He sighed. “It’s gone. You’re free, Sarah. We will never hold you against your will. After all you’ve been through, we would never…Just—damn it don’t go. Not before you hear what I have to say.”
He waited long enough to make sure she wasn’t walking away before he continued. “I spent my life knowing our third was out there. I grew up with Lorie, knew where there were two…I’m sure you know that saying. Then I was waiting for Lorie to get his nose out of his books. Waiting for you at every Triune. For what felt like forever.”
She heard his bare feet crush the grass as he paced behind her, her face damp with her tears as he spoke. “I don’t know if I’ll go to the devil for saying this, but what if you hadn’t been in that book? I know the original religion believes our magic, the essence of what we are returns again and again. But I can’t see that. I can’t hold it in my hands. If you’d lived your life and come back again, would you be Sarah Blackwood? This Sarah Blackwood? Would you be fearless and wild and love so deeply that you could survive what no other could? Would you still have that mole on your hip? Still call me Conway even though I beg you not to?”
His hands skimmed over her shoulders as if he couldn’t help but touch her, before he pulled away. “If Aaron Winston were still alive, I would kill him—sanctioned by the law or not. Lorie had already proven, I don’t know how many times, that he would die for you. And Jackson Abbott was killed trying to free you—for no reason other than it was the right thing to do. Not all Abbotts are like Robert, Sarah. I just want you to think about that.”
He turned and started to walk away and she shook her head, wiping her eyes. “Come back here, Conway. And I know you’re eavesdropping, Lorie. I promise I won’t go insane again. At least, not right now.”
She turned and allowed herself to take in these two men who had claimed her. Lorie, with his hands in his jean pockets, bare-chested and beautiful. Con, with his shirt hastily thrown on and his pants unbuttoned.
Her smile felt shaky, but real. “You let the shield down.”
She turned to Lorie. “And you let me go.”
How could she look at them and see her enemy? How, when they gave her everything she’d ever wanted and more—including her freedom? Even if it meant they lost her, they were willing to sacrifice their happiness for the chance that she would stay.
In her life before she was snared in Aaron’s spell, she’d never known men like that. The Magians of her day were, for the most part, narrow-minded sexual deviants. Power-hungry, oblivious, or both. Not these men. They were different. Maybe it was the time they lived in. Perhaps it was just who they were. But they weren’t the kind of Magians a woman walked away from if she could help it.
“No more lies or hiding things from me.” She fiddled with the fringe of her blanket, watching them closely.
Hope sparked to life in Lorie’s eyes. “My oath. From this moment on, you’ll know everything as soon as I do.”
Con nodded, his expression somber and still unsure. “My oath.”
She took a steadying breath. “I don’t know what will happen when we find the other book. I may disappear again. If you can’t get me back, you need to destroy it. I have suffered for too many years. I choose not to continue, if that is the only way I will survive.”
That was harder for them, she knew. But she would never be able to forgive herself if they spent their lives trying to unravel the impossible, or suffering just to see her. They shrugged, and she knew that was as close to an agreement she would get from them.
“This is hard for me too.” She rolled the grass beneath her heel, shifting uncomfortably. “I’m not used to this anymore. Not used to trusting anything I see or feel.” She looked up at them. “I see you and feel lucky—but is it an illusion? I know in my heart that neither of you are anything like Robert. Anything like Aaron. I am certain my grandmother would have loved you. But I’m still not sure what tomorrow will bring me. I just…well, I hope you can be patient with me.”
Her grandmother would have loved them. Like I do, she thought, but she didn’t have the courage to say it. Not yet. Not until she knew she could give them that love forever. She did the next best thing. She dropped her blanket.
Lorie’s blue eyes widened, and then he was looking around at the neighboring houses. “Here? In the open?”
She gave a watery chuckle and nodded. “You said I’m free. So yes. Here, in the open.”
Con took her in his arms, kissing her as he laid her back in the grass. “Anything you want, babe. Anything.”
“Aw, hell.” Lorie fell to his knees again, tugging her face away from Con’s and taking her mouth in a kiss filled with as much relief as passion. “Look what you do to me, sweet Sarah.”
She bit his chin. “I like what I do to you. To both of you.”
“Let’s see if you like what we do to you,” Con murmured, lowering his head to her left breast.
“Mmm.” Lorie kissed her cheek, her neck and then he was wrapping his tongue around her right nipple, sucking it against the roof of his mouth and scraping her flesh with his teeth.
“Yes.”
Con continued to make love to her breasts. Fondling them with his lips and hands as Lorie’s mouth slid down her body, licking her hip, kissing her thighs. He spread her legs, lifting them up over his shoulders with a dark grin before lowering his head between them.
She saw stars twinkling above her. Obscured by the sparkling light of the magic that flowed between them. Her arms stretched high above her, scratched by cool green grass and solid earth.
It was by far the most erotic experience of her life. No chairs or magic reflections required. Just this. Just Lorie’s tongue and fingers filling her sex as she lifted her hips against him, begging for more.
Just Con’s groan as she slid one hand into his unbuttoned jeans and began to stroke while he sucked her nipple.
Just the world tilting on its axis as she moaned and keened and called out their names, rolling on her side with Lorie’s mouth still pressed between her legs so she could reach Con’s thick cock and take it deep into her mouth.