So that was how she wanted to play it.
She was huddled around her friends so that we couldn’t get too close. They never left her side. Not once since the moment the three of them showed up at the airport. We assumed her friends had come to see her off until we noticed the luggage. Enough to last them a couple of weeks.
The roaring in my head didn’t dull until I started to rationalize.
They’d have to leave Braxton eventually.
It was going to take us over three months to get through Europe alone, and we’d still have four more continents. Each time Braxton’s gaze found ours during the twelve-hour flight, I wondered if she’d considered that too.
She couldn’t avoid us forever.
And if she wanted us to believe that we didn’t stand a chance, she was sending some crazy mixed messages. She was here for no other reason than because she still cared.
Someone should have warned her that if she gave us an inch, we’d take the whole goddamn mile. Maybe her friends had, and that was why they were here.
The only flaw in their plan was that they couldn’t stay. We all knew it, but no one dared say a word.
By the time we landed in Berlin around noon, we were all tired and jet-lagged, so we headed straight for the hotel. I knew no one would be sleeping, though.
Houston, Loren, and I were plotting, but so were they.
Tomorrow night we took the stage in front of seventy thousand people at the Olympiastadion, so there would be plenty of time for mischief.
“Wow,” Griffin remarked as she looked around the hotel lobby and all its splendor.
“I’ve never stayed in a place this fancy before,” Maeko gushed.
I looked around too as our security escorted the six of us to the elevators, and I tried to see it through the girls’ eyes. You’d think an orphan who grew up with nothing, missed a few meals, and wore holes in his clothes until he was twenty-two would never get used to sitting in the lap of luxury.
It had only been six years.
For the first time, I might have identified with Loren, who never seemed impressed by anything with a high price tag. I thought he was just spoiled, which he was, but there was more to it…and to him.
The truth was life got boring fast.
And without what truly mattered, it was easy to stop caring about it at all.
I glanced at Braxton and tried not to stare too hard at her smile. She was telling her friends about the hotels we’d stayed in, a conversation I was sure they’d already had, but I understood. She needed to keep herself distracted from the inevitable.
Dani, who’d met us at the elevator after checking us in, handed over our keys and told us Xavier would be up to talk to us soon. He’d flown in a couple of days ahead, along with the tour manager and the rest of the crew, to make sure everything ran smoothly. The delay had only lasted two weeks, but our drama had still been a huge inconvenience for too many people.
In the wake of the rumors, everyone had decided to blame Braxton, of course.
I wondered if she was privy to it or if she’d been drowning too much in heartache to notice the scrutiny.
My gut told me neither had escaped her attention. I kept myself from going to her just as Griffin sent me a look to back off. Maybe she’d seen the temptation in my eyes.
As much as I was annoyed by the pitbull, I was just as relieved that Braxton had someone to look out for her after what she’d escaped in Faithful. It was obvious her friends would defend her to their last breath, but so would we.
We just needed Braxton to believe that again.
I just needed her to trust that I would always choose her.
The elevator ride up was awkward as hell. No one spoke until we reached the eleventh floor. The girls got off and immediately turned when we didn’t follow.
“Where are you going?” Braxton questioned with a frown. She’d forgotten that she wasn’t supposed to care.
The doors were already sliding close when Loren answered. “Penthouse, baby!”
Her friends rolled their eyes while Braxton hid her smile when Loren winked at the last second. I immediately turned to him as soon as the doors were closed. We were only one floor above them, so it would be a short ride.
“Are you ready to talk to me yet?” I asked him.
Loren scoffed while his gaze remained forward. “Nope, and I never will be. You’re dead to me, bitch.” When the elevator stopped, and the doors slowly slid open, he was the first one off.
Hearing those words and knowing he meant them…
I felt like I’d been backed into a corner.
So I attacked.
It was a good thing we had the floor to ourselves. We never made it inside the suite before Loren and I hit the ground from the force of me tackling him from behind. I didn’t care about fair when I sucker-punched him or when he managed to flip onto his back, and I immediately wrapped my hands around his neck. He shoved me off, and I hit the wall next to us, knocking a picture frame from the wall before he punched me and split my lip.
