“I’ll keep you enslaved until you admit you’re ours and better off with us.”
“What if that never happens?”
The very idea made his stomach sink and his fangs drop. He licked the incisors. “We’ll remove your pants together, Sameya.” Her lips parted, and before she could speak he said, “No further arguments or pleas. You’re better than that.”
Chapter Ten
Maximus held her eyes as they slid her pants off. Sameya wanted to scream in frustration. Yet…there was something intoxicating about these two men. They intrigued her and incited unfamiliar feelings. Scary and fascinating.
“What type of pants are these?”
Why all the interest in her clothing? “Basilisk skin.”
“Did you kill the Basilisk?” The article hit the floor with a thud and his palm slid up her leg.
“No.” Breath stuttered in her lungs and congealed in a knot. “It’s of reptile origins and sheds its skin. Those sheddings come at a high”—her voice squeaked when his palm neared the juncture of her thighs, but the direction altered at the most crucial moment—“price.” She couldn’t deny she liked his touch. But liking and wanting it were two very different things. “I’m under the sanctuary of Empress E’Neskha.” Her last cowardly ditch to save her life and she blamed him for reducing her to such a spineless state.
“That holds no power here, Sameya. And not even in Atlantis against one’s mate…or rather mates in your situation.” He placed an emphasis on the plurality of the word as his hand smoothed over her hip. “And the shirt?”
“Human origins.”
“Good.” He quickly unlaced the red corset and drew it over her head.
Maximus took a step back and his eyes went from silver-blue to vampyr green in a breath. Chill bumps invaded her flesh, which had nothing to do with the room’s temperature, but rather from the force of his observation as he measured her naked flesh.
Gabriel’s sudden purring startled her. She glanced at the huge feline as he rose and leapt off the bed in a graceful move. Maximus palmed the tiger’s head and stroked him, pausing to scratch behind his ears. “I’m jealous you’ll taste her first, Gabriel.”
Sameya covered her face. “Gods, help me!”
The bed jostled and Maximus pulled her hands away from her face, his regard tolerant. “Do not hide from either of us. You want us.”
“No.” She damn sure did not! To want them ensured her slavery.
“I thought you couldn’t lie? I smell your arousal.”
Was that why she felt hot down below? “My body yearns. I do not.”
“We’ll alter that state of mind.” Maximus kissed her, his tongue flicking along her lips. The ability to breathe evaporated. She resisted his embrace by clamping her teeth together. A slow lick along the column of her leg from the tiger shocked her and drew forth a gasp. Against her lips Maximus chuckled and plunged his tongue into her mouth.
“Spread your legs for Gabriel.” He nipped at her bottom lip, soothing away the sting.
Sameya parted them slightly, resisting the urge to wriggle away from the lick Gabriel placed against her calve. The cat’s tongue was abrasive, but not distasteful.
“Wide,” Maximus whispered against her jaw.
She whimpered, but followed his instruction. Another set of searing kisses as his hand slid down between her breasts, across her belly, along her hip, to clamp his palm on the inside of her thigh. His fingers slipped beneath her knee and pulled her leg up until her kneecap was braced against his hip. She could only imagine how open she was to Gabriel. No one had ever seen her so exposed. Not emotionally or physically.
Licks to the sensitive flesh where her legs united with her body. Maximus mimicked the same movement against a nipple. Sameya bit her bottom lip to restrain her cry. Too much sensation and not what she wanted.
“I’m afraid she’ll climax quickly, Gabriel.” Abandoning the teasing licks, Maximus suckled on the nipple. She clamped a hand on his head, and tangled her fingers in his hair with the intention of pulling his mouth off her breast. She’d yank him bald if necessary…but the enjoyment was so strong, she forgot her purpose and instead held his head in position.
Teeth grazed along her flesh, starting at her knee and taking a path straight up the inside of her thigh. A tiny moan escaped before she could suppress it.
“Stop,” her voice broke. “Something’s wrong.” Heat flashed across her body, but gooseflesh cooled her skin. She ached all over, but wanted more. She felt balanced on the threshold of something powerful, and so extreme she wouldn’t survive. And if she did endure, she wouldn’t come out the other side the same woman.