33. Ben

33

BEN

My fingers stroke the white keys of the piano without pressing down. The room is dim with the light of dawn. I should go. I should have left last night after Stoneheart cleaned us up with a washcloth while Stella and I were in a post orgasm stupor, but Stella’s hand had found mine as I was pulling away to leave the bed, and I could no more ignore her whispered pleas for me stay than the beating of my own heart.

So, I stayed, and we all showered together. We ordered takeout and discussed nothing more consequential than our favorite movies. The interaction felt needed after the intensity of the sex.

Stoneheart had been quiet for much of the odd date, adding a sly quip or suggestive turn of phrase here and there, obviously not used to keeping conversations from becoming work related, but his touches sang of satisfaction. And those he freely bestowed.

The shower had been the most challenging to keep from rising to all the affectionate touches, but by the time we’d pulled up a movie on a tablet in bed together, my skin was humming with delayed need.

The urgency of needing to breed Stella had taken a backseat now that Stoneheart had fucked her properly without the presence of the charm, but that didn’t stop us from tossing the movie away halfway through to do the dance again.

And here I sit in a bedroom that’s not mine wearing nothing but boxer briefs in front of a piano that neither of the inhabitants play after spending the night in a married couple’s bed.

Stella’s still asleep, but Stoneheart was gone before I woke. It should have been difficult to sleep with him on the other side of Stella, to have his wing draped over the two of us, but it wasn’t.

It felt like home.

“You’ll always have a place with us. ” Is what Stella had said, but it’s not a sentiment I can afford. Even if it feels like with each moment together, the two of them dip their fingers into the inkwell of my heart and leave smudgy fingerprints on my soul.

“You never did thank me for the piano,” Stoneheart says softly from behind, and I start with surprise. I’m truly a terrible bodyguard that I didn’t notice him entering from the balcony.

“It’s not mine,” I say back just as softly. I turn in my seat and look to the bed. Stella still lays there, sleeping deep.

“It could be.” It’s hard to see him in the low light, his features are in shadow with the windows behind him even as he nears, but his nature is clear in his movements.

I clear my throat and ignore the statement, moving on to a different thought I’ve been pondering.

“You’re withholding your knot from her?” I ask.

He doesn’t confirm it, but he doesn’t have to. He turns, and the slight clench of his jaw catching the light is enough.

I focus on the keys again. “What you told me before is applicable here.” This is something I need to dig into. When Stoneheart doesn’t say anything, I continue. “With the way you watch her when she’s not looking, there’s no part of you that won’t be unscathed by this”

I don’t know why he’s holding back, and part of me doesn’t care. Stella deserves better. I’m temporary, but he’s her husband. It’s not fair for both of us to deny her the mate she needs. Her body cries out for him, and all I can do is offer poor comfort.

But I’m realizing that’s why he wants me here. To provide comfort. To give Stella a place to stow the feelings of her heart. And I want to give her that while I can. For the woman who deserves everything, I’ll give her my all.

For now.

Maybe I’ll even convince a gargoyle to give her the love match she merits by the time their heir is conceived.

“How did Kalos accomplish the tight hold he has on your loyalty? The rumors around you are rather lacking.” Stoneheart doesn’t respond to my statement, but I know he’s heard it.

I roll my eyes at his change of subject. I can only hope he considers my words. Nothing will ever make this gargoyle do something he doesn’t want to. “It’s not like it’s a secret.”

Stoneheart arches a brow.

I shrug. “I was told that my mother abandoned me when my demonic traits started showing. So I survived by doing odd jobs and from the charity of others. It was one such job that Kalos caught a hold of me.”

It had actually taken a few run-ins for me to listen to the dragon and trust what he was offering. I had the ability to teleport then as I do now, and there was no way he would have been able to hold me if I didn’t want to be held.

“He offered safety…” I clear my throat. “He took me under his wing, shared his home and allies. He’s the only one I can point to who raised me.”

“And so you owe him your eternal servitude?”

I glare at the piano. “He’s my family.”

“He’s stopping you from living a full life with the woman you love.” Stoneheart leans against the piano, but I don’t look up at him.

