For Love of a Mortal by Alysha Ellis

Heat Rating: Bonfire

Content Warnings: m/f/m menage

Betrayed by love, passion is their salvation.

Maddie blinked, shook her head, closed her eyes and counted to fifteen. If she concentrated really hard, got her mind under control, she might to be able to overcome the effects of whatever drug was giving her this hallucination.

Or maybe not. When she opened her eyes again, the men were still there. One of her hallucinations, the taller and more muscular of the two, pushed himself away from the tree, tossed his long, straight, black hair over his shoulder and stalked towards her.

His companion moved with him. His angelic blond curls and gentle smile made him look like a cherub, but the muscles rippling down his abdomen and his long legs belonged to a full grown man.

The two men split and paced out a circle around Maddie, spiralling inwards, tighter and tighter, hemming her in, surrounding her. The deliberation with which they moved made the hairs on Maddie's arms rise. The force of potent masculinity held her feet locked to the ground.

She tried to keep her eyes on them, but they took up positions opposite each other. No matter how much she turned, no matter how fast she flashed her head from side to side, one of them always remained out of sight.

And whichever one she couldn't see moved closer. And closer. Until both of them were close enough to touchóthe blond behind her, the taller dark-haired man ahead of her, both naked chests inches from her, enclosing her, front and back. The heat of their skin radiated out onto her chilled body. They perfumed the warm air with the intense musk of man, of power and some concentrated essence of flowers and honey and exotic spices.

In spite of the heat, her skin rippled and chilled as she eyed the menacing figure looming over her.

Dark brows formed a fierce, straight line over black eyes that burned with an inner fire. Carved lips mirrored the line of his brows. Two brush strokes of red painted his high, chiselled cheek-bones.

Maddie's spine tingled. A light, soft voice spoke from behind her, and she swung around, the short sleeves of her shirt brushing against bare, male skin. The cherub smiled, a bright, engaging grin. "Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter who she is, she does not belong here." The voice, like its owner, was dark, and Maddie's shivers grew into a field of goose-bumps.