Gabriel tilted her head back to meet her eyes. He licked his lips, and she noted his nervousness. “We mate with my pride in attendance.”
Sameya processed the idea. “You want us to have sex while they watch?”
“It’s the custom.” He shrugged. “And I like being watched.”
She liked observing him. The first time she’d seen them together, they’d been having sex on the balcony, and they’d been pandering to the crowd on Bourbon Street. She was no prude; it was common for soirees in Atlantis to end in explicit displays of carnal pursuit. The Hall had seen more action than Sameya cared to recollect. She’d never been watched before.
A tingling at the base of her skull suggested there was more to his request. “If we don’t do the custom, how does this affect us?”
Gabriel hesitated. “Any of our children will not be recognized by the pride.”
“Or ours,” Maximus said. “I’ve been adopted into the pride.”
Unfair to punish children for the actions of their parents, and she couldn’t deny any child—especially any of her own—the blessing of family and community. “We should do it.”
The gold of her tiger’s eyes flashed, proof he liked that she’d agreed. “I don’t want you rushing into a decision. Think about it, Sameya.”
“I’m not rushing the decision.” She pulled Maximus’s hand from beneath her shirt and kissed his fingertips. “However, I won’t tolerate anyone touching either of you.” She would’ve never guessed she was the jealous type, but let someone touch one of her men…. “I’ll serenade them before I permit it.”
“Fitting. Only Gabriel and I can touch you.” Her vampyr bent over and licked her pussy through her pants. “Want me to tell you what I plan to do to you while they watch?”
“No. Surprise me.” She rolled quickly before either of them could halt her departure. “But I plan to give at least one of you a blow job while they watch.”
Maximus’s eyes glowed green, and his fangs bit into his bottom lip.
Gabriel slashed his fingers through his hair and muttered, “Fuck me.”
She grinned and sashayed out of the room as Maximus said, “She’ll be the death of us.”
“A fine death it’ll be.” Gabriel’s purr carried.
Making her men happy pleased her tremendously.
Chapter Twenty-Six
They’d left Atlantis and Sameya hadn’t allowed melancholy at the loss of her homeland to set in. A bright future with mates she adored was her primary focus.
Dart was in heaven in the guys’ “estate”, as Dart called it, and in the first week, Sameya had stumbled upon the brownie humming as she cleaned. The Zions had found paradise in the thousand acres on which the house sat. She’d never seen them happier.
Before doing the mating custom, Gabriel wanted her to spend some time with his pride. He thought she’d be less self-conscious of getting dirty with them if she knew his family better. Honestly, she was impatient to showoff her mating marks. She’d been with Gabriel’s family a week, with the ritual to occur momentarily.
The tiger’s sister, Bethany, was a surprise. Eight months pregnant, his sibling was a delight, frank and to the point. Her mate was a quiet man who doted on his wife and adored his woman. She and Sameya got along famously and went off for long walks, discussing the differences in their life. She thought it helped her better understand Gabriel’s easy manner, but also his determinedness to protect her like any alpha shifter.
The first day of her arrival, his mother, Gabby, had greeted her with a hug, as if they were long-time friends. She suspected the other woman’s open affection made all the difference in her reception among the close-knit group.
It bothered her that she hadn’t thought to ask either of her men if they had any siblings. She’d had a heart-to-heart with Maximus that evening and discovered he was a single child like her. He hadn’t been close to his family, but he’d had a cousin he’d thought of as a brother. They hadn’t spoken since he chose to mate their tiger. The hurt in his eyes as he talked about his clansmen had Sameya itching to pay forward a little pain to them all. How dare they abandon him because nature put him with a different species!
Taboo union ? Many thought so. Their children would be powerful, but more importantly they would be loved regardless of their decisions in life.
Sameya touched her belly as she peered at herself in the mirror. A baby. Which of her men would get her pregnant first? It was unlikely they’d know until the infant bared fangs or shifted.