QUIVER, BOOK SIX (A DARK ROMANCE)

by Laura Avery

  So, I figured why not devour in the forbidden fruit that had made my cock hard for as long as I could remember? Now that Pierce was convinced she knew nothing about Charlotte and Liam, though, everything was all screwed up. I had already tasted her, already been inside of her, already had all of her. Giving that up now wasn’t something I wanted to commit to.

  The whole thing was confusing as fuck. I had never hated someone so much but wanted them so much at the same time. I knew her well enough to know she was itching to talk about it, to discuss our feelings until we were blue in the face, but I didn’t fucking do that.

  Even if I had understood what the hell I was feeling; I wouldn't want to discuss it.

  I didn’t want to talk. I wanted to fuck, rough and long.

  Emery’s pussy was the best way to not think about all this fucking stress.

  It was the escape I had been searching 21 years for.

  No, fuck that, the escape I had been waiting 21 years for.

  “Say it,” I demanded again, growing impatient.

  She snapped her eyes open suddenly, yanking back from me so roughly that she stumbled backward and practically fell onto the ground. I grabbed her by the elbow and held her up before she could lose her balance completely. “What the fuck, Emery, watch it.”

  She pulled away from me like I had a disease. “Get off me!”

  My eyes narrowed and my heart started to race in my chest. Who the fuck did she think she was talking to? I had just punched my brother in the fucking face over her and she had the nerve to catch an attitude?

  I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back toward me. “Excuse me?”

  She looked down at the ground, already losing her nerve.

  “You must have temporarily lost your mind talking to me like that, Emery,” I seethed as she shook under me. I closed my eyes and tried to ignore my growing cock that was starting to take over my body. “Now why don’t you tell me what the fuck has got you so nervy?”

  “Charlotte,” she barked the word at the ground.

  Charlotte? Charlotte? Who the fuck was Charlotte?

  I shook my head, growing aggravated. “Who the fuck is Charlotte?” I shook my head. “Liam’s Charlotte? That fucking Charlotte?” I pulled her even tighter against me, desperate to control her. “Why the hell does that bitch have you catching an attitude with me?”

  She looked up at me again, narrowing her eyes into slits.

  Ugh, she was so hot when she got feisty.

  There was nothing better than watching her get all hot and bothered just to remind her that I was the one in control, that it was me who she belonged to and that was never going to change. Just the thought, just the fucking vision of someone trying to take her, made me want to fucking snap.

  “Do you not remember what you just said to your brother in there?” She dug her nail into the front of my shirt accusingly. “About how you would remember that you guys could share Charlotte?” She yanked out of my grasp and turned around. “If you guys can share Charlotte, you might as well share me too, right?” She hurried toward the door, trying to pull it open. “In fact, I’m going to go find Pierce right now and let him in on this new development.”

  “Emery,” I sneered, not liking the direction this was taking.

  “Of course, I’m not sure I’m his type.” She got the door loose and sighed in anger. “Oh, well, I guess there’s only one way to find out, right?” She shot me a challenging look and tried to step inside.

  I closed in on her rapidly, pulling her body back outside and slamming the door shut with my fist. “Are you trying to make me punch both of my brothers in the face on the same damn day, Emery?”

  A brief look of guilt passed over her face. “I just think the same rules should apply to all of us, don’t you?” She pushed her fat bottom lip out, making it look extra puffy.

  My cock throbbed. I was in the mood to be damn rough.

  “I don’t even know what the fuck you’re talking about,” I snapped, growing more frustrated by the second. “I wouldn’t touch Charlotte with a ten-foot pole, not after what she did to my fucking brother.”

  “You still touched me after what you thought I did to him,” she pointed out.

  “That’s different,” I told her even though it wasn’t.

  “How? How is it different?”

  “I think you have this whole thing fucking confused, lamb.” I shook my head. “You don’t get to ask the questions in this situation, I do.” I gestured between the two of us. “I will never answer to you, you will always answer to me, always.” She tried to look tough but her quiver gave her away.

  She was still the same timid girl I longed to own since the first time I saw her.

  Since the first time I had felt her.

  “Then I don’t want to fuck you anymore,” she declared, stepping away again.

  She didn’t want to what? She really had lost her mind.

  “Excuse me?” My head snapped forward as I put my hands on her again, pulling her pale body into me and pressing her creamy thighs into my growing cock. “Clearly, that isn’t going to work.”

  I could feel her skin starting to grow hot. She wanted me just as much as I wanted her. She forced her head back and forth. “I’m not going to have someone inside of me who wants his brother’s whatever she is around him, too. I can find someone who I will be enough for.”

  The pure thought was enough to make me end the game she was playing. I grabbed her body hard and flung it over my shoulder, carrying her over to the table that sat on the other side of the deck and pushed her down into one of the chairs. “I want you to listen very carefully.” I boxed her in, leaning down to look her in the eye. “You are never going to find someone else, you’re never going to have anyone else. I’ll kill everyone and anyone in my sight before I let that fucking happen.”

