I flinched at his roar and stepped backwards until I hit the vanity. But there was no stopping Nick, not when his gaze was riveted on my stomach. He stepped into the bathroom. “They…they tattooed you…’ He jerked his gaze to mine, his eyes iridescent with rage. “Like goddamn property?”
I dropped my other hand, hiding my shame. Tears came, slow and thick, sliding down my cheeks as a wounded sound tore from the back of my throat. That’s all I was to them. Someone they could own, like I was nothing.
The sound of thunderous footfalls neared, tearing through the bedroom before Tobias was there in the doorway behind his brother.
That merciless stare slowly slid down my body…until he stopped. “Drop your hands, Ryth,” he demanded.
I shook my head, my hands trembling in front of me.
Nick stepped closer, trying to take the cruel edge off his tone. “Show us.”
I shook my head again, my tears blurring their faces. “No.”
“Princess,” Nick urged, stepping closer until he stopped right in front of me. His hands were so gentle, pushing mine to the side. “Let us see.”
I couldn’t look at them, not when they saw my body no longer belonged to them. It was ruined…no, I was ruined. I turned my head, my body trembling with the weight of their stares.
“What the fuck is that?” Tobias snarled.
“H and O,” Nick answered, his curled finger finding my chin. “For Hale Order, I expect.”
“Those motherfuckers.” Tobias forced the words through clenched teeth. “Those goddamn motherfucking bastards. They hurt you. They fucking hurt you and they’re going to pay for that. I swear on my fucking life, princess, they’re gonna pay.”
“It doesn’t matter.” My words were painful.
“Yes, it fucking does.” Nick held my gaze, and it swallowed me in his sadness. “I’ll get the tattoo removed. Whatever the cost, princess. I’ll get it removed, okay?”
He was desperate for me to know that, as though somehow the memories would disappear with the ink. But they wouldn’t…they never would. Tobias stepped closer, sliding his hand underneath Nick’s and turned my head. “Never again, you hear me? Never a-fucking-gain will they lay their hands on you.”
His voice was husky and needy as his mouth inched closer to mine. I closed my eyes, knowing what was coming but still unable to stop it from happening.
He kissed me…slow, hard, all teeth and lips and tongue, until I broke away and winced. “I don’t need your pity, Tobias.”
He reached up, grabbed my hand and pulled it lower until I cupped his erection. “This feels like pity to you, little mouse?” He’d always been savage and demanding, always the hard edge to the Banks’s blade, cutting away my resolve.
“You tell us to back off and we will, Ryth,” Nick reassured me. “You want space? We’ll give you space. But if you want us to show you how much we missed you and how this fucking mark or anything else that happened to you in that place means fucking nothing to us, then we want to do that, too.”
Tobias’ hand splayed out over mine. There was no force there anymore. No demands…just the warmth of his hand on mine. They wanted to fuck me…wanted to make me forget everything else existed.
“You belong to us, princess,” Nick urged.
Tobias’ dark eyes sparked. “And we belong to you.”
My hand pressed against his erection…this male who’d fought, who’d bled…who’d raged—for me.
Hands all over my body. My face pushed against the wall. The memory of that room pushed to the surface and shame followed. I wanted to tell them what they’d done to me.
Ryth is new. The Principal’s words surfaced. She doesn’t yet understand.
But she will, won’t she? Revulsion rose as that man’s voice returned. The man who’d come with Caleb…the one he’d let put his hands all over me. I tried to shove the memory aside. “They…” Movement drew my gaze toward the doorway of the bathroom.
Caleb stepped across Nick’s room, stopping on the other side of the doorway. Anger punched to the surface, turning icy and terrifying. You fucking bastard! I wanted to lunge across the room and scream at him. There was no escaping what had happened in that place, because everything we had now was stained with the memory. To cut that out meant to ruin us.
And I hated him for that.
An ache flared through my chest, forcing me to shove the pain away.
“Fuck that place,” I snarled, but my stare said something else. I turned into Tobias, cupping my hand harder against him. And fuck you, Caleb.
“That’s my girl,” Tobias murmured.
I held Caleb’s stare as Tobias slid his hand along my ribs and cupped my breast. I wanted to hurt Caleb more than I wanted anything else. His stare was so fucking cold as he watched us.
“Christ, I missed this.” Tobias licked my nipple, drawing my gaze. He lifted his head. “I fucking missed you.”
I slid my fingers through his hair, driving his mouth back down. He obeyed…Christ, he obeyed, kneading my breast as he took it into his mouth and slipped his other hand between my legs, dragging his finger along my slit before plunging in.
“Oh.” I rolled my head backwards, meeting Nick’s mouth.
The memory of them returned. Lips and tongues sliding in my pussy and my mouth. Desire bloomed inside me, pulling me back to them…to this. Nick broke away to drag his shirt over his head. “To the bed, T.”
But I froze, my gaze fixed on the large bandage, then I met his stare. “Wait, we can’t.”
Tobias lifted his gaze, his brow furrowed. “What?”
I shook my head. “You’re hurt, Nick.”
“You think that’d stop him?” Tobias chuckled. “The man escaped the hospital after fucking surgery…to find you.”
My breath caught. “You did?”
“I did,” Nick acknowledged as he shoved his sweats lower. His cock sprang against the waistband of his pants. “And I’d do it again, in a heartbeat.” He sank to the bed and laid flat on his back. “Now, you gonna make me fucking wait, princess…or you gonna let me give you what you crave?”
