But also thinking maybe something better than his miserable existence was possible, was truly being offered to him. He"d come here, not sure he believed it, but he hadn"t been able to forget Daegan"s words in the warehouse, or how they connected to Anwyn"s, the day she sent him away.

Now the charged pause was enough to cloak him with the heat of their responding lust, possession and desire. If they didn"t start touching him, or letting him touch them, he was going to go crazy. He should have known they wouldn"t make it that easy.

“So you"re saying you"re ours, to do with as we will. You serve us.” Anwyn"s voice, a Mistress"s voice.

“Yes,” Gideon managed in a low voice. “I belong to you. Both of you.”

“Then call us by name.” Daegan repeated it, that most difficult of all demands. At least they didn"t make him look at them, though he had a feeling one day he could, if he could say it now.

He was a vampire hunter, a soldier, a loner. A man who"d always said he wouldn"t respond to any authority greater than his own. And he"d given up on God a long time ago.

“Mistress,” he managed in a throat that rasped. Drawing in a deep breath, he lifted his gaze after all to meet Daegan"s dark eyes. “Master.” It tore something inside him to say it, but it was a good pain.

Anwyn slid the tie of her robe free, drawing his attention. When it opened, her bare breasts were level with his avid gaze. “Suckle me, Gideon,” she murmured. “Show me your devotion.” He seized the opportunity. If he had to express any more of his feelings, which were as painful as wounds, he might lose it. He latched onto her brutally in the first moment, as unthinking as a starving infant. However, the press of Daegan"s fingers into his shoulders recalled him. He eased his bite, turned it into an urgent laving. He would have used his hands, crept up to her hips, but Daegan"s firm grip was already on one of his wrists, Anwyn"s on the other, drawing them back until Daegan took over both of them, making him clasp his opposite elbows, boxing his arms behind him. Then Daegan began to wrap him with Anwyn"s sash, starting at one wrist and working across until it reached the other, binding his forearms together at the center of his back.

A deep shudder started somewhere in his knees, rammed up through his testicles and lower belly, accelerating his heart. Always before, when one or both of them had tried to dominate him, the internal struggle had been one of resistance. This moment, the willing surrender, was far fiercer than that, and it shook him to his foundations, the overwhelming, paralyzing power of it. It was something close to divine bliss, a tranquility painful in its truth, tearing him away from the violence and turmoil with which he"d framed his life. It put him somewhere where he floated, unsure of anything, having to trust them both in a way he"d never trusted anyone, not even himself.

He remembered that night long ago, when he and Jacob had shared Lyssa. It had taken him a while to recognize the key difference in dealing with his two Dominant vampires. The one being shared between the twosome of their particular threesome wasn"t Anwyn, but him. Like everything else, it had been initially hard to accept, but now, letting go, it overwhelmed him to be so desired by the two of them, rendering him helpless, mindless. He wanted to feed them both, wanted that light-headed feeling of giving his blood to them, and how crazy was that? He wanted the different feel of their hands, Daegan"s stronger, broader grip, Anwyn"s slim fingers, her polished nails digging into his flesh.

A long time ago, a much younger, far more innocent version of himself thought he"d be saying forever to the woman he asked to be his wife. Yet when Anwyn had put him in her collar, the one he"d left behind and yet wanted to wear again, he remembered wondering if that was what marriage felt like, that commitment to forever. He thought it was. To both of them.

Anwyn sucked in a breath, overtaken by his thoughts as much as by the sensual hunger he was exercising on her nipple. While Daegan was binding him, Gideon hadn"t let up, leaving a trail of wet heat as he switched to the other one. She made a soft moan on his first contact with each of them, acknowledging how very much she"d missed his mouth, his body, those callused hands. She ran her hands over the broad shoulders, now taut with his arms drawn back in restraints.

Opening the windows of her mind wide so Daegan could feel everything their servant was feeling, see what images were flashing through his mind, she knew from the emotion in Daegan"s eyes that this was a defining moment for him as well. He"d understood it, and so had she, though she"d let her worries blind her. This was the link they needed to fully belong to each other, what they"d always needed. Three tears of blood, forever marked on Gideon, proved it.

“Second mark, vampire hunter,” Daegan breathed against his flesh, hearing her desire and answering it. His hands came around, curled in the front of Gideon"s shirt. With an ironic flash in his dark eyes, he ripped it free like paper, taking it behind the vampire hunter and down his arms so it added to the bindings on him, baring those beautiful shoulders, the wide, scarred chest that bore her mark. Daegan brought his mouth to Gideon"s throat as Anwyn held Gideon"s head to her breast, her hips pressing urgently closer to his body. Both of them could smell her arousal, hot and needy. Under the press of her leg, Gideon"s cock was enormous against the jeans, struggling for escape. When Daegan pressed his own erection against the vampire hunter"s muscular ass, there was a flex of acknowledgment, of apprehension and pure lust, that seared through Anwyn"s awareness, because Daegan"s mind was open to her as well.

