53

We helped one another get clean. It took three times through the shampoo for Dev's hair to get clean. He'd gotten hit the worst from something, or maybe it was the baby-fine texture of his hair; whatever. Nicky helped me pick bits out of the back of Dev's hair. He started shivering even though the water was steaming hot, but there is cold that no amount of hot water will warm. I think we could have turned his skin pink with heat and he would still have shivered.

He put his hands on the tile of the wall and leaned, as if he were trying to take strength from the wall to keep standing. Nicky and I exchanged a look; he motioned with his head for me to get closer to Dev while he kept picking bits of zombie out of the other man's hair. I touched his arm, and he jumped.

'It's me, Dev, it's just me,' I said.

'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I don't know what's wrong with me.'

I let that go; we both knew what was wrong, but knowing doesn't always fix it. I touched his arm again, and this time he stood still for it. I slid in under his arm, and even with him leaning against the wall he was tall enough for me to look up at him and not have to bend over at all. He was a foot taller than I was, and standing there with his arms on either side and above my shoulders, his face above mine, I was suddenly aware that he was really big, not just tall, but wide through the shoulders, broad through the chest. If he had spent half the time that Nicky did in the weight room, Dev would have been massive. I wasn't sad that he didn't; I might have felt physically overwhelmed, but then again, maybe I wouldn't. I could see Nicky's shoulder on one side of Dev's, and I didn't have a problem with Nicky. I didn't think a few inches of extra height would have tipped the difference for me.

Wet, Dev's hair fell a little below his shoulders, framing that square and very masculine jaw. His blue-on-blue eyes blinked a little too quickly as he stared down at me. I slid my hands over the slick wetness of his chest as Nicky kept working on his hair.

'I don't think I'm in the mood, Anita. I never thought I'd say that, but I can't stop thinking about what Nicky is cleaning out of my hair. Now I know why you insist on a shower before you greet everybody some nights.'

I touched his face, made sure I had serious eye contact. 'The thing in the basement tonight was bad, Dev; even by my standards it was a slaughter. I don't do that every night. Hell, I don't do it most of the time.'

'You mean I'm not being a serious pussy?'

I smiled at him. 'Well, you are a pussycat, but no, it was bad, worse than normal even by my standards for mess and brutal fighting. Flesh-eating zombies just don't stop coming. I've never, ever seen that many of them.'

'Really?' he asked, and his voice was fragile, like the look in his eyes.

'Really,' I said, my hand on the side of his face.

His head pulled back as if Nicky were moving his hair too much. Then I saw Nicky's hands come up and he ran his fingers through Dev's hair. 'There, all clean.'

Dev let out a shaking breath, but he straightened, pushed away from the wall, and ran his own hands through his hair. He did it a second time, a look of relief on his face as he smoothed his hair back from his face.

'Thanks, Nicky,' he said.

'You can return the favor sometime,' Nicky said.

Dev looked over his shoulder at the other man. 'Are you inviting me to shower with you again?'

Nicky smiled. 'So far you've been a perfect gentleman; I think my virtue is safe.'

'You have virtue to keep safe?' I asked, peering around Dev's body.

Nicky raised an eyebrow at me. I realized he'd swept his wet hair back from his face, completely exposing the scars that covered the socket of his right eye. He usually hid the scars with that triangle of bangs, so I valued when he didn't. It meant he was comfortable. I liked that.

'No, no, I don't,' he said, and there was something about the way he said it, more sad than teasing back, that made me remember that he'd been abused as a child both sexually and physically by his mother. She'd been the one who took his eye. I suddenly felt stupid and slow and ...

I went to Nicky, stroking my hands down his bare, wet arms. 'I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry.'

'It's okay,' he said.

I wrapped myself around him, nakedness to nakedness, and it wasn't erotic, because he didn't hold me back, he stayed upright and didn't meld into the hug.

'I missed something,' Dev said behind us.

Nicky said, 'Yeah, you did.'

I looked up at the man in my arms, searched that closed-down face. He'd turned away from me just enough to hide the scars, not to be pretty the way Asher would do to hide his, but it was either that or reach back up and smooth his wet hair down over them, and that would have been admitting it mattered to him and Nicky wouldn't do that.

'Look at me, please,' I said.

He did, but the look on his face was arrogant, distant as his body still felt because he wouldn't hug me back.

'I'm sorry, I forgot.'

