“Dibs on first shower,” Tobias demanded the moment I stepped inside the room.
He grabbed me around the waist, lifted me into the air, and placed me gently out of his way.
Just like that, he was back to the same old obnoxious Tobias.
Not even a gunfight and the fact we were running for our lives had changed him. He flicked on the light in the bathroom as I unloaded the bags of toiletries from the truck stop. When I looked up, Caleb waited for me in the connecting doorway and gave a raised brow at T as the bathroom door closed with a thud.
“I bet he never even asked you,” C said as he shook his head.
“I did!” T called out. “I called first dibs.”
“That’s not really asking now, is it?” C shot back. “Want to use ours?”
“God, yes,” I sighed gratefully. “I’m about to burst.”
Caleb moved out of the way as Nick carried the rest of our things into their room and closed the door. He glanced my way as I hurried into their bathroom, switched on the light and closed the door.
“I’ll go and see about finding us some food,” Nick murmured behind the door.
I dropped my jeans and sat on the toilet, listening to their voices grow hushed as hard, racking shudders shook me. Tears followed, tears that still stung no matter how many gas stations I’d washed my face in. Tears that seemed to never stop coming.
I tried to focus on peeing, but it seemed my body was set on expelling my moisture through my eyes. I closed my eyes, sighed with the relief. By the time I’d washed my hands and stepped out, Caleb had cracked open a bottle of electrolytes and had it sitting on the small table in front of him.
“Drink,” he commanded. “Your body needs to hydrate.”
I didn’t fight. I was tired of fighting, so I just strode to the table as he sat on the chair with his legs crossed and watched me grab the drink. The hiss of the shower sounded in our bathroom. I drank while Caleb watched me.
“Want to talk about what happened?”
My pulse thundered at the thought. Screams waited. Screams, and Viv’s haunted stare. Be careful. Gunshots followed and Tobias’s desperation as I’d almost…as I’d almost…as I’d almost. My hands started to shake, sloshing the drink in the bottle. “I’d rather fuck. Can we do that?” I jerked my gaze to his. “Can we please do that instead?”
He rose from the chair, sleek and soundless, and stepped closer to caress my cheek. “If that’s what you want.”
I nodded and tore my shirt over my head even as my hands shook. “I don’t want to think.” I stilled, staring at him. “Please, Caleb, please help me not to think.”
He came closer, grabbed the shirt from my hand, and dropped it to the floor before he pulled me against him. “I can do that, princess. I can do that for now. But promise me one thing.” He pulled back, searching my gaze with his. “Don’t use sex with us to shut yourself away. Feel it, feel everything, the hate and the loss and the suffering. Because that’s what keeps you here with us. That’s what keeps you the beautiful, caring, perfect sister we know.”
“Because we cannot lose you, too,” Tobias murmured as he stood in the doorway between our rooms wearing nothing but a towel.
Caleb’s thumb stroked my back, then hooked my bra strap as Tobias came closer. I tracked his movement from the corner of my eye, until he gently captured my chin, turning my mouth to his. “You’re gonna get me filthy again, aren’t you, little mouse?” he murmured next to my lips.
God, yes…
The motel room door opened then closed as Tobias kissed me.
“Figured we’d all be hun—” Nick started and stopped. I broke the kiss and turned my head to watch him as he set a plastic bag filled with fast food on the small table and finished with a mutter, “—gry.”
The food was forgotten as Nick stepped away from the table, kicked off his boots, and dragged his shirt over his head. There were no words needed. We all needed this. Clothes were flung all over as we climbed onto the bed.
Nick slid his hand along my arm, staring into my eyes. “Christ, I never thought we’d—”
I hushed him, crawled forward to kiss the words from his mouth, then speared my fingers through his hair. I climbed on top of him and reached for the button of his jeans as Caleb tugged my boots off and peeled my socks from my feet.
“No more talking,” I whispered, arching my back as Caleb cupped my breasts. “No more thinking, no more fighting. Just this…” Nick rose from the pillow, gripped my waist, and licked my nipple.
I closed my eyes, shuddering at the feel of his mouth…I never thought we’d…the words rose and I pushed them away, smothering them with the feel of Nick’s beautiful mouth. “God, I want this,” I groaned as I opened my eyes to look down. He looked up and our gazes collided.
