The Prince and the Pawn

by Reid, B. B.

  “Vaughn?”

  He didn’t respond.

  “Vaughn?” I repeated a little more urgently.

  Pulling back, he flexed his hips to enter me again and—A sharp, pained cry rent the air as he shoved himself inside of me. Right around the time I realized the sound had come from me, I also realized that Vaughn had taken my virginity.

  Seemingly realizing it, too, his body stiffened, and then his strong arms closed around me. I wanted to push him away, but the pain was too great. Silly me. I wanted his comfort more.

  “Pip?” I couldn’t bring myself to speak, so I buried my face in his strong shoulder. “Pip, I’m so fucking sorry,” he pleaded. “I didn’t mean to—fuck!” he barked when the sob I tried to swallow broke free. Mistaking my physical anguish for mental, he tried to pull away. I dug my nails into his back, keeping him in place. Only when the throbbing between my thighs finally relented did I lift my head to meet his tortured gaze.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, making his frown deepen. “You weren’t here. Where did you go?”

  “Did you seriously just ask me if I was okay after I just—” He stopped and looked away before I could see his shame. “I can’t believe I did that,” he mumbled.

  “I’m okay,” I assured him.

  “Yeah, no fucking thanks to me.”

  I turned his head, and when I lifted my chin, I almost smiled when he swore before giving into me with a kiss that went on until we both ran out of air.

  “I’m okay,” I repeated once I caught my breath. In fact, I was relieved. My virginity had been a barrier—no pun intended—that no longer existed.

  What if Selena was right? What if the only way to convince Vaughn that we were fated was to show him what he’d be missing if he walked away? Maybe opening his eyes meant submitting to him completely. I’d given him my mind, my heart, and my soul. The only thing I had left to offer was my body.

  Vaughn was already deep inside of me, buried to the hilt in more ways than the obvious. How easy would it be to give in now? I felt reckless and giddy, ready to throw caution to the wind when the sound of the glass door sliding open halted us both.

  The very last person I expected to see standing there was my goddamn sister.

  Vaughn rushed to cover me as best as he could with the blanket while her sleepy gaze bounced between us, a slow smile spreading her lips.

  “Little sister,” she cooed as she stepped onto the balcony and closed the door behind her. “I was beginning to think you didn’t have it in you.” Her focus fell between my legs where Vaughn stood, and her eyebrows rose. “Now I see that you do. Literally.”

  “How about you give us some fucking privacy?” Vaughn snapped before I could.

  Rather than disappear as we both hoped and expected, Selena sauntered over to the table before curling up on the table bench. “I think I’ll watch,” she announced once she’d made herself comfortable. “I’m wide awake now, and the Wi-Fi is pretty shitty out here.” Her gaze raked over us as her excitement grew. “This makes up for that.”

  “Selena, leave,” I finally spoke up.

  “Why? What’s the point? I’ll just watch from inside.” Tapping her chin, she pretended to think. “Or maybe I’ll shout ‘fire’ on my way upstairs and wake everyone up.” She met my gaze then. “Is that really how you want to remember this night, baby sister?” I watched as her attention shifted to Vaughn. “What about you, stud? You look like you’ve got a lot on your mind. Would you like to spend the night telling my sister all about it, or would you rather fuck her brains out instead?”

  My heart twisted in my chest when something passed silently between them. When the seconds ticked by and Vaughn still didn’t make her leave, my confusion only grew. My sister had somehow gained the upper hand, but how? Vaughn and Selena were practically strangers. It was impossible for them to share secrets.

  “What’s going on?” I asked when the air became charged with violent energy.

  Selena was smiling. Vaughn was not.

  “Pip,” I heard Vaughn whisper. There was a note of desperation in his tone, but my attention remained stubbornly locked on my sister. A heartbeat later, I felt his fingers gripping my chin as he forced my gaze away. The moment our eyes connected, he stole my lips. It didn’t take him long to get me back under his spell. Selena was a distant memory despite her proximity, and the longer we kissed, the deeper I fell.

