Page 48 of Savage Blooms (Unearthly Delights #1)

“It’s going to happen whether you’re here or not,” Adam said, with such conviction that Nicola’s heart swelled.

He did want her, for real, with a sense of sexual inevitability that bordered on fate.

He couldn’t have said anything to make her like him more.

“But I’m having fun and so is Nikki, so what’s the problem? ”

“I agree,” Nicola said. “I’ll have Adam with or without you, but it turns me on to have you talk us through it.”

Even for someone as forthcoming at Nicola, that one felt maybe a little too frank. Had she just ruined things?

But if the way Adam and Finley looked at her, like she was an apparition of the patron saint of horniness, was any indication, she had perhaps just made things better.

“Touch her,” Finley ordered, dark and a little impatient.

Adam finally cupped her sex in his hand and squeezed, sending warmth spiraling through her belly.

Nicola’s hips bucked into his touch. She ached to press down on his hand with her own fingers, to show him the best ways to please her, but she somehow resisted.

“Denial is a result of trust between two parties,” Finley narrated. “Adam, you have to trust her to wait for you, and, Nicola, you have to trust Adam to know when it’s time.”

“How do I know when it’s time?” Adam asked.

“Feel it,” Finley said cryptically, then fell back into silence.

Adam and Nicola kissed languidly, losing themselves in each other as Adam touched her over her underwear.

She synched her breathing with Adam’s, luxuriating in the time he took with her.

But Nicola could never forget that Finley was in the room with them, his quiet presence as steadfast as it was inflaming.

She felt over-exposed and yet protected with him right there, guiding the proceedings.

Adam’s kisses grew more insistent, and the pressure of his hand between her legs gave way to gentle, agonizing circles right over her clit.

Nicola wiggled for better purchase, aching to run her hands over her breasts, but she forced herself to breathe slowly instead.

She so desperately wanted to do well. Both to please Adam and Finley, and also because she wanted to find whatever sweetness was on the other side of denial.

Adam tugged her panties to the side and teased at her entrance. When he slid one finger inside her, Nicola let out a whimper.

“Good job, Nicola,” Finley said. And why wouldn’t he be proud of her? He had a perfect view, seated directly across from Nicola’s spread legs. The sound of Finley’s voice sent a throb of need through Nicola’s pussy, which tightened around Adam’s stroking fingers.

“Adam,” she breathed.

Adam pushed another finger inside her easily, filling her even more.

He thrust his fingers in and out of her slowly but firmly, driving her towards the peak of pleasure.

She looked into his eyes, giving him all that unbroken intensity that so many people had shrunk from before, but Adam looked right back, utterly captivated.

“Oh God, Adam, don’t stop. I’m going to—”

Adam stopped. He withdrew his fingers and resumed cupping her in his hand, just tight enough to remind her who was playing the role of dominant in this scene.

Nicola tumbled off the precipice of her orgasm, every lick of electricity in her belly suddenly snatched away.

She was left gasping, her fingernails digging into Adam’s back.

“How do you feel, Adam?” Finley asked.

Adam glanced over to Finley, a breathless smile on his face. He looked wild and elated and perfect.

“Powerful.”

“Good,” Finley said, his voice lower this time. Rougher. “Again.”

Adam resumed his task of pleasuring Nicola, harder this time, more mercilessly, and just as she was edging up against her climax, he once again withdrew his hand.

“Get on your back,” Adam said. “I want to taste you.”

Nicola knew, realistically, that she could decline. It might feel like too much too soon. But something about the closeness of her orgasm and the sheer thrill of being watched by Finley during this incredibly intimate moment made her want it more.

Adam hadn’t eaten her out yet, despite pushing her skirt up over her hips and getting down on his knees before being very nearly caught by Eileen in the parlor yesterday.

They had done so much together: helped each other move apartments, nursed each other back to health after hangovers, listened to each other vent about exes, kissed and touched and begged for more, but never this.