“Funny. I thought the gargoyle she married had more to do with that.” I don’t deny that I love Stella, but loving someone doesn’t solve anything. My duty is to my family.

Stoneheart scoffs. “Did you hear me contradict her last night?”

“You’ll always have a place with us.”

“I didn’t hear you make any offers of your own,” I say to distract myself from the memory of those words, but Stoneheart doesn’t reply.

My curiosity gets the better of me, and I glance at him. He’s grinning at me, and the wicked curve of his lips is captivating.

“That’s because you’re not ready for that.”

Frustration at the games he’s playing rises at the back of my throat in what would be a silent growl.

“Are you going to play for us?” Stella’s sleepy voice startles us both.

I hesitate and nearly laugh at myself. The boundaries that I set for myself with these two are strict, but I can’t be a hypocrite and hide my vulnerabilities after promising I’d give her my all.

“Wouldn’t it wake the others?” I ask, thinking of the other people who live in this penthouse who didn’t see me enter this room, but surely have their suspicions.

Stella huffs a laugh. “I can only hope the walls are more soundproof than that with how vocal you two had me last night.”

Stoneheart’s lips twitch. “They are. Though it would be convenient if that Leonid spy heard your pleasure so we can attempt to test the limits.”

He looks delighted at the challenge. Stella throws one of the smaller pillows at him, and he catches it.

“None of your ideas before coffee,” she says.

My brows rise, and Stoneheart and I exchange a glance. That wasn’t a no.

I’m stalling, and for some reason Stoneheart is letting me. Perhaps because the last time I refused to play for her, Stella was hurt.

She possesses more of that gargoyle than he knows

But I won’t hurt her by keeping this part of my soul from them. While I’m here, my heart is hers. And Stoneheart…he can have whatever is left.

I play, starting soft with a pretty melody that makes me think of dawn. I’m self-taught and have never performed for anyone. Music is something that is wholly mine, and now I’m sharing it. The process is more anxiety-inducing than I expected.

But as the music swells in my chest, the tightness in my throat from these two being my audience begins to fade, and I’m lost to it.

To wildflowers and dark stormy nights. The composition starts as a simple tune but morphs into something else. Something dark that intertwines with light and speaks of hope and impending grief in a sweeping melody.

I’m interrupted by large hands pulling me from the piano bench and gripping either side of my face. And like the music, I lose myself to Stoneheart’s kiss.

Fangs scrape my lips, and my chest presses against his harder one as I clutch him to me, skin against skin, heart to heart, and allow him to devour me. There’s something to the act that almost feels angry, but I don’t know why.

It’s all tongues and teeth, and I’m completely engrossed.

I have to break the kiss to gasp for breath, but he doesn’t release the grip he has on my face.

“What a talented little songbird you turned out to be,” he says, and the frustration I see burning on his face confuses me.

The sound of rustling sheets has both of us looking toward the bed. Stella’s expression is one caught between wonder and lust. Her eyes watery, and her cheeks flushed.

“That was beautiful,” she says, and my cheeks prickle. I don’t know for a moment if she means the music or the kiss. Part of me thinks it’s a remark about both.

“Hungry so soon?” Stoneheart teases, any hint of the frustration from before has been wiped away.

Stella bites her lips. Her thighs slide together under the sheets as if she needs to release the tension between them, but she winces.

“Sore?” Stoneheart asks and she hesitates before nodding.

“But I want more,” she says. “A little pain is okay. I’m just not as greedy about it as Ben is.”

The burn in my cheeks spreads to my ears, and Stoneheart tsks, giving me a warning look to stay put before releasing me to walk to the bed. Without ceremony he pulls the sheet that she has clutched to her breasts away, and my heart skips at the reveal of the expanse of her skin and soft curves.

She yelps in surprise as the demanding gargoyle pulls her to lay flat and gestures for her to spread her legs.

Stella’s breath catches as her thighs fall open without hesitation. I groan from my vantage point but don’t move from the spot where her husband left me.

Her pussy is wet and puffy, but the pink-red color speaks of the arduous use it received last night as we bred her.

