Page 68 of A Promise of Lies (Shadows of the Tenebris Court #3)

67

Kat

W e had dessert (of course), and curled up on the settee, reading while we let our food go down. He disappeared into the bathroom and the splash of a bath running drifted back into the living area.

If there were three things in life I couldn’t resist, they were cake, hot baths, and him. And I already had two of those. So I padded in, undressing as I went.

His eyes alighted upon me, taking in every inch of my bare skin. He’d lit more real candles in here, and their flickering light caught in the dark, silvery tiles as well as in my hair.

We took our time watching the view out the window to the east—a dim sliver of gold faded over the mountains, signalling that the sun had set. As I leant back against his chest, I felt the relief easing through him.

“Is it silly that I still get to sunset and expect a summons from her?”

I took his hands and kissed one palm, then the other. “It was your routine for fifteen years. I don’t think it’s silly at all.”

He made a soft sound as though reassured and idly played with my breasts, teasing my nipples in this way that had me pushing into his touch.

I twisted to face him, sliding over his wet body with ease. “You’ve taken your sweet time to touch me.”

“I intend to take my time with you tonight, love.” His hands slid up my back. “I wouldn’t want to break you.”

That phrasing. He’d used it when we’d danced and he’d promised to make love to me with his other self. “You mean…?”

“If you still want?—”

“Yes. Yes , I do.” The thought alone made my blood stir.

“ Good . I can’t wait to see you taking us both.” He stood and led me from the bath.

He disappeared behind me to get towels, stepping back into view with one wrapped around his waist. From behind, another towel came around my shoulders, and I gasped, finding his double behind me. He dried me off while the other Bastian towelled his hair and watched.

Together, they led me through the sitting room and upstairs, a thick towel wrapped around me. Every muscle and mole was identical, right down to the intricate shading and stars of his tattoo. Even the way they walked with easy confidence. I finally understood what he’d tried to explain before. This wasn’t Bastian and a copy—they were the same person, consciousness split.

The bedroom occupied half of the upper floor. A large, arched window took up most of one wall, overlooking the sea, which had become darkness capped with white waves. Rain pelted the panes, studding the black clouds beyond. The bed had no canopy, but sat at the foot of the window, facing the sea.

He called the fire to life, its pinkish light bathing the room in warmth as his other self pressed against my chest, warming me. We kissed, slow and deep, every point of connection flaring to life.

At my back, more warmth as they caught me between them and the other one gathered my hair, pulling it to one side as he kissed the back of my neck. Two pairs of lips upon me and one of those at that sensitive spot at the nape of my neck—it was too much. I shivered, clinging to the fae before me.

Caught between them, I should’ve felt trapped. But it was as if some strange alchemy took place in the space of their arms, turning the press of their bodies either side of me into something precious, somewhere safe, a kingdom where I was cherished twofold.

They eased my towel undone and let it fall, so there was only skin upon skin, hot and soft from the bath. One stopped kissing me as the other caught my cheek and turned my head, capturing my mouth with his.

It soon became confusing as hands smoothed over my skin, massaging out every hint of tightness, squeezing my breasts, lightly caressing my thighs and backside, and I lost track of which hand belonged to which Bastian. They shared me, kisses blurring together, a grip tightening in my hair to tilt my head back so the other could kiss me deeper, wring me out harder, overwhelm me all the more.

I didn’t realise they were walking me to the bed until one knelt upon it and the other sat me before him.

Anticipation burned in every fibre of my being. Both Bastians. At last. Curiosity had nibbled me ever since I’d read about three people enjoying each other at once in that book Queen Elizabeth had made us read. And since Bastian’s promise, the nibble had become a gnawing want in my bones.

From behind, he slid his hands along my thighs, nudging them apart.

The Bastian before me took his time, gaze drinking me up from head to breasts to parted legs. He shook his head when his gaze reached my aching centre. “So fucking exquisite. You deserve to be worshipped, you know.”

“We should do that,” he murmured behind me, chest rumbling into my back.

As one knelt before me, the other squeezed my thighs, fingers dimpling my skin as he lifted and spread them as wide as they would go.

My breath caught in that place of sweet anticipation, waiting, wanting. Needing.

With slow reverence, Bastian bent and swept his tongue along me. The breath I’d held burst from me with a soft moan.

“I think she likes that.” He chuckled behind me, letting his shadows take over holding my thighs.

Between my legs, he pulled back and looked up at me, eyes dark. “If we only think it, we aren’t trying hard enough. I want to know .” With the flash of a wicked grin, he lowered his head and devoured me, as his double massaged a sweet-smelling oil between his hands and slicked it over my breasts.

