by Elise Jae
He eases it out, and I inhale too sharply. The loss is stranger than the original invasion, but Trench’s mouth is on my pussy so fast, I barely have time to register the feeling before the pleasure returns.
“I’m tempted,” he says against my skin, “To be upset I wasn’t in on the fun.”
“You were supposed to be. Blame the monsters.”
“I’ll be sure to send them a formal complaint.” Still looking up at me he asks, “How do you want me?”
Any way I can get.
“Sit,” I point to the spot I’d just occupied, moving him so his back was against the wall.
Grabbing the tiny little vibrator, I give it a twist and thank high heaven it has batteries.
He’s already started to lube himself up, and I have to take a moment. That shiny, huge cock….
I hand him the vibrator. “This is for my clit.”
He takes it from me, and then laces his fingers in mine, vibe pressed between our palms, holding me steady as I lower myself to him.
His fingers, slick with lube find me, and our eyes lock as he presses against me.
This is the easy part. This is what my body has been relaxing for all day.
When I untangle my hand from his it’s to grab hold of his shoulder. To use the strength in those muscles to keep me upright.
He meets my eyes and flicks the vibe on.
It sends a pulse of heat through me.
Okay, Jess. You’ve done this before. You liked it.
But that guy was not this big.
And I wasn’t half in love with him, either.
The pressure is intense.
It doesn’t really matter that we’ve been working out way up to this. His cock is huge.
“I can’t feel what you’re feeling, Jess. If you need me to stop or back off, or anything… You have to tell me.”
I nod, not sure I’m going to be able to speak if it comes to that.
“I’ve done this before, I know how it goes.”
I try to push back onto him, but there’s so much cock, and so little me….
“Here,” Trench takes one of my hands away from spreading myself for him, and places it on his cock. “Hold me steady.”
I wrap my fingers around him. “If this is you trying to convince me this is going to work, it might be backfiring.”
“It’s going to work.” He says, smoothing a hand along my spine. “I just need to keep your body from trying to run away.”
His hands wrap around my waist, and he holds me still as he presses up.
I have to breathe through the invasion.
“You can let go now, love. Use the vibrator.”
One hand still holding my ass open for him, I quest blindly for the vibrator. Needing it, but so focused on the feeling….
He hasn’t moved. That flared tip is all that’s inside of me, and it’s making it hard to think.
“What do you want, love? Do we need to stop?
Shaking my head, I press up onto my hand, looking into the mirror. “I want it all.”
“Are you sure?”
“Please.” I’m begging and I don’t even care. I need him. Every inch of him. And if I can’t let him fuck me the way I truly want… “Fill my ass with your cock. I want it all.”
He works himself inside of me as I lower and rise, pressing a little further down each time. I breathe through every pressure filled moment
And with one final stroke, he’s buried in me.
I cry out as he stops—there’s nowhere else for his cock to go—and I shiver at the fullness of him as he holds completely still, letting me adjust to the last of him.
“Jesus, Trench.”
“Are you okay?”
I nod, “Just wait a few more seconds before you move.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me.”
“Good.” The word is a breath, and I swirl the vibrator around my clit.
Sliding the vibrator over my soaking pussy to brush it against the base of his cock.
Something changes when he moves. His face contorts. “I was so focused on—”
He flinches, his whole body convulsing and I feel him filling me.
I kiss him, hoping the pain is more pleasure than his face suggests, and his arms grip mine, tight.
He presses up into me, vibe still sending shocks through my clit, and the hunger as he kisses me back, as he devours me….
I come harder than I ever have before. The scream I pour into him is incoherent. I’m not sure I remember my own name, let alone his.
And as I come down, I feel him pulsing in me. Feel his hot come drip out of me, even though he’s still buried inside of me.
We’re both breathing too hard, and neither or us moves. Frozen but for the movement of our lungs.
When he pulls back, it’s to let out a long, shuddering breath, “Sorry.”
“I won’t lie… I’m a little relieved.” I don’t dare move. “I’m not sure I could have survived much more of that.”
But I have to get up at some point. And I don’t think it’s going to get any easier.
He helps me stand, and the rest of him drips out of me. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
He gets to his feet and I’m a little ashamed of how happy I am his legs are wobbling too…. He doesn’t say anything as he walks me into the shower. We clean off together, and I barely remember making it back to bed.
ELEVEN
JESSICA
The “meeting” that felt a little like a threat, looming over my head since I arrived, is finally here.
On the way to Drift & Kimba’s fortress-like home, Trench explains that they meet regularly. Pooling information, and a sort of general welfare check.
“Not that Drift would let any of us disappear without coming after us with a vengeance.”
His smile is soft, and he seems to relax as we pull into the underground parking structure.
But that doesn’t last as he leads me into the chaos.
Kimba and Laurel descend on me as soon as we arrive, and I’m practically dragged away from Trench.
He lets me go, but I have a feeling he likes it as little as I do.
There are only two other women in the room, and I’m introduced to them both in a single breath..
Cindy is holding a bundled-up baby that looks like they’re about four months old. Wide, alert eyes fix on my face and blink as they burble at me.
Andrea is nervously toying with her belly. I would guess she’s due somewhere between Laurel and Kimba.
“Are you enjoying our little glacial slice of the planet?” Kimba asks, handing me a drink.
“It’s not exactly what I was expecting.” I look down at the Paloma. “Margot’s been talking.”
“She’s one of my best friends, and she needed to have a laugh with someone over that request you sent.”
“What request?” Laurel has narrowed her eyes at me. “I am terrified of what your methods are.”
It’s the closest she’s come to calling me a mad scientist in a while.
