Kellan glanced at his best friend and noted the metaphorical steam curling from his ears. Great. So much for a peaceful morning.

He rose and circled the bed, blocking Lucas’s view of Sydney’s naked body. Stupid to feel protective of her after all they’d done the night before, but he couldn’t help it. “Give Lucas and me a couple minutes?” he asked, cupping her chin.

Sydney shook her head. “No way. Whatever you have to say involves me, so I deserve to hear it.”

“When the hell did this become a bloody democracy?” Lucas dropped the bag of groceries he was carrying on the counter in the nearby galley kitchen. The unusual layout somehow fit them. “You’re just the snatch we picked up on the side of the road.”

“Lucas, that’s enough.” Kellan bent to pick up his jeans and climbed into them without benefit of underwear. He didn’t make a habit of wearing any.

“Though I’m beginning to wonder about that. How’s it possible we managed to flag down the one woman you’re torqued over? Dark, rainy night, and we stage the scene right as she drives by—”

“Stage the scene?” Sydney’s gaze swung accusingly to Kellan’s. “What is he talking about?”

“Shut up,” he said to Lucas, shooting him a warning glance. “What’s this latent vampire business?”

Cabinet doors slammed and drawers banged in Lucas’s wake as he put away his purchases. “Hard to tell you if I’m shutting up.”

Kellan heaved out a breath, even though he didn’t technically need to breathe. Two things always stirred him up enough to restart the habit. Excellent sex, and his ceaselessly annoying “little brother.”

Syd crossed her arms over her breasts. That hint of modesty pleased Kellan, because from her furtive looks at Lucas, he was the one making her feel shy. Good. Last thing he wanted was his girl to bare her wares to his best friend on a regular basis, even if the three of them had screwed like bunnies the previous night. “No need for him to talk about that, because I’m not a vampire.”

Lucas snorted. “Yeah, then how do you ’splain your urge for blood? That’s usually not a part of sucking cock.”

“You were listening?”

“Of course. I heard you lovebirds cooing all the way up the block.”

At the undercurrent in his lifelong pal’s voice, Kellan crouched to look into Syd’s eyes. Their dark depths churned, but she didn’t avoid his gaze. “Give Lucas and me a couple minutes. Please. After that, we’ll talk about anything you want.” He scooped a hand through her wispy dark bangs. “Are you hungry? There are Pop-Tarts in the cupboard.”

Lucas made another derisive noise in his throat. “Oh, he’s bringing out the romance now. Sharing his Pop-Tarts with his lady.” He opened a cabinet and jutted a thumb at the contents. “They’re like his frigging security blanket.”

Kellan’s narrowed his eyes at Lucas, but Sydney’s soft question captured his attention. “You don’t need to eat? Food, I mean?”

“No. But we can. It doesn’t hurt us. And it helps us blend.”

“Some of us have moved beyond our childish cravings for sugar, however.”

Kellan refused to engage in an argument. Not when Sydney was present, and not when he knew Lucas was spoiling for one to avoid his own legion of problems.

Sydney’s lips twitched. “What flavor?”

“Brown sugar and cinnamon. The only kind I like.”

“No wonder you taste so good.” Sly heat flared on her face, but she nodded and rose, dragging the sheet with her. “I’ll go take a shower before I eat.”

“We don’t have a shower. There’s a jacuzzi tub.”

She glanced at Kellan as if Lucas’s word couldn’t be trusted, and he nodded. “You’ll like it. It’s big and roomy with lots of jets.”

“That’s where we have our freaky vampire orgies,” Lucas added, smiling when she tossed her hair and sailed past him as if he didn’t exist. But he definitely watched her go, his gaze fastened on the sway of her hips.

“Damn, she is a sweet little package, isn’t she? Bet you can’t wait to lose your load between those cheeks. Let me tell you, man—” His words rushed out in a startled exhale as Kellan gripped him by the collar of his shirt and pinned him against the nearest cabinet.

“If you ever, ever, talk about Sydney that way again—hell, if you even think those kinds of thoughts—I’ll open you up and leave you for the vultures on Route 93. Understand me?” Kellan shook him for emphasis. “Yeah, you had her last night. I hope you enjoyed it, because that was the first and last time.”

“She loved it. I even heard her tell you that before I interrupted your little tete-a-tete. I filled her in a way you can’t alone.” Luke grinned, baring his fangs. “Unless that magic wand of yours sprouts a twin.”

Kellan released him so fast he stumbled against the refrigerator. “She is my mate,” he said in an even tone. His friend clearly had even less sense than he’d given him credit for on prior occasions. “I allowed you to have her once, because she wished it so. It won’t happen again.”

