Hearts of Ishira (Hearts of Ishira Saga) (77 page)

“True,” she murmured, closing her eyes and enjoying their touch. “I feel like an achey, limp noodle.”

The men chuckled at that. Hunter grazed his lips over her temple and kept rubbing her shoulders. Jace’s hands moved slowly upward, kneading her calf, digging deep into the muscles and hitting points that made her legs feel like new. She sighed happily.

“Tomorrow, you will sit on a stool, at the very least, or you will talk to the girls under the tree in the courtyard. Or in our balcony garden. I will not have you standing for so long again.”

“Oh, Hunter,” she said, tilting her head back to look up at him. “I’m fine. I used to work jobs where I had to stand in one place for nearly eight hours at a time, with only a half hour break halfway through. I just need to get used to that again.”

Jace paused, frowning at her. “That isn’t good for your back. Who would make you do such a thing?”

“Everyone,” she blinked at him. “It’s a common thing in my world, actually. People stand up to work at many jobs. It’s just how it works.”

“It is inefficient and damaging,” Jace spat. “If you stand still all day long, how do you then manage to take care of your home, your young? If you are this tired and aching after one afternoon, how bad was it when you had to work a full shift?”

“It hurt,” she admitted, “But I didn’t have kids to take care of when I got home, just myself.”

“That sounds… lonely,” Hunter murmured, wrapping his arms around her and cradling her to his chest. She reached up and ran her hand along his muscled fore-arm, loving his embrace, his tenderness, his masculine, wild scent.

“It was,” she agreed after a long moment, her defenses down for once. “I hated it. I was used to having a large family to come home to, to talk to, to play with, younger brothers and sisters to cook for and help with their homework. I was used to helping get them in bed, then sitting with my parents and my older sisters and brothers and talking into the night. It was so much easier, with so many to take care of each other. And it was so wonderful to have someone to welcome you when you came home, or someone to look forward to coming home so you could take care of them.”

“You wish to have a large family?” Hunter asked, his embrace tightening. She nodded.

“I would have ten kids, if I could, so that none of them would ever feel alone, like I have. Then again, I had eight brothers and sisters, and I ended up alone… So you never can tell, I guess.”

“How did you lose your family, Arianna?” Jace asked quietly, moving to her side. She was too relaxed to wave it off this time, feeling too loved, too safe. With Jace holding one of her hands and Hunter’s arms around her, she finally felt safe. Tears welled even before she started. By the time she had related the tale to Jace, Hunter was holding her more tightly, kissing her head. He sent love and healing to her through their mental bond.

“A few of my family members survived for a little while,” she finally murmured after a few minutes, surprising Hunter. She hadn’t told him this part. “But their burns were too bad, and none of them were willing to fight through that much pain when their own immediate families were gone. You have to have something to hold onto when you’re healing, you know. I sat with them, each of them, as they waited to die, and when they asked me if it was okay to go, I smiled, told them I loved them, and that it was okay. I understood. And I kept smiling until they were gone and I felt their spirits leave their bodies.”

“So you were the only one who lived?” Jace asked, appalled and heartbroken for her. She nodded once. “Arianna,” he breathed, surging up to add his arms to Hunter’s embrace, surrounding her with their support. She was enveloped in their strength. She was warmed to her soul and felt so loved.

“It took me awhile,” she finally went on, “And a lot of therapy. It happened nearly ten years ago. I finally got past it, moved on, and tried to make a life for myself. I was even engaged to a man, when I had a miscarriage and ended up with the hysterectomy. He left me when he found out we couldn’t have a family of our own blood, and I’ve been alone since then.”

“Friends?” Hunter asked. She shook her head.

“Not many. It’s hard to keep friends when you can’t tell them how to help you, or let them. And it’s hard to make new ones when you’re afraid they’ll just end up leaving you. I’ve had some rather strong abandonment issues since the accident.”

