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Chapter 5

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Dinner was awkward, but still delicious. Oisin refrained from making any more snide comments to Hisashi, but he was still broody. Con tried his best to play peacemaker and get everyone to feel better. I just ate my fucking food like a sane person would. The guys needed to work on their priorities. Con's cooking was serious stuff.

Hisashi was every bit as easy-going as Con. He ignored Oisin's brooding and helped clean up and load the dishwasher. It was almost comical how seamlessly this strange man seemed to slide right into our daily life.

You know, if one of us wasn't glaring murder at him the whole time. Fae.

It was late by the time we cleaned up. Con took Hisashi to the guest room to show him around. The fox cast me one last look as he walked out of the kitchen, a half-smile lifting one corner of his mouth. I slumped at the table for a moment after they were gone. Then I put my big girl panties on and went to find Oisin. The fae had muttered about going to bed a few minutes ago and made himself scarce.

I expected him to be off in his own room, brooding with his greenery. But I should have known better. He hardly ever slept in there anymore. I found him in my room—our room—staring out the window toward the dim streetlights with a distant look on his face, arms crossed over his bare chest, wearing a pair of silk pajama pants and a frown.

I slipped out of my clothes and pulled on my own pajamas, then went to stand behind him, wrapping my arms around him and resting my chin on top of his head so I could meet his eyes in the window's reflection. "Hi."

He huffed. "Hello."

"Going to tell me what's really going on in that awful head of yours?"

He leaned back against me and closed his eyes. "You don't want to know."

I nuzzled my face into his silky hair. "Only partially true." I managed to work his arms loose from their crossed position so I could wrap my arms around his ribcage and plaster one hand over his heart. "Which is really fucking concerning. You really, truly believe there's something you are hiding from me that I won't want to know?"

He stared out into the night for a while longer, his pale face painted with faint streaks of color in the stained-glass window. "Gesa," he said, deflecting me. "That man is amazing. But he can't stay here. He can't be anywhere near me."

I snorted. "That is not answering my question at all, but I'll bite. Why the fuck not? I talked to him about his powers. I don't think he's as dangerous as you make him out to be."

He sighed. "Probably not. Possible, but not probable, if he's managed to live this long." He turned to me, his emerald eyes sad. "Don't you see, Gesa? He's nearly overflowing with magic. It's all around him, like a vortex. You might have to be looking to see it, but to another magic user...God's he's beautiful. He has this presence in his aura...can you imagine what someone might do...to take that power for their own?"

I swallowed convulsively, my stomach dropping out. "Fucksticks."

Oisin's deranged father, fiancé and horde of mages. If they would drain one of their own, what would stop them from trying it on other beings?

"They haven't tried it with anyone but fae yet, as far as I know," he whispered, his silky voice like a breath of chill air. "They think only fae magic is worth anything. Other beings are lesser, tainted. But if they saw him, felt that power...who knows?"

"We have to stop them," I said, with more confidence than I felt, honestly. "Even if Hisashi doesn't stay here, we need to stop them from hurting you. And we need to make sure they never threaten anyone else. This is just sick."

Oisin nodded, his eyes moving to gaze at the half-closed bedroom door, toward the hallway where Con and Hisashi had disappeared. "He's so young," he whispered. "If he had full control of his abilities, he might be a match for anyone that came at him, even a fae. But...he's so vulnerable, Gesa."

I pulled away to plop down on the edge of the bed. "I knew it," I sighed.

He paced closer, coming to stand in front of me and card a hand through my hair. "Knew what, darling?"

I grinned at him. "You don't hate him. You want him."

He shoved me and I fell back to lie on the bed, chuckling. "Fae are so weird. I mean, I seriously thought I was going to have to mop up blood at some point. And here you are already being all protective of the hot new roommate."

Oisin put a knee on the bed between my legs to loom over me, his long hair draping around us like a curtain of fire. "Careful, gryphon. Do you really want to play this game?"

I smirked at him. "Con won't play with you, so you found another target. You really are a walking cock."

He lunged. Sitting atop my stomach, he pinned my hands above my head with magic-enhanced strength, his knees planted on either side of my torso. He smiled sweetly. "Just thought you might want to grow your pride, darling."

I bucked underneath him. "I do not have a pride!"

"Funny," he said in a conversational tone, "how gryphons can sense whether other people are lying, when they are such liars themselves."

I glared.

Oisin relented with a chuckle and we moved to lie on the bed the right way. He still draped himself over me, the leech. I rumbled my approval. The man was a giant mess. But Gods, I loved him.

"Have you ever had sex with a woman?" he asked calmly, head still on my chest.

I slapped him on top of the head. "Idiot."

"I'm being serious. I need to consider all of our options."

I rolled my eyes. "You mean all of our positions. I know exactly where your mind is right now, and you can just stop."

He tilted his head to grin up at me, showing slightly pointed canines. He had dropped his glamour. I stroked along the tip of one pointed ear and he hummed. "You're not wrong," he admitted. "But you can't stop me fantasizing."

I rolled, pinning him under me. "Is that a dare?"

He squirmed when I bit his nipple, but didn't really try to get away. "Take it as you will," he said in a haughty tone that turned to a breathless laugh.