  I didn’t even notice when Vaughn lowered me on my back. My leg was now hooked inside of the crook of his arm, and he never stopped kissing me, even as he began to rock inside of me with gentle, shallow thrusts that made me mindless. It was perfect.

  Except for one thing.

  I stiffened when I felt fingers that didn’t belong to Vaughn caressing my hair.

  “Her nipples,” my sister whispered. “I want you to suck them.”

  Confusion and ecstasy battled one another when Vaughn broke our kiss to follow her directive. He offered me so much pleasure that I could barely remember my own name much less that we weren’t alone.

  Vaughn had only begun laving my other when Selena spoke again. “My selfish little sister teased your cock for months,” she cooed as she played with my hair. “She never considered your needs. Instead, she toyed with you.” The wood from the picnic table creaked as she leaned over, and I felt Vaughn tense in my arms as he missed a beat. “I know you want to fuck her harder than that,” Selena goaded, sounding much closer now—like she was speaking directly in his ear. “Do it. Pound her little pussy until it hurts. Until she screams.”

  Vaughn released my nipple, and when he turned his head toward my sister, the violence in them startled me. He wanted to hurt my sister badly. Selena didn’t so much as blink as she held his gaze.

  “Do it.”

  The muscle in his jaw ticked, and I could tell he wanted to refuse. Feeling like everything was already screwed up, I decided to make the best of this night before it took a turn for the worst.

  “Hey.” This time it was me forcing his gaze away from Selena, and when he finally looked in my eyes, the turmoil in his own nearly crippled me. “There’s no one else here,” I whispered to him. I didn’t care if Selena heard me or not but judging by her snort, I knew she had. “It’s just you and me.” After a moment of hesitation, he kissed me, soft and sweet like he knew I needed. Turning my lips toward his ear opposite Selena, I gave him an order of my own. “I want you to fuck me as hard as you can, but only because it’s what I want.”

  Lying on my back once more, I watched a wicked grin slowly spread his swollen lips. “Is that, right?” he drawled.

  “Yes.”

  Leaning down, he whispered against my lips. “You want to scream for me?”

  “Hell, yes.”

  He kissed me again, harder this time, before pulling out of me. This time when he filled me, he drove into me so hard my jaw actually dropped from shock as my back bowed. Unrelenting, he slammed into me again before I could even catch my breath.

  And then he did it a third time.

  By the fourth or fifth shove of his cock, I was convinced I’d spoken too soon. Vaughn Rees was a little more than I could handle. Somehow, it still wasn’t enough.

  For a while, there was no sound but the crickets and the slap of Vaughn’s skin against mine as he fucked the shit out of me. Selena reminded me that she was there when I felt her brush my wild hair from my forehead. The feelings that Vaughn invoked were so intense that for a moment, I was almost grateful that she was there. Almost.

  “Where are you going?” he demanded through gritted teeth. My body had begun scooting up the table from the force of Vaughn’s hips slamming into me. I hadn’t even realized that I was running away from him. Not missing a beat, he yanked me back down to the edge of the table and began peppering my shoulder with gentle kisses. “Want me to stop?”

  I looked into his green eyes and forced myself to relax. How could I when he thought of me even he was damn near feral?

  “Please don’t.”


  Vaughn wasted no time resuming his rhythm, and when I came, I did indeed scream for him.

  IF PIP-SQUEAK NOTICED ME SWEATING bullets the next morning, she didn’t let on as she nibbled on her toast in my lap. I wondered how much longer I had before the shit hit the fan. Tyra wasn’t stupid. She knew something was up, but like me, she was avoiding the storm headed our way. We were alone in the kitchen, cuddled together while watching the sunrise over the lake, and trying not to stare too hard at the picnic table. I imagined many times how popping pip’s cherry would go, but I never imagined it being…weird.

  The reason sauntered into the kitchen a moment later with a freshly scrubbed face and a treacherous smile. “Morning!”

  Neither of us spoke back as Selena poured herself a cup of coffee. Had I known she’d be the first one up, I would have spiked it with something strong enough to eat away at her black heart. Tyra would never forgive me, but what else was new? I was already sailing down that creek with nothing but my dick in my hand.