I tasted blood, but it only fueled me.
One way or another, Loren was going to heel.
It was the only way he’d hear me out.
Houston knew it too, which was why he disappeared inside the suite instead of breaking up the fight that was getting more violent and bloody with each blow. There wasn’t a spot on me that didn’t hurt when I managed to get Loren’s head locked inside my elbow. Loren was trying to get me over his shoulder, but I held on like my life depended on it.
Without them, I had nothing.
Again.
So I guess it kind of did.
“Are you ready to listen now?” I taunted in his ear.
He answered me by taking a step back and then another before driving me into the wall behind me hard enough to loosen my hold. Loren whirled on me, but I recovered and grabbed him by the collar of his blue polo shirt.
I yanked him into me.
“You’re done ignoring me, Lo. I’m not allowing you another day.”
Loren stared down at me blankly since he was taller than me, and I felt my grip loosening under the intensity of his gaze. He didn’t take advantage of his chance to break free and walk away, though. His hips were still pressed against mine. I was still breathing in every breath he exhaled.
“Not that it will matter,” he eventually said with a curl of his lip, “but fine. Say what you have to say. I need to shower.” When I didn’t speak for several seconds, his brow rose. “I’m listening.”
“I was never going to choose Emily over Braxton. I was never going to choose her over you or Houston. I just needed time to realize that myself, Lo.”
“Why should I believe that? You did it the first time.”
“Marrying Emily was not choosing her over you, Loren. She was my girlfriend. You were my friend.”
“Funny,” he retorted while staring at the wall behind me, “since I recall begging you not to.”
“I thought you were jealous,” I whispered honestly, and he groaned while throwing his head back.
“Seriously?” he spat. “I’ve busted nuts that lasted longer than my feelings for you. It was a crush, Rich, not a confession of love. I didn’t want you to marry Emily because you deserved better, and I didn’t mean me. You know she tried to fuck Houston a week after you were married, right? He slapped the shit out of her and then told her to tell you why he did it.”
I gaped at him in surprise. Sadly, it wasn’t even because Emily tried to fuck my best friend. It was because I was just now hearing about it. “She never told me that.”
“Of course, she didn’t.”
“Why didn’t Houston?” I gripped him tighter when a thought occurred to me and brought him closer. I didn’t recognize the harshness in my voice when I spoke. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because I don’t like repeating myself,” he told me blandly. “I warned you what she was.”
“If you had told me what she tried to do, you wouldn’t have needed to convince Calvin and Emily to sleep together. You wouldn’t have needed to ruin my marriage to get what you wanted.”
Loren sniffed. It was obvious he felt no remorse even after all this time. “I didn’t have to convince them of anything, Jericho. It was going to happen whether I left them alone together or not.”
“Fuck you.”
Loren pressed his forehead against mine and closed his eyes as my grip loosened again. I didn’t like how weak he made me. “Don’t pretend you don’t remember how it was, Rich. I do the fucking, not you.”
“Why did you?” I finally asked.
That night had taken a turn neither of us intended, but we never felt the need to do it again. Our resentment for one another wouldn’t allow for attraction. Obviously, something had changed since I felt my dick getting harder with each word he spoke.
Loren must not have felt the same since he abruptly stood upright and pushed away. “Why not?” he threw at me.
It was all he said before he disappeared inside the suite.
I lingered in the hall, just staring at the floor, my gaze unseeing and my mind blank, before pushing away from the wall and heading inside the suite. I didn’t realize my intention or that I was looking for Loren until I found him.
He was in one of the three bedrooms he’d claimed, pulling his polo over his head. Our bags still hadn’t been brought up yet, and he was too high-maintenance to use anything other than his own shit, so I knew I had time.
“I forgave you,” I snapped at him. “Why can’t you forgive me?”
