Page 57 of Beauty

I look down at my wife, the woman who will be my queen.

“Kiss me.” Her words are fevered, her eyes desperate. Herbody tightens as though the pain forces her to clench her every muscle.“Please. Please.”

I can’t resist her. Don’t want to. Want to inhale her, totaste her, to take her into my body and to put myself in hers. I need to mergewith her. The world around fades away until all I can see and taste and touchand feel is her.

I give in to the fever.

ChapterSeventeen

Bronwyn

I think I died and went to the Summerlands. They’rehere, my Dark Ones. Shim and Lach. I called to them as the fire started andwhen I opened my eyes again, they were here. Surely this is my reward. To bewith the men from my dreams.

And then the pains strike again.

I’m still here in Tuathanas. I’m still dying. I can hearGillian saying something that I know should disturb me. Something about crownsand thrones and playing my part. The words burn into my brain, but I can’tfilter them now. My gut seizes. I cry. That’s the worst. I can’t stop crying.

Am I dreaming again? I hear someone asking for a kiss.Pleading and begging for a kiss.

“Hush, a chumann.” A deep voice forces me from mypanic. I open my eyes, my pussy still burning, and see him staring down. It’sShim, but not as I dreamed him. This Shim has eyes as deep as the sky justbefore night swallows up the day. There’s no white to his eyes, merely a deepand never-ending midnight. And fangs. They’re small, the size of a royalvampire’s, and ever so slightly curved. “I know what you need. You feel thefever, too.”

Yes, fever. I feel it. It’s low in my belly, in my pussy andmy breasts. But it’s also in my head. Something else is happening. I can feelmy Dark Ones. They need, too. They need to possess me, to be one with me.

“I want to kiss her. You’ve had your turn.” Another voicecalls to me. I turn and see my other. Lach. I named him Lach. My heart seizes.Lach’s face is the same as his brother’s except for the scars. It doesn’t marhis beauty, but it does speak of a pain he suffered. I reach up and touch him.He tries to turn away, but I hold him fast, placing both my hands on his skin.One side is so smooth, perfect, but the other has three long scars forming hillsand valleys, a road map of the pain he suffered. Burns. Lach was burned.

For me? I remember the fire. Did he rescue me? His eyes turndown as though he’s waiting for me to send him away. I lean over and place akiss on the longest of the scars. I start at the bottom, at the hard line ofhis jaw. I kiss him, over and over, a slow brushing of lips to scarred flesh. Ikiss all the way to just right of his eyes. While I press kisses to Lach’sface, Shim’s hands move on my back. I can feel an insistent tug at the ties ofmy dress. Yes. I don’t need the dress. I need to be skin to skin with them,pressed to their bodies, feeling their hearts beat.

Lach’s hands come up, covering mine. There’s a predatorylight in those midnight-blue eyes of his. “You accept me?”

What an odd question. How can I accept something that hasalways been? He’s a part of me. Of course I accept him.

“Say it, Bronwyn. Say you’re mine. Mine to protect andlove.”

I nod. I’ll agree to almost anything to keep this dreamgoing.

His hands tighten. “Say it.”

“I’m yours.” He seems to need to hear it. It doesn’t matter.It’s true. I was always his. In life. As I move to death. I am theirs. Theyclaimed my heart so long ago it’s difficult to remember a time when I didn’tsee them in my dreams. It’s only right that they be with me as I leave thislife. If I hold on to them as I die, maybe I can pull them with me, be withthem in what comes after.

“Mine. Fucking mine, a chumann.” Lach strokes ahand in my hair and winds it through his fingers, tugging back lightly. Helooks fierce as he straightens his body, towering over me. “Mine. My princess.My mate.”

“Our mate, brother. Or are we going to have a problem?” Shimis at my back, his voice a hard grind against my ear.

“I want my fair time. You’ve held her. It’s my time.”

“I had to hold her. I had to protect her while you were busyslaughtering everyone in town.”

“I killed the men who tried to burn our mate,” Lach insists.“I make no apologies. If you have a problem with me, perhaps we should fightand see who gets to take her first.”

I feel Shim back off. Lach’s aggression is practicallypounding through the room.

“We’re not goblins.” Shim’s tone goes steady as though heknows he must find a way to be calm. “We’re not going to fight to the deathover our mate. Calm yourself. We’re still sidhe. We’re still brothers.Negotiate.”

All the while they talk, hands are on me. Lach pulls me tohis body, tugging on my hair and taking my lips. He kisses me, groaning into mymouth, the sound rumbling along my skin. Shim’s fingers tug at the shoulders ofmy dress, pulling it down and smoothing over my arms. This is what I need.Hands on my body. A mouth on mine. Their cocks sliding inside.

Lach’s tongue plunges deep, dancing against mine, his mouthdominating. He comes up for air, his hands on my hips, drawing me in. I gasp asI feel the hard line of his cock. Lachlan’s cock is nestled against my belly.It isn’t where I want it to be, but it is there, so close I can feel it. Only afew layers of clothing.

“Please. It hurts.” Another flare of pain catches me.