witchesintheweeds_GEN Read online

  “We told you, we can’t, not without her.”

  “Partial love then. Kiss and I will release him. You will speak well of me to The Lady.”

  The way she said “the lady” made it very clear there were capital letters at the start of those words.

  “Partial love’s kiss?” Harris asked.

  “True love’s kiss, in part, not whole.” She said it, then hissed, and Trajan felt Harris stiffen in pain.

  The light from the stone Trajan has cast into the river was starting to fade, and Trajan did not want to be within ten feet of the water when the light was gone.

  “True love’s kiss,” Trajan repeated. Well, here goes nothing.

  Harris was holding Trajan’s arm with one hand, the other braced on the ground and wrapped in a sheath of plant life. Trajan cupped the back of Harris’s head in his free hand. Harris tilted his head up slightly, his eyes a little wide. Trajan lowered his mouth and kissed him.

  They’d kissed before, but that had been in the heat of passion. This was different, and just between them, not prompted by Nim.

  At first it was no different than kissing anyone else—it was dry and chaste, but then Trajan parted his lips just enough to exhale against Harris’s closed lips. Magic infused the exhalation, and Harris parted his lips and inhaled the magic. This kiss felt right, and when he brushed his tongue against Harris’s lower lip, it tasted right.

  Harris’s hand that had been braced on the ground came up, curling around Trajan’s neck. The hand seemed coated in magic, and now it was Trajan who gasped. He could smell the heavy scent of spring blooms, taste the bittersweet flavor of clover. The smell and taste was Harris—his body, his magic.

  Harris took advantage of Trajan’s parted lips, sinking his tongue into Trajan’s mouth, licking the inside of Trajan’s lower lip.

  Harris’s hair brushed against Trajan’s cheek, and he was aware of the slow-moving cyclone of wind that now enveloped them. Trajan exhaled into the kiss, the air Harris breathed in tinted with magic.

  A full-body shudder racked Harris.

  Whoa.

  Whoa.

  Harris was the one to break the kiss. He kept hold of Trajan, but turned to look at his legs. The river was dark, and the waterline had receded, as if the level of the river had gone down. Harris’s legs were no longer in water.

  “She’s gone,” Harris said.

  Trajan was strangely reluctant to let go of him. “True love’s kiss?”

  “I guess so. Are you, uh, married or anything?” Harris asked.

  “You’re asking this now? We had sex this morning.”

  “Just answer the question,” Harris grumped.

  Trajan raised a brow. “No.”

  “Are you gay?”

  “You’re the first man I’ve ever kissed. You?”

  “Same.”

  Trajan exhaled. “Shall we get away from here and find Nim?” That question sparked another thought. “Wait, why was she afraid of Nim? You said you know what was going on.”

  “Nimue is another name for the Lady of the Lake.”

  “Like the Lady of the Lake?”

  “Yes.”

  “Wait, is Nim the Lady of the Lake?” Trajan turned to look up the dark slope.

  Harris laughed. “No, I don’t think so. She’s an earth witch, not water. But it’s a powerful magical name. I have a third cousin named Nimue.” The plant life wrapped around Harris fell away.

  “In that case, let’s go find our earth witch.” Trajan released him and climbed to his feet, getting out of the way as the masses vines and undergrowth spread out and rooted, turning this section of the bank into a verdant carpet.

  When he was done, Harris looked up. “Our?”

  “Am I wrong about what’s going on between the three of us?” Trajan offered his hand. Harris once more took it and Trajan pulled him to his feet.

  “No, you’re not. Let’s go find our woman.”

  Trajan laughed. “Our woman. Yeah, I’m pretty sure she’d hit us if we said that to her face.”

  “Oh yeah, I’m not saying that.”

  “We have to hurry. She agreed not to use magic, but she was worried about you.”

  “Do we have time to stop for oranges?”

  Trajan’s stomach rumbled.

  Chapter 18

  “We have to try leaving today,” Trajan said.

  Nim propped her head on Harris’s chest, looking at Trajan who lay gloriously naked beside them.