“Your cunt is rather abused,” Stoneheart muses and lowers into a kneel, bringing his face close in a way that has me swallowing envy. My mouth waters from the memory of her taste. “I’ve been remiss in caring for you. I’ll get some proper healing ointment for the job, but in the meantime?—”

The breath Stella hisses in is a mixture of pain and pleasure as his long-tapered tongue licks through her folds.

Stoneheart’s chest rumbles, and he lifts to hover, a string of saliva descends from his mouth and pools on Stella’s waiting pussy. Her face flames red as he brings her hand to cover the mess. “Let that soak in and heal what it can. Maybe by the time I’m done with our demon you can bear me again.”

“Fuck,” I whisper, remembering that gargoyle saliva has healing properties.

“Well now I care much less about the pain,” she breathes.

His lips pull into a grin. “Patience, firefly, it doesn’t do to be greedy. Not when Ben has been so generous.”

Both of their gazes land on me, and the burning desire low in my gut escapes to run rampant through my veins.

In a flash, he’s on me again. He grips my hair near my scalp this time to tilt my face how he wants before returning to kissing me.

My sound of surprise is drowned out by the thundering of my heart in my ears, and my mouth opens against his. I don’t know his intention with these kisses, but I don’t care. My arms wrap around his body, and I grind myself against him. The kilt he wears offering friction against the thin fabric of my underwear.

I haven’t received attention like this from him before. There’s always been Stella between us, or quick and angry kisses interspersed with moments of pain. This feels like he’s going to take his time with me, and that’s the type of terrifying thought that causes the base of my spine to tingle and the rest of my body to become pliant.

Claws dig into the space between my shoulder and throat, and I break the kiss with a cry of sharp pain as my skin gives way to blood.

The sting makes my eyes water, and I open my mouth, but the complaint in my throat stops at the flicker of something familiar in Stoneheart’s pale gaze. I’m sure I’m mistaken about the same glint of possessiveness he gets when Stella isn’t looking directed at me, but his words distract me.

“So obedient this morning. Quite a difference from yesterday.”

I huff a pained laugh. That’s what this is about? Me bringing Stella back to the penthouse earlier than he wished? But a part of me isn’t surprised. I wanted his punishment.

“I can take direction if the motivation is right,” I say with false bravado.

My eyes don’t match my tone and are glued to him licking the red from the tips of his dark claws. The vibrant color stands out on the purple of his tongue. My blood. He’s tasting my very essence like a connoisseur and makes a rumbling hum of pleasure at the flavor.

My cock throbs painfully harder.

I don’t try to fight him when he pulls my head to the side and licks the stinging punctures his claws left. I moan at the warm slide of his tongue over the wounds, the tapered end pressing against one hard enough to make the muscles in my back tense as if to escape before the sting becomes a dull throb, and I gasp in relief.

“And now you bear my mark,” he says, entirely too satisfied.

The punctures are where a mating mark would go.

I’m about to spiral into confusing thoughts about what that means, but he pulls our bodies together, and the grind of his own erection against mine has my mind emptying.

When he lifts me, I’m unprepared, already dizzy with arousal. He pushes me away and the world tilts as I fall. The bed catches me, the scent and feel of the sheets against my back already familiar.

I glance to the side, and Stella is in reaching distance, looking much more awake and mischievous. Stoneheart pulls my underwear down, and the scrape of the elastic waistband against my cock has me exhaling roughly.

Soft hands stroke through my hair, and I look up at Stella. With how she’s leaning forward, the rosy tips of her breasts hang tantalizingly close.

But the bastard of a devil distracts me.

A wet heat covers my cock, and I choke. Stoneheart’s mouth is on me. The light drag of fangs over my stiffness has a cold sweat breaking out on the back of my neck, but my body doesn’t care about danger or pain—if anything, it delights in both.

I look down and the sight of the gargoyle taking me into his mouth is one that makes the bottom of my stomach drop out. Never would I have thought that he’d do this to me.

