Page 59 of Blood from the Marrow (Lilith’s Legacy #2)

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Elena ran her tongue along Marisol’s collarbone, savoring the damp heat of her skin.

She relished the salt on her lips when she drifted back to her mouth.

Outside, the drums and dancing and laughter echoed into what was left of the night.

It was an unexpected soundtrack to a moment Elena never dreamed she’d have. One she was never sure she wanted.

But now that she had Marisol writhing beneath her and Zuri’s fingers in her hair, urging her to kiss Marisol more deeply.

Now that commitment was a sword in her hand and a shield at her side rather than an albatross around her neck.

Now that she knew the depth of love and devotion that could come from loving two souls who’d stayed with her at her worst—now, she could never imagine a life without them.

Marisol broke their kiss to toss her head back. With Marisol’s legs hooked around her thighs, Elena swung her hips. Grinding into Marisol and feeling her slick wet heat against her own body was intoxicating.

Elena loved watching her like this. Chest flushed and glistening with sweat. Kiss-swollen lips parted, eyes shut so tight and brow furrowed. She was devastatingly beautiful and agonizingly hers.

Ours, Zuri seemed to say when she looked up at Elena. Ours, when she held her unfocused gaze and slipped her fingers over Marisol’s jaw. Ours, when she gently turned Marisol’s head toward her and claimed her mouth while Elena watched, desire flickering to life after having already been sated.

Elena wanted to have them like this always. She wanted Zuri and Marisol lying side-by-side in her bed, Elena above them, guarding them with her body. Muscles coiled and ready to guard what was hers. Not just hers, Elena accepted. Theirs.

Her wives. She couldn’t digest the magnitude of the word. Of what it meant. But what they’d shown her was undeniable. She didn’t need to protect them on her own, didn’t need to do anything on her own ever again. They’d protect each other.

Chest swelling with so much love that it bordered on unbearable, Elena kissed Marisol’s neck. She ran her tongue over the streams of dried blood, the only evidence left of Elena’s earlier bite.

Elena kissed her shoulder, the curve of her bicep, the hollow of her elbow, her forearm. She slid down Marisol’s body until her chest was nestled between her thighs, and she kissed the thin band tattooed around Marisol’s wrist.

The flames that engulfed Zuri’s binding ribbon hadn’t felt hot as they burned the brand into their skin. It had been like the bite of cinnamon rather than the scorch of an open flame. Elena kissed the inside of Marisol’s wrist where her pulse beat through the brand to meet her hungry mouth.

When Elena moved on to kiss a meandering line over the top of Marisol’s thigh, Marisol reached for her hand. Intertwining their fingers, Marisol moaned her approval against Zuri’s lips. Deliberately taking her time to absorb every moment of Marisol’s anticipation, Elena kissed her slowly.

Ghosting her lips over Marisol’s hip earned a frustrated little groan Elena would replay in her mind forever. Marisol gripped Elena’s fingers tighter, tipping her hips up as if Elena didn’t know what she wanted.

It was Elena’s turn to groan when she glanced up to watch Zuri roll Marisol’s hard nipple between her fingers while they kissed. With the hand that wasn’t holding Marisol’s, Elena reached over to touch Zuri’s leg.

Opening for her in a way that was absolutely destabilizing, Zuri parted her thighs.

Soft, warm skin beckoned Elena to slide her palm higher.

To indulge in the smooth expanse of Zuri’s inner thigh while she kissed her way down from Marisol’s navel.

To smear the blood from the puncture marks that hadn’t quite dried even after Marisol had healed them closed.

At the same time that Elena found Zuri wet and wanting with her fingertips, she brushed her lips over Marisol’s center. They strained toward her touch in unison, both seeking firmer pressure. When Elena denied it, the complaint came in unison too.

Elena grinned, moistening her lips like a cat flashing its claws while her wives watched. Her wives. She hoped the word would never stop setting off a chemical reaction in her body. Hoped it would always give her the closest thing to a racing heart she’d had in her second life.

Teasing and savoring, Elena took her time bringing them close to the edge but not letting them cross.

Not until they were gasping at the same time.