  “Last night was wild, huh?”

  “If you say we should do it again sometime, I’m going to waste good coffee boiling your eyeballs—sis.”

  Selena’s lips formed a surprised O as she blinked stupidly at her sister. “What the hell is your problem?”

  Before Tyra could answer, Bee stumbled into the kitchen, and Selena became engrossed in her phone. I wasn’t surprised to find her alone since waking the dead was easier than getting Jamie up before noon. “Morning.” Her sleepy gaze traveled the kitchen until it landed on Tyra and me. “You two made up?” she questioned, grinning now. The hopeful look in her eyes warmed me and made me feel like shit all at the same time. Tyra and I had called a truce, but it wouldn’t last for long. Not when she found out that I made out with her sister.

  I felt pip-squeak tense and knew what her answer would be, so squeezing her hip, I spoke before she could. “Yup. Last night.” Tyra was so pissed that she was damn near shaking as she tried to rise from my lap. Leaning forward, I locked my arm around her waist under the guise of reaching for my coffee cup. “Stop wiggling your ass,” I whispered when she kept trying to break free. “Unless you want to go upstairs for round two?”

  “Fuck you.”

  “You sure did, pip. Rocked my world, too.”

  The sound of someone choking and then liquid spilling had me looking up and seeing Bee’s wide eyes and flaming cheeks as she hurried to wipe the hot coffee from her chin. She’d heard every word, which meant by the end of the day, everyone else would know, too, that Tyra and I had fucked.

  “So,” Bee said as she set her coffee mug down. “I guess I’ll hit the shower before anyone else wakes up.”

  I sighed, not bothering to waste my breath, asking her not to blab. Tyra seemed to feel the same way because her only reaction was to stare at her half-eaten toast. Bee made for the exit, and Selena paused mid-selfie to watch her go.

  “What’s her problem?” she grumbled only to be ignored once again.

  Standing from my chair, I abandoned my coffee and Tyra’s toast and carried her ninety-pound sack-of-flour ass upstairs to shower. Pretty soon, the entire house was awake, and shortly after that, we were off to the race.

  “Fuuuuuck,” Jamie grumbled as he glowered behind his shades. “Why are there so many people here?”

  We were lounging on the collapsible chairs we brought, watching the scene while Four attended some mandatory meeting before the practice run and finally, the race. I had no idea where everyone else had wandered off to. Trailers and tents littered almost every inch of free space, and over three hundred bystanders crowded the little area that was left—twice as many people as there had been when Four raced in New Jersey.

  “Maybe they’re really into motocross around here.”

  Lips curled, Jamie didn’t seem willing to accept that explanation, sending some blonde that had been admiring him from afar scampering for the safety of her tent. I made a mental note to bring one next time—the tent, not the blonde—as the sun beat down on me. Even though it was still early, the July heat made the morning brutal. My eyes drifted shut, hoping to block out the sunlight, but the sightless gaze of Jacobo Jiménez staring back at me had them springing open again.

  Sitting up, I wiped my palms down my shorts, feeling my hands coated in Jacobo’s blood. I wiped until my skin was raw from the friction, but the tainted feeling remained. Why wouldn’t it just go the fuck away?

  I didn’t kill anyone.

  I wasn’t the murderer my father wanted me to be.

  I was never going to take his place.

  This sound, an amalgamation of aggravation and desperation, ripped from my throat as I doubled my efforts. A moment later, my hands were ripped away from my lap, and the darkness that had been slowly swallowing me whole dissipated. The same darkness that led to my epic fuck up and Tyra losing her virginity last night. Tatted hands had seized my wrists, and when I tried to free myself, Jamie tightened his hold. He was kneeling in front of me now, his brows bunched so tightly, he looked in danger of losing his piercing.

  “You were about to tear a hole in your shorts, man. What the fuck?”

