“This isn’t about me.” His mouth flattened and she laughed.

  “You’ve made that face since you were two. Did you know that?”

  “Shut up. But come on, since we’ve known each other since I was born and all, let’s be totally honest. You know they love you. You love them. What’s the real issue here? Why are you really so afraid?”

  She caught her breath. “Curse you for being so astute.” She tossed a piece of fruit at his head. “Partly it’s that I’ve just uncovered evidence that will tear the Walker Family apart and I’m still unsure as to how involved Kira is.”

  “Dangerous to know, I’d wager. And you know I do love to wager. How will Ash react to the information? And if Kira is involved, what will her brother do?” Paul asked.

  “I don’t know. I want to hope they won’t blame me. But I’m the one who discovered the information to begin with. I just don’t know. And as much as I don’t want to admit it, I’m leaning more toward Kira Walker not being an active participant. Oh, she knows something illegal is going on and I do think she’s involved. She had to have known. But at the level Perry is? I don’t think so. I have some more data to look over but I’ve been looking at monitors for the better part of the last two days and I think after I eat, I’m going to bed.”

  Paul went to her and hugged her, kissing her cheek. “You’re ducking the rest of it.”

  “I know. I’m working it through. There’s all sorts of stuff. I’m a mess you know. But I will work it through and I know I can talk to you.”

  He chuckled. “It’s going to be fine, no matter what. You’re strong. You will get through and the people who truly love you will be here when the dust settles.”

  She agreed, but she was tired of recovering and being strong. She wanted things to be fine. Normal. Happy. She wanted a life with her men. Both of them. Without fear and without regret.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  “Sera, I think you should come up here,” Paul yelled from upstairs.

  She stood, stretching. She had what she needed anyway. Now it was just a matter of arranging to get the information to Ash and Brandt.

  “You bellowed?” she said, yawning as she reached the top of the stairs.

  But instead of Paul, it was Ash and Brandt who stood there.

  A horrible bout of shyness hit her. Uncertainty.

  “You know, a note informing us of your whereabouts wouldn’t be such a problem to write, would it?” Ash took a few steps and suddenly pulled her to him.

  His scent, familiar, comforting, sensual, wrapped around her senses as she held on tight.

  “I didn’t run off. Ceylon knew where I was. I’ve been sending you updates.” She spoke against the wall of his chest, not wanting him to let go.

  “Um, I need to go and see Lina about something. I’ll be away for a while.” Paul looked between them. “A long while.”

  “Paul, this is Ash Walker and Brandt Pela. This is my younger brother, Paul.” She took a step back as Paul looked Ash up and down with narrowed eyes as they shook hands.

  “Paul, we realize how much you’ve assisted Sera in this investigation and truly, we’re indebted to you.” Brandt held his hand out to shake Paul’s.

  “I’d do anything to help Sera. She’s very special.”

  He was so very protective she wanted to burst out laughing and hug him at the same time.

  “I understand and I agree.” Ash said it first and Brandt nodded.

  “All right then. Don’t touch the settings on my electronics.” He turned and squeezed Sera’s hand. “I’ll be back, well,” he looked at the three of them again and sighed, “tomorrow.”

  * * *

  Once they were alone, Brandt went to her and embraced her, holding her to his body, feeling the steady beat of her heart against his own when they stood chest to chest.

  “I’ve missed you. More than I’d thought and I thought it was pretty bad.” He captured her lips quickly, relieved when she immediately opened to him, receiving his tongue eagerly.

  Her hand slid into the waist of his pants and found his cock. He moaned into her mouth and she swallowed the sound, pressing against him.

  “Gods, before I fuck you right here…” He lost his train of thought as she brought her thumb over the slick eye of his cock, smearing, delivering nearly painful sensation to him.

  “I haven’t come in four days, no wait, five. I need it. I need you two.” She spoke as she delivered kisses to his neck while pumping her fist around his cock slowly.