“Because I did you a fucking favor and because you said it yourself. It’s all or nothing with Brax.” Shirtless, Loren sat on the edge of the king-bed in his jeans and looked at me. “Do you know how it feels to know that I can never make Braxton truly happy without you? Do you know how it feels knowing I can never be truly happy without you? Yeah, you do,” he said before I could answer. “But you were going to leave anyway, so fuck you.”
“He wasn’t going anywhere,” Houston announced after barging inside the room. “A judge was already reviewing his lawyer’s request to grant the divorce before Braxton found those papers. Rich had already made his choice. He chose our girl. He chose us. And he didn’t do it under duress like you or Braxton think. I’d never say this to her because she doesn’t know his past, but you do. Quit whining like you haven’t already forgiven him. Stop pretending you don’t know why he was conflicted. If that was his kid, he wanted him to have two parents. He was willing to walk through hell so that his child wouldn’t walk through life, wondering why he wasn’t enough. Emily was never a fucking factor. I don’t have to tell you this, though, because you already know. Now kiss and make up so we can focus on what matters—winning our girl back. Again.”
Loren stared at Houston, mulling over his words but giving nothing else away before his gaze shot over to me. He kept his expression impassive until he grew bored of watching me sweat and stood.
I forced myself not to start round two of our fight when he calmly disappeared inside the bathroom without a word or indication that we’d gotten through to him.
It was still unclear whether Loren actually forgave me since he was the kind who reveled in doing the opposite of what he was told. He wasn’t shoulder-checking me anymore whenever we were in the same room or glaring at me like my every breath insulted him, so there was that.
The following night, we slipped into Braxton’s suite using the extra key card Dani had procured for us without our girl’s knowledge. We found them inside the dressing room the size of a large bedroom, “So What” by P!nk on blast. They were posing together in front of the tall, three-paneled mirror and were too busy shifting their bodies to find the right angle to notice they were no longer alone.
“Which one of you is the wannabe actor again?” Loren inquired. The three of them screamed and turned around once he made our presence known. “You’d be perfect for the role of ‘girl who dies in the first five minutes.’”
“The correct word you’re looking for is aspiring,” Griffin informed him.
“Oh, I guess that means I’m talking to your girlfriend then?”
It was obvious Loren had called them out when Griffin and Maeko’s eyes nervously darted to Braxton, who unsurprisingly looked unsurprised.
“Is there a reason why you’re in our suite?” Braxton asked with a sigh. She didn’t bother to acknowledge what Loren had just told her.
“Your suite, babe. We didn’t invite them.”
Crossing her arms, Braxton shot back, “I did.”
Loren gave her a subtle smile before sinking his teeth into his bottom lip while he gazed at her lustfully. “Doubt that.”
She wanted to be alone with us too. If we needed to scheme so she could pretend that she had no choice, we were happy to oblige her.
For now.
Eventually, Braxton and her friends would have to come to terms with the fact that we weren’t going to let her go.
“Ready?” Houston asked her when her silence became a little too telling. We had the green light we’d been waiting for. Nothing more needed to be said. I just barely resisted smiling smugly at her friends.
“Yes,” Braxton answered before slowly walking toward us.
I could feel her gaze on me as I admired her long hair pinned up in a ponytail with a few strands framing her face and neck. I didn’t appreciate the white, satin slip dress that looked dangerously like lingerie so much. She wore it with a black leather jacket and her combat boots, but she was testing my fucking patience when I once again questioned if she was even wearing panties. I didn’t like anyone seeing what was mine unless his name was Houston Morrow or Loren James.
Our show was tonight, and then it was off to Hamburg, Cologne, Mannheim, and Munich. No fucking clue if that was the actual order.
When Braxton tried to pass me, I grabbed her hand. She stopped.
“Panties?” I asked when her gaze met mine.
She pulled her hand away with a smile that was soft but devious. “Is that your concern anymore?”
“It never stopped.” I held her gaze so she’d know I was completely serious. “Panties?”
God help her if she made me ask again.
