Riptide [Kismet Cove] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (15 page)

An idea sparked in Rory’s brain and he brushed another kiss to Jess’s mouth before making his suggestion. “Tell you what. If Evan talks back to me,
you
can spank him.”

There was no missing the sizzle of interest that flared in her eyes at that suggestion. “You have yourself a deal.”

“Wait, what? Hang on a minute here. Don’t I get a say?”

“You let him spank
me
!” Jess pointed out with a sweet smile and a dangerous gleam in her eyes. “I don’t remember getting a say, so why should you?”

Rory was pleased to see that mischievous look, because it told him that once they put an end to Jess’s doubting demons she was going to be able to hold her own with any member of the colony. She’d need that fire as his mate.

Evan was still sulking. “If you spank me, sweetheart, I’ll find a way to get even with you.”

“I can see this is going to be a relationship built on sex, laughter, and a continuous cycle of revenge, then,” Jess giggled and Rory felt something stir inside him at the joyful sound.
This
was how he wanted the rest of his life to be.

“Not a bad start.” He coaxed her legs further apart and let the thick head of his cock seat itself at the entrance to her pussy. “But so far, I’m not seeing nearly enough sex.”

“You’re being pushy again,” she murmured and arched her hips, rubbing her slick lips against his dick.

Rory didn’t bother answering her, but instead he let his body surge up and into her hot depths. He muffled his groan of pleasure against her mouth as her needy cunt wrapped itself around him and drew him in deeper. She took everything he offered her and when his balls hit her ass, he forced himself to go still. Jess was quivering around him, her pale eyes full of need as she squirmed beneath him, demanding more.

“Why’d you stop?” she asked, and he caught a note of doubt in her voice.

“Because this is too good to rush. We’ve waited a long time for you, baby. I want to remember this.”

“Oh, okay.” Her face lit up with a radiant smile and she wrapped her legs around his hips, drawing him in closer. “Just don’t take too long.”

“Brat!” Rory gave in and began making love to her in earnest, his body braced over hers as he drove himself in and out of her pussy. He made sure he angled his body so that his pubic bone hit her swollen little clit on every thrust, and soon she was panting and bucking beneath him. Her passionate responses kept pushing to the brink of his control, and as he started pumping into her hard enough to move them both up the bed, Rory knew he should ease back, but he couldn’t.

Evan dropped his hand to Jess’s head, protecting her from the headboard as Rory’s control shattered and he fucked her hard. Her tits bounced with each thrust of his hips and she started chanting his name brokenly, spurring him on. Her cunt was so hot his cock felt like he was plunging it into a forge, and she reached up to wrap her hands in his hair, tugging at it so that there was a brief bite of pain as he bottomed out inside her again and again. The sensation of her hands in his hair nearly broke him, but Rory managed to hold back his orgasm until he felt the telltale flutter of her vaginal walls around his cock and heard her ecstatic cries as she climaxed. Only then did he give himself over to the moment, grinding his body against hers as he sent jet after jet of his cum into her body.

“Mine,” he growled and slumped over her, his mouth tracing down her jaw to seal her mouth with one final kiss.

“Ours,” Evan corrected him and laid a hand on Rory’s shoulder, his other still resting on the crown of Jess’s fair hair.

Jess turned her head and broke the kiss and looked up at them both, flushed and panting from her latest orgasm. “Are you two always going to be this possessive?”

“Yes,” they answered together and Jess laughed.

“Good. I just wanted to be sure.”

Rory eased himself away from Jess and settled down on the opposite side of the bed from Evan, leaving her sprawled between them. There wasn’t much extra room in her queen-size bed, and Rory was already trying to figure out how to convince her to come home with them, hopefully to stay. Rory didn’t care what his father or anyone else thought about him and Evan taking a human mate. As far as Rory was concerned, it was a done deal.

“You need to tell them, Rory.” Evan was sitting at the table, making short work of yet another lunch of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches as the two of them argued. He knew why Rory didn’t want to go to his parents about Jess, but they couldn’t continue on the way things were.
Not that things aren’t damn near perfect these days.

