Page 8 of Avalanche (Endless Winter #3)

I pull back, panting against her lips, stomach quivering as I hold myself up over her. She stares up at me, pupils blown, hair mussed and tangled in my fingers, long waves draped over my forearms.

“You okay?” I ask her, the question whispered against her lips.

“Yes.”

The answer gusts across my mouth on a sweet exhale, tasting like my future. I imagine what it would be like to hear that word in response to another question.

Will you marry me?

Yes .

I smile softly to myself, thinking about that little black box tucked in the pocket of the jacket that’s currently strewn across her floor somewhere.

My lips brush across her pulse point, my tongue tasting her, feeling the flutter of her heartbeat.

It thunders in time with my own, wild and desperate and ready to burst. She squirms against me, arching, legs spreading wide.

I feel the drag of her cotton tank top against my bare chest, hear the little breathy gasps she makes.

I slide lower, my lips teasing the skin at the neckline of her tank top, my hands trembling as I cup her breasts through the fabric. It’s still terrifying, touching her like this. Still amazing that she lets me do it.

Warmth brushes against the top of my head and Lily’s gasps are silenced by a satisfied, muffled moan.

I look up her body, something strange twisting inside of me at the sight of Antoine kissing her, his hand at her throat, his dark lashes brushing against his cheek.

I freeze at the sight, at the indecent way his lips devour hers, at the slide of his tongue into her mouth.

“Don’t stop.” Liam brushes a reassuring hand over my shoulder. I shiver at the touch, at the unexpected warmth of it. I shoot him a glance and he gives me a sharp-edged smile. “Keep going. You’re doing great.”

That twisting deep in the pit of my stomach clenches. My lungs tighten, my breaths coming in short pants against Lily’s skin. Liam’s hand is still on my shoulder, those grey eyes fixed on my own with an unnerving intensity.

“Pull down her top,” he suggests lightly, almost as if he doesn’t care whether I do or don’t. But I can see the hungry gleam in his eyes. He wants this as much as I do. “Play with her breasts. She likes that.”

I nod, grateful for the order. For a reason to delay sliding further down her body to where her legs are spread beneath me. A moment to gather my thoughts, a moment in familiar territory before I explore the unknown.

I pull the neckline of her tank top down, staring in satisfaction as her breasts come free, the fabric cupping those perfect mounds, pushing them up, pink nipples peaked towards me as if begging me to take them in my mouth.

I open my lips, ready to do just that, but then Antoine’s hand is there, cupping one and then the other, expertly teasing them as he trails kisses along her jawline.

I frown even as I lift up to give him room.

“Go on,” Liam urges, voice full of gravelly amusement. “Antoine will share with you, won’t you love?”

Antoine hums against Lily’s mouth but keeps his hand on her breast, cupping it, teasing the nipple with his thumb.

That feeling tightens, uncomfortable and hot, an angry sort of feeling that has my balls drawing up despite it all.

I surge forward, suddenly not caring about his arm in the way at all.

This is my Lily. Mine. My future wife. Not his.

I wrap my mouth around that peaked nipple, drawing it in.

Lily moans, arching against me. Antoine makes an irritated sound, his arm trapped between me and her.

I don’t care. He should have known better than to touch her there.

I slip my hand beneath his elbow, pushing him aside as I cup her other breast. He carefully pulls his arm free, muttering something in that language of his. Probably cursing me out.

“So greedy,” he chuckles.

A hand settles on the nape of my neck, heavy and hot. I gasp, my mouth flying open, Lily’s breast coming free. The grip tightens, gently urging me to keep going. Antoine , I realize, and the heat that’s been tightening at the base of my spine nearly explodes, my vision whiting out for a moment.

I dare a glance up and he’s staring right at me, those green eyes sharp, assessing, his lips slick with saliva and kiss swollen as he pants against Lily’s jaw.

His thumb traces a circle on my neck, sending shivers racing down my spine.

Those green eyes blink, cat like, a silent question.

I moan, letting my own eyelids flutter shut in answer as I drop back down to draw in Lily’s other nipple, following Antoine’s gentle guidance.

“Fuck.” Liam’s curse is a bitten off breath. The mattress dips as he shifts on the bed beside me. “Fuck that’s hot.”

Liam’s hand settles on my shoulder, beside Antoine’s, the weight heavier.

Maybe he just means to guide me down, to silently tell me it’s time to slip between Lily’s thighs, but my skin burns beneath his palm.

Meanwhile, Antoine’s fingers tangle in the hair at the nape of my neck, twisting the strands, pulling ever so gently.

I whimper, the sound thankfully muffled by Lily’s breasts, and pray they can’t see how badly I’m shaking.

“Let Antoine have a turn now,” Liam suggests, his grip on my shoulder tightening, the pressure urging me down unmistakable for anything but an order. “Go on.”

I release Lily’s nipple, pulling back to stare at her.

She’s panting into Antoine’s mouth, her sharp short breaths making her breasts quiver enticingly, the pale skin red from my stubble, nipples dark and wet from my hungry kisses.

Antoine releases his hold on the nape of my neck, pulling back from Lily’s kiss-swollen lips to give me an expectant look.

Go on , it seems to say, you’ve had your turn .