He glared at me, and I felt the first rush of heat as his anger hit his lion and it stirred. 'How can you forget when you have to look at this every time you see me?' He touched his finger to the edge of the scars.

It was the first time he'd said out loud that the scars bothered him, reminded him every time he looked in the mirror. The way he wore his hair let me know that it bothered him, but he'd never actually said so before.

'It's just a part of you,' I said. 'That's what I think when I look at you; that's all I think.'

He stared down at my face, studying it. 'I can feel that you mean that.'

'I like the scar,' Dev said, 'and the fact that you are as good as you are with weapons and hand-to-hand having to compensate for the lack of depth perception is impressive.'

Nicky shifted in my arms, and that flare of anger was like heat marching down my body, as if the heat of the shower were starting to emanate from his body and not the taps behind us. 'He really does like scars,' I said. 'Dev's a texture junkie.'

He relaxed a little in my arms and finally put his arms around me. He wasn't holding me tight, but it was progress.

'I'll prove it to you, if it won't freak you out,' Dev said.

Nicky gave him a look, as if nothing he could do would be that freaky, but I knew Dev better than Nicky did. I was betting there was plenty that the weretiger could do to freak out the werelion. The reverse was also true, but Dev's would be sensual and Nicky's would be more violence. I didn't really want them to try to freak each other out, though; I feared it would go badly.

Dev moved in behind me until his body was pressed up against mine, which pinned Nicky's hands between my body and the other man's. Nicky was only touching against Dev's stomach; he didn't complain or move his hands. Neither man's body was excited to be there yet, so though it was nice, it wasn't as erotic as it might have been. He reached out to touch Nicky's cheek.

Nicky jerked back.

Dev let his hand fall and smoothed his hands down my arms. 'See, it freaks you out.' He leaned down to lay a kiss on the top of my head, nuzzling against my wet hair.

I wriggled into Dev's touch, raising my face so he could kiss my lips. We kissed, and the kiss grew until it tightened my hands around Nicky and made me grind myself against Dev. His body was already beginning to react, which encouraged me to grind harder against him. Nicky's arms around my back kept me from grinding as much as I could have, which forced me away from Nicky's body in an effort to touch more of Dev's.

Nicky's body pressed in tighter from in front. It brought me back from kissing Dev and to move my face toward Nicky. This time he leaned over so I could reach his lips. We kissed and it was a soft brush of lips, then a more urgent press of his mouth on mine. He moved his arms from between Dev and me, and at the same time I was suddenly pressed tight between both of them. With one of them thick and growing thicker against the front and the other against the back of me, the sensation of being pinned between their bodies tore my mouth from Nicky's and made me cry out.

It was only when Dev leaned over me for another kiss that I realized why they were both pressed so close. Nicky had moved his arms so he was holding on to the other man's waist and Dev had done the same, so that they were using their strength to press themselves in tighter against my body. Nathaniel and Micah called it making a sandwich, and I loved being the middle of it.

They took turns kissing me, until I writhed and ground against both their bodies and they were both hard, and thick, and achingly ready. With their skills at foreplay it seemed a shame to skip most of it, but sometimes the urgency of the need is its own foreplay.

Dev rose up from kissing me and touched Nicky's scar. When he didn't protest Dev leaned over me, which pressed him even tighter against my ass, and he laid a soft kiss on the scar. Nicky didn't really react to it, so it encouraged Dev to move one hand up to the side of Nicky's face. He leaned in and kissed the scars where Nicky's eye should have been more thoroughly. I looked up to watch the kissing, my body still pinned between theirs. Nicky had gone still, and his body wasn't quite as happy to be pressed against me, though Dev had no way of knowing that.

He kissed down Nicky's face, one soft kiss at a time, and I got to watch each kiss get closer and closer to Nicky's mouth, until finally Dev kissed him.

Nicky drew back from it, shaking his head. 'No,' he said, not angry, but firm.

Dev dropped his hand from the side of the other man's face and kissed me as if he were trying to kiss me as deeply and completely as he could. He drew back from the kiss, lips half parted, his face so eager, so excited, that it made me laugh, a little breathless and shaky.

Nicky kissed me then, and it was gentle, tender, as if he were making love to my mouth. He drew back and left me with my eyes still closed, lips half parted. I was even a little weak in the knees, just from the kiss.

'Wow,' Dev said, 'I feel like I need to try again.'

