She was picked up and carried, carefully; placed on a bed, still kneeling.

The blindfold was removed and she saw their actions reflected in the mirror opposite the bed. Tousled, flushed, ni**les dark and tight. Wanton and desirable. Desired.

Tears stung her eyes when she found Todd’s gaze. He looked at her as if she were precious and she felt it. Ben’s eyes sparked with his desire for her, his concern and love.

“Not the time for tears,” Todd said, tossing the flogger in the open suitcase. “Just pleasure. Tonight is about us helping you forget the bad and remember the good in your life from now on.”

Ben easily untied the rope, slowly bundling it as he unbound her. She still bore the furrows where it had lain against her skin and she found it beautiful in the same way she found the marks from Todd’s bites beautiful.

When Ben had finished, he put the rope away and each man took a wrist and massaged it where the ropes had gripped. Strong, capable hands on her, making the pain fade.

“Thank you.”

Todd smiled, just the barest lift of one corner of his mouth. “We’re not done yet. Not by a long shot.”

“Oh.”

Ben chuckled and kissed the inside of her wrist.

“Can I touch you?” she asked both of them.

“Yes.” Todd moved closer and she went to his waistband. She got off the bed to remove his clothes and then followed suit with Ben, and at last they all stood naked and her heart raced at the sight.

They turned back to the mirror she’d seen herself in minutes before and she took them in. Tall and masculine, hard lines of jaw, the defined muscle of pecs and biceps. Todd with a bit more hair on his chest than Ben. Ben who stood two inches taller. Beautiful and masterful and all hers.

Still facing the mirror, she took a c**k in each hand and gave an experimental pump or two. And lost herself in them once more, trusting they’d catch her if she fell.

Todd had watched her all that day. Had witnessed the slow drain of her vitality and color, but she hadn’t given up. At the dinner with Jeremy and his parents, they’d spoken, albeit haltingly, of Adele. Todd had felt like he truly knew her through it. Felt her loss, or the edge anyway. Erin’s grief was deep; he knew they only saw the briefest outline of it.

He and Ben had decided to exorcise her of the day in the way they knew best, with a little bit of pain and a lot of pleasure. They’d help her lose herself in the sea of endorphins and serotonin and reinforce that they’d be there as her safety chute.

She looked so damned beautiful, her eyes now half-lidded and sex-blurred. Her skin an enticing shade of pink, still marked in places where the rope had held her tightest.

He continued to watch in the mirror as she turned and fell to her knees once more, drawing him and Ben hip to hip.

And then he had to look down as she brought their cocks close and licked and sucked each one and both at once as she could. The sensation of her tongue and hands as his c**k slid along Ben’s nearly made Todd lose his mind.

Her eyes fluttered closed, her lashes fanning against the uppermost ridge of her cheeks. Drawn by need, Todd traced over the sweet hollow just below her shoulder, on her back. Nestled within a bower of ivy her brother had inked around it. The drawn pucker of the scar Charles Cabot had given her had faded, but the memories hadn’t. She had one more on her thigh and each time Todd saw them or touched them, he sent up a prayer of thanks that she was alive to bear them.

“Enough,” Todd said roughly, pulling back from the sweetness of her mouth. “I want to come inside you.”

Ben moaned. “I want to come in your mouth.”

“I know a way we can make that happen.” Todd sat on the bed, scooting back just a bit. Erin followed, knowing what he wanted.

She straddled him, her back to his front, and sank onto his cock, hard and fast instead of her usual slow, seductive way. Todd sucked in air and counted to a hundred to keep focus.

Ben hummed his satisfaction and stepped forward so she could take him in her mouth again and the three began to move. Thrust, suck, thrust, like a machine with three moving parts, until it became smooth and singular.

Ben knew he wouldn’t last long, not given the way she’d been after he tied her up. So pretty and vulnerable yet strong beyond imagination, Erin was the most precious thing he knew.

He loved being with her this way, as Todd was inside her, as they all shared one another. What a gift his life had become each and every day. It lessened the pain of the estrangement he now had with his father, gave him enough hope in human nature that he’d someday not have this gulf there.

He wondered at her, at the miracle she was, as he sifted his fingers through the softness of her hair. Hair that was currently chocolate brown. He’d simply accepted that she’d come home with a new hair color or a new piercing, even a new sex toy for them all to try.

Pleasure rushed from the soles of his feet and out his c**k as she palmed his sac and played her middle finger against his perineum in just the right way to push him over the edge.

Then he knelt and kissed her as she ran her fingertip back and forth over his nipple with the ring.

Behind her, Todd groaned and she gasped into Ben’s mouth as he found her clit, squeezing it between his fingers and bringing her off right on the heels of Todd’s climax.

Todd pulled her up and off and they tugged her into the bathroom, where they’d laid out all the accessories she’d need for a long soak, and she blinked back tears as she hugged them both.

34

They all got up before dawn and trudged out to the waiting limos. Erin was grateful she didn’t have to drive as she tucked in, settling between Ben and Todd.