“Your mate? C’mon. You were right. That couldn’t have been what last night was about. So you got a little hungry for blood.” Luke rubbed his jaw, not meeting Kellan’s eyes. “She’s just a coffee shop tart. A juicy piece you nibble on and toss back for the rest of the fish.”

Kellan ignored him. Right now, he had bigger concerns than Lucas’s rumblings. “What is a latent vampire? And how do you know about them? How do you know my mate is one?”

“My mate, my mate, my mate,” Lucas mimicked, turning around to slam a fist on the ever-present box of Pop-Tarts sitting on the counter. “Why should I care about your mate when you never gave a shit about mine?”

Ah, so now we reach the crux of the matter. Kellan cocked his head. “You’ve seen Emily.”

“Yes, I’ve seen her.” When he spun back, his blue eyes shone with more animosity than Kellan had ever seen from him. “We spoke while I was in the library doing some research. On vampires. On your horny little nympho. She helped me find what I was looking for, and then, finally, when I saw something in her eyes, she took one strong whiff of my coat. Do you know what she smelled?”

Pussy? Kellan didn’t voice the question, but wisely kept silent.

“Perfume! She smelled your supposed mate’s perfume all over me, all but pouring out of my pores. She caused a scene in front of everyone, then ran away to be comforted by her coworkers as if I’d tried to ram her right there in the stacks.”

Disgust contorted Luke’s mouth as he ground his fist into the shards of Kellan’s treasured snack. Only the fact that he had six boxes stored in the cabinet above the sink consoled him as he watched the pastries die a horrible death.

“You wanted me to sleep with Sydney so I’d forget Emily. Well, I screwed her. I enjoyed it. But I didn’t forget Emily and now she’s even more repulsed by me than she was before. While you’re all snuggled up with your mate—” Luke spat the word “—I’m more alone than ever.”

“I wasn’t trying to make you forget Emily,” Kellan said quietly. “I know she’s your true mate. Honestly, I was jealous you’d found yours before I’d found mine. But I wanted to prove to you that she was yours, that there could be no ignoring your feelings for her or your shared destiny. You must claim her, Luke. You can’t wait until she comes to you.”

A soft noise from the doorway took their attention. Sydney stood just over the threshold, a towel clutched to her torso, the ends of her hair trailing water off her shoulders. “Water’s nice,” she murmured, letting the towel drop just slightly. Her dusky brown nipples poked over the top. “If you’d like to join me.” Her gaze flicked between them. “If both of you would like to join me.”

“Your man laid down the law on that score. No more three-way fun.” A sardonic twist of Luke’s lips tweaked Kellan’s conscience, as rusty from disuse as it was. “It’ll just be me and my hand for all eternity.”

“Even if I decree otherwise?” She arched a brow at Kellan. “So, you’re the boss of me now?”

“You said you only wanted me,” he reminded her, fighting the simultaneous ache in his balls and the hit to his ego that maybe Luke was right. Maybe she did need two men to satisfy her.

“I do. But maybe I was a bit too hasty in ending all of our fun.” She glided between them and let the towel fall away as she ran her hands up Luke’s chest. “We’ll help you forget her for a little while,” she said, leaning up to kiss Kellan’s best friend while her damp, heart-shaped butt wriggled against the straining front of Kellan’s jeans. Then she looked back pointedly. “Right? We’ll make him feel better. Since your harebrained scheme got him in this mess in the first place.”

“It wasn’t harebrained,” Kellan muttered.

“I can’t do this again. Emily already hates me.”

“Shh,” Sydney crooned, facing Lucas. “Let us help you forget for a little while. I promise she doesn’t hate you.”

“How do you know?” Lucas’s tone was peeved but he waited for Sydney’s answer with an expression of hope.

“I just do. Trust me, Luke.” She looked back at Kellan. “So?”

He drifted his hands over the water droplets gathered on the small of her back. Her creamy skin boasted a vibrant dragon tattoo with a sharply pointed tail decorated with rows of spikes. Spikes, he realized, that looked sharp and lethal enough to be fangs.

“As you wish.”

She leaned up to feather her fingers through Luke’s blond hair, touching him in a way that spoke more of compassion than sexual intent. Kellan’s gut loosened. She really did want to help his friend forget. True, he would’ve preferred if she’d sent a card rather than offered her body, but he did feel a certain responsibility for Luke’s predicament.

“Once more.” He almost growled the phrase. Vampires were territorial by nature, and this was enough to strain all bounds of his control. But since his control wasn’t the only thing straining at the moment—his cock gave a meaningful jerk—he wouldn’t create a scene.

Unless she suggested it again in the future.

“You heard him.” Sydney smiled flirtatiously at Luke and started undoing buttons. “Once more for the road. I know you’re mad at me—” she licked his Adam’s apple “—but I can make you forget that, too.”

