by Mia Ashlinn
She smiled again. This time though, she couldn’t contain her delight. “What?” she asked as she crooked her finger upward, seeking and finding his prostate easily. She manipulated the gland relentlessly. Rocking her digit back and forth, she pressed on the rounded protrusion with enough pressure to straddle the line between undeniable pleasure and exquisite pain. Then, rather than waiting for him to answer, she lurched her head forward and locked her teeth on his neck a second time. She sucked his freshly-showered skin into her mouth, the taste of his soap spurring her lust, as she finger-fucked his tight hole.
Suddenly, Shane clamped down on her wrist and forcibly pulled her finger out of his ass. He spun around, rounding on her with a sensual expression she’d become intimately acquainted with before she’d had the complications with her pregnancy, and they’d stopped having sex.
After she’d made it through pregnancy and given birth, he still hadn’t gone Dom on her. He turned to Landon for that side of himself and frankly, she was fucking tired of it. She had been for a while now. She wanted to be fucked—by her Dom and by Landon. She didn’t want nice, sweet, loving sex. She wanted down and dirty, gritty, hardcore fucking.
From the look of Shane, she might get her wish. Her controlled, dominant husband had let his inner beast free, and she was in for an erotic treat. The carnality creasing his handsome face caused her heart to skip, but the wild gleam in his greenish-blue eyes sent her into overdrive, the beats erratic and painful in her chest.
Behind Shane, Landon didn’t appear much better. He had a recklessness in his narrowed blue eyes that elicited shivers in her body. The devil-may-care smile lifting his decadent lips didn’t help the lust coursing through her veins, and her shivers quickly transformed into tremors. Apparently, I’m not the only one fed up with the sexual status quo.
At the moment, Katie-Anne wasn’t sure it was a good thing that they were all this on edge. Before now, she’d yearned for Shane’s dominance. However, she hadn’t counted on Landon’s too. Not to this extent. He seemed as bent on gaining her submission as Shane—if not more so.
Backing up cautiously, Katie-Anne stumbled over her own feet. But as always, Shane was there to catch her. He righted her and said, “Careful, little one. We wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself.” He grinned down at her, the predatory gleam in his magnetizing eyes unnerving and enflaming her all at once. “We have too many plans for you.”
“Oh yeah?” she croaked then eased herself further away. “It looked like you two had plans for each other. Not me.”
Landon snorted. “That’ll be the day, kitten. We were just trying to get ourselves under control.”
“Before we fucked you like we’ve wanted to for months,” Shane added, his wolfish grin growing in size. “Obviously, you’re as tired of being good as we are.”
She was. Truly, she was. If her heart would slow the fuck down and she could catch her breath, she would be ready for all they could dish out plus a whole lot more. But that wasn’t happening. Not now and obviously not any time soon.
In need of space, Katie-Anne continued backing away from her husbands. She breathed as calmly as possible, keeping her movements at a minimum. Only the rise and fall of her chest coupled with her not-so-stealthy steps could be detected.
Of course, the men didn’t give her a chance to get away. They advanced on her, never allowing her to be out of their reach. But she didn’t let that deter her. She sped up—until her back hit the wall.
Chapter 3
Ring. Ring. Ring.
From the kitchen, Katie-Anne heard her cell phone reverberating in one of the other rooms. She couldn’t tell which room it was, but between the vibrations and the shrill sound coming from the speaker, she couldn’t exactly miss it. Although, she could ignore it, and she would.
She was busy, damn it. Pressed up against the kitchen wall with her husbands so close, she refused to forsake a babyless moment for some bullshit, and that was what it had to be. The only people who didn’t have specially assigned ringtones were unknown or blocked numbers.
She frowned. Nope, I’m not answering it.
A moment ago when she’d rammed her back into the wall with a soft grunt, she’d been ready to tuck tail and run from the two dominant men stalking her like prey. The two men who’d trapped her body between theirs and the barrier between the place they cooked dinner together and the one where they actually ate. The two men who’d angled themselves on each side of her, blocking any means of escape.