  “Oh, you’ll get it. Lots of it.” Ash picked her up and pulled her back. Brandt’s knees nearly buckled when Ash licked her thumb, biting it gently. “But we need to talk first.”

  “I don’t want to talk. There’s time for talking and that’s after we have lots of sex.”

  Brandt laughed at the sight of her pretty pout. “Are you trying Sela on now? Like a costume? I like that I think. But let’s all get settled and have a drink while we talk.”

  “Talk? Is this the it was nice while it lasted but we should just be friends talk?” She stopped, her arms crossed, looking partly defiant and partly scared.

  Brandt went to her, caressing her cheek. “You’re not very smart sometimes. Try listening to your heart. Does it tell you I’m going to break things off? If I didn’t know how frightened you were, I’d be offended you had such little faith in me.”

  “In us. Now, get that sweet ass in the other room. We need to talk and then we will fuck.” Ash hefted a bag. “This is full of toys, Freka.”

  Brandt barely withheld a moan of pleasure at the fine tremor vibrating from her.

  She nodded and led them up a stairwell and into a large set of rooms. “I’m staying here. Paul keeps a place for me, when I need to get away and unwind.”

  Brandt watched her wince as she reached to grab a tray with their drinks on it. “Are you all right?”

  “I’ve been hunched over reading data, breaking all sorts of laws looking for information.”

  “Well let me take the tray, you sit.”

  Ash widened his legs, tossing a pillow on the floor at his feet. “Sit there and I’ll massage your back and neck.”

  “You’re both being very nice to me.” She sat and Brandt snorted, handing her a drink.

  “Then I won’t feel so bad when I flog you for distrusting the fact that Ash and I want to take care of you.” He sat across from her, on the floor. The lines on her forehead smoothed when Ash began to knead her neck muscles.

  “Mmm. I’m supposed to complain about that? And that wasn’t distrust, it was a compliment.”

  Brandt scooted forward to touch her. “Oh. Well thank you. First, let’s just get this all laid out, shall we? I love you. Ash loves you. We both want to be with you. In a relationship. Permanent and exclusive. How do you feel about that?”

  She twisted her fingers together in her lap for long moments before speaking. “I’m all right.” She shook her head and chewed her lip. “No. I’m afraid. Because I love you both and I don’t know if I can choose. The last time I loved a man, my heart broke and my life was nothing but work for so long. I’m afraid you’ll go against your family for me and not marry and lose everything. I’m afraid you’ll force me to choose and one of the three will resent the other two. I worry if I had to choose I’d yearn for the one I didn’t pick. I’m afraid you’ll choose each other and not me. I’m afraid you’ll both ask me to be a mistress while you marry a woman of your rank and I won’t have the strength to say no this time. I’m afraid I’m not good enough for you. I’m afraid you’re both going to be exposed to censure for being with me. I’m afraid you don’t really love me but this is exciting and fascinating and once it wears off, you’ll be bored. I worry I’ll have to keep up the Sela ruse because how can we be together and say who I am without exposing what we’ve been up to?” She took a deep breath. “Yeah, I think that covers it.”

  “Thank you for being so honest. I’m-I’m touched you trust us enough to share yourself so intimately.” Brandt took her hands, kissing the fingers she’d been wringing as she’d spoken.

  “We worry about some of those things too, you know.” Ash moved down to the floor with them, still rubbing her shoulders. “Some of those things. Not that you’re not good enough because that’s so far from the truth it’s laughable. But we worry about people using this to hurt you or one of us too. I worry you’ll feel more deeply for Brandt than for me. I love you so much. I’d forgotten what it felt like to be with you like this and now that I have it again, I don’t think I can survive losing it.”

  “We can do this,” Brandt said. “We can make a triad work. It will take energy to be totally open and make sure everyone feels like they’re getting enough attention and love. But I’m not going to force you to choose and while I love Ash, I’m not choosing him over you. I choose you, Sera. Always. But I’m not sorry I can choose you both because you choose him as well as me.”