I opened my eyes enough to see Nicky smiling down at me. He looked utterly pleased with himself. It made me smile up at him, but the smile spread until it was more an evil, happy grin.

'Now I know I need to try another kiss,' Dev said, 'because that is a really good smile.'

'Yes,' Nicky said. 'Yes, it is,' and his voice was already deeper with the first rush of testosterone, and a smile that held all the heat you wanted to see in a man's face. It was full of love, yes, but it was also full of lust, and the thought of everything he was going to do to you and with you.

'Why do I feel like I need to catch up when I've been standing here the whole time?' Dev asked.

'She loves me,' Nicky said, as if that explained everything, and apparently it did, because Dev said, 'You are a lucky man.' That's usually something a man says when what he means is, Your woman is hot and I would totally fuck her, but either it's morally wrong or you would kill me for it. It seemed weird that Dev felt the need to be so polite with his nakedness pressed against my ass and knowing that he was getting sex, too, but sex isn't everything. It's nice, it's great even, if you're lucky, but everyone, eventually, wants love.

I went up on tiptoe to kiss Nicky again, and Dev moved back a little so that we could use hands and arms on just each other, while the kiss grew from tender to urgent. When we drew back just to look at each other, Dev said, 'I'll offer just once more to give you guys privacy, and I should get major brownie points for offering, at this point.'

I looked over my shoulder at him, with Nicky and me still holding each other. I wasn't sure what I would have said, because Nicky said, 'Breast, or ass?'

'What?' Dev said, frowning, obviously puzzled.

'Do you want to fuck her first, or have her suck your dick first?'

I turned back to look at Nicky; the look was enough, because he said, 'You love me and I love you and it's amazing, but at heart I'm a thug, Anita. I'm crude and rude and violent, and you've taught me the only gentleness I've ever known, but I'm still me.'

I nodded. 'Okay, it's not that I don't agree with the division of labor; it was just a little crudely put, that's all. You surprised me.'

He smiled. 'Okay, Mephistopheles, are you a breast or a thigh man?' Nicky looked at me, head cocked to one side. 'Better?'

I grinned. 'Yes, thank you.'

Dev watched us like he'd never seen us.

'What's wrong?' I asked.

'I'm just wondering when you guys became a couple and why didn't I notice?'

I looked back at Nicky and he slid his arms more securely around, bringing me in against his body in a way that was less sexual and more romantic. It seemed weird in the shower all naked with another man, but there you are; if it works, don't poke at it. I was trying to be smarter.

'You were busy worrying about Asher,' Nicky said.

Dev nodded. 'True, and I'll take thighs.'

Nicky grinned quick and fierce, more a baring of teeth, like a happy snarl. 'We fuck both ends.'

'I'd like to go down on her, while she goes down on you.'

'That's hard in the shower,' I said.

'Bed?' Dev asked.

'Normally, I'd say not only yes, but hell yes! But if the police call before I get some sleep I'm going to cry, so just this once let's just have intercourse,' I said.

Dev's face showed a conflict of emotions, but finally he smiled and said, 'Who am I to argue with the Queen of Tigers?'

'Still not sure I like that title,' I said.

'You hated Mother of Tigers more,' Nicky reminded me.

'True.'

'But I don't think we'll be fucking right away,' he said.

'Why not?'

'Too much talking, not enough sex,' he said, and motioned that he wasn't hard anymore.

I glanced at Dev and found similar deflation. 'I can fix that,' I said, and knelt between them on the shower tiles, the water rushing around my knees.

'So we get oral and intercourse; seems unfair,' Dev said.

'I like and can orgasm from both,' I said, looking up at him from my knees.

'I've had women orgasm from intercourse, but you're a first for oral,' he said.

'Anita, will you please shut him up?' Nicky asked.

I went down on Dev while he was still talking, stopping him in midsyllable. The feel of him in my mouth was, as always, amazing. I liked the sensation of men when they were small and soft and it was easy to take them all in my mouth, roll them around with my tongue, and bury my mouth against their bodies as close and tight as I wanted without choking or fighting my gag reflex, and as long as I kept him deep in my mouth he'd stay smaller. It was only as I began to draw back off him and suck him back into my mouth that he began to grow longer and thicker.

Nicky ran his hand through my wet hair and turned me to him. He wasn't as small as he had been; just watching me go down on Dev and anticipating his turn had made him grow bigger, so that he filled my mouth more, and I had to fight a little around the beginnings of my gag reflex to bury my mouth against his body as far and tight as I could.

