Page 56 of Bloom in Darkness

"Fuck," I breathe when he bottoms out. Caelan's hand tightens around my cock at the same time, and I jerk into his fist while Bryn presses his face into my neck. Bryn’s scent is everywhere, Caelan’s close beside me, and for a few seconds all I can do is hold on to both of them.

Bryn starts moving when I squeeze my thighs around him. Every thrust drags my cock harder through Caelan's fist, and the wet sound between us gets obscene fast. Slick is already all over Bryn's thighs and the sheets, and I couldn't care less. I spent three rounds watching him beat somebody into the mat. This is what I wanted when we got home.

Caelan kisses me when I start getting loud. I catch his lower lip between my teeth and he groans into my mouth while Bryn thrusts harder. One of Bryn's taped hands closes around my thigh, and seeing the white tape against my skin sends another stupid wave of heat through me.

"You really liked the fight," Caelan says against my mouth. I look past him at Bryn and nod because lying would be ridiculous at this point. "Yeah. I really fucking did." Bryn growls, pushes deeper, and hits the spot that makes my whole body lock for a second.

I come with Caelan's hand around my cock and Bryn still moving inside me. My legs shake around his hips while slick runs warmer between us. Bryn slows just enough to let me breathe, but his knot is already swelling at the base of his cock and catching every time he pushes forward.

I reach down and touch it. Bryn goes completely still over me. "Astra." I wrap my fingers around the swollen base as much as I can and pull him closer with my other leg. "I know what it is. I want it."

Bryn pushes forward again. The knot stretches me wider, slips inside, and I swear loud enough that Caelan starts laughing before the sound turns into a moan of his own. Bryn buries his face against my neck when he comes, his whole body tense over mine while the deep vibration in his chest runs through me.

None of us moves much until the knot starts to go down. Caelan wipes his hand on the edge of the sheet, then looks at the blood near one pillow. "You're bleeding on the sheets again." Bryn lifts his head just enough to look at him. "I got hit in the face."

"And somehow the sheets are still involved," Caelan says. I start laughing and immediately regret it when the movement pulls against Bryn's knot. Bryn puts one hand on my hip until I stop, then glares at Caelan.

By the time Bryn can pull out, I am sweaty, sticky, and nowhere near finished being interested in either of them. Caelan is still beside me with one leg stretched straighter because of his knee, and I look at him long enough that he raises an eyebrow. "What?" I drag two fingers through the slick coating my thigh. "Your turn."

I drag two slick fingers between Caelan’s thighs, and his next breath catches. I move closer and kiss him, and he sucks in a sharp breath when I push one finger inside. His hand curls around my waist while I add another.

Caelan isn't slick like I am, so I take my time opening him with my fingers. I like having him spread out in front of me for once. I kiss him while I work another finger inside, and his breathing breaks when I curl them deeper. Bryn adds lube, then covers my hand with his for a moment until Caelan swears against my mouth.

"More," Caelan says, and Bryn gives it to him. I pull my fingers free when Bryn is ready, staying in front of Caelan as he reaches back for him.

Bryn pushes into him slowly, Caelan grabbing my shoulder hard enough to leave marks before kissing me through the first careful thrusts. Bryn pauses, waiting until the tension leaves his hand before moving again. The next time Bryn moves, Caelan pushes back to meet him. I wrap my hand around Caelan's cock and stroke him while Bryn fucks him, kissing Caelan whenever he pulls me closer. My slick is still on both of them, Bryn's bandage is peeling at one corner, and Caelan keeps his bad leg stretched straighter beside us.

Caelan comes with his forehead pressed against my shoulder, one hand locked around the back of my neck while I keep stroking him. Bryn follows a few minutes later when his knot finally slips inside, and Caelan curses so loudly I laugh into his hair. "Still jealous?" I ask. Caelan turns his head enough to glare at me. "Ask me when I can feel my legs again."

We stay tangled together while Bryn's knot goes down. I end up on my side facing Caelan with Bryn curved behind him, one of Bryn's hands stretched across both of us and resting on my hip. Caelan's eyes are closed, Bryn is purring, and I am exhausted enough that even the ruined white sheet under us cannot bother me.

I wake close to noon on my stomach with one leg thrown over Bryn and Caelan's hand resting between my shoulder blades. Everything is sore when I stretch, but it is the good kind, the kind that comes with several very clear memories of how I got there. Dried slick is tacky along one thigh, somebody left a clean towel near the edge of the bed, and I have absolutely no intention of moving yet.

Bryn cracks one eye when I move, watches until I settle back into the mattress, then goes right back to sleep. Caelan is already awake on the other side, reading something on his phone with his bad knee propped over a pillow.

"You need another one under that," I tell him, pointing at the swelling around his knee.

"Good morning to you too." Caelan glances at his leg. "It's stiff. I'll live."

I take the spare pillow from behind my back and wedge it under his calf so the joint sits higher. Caelan raises one brow at me, then exhales when his leg settles.

By the time we make it downstairs, I have showered and put on the clean jeans I left here yesterday. My sweater is unsalvageable until I wash Bryn's blood out of the cuff, so I steal another one of his shirts. Two pairs of socks that are definitely not mine have ended up in the bottom of my bag, my spare toothbrush is still upstairs, and three of my pencils are scattered across the kitchen counter. I make coffee.

We don't do much for the rest of the day. Bryn makes eggs and adds a plate of cut fruit like the eggs somehow aren’t enough food. Twenty minutes later, he’s asleep in the armchair with his arms crossed over his chest while Caelan takes over the sofa with his knee propped up and a book balanced against him. I sit on the rug drawing the two of them, Bryn’s taped hand around a coffee mug, and eventually the three cups we keep leaving on the same table. I already have a favorite one.

At some point Bryn comes up behind me and looks over my shoulder. "That me?"

"Yeah." I glance down at the page. "You fell asleep sitting up."

His hand settles on the back of my neck for a few seconds before he walks away. I keep drawing, add the bandage beneath his eye, then darken the bruise along his cheek. He really did let that man hit him too many times.

The Bloom jar is in my bag upstairs. I thought about it when my calves cramped after the shower. Then I thought about it again while sitting here with nothing hurting at all.

My charcoal stops moving long enough for Caelan to lower his book and look at me. "What?"

I glance toward him. Bryn is in the kitchen, close enough to hear us but not hovering. "I was thinking about the Bloom."

Caelan closes his book around one finger and waits while I rub the side of my thumb over a smear of graphite. "I should've done what we said and actually kept track of how much I was using."