Until Marisol’s body stiffened just before Zuri clenched around her fingers.

Until they were both calling her name in broken gasps that were more pain than pleasure.

Until they unraveled at the same time for her.

Both for her. Always for her. Always hers.

Elena had kissed her way down Marisol’s body so it was only fair that she’d follow the curves of Zuri’s body on the way up.

When she shifted her body to between Zuri’s legs, she couldn’t resist running her tongue over Zuri’s glistening center to collect the evidence of her labor.

Shuddering under the single, long swipe, Zuri signaled she was too sensitive for more.

Deciding that their wedding night wasn’t the time for delicious torment, Elena moved on.

She lavished every inch of Zuri’s skin. Her hips, her belly, the dip between her breasts. Elena had known every part of her body so many times, but all she could feel was the excitement of getting to touch her again. Eager to get drunk on the perfume of her skin and the sweet wine of her lips.

Zuri pulled her down to her mouth, moaning when she tasted Marisol on her. Insatiable. They were all insatiable for each other, and all Elena wanted was for it to remain that way forever. And then Marisol was running her blunt fingernails down Elena’s back. A gentle call for her attention.

“Lie on your side,” Marisol instructed while she kissed Elena’s arm and shoulder.

Her voice was so soft but so effortlessly confident. Elena positioned herself between them and did as she asked.

“Face Zuri.” Marisol slipped in behind Elena, kissing the back of her neck and down her spine and over her shoulders.

The way Marisol held Elena so securely from behind sparked a fresh wave of warmth over Elena’s body.

It wasn’t the sharp spike of lust, the kind of heat that burned fast and uncontrolled.

It was the sun rising over the horizon. Blooming slowly from the center of Elena’s chest, it glowed to life rather than roaring.

And like the sun, it gradually illuminated every shadowy corner of Elena’s heart.

Her soul. The soul that felt more substantial now that it was bound to two others.

She was safe. Loved. Cocooned between the two halves of her own heart, she was whole.

“Kiss her again,” Marisol whispered, hot and sure, against Elena’s ear.

Elena slipped one leg between Zuri’s and pulled her flush against her. Zuri’s lips parted slowly, letting her in with slow passes of the very tip of her tongue. Zuri’s kiss was as gentle as Marisol’s fingers skimming Elena’s side.

It was hard to imagine that anything could feel new to Elena, and yet there she was, nearly gasping while anticipating what came next. Eager to know what Marisol had planned, and thrilled by the prospect of being surprised.

Every touch was more intense than the last. Zuri resting her hand on Elena’s upper arm, rubbing her thumb over her skin in an almost careless display of affection, triggered a pounding rush of sensations.

They were too many to name, too foreign to know, but Elena felt them waking from some forgotten hibernation.

They expanded against her ribs, her chest, her stomach until they pricked the back of her eyes and forced her to whisper a faint, “I love you.”

Marisol smiled against the crook of Elena’s neck, the light brush of her lips setting off a sonic boom of sensation in Elena’s body. “I love you,” she echoed, and then she bit into Elena’s neck.

It was nowhere near enough pressure to break the skin, but it was more than enough to reignite Elena’s hunger. Marisol groaned while alternating between bruising pressure and hard bites. She was marking her skin and Elena’s only regret was that the evidence would heal before she saw it.

Moving together, feeling the full press of their bodies like the slow undulation of a quiet lake, Elena tightened her grip around Zuri’s waist. If she could just shift forward and get half on top of her, she’d find her release against Zuri’s thigh.

Instead, Marisol ran her hand down Elena’s back over her ass, and between her legs from behind.

Rather than enter her like Elena expected, Marisol slipped Elena’s clit between her fingers.

The sensation was different given the unusual angle, but Elena rocked her hips instinctively. Releasing Elena’s sensitive neck, Marisol was breathless when she muttered against her ear. “Imagine if you could feel what it was like inside of her?”

Elena’s eyes snapped open, breaking Zuri’s kiss to curse. Zuri, whose heat flushed face was wearing the words she hadn’t said. Something like, “fuck, Bambi,” in a lusty groan Elena imagined. Just hearing it in her mind was enough to ignite the heat low in her belly.

