THE TEST: Secret Society Dark Romance (4Horsemen Series Book 1)

by Elena Monroe

  “You wanted me to be myself…” I joked with her when my hand lined my tip up to her cheeks and pushed myself to disappear between them. Pushing my chest to her back completely I caught her ear, whispering, “Relax… Hurting you doesn’t fix me.”

  Gripping her hips, I sunk deeper inside of her and choked back a moan that wanted nothing more than to echo throughout the entire office.

  “Then what does?” She was being cheeky with my dick in a sensitive spot that I had only experienced very seldomly.

  Wrapping my hand around her bouncy ponytail, I coaxed her head back, enough for me to press my tongue to her skin and lick her. “You. You heal me enough to make me forget there’s broken pieces rattling around in me.”

  “Ahh, Vic… slower…” Her voice shook, and her lashes clamping tightly told me she was a virgin back here and she still let me take it. She would give me anything if I nodded in agreement that it might heal me.

  Reaching between her legs, I shoved my hand against her sex and found her swollen clit quickly. The tension in her stance melted as I massaged her wetness into herself as her body practically stood upright against my body as I thrusted myself into her still.

  “Why would you let me take you there if you were a virgin?” My more raspy voice was choking down moans and groans with every movement trying to quiet myself to hear her.

  “You just said it… maybe you heal me too.”

  The pads of my fingers worked her clit, while her tight ass made it hard to keep it together. She was tight all over, like an overbearing hug—something I hadn’t felt in a decade.

  Both of us were filling our emptiness with sex. I hated myself less, knowing I had company in my misery.

  Our moans filled the room so well I barely heard the door to my office, which was the point. You couldn’t slam them closed or make them close any faster when they had the springs for a soft close.

  “You really gotta stop fucking your secretaries.” The voice sounded off behind me, forcing me to look over my shoulder, while still buried in Justice.

  Fucking Khaos.

  If nothing, his tombstone should read “impeccable timing”.

  “Beat it, Khaos!” My out of breath, exacerbated voice barked out.

  All I heard was his chuckle, while Justice wiggled against my fingers for relief. She didn’t care who was in the room as long as I was her focus.

  Her ass pushed against my hips, pushing back against me and tightly around every inch of me. My mouth fell open against her temple, letting her ride me out, when I decided trying with her physically wasn’t enough.

  I meant to whisper, but my voice was out of breath and ready to crack. “You’re close, aren’t you?”

  Her legs shook, and I knew she was holding out on me. We were both so competitive that neither of us wanted to be the first to come undone.

  “We’ll come together, okay? I can’t hold out anymore…” My lips brushed her soft skin, holding myself still, while she pulled away from me, only to let me sink back into her.

  Justice nodded her head, letting me take over when her chest pressed against the window again, my fingers toying between her legs, and my thrusts taking a quicker pace. My desire to come undone and feel the euphoria was driving my thrusts roughly until I spilled inside of her.

  As soon as I emptied myself inside of her, I felt her quiver against me coming undone with her eyes clamped closed. Keeping my fingers going, I pinched her clit for good measure watching her orgasm turn into fireworks.

  Pulling myself away from her, I tucked myself back into my pants, and she jumped back into her tight jeans. I didn’t see her fist aiming for my arm, when she could have tipped me over.

  “Seriously?! He saw!” Wide eyes and a kind of excitement that could have been panic, but it was more believable as a post orgasm glow.

  “And…? It’s just Khaos. I grew up with him.”

  “Is that supposed to make me feel better?!” She didn’t even wait to hash this out before she took both of our coffees off my desk, making it clear they were her spoils of this war.

  Khaos didn’t step into my office, so I figured he gave up on snooping or was listening outside my door. I picked up my phone, texting Justice who was mere feet away.

  ME: I don’t apologize. Un-fuck you or whatever people say.

  PEACE CORPS: Normally people just say I’m sorry.

  ME: My phone couldn’t translate the other language you used there at the end.

