Free Sevin: Lords of Satyr by Elizabeth Amber

Sevin gripped his brother’s arm and jerked him closer so they looked each other in the eye. “Swear to me as I ask, Luc. Now, on the blood of the ancients. If you will not—if you refuse the Calling against your own nature—I swear to you that I will as well. I’ll send this woman to find her way home with her lamp, alone and untouched. And you and I will die here together in darkness.”
    Luc shook off his hold. “Will you be able to tell the extent of her involvement with the Bona Dea? After you’ve mated her?” he hedged with quiet anger.
    “I believe so.”
    A long moment passed. And then, with a barely perceptible nod and softly sworn promise, Luc moved away to lean against the opposite wall, shrouding himself in shadow once more.

    Alexa lifted her lashes, feeling pleasantly drugged from Sevin’s kisses. Lucien had drawn near to them. The brothers were exchanging low, urgent words she didn’t understand, spoken in some inscrutable language. It was reminiscent of an Italian dialect found only in the hill country, only more archaic and dark.
    She watched as Sevin took the goblet from his brother and tilted it to her lips. “Drink,” he told her. “It will make you want what is to come.”
    As Lucien left them, she hesitated, staring at the ruby liquid swirling like blood in the bottom of the goblet. She felt a strange sensation, as if Sevin’s mind were pushing at hers.
    Trust me. All will be well.
    As if with a will of their own, her hands lifted, taking charge of the goblet and tilting it higher. She felt Lucien move away as she took one sip, then another—and still more, at Sevin’s urging.
    How very easily it slid down her throat, warming her, soothing away her every misgiving. It surged through her system, sending with it a blast of euphoria. She drank again, finishing it. The prurient desire in her strengthened, her flesh prickling.
    Her fingers relaxed and the goblet fell from them to the cool stone at their feet.
    With a flick of his hand, Sevin erected a barricade around the perimeter of the room, his magic rendering them secure here. Although air would continue to circulate, no one and nothing could come or go from this chamber now, except the three of them. They would be safe here until dawn.
    Gently, he tugged Alexa from the corner into the pool of soft light. Turning her to face in the direction his brother had fled, he stood before her slightly to one side so that Luc would see her as well. Gaslight limned her in gold, casting shadows of dark bronze beneath her full breasts and along the press of her thighs through her gown. She had no idea how the sight of her like this affected him, how much he wanted to begin. But, no, they must wait for the moon, only minutes away.
    For now, he would only tease her, a dangerous game that would test his restraint and that of his brother. He felt her watching him as his fingers traced the neckline of her bodice. Knew Luc watched her, too, since the lamp would reveal her to them both.
    Dipping in the dusky hollow between her breasts, he opened the tie of her gown and carefully widened its bodice as if unwrapping a fine gift. She pressed a hand there, clutching the tie, clinging to her modesty by a thread.
    He drew her hand upward and kissed its palm. Let me, his mind whispered to her.
    When he let her go, her arm fell unresisting to her side. The gape at the front of her gown widened, until he brushed it from her shoulders. It drifted lower, then caught and clung at her elbows, forming a sort of skirt that draped her only from waist to floor.
    The back of his fingers slid upward from her ribs to brush the undersides of pale, unclothed breasts, then rounded higher to gently catch and twist peach-colored nubs. She drew in a sharp breath, but didn’t try to stop him again. Cupping the weight of her breasts in his palms, he rubbed his thumbs over her nipples, drawing on them in a way that made her moan.
    At the sound, a low growl rumbled in his chest and his