They kissed my thighs, the sensitive spot at the back of my neck. Their fingers glided across my nipples and into my centre. Their tongues delved inside me, over my skin, between my lips.

I couldn’t keep track. Certainly couldn’t keep sanity.

They held me arched, open, at their mercy, around and inside me, playing every part of my body until I cried out, lost in shuddering, all-consuming pleasure.

When I caught my breath, he pulled away, licking me from his lips. “ There . Now we know.” Gaze never leaving me, he backed away and took a seat at a small side table.

I frowned. “What are you?—?”

“Shh.” From behind, his thumb skimmed over my lips. “We have plans for you, love. Don’t you worry. You’ll get every filthy thing you want.”

I swallowed, heat flushing my skin, torn between the thrill of his promise and shame that he knew the places my mind went.

Yet it wasn’t the old shame that had once plagued me. Part of me still believed I shouldn’t want this, I should endure it for the sake of someone else’s needs. Yet here, in Bastian’s arms, I was able to claim it, take it, transform it.

I wanted this so much, it burned my veins, and the echo of shame only fanned those flames higher, hotter. I lifted my chin.

“ There .” At the table, he poured himself a whisky, sat back with his ankle crossed over his knee, and nodded. “Fuck her.”

The rawness of his words seized me and the casualness of his manner made my shame hotter, as his other self lifted my backside and slid under me.

He sipped the amber whisky, gaze intent as his other self paused at my entrance. A wicked smile curled his mouth as he pulled me down onto him.

I whimpered, head falling back onto his shoulder as my eyelids fluttered at the slow fullness.

“Keep your eyes on him, love,” he whispered in my ear as the pressure of his piercing hit the spot that had me arching in his hold. “Show us how well you obey us. Show us how good you are only for us.” With that he drew from me, his other self’s silver gaze upon me all the while.

It felt illicit, being fucked and being watched. Where Caelus had watched me before, though, this was Bastian, and although I knew it was also him filling me so sweetly, it felt like it was someone else. It should’ve horrified me. Should’ve disgusted me. But the knowledge that it was him made this safe.

I wasn’t breaking any rules—I was being good , earning his praise… their praise. Gods, I couldn’t keep the world straight with two of him.

“Are you going to come for us again, little ember?” he murmured in my ear, words reverberating into my back as he guided my hips to meet his and slipped his middle finger over my apex with just enough pressure to make me buck.

“I think she needs more if she’s going to take us both,” the one watching said, placing his glass on the table.

“We wouldn’t want to break her.” The one behind me circled his finger in a steady, maddening rhythm.

“That’s it,” he murmured from the table. “You’re perfection, love. This view is…” He shook his head, gaze locked on me, drink forgotten. His chest heaved as though our exertions were his.

“You feel so good,” he rasped in my ear. “So slick. So tight. I could fuck you for the rest of my life and it wouldn’t be enough.”

I arched, whimpered, terrible tension stretching me out, pushing against his unyielding hold.

The Bastian who sat opposite, leant forward with a predatory half smile, running his thumb over the point of his canine tooth. “Look at her. Look at her .”

The sight of him transfixed by me, the feel of him inside me, upon me, touch circling firm and fast—they layered over each other. I stood no chance.

My body came apart, trembling, arching. I cried out, lost in beautiful, bright oblivion that pounded through my entire being.

When I returned, I found myself still grinding back onto him, body running on instinct. He gave a deep, gravelly groan that thrummed through me, yet his other self still sat, watching.

“Please, Bastian.” I reached for him. “I want you.”

“So greedy,” he said with a dark laugh. “You already have me, Katherine . I can see you’re enjoying it. Your cheeks have gone that pretty pink colour I love so much.”

“But… you promised.” I frowned up at him as the Bastian at my back eased me off him and let me sink to my knees.

The one before me flowed to his feet, and when I went to glance over my shoulder at what the other one was doing, he caught my chin. “Eyes on me, love.”

“Yes, Bastian.” It was worth saying to see the flush of pleasure spread across his skin.

I obeyed as he slid his thumb up over my lower lip. As I took it into my mouth, his other self placed the blunt tip of his cock at my entrance.

With lust-darkened eyes, he watched me suck him in, curling my tongue around his thumb. “Do you want us both at once, love?” His voice had gone gravelly and raw with his own want.

I slid back, fighting a smile as I knew the effect my next word would have on him. “ Please .”

Both of him groaned, and the one before me bit his lip. “Gods damn you, woman. You know exactly what you’re doing when you say that, don’t you?”

“Maybe.”

He shook his head, stroking his length, though he was already hard. “On your hands and knees, then.”

Again, I obeyed. I held his gaze as he slid into my mouth, though my eyelids fluttered and I made a little sound as he slid into my entrance at the same time.