  I looked down to see that the material of my cargos had indeed become frayed. My hands were throbbing, and this time, when I pulled them away, Jamie let go, saving me from headbutting his ass. I inspected my palms and blinked at the redness before balling my hands into fists and settling back in my seat. I avoided Jamie’s gaze as I pretended to watch the crowd, and he went back to his chair next to me.

  “You want to tell me what the fuck that was?” he said after a minute or two.

  I’d been waiting, not bothering to hold my breath because I already knew the nosy fucker wouldn’t let it go.

  “No.”

  “I know it sounded like a question, but it really wasn’t,” he retorted.

  “And I don’t take orders from you or my father, so leave me the fuck alone.”

  I noticed Jamie stiffen from the corner of my eye before he relaxed with a careless shrug. “Fine. Have it your way.” Of course, he relented way too quickly for me to believe. “It’s been a while since I’ve staged an intervention.”

  “That was three damn months ago,” I snapped.

  “And my spidey senses are tingling again.” I didn’t respond, so he took my silence as permission to poke a sleeping bear. “We can talk about this now while it’s just the two of us, or we can do it as a group when everyone gets back.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Word on the street,” Jamie teased, “is that you got more than enough last night.”

  I blinked at him.

  Two hours. That was all the time it had taken for word to spread in our crew. Bee must have told Jamie, and he definitely told everyone else.

  Nice. Real nice.

  “Of course, I want all the dirty details—”

  “Not going to happen.”

  “But first,” he said as if I hadn’t spoken, “I want to know what happened between you and your father.”

  “No, you don’t, Jamie, and that’s for your sake and mine.”

  “Want to bet?” His eyebrow rose, and I should have known he wouldn’t be so easily swayed. “You might have all the muscles, but I’ve got the biggest balls,” he said, making me roll my eyes. Jamie never wasted an opportunity to brag about his horse dick. “I’m not afraid of your father.”

  “That’s because you don’t know what he’s capable of.”

  Jamie fell silent, but the intensity of his stare told me that this conversation was far from over. “I know he’s capable of buying a young girl for his son to turn into some kind of Stepford wife,” he whispered.

  My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach.

  He knew.

  He fucking knew my father had been the buyer for Bee.

  Fuck. Did she know?

  “Bee knows,” Jamie said, reading my mind. “She just doesn’t want to believe it.”

  “How?”

  “Elliot told
her the buyer he had lined up was the father of a friend. He also implied it wasn’t Jason’s old man. Since I already know my uncle never would, that leaves you.”

  I couldn’t meet his gaze. The lump stuck in my throat was even harder to swallow. “I should have told you,” I said, going for the obvious when the right words eluded me. “If I could be honest—”

  “That would be nice.”

  “I was hoping the two of you would never find out.”

  “You didn’t think we’d need some kind of warning? This shit is sick, man. What the fuck?”

  “I would have never gone through with it. You fucking know that.”

  “Somehow, I don’t believe it would have been up to you.” His shrewd gaze narrowed even more. “What the hell is your father into?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “You told Ever.” The look he gave me warned me not to lie to him when I tried to deny it. “You already lied to me. Don’t insult my intelligence, too.”

  “You were gone—an entire fucking ocean away while I got to watch my best friend and your cousin destroy himself over his mother walking out. I didn’t have a goddamn choice.” Ever hadn’t merely accepted the information I offered. He refused to even make a move without knowing exactly how I knew and how long.

  “You told him where to find Aunt Evelyn.”

  Feeling that lump in my throat growing bigger, I nodded. Had I known that Ever would join up with my father’s rival to free his mom, I would have kept my mouth shut. I would have felt shitty about it, but not more than if Ever had gotten himself killed.

  “I would lecture you right now, but that’s not my style.”

  “I was there in your uncle’s office two weeks ago, Buchanan. You would have done the same goddamn thing, and it would have been a lot messier because that’s your style.”

  Jamie scratched his chin as he pondered my point. “True.”

  He was about to say more when he caught sight of Bee heading our way. She was leading the pack with Wren, Lou, Four, and Ever behind her. I scanned the area looking for Tyra, but I didn’t see her or Anne Boleyn. Technically, Selena was the older sister, but if the shoe fit…