“I hate both of you.”
“No,” Dominic said.
“No,” Rhain agreed.
Then they lowered their mouths together.
Dominic kissed the left mark with slow, firm pressure, the kind that did not ask whether I remembered who had put it there. Rhain answered at the right, softer at first, then warmer, his lips parting against the bite until the second channel lit beneath my skin.
For four days, the channels had been pulling in different directions, each one asking for an answer the other could not give. Now both marks were awake at once, both mouths steady over them, and the heat that had been running sharp under my skin changed shape.
A moan slipped out of me. Dominic’s mouth pressed more firmly to the left mark. Rhain answered at the right.
The two bonds met in the center of my chest and dropped straight to the base of my spine.
The pleasure broke so fast I did not understand it until my body was already inside it, my spine bowing between them, my hands catching at whatever they could reach. Dominic’s shoulder. Rhain’s sleeve. The sheet beneath me. I came with both claims under their mouths and both bonds open, the release bright and sudden.
Both of them went still.
Dominic lifted his mouth first, barely. His breath was hot against the left mark. Rhain did not move at all except for the slow tightening of his hands at my ribs.
For one awful, stretched-out beat, no one spoke.
Then Rhain said, very softly, “Oh,” and leaned down to touch his mouth to his claim on me again, lighter this time, and the aftershock hit hard enough to make my knees jerk.
He stopped immediately.
Dominic’s voice dropped. “That answers one question.”
“Congratulations,” I said. “The protocol works.”
Dominic’s hand flattened over my ribs. Rhain’s thumb moved beneath the edge of my shirt.
“Again,” Dominic said.
My eyes drifted open. “Again, what?”
“Tell us.”
Rhain kissed the right mark, almost apologetically. Almost. “We are very good at following instructions, kjære, but we do require them.”
“Since when?”
“Since we were informed that dragons are less efficient than dogs.”
A rough note broke in Dominic’s throat, and my entire body tightened.
Rhain noticed. Of course he did. His gaze lifted to mine, and his mouth curved.
“You liked that.”
“I liked nothing.”
Dominic’s lips moved against my skin. “Lie.”
The word landed somewhere beneath my ribs, and my breath caught. His hand slid to my hip, holding me still as Rhain drew my shirt up another inch.
“Tell me what else,” Dominic said.
