Double The Alpha: A Paranormal Menage Romance Read online

  Forcing my breathing to remain at a semi-normal rate, I said that was good. “So…are there any messes out in the living room we need to clean up right now? Any drink spills or food spills or anything, or any more dishes to pick up, or….”

  I didn’t finish the thought, unable to even think of what else.

  Slowly, as if they could tell that I was experiencing some nerves and didn’t want to startle me in any way, Eric and Ryan came over to me and kind of pulled me into a double embrace, with one of them holding me close on either side.

  After pressing a few tender kisses against the side of my face, Eric spoke in a low voice near my ear. “We don’t want there to be any pressure on you tonight. We just want to kiss you and hold you…just for as long as you want us to. We won’t move on to anything else until you tell us to. We both promise.”

  I really liked the sound of his voice near my ear, and I really liked what he was saying and the ghost of his warm breath on my ear, too. However, for some reason, I was finding it hard to focus on these things. Aware that my body had become somewhat rigid, the primary thought in my mind was how long it had been since I’d last had sex. Wondering how “rusty” I might be and what Eric and Ryan might think if I was, I felt the butterflies in my stomach intensify.

  Swallowing, I suddenly wondered how they might react if I told them that I just needed another day or two, even before getting in to any further holding and kissing. Another day or two to do what, I didn’t even really know. Another day or two just to maybe psyche myself up for the experience of having my fantasy about having sex with two men at once actually come true in real life. Would Eric and Ryan get angry if I asked them for more time? Would they both leave the house, slamming the front door behind them? At any rate, I felt like I at least knew them both well enough by this point to know that neither of them would become violent or try to force themselves on me. I hoped I knew them both well enough to be reasonably sure about this, anyway.

  Cutting through my rapid thoughts, I suddenly heard Ryan’s deep voice.

  “Hey. I just thought of something. We can’t forget to do the tradition. The one you were telling me about, Eric. Remember?”

  I looked at Ryan, wondering if whatever “tradition” he was talking about might be something time-consuming, distracting, and non-sexual. “What do you mean about a ‘tradition?’”

  He gave me a sexy half-grin. “Eric told me about a shifter mating tradition in these parts. See, when a couple first gets mated up, and they decide that they want to officially be together, the shifter is supposed to carry his lady through the doorway of their house, kind of like when a man and a woman get married.”

  Having a funny thought, I suddenly laughed a little. “And what about when it’s two men being ‘mated up’ with one female? Is the doorway tradition still kept then?”

  Eyes dancing with amusement, Ryan said he was pretty positive it was.

  I said all right. “But, even with that being the case, how would we decide which one of you gets to carry me through the front door?”

  With his full, delectable lips twitching, Ryan rifled around in his jeans pocket and came up with a beer bottle cap. “Same as how we decided who got to dance with you first. We just flip a cap. Eric, which side do you want?”

  “Bottom up.”

  “All right. Top up for me, then. Let’s see who gets the honor.”

  Flipping the bottle cap off his thumb, Ryan flung it into the air. However, his fling immediately struck me as a little off somehow, and the cap didn’t fall to the ground. Instead, before I could even take a step back to avoid it, it went right down the front of my low-cut red dress, which revealed more than a little bit of cleavage.

  Thoroughly amused by what had just happened, I laughed, snatching the cap out from between my breasts. “Okay, you absolutely did that on purpose, Ryan. You had to have.”

  Lifting his broad shoulders in a shrug, he fought a grin. “I don’t know. Maybe I did, and maybe I didn’t.”

  “Well, I think you did. And because of that, now I get to flip the cap.”

  Ryan grinned even harder. “Flip away.”

  Laughing again, I flung the cap in the air, and it landed on the hardwood floor, top up.

  Making a little gasp, I looked from the cap to Ryan. “Okay, why do I feel like you planned this entire thing to turn out in your favor?”

  He shrugged, again fighting a sexy little grin. “I guess I just got lucky…but now, I get to carry you through the front door. While I’m at it, I think I might as well carry you out the door, too.”