“You know how tight she gets around your fingers,” Marisol continued, unfazed.

Elena rocked her hips faster, wishing that Marisol’s fingers were targeting her more directly.

Wishing she would move them rather than leaving them stiff at the sides of Elena’s clit.

But she wanted to see what Marisol had in mind.

Confident and sure, she was a far cry from the woman who had once struggled to name what she wanted.

“Can you imagine how good she would feel squeezing your clit while she came?”

Zuri cursed again, bottom lip trapped between her teeth while she rocked against Elena, matching her rhythm.

“How long do you think you’d last?” Marisol’s tone was so low, so sultry, it was a diabolical compliment to the fingers she refused to move.

“If you were inside her when she tossed her head back? When she gripped you so hard and begged you not to stop? When you felt her get so tight, you were afraid she’d push you out and you’d miss it? Miss her coming all over you?”

Mercifully, Marisol let Elena slip between her fingers. Moving back and forth, even if Marisol didn’t leave the sides of her clit, it was almost enough for Elena to will herself to satisfaction. Elena rocked faster, unsure what part of her was touching Marisol or Zuri.

“You feel so fucking good,” Zuri panted, gripping Elena’s hip as if willing her to go deeper.

Elena gritted her teeth when she cursed, sweat forming at her temples while her thrusts against Marisol’s fingers devolved into squirming.

The illusion was so effective, Elena wondered whether there was magic at play.

But she didn’t wonder for long. She didn’t care about anything but the dominating sound of Marisol’s voice and the sensation of Zuri’s fingers digging possessively into her hip.

“She gets so wet,” Marisol muttered like she was saying it to herself.

Like she was thinking of a specific moment.

Elena was going to ask her what it was when Marisol launched a lethal finishing attack.

“Imagine how good it would feel to come inside of her while her pussy clenches around you.” Marisol’s fingers started a sudden blinding pace that pulled a scream from the center of Elena’s chest. “To keep going until you’re dripping out of her. ”

Marisol bit down on Elena’s neck again, but Zuri didn’t give her a second of reprieve.

Digging into her, she forced Elena’s hips to keep going the same way she did when Elena was wearing a strap.

When she couldn’t speak but needed to signal that she was close.

When she wordlessly threatened repercussions if Elena dared stop.

And then Elena was stiffening. Clinging to Zuri while Marisol’s fingers unraveled her.

While Zuri kissed her mouth stuck in a grimace and begged her to come inside of her.

When Elena came, it was a soundless, motionless thing that seized every part of her body.

But Zuri and Marisol didn’t stop, didn’t slow, until Elena went slack and rolled onto her back.

Chest tight and lungs tighter, Elena looked up at the gilded tray ceiling and laughed. “Gods, you two are trying to kill me.”

Nestled into either side of her sweaty body, Marisol and Zuri chuckled. Elena was going to ask whether they’d coordinated their synchronized attack, but she was too slow. Too occupied with the pounding in her body.

“I can’t believe we’re married,” Marisol said sleepily, fingertips hovering lightly over Elena’s ribcage.

“More than married,” Zuri replied, voice husky and tired. “I can’t say for sure, but I’m confident that I can sense your emotions in some weird, distant way.”

Marisol chuckled. “Well, that makes me feel less crazy. I’ve been feeling so… I don’t know… Settled? Like this anxiety I had gotten used to was just cut in half.”

“Or thirds,” Elena mused. “I feel something too, but it is impossible to name.”

“I never let myself want anything this much because I never thought I could keep it,” Zuri confessed unexpectedly.

“I guess I was just waiting for a slightly unpredictable binding spell.” She propped her head up like the moment of rare vulnerability had freed her.

“But I want you and I love you and I trust you,” she said to both of them.

Marisol reached up to touch Zuri’s face at the same time Elena grabbed hold of her waist and pulled her half on top of her. “Well, that tracks,” Marisol said with another laugh. “I spent so long looking for a sense of family, I didn’t know that I was meant to build a new one.”

When Zuri leaned down to kiss Marisol, Elena pulled them both to her. Marisol had been right all along. They were her strength, and Elena would never forget that again.