I slid lower, over his smooth, milky skin and dancer's body, pulling his pajama pants down, sliding the silk over his perfect skin in a slow drag until his hard cock popped free. His hands slipped into my hair, insistent, demanding. I grinned and licked him from root to tip.

The door clicked closed behind me, and I stiffened for a second. I had completely forgotten it was open. Then, big, warm hands slid over my hips and Con's voice whispered in my ear. "I thought you'd both be naked at this point?"

I chuckled and we helped each other strip. Then I returned to what I was doing—slowly punishing my bratty fae. Meanwhile, Con moved behind me, stroking and teasing, making me gasp and moan against Oisin's skin. His clever hands had me shuddering and moaning around Oisin's cock as I came.

Oisin pushed me off with a muttered curse and I grinned up at him, still panting from my own orgasm. "Something wrong?"

He narrowed his eyes at me and tugged on my hair. "Come up here, you beautiful beast."

Con and I joined him to lie on the bed, their bodies sandwiching me in a tangle of limbs. I turned to face Con and he pulled one of my legs over his hips, angling himself to enter me while we were on our sides. I chuckled to see he had already slipped on a condom while he was watching me and Oisin. My human might be straight as a ruler, but that didn't mean he didn't like to watch me with my other mate.

It still surprised me, how each of them was able to focus on our combined happiness, rather than trying to prove their dominance. So different from any of the gryphons I'd slept with.

I hooked my leg around Con's hips and pulled him closer, sighing when he entered me, dipping my head to taste the smooth brown skin of his shoulder. Lost in the sensations of Con slipping into me, I barely registered the soft snick of a plastic cap being opened. Oisin, trailed kisses down the back of my neck and spine, and I tensed in surprise when I felt a slick finger glide between my cheeks.

Gods, he was depraved.

That didn't stop me pressing back against his slender finger, then forward against Con. I had thought of this often—what it might be like to have them both inside me at once. But so far, we hadn't ventured there. Con kissed me, his soft, devouring touch a contrast to Oisin's biting kisses across my ribs and hip. I shuddered as Oisin slid that finger inside, slow and patient. "All right there, gryphon?" he whispered. His silken voice was full of humor, but I knew he really was making sure I was okay with this.

Con lifted his head at my gasp, his liquid brown eyes flicking to Oisin to see what was causing me to spasm against him. His eyes widened a bit, then a slow smile spread across his beautiful face. He dropped a kiss to my forehead. "Roll this way?"

Con and I rolled so I was straddling him, taking his perfect cock deeper. I ran my hands over his chest as Oisin moved behind us, straddling Con's thighs and pushing me forward with a hand in the middle of my back. "Tell us if you want to stop," he said, hands caressing my hips and ass before reaching for the lube again. "You're safe with us, love, always."

Con pulled me down into a kiss, while Oisin teased his slick cock at my hole. My little fae might be dangerous and demanding, but he knew what he was doing. He went slow, letting my body adjust, until he was sheathed inside, his slender hips flush against my ass.

I liked to think I was an adventurous woman, when it came to sex. But holy shit, how had I never thought of this, demanded it? "Fuck," I panted, my body overfull, hot and shivering. "Someone needs to move."

Con shifted under me, slowly sliding out as much as he could, then back in. His golden-brown eyes searched my face. "Okay?"

I growled.

Oisin laughed, his graceful hands tracing up and down my sides, then coming to rest on my hips. He took a firm grip on me and I sucked in a breath in anticipation. He slowly slid most of the way out, then back in. "Oh my gods." I muttered, dropping my head to Con's chest.

Con let out a breathless laugh, his chest vibrating under me. "You're not fucking joking." I lifted my head to meet his golden-brown eyes. His face was flushed, and a sheen of sweat was starting to form on his temple. "I can feel him too."

I choked on my tongue.

Oisin chuckled and moved again, making Con and I both gasp.

Slowly, we set a rhythm. Con moving, then Oisin, in a coordinated dance that left my body buzzing and overstimulated, their movements feeling like one never-ending glide against my flesh. Oisin, with several hundred years of experience in debauchery, guided Con and I, adjusting our positions so the angle of their thrusts made us all cry out in pleasure. I was never more damned thankful for my fae's degenerate nature.

When I came again, I came hard, unable to hold back my roar. Con gripped my hips and thrust upward hard, slamming home as all his muscles flexed and he found his own release. Oisin lost his grip on his nature at that point, tangling a hand in my hair to drag me to a more upright position as he picked up his pace, burying his sharp teeth in the back of my neck in a stinging bite as he came. A hint of his magic rippled over my skin like a heated caress and I came again, going limp in Oisin's grasp.

We both collapsed forward, and Con grunted under our combined weight. "Gods," he half-wheezed, half-laughed, "you two really are going to kill me one day."

He reached around my back to shove at Oisin's shoulder. "Off," he grunted. "Humans need oxygen."

Oisin withdrew with smooth grace and rolled to the side, falling back to lie next to Con. I straightened to find both men wearing identical dopey grins. "You both look ridiculous right now." Gods they looked perfect. Happy and content, and mine. How the fuck was I so lucky?

I climbed off Con, my shaky legs nearly giving out when I stood. The guys followed me into the shower and insisted on being all caring and shit. My heart couldn't take all this...tenderness.

Once we were all clean—and Oisin stopped trying to convince us to try for round two—we collapsed into bed and slept like the dead.