  Making me shriek, he suddenly scooped me up in his strong arms and began striding out of the kitchen. “One thing about this tradition, Ellie…there’s a tradition within the tradition.”

  “Oh, yeah? And what’s that?”

  “They say if the woman being carried hits her feet on the doorway, she then has to carry the man through the front door.”

  Just mentally imagining this scenario, I laughed so hard I could hardly breathe for a few seconds. “Okay, then. I’m going to make sure to pull my feet in, keeping them at least a few inches from the doorway at all times. I wouldn’t want to have to carry you and accidentally drop you on your head or something…if I could even pick you up in the first place.”

  Ryan carried me out to the brightly-lit front porch, where my continued laughter made a few people out for a late evening stroll in the road beyond look up with interest. Chuckling a little himself, Ryan then carried me over the threshold of the doorway and into the house, where Eric was waiting, watching us, with amusement softening his normally stern expression. After Ryan had congratulated me for not hitting my feet on the doorway or even coming close, he dipped his head and planted a tender, semi-lingering kiss against my lips. When he lifted his face from mine, I caught a glimpse of an expression of clear hunger and envy on Eric’s own face, which gave me an idea.

  “So, now I think that Eric should carry me through the doorway and give me a kiss too. I’m not completely up to speed on all traditions around here, but I’m pretty sure that’s the way things are supposed to work when a woman is mated to two shifters. She gets two doorway carry-throughs and two kisses.”

  Eric readily agreed that that was the way things were supposed to work.

  Once he’d carried me through the doorway and had kissed me, I was enjoying the feel of his arms around me so much that I didn’t want him to put me down. “So, do you think you might want to carry me upstairs to my room now?”

  Now, after losing my feelings of nervousness through my laughter, I was definitely feeling a little more open to the idea of kissing and holding than I’d been earlier in the kitchen. As for Eric, I didn’t have to ask him twice to carry me upstairs.

  Once the three of us were in my room, he set me down on my feet and gently pulled me into his arms. “Is it okay if Ryan and I help you out of your beautiful dress before we hold you and kiss you?”

  Surprising me, I realized that now that I was loosened up a little, I wanted nothing more than to be naked with the two of them right then, having them hold me and kiss me.

  I responded to Eric’s question by saying that yes, he and Ryan could help me out of my dress. “On one condition, though…only if I can help you both out of your clothes afterward.”

  With his eyes glinting, Eric said that he liked that idea. Ryan said that he did too. Caressing my bare shoulders, slowly moving the thin straps of my dress down while he did so, Eric suggested that maybe he and Ryan should light some of the candles on my dresser first. Currently, the only light in the room was light filtering in from the hallway through a crack in the door; I realized that I wanted to be able to see Eric and Ryan’s bodies probably just as much as they wanted to see mine, and the golden glow of candles seemed far preferable to the everyday electric lighting in my room, which was fairly bright.

  Not to mention that, still feeling just slightly nervous and self-conscious, I wasn’t sure if I wanted Eric and Ryan to see my body with
that kind of harsh lighting, at least not during our first night together. Maybe brighter lights were something we could ease into in time, I figured.

  Each grabbing a lighter from a small porcelain dish on my dresser, Eric and Ryan set about lighting a row of a half-dozen white pillar candles of various heights across from my bed. While they did this, I just watched them, studying their broad backs and their strong arms with desire starting to simmer low in my belly.

  Once the candles were all lit, filling the room with much brighter light than I’d thought they would, Eric and Ryan returned to me, with Eric reaching me first, which seemed to have been very intentional. To me, it seemed like he’d kind of hustled.

  Since my dress had a zipper in the back, I turned and lifted my long hair so that he could unzip me, surprised when I felt him pull me close, bringing his mouth to the side of my neck. He then began planting a long, slow line of kisses downward, making me sigh at the feel of his warm, firm mouth against my skin.