Hunter understood now why she had been so hesitant to open up to them. Oh, she’d laughed and talked, shared much about her world, her interests, and other things, but letting them know her feelings had been difficult for her. He knew that hearing her admit to loving them in the med center those weeks ago had taken much more for her than it would have for him. She had been afraid to say the words, afraid that admitting to loving her men would mean losing them at some point. But still, even with all that fear and doubt, even with very good reason never to turn her heart over to another’s care, she had. She was so very brave, his little Arianna.

Turning her in his arms, he arranged her so that she was sitting astride his lap, her short skirt riding up along her thighs. He took her face between his big hands and forced her to look at him. His thumbs brushed at the tears on her cheeks.

“Little one, listen to me.” She sniffled and nodded, taking her time meeting his gaze. The heartbreak he saw in her eyes nearly broke him. “
Listen
. You will never be alone again. This I promise.”

“How can you promise that?” she whispered, looking at both of them. “You’re both important men. People need you, will need you even more as our society grows and evolves. You will want to hunt, need to fight. If your people come here, if the Solvari follow them… there may come a time when both of you are hurt or worse. How can you promise that I won’t be alone, if something catastrophic happens?”

Hunter thought about that. She had a point. But he sighed and held her gaze.

“I will train someone else to be my second, as will Jace. If there is a situation in which one of us must put ourselves in danger, the other will stay with you.”

“But that’s so selfish of me,” she murmured, swiping at her cheeks angrily. “I can’t ask you, either of you, to put my wants over the needs of our people.”

Hunter smiled gently at her at the use of ‘our people’. She had combined them in her mind, finally. It was telling, that.

“We will make it so. On our world, a warrior is considered weaker if he chooses duty over the needs of his family. Sometimes those needs take him into battle, so that the violence will not come to his family’s door. Other times, he must stay home and fight at their side, make certain they are provided for and protected in their home. It is the way our society worked, and the way we will make this one work, as well.”

Arianna offered him a tiny smile, enough to let him know that she was a little bit reassured, if not completely. It was enough for now. He would show her, through deeds and the plans he would make with the other men, that he was serious. For now, though, he brought his lips to hers and kissed her gently. She sighed into his mouth, her body swaying into his.

In the space of that kiss, she went from sad and weeping to hot and bothered, as though having to relive her grief reminded her of how alive she was. When Jace pulled her head slightly back and to the side and kissed her, as well, as though to seal the promise his brother had made, she relaxed and leaned into the kiss. This was her world now, these men and their love, their brethren and the girls who had become her friends. They would make this world their own, and they’d fight to keep it that way, if they had to.

Jace broke off his kiss and lifted her hair from her neck, sliding his mouth down the column of her throat as Hunter skillfully eased her short sleeveless dress from her shoulders. He kissed each inch of flesh as he exposed it, finally reaching the slope of her breast. Then he looked up at her, that wicked gleam in his eyes that she loved so much, and grinned. With a purposeful yank, he slid the dress lower until her breasts popped free, then hitched it up so that it propped them up for his inspection. She fought to free her arms, but just like in the bathroom all those weeks ago, he wasn’t letting her. She couldn’t move, couldn’t reach to touch either of the men. Her arms were trapped, both by her gown and being pressed hard to Hunter’s chest. Feeling helpless, her breath quickened, realizing that she was completely at their mercy.

Instead of frightening her, though, the thought excited her. These men adored her, loved loving her, and would never do anything to hurt her. She didn’t know what they had in mind, but she knew that they would take care of her. Allowing herself to just enjoy it, she closed her eyes and dropped her head back against Jace as Hunter shifted her and himself so that he could more easily access her breasts.

Jace tipped her head back for another heated kiss, exploring her mouth with his tongue, sucking on her, nibbling her lips, as Hunter’s mouth did the same with her breast. Jace’s hands crept around her, holding her breasts firmly, plumping them up and massaging them so that more blood rushed to the tips, engorging them. Growling in approval, Hunter released one breast and moved to the other, nipping at the throbbing bud until she cried out.

