Page 42

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

JUNIPER

I t started with Lust's hands on my hips, firm and certain, possessive in the way that made my breath catch. I relaxed in the chaise lounge, the velvet sliding along the skin of my back as my shirt rode up.

"This is what you wanted," he murmured into my neck, his lips brushing the skin like a promise.

"Yes," I breathed, already trembling.

Pride's fingers tangled in my hair from behind, pulling my head gently back to expose my throat. "Then you'll let us take you."

I couldn't nod fast enough, pulling his head down for a kiss as Lust continued to nip and bite at my neck. Pride's lips were cool, his cologne wrapping around me like a shawl as he gently explored my mouth.

I didn't have time to be self-conscious as hands and heat covered me.

Greed growled, low and unrelenting from between my legs. Hands slid up my legs, his thumbs pressing into the delicate skin on my inner thighs. His head dipped low to my core, but as I tensed up Pride delved deeper into my mouth, and Lust kept me pinned with his hands on my hips.

Greed's nose nuzzled into my folds, and I twitched when his tongue flicked out to take his first taste of me.

My moan echoed loudly in the quiet of the large room. Lust's grip on my hips turned bruising, and Pride bit down on my lower lip.

"Slow down," Lust snarled at Greed, even as Envy's hands slid under my shirt, ghosting over my breasts.

Greed paused his ministrations and I almost whined at the interruption.

"I've waited long enough," he bit out. "She's not just yours."

"No," Envy agreed, his dark eyes alight with heat as he cupped my breast. "She's mine. Ours. But I want her to beg for it first."

Their voices clashed around me like lightning—hot, sharp, territorial. Not jealous of each other...but competitive. Focused.

"Figure it out and get on with it," I said, surprising even myself with how steady my voice sounded. My hand found Greed's hair and pushed his head back down in between my legs, abandoning all self-consciousness or pride.

Ha. Pride.

Greed barked out a laugh, but dutifully returned to the task at hand.

He latched onto my clit with his whole mouth and sucked, just as Envy pinched and rolled both nipples.

I cried out then, uncaring of how loud I was. I couldn't care. I couldn't begin to care when I couldn't even form thoughts.

Fingers slipped under the thin fabric at my shoulder. Someone—Pride, maybe—dragged it down slowly, reverently. The air kissed bare skin. I gasped.

"She smells like magick," Envy muttered, low and drugged. "Like sleep and war and something sweet I haven't tasted yet."

"She's Wrath," Lust said, biting down gently on my collarbone. "And we're going to worship her like the storm she is."

They moved together, a pack of predators bound by need and something deeper—fate, maybe. Magick crackled under my skin.

No hesitation. No fear.

I relished the way Greed's tongue and mouth patiently worked my core, bringing me closer and closer to the edge.

I was in awe of how Pride nipped at my lower lip like he owned it, and the way Envy traced lines down my chest as if memorizing every divot and curve.

Lust cupped the back of my neck like he'd kill anyone who hurt me.

"I'm not choosing one of you," I warned them, my voice shaking.

"Naughty," Lust purred.

Cold air hit my core as Greed released me, and a growl erupted from my throat. Hands were everywhere: my ass, my back, my calves, my neck, my hair.

"Be a good girl and stop wiggling," grunted Greed, from somewhere near the left side of my head. Callused hands wrapped around the back of my neck and applied sweet, sweet pressure.

"Ssh..." shushed another voice. Envy?

I opened myself to the four of them remaining, there was no fear, no shame.

Just the heat.

The hands.

The magick.

And the beginning of something utterly, beautifully unholy.

"You're ours," Pride growled, grounding me with the heat of his body against my back. Fingers reached down around and stroked me, in and out, while more hands grabbed onto my breasts. So many sensations. So many feelings.

I nodded, unable to form words.

"No, say it," Lust demanded. "I'm yours."

The room burned.

A strangled cry was all I could manage.

"Don't let her cum until she says it," Envy muttered. Greed nodded.

I growled, but only a little. It was probably just them feeding their sins.

And I feed them all, over and over again.

The finger inside of me froze, and I could have screamed in frustration. Magick burned in my veins, indignant. A new entity inside of me rose to the surface, resentful.

Wrathful.

No one tells Wrath what to do.

I bucked and writhed, refusing to give in.

"Oh, that's how we're doing it?" a voice chuckled darkly. Envy?

"Are you being a bad girl?" Lust purred in my ear.

My hands were snatched and held over my head, then tied. I wiggled and jerked, refusing to speak, even as a bolt of pleasure went straight to my core. A warm cock settled between my tied hands. Tilting my head back, Greed gave me a saucy wink.

Well, he at least had earned it.

With a smirk I let him stroke himself in my bound hands, his eyes closing in rapture.

"She's dripping," Envy commented, my own arousal giving away the game.

The sound of a zipper came from in front of me, and Lust settled himself between my legs. Envy's hands continued to roam, but kept coming back to my breasts.

"Perfect ass. Perfect tits. Gods," he breathed out.

Pride stood awkwardly next to my head, just staring. He looked lost.