Since the night Jess had cooked them dinner, the bonds forged between the three of them had only grown stronger. In the tradition of the selkie people, he and Rory had started making a point of keeping an eye on Jess, and she was usually in the company of one or the other of them. He wasn’t sure she’d noticed yet, but if she hadn’t figured it out, she would soon. It was an ancient practice, and a necessary one for a race whose women were renowned for their beauty and wifely attributes.

The selkie legends made constant mention of the fact that fishermen would try to steal a selkie woman’s pelt, thus preventing her from returning to the sea and keeping her tied to him as wife and mother to any children they might have. In an attempt to safeguard their women, selkies had long ago devised a three-way marriage, ensuring that no mated selkie female was ever left unguarded. Despite the fact that their arrangement with Jess hadn’t been formalized, they were already treating her as their mate.

“You know that’s not going to go well,” Rory said as he set his plate of sandwiches down on the table and joined Evan to eat.

“Uh, yeah. Your dad was ready to it lose it over the idea of you and I mating with someone who wasn’t of the right bloodline. He’s going to go off like a thermonuclear warhead when he finds out Jess is human. But we can’t tell her who we are without his permission, and there’s no way I’m going to ask her to consider making this a permanent arrangement without her knowing the truth. I won’t lie to her, Rory.”

“I don’t want to lie to her, either. She doesn’t give her trust easily. If she ever thinks we betrayed her or lied to her…” Rory trailed off and shook his head.

“She’d be gone, and we’d never get her back again.” Evan finished the gloomy thought and they both stared at their meal for a long moment.

“We need her,” Rory finally spoke. “It’s been less than a week and I hate it when I’m not with her. The bonding process has already started.”

“It’s the same with me.” Evan looked up to grin at Rory. “And I think it’s affecting Jess, too.”

“That’s not possible. She’s human. Everyone knows it takes humans longer to form the bond, and that’s even after they’ve gone through the bonding ritual.”

Evan ran a hand through his hair, sweeping the bangs away from his face as he wondered how to say what was on his mind. “Yeah, I know.” He looked up at Rory and decided to get straight to the point. “The thing is, I don’t think she
is
human.”

Rory snorted. “Yeah, okay. So what is she? A pixie? A runaway wizard from Hogwarts?”

“I think she’s one of us.”

Rory’s head snapped up and he stared at Evan like he’d just grown a second head.

“Not possible. Have you ever known a selkie to drown? If she’d had a drop of selkie blood in her, she’d have changed forms instinctively.”

“Not if she didn’t have her pelt,” Evan reminded him and Rory furrowed his brow in thought.

“So the reaction we’re having to her might be real?”

“You mean the fact we wanted to fuck her the second she came on board the
Storm Lord
and we don’t want to let her out of our sight? Yeah, I’d say that’s very damned real. It’s exactly the way the records describe a reaction to a true mate, and there’s no record of anyone having a true mate bond with a human.”

“I cannot imagine growing up not knowing what you were or who your people were. Why would someone do that to her? And where the hell is her pelt?” Rory stood up and stomped across the kitchen and Evan could almost see the thunder clouds gathering over his blood-brother’s head.

“Just the idea of someone doing that to her pisses me off!” Rory yanked open the fridge door and grabbed two beers, twisting the caps off and kicking the door shut behind him. He handed one to Evan and then threw his head back and downed a good portion of the contents before sitting down again.

“We don’t even know for sure that’s what happened, it’s just a theory.”

“No, it makes too much sense. I think you’re right, Ev.” Rory took another drink and slammed the bottle down onto the table with enough force to make the table legs shake. “Her family owns that cabin right? And it’s right next door to our lands. Maybe there’s information about them, something we missed?”

Evan shook his head. “I checked. Summer visitors only since they bought the property more than sixty years ago. The Jones family is completely human.”

“So that leaves her mother.” Rory sighed. “I really don’t want to make J.J. cry by asking her for her mother’s family history.”

“Hang on, our serious conversation is going on hold for a second. When did you start calling her J.J.?” Evan watched in amazement as Rory’s face actually darkened as he blushed. Blushed! Jess might never realize the depth of the changes she was effecting on the both of them.

“Well, it’s sort of been in my head since I found out she writes as J.J. Ford. It just came out yesterday while we were hanging out. I think it suits her.”