  ME: You know what I mean… next time, I’ll order you to lock the door. Kill all my exhibitionist dreams.

  Opening the door and pushing it far enough so it would stay open, I plucked my coffee right out of her hands. My designer coffee was no match for her gas station generic cup of Joe.

  “You’re in trouble.” Khaos was standing on his skateboard outside my open office door .

  I left it open purposely. If it was closed, I couldn’t hear Justice sabotaging my day ahead of time and fix it before she ruined my reputation. She might have developed a soft spot for me, but that didn’t outweigh telling people I was preoccupied in new and creative ways.

  She wasn’t ruining shit but my patience.

  “What are you talking about now?” I tossed towards Khaos, who was still on his skateboard, trying really hard to destroy the hardwood floors.

  Not much about Khaos amused me. He was full of antics, and none won the war.

  He pushed off with his one foot and slid one way before sliding the opposite direction, still in my doorway just more annoying now.

  I watched Justice get up with an eye roll when she read my thoughts. Khaos was a loose cannon, and he was probably aiming right at us.

  “We’re gonna have to give you a new nickname. Vic the Dick isn’t going to fit when you’re head over heels for a girl with pink hair. That’s real out of the box for you.”

  “Keep your enemies close. I can’t solve anything without her help.”

  He stopped skateboarding to enter my office and dump himself into a chair across from mine. “You're still on that? It’s just a file. Maybe it’s better if you leave this in the past now that I know exactly how far gone you are already.”

  Khaos is a terrible liar. His voice gets higher, and his hyperactivity drops to a low, like he isn’t quite as fun anymore.

  “What do you know, Khaos?!” I demanded he tell me when I dropped to my chair, buttoning my shirt back into place.

  Dropping his board on the ground, he let his feet hold it down, as his body shifted side to side with its rolling. “I know that digging up the past isn’t always the good kind of chaos. Don’t you hate yourself enough?”

  My eyes closed only halfway in a threatening tone, staring him down. Some shit shouldn’t be said out loud so casually, and one of them was how much I disliked being the Golden Boy. Hell, I was okay talking about what just happened with Justice with details most people would find off putting, but when it came to my flaws? That shit was just a quiet voice in my head.

  He sat back, further focusing on his skateboard, and I knew something else was hiding between those words. I was bound to find it.

  “Hating myself doesn’t have anything to do with Justice and her file.”

  “Doesn’t it, though…?” He left a big pause, making my mind jump into overthinking and analyzing out of nowhere. Thankfully, he interrupted my mind’s commitment, when he continued, “We all know how her parents died... You’re just forgetting… or the trauma is blocking it out. We should have a meeting, though, if we’re legit going to talk about this.”

  My eyes darted to the open door, which gave me a perfect view of her desk outside my office. It was still empty, thank god. What Khaos just said was a fucking grenade that she was going to use without thinking twice.

  “Tonight. Grimm’s. Go tell the guys.” I waved a hand, like he was a fly too close for comfort, and he scoffed loudly.

  “Vic the Dick is back, ladies and gentleman! Don’t let a little anal fool ya! He’s still got a mean streak.�
�

  “Don’t make me get up...” I said, without even looking in his direction, to make sure I did my job to scare him.

  “This is why no one likes you… in case you were wondering…” With a chuckle, his knuckles hit my desk, and he pushed off on his skateboard like the hooligan that he is.

  JUSTICE

  There’s an empty feeling that settles in the pit of your stomach when you allow yourself to want something you shouldn’t. It grows when that something decides that you're just a pawn in their war and not something they really want back.

  That pit in my stomach grew up to my chest, imploding inside, when I heard Khaos say to Vic that they all knew how my parents died.

  To be exact, he said, “We all know how her parents died... You’re just forgetting, or the trauma is blocking it out. We should have a meeting, though, if we’re going to legit talk about this.”

  Everyone knew something I didn’t, and I was over that.

  I spun my chair around to stare at my computer, pretending I wasn’t just listening to their conversation, when Khaos stopped his skateboard in front of me.

  “Quick! Pick a hand.”