She wasn’t scared of them. She hadn’t ever been. She feared her response to the dominance they exuded. This would be the first time she’d ever see how far they would truly go with her.
During her high-risk pregnancy, they’d feared pushing her boundaries too far. And after she’d healed from delivery, they’d treated her with the caution of a woman who’d break.
She’d seen how Shane was with Landon, and she wanted that—more than she wanted anything in the world. But she needed to calm herself. She needed to prepare for what they’d do, for what she’d do, and how she’d feel.
God, she didn’t know what the fuck she needed or wanted right now. The only thing she knew for one hundred percent was that she wasn’t answering a damn phone.
“Don’t answer it,” Shane ordered, his tone sounding more like a growl than his normal velvety voice. “Or I will spank your cute ass.”
She grinned, her tremulous lips turning up in what was sure to be a haughty smile. “I wasn’t planning on it, Sir.”
Smirking, Landon disagreed, “It looked to me like you wanted an escape. That gave you the perfect reason.”
“No,” she denied as the phone went silent. “That call reminded me what I want, and it doesn’t involve a phone.”
“Oh really?” Shane asked, brushing his thumb across her lower lip. “What do you want, little one?”
“I want you and Landon to fuck me,” she whispered. Her cheeks flushed as soon as she’d uttered the naughty words. “I need you to fuck me like you mean it, like you’ve wanted to and like I’ve wanted you to.”
“Then why did you run?” Shane inquired coolly. If it weren’t for the keen interest in his gorgeous eyes, she would have believed he didn’t give a shit one way or the other. But he did care, and she wanted to share the truth with him. She always told him what she felt. This was no different.
“I–I was scared of what you make me feel.”
Both men sucked in their breath noisily. Immediately, she realized her faux pas and rushed on, “I don’t mean that way. I love the way you love me. But you’ve always been gently dominant.” She chuckled at her contradictory statement. A Dom was a Dom, right? Not with them. “I mean that you’ve never gone all Dom on me, especially not both of you at the same time. A spanking here and there doesn’t count.”
Landon smirked. But before he could say something, her cell phone went off again. This time though, several texts vibrated then chimed at the same time—one on top of the other. They ran together so quickly that she had to think about how many texts she’d just received. One, two, three.
The heavy silence following the text tones was deafening. However, the deathly absence of sound only lasted a mere second before the house phone began to ring continuously.
“Oh shit,” she breathed in a forcible rush as Landon’s cell phone went off as well. Pushing at both men, she squirmed wildly as she tried to get away from them. She didn’t give a flying fuck what she had to do to get loose, but she had to get to a phone. “Something’s wrong.”
The last time Katie-Anne had been contacted this persistently was back in February when her sister-in-law, Sarah Matthews, had been attacked by her psychotic boyfriend. After Gavin had tortured Sarah, he’d left her beaten, naked, and bound to a tree on the side of the road. If it weren’t for Brooklyn Sokolov, one of the two psychics in Serenity, they might not have found her before…
Katie-Anne shut down her mind right there. She didn’t even want to think about what could have been. Not wh
en something else was happening—something big. What if it’s my baby? What if it’s Kane? Oh, God.
Katie-Anne couldn’t breathe. She needed to hold Kane in her arms. But that wasn’t possible. She’d allowed Sarah and Adam to take him to Shannon’s house for a couple of hours.
Thinking about her precious baby boy, Katie-Anne’s pulse went mad, streaking through her veins in a frenzy. She felt her heart palpitate as it raced to keep up with the adrenaline pounding in her system. Trembling uncontrollably, she stumbled across the room as quickly as possible then tore down the hallway.
Making a mad dash for the house phone, she ignored the alien feeling of her brain disconnecting from her body. She pretended to not feel the sweat seeping from her pores or the smothering sensation of a dreaded weight bearing down on her chest.
Her two husbands followed behind her, their bare feet pounding against the hardwood flooring. But she barely noticed. Her sole focus was on getting to one of the ringing phones and finding out what the fuck was going on.
