Love and Punishment

by Sorcha Mowbray

  Skin stretched tight over her face, she pasted on a smile and sidled up to the guys. “Sorry for reacting so badly.”

  Liam reached out for her, and she had to fight not to shrink away from his touch. “No, we’re sorry, baby. We should have explained everything to you, but we thought you’d never need to know. The bastard cornered Nate the other day in the courtyard and forced his hand.”

  “I understand.” Her gaze dipped and she hoped they wouldn’t notice the anger burning deep in her heart. It was the one true emotion she could offer, and she used it to her advantage. She faced Nate. “Please wipe the pit floor with his face.”

  Nate flashed his trademark grin-of-utter-devastation, and for the first time in weeks her cold, dead heart didn’t even flutter. “You bet your sweet ass I will.”

  Nate glanced up. It wasn’t hard to track his gaze to the pit board, which showed he would be fighting soon since he and Butch were third from the top of the list. The announcer spewed some facts about the two men in the pit before the crowd roared and the fight started. Nate looked back at her and his eyes sparked with something electric. Nervous flutters of awareness zipped through her when he stepped forward with a slow, deliberate move. He loomed over her. Invaded her space.

  Retreat was not an option; she stood her ground.

  In the blink of an eye, he snaked his arms around her, pressed her to his chest, and captured her lips with his. Palms flat against the wall of muscle, she explored his biological terrain while he invaded her mouth with a hot, knee-buckling kiss. Even as her body grew achy with need, her head railed against the injustice of life. How could she want either of the bastards physically when she hated them with every brain cell she possessed?

  Didn’t she?

  A growl rumbled from him when he crushed her closer and claimed her lips. His cock lay long and thick against her belly and reminded her of everything they had done together. Him. Her. Liam.

  Still, he possessed her mouth heedless of the sea of people moving around them. Liam pressed close to her back and buffered them. Nate eased up a bit. Licked and ate at her lips. Nibbled some more and then retreated from her space.

  One finger at a time, she pried them from his chest and forced herself to let him go. Forced herself to remember how they had used her as a pawn in their game to maintain control of The Beasts. Light-headed from a lack of oxygen, because she could not acknowledge his effect on her anymore, she stumbled when he let go of her. Legs weak and rubbery, Liam steadied her even when Nate reached past her and pulled Liam into a lip lock with her squished between. Surrounded by muscle, caged by bone and sinew, she drew a deep breath to steady herself, but only managed to breathe in their combined musk of leather, man, and desire. Had she not been trapped, she might have collapsed in a fit of lust right there. Nate pulled back one hand on her hip and the other on Liam’s and smiled at both of them. “Behave until I get back.”

  “I wouldn’t count on it.” Liam’s chest rumbled behind her.

  As their third turned and slipped away, misery swamped her. In that moment, she realized how badly she wanted these two to be her knights in shining armor. To make her fairy tale dreams come true. Instead, she found herself once again left to her own devices. Left to save herself because no one had ever found her worthy of saving.

  The fight in the pit came to an abrupt end when one man shoved his knee into the face of his opponent while slamming the guy’s head in a downward arc to increase impact and the damage. Blood spurted all over both men, and the donor screamed out in pain. The victor stood over the wailing man, sneered, and spat in the dirt next to him. The pit door slid opened and the winner departed, passing two friends of the bleeder who moved in to fetch him. Despite never having seen Nate fight, confidence in his ability to win warmed her. Between her intimate knowledge of his body—his very strong, thickly muscled body—and the moves Liam had shown her, she had little doubt either man would be able to hold their own in the pit.

  The next fight started, featuring two girls. Bel had never considered entering the pit to fight, not that she frequented Pit Night. Her father had only started to let her attend when he wanted her to see what it would mean to actually fight. He had never offered to let her test her skills, and she had never thought to ask. In that moment, she wished she had. Wished she’d understood what engaging a real opponent would be like. Instead, she always fought men too scared to hurt her for fear her father might do them greater harm.

  Well, she’d find out soon enough what it would be like.

