Rion’s years spent as Marina’s ghoul had involved many ‘games,’ as she liked to call them. Her favorite though was allowing her ghouls to finally find release through the intense pleasure they all desired so strongly, only to then suddenly turn it into something twisted, demented, and altogether agonizing; as well as mind-breakingly traumatizing.

However, Rion’s years with Daeran had slowly begun to offset that trauma, and help him to begin healing from it, and eventually start moving past it. Or bury it at the very least. Daeran had passed through his adolescence indulging in every kind of pleasure he could find. He had spent the entire last half of his mortal life convinced that he was about to be put in prison, or worse, for things he had no memory of doing. And his extensive wealth allowed him to live every conscious moment to its fullest, while he still could.

Their combined knowledge of all sorts of pleasures was something they had eagerly shared with Claire during all their recent nights of passion. And the result was not only them continuing those nights, frequently, but also allowing Claire to feel pleasure that not only met, but often even surpassed the pleasure she had gotten from physical intimacy back when she was truly alive. Before the pleasure of the Kiss superseded anything that mere lovemaking still caused her to feel.

On that particular night, their encounter had begun to take place upon the lush sofa in the parlor of the Victorian manor she and Eliot had shared briefly before his current absence. After they had undressed one another, Rion took a seat on the sofa, inching forward slightly to allow his feet to brace him. Then he gently guided Claire backwards to take a seat atop his lap, both their gazes watching where Daeran stood nearby, his own eyes watching them each with an eager smile.

Claire gasped slightly as Rion reached down to slide himself inside her, as all of them had already prepared their bodies for such an encounter. With a grin, Rion gestured for Daeran to approach as well, which the younger man did without hesitation. He then moved toward the pair who had already been joined as one, and gently leaned down to kiss first Rion, then Claire, before moving closer still. Daeran moved his hand down to where one of his lovers was already penetrating the other, smiling again as he slid his fingers just barely inside her as well, feeling the overwhelming wetness Claire had called forth in order to experience lovemaking at all.

With another kiss and another smile from Claire, Daeran gently, carefully, began sliding himself inside her to join his other lover who was there already, causing an even louder gasp from her at the sensation. Once the trio began writhing against each other, both men inside her at once, it took mere moments before she was shaking with intense pleasure, which only accelerated the pleasure each man received from her in turn.

When none of them, Claire least of all, could take much more gratification, Daeran finally pulled himself from his shared spot inside her with Rion and fell back onto the sofa next to them. Then Rion lifted her from his own body, gently as he could, setting her back upon the sofa cushion on his other side, where the both of them mirrored Daeran’s motions and each leaned back as well to make any attempt at all to recover from their shared encounter.

After a long moment, Claire made some attempt at speaking again, “That was...” she just shook her head with a wide grin, not even having the energy to form the rest of the sentence just yet.

“Yes, it was,” Daeran agreed with her unfinished thought, the same exhaustion in his voice.

“Agreed,” Rion added, which caused all three of them to simply laugh in response, their consensus obvious.

After several long moments to try and recover, Daeran found his voice again, “So earlier tonight, before this orgasmic haze,” he added wryly, “you said there was something you wanted to discuss with us?”

“How do you even remember that right now?” Claire asked with another small laugh.

“Compartmentalizing, darling,” Rion answered, “he and I are rather practiced at it.”

She sighed softly as she tried to push herself into sitting up straight again, despite how simply moving brought back the sensation of having them both inside her once more.

She allowed herself another moment to try and push back that sensation before having to remind herself of what the question even had been. “It seems kind of...” Though the two men just looked back at her expectantly, their own recovery having taken a bit less time than hers, considering. “I was just thinking about the club. I mean, earlier, when we were there. Obviously, before this,” she added, which caused them each to smirk at the way she always seemed almost bashful when speaking about their encounters, while seeming nothing of the sort during the actual encounters themselves. It was a quality they each found rather endearing about her.

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“And what about it?” Daeran asked, also sitting up straighter, pushing past his amusement at her post-coital shyness.

Claire then seemed to be struggling with how to continue the conversation. “Well, Octavia has been talking about taking a position in another city, and---”

“Who?” Rion and Daeran both asked.