Caleb was cold as stone as he stepped backwards away from the bed. But he never left, not even when Nick patted the bed beside him. “We still have to be careful. So, backwards, princess.”
Backwards? To take my weight from his body, of course. I nodded, lifted my leg and straddled his hips, making sure I stayed away from his wound.
“Higher,” he urged.
I shuffled back, moving up to his stomach. He wanted to touch…
“Higher.”
I glanced at Tobias as he watched, his bemused smirk alien with those dark, dangerous eyes. I shuffled backwards again, moving to Nick’s chest. He pressed one hand to his wound and the other slid under my thigh. His fingers stroked me. I stilled. My hands braced on either side of his body as I trembled.
Callused fingers plunged into my heat. I closed my eyes, fighting the urge to rock against him.
“Higher.”
I opened my eyes and my feet slid over the pillow as I shifted back once more.
“Now fucking sit.”
A charge of adrenaline tore through me. I shook my head, looking down. I hovered over him…open, exposed. He could see everything. Tobias was breathing hard. Caleb’s dark gaze was riveted as I lowered my body on my stepbrother’s face.
His tongue slid along my crease and, Jesus, I was back there, floating the way only Nick could make me feel. His hand went to my thigh, then my hip. That high hand drove me down until there was nothing but the warmth of his mouth.
“Ride him, little sister. Just like you did the night of the wedding,” Tobias growled.
I leaned forward and fisted the sheets, but instead of rising up, I rocked. His tongue dove inside, only to find my clit…over and over. I wanted more…more. His cock throbbed in my line of sight, the head beaded with a tiny, single tear. Such a beautiful waste. I reached up and fisted his length, and Nick moaned under my pussy.
“Fuck me, that’s the way, little mouse,” Tobias urged, his own hand diving inside the waistband of his pants. “Suck him.”
I opened my mouth and leaned down, sliding my tongue around the bright red head of Nick’s cock. A growl from him reverberated along his tongue, sending the vibration against my core. I unleashed a moan of my own, grinding against him as that heavy tension built. I closed my eyes, sliding his cock along my tongue as I clenched tighter and sucked.
Nick’s hips jutted off the bed. “Oh, fuck…do that again,” he moaned, pulling me higher to suck my clit.
I did, taking even more of him as I licked and sucked, my focus torn between the plunging of his tongue and my own desperate need to make him come in my mouth.
It was a race.
An agonizing, animalistic race. I was going to come…I was going to—
I sucked and fisted as the climax hit me, making me drive down until I smothered him. I wanted to come in his mouth, wanted him to suck and swallow me. He did, unleashing a growl. His cock twitched, that thick vein pulsing as warmth splashed the back of my throat.
Deeper, more. I sucked, swallowing the salty taste as my body shuddered with release. I rose as he softened, lifting to his heavy breaths.
“Jesus Christ, princess,” Tobias groaned.
I panted and lifted my gaze, seeing his cock in his hand. My movements were slow as I lifted my leg over Nick and turned to kneel on all fours. “Tobias,” I ordered. “Fuck me…hard.”
I leaned down, tasting my own desire on Nick’s lips. He smiled and reached up to cup the back of my head as the bed dipped behind me. I wanted them…I wanted this. My body used the way I needed it to be used, but by them, my stepbrothers.
Tobias’ big hand slid over my ass, then along my back, before he shoved, driving my face into the mattress. He pushed one knee between my legs and gently shoved, splaying my knees wider. One hard thrust, and he was inside, driving all the way to the hilt. I whimpered as that howl inside me screamed, yes!
“This the way you want it, little mouse?” Tobias thrust again, the slick sound of our bodies colliding loud in the air.
“Harder,” I demanded.
The pressure eased on my back. He reached under my arm, his hand sliding over my breasts until he gripped my neck and lifted me. Nick stared at us, his eyes widening as his brother lowered his head to growl in my ear. “You remember I love you, right?”
The thrust of his cock had me whimpering. “Yes.”
“Good. ‘Cause I’m about to fuck you like I don’t.”
His hand gripped tighter, the pressure sending panic shooting through me as he punished me with his hunger. But I could still suck in air. His own breaths were heavy and hot against my ear. “Jesus, Ryth,” he growled. “You. Will. Be. The. Ruin. Of. Me.”
I fumbled to hold on, gripping his arm as he forced my knees even wider, until I had no balance. He became my support, his cock driving deep as he fucked me hard.
He was savage.
The way only Tobias could be savage.
Mine, his hand around my throat screamed. I whimpered as my body took over.
“I would kill the fucking world for you,” he snarled.
I stared into Nick’s gaze, watching panic spark inside him, and in that moment, I knew the truth—Tobias would, and he’d still rage after it. The thought of that drove me even closer. His brutal hold around my throat, his ruthless thrusts. Both sent me over the edge. I reached my arm around behind him, pulling him even harder against me as I groaned, climaxing hard.
His hold eased instantly, moving to my hips as he thrust one more time and let out a guttural moan. My body couldn’t hold my weight, not anymore. I collapsed, crashing to the bed beside Nick. Spent. Safe.
Hard breaths consumed me as I slowly lifted my gaze to the spot where Caleb was.
But he was gone.
Pain moved through me as the word rose good.
I knew I didn’t mean it. As much as I wanted it to be true. Tobias collapsed beside me. “You okay, princess?”
I nodded and reached for him, pulling his body hard against me as I curled up against Nick’s side and closed my eyes, whispering, “Now I am.”
