Page 22 of Drawn by Dragonblood (Blood Born #1)

Dakota

I should have fled from being caught half-naked by our kind host. At the very least, I should have clenched my thighs together, hiding the view beneath Elijah’s shirt.

But I couldn’t move.

Didn’t want to.

Jon’s stare was like fire on my face, but Elijah and his energy rippling off in spine-tingling waves held me captive. He stared upward, the view of my pussy unhindered.

A second low, animalistic groan from his chest caused my core to spasm.

“I—I should go put something on,” I barely whispered the words, my desire unmistakable.

Elijah snapped his mouth shut and swallowed hard, glancing at Jon.

My husband—a slight smirk, of all things, lifting his lips—looked over at Elijah. No anger, no words of jealousy or reminder of who I belonged to left his lips. He simply stared at Elijah as if to ask the gorgeous man, now what ?

I stood stunned, unsure what to think or how to feel outside the yearning to lose myself between the two.

Clothes, I told myself and forced my feet to turn away and take me back the way I’d come. I was a shaking, horny mess with arousal pulsing through me. From my body’s state of need, no one would ever believe Jon and I had fucked less than an hour ago.

Elijah had returned home a day earlier than he’d told us, and I wasn’t sorry in the least. Every inch of me had been yearning for him. The energy seeming to permeate the cave without his presence no longer seemed enough to satisfy my craving.

Properly covered but hardly calm, I returned to the stairwell and found both men, beers in hand, sitting on the couch. They lifted their attention my way as I paused, my face heating over the realization I hadn’t changed out of Elijah’s shirt or buttoned up to cover my cleavage.

Jon’s smile melted my heart.

Elijah’s intense stare turned my bones to ash.

Between the two of them, what was the point of even wearing underwear? Soaked through from mere glances at their faces, and what chance did my leggings have of hiding the evidence of what I wanted?

My knees knocked as I started down the stairs, and Jon and Elijah resumed their conversation from before I’d arrived. I grabbed myself a bottle of beer and curled my legs beneath me on the couch beside Jon, very aware of the wetness soaking the cotton between my thighs.

He set his hand on my leg and gave a slight squeeze. “Elijah seems to think he has a solution to our problem.”

My heart seized. “P-problem?” I glanced between the two men but focused on Jon when he didn’t answer right away.

“My lack of a job.” Jon stared at Elijah, although he’d spoken to me.

My breath left in a rush at the realization the issue he referred to wasn’t the sexual attraction eating away at my body. “You need an IT geek?” I asked with a shaking voice while turning to face Elijah fully.

“Actually, it’s his gaming abilities I’m most interested in.”

I stifled my sudden snort of laughter with my hand. “ What ?”

“While in New York, I began looking into his past accomplishments you told me about,” Elijah replied, “and the contract signed just this afternoon created a job he could probably do with his eyes closed—if indeed his skills are as good as you claimed, Dakota.”

“You’re kidding,” I said, my eyes going as wide as my smile.

“Not at all.”

“Oh my God, Jon!” I turned to find him still studying Elijah, a light in his eyes I hadn’t seen since our wedding day when all in our world had been right.

“Imagine being able to game for a living.” I burst out, breathless and giddy with happiness. “You can’t be serious,” I said, my focus flitting to Elijah again.

His steady gaze told me he didn’t lie.

“But how? I mean, gaming...” Was something I’d always teased Jon about, even if he excelled at the hobby that had seemed like a waste of time other than bringing him joy.

“I signed a contract with the government for something I can’t discuss without either of you having the proper clearance, but I think Jon’s abilities will help me test the final product in ways I’m unable to.”

I sat back, blinking, my jaw unhinged.

“I’ve offered him a trial period of four weeks,” Elijah continued, leaning forward, elbows on his knees, his pale eyes seeming to reach straight into my soul and tug in attempts to pull me closer. “I can get him started as soon as tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” My voice squeaked over the sudden tightness in my chest. “But how...”

“I have a computer lab down nearer the garage where he can work remotely—for me—until the government approves him to move onto what’s been contracted.”

I glanced at Jon who hadn’t yet torn his focus off Elijah. “But we need to go back to New York?” I tried for a statement but it came out more like a question. “I—I mean, I have to get those images into the magazine,” I offered the only reason we truly had to return home.

“Can they be uploaded to my computer and sent via email?” Elijah asked.

I nodded. “Yeah—definitely.”

“That you may do from the lab as well.”

“He invited us to stay here during the trial period,” Jon stated quietly, still not taking his stare off Elijah, but I could hear the excitement in his voice. “We would house-watch for him while he travels in the coming weeks.”

