Page 34 of The Never List (Never List #1)

Rylee

Pierce strokes my tongue with his, stealing my breath again and again. He draws me flush against him, the contact a release in itself. I can feel him everywhere, against my body and in my mind.

Lips press against my back, startling me out of the kiss. I whirl around to find Pierce standing there, even though my back is also pressed against his chest.

“Two of you,” I say, amazed.

“I can create more if you’d like,” he says, every inch of his voice unflinching confidence.

I blink, and more Pierces fill the room, his power growing and expanding, the pressure of it tightly hugging my bones. I know that there aren’t a dozen Pierces standing in this room. I know it’s just a new reality he’s spinning in my mind, but it feels real. The power he wields is intense and infinite—because if the mind believes, so does the body—and right now, I have two carbon copies of Pierce touching me while others are watching.

“I don’t know if I can handle more than two of you,” I admit, laughing as my head spins with the possibilities.

Emerald ribbons of light shimmer around the other copies before they disappear, leaving just the two touching and teasing me.

“Do you trust me, darling?” he asks, his lips at the shell of my ear while the copy runs his fingers down my sides, gripping my hips and kissing my breasts.

“Yes,” I say, though there is a small piece of me that is trembling with the game we’re playing. He’s in my mind, controlling it, deciding what I see and feel and experience. I’ve never given that kind of control to anyone before. And there are still parts of me that are guarded, buried, things I can feel acting like little roadblocks to the waves of his energy as they skirt around inside me.

“Then close your eyes,” he says.

My eyes flutter shut and my breathing hitches as he gently clutches my shoulders and slowly spins me around a few times. I’m half wondering how ridiculous I look, standing there naked save for my heels and twirling in circles, but he stops me after a few moments.

I open my eyes again, but a flash of green light covers them, the sensation like velvet. A magical blindfold, the trickster.

“We’re going to keep them closed,” he says, and my entire body tingles with anticipation.

One set of hands touches me this time, and I can hear one of the Pierces circling to stand behind me. He brushes my loose hair to the side, gliding his fingers over my skin. I tremble beneath his touch.

Another set of hands teases my breasts, palming them before rolling my nipples, making them taut. It’s overwhelming, feeling him everywhere. It’s different than when Axl and Kal are with me at the same time. They have different signatures, a touch unique to them that allows me to tell who is who. This is one hundred percent Pierce—his energy, his power, his essence.

I gasp as he slides a hand around my hip and dips his fingers between my thighs. A spark zaps down my center as he slides through my heat, slick from everything he did to me without even touching me.

But now that he is?

It’s like an unbreakable connection has sparked to life inside me, and with every surge of need comes an internal stroke of his power, playing with all the senses I possess like a cat toying with its prey.

His muscled chest presses against my back as his fingers stroke my aching core. Then I feel a hot breath over one of my nipples before his lips close around it. He’s kissing my neck, too, playing with that spot just beneath my ear that causes me to arch against him. I moan, my muscles clenching at all the sensations.

“I can feel how much you’re burning for me,” he says, lips at my ear. His hand increases its pace between my thighs while his other self worships my breasts, sucking and flicking until they’re heavy and aching.

“Good,” I say, rocking into his hand as I reach out and grip the Pierce in front of me. “I want you to feel it. I want you to feel me. All of me.”

He shudders behind me, and the Pierce in front of me lightly bites one of my nipples, causing me to rock harder against the hand between my thighs. It’s a maelstrom of pleasure, building and swirling until I’m sure I’ll combust.

“You want me to fuck you, darling,” he says, and I honestly can’t tell which one is speaking at this point. I’m buzzing, soaring, begging to be shoved over the edge to fly. “I can feel how badly you need it.”

“Yes,” I groan as he withdraws his fingers, settling on teasing me with too-light brushes. The one in front of me joins the fun, following the fingers with his tongue—all too light, all too slow.

“Please,” I beg, sighing at each new tease. The darkness really adds an entirely new element to this, layered on top of feeling him in so many different places at once. “Pierce, please .”

“I’ll give it to you,” he says, removing his hand from between my thighs to grip my hips. He presses his hard length against my ass, and I shiver. “But you have to tell me which one of us is real .”

“What?” I gasp.

He rocks behind me, bending at the knees to slide his shaft between my thighs, rubbing along my entrance once before pulling it away. The Pierce in front of me does the same; they both feel hard, thick, and hot against my aching flesh.

“Oh, goddess ,” I moan, rocking my hips in an attempt to get either one of them inside me. Hot, searing tension builds in my core as they stay just out of my reach.

“Am I the real one?” he asks from the front, flicking his tongue over my nipple again.

“Or is it me?” the exact same voice asks from behind me, planting kisses down my neck.

Pierce’s power is rampant inside me, like he’s taken off all his shields. His energy consumes me as it pulses, spinning this fantasy.

“If I answer wrong?” I ask, barely able to form a full sentence.

“You’ll only get my mouth,” the two Pierces answer together.

Damn him. I’d hoped that only one would answer.

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” I say, but my voice is tense. I reach out with my senses, focusing on each gentle touch, each lick, each sigh I hear from them both.

An impossible test, but a test all the same.