My hand grabs a gray horn at the next sharp edge that teases my tender skin. Stoneheart arches a challenging brow, but instead of releasing him, I rub my thumb near the base of it, the spot that my research reported is sensitive.

His eyes glaze over a little, and I moan at the moment of shared pleasure.

The next time he takes me deep, my head falls back. “Fuck.”

His lips stretch into a smile around my shaft. He pulls off me on the next up motion, and I whimper at the loss. His hand continues the action, giving much harder strokes than his mouth allowed.

“That’s it, songbird. Let us both hear you,” he says.

My next moan is desperate.

With a snarl, he rises and pulls me down the bed with my legs on either side of his hips and grips our cocks together. His hand is large enough to encase the both of us, but it’s unforgivingly tight.

“You’re the devil,” I curse, and he laughs. A sound escapes my tight throat, and I can’t help thrusting into the tight ring of his grip.

The throb of his cock against mine and the slick of his saliva makes this action almost as intimate as if he were inside me.

It’s that thought that has my body breaking. My muscles wrench tight, and my back arches. I cry out as liquid fire shoots up my spine. My release splashes against my stomach and chest. The mess of it prolongs the moment like a sweet note.

Stoneheart growls in satisfaction, not stopping his hand from stroking our cocks. Probably wanting to push me past the brink of painful oversensitivity and filling that empty part of myself that wants the pain to join the warring sensations in my chest.

Reality crashes down.

I clutch his wrist. “You can’t come like this.” Even though I want him to cover me in his seed. To mark me with his dark energy for days to accompany the zinging awareness that connects the three of us. “It would be a waste.”

I glance at Stella who’s now squirming where she sits, waiting for her husband’s next command.

Stoneheart’s eyes narrow. “It’d be a waste to mark you like this even though I can smell how much you want me to?”

“It needs to be inside her,” I grit out, embarrassed that he can scent that. I should get a prize for making my brain work when it’s been melted by orgasm.

Instead of dismissing my words, Stoneheart releases me.

I’m not disappointed. I’m not . This is how it has to be.

“Is that where you want me to come, firefly?” he asks Stella, who nods eagerly.

With an inherent grace, she sinks her chest down and raises her ass in the air. Her cheek rests on the bed, her eyes are full of tamed chaos. “Please.”

The complete submission of the position and the blissed-out expression on her face makes me want to be the one filling her, but that’s not what I’m here for.

Stoneheart isn’t immune to the display, walking to the other side of the bed to take the position behind her. His cock is so hard it’s weeping. “Such a pretty little wife with a womb to fill.”

His hand caresses the curve of her ass before gripping her hip. He only presses in close enough to drag his cock through her wetness. “Well if our demon doesn’t want this seed, it should go to good use.”

The jealousy is quick and silly so I’m able to breathe through it with the roll of my eyes. Stoneheart is taunting the both of us with his dirty talk, and somehow it makes losing out on this better, like I’m still involved even though this is between the two of them.

Stella moans into the sheets, rubbing her cheek against the bed as if to calm herself, but she doesn’t have to be patient for long.

Stoneheart mounts his wife, and the wet sound of his body cleaving into her makes me gasp and my cock attempt to twitch back to readiness. The appendage is too spent for that, and all I can do is wince at the driving need.

He rolls his hips gently at first, testing her soreness, and when she doesn’t wince in discomfort, each thrust becomes harder. Stella’s little sounds of pleasure egg him on, and the flow of their bodies is artwork.

Watching him fuck her is the most erotic thing I’ve ever seen. The only thing that would make this more arousing is if he pressed the swollen knot on his shaft to lock inside her.

I want to see her pussy stretch to engulf it.

The thought of that has tension growing in my lower belly, and I breathe out in exasperation. These two make me insatiable.

Stoneheart smirks at me, probably able to scent how satisfying this is.

Perhaps I could stay around long enough after they conceive, when his seed isn’t needed, to feel him inside of me like that.

Stella’s cry of completion and Stoneheart’s deep growl reverberates through my chest and yanks at my heart as surely as if we’re one.

I can only hope the bodily connection and the memories are enough to nurse the gaping hole in my soul they’re going to leave when this is done.