“Gideon, did you know that Daegan was willing to abandon us, let me have you all to myself ?” She slanted Daegan a playful glance, recalling their far more somber conversation of weeks before. “He said if you were able to fulfill all my needs, he didn"t want to be in the way.”

“Oh, hell, no. You"re not getting out of this that easily. Jesus, her mood swings make PMS

in a normal woman look like a picnic with a dozen naked Hooters girls.” Gideon tried to duck her swat, but she put enough speed on it to tumble him, which he managed lithely and in a very distracting flex of bare muscles. “See what I mean?”

“I"m sure I only said such a thing to appear charming and sensitive.” Daegan shrugged.

“You could never possibly meet all her needs.”

As they continued bantering back and forth, she could tell a wrestling match was pending.

There"d already been two so far, like lions tussling. She was going to have to set down a firm rule that roughhousing was only for the weapons room or playrooms. She had too many breakables in here, and eventually their reflexes or hers wouldn"t be quick enough. But for now, she indulged them. “We never answered his juice and cookies question,” she broke in, bringing their attention back to her. “We"ll usually stagger our feedings on you, Gideon. If we took from you at the same time, it might temporarily weaken you.”

“But it might happen occasionally,” Daegan said, a deceptively languid look in his dark eyes.

In fact, they"d already done it once in the past few hours. The memory brought a pleasurable flush to her body. However, it reminded her of something else.

“Don"t think I"ve forgotten,” she mentioned, curling her fingers in a loose strand of Gideon"s hair, tugging to cause a bite of pain. He gave her an arch look, but she wasn"t fooled by the guileless eyes. For one thing, she suspected Gideon had never had a guileless day in his life. For another, he was so well tapped into her mind, she saw the combination of trepidation and reluctant fascination as he realized what she was referencing.

“There were three requirements. One was that you would submit to Daegan taking you to bed, without me there. I"m too greedy right now to let you out of my sight, but I won"t be forever.”

Gideon pressed those firm lips together, moistening them, telling her he was keenly aware of Daegan"s predatory gaze, resting on him with lazy pleasure, like a tiger contemplating his dinner. And that contemplation was arousing the male vampire anew.

She could tell it made Gideon"s cock respond as well, such that he gave them both an exasperated look. “I"m going to the kitchen,” he grumbled. “Anybody want anything?”

“Gideon.” That one word arrested him on his heels before he could straighten. If that hadn"t reassured her how he felt about her third requirement, his next act did. Her servant met her gaze, covered her hand and lifted it to his mouth, nuzzling her with a heated, moist seduction of tongue and lips. Then he glanced at them both. “I"m yours, however you want me,” he said quietly. “Whenever you want me.”

Then he cleared his throat and got to his feet, giving Daegan his typically cocky look. “I don"t plan to go down easy though, so you better come at me with your A-game.”

“Count on it.” That predator"s look became hot and dangerous, enough to raise her blood temperature. She wondered that she"d be able to stay away from watching such a match of wills.

Gideon gave him a quick, feral grin, then glanced back at Anwyn. “What do you want from the kitchen, Mistress?”

You. But she was thirsty. “Some more wine would be good,” Anwyn noted, and Daegan nodded.

Gideon could feel their gazes following him as he moved across the room, naked as Anwyn had demanded. While he wanted to protest their unrelenting sex drive, his cock wasn"t any better behaved. It was already getting hard at that reminder of them both taking blood from him. Daegan had pierced his femoral, holding his legs spread open to his will as Anwyn straddled Gideon"s face, making him lick at her cunt while she suckled from his wrist. As Daegan drew blood from his thigh, he"d worked Gideon"s cock, slid a finger inside him, making it near impossible for Gideon not to come before he serviced his Mistress. But he"d done it, damn it all. Then sprayed like a fountain, amazed and humbled when Anwyn bent lithely, her wet pussy over his face, and took all of him in, swallowing him down. Daegan had drawn back, but only to lean over her, press his lips to the fragile curve of her spine. He"d left a faint imprint of his mouth there, outlined by Gideon"s blood.

There were other things, even more than the soul-shattering sex, that had reduced him to tight-throated silence these past hours. They"d all taken a break in Daegan"s bed, dozing, but Daegan had slept. Slept deep in her and Gideon"s embrace, in a way Anwyn had whispered she"d never seen him do. A true act of trust.

Of course, Gideon did doubt he"d be asking for forty more days of this, like Anwyn thought.

He wasn"t sure if he could overcome his embarrassment about walking around like their sex slave on demand. Of course, he couldn"t seem to stop being reluctantly turned on by it, either.