Nicky put his hand on the back of my head, holding me on him, but moved my hand from his thigh to wrap it around Dev so I could feel that the other man was thick and hard in my hand. The double sensation of my hand and mouth filled up with that eager hardness ... They were both so warm, skin soft like muscled velvet to suck and stroke, so that it made me suck harder and faster on Nicky and stroke my hand up and down Dev's shaft to curve over the round, thick silk of him.

Nicky wrapped his hand in my hair and pulled me away from his body. 'I want inside you first,' he said, his voice breathless. He used his handhold on my hair to push me toward Dev. I slid my mouth onto Dev but kept my hand on him, too, so that I was stroking the shaft and sucking and licking the head and first few inches.

He whispered, 'Oh, my God.'

I felt Nicky's hands on my waist and hips as he pulled me into place. I started to turn and say something, or look, but he pushed his hand into the back of my head, holding me down on Dev for a second. Without words he was clear what he wanted, me to go on Dev while he ... I felt the head of him brush against my opening, but being in the water, even just a shower, had made me tighter even than normal, so that I felt the brush of his hand as he guided himself in place and then began to push the head of him against the tightness of my opening. Just feeling him do that made me begin to suck faster and deeper on Dev, my hand wrapped around the base of him against his body.

'I won't last long,' Dev said.

Nicky pushed his way inside me, fighting for every inch against the tightness from the water. It made him feel even bigger, thicker than I knew he was, and the sensation of him pushing his way inside made me cry out around Dev.

He made an inarticulate sound. I could taste salt from the precome now; he was close, but I didn't care as Nicky finally found enough room to shove himself into me, and my body finally opened for him so that he pulled himself almost out, put his hands on my hips to hold me in place or move me with him, like leading on a dance floor, except this was the water-slick tiles of a shower. Then Nicky pushed his way in again and found a fast, deep rhythm that made me scream as I buried my mouth down the length of Dev's body.

'Close,' Dev said, his voice strained as he fought to last.

Nicky picked up his rhythm, fast and deep so that his body smacked against mine in a sharp, repetitive sound of flesh on flesh, and between one quick deep thrust and the next he spilled me over and I screamed my orgasm around Dev's body. It was too much for Dev, and he thrust into my mouth rather than waiting for me to suck, but with Nicky's orgasm riding my body I wanted as much of both inside me in that moment. Dev responded to my eagerness by grabbing the back of my head and forcing me down as he thrust up, and it was almost too much down my throat even with orgasm. I had to fight not to try to breathe, because I couldn't have. It isn't always a gag reflex; sometimes it's a suffocation reflex. I relaxed my throat as much as I could while I was still trying to scream my own orgasm, but Dev had shoved himself so far down my throat that there was no sound possible. I felt him pulse inside my throat all the way along his shaft where it lay in my mouth and knew that he was going, before I felt that moment of hot as he spilled himself inside me and I fought to swallow. If I'd let the ardeur loose there would have been no problem, because when that rode me I had no gag reflex, it was like magic and took away all the issues; but I'd fed already and I was trying to do certain things without the ardeur's help, because if I could do it just as me, then I could do things more frequently without risking draining my lovers to death. Such a mood killer.

It was while I was struggling to take all of Dev in that Nicky intensified his rhythm and let me know he'd been aiming for that sweet spot nearer the opening, because now he searched for the deeper spot that he could hit from behind. Most women will go from the G-spot being caressed long enough, but not all women go from the two deeper spots; for the longest time I thought I enjoyed having my cervix bumped until I learned that wasn't what the men were hitting, not at all. From behind, Nicky slid the head of himself into the spot deep and high within me, and the orgasm that had been fading spilled into a second one from deeper within me, so that when Dev drew himself out of my mouth I screamed loud and deep-throated. Nicky drove himself one last time deep inside me, his hands pulling me backward against his body at the same time, so that he thrust as deep into me as he could in that last moment as his body convulsed inside mine. That last thrust was almost too deep, almost hurt, but in the middle of the orgasm, topped by the sensation of him going inside me, the almost-pain translated into a bigger pleasure.

