Page 47 of Savage Blooms (Unearthly Delights #1)

Nicola burrowed against Adam, slipping her arm through his own.

He shifted closer, angling his body towards her so she could nestle in deeper.

Tentatively, Finley petted her hair, like he knew no other way to comfort her.

Adam watched Finley stroke her curls and said nothing, as though the seriousness of what they were all facing had burned away his petty jealousy.

“They can’t have you,” Nicola said, with the desperate conviction of a child declaring that their parent would never die. She held Adam even tighter, as though that would help anything. “I won’t let them.”

“It’s okay, Nikki,” Adam said softly. “I’m still here.”

“But I almost lost you today. Both of you.”

Nicola turned to press a kiss into Finley’s shoulder, breathing in his scent.

Adam’s hand tightened on Nicola’s knee, gliding a few inches up her thigh.

As close as she was to the two men in that moment, it wasn’t enough.

She wanted to be enveloped in them, to hold them both so tight death could never touch them.

Nicola lifted her face and kissed Finley on the mouth, sweet and slow.

Adam’s hand disappeared from her thigh, but she reached out and tangled her fingers in his before he could draw away, putting his hand right back where it had been.

Then, she leaned over to Adam for their own kiss, earnest and searching.

Finley’s arm stayed around her shoulders the whole time, his fingers digging a little tighter into her upper arm.

Like he wanted to leave a bruise, but was holding himself back.

Maybe she was asking for too much, ruining a vulnerable moment with her greed. Or maybe this was a necessary comfort they could all take from each other, spoken in the body’s native language.

“It’s all right,” Adam murmured, tracing the line of her lips with his own. “Nobody died.”

Nobody died. Maybe that was the best any of them could expect, tangled in this strange web of magic and painful history.

Her whole life, Nicola had dreamed of stumbling into a fairy tale, but now that she had, she didn’t feel lucky.

She was scared, and she was confused, and she ached, every hour of every day, for the kind of intimacy she feared no one person could give her.

Craigmar was poisoning the well of her heart with its heady, dark magic drip by damning drip.

Perhaps, one person would never be enough, not when her heart was so full of Finley and so full of Adam that she felt as though it may burst before she ever felt satisfied.

Nicola didn’t know if she was ever going to feel satisfied again. But she could feel good, she knew that much, and she could make other people feel good too.

Nicola kissed Finley again, hungrier, needier, as Adam’s mouth dropped to her throat, seeking her pulse under his lips.

Then she was kissing Adam again, and then Finley, over and over again in a glorious unbroken circle.

Sweetness turned quickly to fervency, made all the more desperate by the adrenaline spike of a brush with death.

Finley’s arm slipped down to her waist, clutching her close even as Adam’s hand tightened around her hip. Finley bit her lip, making her moan.

When she finally broke away, Nicola was gasping for breath.

“I want to do it again,” Nicola blurted.

Finley and Adam exchanged startled looks, as though they had just realized that the other one was in the room with them.

“Do what?” Finley asked.

“The lessons you were giving Adam,” she said, speaking before she could allow herself to think. “I want to do it again.”

“Now?” Adam asked.

“I want to be close to both of you, and I want to help us all calm down, and I just want to be told what to do,” she said, her voice nearly breaking. “Neither of you have to if you don’t want to, but don’t say no just because you’re worried about me. I know what I want. Please?”

Finley’s mouth pressed into a thin line. He was weighing something internally. Risk, perhaps.

“Eileen’s in bed,” he said.

“Let me stand in for her in the scene,” Nicola said, all but begging.

She wasn’t totally sure what she was offering, but she wanted to understand what Finley did with Eileen behind closed doors.

She wanted to know if she might like it too.

And most of all, she wanted to feel Finley’s eyes on her the way they had been on Eileen during the last lesson, and she wanted Adam to look at her with that same rapt awe.

“I might not have much experience, but I’m a quick study. I’ll learn while Adam does.”

“It’s up to Adam,” Finley said, choosing the diplomatic route no matter how his eyes flashed with interest. “It’s for his benefit too, and he must be exhausted after the day—”

“I’m game,” Adam said.

Nicola had heard him say it a thousand times.

It was one of his favorite expressions, tossed out casually before every midnight joyride and tequila shot and round of one-on-one volleyball.