“Is that what you wanted? Both of us in you at once?”

I could only answer with a moan around his cock as both sides of him took up a long, slow rhythm.

This was beyond illicit. Beyond scandals. This was fantasy made flesh.

I used every trick I knew to suck him in, to roll and flick my tongue over his head, to tease the skin around his piercing, but it grew harder to focus with each thrust from his other self. My breaths grew heavier, my skin burned, and I could barely keep my balance with one hand on the bed and the other fisted around him, trying to make up for the fact I couldn’t take him all the way down.

Trying to focus on pleasing him had the unexpected bonus of amplifying every other sensation. His fingers biting into my hips, another hand gripping the hair at the back of my head. The cool air on my skin as rain hammered on the window. His cock gliding all the way out before thrusting right back in, taking me from empty to full at dizzying speed.

“Does our flame think she can take this, too?” Slippery from the oil, his thumb slid between my buttocks, teasing that tighter entrance.

I twitched, the touch adding another layer to the sensation threatening to drown me once more. Perhaps I couldn’t take it, but I wanted it. Stars above, did I want it. I nodded carefully, pulling my eyebrows together, since I couldn’t say please .

“She does.” The Bastian before me nodded to his other self and watched as he slowly sank his thumb into me.

It was too much. The final thing that broke me apart into shards of bliss. My cries were blocked by his length pumping into my mouth, but I heard his praise. “That’s it, love. You can take more. You’re doing so well.”

The praise continued as he used his shadows to add more fullness alongside his thumb, stretching me gently. Another climax built on the aftershocks of the last one, rising so quickly, I didn’t know where one ended and the next began.

He kept whispering sweet filth to me as he caught me when I sagged, breathless, and he eased from my body.

“There, I think you’re ready now.” He smiled down at me, smoothing hair from my sweat-slicked brow. “Do you think you are?”

Eyes wide, I nodded.

“So eager,” he chuckled.

They took it in turns to kiss me, as they manoeuvred me so I was straddling one of them near the edge of the bed, with the other one standing behind me.

“Are you sure about this?” they asked as one. “You don’t have to do anything, you know.”

“I know. And I know I can call a stop to this whenever I want. If I want.” I braced one hand on his chest as I guided him to my entrance. “But right now, I want this.”

He groaned as I sank all the way down his length. “Hold there.” His other self’s grip tightened on my hips as he kissed the back of my neck, his chest flush against me. “Now, breathe with me.”

I joined him as he drew a slow breath through his nose and exhaled from his mouth, then another. The last bit of tension left my body, blown out, and I nodded.

The Bastian behind me placed himself at my back entrance, while the other one took up a lazy circling of my clit with his thumb. Gently, he eased inside.

Oh gods. It was a lot. Too much. I sucked in a shallow breath, and he stopped.

“Stay with me.” Beneath me, Bastian squeezed my thigh and inhaled, long and slow. I followed, keeping up that rhythm, and the tightness slackened.

“That’s it,” he said in my ear.

Once I’d relaxed, he continued his slow entrance. It was a battle to keep my breaths even as the pressure built beyond anything I’d ever known.

At last he stopped, fully seated. He paused there, letting me get used to the sensation of being so full. More of those long, slow breaths helped my body ease around him. It didn’t hurt, but we were just this side of the line and if Bastian wasn’t careful with me, I knew he could push me across it. I suddenly understood why he’d talked about taking his time and making sure I was ready.

“All you need to do is keep as relaxed as you can, let me take care of everything else. This will be a lot.” He held my gaze without any hint of teasing, deadly serious. “If it hurts or you want to stop, tell us or tap twice if you can’t speak. Understood?”

I swallowed and nodded slowly, not quite daring to move when my body teetered at such a delicate balance. It was all the more challenging to maintain control like this when pleasure simmered in me, wanting to boil over.

Holding my hips, he lifted me off their cocks. I gasped at the sudden, absolute emptiness and it was as though I could finally take a fuller breath.

“Are you all right?” he murmured in my ear.

“Yes. Yes . I’m just… a little overwhelmed.”

“Do you want to stop?” the one before me said, serious again, his thumb falling still.

“No. Please, don’t.”

“That’s unfair, love,” he said on a groan as they pulled me back onto them. “You know what that word does to me and I have to control myself right now.”

“I’m sure you’ll manage.” My voice came out breathless as I reached the bottom of the stroke.

“You’re playing a dangerous game, Katherine,” he said beneath me, as he took over holding my hips and the one behind me slid his hands up over my breasts. He gave a merciless squeeze and nipped my ear, making me arch into them both.

I let out a strangled cry, my entire body throbbing.

“Just because I’m not going to ram you while we’re like this, doesn’t mean I don’t have other ways to punish you, love.”