  “Agreed,” Ash said. “You’re it for me, Sera. Forever. The three of us can do this.”

  She swallowed hard and blinked quickly.

  “So,” Brandt reached into his pocket and pulled out the sheaf of marital papers, “will you marry me?”

  “Only one of us can marry you, Sera, or I’d ask too,” Ash said quickly. “And there’s the matter of my being a second son and needing familial permission. But I want to give you the protection of my status an also to make a statement, a public statement about who you are to me. What this relationship is. So I’ve filed papers to declare you my mistress.” Ash pressed his finger to her lips. “No, it’s not like last time. I swear to you on my life. There will never be a wife for me again. You will marry Brandt and be my mistress and the three of us will be together. You’ll be my wife in every way that matters. I wish it could be different.” He shrugged, looking pained. “But it can’t. The important thing is we’re together and we can make this work.”

  Brandt nodded. “Please say yes. I want you to be at my side forever. I want to walk out with you on any avenue in any ‘Verse and have people know not only that we’re together but that I honor you and Ash does as well.”

  “People will talk. They’ll say, gods, they’ll say all the stuff they said about me when Ash married Kira.”

  Brandt heaved a sigh. “They will. I’m sorry about that. But they’ll say worse if we don’t do this. And I don’t want anyone thinking you aren’t worth marriage. That you aren’t worth status. Because you are. People will understand why Ash can’t marry you.”

  “And I’ll tell them. Please say yes,” Ash added.

  “I don’t want to be the biggest mistake you ever made.”

  Her voice was so small, so threaded with emotion that Brandt’s own tears threatened. There it really was, he could tell from the way her body bent, the sound of her voice, this is what had bothered her most and kept her so wary.

  “My beautiful Sera. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. You make me whole. Look into my eyes and see the truth of what I feel for you. That’s not going to change. You said you gave yourself to me. To Ash. Well, it’s time to take that final step.”

  * * *

  Ash knew what had to happen. She was scared, frozen and worried any choice she made would be the wrong one. He finally truly understood why. She hadn’t the luxury they had to make mistakes. He’d always thought of himself as a victim of circumstances too when it came to marrying Kira and in a sense, he was.

  But it was Sera who’d paid the price. Yes, he’d lost the love of his life but he’d gone on, gotten married, and there had been some good times with Kira over the time they were together.

  Moreover, he’d enjoyed the luxury of what came with his rank. He had homes in several cities all through the Known Universes. He traveled, he continued to rise within the ranks of the military corps. His place in the world had been secure. While the choices he made did affect people, mistakes she made would be far more harmful to her own situation than he’d given thought to before.

  And here she was, worried for them. Worried they’d regret choosing her. Gods, he loved her so much for being so giving, so loving.

  Which was of course why he and Brandt needed to protect her and make her officially theirs.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  “Sera, stand and remove your clothes.”

  Her eyes widened a moment but she took the change in activity well and unfolded herself gracefully. Her beautiful hands moved to the hem of her shirt.

  Brandt understood what Ash was up to and moved back, standing and watching her as she pulled her shirt up and over her head.

  “I love your body. I love the curve of your breasts, the line of your belly.” Ash knelt before her and pressed kisses to each hip, taking a sharp nip at her belly button.

  Her fingers traced his tattoos, sending currents of sensation through him.

  “I love that,” she murmured, arching into his lips.

  “What? You can take your pants off while you answer.” Ash leaned back, watching as she shimmied out of her pants. He nodded when she raised a brow and indicated her panties.

  “Your head. I love how smooth it is. How soft with the smallest bit of a rasp when I touch my fingertips over it.” She shivered and he did too.

  “Undress me.” He stood as she slowly unbuttoned the front of his shirt.

  “May I touch you?”

  “Gods yes.”

  Brandt exhaled sharply and Ash laughed.

  “Come here, Brandt. Sera, undress him as well.”

