Two Knights of Indulgence (14 page)

“I tried to stop her.”
 
The look of utter despair on Matthias’ face made Nicolas feel
wretched.
  

And he couldn’t let Matthias take the blame.
 
“It was my fault.
 
She did this for me.
 
She saved me from evil, and now I must find a
way to repay her.”

“She’s a force of nature.
 
Neither of you could have stopped her,” Gaia
spit out after a few moments of quiet.
 
“But I had hoped she would last longer before you
broke
her.”

“Broke her?” the men asked in unison.

Gaia sat back down into the ring of flowers.
 
“She has an almost infinite source of
power.
 
Note I said,
almost
.”

“How do we fix whatever we’ve done?”
 
Nicolas needed to know the answer.
 
He’d do anything it took, even if it meant
handing over his life.

“She’s a battery, a battery that has just been
drained.
 
You need to recharge her so she
can fight the evil she’s taken within.”

Matthias barely waited for
Gaia’s
words to be complete before he added, “And how do we do that?”

Gaia smiled and settled back, resting on her
elbows.
 
“What happens when you touch
her?”

Matthias’ brows ridged in thought.
 
“I feel an electric flow of
ener
—we have to touch her?
 
That’s all?”

Gaia’s
salacious smile was bordering on smarmy. “It’s a little more
complicated than that.”

“Isn’t it always?” Matthias asked.

Gaia chuckled.
 
“What is the most intense form of touching?”

Matthias scratched his head for a moment before heat
flooded his face.
 
“Sex?”

“Our resident monk has hit the nail on the head.”
 
Gaia sprung from the table and began to
flounce around the room.
 
“You’ve got to
make love to her.
 
Feed your strength and
power into her, skin to skin.
 
It is the
most basic, raw power humans have.”

Nicolas ground his teeth together.
 
He knew Matthias
should
be the one to do it, but it didn’t stop him from wanting to
be the man to do the deed.
 
And then a
question rolled into his mind.
 
“Is she
human?”

“Yes.”
 
Gaia
nodded her head with a sly smile before shaking it side to side.
 
“And no.”

“And you won’t tell us more, will you?” Matthias
ground out.

“Nope.
 
It’s all you need for
now.
 
So you two get in there and fix
her.”

“Two?” Both he and Matthias said it at once.

“She needs all your strength and power.
 
One of you won’t be enough to jumpstart her
battery.”

Nicolas sucked in a breath and felt the heat of
Matthias’ gaze on him.
 
As he rounded to
look at his friend, he saw anger and derision in Matthias’ glare.
 
Matthias didn’t want to share any more than
Nicolas did.
 
Nicolas still had memories
of her erotic touch, and knew what it felt like to have her sizzling caress on
his skin.
 
Even after everything that
happened, he felt the seductive call of her body now as much as he had when
he’d been bewitched.
 

“What if she’s still out cold?
 
We don’t have her consent to do this.”
 
Matthias moved closer to Britt’s door, his
gaze sweeping the wood.

Their goddess cocked her head to one side and slowly
appraised them both.
 
“She wanted you
earlier tonight, and you refused.”

“She was drunk,” Matthias argued.

“She was uninhibited. She asked for what she wanted
without the pretext of what she should and shouldn’t do strangling her,” Gaia
countered.

“I fought Illuminati in the wood; they could be coming
for us even now.”

“They sensed Nicolas’ change and came to him.
 
There are others coming, but they won’t
arrive here for at least another day or two.
 
And once she releases the evil from her, it will be even harder for them
to find you.
 
So the faster you get in
there and do the deed…”

Matthias moved to the door, resting a hand in the
middle of Nicolas’ chest.
 
“I should be
with her first.
 
If she reawakens to see
you, it might frighten her.
 
I can
explain it to her afterward.”

Nicolas bit his tongue, knowing Matthias was probably
right.
 
After all that had happened
tonight, he didn’t deserve the right to even want her.
 
He nodded and stepped back, no matter how
much he didn’t want to.

Gaia coughed to get their attention.
 
“There are no
firstsies
or
secondsies
.
 
You both need to get in there …
together
.”

Matthias caught his gaze once more, his eyes widening
as realization hit him.
 
“We have to
share her?
 
No.”

Anger swept through Nicolas when he first heard
Matthias’ response, but he grasped on and held it at bay.
 
After everything that had happened, he knew
it would be hard for Matthias to trust him, especially after he’d put Britt at
risk.
 
“I know you don’t want to share
her, and after everything I’ve put her through, I know I have no rights to her
at all.
 
Can you put down your jealousy
for an hour or two to save her?
 
I’ll
walk away afterward, and she’s yours.”

“I’ve laid no claim—”

“But it’s obvious you want to lay claim.
 
I get it.
 
I won’t hurt her.”

Matthias looked at him for long moments before taking
a hand to scrub his face.
 
“I haven’t
felt like this in … forever.
 
She’s
special
.”

“I know.
 
I know
exactly how special she is.
 
But after
what she’s done for me, if this is the way to save her, then I must do
this.”
 
Nicolas knew there was also a
small speck of need driving his words, but he couldn’t help it.
 
It would be his one and only chance to touch
her intimately.
 
He hoped he could walk
away once he’d had a taste.