I watched her roll her eyes as she looked away. “Yes, Jericho. Can we go now?”
I don’t know what came over me. I pulled her into me, wrapped my hand around her nape, and…I ruined the black lipstick painting her lips.
She let me.
For a while.
And then she remembered the right was no longer mine.
Braxton pulled away, and I immediately began to relive that kiss. I didn’t know when I’d be able to steal another. It had been too long since I felt her lips. It felt like I’d been trapped inside a drought. With one kiss, she’d brought me back from the brink of death. At least, that was how it seemed.
We made it to the stadium.
We made it through soundcheck.
We made it onto the stage, and I was still thinking about that kiss.
Braxton’s gaze had traveled to mine more than once during the show. She was looking at me now, black lipstick restored, and her gaze wondering what if.
What if I kissed her again?
What if she forgave me?
What if I meant every one of the words she still wouldn’t allow me to say?
I do, baby. I do.
I know you love me too.
After the show, everyone was wired, so Loren suggested we do something we hadn’t done in a while. Celebrate for no fucking reason at all. He made a call, and it was done. The six of us hopped in the black Suburban and drove for thirty minutes.
The club Loren brought us to had one of the strictest door policies ever and was…weirdly obsessed with wearing black? I eyed Braxton’s white dress, and so did the bouncer after we bypassed the long line. Either Loren had the pull, or even the formidable guard with tattoos and hella piercings could spot a rebel masquerading as an angel.
We passed through the graffiti-covered door after having the lens on our phone cameras taped over and entered the industrial building that reminded me of a middle-aged cathedral but concealed one of the most secretive and exclusive clubs in the world.
Above the cavernous ground floor bathed in darkness and dancers, loomed ceilings sixty feet high and supported by concrete pillars. The club had loaned us four of their bouncers since they hadn’t been generous enough to allow us ours. They cleared a path through the stomping, air-punching crowd of fifteen hundred people dressed in little and some in nothing at all. I even spotted what looked like people openly fucking while others danced around them. As the bouncers pushed aside the revelers, the crowd began to push back when they recognized who had passed them.
I was starting to question whether we should be there until Braxton and her friends started dancing. They didn’t stop the entire way up to the DJ’s booth on the platform above the dance floor.
As we continued to the far edge of the balcony and the empty corner cloaked in shadows, Loren broke off from our group to embrace and talk to one of the guys standing at the mixer. He was wearing headphones, so I assumed he was the DJ.
“Let’s go to the bar!” Maeko shouted to her friends. She and Griffin started to go, but as soon as Braxton moved to go with them, Houston pulled her front into his chest and kept her there with his arms around her waist and his gaze fixed on her friends. “Let our friend go, please.”
Houston stared at Maeko before shaking his head at her over Braxton’s shoulder. The bouncers had already left, which meant the four of us were stuck here until we were ready to go. Griffin and Maeko could go anywhere they liked.
With a crowd that size and in that state, it was a risk for anyone just being in the building. For Bound, that danger was tenfold. Braxton was staying right here.
“Let me go, Houston,” she tried to assert anyway.
I laughed quietly, even though the music drowned me out, as I leaned against the wall next to them. Loren was still standing with the DJ and his entourage, talking with everyone like the social butterfly he was. I didn’t miss the furtive glances Houston and Braxton drew our way with their embrace either.
I was sure everyone had heard the rumors by now, and we didn’t care to disprove them. Especially considering that, for once, they were true, and we had no intention of hiding Braxton.
“Promise not to make me cause a scene?”
Braxton glared up at him, and taking that as her answer, Houston held her tighter.
No one remarked on the fact that she didn’t fight him.
Sighing, she turned her head toward her friends while Houston kissed on the side of her neck she exposed as she told them what drink to bring her. The moment Griffin and Maeko were gone, Braxton shoved away from Houston, and he let her with a smile.
“I think it’s time we get shit understood,” she started before she was interrupted by Loren, who’d snuck up behind her. Turning her around, he immediately began tonguing her down.