  Her eyes went to Brandt. “And may I touch you? Take your hair down?”

  “Does that please you?” Brandt asked.

  She dragged the edge of her teeth over Ash’s nipples, tugging on the rings before moving her attention back to Brandt.

  “What? Touching you? Seeing your hair down?”

  “Both. Either.”

  She walked around him as Ash watched, watched her own her submission and then wield it. She knew they saw her, knew they adored her and she gloried in it.

  * * *

  Pressing herself against Brandt’s back a moment she hummed low. “Yes to both.” She breathed him in, his unique scent that tightened things low, made her wet.

  She took her time undoing the bottom of his braid, running her fingers through it over and over to free it bit by bit. It fell over her hands in all its dark glory.

  What a contrast they made standing side by side. So breathtakingly hard and male. One all angles and muscle, the other taller, more beautiful and from what she’d seen, he wore his savage nature on the inside more than Ash did.

  Reaching around his body, she buried her face in his hair as she skimmed her hands up his belly, taking his shirt with them until she had to step back to bare his upper body.

  The muscles on his back rippled as his arms raised and then fell again and a soft, “Oh,” whooshed from her.

  A step to the side and she reached around Ash to grab the open halves of his shirt and pull it down and off. Her nails made a lovely trail of light pink when she scratched down his shoulders and spine.

  He arched with a groan and she couldn’t resist smiling at Brandt, who watched her with a greedy gleam in his eye.

  “You’re playing with fire, you know that, right?” Brandt’s lips pursed in a smile.

  She laughed and kissed his biceps before sidestepping in between the two men to face them again. “I certainly hope so. If I recall, someone mentioned a flogger.” How long had it been? Since Ash. So very long. Her body fought the memory, wanted to fall into that place of heat and sharp pleasure/pain.

  The fun part—pants. She knew both men wanted her, really wanted her given the way their cocks pressed against the plackets of their pants.

  Catching her bottom lip between her teeth, she considered her options while displaying herself in a way she knew appealed to them both.

  In truth she was caught off guard in a big way by their proposal. It filled her with hope, elation and a fear so deep she choked on it. Everything she wanted was right there at her fingertips. She could take it and know they offered it truly. But the worry that they were throwing away their futures for her remained.

  Bending her head, she licked across Ash’s flat, hard belly as she undid his pants. She dropped to her knees and he put a hand on her shoulder as she removed his shoes, socks and pants.

  Breathing in the heady musk of his sex, she drew her cheek over his cock, luxuriating in how soft the skin was. Bending, she started at his ankles, kissing her way up his calves, over his knees and thighs. She nuzzled his sac and he widened his stance to allow her more access.

  Slowly, patiently, she licked long lines from his sac to the crown of his cock and back again until he caught her hair, stopping her.

  “Enough. For now.”

  Keeping her head down, she smiled and inched over to Brandt. She put her arms around his waist and hugged, loving the way he felt against her. His hair was so long it tickled her hands and wrists at his back.

  His cock practically leapt into her hands when she pulled the rest of his clothing off and she couldn’t resist giving it a few dozen kisses and licks.

  “Take it all, Sera. I want you to take every bit of my cock.” Brandt’s voice was low, nearly hoarse.

  She closed her eyes and centered herself, letting go of everything but pleasing him, of his cock and her mouth. Bracing one hand on his thigh, she angled him with the other hand and began a slow in and out, a little more each time. She set hypnotic rhythm, keeping him wet, keeping her throat relaxed.

  His hands pet her shoulders, caressing. “Yes, yes, that’s it. You’re perfect.”

  The embers inside her banked and rose into flame. Needing to please, wanting to serve, she managed to take him all the way until the head of him tapped the back of her throat. He groaned when her throat closed around him a bit and she breathed again as she pulled back.

  “Stand up, Sera.” Brandt helped her up and she swayed slightly.

  He pushed her toward the bed, Ash on her other side, hands all over her body.