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  As though by a mutual, unspoken decision, I felt both of them speed up. Lucian’s long, slow thrusts became faster and faster and Drace, who was fucking carefully and shallowly into my mouth, became more erratic in his motions.

  “Gods, baby,” he moaned, stroking my hair as he watched me suck him. “Your mouth is so sweet. Gonna come soon—can’t help it.”

  “I am too,” Lucian groaned. “But I want Rylee to come with us.” I felt one of his big hands slide from my hip down to where we were joined and then long, clever fingers were stroking over my swollen, aching clit. At the same moment, Drace twisted my nipples, pinching and tugging lightly to send lightning bolts of pleasure through my entire body.

  I moaned around the thick shaft in my mouth and then I felt the wire that had been twisting tight in my belly snap and my pleasure was flooding me, washing over me in a warm wave that threatened to drown me with its intensity.

  “Gods, ma 'frela—I can feel you coming. Coming all around me,” Lucian gasped hoarsely. I felt him swell even bigger within my pussy and then a gush of heat spurted deep inside me bathing my inner channel and the mouth of my womb with his cum.

  At the same time, Drace groaned and I felt his shaft swell between my lips. He would have pulled away but I hung on to him. I’d never been much for swallowing before but this time I wanted to. Drawing close to him I took as much of his cock in my mouth as I could and caught the first hot salty spurt of his seed on my tongue.

  Drace gave an inarticulate cry and stopped trying to pull away. Instead he held steady and still allowing his cock to spurt in my mouth as Lucian’s erupted deep in my pussy. And through it all my own orgasm seemed to go on and on, a shining river of pure pleasure that I thought would never end.

  It did end at last, of course and the three of us collapsed on the bed together in a panting, sweaty, tangled heap. My head was pillowed on Drace’s broad chest and Lucian’s head was nestled in the curve of my waist, right above my hip. I couldn’t remember ever feeling so perfectly good—so at peace. I felt a warm glow of love suffuse me and it seemed to spread to both the guys and then come back to me—a closed loop of adoration and affection that just kept growing and growing until I felt like I was floating on a cushion of pure contentment.

  “Well, don’t the three of you make a charming trio?” Looking up, I saw Mandrex standing over us. There was an unreadable look on his dark face and he had one hand in his pocket. “Are you certain,” he said, speaking to all of us. “Truly certain that you will be able to bear to sever the bond between you? You look so satisfied…so right together.”

  There was a wistfulness in his deep voice that almost made me feel sorry for him. I wondered what had happened to him to make him choose the life of an exile so far from his home planet.

  Drace, however, clearly didn’t share my sympathy for the eccentric Cantor.

  “You got what you wanted,” he growled. “We did everything you asked—answering questions wasn’t part of the bargain.”

  “My bond-mate is right,” Lucian said, sitting up and tucking his shaft back into his trousers. “We have given in to your demands. I would ask that you honor your part of the bargain.”

  “Very well—if you still want to use the Key to be free of each other, it is yours to use.”

  Mandrex pulled his hand out of his pocket and held out the strange triangular stone with its orange and blue markings.

  I reached for it but he pulled it back, shaking his head.

  “Wait—I have only one stipulation. When your quest is completed I want the three of you—all three of you—to return it to me.”

  Lucian frowned. “Why do you specifically want all three of us? We’ll be separated at the end of this.”

  “So you say but I want to see it for myself.” Mandrex looked at us thoughtfully. “I want to see the end of this story.”

  Drace and Lucian exchanged a glance and then both of them looked at me.

  I shrugged. “Why not?”

  “Sure, I guess,” Drace said.

  “Very well—it’s agreed.” Lucian held out his hand. “The three of us will return to give you back the Key. And our thanks for the loan of it.”

  “Very well.” But it was to me that the fallen angel handed the stone. “Use it well…if you really think you want to, little Pure One,” he murmured. Then he turned away and left the room with a rustle of his tall, black wings.

  I watched him go, safe between my two guys, and wondered what he had meant…and what he knew that I didn’t.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Drace

  “All right—we have the Key. Now what?” I said, looking down at the fist-sized chunk of triangular rock in Rylee’s palm.

  We were back aboard Lucian’s ship, lounging in the master sleeping chamber in our sleep clothes, thank the Goddess. One more night in that fucking Y’brith…one more crazy encounter with another rich asshole…or even just another run in with my bond-mate’s parents and I might have lost it.

  “You’re the one who said we needed to go to the jungle next—to K’drin,” Lucian pointed out mildly.

  I looked at him speculatively but there was no anger in his words. We were getting along a hell of a lot better since we’d “literally kissed and made up” as Rylee put it. I didn’t know about that but I did know that sharing our female sexually had put paid to any bad feelings that had been between me and my bond-mate. Part of that was probably due to Rylee’s La-ti-zal power of binding but part was just that I felt closer to Lucian now that I understood more of his background.

  I still couldn’t get over the fact that his parents had forbidden him to find a mate and a female because none of the Betas he’d found were good enough for them. It’s one thing to try and guide your child’s future but it’s something else to forbid them to have one just because they might choose someone you disapprove of. That was fucking cold hearted as far as I was concerned.

  Of course, it wasn’t like my family would approve either, if they knew about Lucian and me. I felt a twinge of unease when I thought about that. We were going to be near my home village of Renth on the edge of K’drin Jungle—I would have to be damn careful not to run into anyone I knew.

  I felt a little guilty about wanting to hide my bonding status from my family. But I told myself that Lucian had wanted to hide it from his family too—hell, any red blooded Alpha would. So he couldn’t blame me.

  “Drace?” Rylee said, snapping me out of my guilty thoughts. “Are you all right?”

  “Fine…I’m fine.” I cleared my throat. “And yes, we do need to head for K’drin. We’ll need to get supplies and a reliable nav-tracker. You don’t want to go into the jungle unprepared.”

  Rylee groaned and rolled over on her side. She was lying between Lucian and me in the center of the sleep platform.

  “Please don’t tell me this hidden temple we’re searching for is in another place we have to walk instead of fly to. What good is advanced alien technology if you have to abandon it to tramp through the desert and the jungle?”

  “Sorry, baby,” I said. “But the jungle canopy is way too dense to admit a ship—even a small one. The only thing to do is to park the ship in the public port nearest the edge of the tree line and wade in on foot.” I frowned. “We’ll just have to keep a low profile.”

  “What about your place?” Lucian asked. “Can we stay there? Keep out of sight until we’re ready to go?”

  I shrugged. “I’d say yes but it’s about a hundred leagues from where we need to be. The temple is actually closest to my home village of Renth—if it can be said to be close to anywhere, that is.”

  “Crap. Well, into the jungle we go, I guess.” Rylee sighed. “Can you at least promise we won’t run into any more of those awful goddess-insects?”

  “The moratas dwell only in the Sands of Death,” Lucian said dryly. “But there are many other perils in the jungle, I am afraid. Though at least there are no more kr’awn to worry about—the K’drin jungle used to be c