Everything since the Choosing has been a test, but this one feels deeper, more personal. This is Pierce’s own way of deciding if I’m worth his token, his support, his choice, just like Kal’s with the way I treated his people or Axl’s with the trapped creature in the sea.

Those tests were easier than this. Pierce is a master at manipulating minds, and I’m the fool who let him all the way in.

“Clock is ticking, darling,” he says, dragging his teeth along the seam of my neck.

I glide my hands over the Pierce in front of me, touching his shoulders, down his arms, and back up again. He feels so damn real. It could be him, but there is a slight warmth beneath my fingers, almost like a candle, that feels…other.

And I can’t explain it, but there is something inside me, something deep and aching, that keeps following a connection behind me, like a band of that emerald energy of his, begging me to turn around.

Is that Pierce’s power playing a trick on me? Trying to trip me up? Or is it the connection we’ve shared since the night of the Choosing?

I reach behind me, timidly trailing my fingers over his face, skimming the line of his jaw, his neck, and back up to his cheeks. This touch feels more powerful, more real. And that could very well be because Pierce wants it to feel that way, but I can’t shake my instincts, so I follow them and turn.

I still can’t see anything, thanks to the magical blindfold, so I cup his face in my hands, using touch to navigate my way to his lips. Sparks burst beneath my skin as I kiss him, and I know this has to be real.

“You,” I say against his mouth. “You’re the real Pierce.”

“Are you certain?” the Pierce behind me asks, and I nod against the one I’m kissing.

“Absolutely,” I say, my heart racing.

The touch behind me disappears, and Pierce lifts the blindfold from my eyes. I blink a few times, my heart in my throat.

Pierce is looking down at me like he’s seeing me clearly for the first time.

“Rylee.” My name rasps from his lips.

I spare a glance behind me, noting that nothing is there, and then grin up at him. “Have I earned this?” I ask, reaching between us to grip his length.

He thrusts into my hand once before pulling my palm back up to the center of his chest. “You’ve earned this,” he says, planting his hand over mine and pressing it harder against his heart.

I swallow around the lump of emotion in my throat.

“And that is much more valuable,” he says, studying me with a curiosity that makes me feel priceless and treasured.

“True.” I bite down on my smile, eyes flicking from his to his lips and back again. “But,” I say, a playfulness in my voice, “can I still have it?”

His grin is delicious—and then we’re on his bed and I’m splayed out on my back. I don’t even have time to ask him how he did it because he spreads my thighs and settles between them, thoroughly distracting me.

He holds my gaze as he glides into me, sinking in to the hilt so fast I whimper. For a few seconds, he lets me adjust to his size, but he’s already given me multiple orgasms, so I don’t need much. I roll my hips, and he shudders above me. Emerald ribbons of his energy curl out from behind him, almost as if he can’t contain them while he’s lost in me.

The idea makes me liquid .

He pulls all the way out only to slam home again. I arch against him, my back bowing off the bed as he sinks into me over and over. I grip the sheets, my pleasure building like a cresting wave. Pierce is inside me in so many ways—between my thighs, beneath my skin, stroking me into an oblivion I’m certain I never want to end.

“Fuck,” he groans, upping his pace. “Where did you come from?”

My eyes fly open, momentarily shocking me right out of my orbital bliss. His eyes are locked on me as he pumps into me, the motion a dominant claim.

“Surely, the stars,” he says, leaning down to brush a hot kiss over my lips. “Because you were made for me.” He rocks against my center while bottoming out inside me, his energy beneath my skin flaring and flickering like flame. “For us. ”

My orgasm rips through me, shaking my entire body as he continues to draw it out, coax it right into another one by thrusting again and again. Emerald ribbons slide between us, teasing my nipples even as he holds me tight, pumping into me with abandon.

“Pierce,” I groan. “I can’t…”

“You can,” he says. “And you will.”

Shivers dance over my skin, his bands of energy sliding between my thighs, circling my swollen, oversensitive flesh while he unleashes himself on me.

Goddess, maybe I was made for him, made for each of them, because I’m quite certain I could stay here forever and never get enough.

“Now,” he demands, and his energy crackles against my flesh, sending bursts of euphoria along my skin, my muscles, every pleasurable spot I have.

I grip his back, holding on as I convulse again. This orgasm is better than the last because he spills inside me at the same time. We’re in sync, our minds connected by his powers. My body his to command. He could tell me to fly right now, and I would.

Pierce smooths my wild hair away from my face, looking down at me with an expression I’m pretty sure I understand but won’t dare say out loud. A soft heat sweeps over my left index finger, and he draws it up so I can see it.

A ring is nestled there. It’s gold and in the shape of a spider—his mother’s insignia. Inside the spider’s abdomen is a large, glimmering emerald.

His token.

“But,” I say, eyes welling. “It hasn’t been a full month—”

“I don’t need a month,” he says, then presses his lips to mine. “I choose you.” Something shifts over his features—a seriousness I can’t quite place. He kisses me again, and my heart responds, racing and expanding. He draws back just enough to look at me. “And don’t worry, darling,” he says. “I’ll keep your secret until you’re ready to share it with all of us.”