  Her internal clock said it was morning. They’d spent yesterday afternoon—after Harris’s foray to the river—in the cave, talking about nothing and everything. Nim had laughed when they tentatively asked her if she was the Lady of the Lake, then told them that she and her sisters were all named after the mythical witch—Nimue, Vivien, and Evienne were all names for the Lady of the Lake. Her grandmother had named her daughters after powerful women in the Arthurian lore, a custom which Nimue’s mother Igraine had continued.

  They’d eaten oranges and talked, then curled together on their verdant bed, huddled together to keep each other warm.

  Nim had woken lazily, and based on the way Harris was yawning, he felt the same.

  Trajan was apparently one of those horrifying people who woke up with a to-do list.

  “We will,” Nim said.

  “Every minute we stay here, we’re increasing the risk, not only to ourselves, but to others.”

  “Others?” Harris asked on a yawn.

  “My coven may send in a second agent, Nim’s coven might come to investigate since they haven’t heard from you. And, as far as anyone knows, Harris, you’re still kidnapped and possibly being hideously tortured.”

  Nim twisted to look at him. “Are you being hideously tortured?”

  Harris appeared to consider it. “I don’t think so, but Trajan is being a little annoying.”

  “We can’t hide here.” Trajan glared at them.

  “You’re the one who said we should hide here,” Nim pointed out.

  “Not forever.”

  Nim started to sit up, but Harris tugged her back, coaxing her to lie flat between them. “Trajan, we’re all doing our best, under extraordinary circumstances,” he said softly.

  Trajan’s face softened. “I know that, but I’m going to get you two out of here. Today.”

  “It’s not your job to protect us,” Nim said.

  “It is quite literally my job.”

  “Maybe to protect him.” Nim stroked Harris’s bare waist. “But I think you came to kill me.”

  “Arrest you,” he corrected.

  Harris, like Nim, had apparently had enough of Trajan’s arguments. He leaned over Nim and kissed Trajan. She got another up-close-and-personal visual of two very hot men kissing, and it was good.

  Very good.

  She saw the moment Trajan relented, the stiff set of his shoulders softening. He wasn’t wrong—they had to go—but that didn’t mean they couldn’t spend a few moments with each other.

  Nim reached out, taking Harris by the wrist, and guided his hand to her breast. Then she did the same with Trajan, pulling his hand up, placing it over her free breast. That was the extent she could move her arms—they were more or less trapped at her sides by their bodies, so she let her palms fall to rest on their hips.

  The men, her men, took advantage of her explicit invitation to play with her breasts and nipples. Harris first kneaded her breast, then plucked at her nipple. Trajan went right for the nipple, pinching and rolling it.

  Normally, if her nipples were being played with simultaneously, the actions on each breast were mirrored, but now each of them was doing something entirely different and the lack of synchronicity was startling and somehow taboo. Nim gasped and threw her head back, panting as pleasure shot from her nipples down into her pussy.

  “I need you,” she whispered.

  Trajan broke the kiss, looking down at her, then back to Harris. “Goddess, I need you both.”

  Trajan’s cock, which h
ad hardened in what had to be record time, jabbed her hip. Nim stroked him, then, in a burst of inspiration, took Harris’s hand and guided it to Trajan’s cock so they were both holding the hard, hot length.

  Harris dipped his head, nuzzling her temple and laying a sweet, tender kiss there before taking her mouth in a brutal, possessive kiss. The contrast of tender and rough had her tightening her hold on Trajan’s cock, and scrambling to grab Harris’s too. She wanted to make him feel the way she felt.

  Trajan shifted, settling between her thighs. Nim wrapped her legs around him, hooking her feet together and lifting herself off their makeshift bed, trying to ease his cock into her.

  Harris made a sound that was half-snarl, half-pleasure, and grabbed Nim’s leg. He tugged, and her butt fell back. “I want to watch,” he growled. He wanted more than that, because he reached out and grabbed Trajan’s exposed cock.

  Trajan closed his eyes. “Don’t. I won’t last.”

  Harris ignored the command and stroked Trajan’s cock a few times, before tugging the other man forward. Nim was pinned in place, unable to move much of her body except her right arm, freed now that Trajan had moved. She reached out to stroke Trajan’s face, then Harris’s.

  “Please,” she nearly whimpered. “Please, let him fuck me.”