Zero thought for our tiny apartment and the life we’d built for ourselves in the city clashed with the idea of remaining in Elijah’s home. Our car could easily be retrieved and parked alongside Elijah’s Audi.

I stared at my husband, breath held, waiting for him to make the decision that I felt sure would change our lives. We stood together on the edge of that abyss, hand in hand. But rather than push like I longed to do, I left the choice to him as I’d always done, my fingers crossed.

“I want a contracted offer written up,” Jon eventually stated firmly. “I also insist on the right to counter any part that pushes my boundaries or doesn’t seem in mine and my wife’s best interests.”

I blinked at my husband. He’d been hurt by his friend firing him, but I hadn’t realized steel had slid into his spine.

“As you wish,” Elijah agreed quietly, his tone soft.

I almost snorted since my ears heard Westley from The Princess Bride .

“That’s it, then.” Jon stuck his hand out in a display of trust—for now. “I look forward to your offer.”

My pulse thrummed as time slowed, every beat of my heart loud in my ears…a gong declaring the time had come.

For change.

A dive into the unknown.

Elijah reached for my husband’s hand, their palms gliding together, creating static electricity that shot across my skin and lit me up from the inside.

Waves of heat radiated from the men, burning me clear through. I bit my lip as they stared at each other as though lost in their own little world. They didn’t war for dominance. Elijah held the alpha status as clearly as the freckles scattered across Jon’s nose and flushed cheeks.

He wanted Jon

My husband wanted Elijah.

I wanted them both.

The truth of all three statements settled inside as I studied them, and the feeling of absolute rightness, the same as when I’d first met Jon in seventh grade, slowly leaked through the cells of my body.

My heartbeat slowed to its usual strong cadence, my mind placid like the water of a pond.

We belonged to each other on a deeper level than seemed humanly possible.

Something stirred deep in my soul, far beyond mere arousal. A bone-tingling sense of awareness I couldn’t name or place. I clung to the addictive feeling, wanting to keep it as close to my conscience as I did both men to my body.

But how to bring up a conversation to explain my desires? How could I voice the topic of my fantasies without making Jon feel as though he wasn’t enough for me?

I can’t hurt him again.

Biting the inside of my lip, I fought off the sudden tears stinging my eyes at the memory of his face when I’d told him I needed some time alone after that public fallout all those years ago.

I hadn’t wanted to break up with Jon, but our argument—all thanks to that gorgeous blond god of a guy—ended us on a jagged, agonizing note.

We’d parted ways for two days before an intense craving, a desperation to connect with my other half had sent me crawling back to him.

Jon had cried in my arms when I begged him to give me another chance. He’d sobbed, pleading with me to never rip out his heart like that again.

I swallowed thickness from my throat as he and Elijah finally released hands, and Jon swiveled his head my way. A slow smile starting to reveal his dimples dissolved when his focus landed on my face. “You okay, baby?”

I jerked my head in a quick nod, desperate to squash the remembered pain and guilt that lingered regardless of his forgiveness. “J-Just happy,” I managed to whisper as a tear slid down my cheek.

“Come here.”

I did as told, curling up on Jon’s lap, my bare foot brushing across Elijah’s thigh. An electrical-like charge swept up my leg straight to my clit, and our gazes locked as I laid my head on Jon’s chest, my heart no longer calm or steady but erratic in its beating.

Our host’s pale eyes didn’t even try to hide the truth of his want as his gaze slid down over my hard nipples poking out from his shirt.

But it wasn’t simply lust radiating off Elijah. The intensity in his crystalline blue eyes held unspoken promises and declarations that sent me floundering in a swelling sea of emotion.

Desire roused, but so much more than a mere yearning for physical release.

Jon was no longer enough—I bet my life we’d been meant to have a third. Felt sure of it in the deepest reaches of my psyche.

The fire crackled, and I flinched at the intrusion of the tense silence that had settled over us. Jon rubbed his thumb in circles on my thigh, but the action only heightened my need to be touched and taken by them both.

Jon’s cock swelled against my side when he should have tensed with anger over the fact another man looked at me the way Elijah continued to do.

Before I could figure out the why of Jon’s lack of jealousy, he shifted sideways to face Elijah, pulling my back to his chest, his hard cock resting against my ass cheeks.

He swept my hair off my shoulder and nuzzled my neck.

My heart skipped a beat—and another as he flicked open a button of Elijah’s shirt, revealing more of my breasts to the man I craved as much as I did my husband.

I trusted Jon with my everything, but I couldn’t melt into his embrace without knowing where his thoughts were.