Lucas gritted his teeth and knotted his hands in the wet ropes of her hair. “I’m not mad at you. It’s not your fault your man’s an idiot.”

“Too true.” She smiled and sent Kellan a coy look under the sooty fringe of her lashes. “You gonna play with us or just stand there rubbing my ass?”

“Your ass requires all my attention at the moment. Since I’ve heard just how delectable it feels between these perfect cheeks.” Kellan slapped one of them, tickled when she only purred out a laugh. She would never shy away from rough sex. Yet another thing he loved about her.

His throat tightened as his vision wavered on her colorful tattoo. Another thing he loved about her? Did he really love her so soon? Could it be possible?

After the episode in her car, Sydney was his fated mate, of that he was sure. Similar urges gripped Lucas when he was around Emily, urges he was almost powerless to control. Biting a female in the throes of passion stirred the bloodlust, of course, but this feeling went way beyond that. Hell, the first time he’d laid his lips upon Sydney’s, he’d suspected. Just the aroma of her feminine essence nearly caused him to beg.

But the craving for her blood and his body’s impassioned response to her, even the knowledge they belonged together, didn’t create instantaneous love. That had to be built. He’d yet to learn everything about her, but it didn’t matter. Maybe his heart had just gotten on board as quickly as the rest of him.

She jutted her perky butt up at him, all but giving herself to him on a damned platter. “Why don’t you try my ass out yourself and see?”

“Why don’t I?” he echoed, reaching between her legs to where she already burned wet and hot. He spread her lips with two fingers and thumbed her clit, already distended and eager for his touch. She squeezed her thighs together, bucking up and down to press him more firmly against her.

Kellan hissed out a breath and undid his jeans. The tip of his cock bobbed free of the zipper. Just her wetness against his palm fired him up to the point of pain.

He worked his shaft with one hand and her with the other, using her abundant lubrication to ease his finger’s passage into her slick sheath. She whimpered, her ass jutting against him as Lucas claimed her mouth. Their lips slanted and slashed against each other with a fury that was as exciting as it was primal. Kellan watched them while he slipped in another finger. Her inner walls immediately clamped around him. Even while she rode Kellan’s hand, she kissed Lucas, her candy-pink tongue nothing but a blur as it plundered his best friend’s mouth.

Damn, he loved watching them together. He would share her with Luke as he would share her with no one else, for the mutual exploitation of their pleasure.

And his own.

He picked up the rhythm of his strokes and she whimpered. A third finger soon joined the first two, though her channel was so saturated he wasn’t sure she realized. Luke grasped her breasts, pushing them together so he could knead the swollen tips. Then he caught them between his teeth, pulling in a way that reminded Kellan vaguely of a pup wrestling with a rope.

Not that Sydney seemed to mind. The sounds of her panting—of their panting—blistered the air as much as the rampant aromas of sex and sweat.

It wasn’t more than a few seconds before she let out a breathless squeal, her only signal that she was about to come. Kellan massaged her G-spot, extending the ripples that started deep in her cunt. Her whole body bowed, her back arching so her dragon seemed to flex his tail.

“Ready for me now?” Kellan whispered against the damp curve of her neck, flicking his tongue out to taste the perspiration trickling down her porcelain skin. She tasted of spiced plums, smelled sweetly of temptation.

“Oh yes.” She reached back and separated the firm globes of her ass with hands that trembled violently, revealing that alluring pink hole to him. “Slide inside me. Please.”

She glanced back at him as he sucked his damp fingers into his mouth to lick them clean. He closed his eyes and breathed deep to seal her taste in his mind. Tangy and sweet, hot and fragrant. Her pussy, her sweat, her blood. It didn’t matter. He was mad for all of it.

Kellan opened his eyes, and met her blazing green ones. “Are you ready for both of us?”

“Yes. Want both of you. Now.”

But Kellan waited, giving Sydney and Luke their moment. She yanked at Luke’s trousers, popping the button and ripping open the zipper. Once his cock sprang free of his black boxers, she wrapped her leg around his hip. She impaled herself on him with one roll of her hips.

“Oh yeah, baby, your pussy’s as sweet as your ass.” Lucas slid his arm under her butt and started to surge into her in earnest, the sluicing sounds of his cock sliding in and out competing with the guttural noises he made in his throat. “Sweeter, even.” He reached between them and lifted two glistening fingers, then smeared her liquid over her parted lips. “Taste yourself, baby.” Then he stabbed his tongue into Syd’s mouth, unleashing both of their moans.

God, it was too much. The crazed looks on their faces, the way she was grinding on Luke as if her last breath depended on it. They were so hot together. Nothing like watching two people he loved love each other, especially when he knew this would be the last time he witnessed this between them.

