Jean-Claude wrapped his arm around him from the back. He was still in the leather pants, but just being held close to him made Asher’s eyes roll back into his head. He had waited a long time for Jean-Claude to touch him. It was ironic that Asher’s power made those nearest and dearest to him afraid to be alone with him physically, but he’d almost killed me, and he’d nearly possessed Jean-Claude in that demonic way. We had a right to be cautious of him, but seeing him there with such reaction to such an innocent touch from Jean-Claude made me realize just how much he needed and wasn’t getting.

“It’s not just about the pain, Richard,” Jean-Claude said.

“I know that,” Richard said, and he moved across the bed on his knees, still perfectly nude, though his body was less erect, but even less erect he was still very male as he moved toward the other men. He got close enough to grab Asher’s chin, making him look into his eyes. “You enjoyed watching me go down on her, didn’t you?”

Asher spoke just above a whisper, “Yes.”

“I have some of Jean-Claude’s memories. I know that you enjoyed watching other men have sex with your women.” Then, still holding Asher’s chin in his hand, he leaned in and kissed him. It was a soft kiss, almost innocent, and he kept a lot of distance between their bodies, but the look on Asher’s face when Richard drew back from it wasn’t innocent. It was expectant, surprised, happy, and then wary.

“Can you taste her on my mouth?” Richard asked.

“Yes,” Asher said, and his voice was that same breathy whisper.

Richard slid off the bed, and Jean-Claude moved back for him to move behind Asher. I lay on the bed watching the show, because that’s what it was. Richard did understand BDSM; at its best it’s a performance, showmanship counts. Richard moved in behind Asher. He ran his hands down the man’s back. “Nice pattern.”

“Thank you,” Jean-Claude said. He moved in closer to the two men, and I got to see the three of them standing there, two of them nude, Jean-Claude just in the leather pants and boots, and for a minute I didn’t care about love, or how much my life worked or didn’t; all I could think of was that they were all so beautiful.

Richard ran his hands over the marks on Asher’s back again, and it was probably just as well that Richard couldn’t see the look on Asher’s face, because just that small touch made him close his eyes and fight not to overreact to the touch, but I knew when someone was trying to be still under someone’s touch.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one, because Richard leaned his face next to Asher’s and said, “You liked me touching you, didn’t you?”

Asher didn’t answer. I think he was afraid of what the other man would hear in his voice. He was having enough trouble controlling his face and body. Vampires over two hundred can control everything. The fact that Asher was fighting so hard to stay in some control said just how much the attention from Jean-Claude and now Richard meant to him.

Richard’s arm slid around Asher’s waist, as he slid his other arm around his shoulder. I sat up, because if Richard was as close to Asher as I thought, I wanted to see it. I wanted to see the lines of their bodies pressed against each other. I crawled over the bed, and didn’t care if it was ungraceful.

I half-stepped and half-fell off the bed, and Richard’s tanned, muscled body was pressed against the back of Asher’s pale one so that there was nothing but the line of their bodies like two perfect pieces of some light and dark puzzle.

Jean-Claude was watching them, too, and his face was stricken, that was the only word for it. It was a look made up of want, and surprise, and the same thing I’d felt just a moment before, that they were simply beautiful.

Richard’s voice fell into that moment. “Tell me you like me pressed up against you, Asher?”

Asher’s breath came out in a shaking sound, not word, or breath, or scream, but it seemed to hold all the longing you would ever want to hear in a lover’s voice.

“Good,” Richard said, and he stepped back from the other man. “Now I’m going to beat you while Jean-Claude fucks Anita and you get to watch, and then I’m going to fuck her while Jean-Claude fucks you.”

I would have protested, or complained, but honestly, it worked for me.

10

JEAN-CLAUDE ROSE ABOVE me, nude and perfect, his body moving in and out of me as he held himself above me on his arms. One, he knew I loved watching him go in and out of my body. Two, he was too tall for traditional missionary, or I was too short. His hair spilled over one shoulder in a mass of thick, black curls. I stared down the line of our bodies watching all that pale perfection work in and out of my body. Just the sight of it made me cry out, like a preview of the orgasm to come. A cry from the side of the bed echoed mine and made me turn my head to see Asher, his head thrown back, body spasming in the chains. His body jerked with each heavy blow of the flogger, and then the sound of the flogger sped up until it was one continuous sound and Asher couldn’t react to each individual blow, his body shivering under it all, his eyes fluttering back.

Jean-Claude shoved himself hard and complete inside me, making me cry out and turn back to him, eyes wide. He held my gaze and began to work faster, deeper, lifting with his hips at the top of each stroke so he was touching everything that made me orgasm from intercourse. The men in my bed were all good, but Jean-Claude could hit not just one spot, but all of them. I felt that wonderful heaviness begin between my legs and knew I was close. The flogging stopped and it made me turn to see, even as Jean-Claude brought me closer to that edge of pleasure. Richard had wrapped himself against Asher’s back again. His tan looked so dark against the paleness of Asher’s body.

I felt Jean-Claude’s body lose some of that smooth rhythm. It made me look up at him but he was looking at the other men, and the sight of them had made him miss a step. Then he was looking down at me again, and one moment we were gazing into each other’s faces and the next the orgasm took me. It rolled over me, through me, in a wave of warmth and pleasure that made me grab Jean-Claude’s arms, holding on as the sensation of it tore screams from my throat, clawed my nails down his arms, as if I were trying to anchor myself to something solid while the world exploded in white-edged pleasure and my body tried to become the fierce joy of it all. I didn’t exactly pass out, but I wasn’t aware of everything either, and when I could see again, be aware of all of me again, Jean-Claude was smiling down at me.

I smiled back and took my nails out of his arms. I’d left red lines, some with blood in them, from about his mid-upper arm to almost his wrists. Once I would have apologized for it, but I knew he enjoyed the marks, both the pain/pleasure of it and that he could drive me to pleasure deep enough to bleed him. Most of the men in my life took it as high praise.

He drew himself out of me and that made me writhe under him, another smaller orgasm just from that alone. When I could make my eyes focus again he was gone and Richard was above me on all fours, not touching me yet, but looking down at me. His hair was still back in its tight ponytail, leaving his face clean and almost heartrendingly handsome. I looked down the line of his body, but didn’t get as far as normal, because his chest and stomach were striped with blood. For a moment I thought it was his blood then realized it had to be Asher’s. It takes a lot of force to draw blood with a flogger, or one that was corded, or had metal bits. I knew we had both in the toy chest, but hadn’t realized Richard had brought it out to play.

He leaned just his face down to mine, keeping his body off mine. He kissed me and I could still taste the edge of my own body on his mouth, but there was also a taste of other lips, and I knew that I’d missed at least another kiss or two between him and Asher. I felt a little regret at that and hoped I’d get a chance to see it again. Nothing was ever certain with Richard, so I kissed him with tongue, and lips and teeth, and he responded in kind, collapsing on top of me, our mouths locked and eager around each other. The sensation of his body on top of mine made me cry out and writhe underneath him, but the height difference was too great for the angle that we were kissing, and the best I could grind against was higher up his body than what I wanted to touch. He pulled away from the kiss with my lower lip between his teeth. It made me cry out half in protest and half in pleasure, that edge of good and bad so intermingled that I couldn’t have told you which side the kiss had ended on. Then I felt that warm roll of power and it caressed things deeper in my body than bone and muscle. It caressed along that part of me that was wolf, and I felt/saw the wolf that was that part of my beast open her eyes. She was mostly cream with black markings around her face and ruff so that she looked at a glance like a big husky dog, but once you saw her eyes like amber glass you knew it wasn’t a dog.