  My heart was thumping, growing with my rage. I gripped her face in my hands when she refused to look at me. “Look at me,” I growled. “I said I’ll fucking kill them and everyone close to them. You hear me?”

  Her eyes were watering, growing lost in mine. “So, let me get this straight. You get to do whatever you want? Fuck whoever you want? And I have to stand by like a good girl and only have eyes for you?”

  “Now you’re starting to get it.” The truth was that I hadn’t had the desire to fuck anyone else since I had my way with Emery. I’d had plenty of chances, too. Fuck, I got opportunities just walking across the fucking campus but no one held my attention for more than a second. Nothing compared to the high of her tightness, to the ability to control her, to hunt her.

  No way I was going to tell her that, though.

  Whatever this was, this wasn’t that.

  Showing weakness meant giving up control and control was my favorite.

  “Good to know,” she mumbled, once again focusing over my shoulder.

  I hated when she refused to look at me.

  “Why?” I asked suspiciously. “Do you have eyes for someone else?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe.”

  She was the worst liar but just the fact that the thought was in her head was enough to piss me off. “Yeah?” I moved even closer to her, linking my hand up her shirt and clutching one of her breasts roughly. “You have some other guy you’re thinking about, huh? Some other guy you wish would touch you the way I did? Make you cum so hard you scream for hours, little lamb?”

  She closed her eyes, tilting her head to the side and sighing at the sensation my fingers had on her nipples. She spread her legs off impulse and I could just imagine how wet her tight little center was getting. She was always so wet by the time I got to her, waiting for my cock like a good girl.

  “What if I was?” she whispered, not meaning a word of it.

  I twisted on her hard nipple, causing her to cry out in pain. “I would cut his fucking eyes out of his head so that he could never look at what’s mine again, little lamb.” I realized how true the words were as I said them; there was nothing I wouldn�
��t do when it came to claiming what was mine, what was owed to me, what I deserved.

  “No,” she moaned. “Please, don’t do that.”

  I pinched her nipple again. “I’ll kill him slowly and painfully.”

  She gasped out in pleasure.

  She was getting off on this, loving my possessiveness.

  I always knew she was a little freak deep down.

  “Admit there’s no one,” I demanded.

  “There’s no one else,” she gave in right away. “Never has been.”

  I crushed my mouth on top of her and shoved my tongue inside, swallowing up every inch of hers in mine and swirling it around. It felt like forever since I had tasted her; since I had taken her body the way I wanted.

  My hand found the top of her pants, desperate for a touch of my cunt.

  The back door swung open and Emery sprung away from me, wiping her lips off and looking guiltily over my shoulder. She hurriedly tried to readjust her face as if that would hide everything.

  I went to her again but she placed her hand on my chest. “Your brother!”

  “Ask me if I give a fuck?” I snarled, still craving her pussy lips.

  “If you two are done dry humping out here,” Liam called loudly. “We still have someone out there just waiting to kill all of us. You know, just a reminder.” He had marks on his neck from where we had gone at it but looked fine besides the small ounce of noticeable redness.

  I wasn’t surprised he was acting like everything was all good now. It was how we dealt with things in our family. If we had an issue, we fought it out physically, and then let it go just as quick as it had come.

  Still didn’t mean I felt like seeing him already, though.

  “Give us a minute,” I growled back.

  Liam grunted but went back inside anyway.

  Emery stiffened underneath me again, the moment of heat between us gone. I shoved my head into her shoulder and sighed in frustration. “My brother’s a fucking asshole,” I mumbled against her skin, annoyed that my cock wasn’t going to be getting any of the relief it so desperately craved. Leave it to him to ruin my only chance at anxiety relief for the day and remind me that we had more pressing things to deal with.

  “Tell me about it,” Emery whispered.

  I wasn’t sure if she meant it for the same reasons I did but the shift in her body language awoke something inside of me and I found myself leaning forward and sniffing her hair. She smelled good, like cinnamon combined with roses. It made me want to eat her up.

  I had a momentary lapse in judgment and before I could question it I found myself speaking the words into her soft black hair. “I only said that thing about Charlotte so Liam knew to stay the fuck away from you.” I kissed the side of her skin. “Not because I have any interest in getting anywhere near her.”

  She relaxed under me and it immediately put my guard back up.

  I had revealed too much, tried to reassure her.

  It wasn’t what I did.

  I started to grow hungry again, wanting her body under me shaking while she moaned my name over and over again with her little wide doe eyes looking up at me like I was her fucking king. My cock sprang forward again; sick and tired of the teasing I had been feeding him for the last ten minutes.

  I moved her hair to the side and started to kiss her neck. I went rigid when I saw the red marks there, burning into her skin like a sucker punch to the center of my gut. My blood starting boiling all over rapidly, I shoved her hair to the side and arched her neck toward me. “He fucking choked you out?”

  Emery sprung forward, pushing off me as she pulled her shirt tight across her neck again. “It was nothing, I’m fine.” Her voice caught on the end of her sentence and I knew she was full of it. She refocused her eyes, refusing to show me the look I knew was there.