  He held up two fists making me cautiously nervous. Choosing his left hand, I was hoping it was empty, as I swallowed down a gallon of tears.

  Crossing his arms over his chest, he stared at me, like he was unprepared to reveal his hands, even though he was the one who hosted the impromptu game.

  “You have a choice… Forgiveness or anger?”

  Those two words felt like a swift hit right to my chest, caving a hole in me. Too stunned to talk, I let the words swim in my pools for eyes, as I just kept willing myself not to cry, not here. No one here deserved to break me like that.

  Not even Vic anymore.

  “Anger.” I barely got out the words.

  “Here’s the address you need then. Too bad, the other address could have answered every question you have right now.” His smirk wasn’t lost on me. He wanted me angry, because there was no easy way out of this.

  I was growing accustomed to Vic. Now I knew I couldn't get attached to him and his wicked ways of hiding the valuables.

  “What…?” I dragged out the words, letting my reaction on his bait and switch rattle me enough to feed the anger.

  “You had your chance. I can make a mistake once, but twice… that’s just a bad decision.”

  Why do I feel like I picked the wrong hand?

  Pushing off, he glided across the office on his board, escaping any persecution he would face if he stayed. I didn’t like being toyed with, and all these boys did was fuck your mind just as well as they fucked you in other ways.

  Still stunned by the interaction, I looked down at my desk, and there in my notebook was an address written in thick sharpie.

  Where would this lead me? Knowing Khaos’s MO… probably to Hell.

  Normally I respected Vic a lot more than I did right now. Right now, he was someone I was learning to trust, but felt betrayed by the moment I gave into him. I didn’t respect him enough to tell him I was grabbing my stuff to leave.

  Grabbing my water bottle, phone, notebook, and whatever else I managed to already dump onto my desktop, I shoved it back into my bag, trying to move quickly before Vic summoned me. It was almost like he could sense the space outside his office and knew he needed to make an appearance.

  Standing in his doorway, shirt still undone more than normal, he had his arms crossed. “Going somewhere?”

  His voice was bound leather—smug and expensive. It almost melted the anger off my bones, but I was holding onto it for dear life. Anything to hate him—this was the wakeup call I needed to get my shit together.

  Vic is bad news, and I was unwilling to hear any more bad news.

  I needed to protect myself from the possibility of losing more people I cared about.

  “I gotta go,” was all I said, avoiding eye contact.

  I could feel the guilt swelling between our bodies, in the space that almost felt painful to be this far apart.

  “I already said whatever people say. How much groveling do you expect me to do? I didn’t expect him to walk in while I was fuck- that was happening.”

  Standing up, I swung my bag over my shoulder finally looking at him. “It’s not that. Do you really think I care that much that your friend saw a patch of skin? It’s just skin. You violated me in a way that’s deeper than that… that makes me feel weak. I don’t do... weak.”

  Vic didn’t reach out to touch me. Instead, he took a big step to the left and planted himself in front of me, forcing me to live through the explosion. He couldn’t just let me toss the bomb and get out of dodge.

  “Tell me what I did.” His eyebrows were pinched clearly confused.

  “I heard you and Khaos, Vic.” That was all I said as I maneuvered around his height and fled the scene, leaving him semi lost in the distortion.

  Heading towards the elevators, I waited until the doors closed before I put the address in maps to see how far it was. Not that it mattered much, I used Uber so much I had all the perks and points just adding up to free rides.

  Leaving the Clave was always a weight lifted off my shoulders. I finally made it outside the building and could feel the LA sun warming up my cold skin. There was something about the office that was always cold enough to give you a permanent chill.

  Waving down my Uber, I popped inside and sat back, knowing anything Khaos gave me wasn’t just a clue, but one I wasn’t supposed to have. I needed to capitalize on all these clues I was collecting and make sure I had a plan if shit hit the fan.

  Texting Meadow, I trusted her enough to make her my second in command when it came to all things protesting.

  ME: I need the hacker to get some information.