Finally nearing the closest phone to the kitchen, she lunged for the receiver on the accent table in the hallway. She fumbled around, dropping the headset twice before lifting it to her ear. Only by the time she managed to hear anything, there was a dial tone.
“Damn it,” she cursed before dropping the phone to the floor with a loud clang. Then she spun on her heel, scanning the hallway for her purse as she turned rapidly. When she spotted the colorful handbag, she took off and snatched it off the floor by the chunky chain handle. She ripped apart the magnetic snap closure then dug through the oversized interior until she found her cell phone.
Once glance at the three text messages and two notifications on the phone screen jolted Katie-Anne back into her body. Equal parts relief and fury coursed through her anxiety-ridden body. It wasn’t Kane. Thank God. He was fine. It was her closest friends—Jaycee, Shannon, and Ella. And worst of all, it was Sarah. According to Shannon’s text, her sister-in-law was in a shitload of pain again, and it was all because of Leila. Damn her to hell. This time The Bitch is going to pay.
* * * *
Hunched over the toilet in Shannon’s guest bathroom, Sarah Matthews puked up the remnants of her breakfast. She heaved and heaved, expelling more food than she could have possibly consumed. Tears streaked down her face unchecked, but she couldn’t bat them away. Her hands shook too badly.
Once she finished vomiting, she bent her knees and used the heels of her feet to scoot as far away from the toilet as possible. She curled up in the corner, allowing herself to fall completely apart as the memories assaulted her in a violent rush of horrifying information.
Before today, she’d forgotten the smaller details of Gavin’s attack. Well, not anymore. Now she remembered everything, all the dirtiest and grittiest details—thanks to the pictures and letter Leila had sent.
A knock on the door caused Sarah to jump with an “Eep.” But instead of responding, she clamped her mouth shut, praying that whoever it was would go away—quickly. Predictably, he didn’t.
“Sweet pea, let me in,” Adam Stanton urged. She heard the caution in his voice, the hesitation. This moment was the first time she’d ever heard the smooth, suave man seem alarmed. He’d always been the calm one. He’d been her knight in shining armor, her protector.
Unnerved by Adam’s overt worry, she replied, “No. Please just go away.”
As soon as she’d spoken, she regretted her words. Adam wouldn’t listen to her. He wouldn’t leave, and she’d probably just hurt his feelings or angered him. The submissive streak she despised arose inside her, and within a heartbeat, she found herself fighting her need to open the door for him. But she fought the compulsion with everything in her.
The handle shook suddenly. “Open the door,” he commanded in a compelling voice that she instantly recognized. It was his Dom voice, the one he only brought out when he reached his breaking point. If she didn’t open that door in a couple of seconds, he would knock it down. She had no doubt about that.
She crawled across the cold floor and opened the door she’d locked only a few minutes before to stare up at one of the two most handsome men she’d ever laid eyes on. He peered right back down at her, his light-blue eyes narrowed as he seemed to check her for any injuries.
“What happened?” he demanded, his Dom voice still in residence.
Averting her gaze so he couldn’t see the lie in her always too-transparent eyes, she feebly muttered, “Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me,” Adam replied in a clipped tone. “I need to know what’s going on. I can’t help you if you don’t let me.”
Instantly, she felt horrible. He shouldn’t feel as though he needed to “fix” her or whatever was going on in her life. But he did, and she’d let him over the past months. She’d leaned on him because he was the only person she trusted completely. Everyone else scared her, even Deke—to a degree. Although the aloof man didn’t exactly help his case, considering he avoided her as often as not.
“I don’t need your help,” she lied. “I need to deal with this on my own.” And she did. She didn’t want anyone to help her this time. She didn’t even want them to know what Leila had done, what she’d said. She wanted to stand on her own two feet.
Helpless to the fear of the past and powerless to fight the present, Sarah closed her eyes. She saw the words written in red ink that would forever be burned into her mind.