  “Baby, do you want to move closer?” Liam circled her shoulders, and they moved forward to get a better view.

  Together, they watched the women fight with a brutal intensity she would have not expected. No catfight with biting and scratching, these two duked it out one blow at a time. The blonde girl executed a spinning leg kick and swiped the darker girl’s legs out from under her. She lay flat on her back as the blonde leapt on top of her. From the dominant position, she drew back and let fly a devastating series of punches. The dark-haired girl tapped out by the third punch.

  The blonde rose and stood over her opponent. “Touch my man again, bitch, and I will cut your fucking heart out.”

  Bel identified with the winner’s sentiment, but pushed the kinship aside. They weren’t really hers. Not just because she wasn’t theirs, but because she had come there to kill them.

  After tonight, she would never be theirs.

  The girl turned and darted out of the pit and into the arms of the man she must have referred to. He bent her over his arm in a deep backbend and kissed her. The crowd cheered, loving the sexy reward. The dark-haired girl rolled to her hands and knees before she stumbled to her feet. The crowd booed. Ignoring them, she spat blood, swiped at the trickle from her nose, and stalked from the pit. She looked utterly alone. And, more than anything, Bel understood.

  The announcer boomed across the sound system and announced the next fight. Butch and Nate. The breath stuttered from her chest and her heart stopped beating when a half-naked Nate strolled into the pit. If she didn’t know better, she’d swear he’d just wandered into their suite of rooms. He stretched his arms over his head, did some squats, and rolled his shoulders before he faced her and Liam. With a grin and a wink, he turned back around when Butch entered.

  His body art drew her gaze, or maybe it was just the canvas it lived on. His big rangy body was roped with muscles but not in a bulky way. He looked lean and mean.

  Butch, who came in at six foot two and one hundred ninety pounds according to the announcer, also had his shirt off. The man should have considered other wardrobe options since he could have easily been mistaken for a bear or even the mythical Sasquatch. Epsilon may have been a post-Wave world, but, hell, it still had some amenities. Razors. Hot wax. Any number of options for manscaping.

  A shudder rippled through her.

  Liam had yet to let her go. His voice floated past her ear while her gaze focused on the ring with laser precision. “He’s never lost. He practically owns the pit.”

  “Good to know.” She refused to let his assurances soothe her. Refused to give a damn about the man fighting except to hope he survived long enough for her to kill him.

  And then the first punch landed.

  Her belly rose, executed a double somersault, and plummeted until it pancaked against her pelvis.

  Nate grinned when Butch’s long arm snapped out for a second blow to the face. Flesh and bone connected with more flesh and bone. The roar of the crowd muted the thud that caused Nate to stumble backward.

  Butch stepped forward to swing again but met with Nate’s fist instead. With a longer reach, he had an advantage when it came to throwing punches. Sasquatch shuffled back but didn’t move too far. Nate advanced and caught him with a combo. One jab to the face followed by two body shots doubled Butch over. He blocked Nate’s next throw before he landed two to his face in return.

  Bel repressed the urge to flinch with each
blow.

  Body tense, she watched the two men continue to exchange punches. Butch’s skin split over his right eye, and his lip swelled. Another fist to the mouth and she was pretty sure the sucker would pop. Nate planted his punch right in Butch’s kisser, and blood spurted out and splattered against the wall where they stood overlooking the pit.

  Butch swung in retaliation but missed wildly when Nate grabbed his forearm, pulled him around, and landed a punch to his kidney. Butch went down with a howl of pain. Nate circled back around and stood before a kneeling, bleeding opponent. “Do you yield?”

  “No fucking way.” The rotten bastard slammed his fist up in an arc aimed right at Nate’s groin, but he anticipated the move and blocked it.

  In the blink of an eye, Nate spun around and smashed his leg into the side of the kneeling man’s head. He crumpled in a heap on the dirt, capable of nothing but a moan. Nate squatted, grabbed him by his hair, and forced him to look up. “Bel is ours. Don’t ever forget it.” Finished with the upstart, he dropped his head, rose, and turned to face her and Liam. Hands at his sides he leaned back and roared like a beast, or a wolf, howling at the moon and the crowd went crazy. With the cacophony of shouts and screams in response, she realized all The Beasts had gathered around her and Liam to watch the fight.

