by Ruby Vincent
“That’s not exactly how it works.”
“Got something you want to say about it, say it now.”
“I—”
Sinjin grabbed my jaw, trapping my reply, and licked me from the tip of my chin to my crown. It was the weirdest, sexiest thing any guy had done to me, and my recovery time was zero. He kissed me again. Rough. Insistent. Hungry.
The fantasies he outlined that day in the torture room came flooding back. It was past time we’d gotten to those. Starting with the hardening chocolate.
“Ahem.”
Reality crashed in, tearing me free of Sinjin.
Edie raised a brow from the back-door steps. “Thank you for handling the Lombard issue, Sinjin.”
He wasn’t listening—too busy sucking and nipping his way down my cleavage.
“I hope we’ll see you next week to help set up the cots and put out food. Bye now.”
“Bye, Edie.” I pushed on his shoulders, moving him the barest inch I needed to wiggle free. “I’m so sorry about— We’ll see you next— Sorry again, we’re leaving now.”
I climbed inside, slammed and locked the door. I didn’t put it past Sinjin to haul me out and continue where we left off.
I OPENED THE DOOR TO climb out but Sinjin was already there. He threw me over his shoulder and strode into the fire station.
“As arousing as this caveman impression is, I can walk, Saint.”
Naturally, he ignored me.
Sinjin carried me over the threshold and turned left. I bit my lip, heart thundering under the Sinjin-standard brand of whirling emotions he ignited in me.
He stepped into the dark space, venturing down, down, down.
“I’m confused,” I said. “Am I being punished?”
“Pain can be a gift in itself.”
“I was thinking we’d indulge in another activity today.”
“So was I.”
The torture room was just as I remembered it. Instruments of death covered every wall, singing tales of misery and last words.
Sinjin was on me before I was on my feet. His ferocity burned hotter than outside the church. Nothing would stop him this time.
Our mouths clashed in a furious battle of tongues, moans, and teeth.
I bit his lip. Hard. Earning a grunt on the back of tangy blood coating my tongue.
Leaning back, I smirked into those eyes. “Was that a gift?”
“Dear Lord. I’m going to reach a new level of savagery with you.”
I licked him chin to nose. “You’ll want my tongue attached.”
Roaring, Sinjin seized my collar and tore my shirt a new opening, ripping it clean off. A mark of strength both terrifying and heady. Like the snarl on his lips and the lust in his eyes. He wanted to worship and torture me in equal measure, and honestly, I wasn’t certain which he’d choose.
The rest of my clothes met the same fate. My bra straps snapped. Jeans shoved off my legs, and my underwear—
I grabbed his wrists, halting him in pulling them down. “Isn’t this the part where you say please?”
“No.” Sinjin lifted me in the air. “It’s the part where you do.”
My body slammed into metal. The cage. My old friend.
I grasped the bars out of instinct, and wrapped my legs around Sinjin when he let go. He slipped inside the lining, finding my clit, and rolled it over rough callouses and knife scars. His other hand probed my folds, tricking a gasp out of me that caught as he plunged in without warning. Weeks and the only one to touch the poor thing was me. My toes curled on his knife holster, eyes rolling up in my head.
Waves of thrilling agony ratcheted up my body. Sinjin set an inhuman pace, fingering me so hard and fast, the slap, slap, slap, slap of our skin on skin beat a tempo faster than my pounding heart.
I clung desperately to the cage. The cold metal bit back, reminding me of the days they separated us. I felt his anger then, burning me because my stubbornness separated us. And I felt his anger now for so long being denied what I knew was his.
“Ahh, Saint,” I breathed.
A fourth finger joined the rest—the two inside and the one tormenting my clit. The double attack was unkind. I couldn’t last for more than ten minutes under an assault like this.
The pressure converged on a single point, building to burst me apart at the seams. I threw my head back and my jaw cracked in a silent scream.
I came hard. Jerking and shaking, I lost my hold and Sinjin had to catch me.