She didn’t know when he had undressed, but suddenly his pants were gone and his cock was bumping against her core. Breathing shallowly, she opened her eyes to look down at him. His arms suddenly came around her, and he shifted until he was deep inside her. Then he sat back with her, embedded in her shaking body, and kissed her until her head spun and her entire body felt on fire for him. He started moving then, lifting her up and down, sliding on him, gliding into her and out, raising her excitement to new levels.

Behind her, Jace’s hands had slipped around and were gripping her hips, the touch erotic and hot, as he nipped at the back of her neck. At some point, he finished sliding her gown up to her waist, then twisted it so that her arms were good and trapped. His hands then slowly slid around to caress the crack of her ass.

Arianna stilled, her excitement building to new levels. She remembered the last time they had done this, more than a month ago, and her body prepared her for it. She shifted a little, leaning forward to give Jace better access. He murmured in her ear, praising her for her thoughtfulness. Hunter slid his hand down and tickled her clit, wringing another sweet cry from her throat. While she was distracted, Hunter removed himself from her body, making her protest, but his fingers were there to distract her. Then it was Jace’s turn.

She gasped as she felt Jace probe her channel from behind, felt him slide into her body, replacing Hunter deep within, and her head fell back in surrender. Hunter took the opportunity to latch onto one of her nipples, as Jace worked himself in and out of her several times. Then Jace, too, withdrew from her. Before she could protest, he drove two fingers into her, coating them with her wetness, then slid up and rubbed the slick juices around the pucker of her ass.

Hunter sent her a mental image of what they wanted to do to her, erotic enough to make her spasm and send her juices flowing down her channel, preparing the way. She nodded weakly as he positioned himself once more at her center and pressed her down on him. They both groaned at the sweet, deep penetration. When he was fully seated, Hunter gathered her to his chest and held her close, his lips nibbling at her cheek, her ear, murmuring how beautiful and sweet she was.

Jace pressed a finger gently into her anus, opening it. She held her breath, stiffening a bit in anticipation, but Hunter’s mouth was at her ear, his fingers at her clit, thoroughly distracting her. Enough so that Jace could slide his finger out and in again, further, and join another finger with it. She felt the double penetration and began to breathe more deeply. It only ached for a moment and it was starting to feel less strange, more exciting. On the next penetration, Hunter captured her mouth as he ground himself against her, thrusting deeply, even as Jace withdrew from her anus and pressed back into her, three fingers now.

Or so she thought. Hunter thrust once more, Jace moved again, and suddenly she stilled, feeling so full, so… complete. When she felt the crisp hairs of Jace’s sex against her ass, she knew. He was inside her, deep inside her, and so was Hunter. She shuddered out a sob at the knowledge, then felt one of them move slightly. Her walls spasmed, tightened, and the feeling was incredible.

Jace groaned at the tiny movements she made, his chest against her back as he held himself up with his hands on the back of the couch, on either side of Hunter’s head. Hunter, seeing her expression, growled with hunger and withdrew slightly. Jace shoved himself further in, all the way into her, making her cry out with the penetration. Hunter, unable to stop himself, slid back into her, feeling the incredible fullness of her tight sheath and the thin wall that separated him from his brother inside her.

Remembering the rhythm she liked from the last time, the two men withdrew and penetrated her in deep, slow thrusts, quickly making her pant and sob and beg for them to move, to fill her, to come for her. Hunter pulled her up enough to torture her breasts again, and as he did so, Jace reached around with one hand and pressed on her clit, then plucked at it, twisting it a bit. It was delicious torture, bordering on painful, but it was so delicious. She claimed it was too much, and bucked against them both, but they were determined to drive her beyond what she thought she could handle, to see how high she could fly.

Apparently, she could fly pretty damn high. She came apart between them, with Hunter nibbling at her nipples and Jace flicking her clit mercilessly. Her body was not hers to control at that point, and she jerked, shook, shuddered, cried, screamed, and wept, all in quick succession.