“Daegan, are you going to keep hunting for the Council?” He called the question from the kitchen as he looked for clean glasses, considered the wine choices. Jesus, how many bottles of wine did anyone need? He chose one at length, mainly because he liked the dog printed on it.

“You don"t have to stop. We"re going to be okay. There are three of us. We handled ourselves pretty well at Xavier"s.”

“Yes. You were nearly killed, and Anwyn came close to being violently raped. It went very well.”

Gideon grunted, unimpressed. “You would have been staked if I hadn"t been there. Or drained of blood if we hadn"t come at all.”

He pulled the cork. Though he didn"t see it, he could feel the forbidding clouds of Daegan"s thoughts gathering. It was clear from his actions that he was the most protective and dominant of the three, and would take command of any situation he felt was necessary, a sense of superiority over the two of them that was not as overbearing as Gideon initially thought it would be. It was more like having a general of their small army, or maybe that was just the best way for Gideon to handle thinking of it.

I’d love to see you salute him. Anwyn"s amused thought.

“Yeah, that"ll happen,” Gideon muttered. He wasn"t about to let the bastard intimidate him, ever. Anwyn was one thing, but she was a girl. Girls were allowed to be intimidating. Her laughter and Daegan"s grunt made him smile as he pulled the pizza box from the oven.

Are you saying you want to hunt with me?

The thought came to him straight from Daegan, and he suspected it wasn"t one he was sharing with Anwyn, though of course Anwyn could hear it in his mind . . . unless Daegan was distracting her. A quick check on that, glancing toward the living room, showed that Daegan had drawn her over to him, pulling the loose neckline of her robe aside to tease her breast with his lips. All in the midst of conversation, as casually as if he"d picked up his wineglass. It was a general"s reminder, he guessed, that he would take from them when he wished, and yet make it well worth their while to surrender to him.

He wanted to shy from that thought, big-time, but every muscle in his body was deliciously sore from the frequency of the lesson. And he was willing for him to do it all over again.

Anytime you need a backup, I will. Gideon put down the bottle, stared into space. But otherwise . . . I think I’m done with that, Daegan. Guys like Trey . . . I can’t really say I’m sorry for that, but I think I know it was kind of fucked, and that’s a part of me that’s going to take some time to handle. You said it right, at the beginning. My job now is to protect Anwyn, be here for her.

He was unexpectedly warmed by the relief he felt from Daegan, the words he spoke in his head. It would ease my mind greatly, to know you are at her side when I cannot be.

Gideon took a deep breath. So many changes, so fast. His mind wasn"t wrapped around them all yet. But in a weird way, he"d never felt freer to say and do whatever he wanted. Pain and shadows would linger, like those shadows in Anwyn"s head, but she and Daegan were just as good at helping him deal with them. And that, too, was new. Letting someone in, letting someone help.

Like all of it, it seemed to be beyond his understanding, but he could rely on his intuition to guide him where his dense brain couldn"t.

There was one thing he wasn"t going to let stand, though. Taking advantage of Daegan"s absorption with Anwyn"s arched body, the wet, taut nipple he was teasing with his mouth, he left the wine and pizza and strode out of the kitchen, right back up to the vampire.

Leaning down, he cupped Daegan"s head as the vampire looked up, and planted one of those fast, hard kisses on his mouth. Daegan did those kinds of moves better and more smoothly, of course, but the flash of surprise in his eyes was worth it. “You can get your panties in a twist about our coming after you at the Coffin,” Gideon said, holding his dark gaze, “but you"re going to have to live with the fact we"re going to watch over you just as much as you watch over us. Servant or no, I"m not going to stand by and let you go into situations where the numbers might be against you. Neither will Anwyn.”

He pivoted on his heel and strode back to the kitchen. And don’t be staring at my ass.

Though Daegan scowled at the man"s presumption, his mouth eased at Anwyn"s chuckle.

“Not even forty days is going to change that stubborn rock head of his,” he decided.

“He"s rough around the edges, but he"s perfect. And he"s right. We both love you. You"ll have to accept what that means, just the same way we do.”

“Hmm. His kissing technique leaves a bit to be desired. He"s much nicer to you.”

“I"ll help you teach him,” she promised, laughter in her eyes. Gideon returned then, wine bottle and pizza box in hand, both strategically placed to hide the embarrassing movement of his genitalia. In sync, the two Doms made him put down the box and wine bottle, return to the kitchen and come back unprotected, underscoring the lesson that he must be open to them at all times. It was a sensual demand that had his cock stiffening under their pleased regard anew, though he sat down with the box and a narrow look.