A trinity in truth.

As Daegan"s fangs sank in, he exulted in Gideon"s guttural response, an animal cry he made against Anwyn"s generous curves. Her servant bit her in reaction, marking her breast with a red imprint of his teeth. Her hand tightened on his hair as Daegan released the serum that would give him direct access to Gideon"s mind, no longer only through the lovely conduit of Anwyn"s. It unfolded inside Daegan like a gift, two entwined sets of thoughts of lust and longing, of sanctuary and need.

It was a welcoming circle, giving him a sense of home he"d never realized he needed until he felt it now. One touch and he knew he"d never want to be without it, that he would defend both of them with every deadly skill and vulnerable emotion he had to keep them safe and bound to his heart.

Sliding his mouth free, he turned Gideon"s head again, capturing his lips to make him taste his own blood and the residual of that serum, and spoke for the first time, mind to mind. It’s time to pleasure your Mistress, vampire hunter. Then we’ll finish it, make sure you both belong to me.

Gideon opened his eyes, the first time he"d ever dared to do it while their mouths were so intimately involved. Daegan saw that warrior"s response in their depths that stirred and drew him at once. As you belong to both of us. Ours to protect as well.

It was a startling challenge and offer at once. At Anwyn"s soft, determined agreement, Daegan realized his life was likely to change in ways he had not anticipated. But he"d lived on the unpredictable edge of violence; he wouldn"t mind indulging the unpredictable edges of love, freely given.

He gave Gideon another hard kiss to remind him who was in charge, his hand tightening over the marks on his throat. I think we’ll need another collar, Anwyn. One with a bit more bite to it, to keep our servant aware of who he answers to.

She gave them both that mysterious female smile she did so well. Her thoughts, though open to them, tumbled like the mystery of clouds and rain, sunshine and rainbows, perfect, simple and yet too beautifully complex to ever unravel. Reaching down, she unbuckled Gideon"s belt, slid it free, then brought the tongue up in a caress over his nipples that had his muscles tensing all along Daegan"s torso where their bodies touched. She wound the belt around Gideon"s throat, threaded it, drew up the slack and then began to tug, making it clear she wanted him to follow her.

“You can get to your feet, Gideon,” she said, in that sultry voice that could coax a man"s cock to jet with the velvet caress alone. “I don"t need a man to walk on his knees to prove I own him.”

With a wry smile, Gideon rose, though Daegan knew the man"s usually strong thighs were trembling. It moved his heart and got him harder at once, so that he rose with him, putting a steadying hand low on his hip, his thumb caressing his buttock. He’s overdressed, cher .

So he is. Would you take care of that for me?

Daegan knew that Gideon was offering him their trust, but he also understood the instincts of a street fighter, as Gideon had been for so long. Therefore, he moved that reassuring hand to his shoulder, drawing his eye to what he was doing before he did it. His switchblade flipped out in his hand, and with swift, light pressure, he cut through the side of the denim, moving from the waist down to his ankle, letting the tip touch the flesh so there was a faint sting that Gideon registered, the edge of danger. Then Daegan moved to the other side and pulled the now-ruined jeans away from the snug briefs beneath. The thin fabric was straining, unable to contain his cock, the crotch showing dampness where he"d already spilled some of himself there.

“You know, clothes don"t have to be ripped or cut off.” Gideon spoke offhandedly, though there was a crack in his voice. “Most people don"t buy new wardrobes every time they have sex.”

“You have stayed away from me for months,” Anwyn noted, that steely glint coming to her eye that Gideon recognized. His cock jumped in immediate response, even as his fingers dug into his forearms under the wraps of the robe sash. Daegan closed his own hand over them, enjoying the taut resistance, as well as the tone of Anwyn"s voice and Gideon"s reaction to her words.

“I"m exacting a biblical retribution,” she continued. “For the next forty days and forty nights, when you"re in these rooms, you"ll wear no clothes at all. My punishment, and my pleasure, as well as Daegan"s.” Her fingers trailed down Gideon"s chest, across to the nipple, her nails scraping hard enough he sucked in a breath, a response that Daegan felt in his own testicles. God, he loved to watch her work. And he loved watching Gideon surrender to it, all that fierce passion rising up to meet her, fire for fire. “We"ll have the joy of seeing your beautiful body from any angle we wish, and you"ll be readily accessible whenever either one of us wishes to fuck you. Or enjoy your response when we fuck one another and force you to do nothing but watch.”