Embraced By Passion by Diana DeRicci

wanting, the need , never went away, a low simmer underneath his skin. It wouldn’t take much to make that need become a roiling inferno for her, for them.
    He resisted the urge to tap his leg, nervous and impatient energy beating at him now. “ When are we going to tell her?” Ja’Rol wasn’t stupid. He knew Slone craved their completion as much as Ja’Rol did, but as of yet, there’d been no mention of filling that final gap in their relationship.
    The one that was necessary to keep her, the one that would infuse her with their magic, their souls. And give them a piece of hers to keep and cherish.
    “Soon. Today was for her, and for Traci. You saw what it meant to them both.”
    Ja’Rol wasn’t denying that. But a nugget of fear had insidiously dug into him when she’d been gone for hours with her mother that afternoon.
    “I’m buying her a cell phone,” Ja’Rol informed Slone.
    “Patience, lover. In that, she is right. She is still coming to terms with what we are offering. Don’t you feel her when she has doubts?”
    Ja’Rol looked to Slone, then away. “ Of course I do. She has many doubts, and they are groundless.”
    “Were they groundless when you met me?” Slone prodded gently.
    Ja’Rol swiveled back to meet Slone’s unique gaze. “ When I… Because you are male?”
    Slone nodded. “ I’m more than a century older than you. I have seen a thing or two, and I knew you weren’t expecting this to happen between us.”
    Ja’Rol caught the hiss of his exasperation behind his teeth. No, he hadn’t been expecting to bond with a male. He was the last child of his parents and though they had seen him to maturity, they passed when he was young, at least young in wyvern terms.
    “In truth, I never expected to mate with Inara, or love her the way I did, but she taught me you can’t fight fate, and this love, is beyond our control.”
    Ja’Rol offered his open compassion. “You don’t talk about her very much.”
    “She was a wonderful woman, whose time came before any of us had expected. I knew she was centuries older than myself. I didn’t understand what that meant to us until she was gone, though.”
    Slone stopped and looked out onto the street, his expression blank, his thoughts locked away and inward. It was one of the rare instances where Slone wasn’t readily open, and out of respect, Ja’Rol wouldn’t push.
    Ja’Rol’s head sagged a fraction. “ So, patience?” Though he hated it. He didn’t want to lose the woman they both had grown to love.
    “Just a little longer. We asked her to learn to trust us, to know us. We have to give her that chance. And yes, I love her too. I love you both.”
    “I love you too,” Ja’Rol easily replied. “ And I would be a fool to not love her as much.” Smirking in a self-deprecating manner, he finished with, “ I am no fool.”
    Slone’s mouth curved and devilment lit his eyes. In that moment, Ja’Rol wanted to kiss him badly, but both men were disciplined, at least enough to not attack each other in the back of a horse-drawn carriage. The promises in Slone’s eyes said he would be expecting that kiss, and more.
    After dinner, Traci and Gene asked if they could have the carriage drive them on a tour.
    “Go have fun,” Slone told them, offering the guiltless chance to escape. After kisses and hugs and promises to be in contact before anyone left for home, Traci and Gene disappeared with their guide for the evening.
    “She is so happy,” Brigit breathed, a quiet yearning in the words. Ja’Rol wanted to fill that yearning with everything she could ever want, with all the love the two men could share with her.
    “Are you tired?” Slone asked her.
    “No, though I think dinner did slow me down. That was incredible seafood, whoever thought of it.”
    “That would be Ja’Rol,” Slone explained with a chuckle to match the gleam of laughter in his eyes. “He picks the best blindfolded.”
    “Well, he’s convinced me,” she