“Tell us, baby,” he said between hungry kisses. “Put us in our fucking place so we can put you back in yours.”
She pulled away to gawk up at him. “My place?”
As “Spastik” by Plastikman began to play, Loren walked her backward until she was sandwiched with her back against Houston’s chest, and Loren pressed against her front. He cut his gaze toward me when I hesitated for the brief moment it took me to wonder if I should tread carefully with her.
He still didn’t trust me not to bolt.
My divorce had been finalized, and he was still afraid of losing me.
Why the hell did that make me feel guilty?
I thought I was in love with Emily when I married her, and I still believed it when Loren took it upon himself to rip my marriage apart to prove a point. Anger simmered at his audacity. I hadn’t been the only one to hurt my friends, yet he liked to pretend.
I felt the recklessness rise and the need to fuck some shit up.
My gaze fell on Braxton as I moved in to block her only escape.
Perhaps what I truly felt was the desire to take what I wanted and damn the consequences. Forget having patience and waiting for Braxton to forgive me. I could figure it out along the way.
“Any more questions?” Loren inquired once the circle was complete, and we all stared down at her, trapped between us.
Braxton was smaller and shorter, but her brass painted a different picture. She portrayed a woman destined to make men sit up straight whenever she entered a room.
My toes curled from the anticipation of our rebel pushing back after we reminded her who was in charge. She’d demand respect, and then she’d give us no choice but to give her everything she asked for and more.
I was really looking forward to the latter.
“Yes. Which part of we’re over was unclear?” She frowned as if she were genuinely confused. “I’m concerned you don’t seem to be getting it.”
“The part where you agreed to finish the tour to save our asses? The part where you showed up even though you knew what would happen? You came because you were hoping we could convince you to take us back. We will, baby. Just give it time.”
“You’re off base by a mile,” she returned dryly.
Loren’s hands slipped beneath her short dress as he stared at her like nothing was amiss. “Then what’s with the attitude?” His hands moved up and down as he caressed the back of her thighs.
“Because you lied to me?”
Her gaze cut to me and my stomach twisted sharply. Guilt was the reason I was forcing myself to be a spectator to what Braxton still hadn’t realized was unfolding.
“Nah. You said it yourself that you forgave us. You’re upset because we’re taking too long to earn back your trust.” He kissed her tenderly when she looked like she’d sock him. “It’s true,” he whispered as he pecked her again. “You know it is.”
Loren’s hands moved up to her ass at the same time Houston shifted his hold to her arms. As smooth as if he were straightening his tie, Loren tore Braxton’s panties from her and made her gasp. He smoothly snuck them to me, and I stuffed them in my pocket for later.
“What are you—”
“Have you been touching yourself?” Houston interrupted. She shook her head and then immediately rolled her eyes at herself for answering. “Good girl. Tonight, we take care of your pussy. Tomorrow, we see about your heart.”
“Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” she muttered bitterly.
Loren’s lips quirked. “One’s not as stubborn as the other, but rest assured, baby fawn, we’ll have them both.”
“Someone will see,” she pleaded in a last bid to come to her senses. It was too late, though. She’d already given in.
“See what?” he pretended not to know even as he unbuckled his belt.
“You fucking me.”
Houston lifted her leg from behind, opening her up for Loren, who was now freeing his dick. “Let them see,” Loren whispered as he stroked himself. “Let this happen like we know you will, and we can be done before your friends return.” He brought himself to her entrance, and she whimpered from the pleasure when he began pushing inside. I avidly watched every inch he filled her with. “We can be your dirty little secret,” he promised as he reached the hilt and began pumping his hips. “Would you like that?”
All she could manage were a few broken sounds.
This close, I could hear over the music how wet Braxton was as Loren moved inside her. There had been no foreplay, no precedent to this moment. There was only the need building inside of us all in the month since we last had her.
Groaning, Loren sped up.
