9. Chapter 9

The events of the last twenty-four hours had been strange, to say the least. I was absolutely certain that I had better things to do than go back to bed. But I was also determined not to pass up any opportunity for comfort and pleasure when the cold, hard truth was that I didn"t know if any of us were going to survive this whole being on the Alliance"s hit list while hiding in an unstable, hastily constructed pocket world of my own creation… thing.

I followed Hasumi and Ambrose into my room and closed the door behind us. Elijah"s anchoring charm was heavy against my chest, but I could sense that the ghostly angel wasn"t in the room. I leaned back against the door and watched the two powerful beings before me. I was no stranger to the idea of group sex by now, but I found that each time I played with more than one of my new lovers at a time, the encounter brought out something different in them, depending on who was involved.

I had seen Ambrose and Dyre together. With the necromancer, Ambrose was both playful and tender. As if he understood exactly how self-conscious Dyre was, and how much he yearned for honest affection. But with Hasumi, the boogeyman seemed a bit more serious…. I watched as he glanced between me and Hasumi, then turned to the water weaver and reached out a dark hand to touch the opalescent golden skin of Hasumi"s shoulder, where their loose, flowy shirt had slid down a bit.

"I have a good idea what Andy likes," Ambrose said in a soft voice, his posh bit of an accent growing more pronounced. "But you are a mystery to me, weaver."

I pressed my lips together to avoid grinning when I realized why Ambrose seemed so serious. He was nervous. The boogeyman had joked and flirted with me since nearly the moment he joined the household. And he had no compunction about making a move on Dyre and taking the wraith-possessed witch to his bed. But for some reason, Hasumi intimidated him.

I pushed away from the door and crossed the room to join them beside the bed, as Hasumi turned those shimmering turquoise eyes on Ambrose. The water weaver didn"t reply to Ambrose"s question directly. They simply reached up and slid a graceful hand behind the boogeyman"s neck, lacing slender fingers through Ambrose"s silky black curls. Then they pulled the taller man down into a firm, confident kiss that probably rocked Ambrose"s shadowy little world.

I knew the feeling, because the first time I kissed Hasumi I"m pretty sure I saw the entire universe flash before my eyes. The water weaver could sense what you were feeling, could send you their own emotions, and could manipulate and magnify all of that. Kissing Hasumi was an experience. Not to mention they were the most beautiful being I"d ever seen.

I slid my hand up Ambrose"s back as he stiffened in surprise. That was the other part. Hasumi was ethereal. They looked so soft and perfectly androgynous that it was easy to make assumptions about what they may or may not be like in the bedroom. And those assumptions—at least for me—hadn"t involved the beautiful creature being at all dominant.

I grinned to myself as I recalled the way Hasumi took control when we were with Aahil. The weaver didn"t always show that side of themselves when we were alone, but when it came out, it was hot as hell. Hasumi finally stopped kissing Ambrose senseless and pulled away to calmly regard the boogeyman. Ambrose was a bit breathless, and his pupils had dilated in his red and black eyes.

"Your Dyre will not be angry that you"re here with us?" Hasumi asked evenly. Their alluring voice always got a big, whole-body response from me, but I could tell they were doing their best to rein it in at the moment. And the question was one that needed to be asked.

Ambrose licked his lips and cleared his throat, his deep voice even huskier than usual. "No, he…" He sighed and shook his head. "He"s being a stubborn asshole right now about a lot of things. But no. We talked about this a while back. And we agreed that the only time we"d want to ask permission was if we were interested in someone outside our freaky new family." He sounded less than impressed with Dyre"s behavior recently, but I knew he still wouldn"t do anything to hurt the guy. If he said they were good, they were good.

"What about you?" Ambrose said, arching a brow at the water weaver. "Don"t think I don"t know how attached a certain jinn is to you. Is he going to set me on fire every time he sees me? Am I going to have to hide out in the shadow realm after this for fear of going up in flames?"

One corner of Hasumi"s perfect mouth twitched upward in a wry smirk, as if they found as much humor as I did in the thought of an angry Aahil trying to set Ambrose on fire every time he materialized in solid form in this realm. "No. Our little flame doesn"t think of intimacy and sex in the same terms that some do. He would find this entire discussion strange and unnecessary. He would say that only idiot humans would try to tell each other who they should and shouldn"t fuck."

I snorted with amusement at Hasumi"s very Aahil wording. He was absolutely right. Aahil would call us all morons, then he would demand we stop talking and start pleasuring him, or something. If he was himself. If he wasn"t so wounded….

Hasumi must have sensed the sad turn of my thoughts. They traced a soft caress along my cheek and when I met those mesmerizing turquoise eyes, their gaze was steady and understanding. "He will heal. And he would not want you feeling sorry for him rather than enjoying the pleasure and comfort being offered to you now."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded. Hasumi was right, of course. Aahil would be furious if he thought I was pitying him. And like I said, it was possible end times and all. Sensing my feelings, Hasumi nodded once at me, then turned to Ambrose. "Undress our witch."

I almost purred at the tone of easy command in Hasumi"s voice.

Ambrose arched a brow in surprise, but didn"t balk at being given orders. He reached for me, and I went willingly as Hasumi watched.