But Kellan couldn’t wait to have her much longer. His fangs ached with the need to score her flesh, his throat quivered for her blood, and his erection rose high and stood at an angle, away from his body. The head gleamed a violent red, dotted with drops of pre-cum that ran down his shaft, torturing him even more. To relieve some pressure, he shoved his jeans down and stepped out of them, then gripped his cock in both hands.

“Whatcha waiting for, bro?” Luke wheezed the question. “She’s gonna come again anytime now. And shit—” he grimaced as she bounced against him with renewed vigor “—so am I.”

Luke lifted her to straddle his waist and she braced her heels on the counter, her ass at the perfect height for Kellan to nudge between those luscious cheeks. He reached down and slipped a finger into her pussy, cramming his finger in with Lucas’s shaft, earning a hiss from his pal and a keening moan from Sydney. Then he gritted his teeth and added another, inadvertently rubbing Lucas in a way that had both men jerking back.

“Just need some lube,” Kellan said under his breath, pulling out his fingers and spreading her arousal along his hard-on. His hands weren’t steady as he painted himself with her juice, especially when he had to go back to get more from the source.

“Oh yes.” She threw her head back, pushing her breasts up into Lucas’s face as she clasped the overhead cabinet for more leverage. “I like that.”

Kellan slipped one saturated finger in past the rim of her ass, and groaned as her body clutched at the digit. He’d never felt anything vise him as tightly as she did at that moment. “Time for something else to fuck you, sweetheart.”

Sydney pouted at him over her shoulder, her cheeks flushed deep rose and her lips wet and succulent from the forceful kisses she’d shared with Luke. “But Luke liked having your fingers on his cock. Didn’t you, Luke?”

“I’ll deny it to my dying day.” He surged up into Syd, then gripped her butt and spread her wide. Like the willing lover she was, she leaned all the way forward, mashing her breasts into Luke’s chest. “Do it, Kell. Now.”

He entered her in one swift, heart-rending plunge. His breath stuttered. God, he’d never imagined anything could feel this good. Thanks to Luke in her pussy, she constricted ever tighter around him. He filled his palms with her swollen breasts, but her shallow pants told him she was acclimating to his size. He was bigger than his best friend—no competition there, just fact—and he was throbbing violently, no doubt stretching her muscles beyond what they’d ever experienced before.

He flexed his hips, inching deeper, and her ass squeezed him like a silken fist. Two thrusts, maybe three, and he’d fill her up. But not until she gave him the cue to move.

“Syd?” He gave another testing thrust. Hell, he could do this all night. Just keep driving into her until they were both spent. “You okay?”

Only when she turned her head did he realize her cheeks were damp with tears.

Kellan’s heart lurched. She looked so hauntingly beautiful that he simply ached with love. Yet another thing he’d never imagined. “Want me to stop?”

“No, Kell. She wants you to finish.”

Luke reached up to wipe away her tears and started stroking his cock in and out of her, his nod encouraging Kellan to do the same.

Sydney bobbed her head yes, levering herself up and down with her hands on Luke’s shoulders. But it wasn’t until Kellan reached around to ensure she was still wet that he was certain she wanted him to continue. Her clit pulsated under his fingers as he quickened the pumps of his hips, timing them so he entered her just as Lucas retreated.

“At once,” she gasped, her free hand reaching back to clench Kellan’s hair as she bounced between them like a cowgirl riding her first bronco. “Let’s all come at once.”

“Not a problem,” Kellan muttered. He squeezed and released her breast, tipping it up to Luke’s mouth so he could pull on her reddened nipple the way he knew she enjoyed. “Almost there.” He gripped her ass, slamming his cock balls-deep with each onslaught. “Luke?”

“Oh, yeah.” Lucas nuzzled Sydney’s ample cleavage. “Two seconds.”

“One for me.” She rocked from back to front, squeezing their lengths until both men shot off like fireworks. Kellan grunted as his seed spurted into her, just as Luke jerked and shouted out his own release. He felt the climax roll through Syd, leaving her limp as her lithe form spasmed from the power of her orgasm.

Once her shuddering cries subsided, she relaxed between them. A haze of warmth settled over Kellan. He’d never felt so full before, even as he was filling Sydney. And instead of feeling territorial when she lowered her cheek to Lucas’s shoulder, he only felt love. For both of them, although in very different ways.

“You’re amazing.” He leaned forward to brush his lips over the pulse beating frantically in her neck. His fangs hurt with the need to feel her blood pumping into his mouth, but he held back. The next time he drank from her, he wanted it to be mutual. And he wanted them to be alone.

“I’d say you two are the amazing ones.” She patted Luke’s cheek. “But there was one disappointment.” Kellan’s shaft gave a nervous twitch when she whipped her head around to glare at him. “You didn’t bite me, dammit.”