toward him. “I’m not getting near you.”
“Just take my hand,” Russell said, stretching until his shoulder was pressed to the bars. “I need to feel you.”
What was it about the smooth, rich lilt of his voice? It slid through her toughest attempt at resistance, warming her insides like the homemade wine served at her wedding. It intoxicated her just as fast, too, until her head felt too light and fuzzy to think properly. “Stop that,” she said.
Russell blinked. “Stop what?”
“Stop using your magic on me. I can feel the pull of it. Put your hand down.”
His arm lowered, but the smile he flashed at her cast a stronger spell than his outstretched fingers. “I’m no magician, sweetheart. The only magic I’ve got in me is the magic I don’t want.”
She glanced at him, her nerves twisting in complicated spirals when she met his eyes. “Well, you’re doing something to try and compel me to come to you. Don’t try to deny it. I’ve grown up around magic my entire life.”
“That’s no spell at work. It’s just fate pullin’ you into my arms. You know that’s where you belong.”
“No.” She clutched her elbows tight. “You’re just trying to get me within reach so you can threaten me, use me as leverage for getting out of here.”
“Use you as leverage?” Drew asked in a mock-surprised tone. “Now, that sounds like a right dirty, low-down trick. Like somethin’ a naughty Gypsy might pull on her mate.”
She flashed him a look, and Russell grunted. “But her mate might forgive her,” he said, “if she let him hold her hand while he and his alpha finish their business.”
Drew gave her a lopsided, but no less dangerous, grin. “What do you say, beauty? Make up for lockin’ us in here by bringin’ your erotic scent closer. Let Russell stroke that silken skin while I make him come.”
Her heart skipped two beats at the fire in his eyes, but she curled her lip. “I would never be part of that. I won’t even watch you do such a sordid thing.”
“Oh, you’ll watch.” Drew let the hand closest to her wander over the curve of Russell’s ass, and something began to hum low in her pelvis. “You won’t be able to help yourself. You’ll stare while your mate gets claimed by his alpha—and wish to God you were on the other side of these bars.”
His hips pulled slowly away from Russell, and both men’s eyes fluttered. From where she was standing she couldn’t see Drew’s cock, but she knew it was rigid, like the one that was red and throbbing beneath Russell. He eased out of Russell’s hole, and a quick thrust shoved his hips back against Russell’s ass. His motions were hard enough for her to see Russell’s balls bouncing beneath him. Russell’s unrelenting gaze finally released her as Drew’s motions appeared to sweep him off to somewhere distant. Somewhere Talaitha could not go.
Drew was right about one thing. Despite the inner voice whispering for her to run away, she couldn’t stop watching. She was mesmerized by the sleek, glistening lines of their male bodies as they rocked in a passion she’d never before witnessed. Drew’s seduction and claiming of Russell thoroughly separated her from them while at the same time drawing her in. She couldn’t decide whether she felt shut out of their bond, or if she was an inexplicable part of it.
Drew’s thrusts grew harder and more desperate as his eyes squeezed shut and sweat trickled down his neck. He was beautiful. There was no doubt about that. So was Russell, his hair hanging long over the face contorted in what might have been misconstrued as pain if she didn’t know better.
“I ache for her,” Russell said in a gruff, throaty tone, challenging her opinion about his discomfort.
Drew shot her a smoldering glance. “Then buck this hot ass against me harder, and I’ll help you do somethin’ about it when I’m finished.”
Talaitha’s fingers dug into her palms as Russell began rocking back on his hands,