'I'll go,' Dev said, and stepped out of the shower on slightly unsteady legs. The water that he'd been blocking suddenly cascaded down on me. I hung my head down so it wouldn't get in my eyes and mouth. I wanted to ask where Dev was going, but I couldn't figure out how to say words yet. I was still quivering happily from the orgasm; coherent speech was a few minutes away.

Nicky was still buried as deep as he could be, hands still holding my hips in place, so that even if I'd wanted to, I couldn't have moved. He leaned over me and laid a kiss on my back and said in a voice growling deep, 'You'd think they'd get used to the fact that you're a screamer.'

Apparently, Nicky and Dev had heard the other guards pounding on the door. I tried to be embarrassed that they'd all heard me screaming, but Nicky chose that moment to lean over me and growl. The sound of it seemed to vibrate through my body as if as long as he was buried inside me I would resonate with the growling depth of him.

I shivered for him.

He leaned his face close to mine, so that the water splashed over us both. 'If Dev hadn't been here I would have set my teeth into your shoulders and marked you as mine, but mustn't scare the tigers.' And he growled again with his chest curved over me, his face touching mine. I made a small, helpless noise of happiness, and he laughed so deep a sound that it should have had teeth and claws around it.

54

I woke blinking into a bar of golden sunlight, made more gold by the blond hair that was spilling across my face. The sunlight was a slit in the curtains. The bed was moving, and I blinked through the hair and sunlight to see Nicky sliding out of the bed. That meant the very warm and softly muscled someone wrapped around the back of me was Dev. I tried to sweep the hair out of my face and realized my arms were pinned by his arm. He snuggled closer, arm flexing as I tried to move. Apparently Dev was a serious snuggler.

I heard deep voices soft and low at the door. I was able to turn my head and see around Dev's head enough to see Nicky naked at the partially open door, but couldn't see who he was talking to. Then he opened the door, and Edward walked in, which made me suddenly look down to see how much of me was covered with sheet. It hadn't seemed that important a minute ago.

Dev had not only my arms pinned, but the sheet trapped at about my waist level between us. At the moment his arm covered some of my breasts, but some is not enough when the person who just walked into the room isn't a lover. Yes, Edward was one of my best friends, but it wasn't the same as having a best girlfriend.

I could reach my sheets with my hands pinned, but I couldn't actually get any more sheet to cover me because it was caught between Dev's body and mine. Crap! I did the only thing I could: I hid behind Dev and said, 'Just a minute, Edward.' I planned on my voice being calm and matter of fact. I failed.

Edward laughed, that rare real laughter for him, and the fact that he did it in front of Nicky meant he approved of him in some way. 'I'll turn my back until you cover up.' His voice was made up mostly of laughter. I wasn't sure I'd ever heard him sound quite that pleased. It wasn't just this moment of embarrassment for me, as I poked Dev and made him blink awake so I could grab covers; I thought it was Donna and her working her issues, so that there would be a wedding. Maybe I was being all girly and projecting, but Edward was happy. When we met years ago we were both pretty miserable; I just didn't know it.

'I'm moving, I'm moving,' Dev said, as I pushed at him a little furiously.

Edward was standing with his back to the bed like he'd said, but his shoulders were shaking with laughter. Nicky stood beside him totally nude and totally comfortable, as he watched me struggle to hide my nakedness and drag all the covers off Dev. He didn't care any more than Nicky did - stupid wereanimals and their lack of modesty, and stupid me still caring this much.

Edward was bent almost double, laughing so hard it sounded like he was having trouble breathing. 'Glad I could lighten your morning,' I said, grumpily.

It made Dev grin, and then Nicky chuckled.

I pointed a finger at Dev. 'Don't you dare.'

Dev's mouth quirked as he fought not to laugh. Nicky's face was alight with suppressed laughter. I fled to the bathroom with the king-size sheet wrapped around me like the most oversized robe in the world, grabbing my overnight bag as I moved, so that I actually tripped over the sheet and fell in the doorway to the bathroom.

'Motherfucking son of a bitch!'

That was it; both of them laughed out loud. I gathered my sheet and what was left of my dignity and closed the door to the bathroom to the sounds of masculine laughter. I rolled my eyes at myself in the mirror and realized that I had no idea why Edward was in our room. I was betting it was business, which meant crime to solve, bad guys to catch, and a mysterious master vampire to find. That took the smile off my face, but I realized not entirely. Yeah, things were bad, and last night had been brutal, but I could still hear the men laughing to themselves. It was a good sound, and not a bad way to start the day.