I narrow my eyes at him and those full lips curve into a knowing smirk.

But he’s right. They both are. Lily is squirming and trembling beneath me.

If I put this off any longer, she might think I don’t want to do it.

She might think whatever her ex-boyfriend told her was true.

She might think I don’t like it when the truth is, I’m absolutely terrified because I have no idea what I’m doing.

“Move down, you big hulk,” Liam’s voice is a steady thing, lacking all softness but pulling me back to the present, anchoring me. “I want to see our girl’s pussy. It’s been too fucking long.”

I shoot him a grateful look and do as he says.

It’s easier to obey. Easier not to think.

Safer to trail kisses down Lily’s trembling belly with the weight of Liam’s hand on my shoulder.

Antoine shuffles on the bed beside me, quickly taking the place I vacated, pressing his body closer to Lily, his long legs trailing alongside her own as I settle between her spread thighs.

“Look at her,” Liam orders, and I obey, my gaze dropping to her exposed core. My breath punches out of me, my cock bucking where it’s pinned against the mattress.

She’s slick and swollen, puffy outer lips spreading to reveal darker petals within, her hole opening hungrily.

I wet my lips at the sight of it, then reach one trembling finger out to trace her outer lips, conscious of how rough my callused fingers must be against that delicate, slick skin.

I dip one fingertip inside, just enough to feel the clenching resistance of her heat, to have her moaning into Antoine’s mouth, then bring my finger to my lips, tasting her.

“So good,” I murmur around my digit, the words muffled. “You taste so good.”

That little bud sits at the top of her slit, barely larger than a pea, hidden between slick folds. I see it though, because I know where to look for it now. I’ve seen the way she responds when it’s rubbed and teased, heard those sounds she makes when she loses all control.

I want to wring those sounds out of her now.

I dip forward, slowly, tentatively. Liam’s hand moves from my shoulder to the nape of my neck, guiding me onward. Much like Antoine did before, I realize, but there is no gentleness in Liam’s touch, just demand. I sigh at the feel of it, and let him push my head between Lily’s spread thighs.

She gasps at the brush of my lips on her spread core, widening her knees to accommodate me.

I drag my tongue against her folds, seeking out that hidden nub with a desperate sort of determination.

For a moment, I’m terrified I won’t find it, but then I brush against something raised and hard with the flat of my tongue.

I pause, triumphant with my success, then flick my tongue against it again before locking my lips around it, drawing it in with an open-mouthed kiss.

“Oh.” The word is breathless, a drawn-out sigh. “Ohh.”

A shimmer of pride rushes through me, swelling behind my ribs. The taste of her fades beneath my own saliva, but that’s a disappointment quickly forgotten when she’s trembling and panting beneath me, the mewling sounds of pleasure growing…

“You’re fucking kidding me.” Eddie’s voice cuts through Lily’s sweet moans like a knife. “This is what you guys are going to do today? Without me? You guys fucking suck, you know that?”

I pull back, lips slick with Lily’s arousal and my own saliva as I bare my teeth in frustration.

Eddie is one of my best friends but there’s something about knowing he’s watching the four of us from the doorway that has rage burning red hot at the edges of my vision.

It’s not just him seeing me with Lily, I realize.

There’s something incredibly vulnerable about him seeing Liam’s hand on my neck.

Like somehow, he’ll know. As if each of Liam and Antoine’s casual touches have left some mark across my skin. Branded me.

I open my mouth to say… something. Something that will make him leave. Anything to have him disappear, to have that door close and leave the four of us alone.

“Hey.” Seth appears at Eddie’s back, one arm wrapping amicably but implacably around Eddie’s shoulders. “Give them some privacy, eh.”

He’s smiling, gentle and congenial as always, but there is a hardness to his tone that brooks no argument. Without thinking, my gaze drops to Seth’s knuckles, the bruises now faded. Eddie scowls up at him, but doesn’t fight as Seth steers him back to the kitchen, pulling the door shut behind them.

I sigh in relief and turn back to Lily. She’s propped up on her elbows, grinning sheepishly at me, her wind-burnt cheeks flushed as Antoine presses close against her side.

He drapes one long, muscled leg across Lily’s, half pinning her to the mattress.

The move has her thighs widening, has the course hair of Antoine’s leg brushing against my forearm.

I sit back on my heels, captivated by the way his dark skin contrasts against hers, momentarily overwhelmed by the sensation of being so close to the both of them.

When I look up, it’s to see Liam watching me keenly with grey eyes, an unreadable expression on his face.

He knows. He must know.

I swallow, that heavy knot tightening low in my belly, shame crawling down my chest like fire ants.

His gaze tracks its path, dropping from my eyes to my lips to my throat then lower, openly perusing my half naked body.

When he reaches my boxers, lightning jolts down my spine, my cock bucking against the fabric as if he’s touched me.

For a brief moment, I think maybe he hasn’t noticed, that maybe my obvious reaction to him has been hidden by shadow of the dimly lit room.

But then Liam grins, a sharp curved smile that is too triumphant to be a smirk.

The anger that had rushed through me when Eddie came in is gone, burnt out as quick as a flame to paper.

“Keep going.” Maybe I imagine it, but Liam’s voice is raspier than before. “I want to see how many times you can make our girl come.”