My heart leaped into my throat. “She’s looking for my dad? Do you know where he went? Is he okay?”
He shook his head. “No, but you can trust she’ll do everything she can to protect him. I’m here to protect you, and so are the others. You aren’t obligated to give us anything in return. But you still need us.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me.” I draped my arm over my face.
“If it’s any consolation, I think we need you too.”
I lifted my arm off my eyes and squinted at him. “What for?”
He gave a helpless shrug. “Because we’re lost without each other but still incomplete without mates. We thought we had to make a choice between the two, but if you’re as perfect as you seem, maybe we won’t have to.”
My gut twinged. “So it’s them you want. I saw how Gray and Murdoc were together. Am I just a means to an end then?”
“No, that’s not it at all. You would be our fulcrum. The center of the wheel where we’re the spokes. Only a woman as powerful as you are could be what we need. Having you would give us a chance, but make no mistake, you’d be the center of our lives if you choose us all.”
I covered my face again and groaned. “No pressure. I mean, if I choose all of you, I have to worry about my ability to keep you all happy. But if I pick just one or two, then I’m obviously tearing you apart. Tell me again why being alone is not an ideal answer to this dilemma?”
The bed dipped as he lay down beside me, his touch gentle when he pried my arm away from my face. He looked both stern and understanding, giving me a glimpse of the leader Gray had described. “I never said being alone wasn’t a good answer. But the fact remains that you need us for the next few weeks. Left alone, the power of your estrous could have adverse effects on your sanity and the world around you. Without a safe way to channel the magic, you’d be putting yourself at risk.”
“So I may as well not leave this bed is what you’re saying. Don’t get me wrong, if two days ago you’d told me I’d be surrounded by six of the sexiest men on the planet whose entire purpose was to give me orgasms all day, I’d have said sign me the fuck up. But this is happening to me at the absolute worst time possible. My studio’s destroyed. The project I need to have complete in three weeks is back at square one, and there are crazy chaos creatures chasing me and my dad. My career should probably be the least of my worries, but if I survive this, I sure as fuck hope my only prospect isn’t becoming the love slave for a bunch of dragons.” His smirk made me pause and smack him on the shoulder. “What? This shouldn’t be entertaining. We’re talking about my life.”
He held up a hand. “I know. First of all, you wouldn’t be our sex slave unless that’s what you want. I don’t know if there are other options for managing your estrous, but we can bring Tate and the other two up to weigh in on that. Would that at least alleviate some of your worries? Shall I call them?”
My answer stalled when the infernal urge flared low in my belly again, like a hunger pang except it wasn’t my stomach that needed to be filled. I let out a groan and pulled Stuart back by the hand when he started to leave the bed. “I think you were about to do something a minute ago that I need you to finish. I take it your tongue is just as agile as Gray’s, yeah?”
A wicked smile spread across his face as he took me in again, his eyes flashing with an inner light. “I’ll let you be the judge,” he said as he slipped down between my legs again, the twin tips of his tongue tickling the air.
19
April
A few more orgasms and a long shower later, I finally started to feel human again. Which was possibly somewhat ironic since I really wasn’t as human as I’d always believed. A lot of my beliefs had been tested in the past twenty-four hours, including my capacity to develop feelings for people I barely even knew. Was it a compulsion? Was it magic?
Or was it just that all three dragons had worn their feelings and intentions so openly in their auras? Maybe my power to see their auras meant they simply couldn’t hide their natures, and it gave me insight I’d never had with past boyfriends. These powers hadn’t existed when I started college, that was for sure. They were still so new I didn’t entirely understand them, but I couldn’t deny that they had opened up a vast new world for me to explore. And my creative, curious self wanted to dive right in and see where things led.
I think that curiosity might have been the only thing keeping me from going stir crazy and freaking out about my loss of control over my career. I hoped I could bounce back from this. I liked to think of myself as a pretty easygoing person. But until I talked to the gallery manager, I wouldn’t know if I had any chance of salvaging my show, and judging from the care the guys had taken about making calls, I was pretty sure contacting anyone by phone was a big no-no under the circumstances.
I still intended to bring it up. The guys had surprised me so far, and not just with their ability to make me climax a dozen times in the span of a few hours. Maybe they had other magical tricks up their sleeves. As much as I hated relying on anyone, I was at their mercy, so may as well take advantage of it.
By the time I made it back downstairs, the house was filled yet again with the delicious aromas of cooking food. This time I smelled something sweet and fruity that made my stomach rumble loudly. Someone was baking a pie, or multiple pies. I smelled strawberries and fresh lemons, then remembered that we used to have a lemon tree that Dad would make fresh lemonade from around this time of year. There was also more than enough canned fruit in the pantry for about a hundred pies.
I paused at the base of the stairs, the kitchen and breakfast nook just visible through the arched doorway. All six guys were busy with some task or other in the kitchen, their easy banter evidence of how close they were, and the way they all coexisted in the same space proof of how well they worked together as a team.
Out of curiosity, I shifted my vision to view their auras, and was enthralled by the way those bubbles of energy that surrounded them seemed to merge and flow around each other. No wonder I’d been ten times as comfortable sleeping between Murdoc and Gray. I must have been protected by twice the magic.
I still wasn’t clear on how I was supposed to fit in the middle of all that, as appealing as the thought was. I genuinely liked the three dragons, and was pretty sure my feelings weren’t limited to the way they satisfied my physical needs. Even though I didn’t know the ursa beyond their names, watching them made me want to get to know them.
Stuart’s warning popped into my head, and for the first time, I had the chance to give it some thought. They weren’t allowed to fuck me, so maybe that would give us the opportunity to have something deeper. Though I couldn’t imagine feeling any more connected to someone than I was to Gray or Murdoc, or Stuart for that matter, and we’d started with them screwing me. In spite of chasing that pleasure, somehow we’d still managed to connect on a level far deeper than I’d achieved with any past boyfriend.
“You just going to stand there and stare?” a deep voice said, and my head jerked to the side. Tate was no longer in the kitchen but now stood in front of me, all brawny, bearded man with his arms crossed across his chest, making his biceps bulge in the dark blue flannel shirt he wore.