Ambrose"s touch was always surprisingly warm for some reason, as if my mind knew what he was on some deep level and expected the man of shadows and darkness to be cold, his touch icy as a nightmare. But nothing could be further from the truth. His skin was also a different texture than I was used to, a subtle reminder that he was made up of different stuff than the rest of us. His night-black hands felt like warm velvet on my skin as they skimmed my sides, pushing my tank top upward as they went.

I closed my eyes for a moment and enjoyed the sensation, but not for long. Ambrose dragged my shirt off over my head, then trailed his amazing hands down from my shoulders, pausing to teasingly circle the swell of my breasts, before trailing lower, to the waistband of my pants. I opened my eyes and found it hard to breathe when I met Hasumi"s simmering gaze. I could feel the weaver"s aura caressing my own, drawing out each feeling of warmth, and pleasure, and anticipation—amplifying them and giving them back, all flavored with Hasumi"s own rising lust and appreciation for the scene before them.

Ambrose made a deep humming sound in his throat as his hands smoothed over the swell of my ass, easing my pants and underwear down, and I thought he must be feeling the effects of Hasumi"s magic as well.

"Don"t overdo it," I reminded the water weaver, my voice all husky and needy just from the simple act of having Ambrose undress me while Hasumi watched. "You were unconscious like five seconds ago."

Hasumi lifted one silvery blond brow at me, their expression as placid as ever. "Please be quiet, Oleander."

I gaped at them for a second before snapping my mouth shut. Did Hasumi just politely tell me to shut up?

I wanted to laugh, but my lady parts said it wasn"t funny. Oh, no. Not funny at all, judging by the tingling in my clit and the little zing of desire that shot through me. Ambrose distracted me by guiding me to lift one leg, then the other, as he finished removing my pants and tossed them aside. Then his inhumanly soft hands slid up my legs, wrapping around my calves, gliding over the sensitive spot behind my knees, and up to grip the backs of my thighs as he leaned in and kissed the spot just below my belly button. My core quivered in anticipation.

"Enough," Hasumi said, making me want to whimper in protest. They did this control thing so flawlessly. No raised voice, no harshness at all to their tone. Just this smooth, even tone and the overwhelming confidence to back it up. Ambrose"s hands tightened on my thighs for an instant before he finally released me and got to his feet in one fluid motion.

The boogeyman"s own clothes disappeared as he straightened, banished somewhere by the same magic that let him turn to shadow and travel between realms. I took in the glorious sight before me, wanting to touch, but knowing I hadn"t been given permission yet, wanting to trace my hands over smooth, ebony skin and lean muscle, but also enjoying our little game, craving Hasumi"s direction.

The water weaver smirked at me, clearly feeling what I was feeling, as they stepped up behind Ambrose and wrapped an arm around his torso. Ambrose"s abs tensed visibly, and his breath stuttered a bit as Hasumi smoothed a hand up from his low belly to his chest, coming to rest at the spot just over his heart.

Two sets of eyes blazed into my own, Ambrose"s fierce, eerie black eyes with the glowing red irises, and Hasumi"s turquoise gaze flaring with power and emotion. I sucked in a breath at the sight of them, just the way Hasumi clearly knew I would. The water weaver"s light opal skin and silver hair contrasted beautifully with Ambrose"s black skin and almost bluish midnight curls. Hasumi"s willowy beauty wrapped around Ambrose"s lean, muscular body was a thing of wonder.

I almost begged for them to stop teasing me. But I knew that was half the fun. Instead, I clamped my thighs together to get a little pressure where I wanted it, and gave them an evil look of my own as I slid my hands up my body, cupping my heavy breasts and pushing them upward in a lewd display of my own.

Ambrose chuckled, and Hasumi pressed a kiss to the boogeyman"s naked shoulder before releasing him. "Go do something about that," the water weaver told Ambrose with a lifted brow.

I sucked in a surprised breath when Ambrose dematerialized and crossed the room, appearing out of a cloud of shadows before me. He grinned at me, his smile full of terrifying gray shark teeth, before he swiftly bent, tossed me over his shoulder, and carried me to the bed like I weighed nothing.

Ambrose wasn"t some hulking mountain of muscle like Zhong, so I tended to forget that he possessed supernatural strength. I shrieked when he tossed me onto the middle of the bed, where I barely had time to bounce once before he pounced, pushing my thighs apart and diving between my legs.

I tangled my fingers in Ambrose"s thick black hair as he playfully teased my folds with his tongue. Then he started working my clit in earnest, swirling his tongue and sucking on the sensitive nub, effortlessly driving me higher, until I came.

He turned his head slightly to press a kiss to the inside of one thigh, and I laughed breathlessly. It was a wonder I hadn"t suffocated him with how tightly I had my thighs wrapped around his head. The boogeyman did not seem to mind. He grinned up at me, eyes glowing with lust, and I tugged on his hair, urging him up to me. The oral was nice and all, but I really wanted him inside me.

Hasumi"s graceful hand gently, but firmly, shoved mine away, and the weaver laced their own fingers in Ambrose"s hair, tugging the man up and backward, toward them, rather than me. I huffed in fake annoyance as Hasumi pulled Ambrose to his knees. Still standing by the bed, Hasumi tilted Ambrose"s head back so he could kiss the boogeyman again. The water weaver opened up to us even more, and I could feel their pleasure at tasting me on Ambrose"s tongue.

Goddess. They were going to kill me. I was not a patient person.