Nicola laid on her back, letting her knees fall open for Adam. Adam hooked his fingers beneath her panties and pulled them over her thighs and down past her calves, until the scrap of lace was on the floor and she was entirely bare before him.

Adam laid down on his stomach, hooked his hands around her hips, and pressed a kiss to the pulsing heat between her legs.

Nicola’s back arched off the couch. She should probably feel embarrassment, stripped from the waist down on an antique couch that didn’t belong to her, being eaten out by her friend while someone very much like a stranger directed them. She should surely feel some kind of shame.

But all Nicola felt as Adam lapped and kissed at her was white-hot blinding pleasure.

Adam gave head like it was his highest calling in life, like he had been dreaming about this just as long as Nicola had, like he couldn’t get enough of her.

Nicola threaded her fingers through his hair and tightened her grip, trying so hard not to ride his face to climax.

When she glanced over, she was treated to the sight of Finley pressing the heel of his hand against the insistent erection in his jeans. He was looking at her like her very existence tormented him, like she was the most beautiful woman in the world.

Nicola’s whole life, she had been afraid of losing people.

Whether it was the circumstances that had stolen her parents, or the abandonment of foster families who complained about a “poor fit” and her “high needs”, or the loneliness that resulted from constantly being moved away from her friends, she had come to accept that she was only ever going to end up alone.

But in this manor house with Adam and Finley lavishing her with their attention while the threat of magic circled outside their door, she felt fully seen, fully held.

Not too much at all, for either of them.

A desperate wish took root in her, that this would never end. That Finley and Adam would never leave her.

A stray tear trickled down Nicola’s cheek. It was impossible to tell if it was from sensation or emotion.

“Adam, please,” she begged, squeezing her thighs around his head. “I’m ready. I’m so ready. Will you please let me—”

Adam lifted himself from his task, using one hand to brace himself on the couch as the other fumbled with his fly.

“Almost there, Nikki,” he said. “You’re doing such a good job. Can you go one more round for me?”

“Yes,” she said, her voice nearly broken in half from wanting.

Adam retrieved a condom from his back pocket and tore it open. How long had he been carrying it around? Nicola tried to remember how to breathe as Adam wrapped himself in the condom and tugged her closer, not even bothering to remove his jeans all the way.

She looked to Finley one more time, all but drowning in his storm-dark eyes.

“Tell him when you’re ready,” Finley said softly, with the reverence such a thing deserved.

“I’m ready,” Nicola said, and then Adam was inside her and the world was Adam, made of nothing else but his presence and amber-skin scent and his pressure on top of her.

Neither of them lasted long. Within minutes, Adam’s thighs were trembling, and Nicola was begging for release in a nearly incoherent string of babble. Adam leaned over her, driving into her deeper and faster.

“Touch yourself,” he panted in her ear. “Get yourself there.”

Nicola rubbed her clit fast, trying to catch her orgasm before Adam could snatch it away. Adam’s rhythm became desperate and stuttering as he approached his own climax.

“You say when, Adam,” Finley reminded him, and God, that clinical detachment should not be so hot.

“Come for me, Nikki,” Adam said.

Nicola’s orgasm hit her like a truck. One moment she was whimpering, doing everything she could to pull herself to the pinnacle, and then she was there, a sharp stab of pleasure radiating out from her belly as her toes curled in on themselves.

“Fuck, I can feel…” Adam said. Then he let out a grunt and spilled into the condom, all sticky heat and sweet release.

Nicola and Adam lay together for a moment, their bodies pressed together, their skin tacky with drying sweat.

Then Adam lifted his head, his eyes as bright as she had ever seen them.

He was just Adam, the same goofy, kind, frustratingly headstrong young man she had always called her dearest friend.

But he was also something else now, something Nicola didn’t quite have the words to define but was incredibly grateful for.

“That was amazing,” he breathed. “You’re amazing.”

“Same to you,” she said, blushing through her afterglow.

She looked over to Finley, her heart pounding in his chest. Would he be pleased with her? Would he be jealous, or disappointed?

