When we got back, Forrest went to bed, getting out of the way. I’d told him I was all right, after all. So…yeeeah. Was I all right?

There was Niko, with his jacket stripped off and his cravat hanging loose around his neck, having another drink.

“Nice night?” he asked.

“Yeah. Pretty out. Warm, but not too warm.” My conversational skills, man. Top notch.

“Nightcap?” He held up the bottle.

“I hope you haven’t been drinking this whole time.”

“Do I seem drunk? Don’t worry. I never get drunk. I’m not sure I can. Ask Gilbert. Where is Gilbert, anyway?” He stood up, stretching his arms behind his back. “He doesn’t want to talk about old times. I guess he went to bed. The man needs his beauty rest. And how about you, darling? Are you tired?”

Gods.

I felt frozen.

On one hand, I was scared of this guy. I didn’t know what he was. I was glad he’d taken the gloves off because I’d half expected his hands to have claws or something. I also had this feeling that he wasn’t going to be quite as devoted as Forrest and Gilbert. Niko was looking out for Niko. I knew this kind of guy.

But he was also smoking hot. I wasn’t a stranger to hooking up with someone just because they were smoking hot. And was it such a crime? I was bonded to this guy no matter what, so did I really need to listen to the voice in my head that said he was trouble and my mom probably wouldn’t like him? I should just enjoy it, right? Priestesses couldn’t even get pregnant.

He swung open the door to his room, with that big ol’ curtained bed waiting for us. I was a little weak in the knees looking at it.

“This is a beautiful dress, by the way, I don’t think I told you earlier,” Niko said.

“Thanks. It’s okay. I like a little more color myself.”

“If it’s color you want, it’s in your cheeks.” He slid his thumbs across my skin. His bronze-gold eyes caught me like I was under a spell.

With the other guys, though, they could touch their sigil to my own, and that stirred my desire like nothing else.

He tipped up my chin and leaned down to kiss me.

I stiffened as his lips met mine.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Your sigil—”

“It stays covered,” he said. “We don’t know what would happen.”

“No, I’m just used to that feeling… The other guys always touch my sigil first, and—”

His arm was around my shoulders. “Do you want me to turn into that thing again?”

“N—no.”

“Don’t be scared of me. I am perfectly in control.”

Yeah. That might be what I’m afraid of.

But as he unfastened the clasps at the back of my neck and started kissing my nape, his warm hands on my shoulders, I cared a little less. His tongue traced a line along my neck and it made me shiver down to my toes. He peeled my dress off my shoulders. It fell off me partially, and he reached past the loose fabric that now bunched around my waist and found the edge of my panties, stroking me between the legs.

“Oh…” Gods, this was moving fast.

Suddenly the bed curtains flew open and even Niko jumped a little.

Gilbert had been here the whole time.

“Niko,” he said, his tone faintly warning.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Niko demanded. His hand was still between my legs. “I never gave you permission to come into my bedchamber.”

“Oh, dear. Sorry about that,” Gilbert said, raising his eyebrows. “I know how you are. You have a way of forcing people into things they aren’t ready for. You’re used to getting what you want. But that ends now. You will treat Phoebe like you’re just a moon that revolves around her sun, because you are.”

Niko chuckled drily. “Is that what she really wants? In my experience, women quite like it when I tell them what to do. I’m sure I know how to bring a woman more pleasure than you do.”

“You’ve always been sure of yourself, but that means you don’t listen to what other people want. Phoebe wants to be respected and listened to and treated with care. She likes to get to know a man first. She’s not some floozy you can just bend over.”

“Is that true, Phoebe?” Niko asked.

I don’t know if I liked wherever this was going. “Of course it is. I do like being the center of attention.”

“You are still certainly the center of all my attention,” he practically purred in my ear. “But I think we will get to know each other later. Right now, all you want is to know what dirty things I’m going to do to you and how loud I can make you scream.”

However much I tried not to like this, his words got me so wet that I must have soaked his hand. He grinned, finally pulling his hand out of my underwear. “I thought so.”

Gilbert took my shoulders and clutched me against him. “I am not going to let you do this to her.”

“Why does it bother you, Gil?” He tossed his cravat onto a nearby chair. “All right, Phoebe. He’s right. I am bound to protect you, body, mind, and spirit, aren’t I? I will let you decide whose approach you prefer. Do you want to know what I’m going to do to you? Or would you rather discuss it with our gentle Gilbert?”

“I don’t—have to be gentle,” Gilbert said. I think he knew which way the wind was blowing.

“Um…look, guys, I don’t know exactly what your history is together, but you’re making this a little uncomfortable.”

Gilbert paused. “I did say that a little uncomfortable is the best way to be…”

“Come on, kids,” Niko said, squeezing both our shoulders. “I’ve never shared my ladies before but if I don’t have a choice, I might as well enjoy it. Why don’t you both let me be your master of ceremonies?”

Gilbert turned red. “No—no—I can go, if Phoebe wants to—”

I didn’t really want him to go, though. I gave him my pleading eyes. “But you can awaken my sigil.”

Niko urged us closer to each other. Gilbert touched his hand to my chest, stirring the heat inside me. I immediately felt a little more relaxed. “Mm…your touch is just so nice. Please stay…”

Gilbert brushed back a lock of fair hair that was falling in his eyes, and he bowed his head against mine. He was breathing hard. I craned my neck up and found his lips, and kissed him. I felt Niko loosen the last clasp of my dress and tug it off my body.

Gilbert, still kissing me, started massaging my breasts and I brought my feet in a little closer to him. I heard Niko’s shirt rustle. A moment later, he was standing behind me, shirt unbuttoned, the skin of his bare chest against my back. Slowly, he stroked me between the legs again. Small sighs escaped me as Niko’s hand teased my folds and Gilbert played with my breasts. They both slowly increased their urgency, until they were gently tugging on me everywhere, and slowly driving me to madness.