  As Nate exited the pit, her hands tightened on meaty flesh. She looked down at fingers wrapped around a bulging biceps and up into Liam’s sparkling eyes. Warm skin touched her hands where he patted them, which caused her to release him faster than if she’d laid her calf against a hot exhaust pipe. What the hell? She lost focus for two minutes, and her body went off on its own? Traitor.

  Nate rolled up to them and pulled his shirt back on.

  Pity.

  Damn it. Not her head, too? These men had betrayed her, no differently than her father. Focus was required.

  But as Nate closed in on her and Liam, she found herself once again pressed between the two men. His lips found hers, and he plundered her mouth. With barely a breath between, he reached past her and pulled Liam in for an equally blazing kiss. Hard to ignore it since she about burned to death right there between them.

  Again, her body reacted of its own accord. Her muscles softened, her pussy throbbed, and her nipples turned pea-gravel hard. She wanted to rub against Nate and grind her ass on the hard cock riding the curve of her backside. The memory of the three of them tangled together between the sheets crippled her, made her weak. One more time wouldn’t kill her. And this time she would remember why she was there. Hot fuck and then she’d take care of business. No more softness. No more chasing fairy tales.

  Chapter Seven

  Liam enjoyed the feel of Bel clinging to him all the way home. But his gut still insisted something felt off. Despite her words, and the super-hot kisses they had all shared, a distance separated them. A remoteness similar to when she’d first arrived, had cropped up. Question was, what would they do about it? Usually after one of them fought on Pit Night, the post-violence sex threatened incineration. How would she react to their intensity? Would it bridge the gap or make things worse?

  They headed straight to their suite, where Nate stripped down and disappeared into the shower. Bel stopped near the door, and for a moment he swore she was afraid to be too far from the exit.

  “Everything okay, baby?” The need to scoop her up and hold her until she told him what bothered her rode him hard. But somehow he felt certain she would not welcome his touch.

  “Sure.” She wandered a bit deeper into the room.

  “Come sit down with me.”

  Still preoccupied, she spun and paced away from him. “I’m restless.”

  “We get that way after Pit Night. All the adrenaline from one of us fighting. Nate and I get equally high from fighting as watching.”

  “Is that what it is?” Something dark lurked in her eyes, she paced more.

  His stomach twisted. Please let it be the adrenaline. Because if it wasn’t, if it turned out to be something else, it could mean they would lose her. And losing Bel was not an option. Not for him, and not for Nate.

  The bathroom door opened and a damp, towel-covered Nate materialized from a cloud of steam. Liam’s cock stirred to life. Nate’s torso had some bruises from Butch, and his face sported a black eye, but he grinned when he sat down. Until he winced and grabbed his ribs. “Might have bruised a rib or two.”

  “Or cracked one.” Bel stepped toward Nate but stopped short.

  “Not likely. He hit like a pussy. How’d we ever put him in charge of prospects?” Nate cocked a brow.

  “He was the deputy when Heat retired.” He shrugged, not sure what else they could have done.

  “I’ll go get you a cold pack.” Bel turned to leave, but Nate stopped her.

  “Don’t need it. Just need you over here with us to make me feel better. Why are you way the hell over there, pet?”

  Her brows drew together, and her hands clenched at her sides. But she didn’t move beyond facing them.

  “You’re not still mad at us are you, baby?” Doubt had niggled at him since they got home.

  A smile stretched across her face. “Mad? I said we were good.”

  “Then come here.” Nate held out his hand, his voice radiating power.

  Liam’s dick hardened in response. It was sexy when Nate got all jacked up on adrenaline. It made Nate commanding, forceful. Rough. His ass clenched in anticipation of the pounding it was sure to receive before the night ended.