"Take out your cock," Lust ordered him.

Pride jumped but obeyed, and to my surprise he was hard despite his reluctance. Making a decision, I leaned my head over and took him into my mouth.

He let out a cry of surprise and gripped the chaise lounge hard.

Greed laughed and Envy snickered.

Lust smirked.

"Tell me you don't want it, and we'll let you up," he warned me.

Ha. No fucking chance.

Hands tangled in my hair and pulled, yanking my head up. Lust said, "I'm going to fuck you now, like I should have done on my desk, in my office, weeks ago."

Words failed me. Hot, heady desire surged through me like a drug, leaving me high and breathless.

"Last chance," he said, his tone almost...begging. Or was it desperation?

A ragged laugh left me as I took a break from sucking on Pride.

"What's so funny?" He grit out, irritated, but seizing on the distraction like a shark scenting blood in the water.

"I...can see why your matchmaking rates are horrible," I rasped out. "Too. Much Talking."

Greed and Envy burst out into laughter and even Pride cracked a grin.

It was enough to tip Lust over the edge, and he thrust into me without any more preamble.

The moment he entered me, everything changed.

Not just the physical sensation—though that was overwhelming—but something deeper. Like a door I hadn't known existed suddenly flew open inside my chest, in my very soul. I gasped, not from pleasure but from the flood of sensation, emotion, him pouring into me through the newly formed connection.

And underneath it all, the satisfied purr of my witch magick finally awakening, recognizing its catalyst, roaring to life like a wildfire.

"Lust," I breathed, and his name carried weight it had never held before. Through our connection, I felt him shiver at the sound of it.

His eyes widened—he felt it too. The bond snapping into place like a key turning in a lock I hadn't known I carried. The sense of completion that went soul-deep.

"Mine," he whispered, and I felt the truth of it resonate through every fiber of the connection. His possessiveness, his fierce protectiveness, his overwhelming need to keep me safe.

"Yours," I agreed, the word pulled from somewhere deeper than conscious thought. Through the bond, I felt his triumph, his relief, his love crashing over me in waves.

"Ah!" I cried out as he moved within me, every sensation amplified by the connection. I could feel his pleasure as if it were my own, could sense the exact moment when his control began to fray.

"Oh hell, she's squirting,” Lust swore.

The magick that had been building since the moment he entered me suddenly reached a crescendo. I felt his amazement through the bond, his pride at bringing me to this point, and then?—

Without warning, everything exploded.

Magick erupted from where we were joined, a golden nova of power that sent shockwaves through the room. Wetness and heat poured from me as the magickal explosion threw all of them away from me, leaving me gasping and alone on the chaise.

Threads of fate twined in my veins, pulling tight between us all. Our bond hummed between us like a live wire, carrying echoes of their concern, their desire to get back to me, and their awe at what had just happened.

"Shit."

"Fuck."

"Son of a bitch?—"

"YOU ASSES! I TOLD YOU TO WAIT FOR ME!"

The door to the room flung open so hard it actually cracked and broke, falling off the hinges with the force. Gluttony strode into the room with enough rage on his face that my own wrath latched onto it, bypassing my own fear and surprise.

But beneath my emotional response, indignation and anger swirled. Not mine–-theirs? All aimed at Gluttony's interruption, and a possessive rage at anyone who would threaten what we'd just shared.

My magick didn't give Gluttony a chance, seizing him and tossing him across the room and through the wall like a rag doll.

Or, rather, through the wall.

Silence reigned. Nobody moved.

Sloth poked his head in the open door, eyes wide. I heard Diana's amused voice from the hallway.

"Well, that was loud,” Diana commented.

"What happened? Can I see?" Kiva’s voice asked from the hallway.

I bolted upright, trying to grab my clothes to desperately cover up, but my hands were still bound.

Diana appeared briefly in the doorway, smoothly turning Kiva away before she could see anything with a hand on her shoulder. There was no judgment in her eyes—if anything, she seemed faintly pleased—but she winked at me before steering Kiva down the hall.

"Not now, little one. The grown-ups are busy. How about we clean our strawberries while the grown-ups...clean up themselves?"

Sloth gawked with his mouth open for a second longer before backing away with a bemused shake of his head.

Frustrated, I glared at the small bit of rope around my hands and it flared white, then disintegrated. My magick came easier now, smoother, now that I had a deeper connection with all of them. Blushing, I snatched up my clothes and dressed.

Like a spell being broken, Greed and Envy rushed toward the hole I'd hurtled Gluttony through. My hands shook as I tried to get my shirt on, and struggled with the zipper on my pants.

"Here, let me." Pride didn't look at me as he swiftly took care of my zipper, and helped straighten my clothes.

"There."

Lust was silent and still, like a Greek statue as he stayed where he'd been thrown, splayed on the floor.

But through our bond, I could feel everything—his concern for me, his desire to hold me, his satisfaction at being the first to claim me, and underneath it all, a love so deep it took my breath away.

Embarrassed and terrified—but no longer alone—I took a page from Sloth's book and fled.