As Maddox’s breath caught, I rolled my body. His blue eyes flickered up to me, brow scrunched and chest rising and falling quicker. Briar slowly moved back and forth, his cock still half-hard. It pushed the captain over the edge.
Maddox came seconds later, his hips bucking up into me. “Evan! Gods.”
I cupped the back of his head and brought him to my chest, holding him as his large body quaked beneath mine. I kissed his temple while Briar’s lips grazed my shoulder. The fire popped from beside us, flames crackling along the logs and radiating warmth our way.
Little did I know at the time how that one night would change everything.
***
“The rain’s still coming down hard,” Briar said as he closed the door behind him. He shrugged off the hooded cloak Maddox had lent him and set it on the back of a chair to dry before removing his muddy boots. A bag was in his hand.
“I appreciate you going,” Maddox responded from his place at the small table. A stack of papers sat in front of him. I guess, like Briar being the court physician and always busy, a captain’s work was never done either.
“It was no trouble at all.”
After we’d held each other in the afterglow, bodies calming, we had cleaned up before Briar went to his clinic for the post-sex tonics. While waiting for him to get back, Maddox had pulled on a pair of black pants—and how the man looked just as hotinclothes as he did out of them wasn’t fair at all.
Instead of dressing, I had sat in front of the fire and wrapped up in the blanket from Maddox’s bed. I pressed my face into it, breathing in his scent of warm spice.
“Drink this.” Briar handed a short, round vial to Maddox, who nodded to him, before coming over to me and pulling another from the bag. “You too.”
“What’s it taste like?” I turned the bottle between my fingers. The magenta-colored liquid looked to have the consistency of juice. “Is it gross? Will I puke?”
Maddox uncorked the vial and threw it back in one gulp, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Imagine walking into a field of flowers, tearing a handful from the soil, then shoving them in your mouth. Much like that.”
“Well, the concoction does contain flowers,” Briar responded, amused. “Echinacea, to be precise. It naturally boosts the immune system, can reduce inflammation, and has antiviral effects. And when added to an assortment of other plants and infused with the right magic, it becomes a cure against all sexually spread diseases.”
“I once ate rose water macarons before.” I removed the cork. “I hated them. Flowers don’t belong in food.” I sipped the tonic and made a face. It was floral and tart, and I immediately wanted to spit it out.
Maddox burst into a laugh. The hearty sound almost made me forget the nasty floral taste in my mouth. “That’s why you should drink it in one go.”
Briar drank his without reacting whatsoever. His hazel eyes shifted to me. “Evan.”
“I know, I know,” I said, wiggling a bit on the rug, as though needing to rev up to prepare myself. “I’m drinking it.”
“Perhaps this will help entice you.” Briar reached into the bag and withdrew something wrapped in a cloth. He unraveled it to reveal a mouthwatering loaf of goodness. “The last of the fig bread from the batch I made this morning. But you can’t have it until that vial is empty.”
Maddox turned his face away, but I noticed the slight bounce of his stomach as he quietly laughed.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
Humor glinted in his deep blue eyes as he looked at me. “You must be bribed like a child to take your medicine.”
Briar laughed before stifling it. He cleared his throat.
“You know… I think I liked it better when you two were fighting. Having you on the same side isn’t fair at all.”
“Oh, I’m sure by morning, we’ll be back to our old, bickering selves,” Briar said. But by the softness in his expression, I didn’t believe that for a minute.
What happened between the three of us had shifted things. Brought us closer, in more ways than one.
I lifted the vial and chugged it, squirming as I swallowed, then shuddering once it was down. “Okay. The deed is done. Gimme my reward.”
“Come and claim it.” Briar waved around the slice, taunting me.
Grinning, I crawled over and nipped at his neck. He chuckled and bumped my head with his before kissing my earlobe. Just like how I loved hearing Maddox laugh, I enjoyed this playful side to Briar too.
The two of them had burrowed into my heart. Maybe it was too soon to feel that deeply, but the heart didn’t care if one year had passed or one day. And my heart soared when around them.