“Fucking hell. That’s what I’ve been missing all this time?”
“I tried to tell you.” He pressed against my lips, pushing fingers dripping with my arousal inside me like feeding me croissants. “But don’t worry. You won’t go a day missing out from now on.”
“Every single d-day?” My traitorous voice squeaked. “That’s quite a promise.”
“Fuck promises. It’s a bet.”
I don’t know who went for his zipper first—him or me. But it was me who guided his length to my entrance, stroking him as I did so. I wouldn’t say I had extensive experience with cocks, but if I had a type, his was it. Long and thick. Molded to my palm as if it belonged there.
Sinjin slid in to the hilt, gave me a nanosecond to adjust, and then fucked me like a wild animal.
I bounced up and down on the steel. Sinjin had me by the thighs and my feet flapping behind him. The cage rattled in protest—clanging and banging to rouse the entire street. We weren’t much quieter.
“Yes, right there,” I cried. “Fuck yeah, I’ll take... one of these... every day.”
My nipples were pointed missiles striking his face. He captured one, growling like it was a naughty tease in his way, and sucked it into submission. He struck that spot, and a violent orgasm of such magnitude wracked me, I broke two nails in his back and almost blacked out hitting my head on the cage.
Tensing, he flattened me on the bars and exploded inside me. I was sure pulling out didn’t occur to him. Fortunately, being on the pill occurred to me.
Not that I was concerned about all of that at the moment.
I slumped into his arms. Sinjin was warm and wet and holding me as I slowly came down.
“Mmm,” I hummed. “So that’s what it takes to make you sweat.”
“I got carried away. I had planned to put this room to its use. Extract each orgasm on the pain of begging me for release.”
My lower belly tightened.
“Then you bit me and I lost my head.”
“Best-laid plans, Saint.” I kissed him slow and languid. “They always go awry.”
His voice was a low, husky murmur. “I haven’t given up yet.” Sinjin carried me to the rack. “And we assumed we’d get no use out of this. Arms up.”
Refusing didn’t cross my mind. I raised my arms over my head and was strapped, locked, and secured. My legs received the same treatment.
He bent over me, I thought to kiss me, but his lips ghosted over mine and he drew back. Sinjin straightened to his full height. He stripped unhurriedly, eyes locked on mine to hold me captive. I broke free and drank him in.
“You asked me a question today.”
“Did I?”
He nodded. “I told you I’d give you an answer if you won our bet.”
“We ended in a draw,” I murmured.
“We did,” he said. “Changes the rules, but I always hold up my end. You’ll get your reward, Bunny, if you answer the question.”
I was having trouble remembering the damn question. Sinjin was walking away from me and my mind screamed to get him back and have him inside me again.
“This room isn’t for sex.” Sinjin circled the space, casting his eyes over the walls. “Everything here is made to kill, and each guest I’ve brought down here has been intimately acquainted with what they can do.”
Sinjin selected a knife off the hook. A sharp point and narrow blade made that knife perfect for removing bones. That’s how it got its name.
I was calm as he came toward me. A single k
nife in his hands was ten times as deadly as a fully equipped army, but I had nothing to fear. Not from him. Not ever again.
“Except you,” he said. “I had my chance to kill you. End your threat. Your distraction.” The blade tip pressed between my breasts. “But I couldn’t.”
“Is that so bad?” I asked softly.
“Yes.” The blade traveled down, gliding harmlessly over my skin. “You have some kind of... hold on me. I lead the Merchants because I do what needs to be done without question. That has always been the case, but never with you.”
He reached my middle, lifted the blade, and slid the hilt inside me.
“Ah.” The softest sound escaped me as he moved in and out.
“I was going to kill you that night in the bathroom. Instead I took you. I would’ve followed you in that cab. What I did was let you go. I should’ve found another woman to give me what you denied. But I stopped fucking your imagined imitations and moved you into my house.
“Why, Adeline?” He raised the knife, gazing at it unseeingly. “Why can’t I hurt you?”