“I’m going to come already,” I panted.

“Go ahead,” Niko said.

“But it’ll be over so fast.”

“Oh, this is just the beginning, darling.”

“We’ve tried to be careful not to overstimulate her powers,” Gilbert said. “We drain magic from her when we do this.”

“She has all day to rest up while we figure out what’s going on with the Temple of Stones,” Niko said, thrusting two fingers inside me and stroking me vigorously.

“Oh! Ohh…” I clutched Gilbert, digging my tongue into his mouth, as my body fluttered and then pulsed with pleasure. A lazy, warm sensation washed over me. Niko withdrew his hand, and I shivered. The room felt cold as his body heat drew away.

“Take her to the bed and keep her warmed up for me,” Niko said.

“I’m not—” Gilbert started to protest, but then he cut himself off and looked in my eyes. I hadn’t seen lust like that in him before. His eyes flicked to Niko toss his dress shirt onto the nearest chair. Niko’s skin was a warm tan color. In my experience, the capital guys with a darker complexion often had some pretty grody chest hair, but Niko’s chest was smooth until his navel, where there was a little line of dark hair pointing downward.

“Aw, fuck me,” Gilbert whispered, barely audible.

“You’re only human,” I whispered back.

It would be no surprise if Niko had been one of Gilbert’s first crushes, whether or not it was reciprocal. The man oozed sexuality.

“But—”

“You’re not cheating on Rin.”

He glared back like, Of course I’m fucking cheating on Rin. But then he seemed resigned to it, and led me over to the bed. His hand guided me to sit, and then lay back, and he stirred my sigil again and did some teasing things with his tongue while I watched Niko strip. I’d never had two orgasms in one night before; I was embarrassed to say that I didn’t even know it was possible, but it was quickly becoming clear that if I didn’t have two orgasms tonight I was going to murder everyone.

Niko prowled over, watching us for a moment. I’ll be honest, considered that Forrest was a big guy with a pretty intense cock, and Niko was even taller, I was afraid of what I was in for, but Forrest was still winning that contest by a hair. I was totally cool with that. I’d had a few nightmares that each guardian was going to get taller and more endowed until the fourth one just plain split me in half. Niko would not give any girl complaints. He definitely looked like he knew it, too. He was enjoying having my eyes on him.

“Ready for me, darling?” He slid in next to me and his hand slid up my leg, my hip, and to my left breast. Gilbert was sliding his tongue on my right breast. I twitched my hips, wanting someone to pay attention to the desperate throbbing there. I would’ve thought that this climbing, yearning sensation would be more muted after I’d already climaxed once, but no—it was worse.

Niko swept a hand to my pelvis and pulled me up, away from Gilbert, so my knees and elbows dug into the bedspread. I couldn’t see Niko now, but I knew he was right back there. “Please,” I breathed.

His cock dove into me with a little bit of pain—that first stroke always seemed to hurt—but even more pleasure and relief. I dug my fingers into the bedspread. I could feel magic flooding out of me and into him. “Oh, gods…”

“Give her your cock, Gil,” Niko said.

“I—that’s your channel.“

“You have my permission, then.”

The truth was, I had never pleasured Gilbert in any way. He expertly used his mouth and hands to bring pleasure to me, and then he turned to Rin. I knew this was how he managed to keep his life segmented between the man he loved and the girl he had to be with.

I also had this feeling that Niko guessed all of this. He wasn’t offering this out of benevolence. He was asserting control over both of us.

“What’s wrong?” Niko asked. “Don’t tell me you don’t want it.”

I could feel Niko inside me, each stroke of his manhood in perfect time, melting me from the inside out. I could hardly speak. But I was looking at Gilbert.

“I do,” he said, reaching for my face. He dug a hand into my hair and I leaned into his touch.

Gilbert slipped out of his trousers, his fair skin as flushed as mine, and I reached for him, running my hands down his thighs. He was so beautiful, my Gilbert. Right now I felt totally uninhibited and in love with everyone. I reached for his hand and touched his palm to my sigil again, sighing as I felt the flow of magic grow even stronger. They were draining the life out of me and it felt so good.

I wet my lips as the desire was building and building inside me, and I urged Gilbert’s hips to slide closer to me. It didn’t seem unpleasant now. The things Niko was doing to me made me hungry, and I wanted to deepen Gilbert’s blush. I was lost in it. Absurdly, I wanted to impress Niko. “You’re mine, Gilbert,” I said, almost drowsily, before I licked the underside of his shaft, and then I wrapped my mouth around him, swirling my tongue around the tender head.

Niko fucked me harder, spurring me on to take Gilbert deeper, and I heard Gilbert’s breathing quicken. He spread his legs a little wider and my hands eagerly touched the soft, delicate skin around his balls and inner thighs as I tried to take his whole shaft in my mouth. I didn’t even gag. Every part me of me felt warm and powerful, like I could do anything, like I could keep giving of myself and always have more.

“Phoebe…Phoebe…”

Gilbert groaned as he came into my mouth, at the same time I started falling into a climax that seemed to last absolutely forever. It was so full bodied and good, it was like sinking into a hot bath. I moaned as their seed filled me. I felt like my entire body was sinking into the bed, down, down, until I imagined myself swallowed in the mattress. When it was all over and Niko pulled out of me, I just collapsed. I don’t think I could have moved if I tried. I was vaguely conscious of Gilbert trying to wipe off my mouth.

“Swallow next time, Phoebe. Less mess,” Niko said. I heard him pick up his clothes. My eyes wouldn’t even stay open. I felt Gilbert pull my limp body against him and kiss my hair before he covered me with the blankets, and at that point, me and the waking world were done for a while.