She had never thought anything of it before, but now those two words heated her blood.

It sounded like an affirmative. It sounded like a promise. Like consent.

“Should I kneel?” Nicola said. When she had watched Eileen last time, it hadn’t been with the clinical intention of memorizing her movements. It had been with wonder and shock and arousal. Nicola hadn’t exactly been taking notes.

“No,” Finley said with a soft chuckle that made Nicola’s heart pound. “That’s a more advanced technique, and I can think of better ways to bruise your pretty knees another time. We should start with something simple. Something foundational.”

His eyes flickered to Adam. Adam tracked the movement, his own eyes dropping down to watch Finley’s mouth shape the next word.

“Denial,” Finley said.

“Denial?” Nicola asked, still lightheaded from the scare of nearly losing Adam and the horrible revelation of Finley’s story and the breathy realization that this was actually happening. “I thought kink was about getting what you wanted.”

“Sometimes not getting what you want is more fun. Adam, in this exercise you’ll be learning patience and control. Does that sound all right to you?”

“Fine by me,” Adam said.

“Good. Nicola’s right, this might… help calm us all down.”

Finley stood, and crossed to an armchair on the other side of the room. She expected some regal stance, like a king ready to command court, but instead he pulled his legs up under him and leaned forward over his crossed knees. A scholar then, tutoring pupils for the final exam.

“You can kiss her, if you like,” he said.

Adam, who apparently had been harboring his own hopes about experiencing another one of Finley’s lessons, wasted no time in turning Nicola’s chin towards him and kissing her deeply. Finley said nothing, but Nicola could feel his eyes on her, practically leaving burn marks on her skin.

Adam’s hand found her waist, and then slipped up further to cup one of her full breasts. Nicola let out a shaky breath, bringing her hand up to cover Adam’s, to encourage him to apply more pressure.

“Don’t,” Finley said, crisp and final. “Nicola, you’re not to touch yourself, do you understand?”

A hot flush of embarrassment crawled up Nicola’s neck, but when she shot a glance to Finley, she saw he wasn’t upset with her. If anything, he was watching her with appreciation.

“You’re not to come until Adam tells you to,” Finley said, giving her a small nod as though weighing her assent. Giving her an out, if she were to want one.

Nicola nodded.

“I’m going… to make her come?” Adam repeated.

“Only if you’d like to,” Finley said. “But I suspect you’d like to.”

Adam dropped his face to the crook of Nicola’s neck, nuzzling her skin.

“Will you let me make you come?” he whispered, for Nicola to hear, not Finley.

It was such a simple, vulnerable question, but it made a lump form in Nicola’s throat.

She had dreamed of him asking her that for years, and she had convinced herself time and time again that they would never be brave enough to take a chance on each other.

Now, after so many years of fruitless hoping, Nicola still had a hard time believing that Adam wanted this with her. But even if she was just a passing fancy, even if Adam would tuck tail and run like he always did the moment a good thing got too real, she was going to let herself enjoy the moment.

Nicola nodded, giving Adam her consent. His hand slid up her body again, searching fingers slipping beneath the hem of her corduroy miniskirt.

It had been a gift from Eileen to supplement Nicola’s minimal traveler’s wardrobe, and for a moment a memory of Eileen’s self-satisfied smirk when she delivered the parcel flashed through Nicola’s mind, but then it was gone again.

“You’re my best girl, Nikki,” he said against her shoulder. He pushed her skirt up over her thighs, exposing the edge of her simple pink panties. Adam’s fingers ghosted along the hem for an agonizingly long moment, tickling and teasing as they went.

Then, moments before he touched her where she needed it the most, Finley said,

“Wait. I just thought of something.”

Adam made a frustrated noise but he stopped.

“Yes?”

“You two… how to put this. I mean. You two have fucked before, right?”

Adam and Nicola shared a quick, guilty look, like children caught with their hands in a cookie jar. They understood each other telepathically: if Finley thought this was their first time, he might chicken out, and that would suck, so best to put forward a unified story.

“Totally,” Adam blustered.

“Lots,” Nicola said with a nod.

“Oh, liars,” Finley said. “I’m not doing this, then. You two deserve to sort that out yourselves before anyone else gets involved, that’s sacred, I’m not going to—”