“That is fucking adorable. I am going to tell your mom.”

“Fuck off, Ev. You tell my mom one word of what’s going on I’ll toss your delicate ass off the dock the next time it snows.”

The two of them lapsed into silence, drinking their beers and considering what they were going to do about Jess. Finally Evan cleared his throat and said, “I don’t think we can talk to Jess about this until after we’ve dealt with your father. We can’t go asking her all about her background and then not be able to tell her why.”

“When we do tell her, do you think she’s going to be able to deal with it?” Rory asked, new worry lines creasing his brow. “How did some of the others manage the whole, ‘Hey babe, we’re really glad you’re good with living in a permanent three-way relationship, oh and by the way we may have forgotten to mention the fact we’re seal shapeshifters, too’ conversation?”

“Maybe we should ask them.” Evan arched a brow at Rory. “You’re technically their prince, so you could just swear them to secrecy.

“Good thinking. I’m sure my mom will be happy to help, too, but I’m not sure how well-behaved Dad is going to be at first. Torin is going to love her, though.” Rory shrugged. “I guess two out of three isn’t too bad.”

“You’re forgetting about your little sister. Katelyn is going to be thrilled we’re finally giving her a sister-in-law. Maybe this’ll be enough to get her to get her back home to stay.”

“Not likely, she’s still not forgiven Dad for trying to mate her to that pair from the Haida Gwaii colony. Are you going to tell Cameron?”

Evan grinned at the mention of his little brother. “I already emailed him a few days ago and let him know there was a potential change in my marital status. Once he got over the shock, he emailed me back and let me know he’s going to try to book off once we actually get this figured out and set a date. He’s not due to be going back out to sea until early next year, so it should work out.”

Rory suddenly laughed and raised his beer in a toast. Confused, Evan followed suit, tapping his bottle to Rory’s.

“So what are we toasting exactly?”

“To the fact that you and I just casually discussed the fact we’re getting married, and we haven’t even discussed our plans with the bride-to-be yet.”

“So, I guess that makes it unofficially official, then?” Evan asked.

“You think it’s time? Even without telling her the whole story?” Rory didn’t look completely certain.

“I think we need to tell her how we feel. If she decides to walk away when it’s all said and done, then at least we know we tried.”

“You know Dad’s going to hit the roof when he sees her wearing that, right?”

“It’s our choice, not his. I’m never planning on letting her go, Rory. Are you?”

“No.”

“Then I think we should plan something special for tonight, and tomorrow we can go tell your mom, dad, and Torin the good news.”

Rory nodded and finished the rest of his beer before asking, “Do you think she’ll like it?”

“Have you ever met a woman who didn’t like jewelry?” Evan asked, laughing. “No, wait, I’m betting you have never given a woman jewelry before.”

“Why would I spend that kind of money when I knew they weren’t the ones I was going to be spending my life with?”

Evan groaned. “Let’s make a deal right now that you leave the big, romantic gestures to me and you stick with whatever it is you’re supposed to be good at.”

“I’m good at the stuff that doesn’t require me to be in touch with my inner goddess,” Rory shot back.

Evan choked on his mouthful of beer as he tried to laugh and swallow at the same time. “I never, ever want to meet your inner goddess. She’s probably six feet tall with a mustache and legs hairier than a sasquatch.”

“All right, Mr. Romance. Do you any ideas on where to take Jess tonight?”

“Of course I do. You’re going to hate it, though. It’s going to require you parting with some of our hard-earned coin.”

Rory grunted. “She’s worth it. Are you going to share with the class or am I going to be left to guess?”

“Let’s go find that necklace first, and then I need to make a few phone calls. Once I know if this will work, I’ll let you know.”

Rory grimaced. “The necklace is in the attic. I stored it in the fireproof safe, along with our pelts. I guess we should bring those down, too. She’s going to want to see them eventually.”

* * * *

Jess had been deep in her manuscript when Evan had called and asked her if she had plans for dinner. When she’d said no, he’d cryptically told her to be ready for pick up at five o’clock, and told her to dress for a night out. As she went through her minimally stocked closet for the fourth time, she wondered again what the hell her men were up to.