I’d always loved his praise, but it seemed I could enjoy his punishment too. “Do your worst.”

Both parts of him gave a dark laugh.

“Be careful what you wish for.” His grip slid to my throat, the perfect balance of allowing me to breathe and commanding as they both thrust into me. He pulled me back, arching my body so he could claim my mouth and taste the moans they forced from me.

Where other times sex became harder, faster as we both chased a crescendo, they took me slowly, sensuously, as deeply as they could, like we had all the time in the world and they would use every minute. I felt every inch of their steady lengths, aware of each bit of progress in and out, rhythm perfectly matched.

Once, thanks to a piece of paper with our names on it, the law had stated that Robin Fanshawe owned me. Yet, until this moment I had never felt so thoroughly possessed. Bastian Marwood had every part of me, body, heart, soul, and all the indefinable strands between.

And, in return, he gave me every part of himself.

They held me, cherished me, and I felt twice as precious, twice as loved as ever before. I teetered on the verge of tears, just as I teetered on the edge of obliterating bliss. There was nothing like this and no one like him.

And he was mine.

The world faded with each drive of my hips into theirs. Their breaths surrounded me. Their hands placed me exactly where I was required, using me beautifully. Their mouths praised me, bit me, sucked the point of my leaping pulse, and spoke delicious filth in my ear on a hot breath.

“Fuck, you look incredible. You have no idea how many times I’ve dreamed of doing this with you.” His voice was raw, and I could see the strain on the face of the Bastian below me as his eyebrows drew together.

All I could do was hold on as a languid wave came for me, so huge it seemed to move slowly, so overwhelming, it decimated completely.

There was nothing. Only the wave. Only all-consuming bliss.

His distant voice called me back from senselessness. “My glorious forest fire. You’re going to be the death of me.”

Beneath and behind me, he tensed, breaths harsh, movements shuddering as he barely kept control, until as one, both parts of him cried out. I could feel his pleasure, hot and consuming as he twitched inside me, hips jerking.

I could barely kiss him back as he held me, barely move as he gently pulled from me.

“Kat?” Sitting up, he stroked my cheek. “Are you?—?”

I made a small sound of confirmation, too limp to nod or speak. It felt like I’d been pulled apart and put back together, but that this new form needed a while to become solid, like the wings of a newly emerged butterfly.

Together, they took me into the bathing room just off the bedroom. This one was smaller, but the bath was still luxuriously large, and the three of us sank into it. He ran it hot, the way I liked, and the scented steam tugged at my eyelids.

I must’ve dozed off, because the next time I blinked, the water was cooler and he was lifting me from it. “There she is. See? She’s alive.”

“Hmm, good.” They surrounded me, words merging together in a warm cocoon. “I was getting worried. That wasn’t too much was it, love?”

As another towel came around me, I nodded, smiling at the concerned look they shared. “In the best possible way.”

He made a low sound as we returned to the bedroom. In my drowsy state, I tried to walk, but only my toes touched the ground as they carried me between them. This was better than the best part of being drunk—where the world became fuzzy and soft and I wasn’t quite sure what was real or not. I might be walking on clouds, I stepped so lightly.

I found myself laughing softly as they laid me in the middle of the bed, though I didn’t know what amused me so much. “Bastian,” I breathed as they lay on either side of me. “I… I read about love… I dreamed of it… but I never knew it would be like this. I survived without you, but this feels like living.”

Arms tangled around me, someone stroked my hair, they kissed my brow, my cheeks, even my nose as I sank deeper and deeper into the bed and the darkness behind my eyelids.

Before I fell away completely, I caught his soft reply. “It does, doesn’t it?”

I woke with a start. Trying to work out what had tugged me from such a deep sleep, I stretched my aching body. There was no Bastian. But there was a silhouette at the window, a darkness deeper than the black clouds.

I slipped from the bed, wincing at the cold, and pulled a blanket around myself before padding over. After all we’d done together, it was silly to feel a thrill when I wrapped my arms and blanket around him and he pressed into me, but apparently I was silly when it came to Bastian Marwood. Being allowed to touch him still hadn’t grown old.

I peered around him. Outside, huge white caps carved the sea into rough shapes and pounded into the cliffs of the opposite headland. Lightning cracked the sky in two, soon followed by the crash of thunder. That was what had woken me.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” He turned and wrapped an arm around me, gaze on the raging sea. “I was just watching the storm.”

Another streak of lightning fractured the night, reflecting in his eyes, and less than a second later thunder rattled the window.

I shivered and tucked against his side as the wind shrieked and clawed at the house and its little garden. “It’s coming closer.”

He shook his head, squeezing me tighter. “It’s already here.”