Finley was still curled up in the chair, sitting perfectly still as though moving any muscle might cause the dreamy atmosphere in the room to dissipate. His dark curls shaded his eyes, making parsing his expression difficult.

“How was that?” Adam asked, and if Nicola wasn’t mistaken, she detected a note of challenge in his voice.

Finley cleared his throat.

“I think everyone had a very good time,” he said tightly.

“I’ll take it,” Adam murmured with a smile, to Nicola, not Finley. Then he stood and said, a little sheepishly, “I should probably go get cleaned up.”

Finley nodded, waving him off. Nicola felt Adam lean down and kiss her forehead, and she heard him wander off to the bathroom, but she didn’t see any of it, because she couldn’t stop staring at Finley.

He was taking quick, shallow breaths, and the outline of his cock was still clearly evident through his jeans.

How he had resisted getting himself off surreptitiously in the corner, Nicola couldn’t fathom.

Then again, maybe he understood denial better than any of them.

“Nicola,” he said, with such raw adoration that it made her heart seize.

Nicola tugged her skirt back down over her thighs, then she carefully slid off the couch and onto the floor. Onto her knees.

Never breaking eye contact, Nicola slowly crawled across the room to Finley. She tried to be present with the act, to focus on the pressure of the hardwood under her knees, the stretch in her back. There was a pleasant ache in her sex, a tingle of aftershock still running up her spine.

She didn’t stop until she was right in front of him, and then she sat back on her heels and placed her hands on his thighs.

Finley took an uneven breath and uncrossed his legs. Nicola knelt between his knees, her nimble fingers finding the zipper on his jeans. He was hard as a rock when she took him in hand.

“You don’t have to,” he said, smoothing her curls away from her face and sliding his fingers through her hair.

“What if I want to thank my teacher for such a good lesson?” she asked, then wrapped her lips around his cock.

Nicola had done this many times before, but it felt different somehow, kneeling at the feet of someone she had entrusted her own pleasure to moments before. She bobbed her head up and down, taking as much of him as she could, and used her free hand to cup his balls.

“I’m going to hurt you,” Finley said, and it was impossible to tell if he was warning her about what he was going to do next, or if he was prophesying that things would end badly between them.

Either way, Nicola welcomed it. She made a humming sound of assent, then dragged her tongue along his length.

Finley hissed, and the grip in her hair grew more forceful, more directive.

Nicola moaned in satisfaction and let him fuck her mouth, losing herself in the experience.

When he came, it was with a jerk of his hips and a strangled cry, softer than she would have expected. Nicola swallowed every drop of him, savoring the taste. She even licked him clean afterwards.

Finley leaned down and pressed his knuckle beneath Nicola’s chin, tipping her face up towards his for a kiss. Nicola kissed him deeply, sharing that taste with him, and then she drew away and beamed up at him.

Finley’s eyes fell on something over her shoulder. When she looked behind her, she saw Adam standing in the doorway with a dish towel in his hands, probably to offer to Nicola. He wore the strangest expression. It didn’t look like betrayal, or jealousy even.

It was more like longing.

“How long have you been standing there?” she asked. This should be fine, strictly speaking. Adam had told her she could do as she liked with Finley, and Finley had responded in kind. But high-minded notions about civility and sharing often flew out the window when the heart got involved.

To Nicola’s great relief, Adam didn’t seem angry.

“Long enough for a show,” he said, and then walked over and held his hand out for Nicola. He pulled her to her feet as Finley tucked himself away in his jeans. “Does anyone want something warm to drink? I can boil water.”

“I think Eileen may still have some drinking chocolate in the cupboard,” Finley said, standing up. “I’ll help you find it. Unless you two want some time to yourselves?”

“You’re welcome to join,” Nicola said, sliding her arms around Adam’s waist. He was warm and solid, and she felt dopamine-drunk and drowsy. “If that’s all right with Adam.”

“Fine by me,” Adam said, and together all three of them walked towards the kitchen.