I emerged from the shadows to see her lying on her bed. She was the only point of light in all of this darkness, her skin gleaming, her lips parting slightly as she breathed evenly. Harper seemed too peaceful to disturb. Some instinct had me taking a step backwards, wanting to leave her to sleep, when I heard her voice.
“Aren’t you going to ravish me, Bear Boy?” Her eyes cracked open and then she rolled over. My eyes couldn’t help but followthe graceful line of her body, and when I finally met her gaze, she was smiling. “That’s what you’re here for, right?”
No, I wanted to say. I wanted to talk to Harper, get to know her, hear about her hopes and dreams, but as I told Mack, we didn’t get to control the dream. Perhaps that’s why the other two emerged from the shadows, hard and naked.
She sat up in bed, a sly smile on her face.
“Oh, you brought me all three?”
“Told you I’d be seeing you in your dreams, Harper,” Tor said, prowling closer.
“Something you need, my mate?”
Mack came to a stop at the foot of her bed and stared down at her, arms crossed.
“Looks like there’s something you need.”
Harper looked half tiger herself as she prowled down the bed towards him. When she reached up to touch him, his hand shot out, grabbing her wrist.
“That’s not how this works,” he growled. “Not even in dreams.”
“Scared of what will happen if you lose control?”
Mack smiled.
“You’d know something about that, wouldn’t you, Harper? That’s why you were so keen to jump into bed with the guys. If you control the pace of how things progress, then there’s no nasty surprises.” She grinned as his knee hit the bed, thinking she was about to get what she wanted. “But that’s not how this is gonna go.” He turned to me. “Kieran.” With the logic of dreams, I was on the bed and behind Harper in seconds. My hands twisted her hair up into a loose bun, my lips tracing the line of her neck. “Yes, nice and slow, just like that.”
Was it my idea or his to kiss along the line of her shoulder? I didn’t know or care. Her scent filled my nose, making myhead spin, but I kept on kissing her. My hand slid up her neck, turning her head my way before I moved to claim her lips.
“Mm… just like that,” Mack said. “Now Tor.”
“I got this.”
My eyes opened up long enough to watch him saunter over and then crawl across the bed towards her.
“Something you need?” he asked as she slid a hand down his chest.
“Something you need?” she asked, using a fingertip to trace the shape of one of his spines. His breath was sucked in, his chest heaving as she gave one a little tug.
“No, he doesn’t.” At Mack’s response, Tor found himself moved out of her grip, now pressed into her other side. “We aren’t like the men you dated before. A pretty smile and a willingness to jump into bed quickly isn’t enough to keep us at bay.”
“Maybe you need to learn a lesson.” I tried to warn Mack. This was a dream, not real life, so suddenly he was lying down on the bed as Harper crawled closer. Right then it was as if she was the shifter and he the hapless human, because she hung over his body, staring down at him. “That you don’t get to control everything.”
That hiss, the way his jaw locked tight, made clear that Harper had found his knot. Tor and I traded grins as Mack fought a battle he was never going to win. We moved as one, smoothing our hands over Harper’s back. For a moment I got lost in the silken slip of her skin against mine. I was moving, kneeling up to slide my hands around her body, finding the swell of one breast. The way its softness gave under my fingers was enough to transfix me, but I had another purpose in mind.
“You’ve got Mack at your mercy.” My sleuthmate was lost right now, to the rhythmic pull of her hand. His breath camein gasps as she worked him higher. “But where does that leave you?”
She turned then, wide eyed, not stopping for a second, but then Mack’s gasps became an echo of her own. Tor and I worked well together on the work site, and it turned out the same could be said for the bedroom. Both of us covered a breast with one hand, pulling those tight little nipples until her hand stopped moving. The others slid between her legs. Tor found her clit, rubbing along the sides, warming her up, while I traced the shape of her entrance. I wanted in there so damn bad my balls ached like a sore tooth, but Mack had it right. We needed to convince Harper that committing to us would make everything better, starting with this.
“When you accept the bond.” I didn’t allow for the possibility that she might reject us. “It’ll be so good. This spot here.” She let out a whine as my fingers hooked, rubbing hard against a rough spot inside her. “That’s where my baculum will lock down.”
“Yes…” she hissed.
“It’ll lock us together, Harper, force me to rock over and over until you can’t cry out for more.” Her strangled groan made clear how she felt about that. “You’ll come and keep on coming.”
“Yes… Yes…!”
“And then when you’re exhausted.” Her neck moved of its own accord, falling to one side, the skin bleached by the dream moonlight. “And can’t take anymore. Can’t run anymore.” She was moving, we were moving, like some multi-limbed organism. Mack’s groans were a match for her own. “You’ll beg me to mark you.”