  While he continued kissing the side of my neck, giving me butterflies in my stomach, Ryan moved around to my other side and began kissing the side of my neck as well; the sensation of two men planting firm, warm kisses along my skin was one of such intense pleasure that I made a noise much closer to a moan than a sigh. I was also enjoying just picturing the scene in my mind, with me in the middle of two muscular, incredibly handsome shifters, the sole focus of their attention.

  After a minute or two, just when I was becoming eager to lose my dress, I felt Eric or Ryan, I wasn’t even sure who, slowly pull my zipper down. Then, Ryan slowly moved around to my front, lifted the hem of my dress, and lifted it over my head, where Eric caught it and pulled it up and off me while I helped by extending my arms.

  Then, there I was, standing in front of my heavily-breathing shifter mates in nothing but a lacy black push-up bra and skimpy black lace underwear. Finding that being partially undressed while they were both still fully dressed was really turning me on, I kind of shivered a bit, despite the fact that the autumn-scented breeze blowing in through the windows was fairly warm.

  After they’d both raked their gazes over my body, with each of them making the faintest low growl sound while they did so, Eric undid the back clasp of my bra, removed it, and tossed it to the side to join the pool of silky red rayon that was my dress. Again, he and Ryan feasted their eyes, seeming to take in every inch of my bare breasts in the soft golden light from the candles. Next, they each had a turn kissing me while holding me close, which made my stiffened nipples rub against their chests, further igniting a dull ache low in my belly.

  Despite the fact that I was starting to really want them to, neither of them actually touched my breasts with their hands. I supposed this was because Eric had told me that they’d just kiss and hold me first, and then see where things led, which was perfectly fine with me. I couldn’t deny that I was really enjoying the slow pace and the anticipation.

  With eyes so wide it was borderline comical, Eric and Ryan took my underwear off together, both slowly pulling down a side to reveal my pussy. They both began breathing a little faster at this point, and I did as well. As much as I still held the faintest trace of nervousness and self-consciousness, I was finding Eric and Ryan’s inspection of my feminine parts to be almost unbearably erotic.

  With every stitch of my clothing now gone, I stepped out of my high heels and pulled Eric and Ryan to their feet by the hands. “Now, it’s my turn to undress you two.”

  They both looked so incredibly eager to join me in being naked that I had to work hard to suppress a laugh.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Finally, my nerves were almost gone. Removing one item of clothing from one man at a time, so that they became progressively undressed at the same rate, I enjoyed the experience even more than I’d been thinking I would. However, maybe enjoyed wasn’t even a strong enough word. I ran my hands over chiseled pecs, arms, and six-pack abs, taking short breaks to kiss my two shifter mates with my hands becoming even a little hungrier still, going south to feel their already-rock-hard erections, both of which felt quite large, which excited me further still.

  After I’d helped each man out of his jeans and even socks, I removed Eric’s blue boxer shorts first, just because it was his “turn” in the undressing. Unable to help myself, I stifled a little gasp when I saw just how sizable his masculine member truly was. Definitely thicker and longer than average, it stood tall, straight, and proud, with its meaty head nearly pointing straight at the ceiling. Not exactly wanting to touch it just yet, just out of fear of causing things to progress too quickly, I pressed my naked body against Eric’s, kissing him, just wanting to feel his hardness against the soft curve of my stomach for the time being.

  By the time I’d relieved Ryan of his boxer-briefs, seeing that his male member was definitely thicker and longer than average too, I realized that my pussy had already become so slick that the excess was even dampening my thighs a bit. My clit was also tingling, intensifying the dull ache low in my belly. Becoming really eager to get my two shifter mates into my extremely large, California king-sized bed now, I led them there by the hand; soon, I was on my back between the two of them, with Ryan on my right and Eric on my left.

  Now suddenly feeling just the slightest bit hesitant or nervous again for some reason, I spied a pump bottle of lotion next to some of my other skin-care items on the nightstand next to Eric, and I had an idea, recalling what Jessie had said about taking things slow. “Do you both think that you might want to give me a little massage with that lotion on the nightstand?”