Dear Sarah,
Revenge is the sweetest dish in life. Unfortunately, you’re the key to me getting everything that I want. That makes you my insurance policy. Well, it’s not unfortunate for me. Just for you.
Here’s the deal, little girl. I’ve found some interesting things that you probably don’t want the world to see. If you want me to keep them under wraps, you will make sure your friends play along in my little game of sweet revenge.
As I once told Jaycee, I don’t like to win by default. The only way to win something is when the losers fight me like hell. So that means you have a job. You are going to officially start the war that Ella promised me. Even with the things I’ve done for your friends, I’m not convinced they’ll be willing to play along, not at the level that I wish. Pussies. But if they know what I have and what I’ll do, they’ll be ready to take me down.
You will do this for me. Otherwise, I will retaliate. Neither of us want that. Do we?
Just in case you don’t know what I have, check out the lovely pictures of you that I obtained from our mutual friend, Gavin. While I’ve been out of town, I discovered that the world we live in is a very small place. Your dear Dom has connections to all of us that no one knows. Not even your precious Deke and Adam.
If it weren’t for the fact that I need your help, I would enjoy sharing every gory detail with them. But oh well, I prefer to show this whole fucking town who the Queen Bee is. Power is more important than dick any day. No matter how big and talented it is. I’ll bet Adam and Deke would fit into both categories and a hell of a lot more. But you’ll never know. Will you? They wouldn’t want to touch Gavin’s secondhand toy, not considering who he is.
Yours truly,
Queen Leila
P.S. Tell a soul, and you and your friends will live to regret it.
“Sarah,” Adam whispered, and she snapped her eyes open. Thankfully. Otherwise, she might recall what had been in the pictures. And that would be bad. Very, very bad.
Adam dropped down beside her with a grunt, but he didn’t touch her. He merely joined her on the cold, hard tiles. “I know something happened. You have to tell me about it.”
“No,” she replied. “I don’t.”
“Please.”
In all the time she’d known Deke and Adam, she’d never once heard either of them say please. She’d figured that particular word wasn’t in their vocabulary. Obviously she’d been wrong. And with that, she broke. She had to tell him. Maybe she didn’t have to share every detail, but she had to share something.
When she raised her gaze to h
is, her breath stalled in her chest. He was so darn gorgeous. His thick chestnut hair had been obviously mussed by a hand delving through the strands. His luminous blue eyes held a tightness she’d never seen before from the charismatic man. Mr. Suave wasn’t present in this form of Adam—not at all.
Staring deeply into his eyes, she nibbled on her bottom lip. His intense gaze held her captive, transfixing her. And she felt her body being drawn to his for comfort. She needed him. She needed his touch. From the tension emanating off his rock-hard body, he needed her as well.
Leaning forward, Sarah lifted her head as she hoped for a kiss from Adam, a kiss that never came. He brushed the side of her face with the back of his hand, the caress soft and fleeting but exquisitely tender. “Not like this, sweet pea,” he whispered. “I want our first kiss to be special. You deserve that.”
She flushed in embarrassment, pulling away from him quickly. Only she retreated in every way—her emotions as well as her body. “O–o–oh,” she stuttered. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. It wasn’t right.”
He smiled. “No, I’m glad you wanted my comfort. It’s just not the right time for a kiss. But I can hold you.”
“O–o–oh.” She stuttered again then said, “O–okay.”
Reaching around her shoulders, he tucked her closely into his side. “Sweet pea, please tell me what happened.”
And again, she felt compelled to share everything with him. So she told him what she could—the bare basics. “I got some pictures of”—she paused to gulp—“me from the attack.”
“What?” he yelled, his face turning purple with rage. She flinched, unable to handle his sudden violent explosion or his volatile expression. Gone was the gentle, warmhearted man of a second ago. This was a man who looked ready to tear someone apart limb from stinking limb. “Give them to me.”
Sighing, she hoisted herself from the floor and trudged out of the bathroom to retrieve the pictures he wanted to see, the pictures she would rather die than share. But she knew that he would see them, one way or another.
