Page 72 of Blood and Trouble

“Stop teasing him, Lycan,” Ava said.

“Why?” Lycan brought his drink to his lips, taking another indulgent sip. “Don’t you think he deserves it?”

“Lycan,” I warned.

He leaned forward, putting his elbows on the table, his eyes glowing as they pierced whatever flimsy shield I still had up.

“He left us twice. He stood outside to watch me fuck your throat like some voyeur. Did you consent to being watched, Trouble?”

“No, but I—” She tried to say.

“No.” Lycan shook his head, but I recognized this for what it was. He was stacking the deck against me. He’d seen me too and didn’t stop despite the breach of consent. What little cheaters they both were.

“I know what you’re trying to do,” I said. “It won’t work.”

“You don’t think so?” He hummed and sat back in his seat. “Pet, come here.”

Ava hesitated for a moment, the tension rippling through the air like lightning strikes as she looked between us. I kept my stare trained on Lycan, and he taunted me with a dominant one of his own. Eventually, she pushed her chair out from under the table, stood, and walked over to the blond Bastard sitting across from me.

“Hand me your panties,” he said.

Shoulders trembling and skin prickling with goosebumps, she hooked her thumbs into her underwear and shucked them down to the floor. When she bent over to retrieve them, I caught a glimpse of her cunt, light reflecting off her soaking skin in a delicate invitation. The scent hit me next: needy female, sweet coconut, and delicious vanilla slick. Fuck, I wanted to bury my face between her thighs and never come up for air again. I fisted my armrests to keep my body in place.

She put the blue lace in Lycan’s hands and, ever the perverted hedonist, he brought them to his nose for a deep inhale.

“Fucking ambrosia,” he murmured, trailing one hand up her thigh to her hip. “You said you were cold?” Lycan nodded to his bent leg. “Warm yourself up on my thigh.”

Ava turned to sit sideways, but he tutted and corrected her. “No, Trouble. Turn to face Poe and straddle my leg.”

My pulse pounded so hard, I almost couldn’t hear her whispered question.

“Are you sure?”

“You can use your safeword,” he said. “You don’t have to do anything.”

Ava seemed to think for a moment before she looked over her shoulder at me, and whatever she saw there must have given her an extra boost of courage. She turned fully, lifted one leg over his, and sat down.

My cock kicked to life despite my best attempts to tell it to fuck off. This wasn’t right. They were married. I was nobody. This wasn’t any of my business. This wasn’t…this wasn’t…

My thoughts died when Lycan wrapped an arm around her waist and cupped one full breast, plucking at her nipple. He pulled her toward him so he could lean in to press his mouth next to her ear.

“Now ride my thigh like you want to ride his face,” Lycan said.

CHAPTER 16

Poe

Oh, fuck.

I surged to my feet, desperate to get out of there before I did anything stupid.

“Sit. Down. Poe.” Lycan’s calm, dominant voice startled me into stillness. It wasn’t his normal Do-as-I-say tone. It was his wolf, his other side. Sure, I was a dominant wolf, too, but I didn’t rank as high as him in the pack, and I never would. In the battle of wills between us, he would always win. And the worst part was that I wanted it that way. I liked it.

I swallowed and glanced at Ava, hoping I would see fear and reticence in her eyes. She couldn’t want this…right? Instead, hunger peered out at me from behind glowing aquamarine, her wolf just as in tune as his, desperate to poke at whatever dysfunctional thing had bloomed between us. It was that expression, that look of determination and desire, that had me sinking back into my seat.

Lycan tossed her panties at me, and they landed in my lap while he took another drink of his whiskey.

“Go on, pet,” he said, gripping her waist with his free hand.