And then it came to me. The question I had asked him.
“It’s simple,” I said. “It’s because you love me.”
“Is it?” Sinjin sounded genuinely curious.
“’Fraid so.”
“Hmm.” The knife clattered to the floor. Sinjin climbed on the rack, lying on top of me, and rested his forehead on mine. “Why? How do you know?”
My throaty laugh floated over us. “Because you told me you did. You couldn’t kill me because you respected me. You can’t sleep with other women because I’m the only one on your mind. And you keep me here because you can’t live without me. You need to see me every day, and go to bed each night knowing I’m next to you.
“That’s the answer to the question, Saint. All you want from me... is me.”
Sinjin kissed me—neither sweetly nor loving. It was a fierce, rough, hungry kiss because to this man those emotions came out no other way.
“Aren’t you going to ask me if I love you?”
“No.” Sinjin got up and loosened my leg restraints. He angled me over his knees. “By the criteria you set, you do.”
“Excuse me? My second point mentioned not sleeping with other people. Celibacy by lovesickness is very different than celibacy by imprisonment.”
“You could’ve fucked Cash, Mercer, and Brutal at any time.” He pushed in deep, cutting my protest off with a moan. “We even agreed we wouldn’t get possessive about it if you decided to get your employee benefits from all of us. But you chose me, because you love me.”
I laughed. “Well, I’ve told you how you feel and you’ve told me how I feel. Maybe one day we’ll speak for ourselves. If we lose a card game or something.”
“Bet.”
He started pumping, and conversation was lost from that point.
Was it his intent that we make up for weeks of lost time in one day? I’d have to say yes from the marathon blow jobs, orgasms, and relentless pounding that took place in every position I knew of, and a few I didn’t.
At one point, I stumbled upstairs for food and water, dizzy and giggling from the sex high. Or maybe just delirious from lack of sustenance.
Sinjin caught up to me, reclined on the table, and made me eat my treats off him. Of course that is when Brutal showed up. We ran upstairs under pain of death and went at it all night and into the early morning.
I passed out exhausted by his side.
For the first time since I moved in, I slept without dreams.
THE NEXT DAY, I WOKE to a growling stomach, clock that read eleven, and an empty bed. Sinjin would have business today like he did every day.
I went downstairs to find he wasn’t the only thing missing. The dining table was gone. How Brutal removed it without me hearing a thing was one of the many mysteries he’d keep close to the vest.
I wasn’t surprised. The table was destined for the incinerator the minute he caught us. I just hoped the next one they got was two inches lower and bamboo. Much better for prep. And sex.
I got started on lunch, making due with minimal counter space. On today’s menu was roast chicken with loaded baked potato salad and green beans. Because that’s what I was in the mood for. The guys were out around lunchtime. If I was eating alone, I was eating what I wanted. I called Gianna while I peeled the potatoes.
“Hey, G.”
“Hey.” Rumbling and conversation sounded on the other end. I suspected she was riding the bus to her lunch. “What’s up? Still on house arrest?”
“There’s a chance terms can be amended. What about you? Have you been in to see Dad?”
“I went the other day. He asked what’s going on with this new job that you never have time to visit. Otherwise, he’s good.”
“About the bill—”
“Don’t start, Addy. I’ve been begging you to let me help pay his nursing home bills. You know I don’t mind.”
“I will pay you back,” I said. “The home refuses to take a mailed wad of cash. Once I earn my leave, I’ll settle my debts and treat you to dinner at the most expensive restaurant in Leighbridge.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“How’s work? Did you hire a new maintenance man?”
“No. You wouldn’t think it’d be this hard, but so far, none of the applicants have passed the background checks. The boss has me looking for a night manager too.”
“What was wrong with the old one?”
“Fell asleep on the job. Guests walked in on her drooling on reception.”
“Nice.”