  Immediately, Eric and Ryan both answered in the affirmative, with both of their voices sounding incredibly husky.

  Pleased that they’d agreed to my request, and also pleased that I was apparently fully in charge of how slow things would go, I curved my lips in a small smile. “Okay, then. You can both give me a nice, slow massage. Maybe we should have a few rules, though, and the rules are that your hands can’t go anywhere that my bra and underwear would normally cover for the first ten minutes. Is that okay?”

  I now realized that along with Eric’s and Ryan’s, my own voice had grown a little bit husky.

  If the two of them had been disappointed by the rules I’d put in place for my massage, neither of them said it or showed it. Ryan just grunted in agreement with my rules, already looking over at the clock on my nightstand to start the ten minutes, which amused me.

  Grabbing the bottle of lotion, Eric said that my rules sounded just fine to him. “However, now that there are rules in place…we all have to stick to them, Ellie. Even you.”

  Not knowing whether to snort or laugh, I made a sound that was kind of a combination of the two. “Well, how do you think I’m going to break my own rules? It’s not like I’m going to be giving my own self the massage.”

  Sitting up, Eric pumped some lotion into one of his palms, then passed the bottle off to Ryan. “Well, you could break your own rules by calling them off, asking us to touch your ‘off-limits’ areas before the time is up. We’re not going to let you do that, though. Rules are rules, after all, and now that they’ve been put in place, every one of us here has to follow them, including you.”

  Fluffing a stack of pillows behind my head, I snort-laughed again. “Trust me; I won’t be trying to break my own rules, and I won’t be asking you or Ryan to break them either.”

  Eric snorted. “We’re not going to let her break the rules, even if she wants to, are we, Ryan?”

  “Hell no, we aren’t. She’s the one who made the rules.”

  Indignant, I scoffed. “Okay, you two. Please just start my massage, if you don’t mind, before I head to the bathroom for a cold shower.”

  Those words kicked them both into high gear. With each of them applying just the right amount of pressure, they started on my shoulders and arms first.

  Running his lotion-slicked hands from my shoulder to my wrist, Ryan leaned over and spoke in a low, husky voice near my ear. “I hope you know how am
azingly gorgeous you are…you naughty girl.”

  Hearing him call me a naughty girl was definitely something I was sure I could get used to. In fact, I wanted to hear him say it again right then.

  “Sorry. I didn’t quite hear that last part, Ryan…the last two words you said. Could you repeat them, please? With your mouth right up close to my ear again.”

  With his vivid green eyes twinkling in the golden glow from the candles, he brought his sensuous mouth to my ear once more. “I said you're a naughty, naughty girl, Ellie.”

  Hearing him say the phrase naughty girl, with an extra naughty no less, combined with my name, had been enough to make me squirm a bit, almost involuntarily, sighing at the same time.

  Still massaging my shoulder and arm while Eric continued to work on my other side, Ryan had apparently noticed my little squirm of pleasure mixed with frustration, because he spoke near my ear yet again. “You can’t hide it…I saw that little squirm you just did. I think you’re starting to realize what a truly naughty girl you really are.”

  He wasn’t kidding that I was a “truly naughty girl.” I’d squirmed again even while he’d been saying what he just had.

  “Go ahead and touch me, Ryan. Please. Just touch me right now.”

  With his eyes twinkling, he scoffed, shaking his head. “Wow. You’re really living up to your ‘naughty girl’ title right now. You’re trying to be a little rule breaker only a minute-and-a-half into your massage.”

  Sure I was frowning, I looked at him. “Well, so what? Let’s just forget about the rules I made. I just want you and Eric to touch me down lower right now.”

  Moving his massaging hands to my upper chest, Ryan glanced over at Eric. “What do you think, man? Should we let her break the rules or not?”

  I turned my face to look at Eric. “Say yes. Just let me.”