“Sorry, she’s the Ventrue Primogen, and Palmer’s wife,” she added, “and she’s been offered a Princedom elsewhere I believe, and being a Ventrue, there’s no way she won’t take it, and Palmer will likely go with her, so...”

Daeran creased his brow, “I have a feeling we’re missing some important information here.”

Claire just shook her head, obviously flustered by the prospect of what she had wanted to discuss with them. And all three of them now sitting there, wearing nothing but the afterglow of their earlier encounter, was not helping her concentration.

“Just.. one minute.” she then made herself stand, shakily though it was, and pulled her long jacket around her, then moved to retrieve each of the men’s trousers that had been left upon the floor near the sofa, holding them out to each of them.

“So, no round two I assume?” Daeran teased as he and Rion reluctantly took their clothing from her.

Though they gave her questioning looks as they did, the two men did slide back into at least that portion of their clothing before turning their eyes back to her, awaiting the rest of whatever she had been failing to tell them while so obviously distracted by the whole of the evening they had already spent together.

“OK, so Palmer is the guy who’s pretty much been running Raven’s Loft since we started making films together. And now he’s likely leaving Los Angeles with his wife. So...” she sighed again as she looked down, clearly worried about how her companions would react to the news.

“So... you’re going back to running the Loft then?” Rion clarified as the two men managed to keep their expressions blank.

“I’m sorry, I know this is not great timing, and I really, really enjoyed working with both of you... obviously,” she added more to herself, “but the club has been the one thing that I’ve always had, for more years than either of you have even been alive. And I can’t just...” she sighed again, eyes cast down.

“It’s fine, Claire,” Daeran assured after another moment, “I’m sure you’ve had the place for centuries. You can’t just let it die. And, I’m sure finding anyone else you trust with it would be difficult. It’s understandable.”

“You’re really not upset, either of you?” she asked warily as she looked between them nervously.

“Well, we’re not thrilled, surely,” Rion put in as he glanced at Daeran, who didn’t refute the statement, “but we can see why you’d want to make sure that it doesn’t just fall apart after all these years.”

Claire seemed relieved, but then another emotion passed over her face as she thought on their words. “Yes, letting something fall apart after so many years, it would be tragic,” she agreed, though there was a pain in her voice as she turned away to hide that same pain that was now reflected in her eyes just then, as well.

Claire took another moment to compose herself before turning back to her lovers. Though an apologetic smile now graced her lips. She did feel truly guilty about abandoning the production company they had built up in recent years, as well as about leaving behind the successful films that they had created together. But at the same time, she knew that with all the changes the club was now going through, it was something she had to devote her attention to. Well, one of the things she needed to devote her attention to.

“I think I may just go have a shower, and then probably head home,” she told them softly.

“Aren’t you already home?” Daeran replied with a raised brow.

“My other home,” she specified with another downward look before bringing her eyes back up. “But tonight was...”

“Yes, it was,” Daeran repeated with another wry smile as he and Rion grinned back at her again and moved to locate the rest of their clothing.

Claire simply smiled, nodded, then moved in to give each of them a kiss that seemed all too tender, considering their previous activities that very night. She then smiled back at them once more before heading off to have that shower before the sun would rise in just over an hour or so.

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It was shortly before dawn when Sean was preparing to go to bed for the day after yet another long night of his Princely duties. Just as he reached for his pillow, his eyes turned toward his bedroom door in surprise. A moment later, Claire stepped into the room with what almost seemed a shy smile gracing her lips as their eyes met.

“Claire?” he asked, not able to add any more to his greeting just then as his eyes moved over her.

“Hi,” she replied softly, closing the door behind her.

“Is something wrong?” he asked, a slight stammer to his voice as she moved toward the bed.

Claire looked down again, though managed to hold her smile as she answered, “That’s a bit of a loaded question, considering the last... several... years.”

Sean narrowed his eyes at that particular response, forcibly curbing the urge to look into her head just then. “I admit, I didn’t expect to see you, tonight,” he decided on.

Claire looked down again before speaking, “I didn’t expect it either. But, since I’m here, and it is almost dawn...” she began as she glanced toward the long curtains pulled tightly shut over the balcony doors. “Mind if I stay?”

Sean tried to force back a small smile, though didn’t quite succeed as he lifted the cover next to him, “I would never mind.”