surrendering to her will. During those times, he'd found he needed her touch, her command, as a compass to find that pleasure. So now the tables were turned. She intended to seduce his brother, perhaps only for the reasons she'd stated. But to immerse them all in the flood, she needed Jacob's ability to arouse her. That admission, so simply offered with those words--Come to me, Jacob. I need to feel your touch--had him torn between an intense, emotional reaction to the revelation, and a close-to-the-edge, violent response at the thought she intended him to share her with another man. His own brother. Occupied as they were, both men still noticed when she lowered her hands and began inching up her skirt. Up, up, showing the lace stockings, the garters, the point of her bare sex. No panties. I want you inside me, Jacob. In me from behind, before your brother fucks me. I want you there. Jacob dropped his hand down, moved over her thigh. He pressed his leg behind hers to hold her trapped between him there and Gide- on's hip. When he pushed his fingers into her pussy, into a wetness that sucked him in, he saw Gideon's eyes glitter with lust. She writhed, drawing in an uneven breath, her fangs baring. "Beg me, my lady. " He could have thought it, but instead de- manded it in a rough voice. He didn't know if his need to punish her for this was her influence, his own or the synergy of the moment. It didn't matter. Gideon's attention flickered to him, then back to the woman be- tween them. As if Jacob's demand had released any last inhibitions, he surrendered to his own desires with the snarl of a rabid animal. Seizing both breasts, Gideon pulled them up higher, arching her al- most impossibly as he descended on the nipple again, his suckling ferocious as he brought teeth as well as tongue into it. She turned her head into Jacob's throat, pricked him with her fangs, rubbing her delectable ass harder against his cock. As her eyes lifted to his, she raised an arm and looped it around his neck, her palm flat between his shoulder blades. Using the leverage, she raised her legs.