  Harris’s eyes were the green of sunlit spring leaves. He rubbed the head of Trajan’s cock between her outer labia. Nim gasped as Trajan’s cock, manipulated by Harris, grazed her clit.

  “I’m close,” she gasped.

  “You’re going to come while he fucks you,” Harris growled. He released Trajan’s cock. Trajan buried himself inside her in one thrust.

  Nim screamed in pleasure, coming in that first delicious moment of penetration.

  “My turn,” Harris growled.

  Trajan closed his eyes, seeming to gather his self-control, then slid out of her. His cock was hard and glistening.

  “Wait.” Nim wiggled out from under them and stood.

  Harris had one hand on his cock, but let go to sit up. “I’m sorry if I—”

  “No, no.” Nim shook her head, hair lashing her shoulders. “I saw something in a porn I want to try.”

  Both men scrambled to their feet, staring at her attentively.

  Nim raced out of their quartz chamber, looking around. She spotted a likely looking rock near the wall and crooked her finger. It rolled away from the wall, the cave floor vibrating with her power, then stopped in the middle of a relatively flat, clear area. She looked at the height of the top of the boulder, then at Trajan and Harris.

  She curled her toes against the floor and the stone under the boulder shifted, compacting and displacing until the boulder sank to the correct height.

  Harris’s smile was predatory, his eyes glowing with a faint gold light that made her think of a wolf. Trajan was frowning. Harris leaned close and whispered something in his ear. Trajan’s eyes widened, then narrowed in desire.

  Nim strolled over, hopping up onto the gently rounded top of the boulder. The touch of cold stone made her shiver, made her nipples hard. They were staring at her naked body, gazes lingering on her breasts, the apex of her thighs.

  Nim had never felt so sexually powerful. She’d never imagined she’d be nearly breathless with desire from the sight of two men standing naked before her.

  She spread her legs wide so she was nearly straddling the stone, then leaned back on her hands.

  Harris moved first, but Trajan wasn’t far behind.

  When they touched her, their hands were greedy, needy, and she could feel their magic as tangibly as their physical touch. She could taste the cold, crisp north wind, smell the grassy scent of a spring field.

  Harris grabbed her knees, pulling her forward. The boulder wasn’t as smooth as river rock, but it wasn’t coarse granite. Her naked butt slid across the slightly rough stone until her ass nearly hung off the end. The abrasion felt good, the hint of pain a match for the intensity she craved.

  She expected his cock to drive into her, but instead he dropped to his knees, put her thighs on his shoulders, and buried his mouth in her pussy.

  Trajan cupped the back of her head, slid one arm under her back, then lowered her to lie on the boulder, her head hanging off the opposite edge.

  Harris tongued her labia, then sucked her clit, drawing it and the flesh around it into the warm vacuum of his mouth.

  “I don’t know if I can be gentle,” Trajan said quietly.

  Nim hissed as Harris sucked her clit, then said, “Don’t want gentle.”

  Trajan’s eyes were electric-blue as he stroked her lips with his thumb, then grasped her chin and opened her mouth.

  Her tongue stroked the top of the head of his cock. It felt odd—she’d never given head upside down—and Trajan held himself back long enough for her to figure out the angles. Then he reached out, plucking and twisting one nipple as he thrust his cock farther, deeper.

  Harris continued to lick and suck her clit, driving her ever closer to orgasm. She squeezed his head with her thighs and hoped he could breathe.

  Trajan made a rough, male noise of pleasure and kneaded her breast. Harris slipped a finger into her channel as he licked her clit with a steady rhythm. Nim felt the first tremblings of her orgasm and reached back and dug her nails into Trajan’s hard, muscled ass.

  Harris surged up, forcing her legs wide, then hooked her arms under her knees, keeping her open and spread. His cock bumped over her ass, and she wanted him there, wanted one of them in her ass, the other in her pussy.

  That would have to wait, but her orgasm wouldn’t. Harris’s cock surged in, and Nim orgasmed. She thrashed under them, wild and needy. They held her, dominated her, Harris in her pussy, Trajan in her mouth.

  She thought it couldn’t get any better, and then they started to fuck her in tandem.

  Together they pulled out, then surged in. The back of her head pressed against the stone, as did her ass, as their cocks were at least as hard as the rock under her.