“I’ll get it figured out. What I really care about is seeing you,” she said. “It’s been a month. We have so much to talk about. Face to face. Over my obscenely expensive dinner. Seriously, babe, do I need to storm the place and murder those guys?”
I laughed. “I’m thinking that won’t be necessary. Sinjin and I have reached a new understanding.”
“Code for you fucked him?”
“I wasn’t going to put it that crudely.”
“Meaning you rode him hard and went to bed wet. I don’t know if I should mentally high-five you owing to him being one of your captors and this could be Stockholm syndrome, but it’s like six months since you’ve gotten any, so I’m just glad it hasn’t closed up by now.”
Laughing, I got a knife and cutting board out of the drawer. “I’m pretty sure vaginas don’t do that.”
“I’m not about to find out, and neither should you.”
“I’m confused. Are you now encouraging me to sleep with my captors?”
“I expect you to do whatever it takes to see me. You better love me that much.”
“You know I do.”
We talked about what I was missing out on while I made my lunch and sat down on the living room couch to eat. I tore a bite off my chicken and moaned.
“Damn, I’m a good cook.”
“So good Ryan’s still asking for you. I swung by the restaurant the other day, and the guy accosted me at the host stand demanding to know when you’re coming back.”
I groaned. “When I got my phone back, there were seventy missed calls from him. Not kidding. Seventy. I made up something about getting in a horrible accident and falling into a coma. He bought it, but as you saw, he wants my coming-back-to-work date.”
A chime rang through the house, signaling the front door was opened.
“I’ve got to go,” I said. “Talk to you soon.”
“See you soon.”
I hung up and called over my shoulder. “Good timing. Lunch is ready. You can eat it while it’s hot.”
“It’ll have to wait,” the deep baritone replied. “Let’s— Where the hell is the table?”
“Brutal saw fit to throw it out after it made contact with bodily fluids.”
Cash cursed under his breath. “You’ve finally stopped dangling and I’ve got to shell out for another table.”
“Dangling?” I asked, twisting around.
&n
bsp; “Your pussy.”
My mouth fell open. “I wasn’t dangling anything.”
“The fuck you weren’t. Next time, keep it in your room. We haven’t done a real job since Spencer turned the Kings on us. Coffers are low, Redgrave. Can’t waste money replacing everything you come on.”
I gaped at him. “You are one frostbitten asshole.”
“So I’ve been told.” He crossed the room and took my plate. “Let’s go.”
“Go? What are you talking about?”
Cash stood over me—tall, imposing, handsome. “Things are moving quickly, and after yesterday, we’re down four men. Their example should make the others think twice, but a quarter of a mill is a lot of money. It’s time we take care of the problem.”
“Again. What are you talking about?”
“Sinjin says you’re ready,” he went on. “You understand what needs to be done. We’ll find out tonight.”
“What’s happening tonight?”
“I’ll explain in the car.” Cash ripped a bite off my chicken. “Mmm. For all your faults, I can’t say anything about your cooking.”
“I don’t have faults.”
He cracked a smirk, walking off. “Up. I have ‘buy a new table’ on my list of shit to do today now. You’re slowing me down.”
“Wait,” I said, getting to my feet. “From what I got out of that nonsense, there is a problem that needs taking care of. But why are you the one taking me? Did Sinjin say—”
“Oh, Sinjin,” he drew out. “My mistake. I should’ve realized you only sit, stayed, and begged at his order.” He held up his phone. “Want to call and ask his permission to come with me?”
If I did have hackles, they’d be rippling down my back. “I don’t need his permission.”
“Good. Hurry up.” Cash swept out, missing the middle finger I raised at his back.
Of all the guys, he never warmed up to me. Brutal found me amusing. Mercer dropped flirty, enigmatic comments whenever he got the chance. Sinjin was inside of me less than eight hours earlier.
But Cash—he looked at me like he’d have been just as happy, or happier, if I’d been left in that dumpster.
I grabbed a pair of shoes and met him downstairs. Cash’s white convertible was the understated ride out of the bunch. Until you slid inside.