  MEADOW: Every time you ask for information I get bad vibes… You’re an automatic weapon. You don’t mean for other people to get hurt, but your safety is broken.

  ME: The Clave. Rockefeller, Rothschild, Astor, and DuPonte. I need first names and addresses for their dads.

  MEADOW: Oh, that’s all? Just the families who run the world??? Should he get the president’s too while he’s at it?

  ME: No, the president has no power compared to these guys. Dads and addresses, Meadow. Really important. It’s my insurance policy.

  MEADOW: For??? What are you planning?

  I didn’t bother to answer. I took another deep breath without things lingering over me as I headed to the outskirts of LA, where all the beaches were.

  It was probably top five for the longest of my Uber trips ever, and I must have dozed off for a bit. Once I slipped out, stretching all my limbs, I stood up, looking at the same gate I remembered all too well.

  Grimm’s.

  Abigail’s cage.

  Khaos sent me to Abigail?

  Pushing the button on the outside of the gate, I waited for someone to reply, and when no one did, I pressed my fingertip into it again.

  “I know you weren’t at work, and I’m in on the secret now. Khaos sent me,” I said into the air with my finger on the intercom.

  The gate unlatched internally and swung inward, letting me pass. I waved at and tipped the Uber driver on my phone, so he got the message to leave, before I strutted through the gate.

  Grimm was already standing outside in his driveway, staring me down, like I was trespassing.

  Let’s just pray I’m not and he doesn’t reserve the right to shoot me on sight.

  “What are you doing here?” His arms were crossed, and all his tattoos barely left skin between the ink.

  “Khaos gave me this address… I didn’t know it was your place, but since I’m here…” I brushed past him and paraded myself right through the open door.

  Maybe Khaos wasn’t all tricks. He practically read my mind when it came to needing girl time after surviving Vic.

  She knew all about men with multiple personalities. Vic had just as many faces, just easier in comparison.

  Grimm was on my heels as
I poured into a sleek and very modern kitchen with windows the size of the walls that looked over the ocean. I was chalking up not noticing last time I was here as a fluke fogged by anger and disbelief. I barely remembered even being in Grimm’s house at all. My focus was only on Vic.

  It was breathtakingly fresh considering Grimm was so much to swallow in order for you to take him in.

  Maybe Abigail’s cage wasn’t so bad… beats our apartment.

  “There isn’t a welcome mat by the door for a reason.” His voice was cold and malevolent.

  “He obviously sent me here for a reason…” Ignoring him, I wandered further into his safe space, clearly making him uncomfortable.

  Men were easy to read; they get grumpy and moody when they're uncomfortable because, ironically, vulnerability is uncomfortable.

  Abigail poured into the room, pregnant and actually barefoot, talking to Grimm with her nose in a book, not noticing me yet. “Who are you talking to?”

  I didn’t wait for her to look up, before I threw my arms around her and squeezed for dear life. Khaos was right; I did need my best friend. Hugging her with a swollen stomach between us was still something I was trying to wrap my head around.

  “Oh my god! Jus! What are you doing here?!” I could see her eyes shifting towards Grimm, looking for approval to our reunion.

  Looking over my shoulder, I gave him a narrowed look as I engaged my best friend. He wasn’t going to be the reason this reunion was stopped.

  “Khaos sent me here. Guess he knew I needed you.”

  She squeezed me before taking my hands with her eyes welling up. “Jus, I’ve wanted to text you, call, email, write you a letter…. literally anything. It’s a long story, but I’m supposed to be playing dead. No one has even let me leave the house. I’m so sorry.”

  Vic’s punishing tone to keep me away from Abigail, and Grimm still standing in our proximity, was a message too loud to ignore. It was clear her cage wasn’t horrible, but she was still a prisoner.

  “I can’t believe you’re pregnant. Was it…” coughing around the words, “consensual?”

  Bursting with laughter, she slapped my arm and held her bump while she laughed. Taking a few steps towards Grimm, he automatically put his arm around her waist, holding her close, like he was marking his territory.