  She was overwhelmed, overpowered, and she loved it.

  Their thrusts increased in time, Harris thrusting in savagely deep, while Trajan was more controlled, though Trajan’s cock still went deep enough to hit the back of her throat.

  Nim continued to be racked by aftershocks of pleasure, until Harris’s movements lost sync with Trajan’s and he surged into her in rough, uneven thrusts.

  “I’m coming,” he growled.

  Nim lifted her legs, ankles alongside his ears, as he bounced her ass against the stone with his final thrusts.

  “Spread her, let me see,” Trajan demanded.

  Harris, breathing heavily, grabbed her legs, forcing them down and open, holding her by the ankles. He pulled his cock nearly all the way out, and Trajan shuddered.

  “I like looking at that.” Trajan’s voice was dark and taboo. “Like seeing your cock in our woman.”

  “Our woman,” Harris repeated. Then he released one ankle, and spread her pussy lips open, the tip of his cock still inside her.

  A blast of hot air hit her clit and she jumped, swallowing Trajan’s cock. He plucked at her nipples and started to fuck her mouth in earnest. Another blast of air right on the tight bundle of nerves that was her clit.

  She couldn’t escape it—Harris had her pinned, his fingers spreading her pussy so Trajan could use his magic to stimulate her throbbing clit. All this while he fucked her mouth.

  “Come,” Trajan demanded. “I need you to come so I can.”

  Nim’s only reply was to squeeze his ass.

  Air danced over her clit in a steady puff, puff, puff. Pressure built in the muscles low in her abdomen.

  Nim arched her hips. Harris’s cock, not as hard as it had been, but not yet soft, slid in, and she came.

  She screamed around Trajan’s cock, and he pulled out, hunching over her as he came on her breasts.

  Harris and Trajan slid onto the floor, both breathing heavily, and Nim lay draped over the rock, naked and well-loved, like so
me sort of no-longer-virgin-sacrifice.

  * * * *

  Harris tried to shake the weird feeling that had been plaguing him. They’d washed in the small pool of water, and then Trajan had called up a warm breeze to dry them off. Still spent from their very exciting sex, they’d collapsed back on their living bed. This time Trajan didn’t say anything about needing to leave. Instead he was playing with Nim’s damp hair, lifting one lock at a time, then using his magic to call a wind that would dry it.

  Nim’s fingers brushed Harris’s forehead. “You’re frowning. What’s wrong?”

  Trajan propped himself up on one elbow, resting his chin on Nim’s shoulder as he looked at Harris, who touched first Nim’s cheek, then Trajan’s.

  “Are you okay with…everything?” Trajan asked him. “I mean, that we did?”

  Harris chuckled. “I’m okay with that. It just…”

  “What?” Nim asked.

  Trajan sighed. “Fuck.” He scrambled for his pants and started pulling them on.

  “What?” Nim asked again.

  “I know that look. There’s a problem.”

  Nim’s eyes widened. “What is it, Harris?”

  “Something’s wrong.”

  “Do you feel sick? Dizzy?” She pressed her palm to his forehead.

  “Not with me…with the forest. The trees are…worried.”

  “The trees are worried?”

  This far underground, with no direct connection to anything growing on the forest floor, he was having trouble pinpointing what was wrong. Harris’s pants landed on his chest when Trajan threw them. “Let’s go.”

  “We’re leaving?” Nim pushed to her feet. She was gloriously naked. “Where are my clothes?”

  “Up near the entrance. You’re staying here.” Trajan walked out of the quartz room.

  Nim chuckled and followed him. “You’re so funny.”

  “It was worth a shot. Can you at least wear the dampener?”

  “Do I have to?”

  “Have to? No. But it might be nice to not have some other crazy magic thing attack us.”

  “I’ll keep it with me—how about that?”

  “I’ll take it.”

  Harris had followed behind them, only half-listening to their conversation. When they reached the ledge, he made a stirrup with his hands and boosted Trajan up. Harris took a knee and Nim stepped onto his thigh, using it as a stepstool so she could grasp Trajan’s hands. He pulled her up. Then it was Harris’s turn. He jumped, caught Trajan’s hand, then used his feet, braced on the wall, to climb as Trajan pulled him up.