Matthias turned to Gaia once more.
 
“There’s no other way?
 
I will lay down my life for her if need be.”

“She needs you to be there in the future, to protect
her.
 
Give her what she needs now so you
can be there later.”

Matthias’ shoulders slumped, and Nicolas felt his gut
clench.
 
This wasn’t how he’d foreseen an
encounter with Britt, far from it, but he wasn’t passing up the opportunity to
be there for her, either.

Gaia coughed again to get their attention.
 
“If you’ve finally made up your mind to do
the right thing, I’m off.
 
I don’t have
time to stand here all morning.”

Matthias nodded, apparently resolved to do the
inevitable.
 

“Once you take care of her, contact Thierry.
 
Another will need your female’s healing very
soon.”
 
Gaia vanished in a large cloud of
smoke and left the two alone beside the door.

Jealousy filled Nicolas.
 
Another would need her?
 
He didn’t want any more to feel her touch
than already had.
 
As soon as the thought
was in his head, he realized he had no right to it.
 
She was Matthias’.
 
It was obvious.

“I know you want her, Nicolas.”

“I do.
 
I won’t
lie, but after everything that’s happened, I doubt she’ll want me after this
night.”

“One night with her wouldn’t be enough for me.”

“I doubt it will be for me, either, but it will have
to do.”

****

Matthias moved closer to the bed and saw the darkened
mark growing across Britt’s neck and face, the tentacles undulating under her
skin.
 
She twisted and contorted in the
bed as the evil within her blossomed, his stomach twisting for her pain.
 
He lowered to sit beside her and gathered her
into his arms as Nicolas stepped up to the bed.

“If touch is what she needs, skin to skin contact
should help,” Matthias said aloud as he began to peel her clothing off.
 
The more he
removed,
the more of the evil he saw.
 
Hands
shaking in anger, he struggled to draw her shirt from over her head.

He noted absently that Nicolas had begun to remove his
clothing as well.
 
His teeth set on edge
at the thought of him with Britt, but he had to swallow his aversion.
 
Nicolas was his best friend, and he had no
claims on Britt, no matter how strongly he felt for her already.
 
Matthias focused on the task at hand and
began working on the hooks of her bra, struggling with his unsteady hands.
 
Not once did her skin glow as he
touched
her, nor did he feel the energy flow between
them.
 
Sorrow touched him as he looked
over her pale form.

“Let me help you—”

“I can do it!” Matthias nearly growled out.
 
He didn’t want
or
need Nicolas’ help getting her bare.
 
That task would be his and his alone.
 
His fingers would trace patterns on skin, dancing a path of molten need
before Nicolas would lay one hand on her.

Once she was freed of her clothing, he noticed her
shiver.
 
“Add more logs to the fire.
 
She’s cold.”

As Nicolas moved to the fireplace, he eyed her
body.
 
Firm, rounded breasts were the
perfect size for his hands.
 
He wanted to
mold her to his grasp, but he felt as though he would be molesting her sleeping
form and kept his hands beside him.
 
Her
pale blonde hair glistened in the firelight, picking up the hints of gold that
ran through the length.
 
He looked lower
and saw her patch of golden curls at her apex and how they shined as well
between her supple legs.
 
Long limbed and
graceful, she was stunningly beautiful, so much so, his eyes hurt from looking
at her.

The fire grew with each log Nicolas added, and he
watched the light dance along her slightly rounded abdomen.
 
She had the body of a woman, all curves and
soft places.
 
A woman he could hold
against him and his hardness would melt into her.
 
Matthias rose and began to remove his own
clothing, his gaze never leaving her satin skin.

Moments later, he slid beside her, his entire length
touching her.
 
He captured her and
brought her closer, the front of her molded to him.
 
She released a groan and snuggled even
closer, her head resting on his shoulder.
 
He ran his hands along her
back,
hope filling
him as her skin began to glow faintly with her blue light.

Nicolas stood beside the bed, watching them.
 
His hands were clasped in fists at his
side.
 
Matthias knew he awaited an
invitation,
one Matthias didn’t want to give.
 
Not yet.
 
For now, he would bask a moment in her embrace, the only man in her
bed.
 
He dropped kisses to her forehead
and spread his hands along her back and ass, squeezing the firm globes.
 
She began to squirm against him, her mouth
kissing his chin and cheek.
 
Her pelvis
twisted, rubbing her pussy against his cock, his pre-cum already spreading from
the tip to her stomach.

Her light grew ever brighter, but still nowhere near
what he’d seen in the past.
 
Matthias
looked down at her, seeing her eyes open.
 
They shone onyx, the whites completely gone.
 
She was under the evil’s spell, and he knew
they had no more time to waste.
 
He
sought Nicolas’ gaze and nodded his head.
 
His friend slowly slid in behind her, covering her back with his front.

The light intensified minutely.
 
Matthias lowered his hand between her legs,
testing her pussy.
 
He found her already
wet, a light coating of her cream covering her sex.
 
He ran the tip of his finger around her hard
nub, and she bucked into his touch, a moan coming from her lips.
 
The light rose a bit more as he speared his
finger through her folds.
 
Her hips moved
of their own accord, beginning a slow, undulating tempo matched to his finger’s
movement.