  Fear.

  Fear from someone other than me.

  I was going to fucking kill him.

  “Let me see,” I demanded, grabbing her by the shirt and pulling her closer to me as I pushed the fabric aside. “Fuck,” I mumbled when the red scratches really came into effect. I knew from experience how hard you had to squeeze someone to leave marks like that. “How long were you out for?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted reluctantly.

  I pressed into her skin softly and nearly exploded with rage when she cringed in pain. “How bad does it hurt?” I pulled her shirt back up, not wanting to push the sensitive skin any harder than I had to.

  “Not too bad,” she lied.

  “I have something inside I can put on it to help with the pain.” I was trying to form sentences that made sense but I was having trouble thinking straight, finding it difficult to see past the red spots forming in my vision.

  My episodes of rage always started the same, in bright red.

  “Where else did he touch you?”

  She shook her head. “Nowhere, I promise.”

  “You promised me he didn’t touch you anywhere,” I seethed.

  She sighed. “He just choked me, Jackson, that’s all.”

  “Right, that’s all,” I told her sarcastically. “We’re going to go back inside of there and look through more pictures, Emery, and then I’m going to take you and rip your clothes off before checking over every inch of you.” I took a step closer to her and grabbed her bottom lip in my mouth. “I’m going to find the son of a bitch who put his hands on you and just like anyone else who touches you, I’m going to fucking kill him.”

  It didn’t even shock me how much I meant it.

  If you didn’t protect what was yours no one else was going to do it for you.

  And Emery?

  Well, she was definitely mine.

  Chapter Three

  “Jesus, he really was hard.”

  EMERY

  I had spent three hours going through picture after picture, studying them carefully before deciding it was best to rule anyone out as our mystery stalker. After all that, I was still no closer to being able to point him out of a lineup. It was extremely stressful, especially because I kept seeing his face in my mind, his hands wrapped around my neck while that evil smile lit up his face.

  I pressed down so hard on my pencil that it snapped in half.

  Jackson raised his eyebrows from his spot next to me and frowned.

  I had stayed at the house as long as possible before I had to go to class. Of course, Jackson and Pierce had insisted on coming with me. Normally I would call them overprotective but I knew better than to argue with them when they were so worked up. We sat in the library now, waiting for my teacher to stop boring us to death and get to the assignment that was due today.

  I hated meeting in the library. It was stuffy and packed but a fire in the English building had left a shortage of space for classes to be held so we had to take what we could get.

  Jackson grabbed my hand under the table and started turning my fingers over in his palm, trying to relax me. It was crazy how he knew what I was thinking without me even saying it. He knew I needed to be touched right now, knew that I was over analyzing things that I shouldn’t be.

  There were still so many secrets between us.

  He had no idea I knew where Charlotte was.

  He had no idea I had been to see her.

  I didn’t even know if he believed me when I said I didn’t know anything about Liam and her having some weird situation going on. All I could think about was breaking him open, making him love me the way I loved him. And all he could think about was…

  Well, who the hell knew what he was thinking about anymore?

  Whatever it was, I was positive it had to do with revenge. The question was revenge against who? The guy who had left the marks on my neck? Charlotte? His father? Me? I wasn’t naive enough to think Jackson caring about the guy who had hurt me or about Liam getting in my face meant something. It wasn’t that other people hated me or wanted to hurt me, it was that they were trying to hate on what belonged to him. It all came down to possession with
Jackson and as far as he was concerned no one was allowed to make my life hell besides him.

  He slid my hand lower, placing it on his overgrown cock.

  Hotness came over me.

  Okay, so maybe he was thinking about that.

  He smirked when I slid my hand lower and found his tip through his jeans, gently rubbing back and forth over his tenderness. He parted his mouth slightly and placed his hand over mine, pressing harder into him.

  Jesus, he really was hard. Poor baby had probably been carrying around his hard on since the deck earlier when he had caught Pierce giving me a hug. The look of jealousy in his eye when he had seen us was such a turn on. It was exactly how I imagined myself looking every time a girl glanced in his direction.

  He closed his eyes when I started tracing small circles into his long pipe, his knuckles curling to the side of his body in need. The feeling was mutual. The wetness between my legs had started to cause my toes to curl.

  I tore my hand from him, not wanting to tease either of us any longer.

  Jackson grunted in annoyance and a second later he was pushing up out of his chair and pulling my body after his toward the back of the library. I glanced back at the class to make sure no one had noticed us slipping away but they were all either half asleep or half paying attention to the professor rambling away off her notes at the front of the room.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, following him blindly.

  I should have known he wouldn’t answer, choosing to pull me after him instead. We rounded a few stacks of books before he pulled me down a long hallway and then shoved my body into the back of one of the bookcases. His cloudy grey eyes searched mine as he reached out and took a strand of my hair in his fingers.

  “Jackson,” I mumbled.

  “I’m done waiting, lamb.” He yanked on the piece of hair he was holding roughly before pulling my face close to his lips. “It’s time for me to take what I’ve been thinking about all fucking day.”