“As do we, princess.” Caleb brushed my hair to the side and kissed my neck. “Forever.”
I shuddered at the word…forever.
Nick pushed my jeans low. “Tell us how you want it, baby,” he growled, then shifted his gaze to Caleb.
“However you need it.” Caleb gripped the back of my neck and turned my gaze to his. “We want you to take from us.”
“All of us.” Tobias tugged the towel from around his waist, leaving it to drop on the floor. “For as long as you need it.”
I did, rising up to kiss Caleb. I shoved my jeans and my panties all the way down, and eased Nick’s cock inside, riding him nice and slow while I stared into Caleb’s dark eyes. I drank his darkness down, swallowed it whole as Nick held me steady against him and kissed my breasts.
This was more than sex tonight, more than desire.
This was the kind of comfort I could only find with them.
The three of them.
I rolled my hips, giving in to the feel of Nick as he stretched me. Caleb’s stare didn’t waver, searching my eyes until Tobias’ gentle lips came at my other shoulder. Then I closed my eyes and lifted my hand, finding the raspy hairs on his cheek, and let the feeling of them take over as Nick grunted, wound his arm tighter around my waist, and picked up the pace.
My bruised, beaten body jolted with his thrusts.
“Oh, fuck,” Nick growled, driving me down against him as he bucked his hips. I opened my eyes, found his, and that connection howled louder than any scream inside my head. “Princess,” he groaned, then gave one hard thrust…and came.
I kept rocking, desperately needing the feel of him, but he shifted his body and rolled me over to lie against the pillow, then he slipped free. Caleb lowered his head and kissed my hip, then lifted and worked his way upwards, settling between my thighs. I moaned as he entered me, thrusting harder, taking more.
They would run with me…
All three of them would run, forever if it meant we’d be together.
My heart thundered with the thought of that, swelling and rising as Caleb gripped my hips, then leaned over, braced himself on either side of me, and thrust hard. I gripped his body as my own climax approached. My breaths turned hard, fast, and jagged.
“Jesus…Ryth,” Caleb groaned against my ear. “I can’t…”
I wrapped my legs around his waist and stared into his eyes. There was a spark of fear before that connection took hold. Then all I saw was the love he had for me. The things he’d done, the risks he’d taken, the battle that had scared him just like they’d scared me. His cock drove harder, deeper, as that utter devotion in his stare took hold.
Until he stopped, and his cock twitched inside me as he dropped his head and gave a low, guttural groan against my ear as he came. I sucked in hard breaths, lying there as he slowly pulled away, kissing me on the lips before he slid from the bed.
I lay there, hard pants consuming me…
But I wasn’t done.
I wasn’t anywhere near done.
The bed dipped, making me lift my head from the pillow.
“Little mouse,” Tobias growled.
I lifted my head to him, to the man who’d started this all.
They’d thought it was me who’d crash landed in their world. But it wasn’t. I was a ghost on their doorstep. I was no one. I knew that now. Knew it by the remnant of my mother’s slap on my cheek and by that emptiness that had always engulfed me. I was nothing more than an empty shell when I came into their lives.
They were the ones who had filled me.
They were the ones who’d made me whole.
And it had all started with Tobias.
I rose from the bed, my body aching and throbbing with the need for release. Tobias dragged his gaze along my body and reached out, finding the slick between my legs. “Still needy, little mouse?”
“Always, when it comes to you.”
There was a second when the charged energy crackled in the room, then we both lunged and collided. He gripped me hard, then turned, throwing me sideways against the bed.
“Mine.” He shoved my thighs wide, winced with a pang of pain as he shifted his weight, and slammed his cock inside. “Ours.”
I gripped his shoulders as he thrust. He wasn’t gentle, taking me savagely. It was just what I needed. My climax was brutal and raw, taking me by surprise. I clenched my jaw and bared my teeth and, as I came, the bastard grinned.
“That’s the way, little sister,” he grunted as I moaned and shuddered. “That’s the fucking way.”
I gasped and clawed at him, pulling him down on top of me. “You. Fucking. Love. Me.”
He lifted his head, those intense brown eyes filled with all the answer I needed. “More than anything else in this world.”
He gripped my wrists, slid them over my head, and owned me…
Body.
Mind.
Soul.