“Make no mistake,” Houston said to Braxton as Loren fucked her silly against him. He held her still for our best friend’s enjoyment, and Braxton loved every second of it. “We’re not going to stop, we’re not going away, and we’re never giving up. You’re Bound. That can never be broken.”
“Houston.”
The sound of his name on her lips and Loren’s groan as she came around him seemed to break Houston’s control. “Shit,” he said to Loren as he released Braxton’s neck and forced his hand between them to undo his jeans. “Speed this up. I can’t wait.”
Bracing his forearm on the wall next to Houston’s head, Loren sped up his thrusts, pounding inside Braxton with no remorse and making their skin slap as she cried out without any thought of keeping her voice down.
“Basiel” by Amelie Lens drowned them out, but the three of us could hear loud and clear along with the small group surrounding the DJ at the booth just fifty feet away.
They couldn’t see, but they could hear the remnants of her cries. Even though it was just another night for them and no one bothered to look our way, I made sure my body blocked Braxton and what we were up to as I looked on.
My dick was as hard as a brick, while my gaze couldn’t decide where to settle. I watched Braxton’s tits bounce under the low cut of her dress since she’d once again gone without a bra. I watched the muscles in Loren’s naked ass flex as he pumped inside her. I even watched and listened as Houston whispered dirty threats in her ear. I knew he’d make good on every one of them once Loren was through.
“Today, Lo.”
With three more hard pumps and a grunt as he came, Loren obliged Houston without argument. He stayed inside her a few seconds longer, kissing her lips and whispering how much he loved her in between before pulling away.
Braxton didn’t react as he knew she wouldn’t.
I could see the frustration in Loren’s eyes as he fixed his clothes, but he said nothing.
Houston had already turned Braxton around and stolen her attention. He shed her leather jacket, letting it fall to the ground. The thin straps of her dress were next. Houston slipped them off her shoulders and let her dress fall, too, baring her completely as if we weren’t in the middle of a fucking club.
“Houston,” I scolded, unable to hide my apprehension.
Had we gone too far?
Ignoring me, Houston gripped Braxton’s breasts in both of his palms, and together, they moved deeper into the shadows until they were completely shrouded as they kissed.
Not even I could see what they were doing.
I knew the moment he began fucking her, though.
As Loren casually leaned against the wall, I drank in every one of Braxton’s incoherent cries and Houston’s harsh grunts as he fucked her like it was their last time. He rode her hard, and she took everything he gave.
It seemed to go on forever, and at the same time, not long enough.
“Oh, Houston,” she told him.
“Fuck, Braxton,” he told her.
Their choked gasps were the last thing Loren and I heard before it stopped. It was a couple more minutes before Houston led Braxton back out of the shadows with a hand on her waist as he kept her upright and steady. Her hair had fallen from her ponytail, and she was already bearing the marks from their attention. I don’t know how she expected to hide what she’d done from her friends, but our mission was accomplished.
I could see our victory building in her eyes.
The capitulation.
Her inevitable surrender.
And my permanent undoing.
Almost there.
Loren turned to me and lifted a brow.
“You don’t want a turn?” he asked as he lazily chewed a stick of gum.
I saw Braxton shiver at his tone and his question. She only liked being treated like our possession when her clothes were off and her inhibitions were down. If he’d tried it any other time, he’d be on the ground holding his balls.
My throat bobbed as I swallowed the desire that made my mouth water. “Not this time,” I whispered as I reached out and brushed her naked nipple with my thumb. “I think we need to have that talk first, right?”
I took my gaze off her breasts for the beauty of her brown eyes.
Braxton nodded eagerly, and I could see her gratitude for my restraint. She wasn’t strong enough to turn me down right now, and I didn’t want her hating herself in the morning. Regret was not what I needed her to feel whenever she thought of me.
I thought about our kiss earlier, and she must have thought of it too.
Rising on her tiptoes, Braxton planted one on my cheek. “Thank you for understanding,” she whispered before settling on her heels again.
I simply nodded as I looked away so she wouldn’t see my hidden thoughts.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