  Bel moved toward them with slow, excruciating steps. Did she mean to tease or was she not hiding her reluctance very well? Maybe she worried they’d be too rough with her?

  Her long, leather-clad legs stopped in front of them. Liam looked over at Nate, spotted his erection, and looked up to meet his gaze. Wordlessly, they turned and reached for her together. Once they settled her between them, Liam caught her mouth in a searing kiss while Nate worked her pants down her legs. By the time Liam needed air, his bro had their woman stripped down to the tiniest scrap of underwear he’d ever seen.

  “Get rid of your clothes,” Nate growled at him as he crawled off the couch and slipped between Bel’s thighs.

  Heart racing with a fresh spike of adrenaline, he followed orders while Nate whipped her shirt over her head and ditched the matching lace bra she wore. The heat level ratcheted up when Nate spread her thighs wide and ripped the thong off her body.

  He couldn’t suppress a groan. So. Fucking. Hot. Nate shoved two fingers into her pussy while he reached over and pulled Liam closer with one big hand on his ass. Nate gripped the cheek tight and swallowed his cock whole.

  His bro had never been so pumped from a fight, and Liam happily let the man lead. Would let Nate do whatever the hell he wanted as long as it included his lips wrapped around his dick. His dark warrior sucked him deep and when Nate let go, his knees buckled. He dropped onto the couch beside Bel and waited to see what would happen next. Their leader for the night pulled his fingers out of her and licked them clean only to replace them with his tongue. Liam reached over to pinch and twist her nipples while he took in the sight of Nate’s face pressed against her slit. She arched up with a groan. Damn, the woman had the sexiest responses.

  Nate sat up from his crouch. “Straddle Liam’s cock and face me.”

  Following Nate’s directions, he helped her slide up and over him. His hands spanned her waist while she hovered above, tip angled to spear her. Nate wrapped his hand around his shaft and helped feed the hard length into her pussy. Halfway there. Just a few more inches—

  “Stop,” Nate commanded.

  His arms shook with the effort to not plunge her down on his erection. Nate closed in and licked his cock to where he stretched open her pussy. Nate lapped at her clit and the juices dripping down his rod leaving the pair of them suspended. On edge with need.

  Liam’s hips jerked of their own accord and he slipped in deeper. Nate released a primal growl. “Slide all the way in,
Liam, and pull out. I want to lick more of her juices off your cock.”

  Hell, if that wasn’t the best idea yet. He left her suspended above and pushed into her. After he withdrew completely, they watched Nate latch onto his desire-soaked rod and swallow it down.

  The wet heat of his mouth felt very different from being inside Bel. Different, and fucking good.

  Liam braced Bel when Nate grabbed his hips, tugged him to the edge of the couch, and shoved his legs open. “Now, everyone hold still while I get him ready for me.”

  With no further warning, Nate shoved two fingers into her pussy only to draw them out and rub them over his pucker. Oh yeah. He’d known this would be coming. Wanted it with a desperation he feared to voice.

  “Turn her around.” Nate continued to ream his ass with his fingers while issuing commands.

  Bel worked with him to turn around and sink down on his throbbing dick. Balls deep in her, he waited for Nate’s next order. Her heat wrapped around him, seared him with her lust. A moan broke free as she leaned forward and plunged her tongue into his mouth. She kissed him with a ferocity he couldn’t credit, but, for the moment, he just enjoyed it. Especially with Nate pressing his lubed-up dick against his tight pucker. Anticipation slithered down his spine to grip his balls. Nate shoved against the tight ring of muscle until his body stretched to accommodate the thick cock burrowing into him. Liam relished every fucking moment of it.

  Bel broke their kiss while Nate pushed into his ass one slow inch at a time, drawing out the pleasure-pain while his cock remained buried in her. After a few very intense moments of letting his lover into his body, he found heaven. Ass full of Nate and his own shaft deep in Bel, he couldn’t have been happier. Couldn’t have imagined a more perfect end to what could have been a terrible day. He locked onto the sight of Nate looming behind Bel, pressed against her back with his hands cupping her tits.