But Kimba explains, so I don’t have to. And I glance back across the room to where Trench is. But there’s a body blocking my way, and I flinch away from him.
The man standing in front of me is Trench’s brother. I’d stake my life on it.
They don’t look alike. Not really. And I’ve never stood this close to someone who feels so… wrong. But I know they’re brothers.
“Hello, Jessica. I’m Arc. And I’ve come to offer you a rescue from the ghoul.” He casts a sidelong glance at Trench, and the malice beneath that devil-may-care smirk….
Something dark and cold coils inside of me and I have to let out a long breath before I’m able to speak. “You don’t think very highly of your brother, do you?”
Maybe it’s my icy tone, maybe it’s that he’s finally realized I’m not laughing along with his joke.
Either way, that slick smile vanishes from his face.
“You’ve know
n him for a week? I’ve known him my whole life. Don’t fool yourself.”
Maybe he’s right. I don’t know a ton about Trench. I know even less about him, but….
“I think,” I say, stopping him, just as he was about to walk away. “That your memories of your brother may be affecting your ability to see who he currently is. People change, Arc. Maybe you should consider changing too.”
Jaw flexing, Arc turns his scowl on his brother.
He doesn’t say anything, but I know… “Why do you hate him?”
“I don’t.”
“Could have fooled me.”
“Is there a problem?”
I didn’t see Trench move, but I’m glad he’s here.
“No, Arc was just leaving.”
Jaw twitching, Arc dips his head, but says nothing as he goes. And when I look up at Trench, he’s staring at Kimba and Laurel.
“I thought I could leave her safely in your care, but it seems like you don’t care if the jackals come after her.”
“She was fine.” Laurel says, waving her hand. “And Arc is harmless.”
Something tells me, he doesn’t think so.
Kimba turns us around and sends us back to the ridiculously large couch, but when I sit, Trench moves to stand behind me.
She goes around the room introducing the rest of the brotherhood, but I doubt I’ll remember half of their names.
TRENCH
The meeting is as routine as I expected. Right up until the end.
“So, little scientist lady,” Arc says, staring at her in a posture that reeks of boredom. “What have you learned about us from studying him.”
He jerks his head at me, and I hold myself still. I’d love to throw him across the room for the dismissive way he’s spoken to her.
He’s always an asshole. But being an asshole to her…. “Don’t talk to her like that.”
My brother turns a familiar scowl on me, and I know whatever comes next is going to be cruel.
“The agency wants you studying reproduction and sex, right?”
“It’s my third priority, but it’s on the list.”
I know what Arc is getting at, and I wish I would have warned her.
“So, do you know what causes the bond yet?” Andrea, Strike’s bondmate, asks, “Because I’m super curious about that.”
“From what little I’ve been able to research….” She doesn’t look at me and I’m grateful for that. “It acts like a... virus.”
Andrea shifts, scowling at the floor. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Doubt anyone else would, either.” Jessica shrugs. “Basically, the bond is an STI.”
“Again…” Laurel shoots her sister a warning glance, “not a palatable way to put it.”
From beside me, Shock leans forward. “Does that mean you can cure it?”
Years of verbal abuse keep me from reacting to anything the men around me say, but Jessica hasn’t had that. She flinches, her face forms a mask of disgust and she looks at Shock over her shoulder. “It may act like a disease, but there’s nothing to suggest it harms anyone, or that it needs curing.”
Her mouth twists in a purse and she glares at the floor. “Maybe mutation would have been a better term.”
Shock doesn’t back down. “Still, could you reverse it?”
“Why would you want to?”
I watch her, but she doesn’t look at me, thank the Saints
The possibility of having my cake and eating it too has begun to run rampant in my head, and I have to force myself to keep my face blank.
“If you could—and I’m not saying you can—it would take years, maybe decades of research to be sure of.” She looks at her sister this time. “And from what I’ve been told. Finding someone who wants to break the bond afterward would be difficult, so your cohort would be too small.”
Arc snorts. “Just have someone bond with Trench. They’d want out real fast, probably take anything you handed them.”
Some of the others laugh, but mostly, Arc’s words are ignored, as usual. Jessica is staring at him like she wants to say something, but her gaze slides to me and I shake my head. It’s not worth bringing up now.
Drift stands. “I’ll be interested to hear if you come up with anything else between now and our next meeting. But it’s getting late, and we all know we’d rather not have you ladies out of doors when the sun sets.”
The others stand, milling, goodbyeing, and Jess turns to me.
“What the hell was that?”
“It’s just Arc.”
“And no one has told him to cut it the fuck out?”
“It’s easier to just move on.”
“Wait… he’s always like that? And they just let him be an asshole?”
When I don’t respond, her face contorts into a disgusted frown.
“That’s bullshit.”
JESSICA
I’m frustrated. And when I get frustrated, I tend to say things I shouldn’t. I just need a moment alone to clear my head.
“Bathroom?” I ask, and he points me toward an open door a short way from the exit to the garage.
It’s a fairly plain space. But it has everything I need, and when I have the door shut between me and them, I grip the counter, closing my eyes and breathing in deeply.
One breath.
Then two.
Three leads to four and by five I’m ready to try to stretch the tension out of my shoulders.
When I look up at myself, I can’t tell if I’m paler than normal, but I feel sick to my stomach.
Splashing cold water on my face, I focus on breathing a little while longer before I trust myself to venture back out into the room. Who knows how many people are left.
But I don’t get those extra seconds between the bathroom and Trench to myself. Kimba is waiting for me.
She scowls at the floor, and then looks at me. “I’m telling you this only because I think you need to know, and because I know he won’t tell you himself. Trench was the very first member of the brotherhood to request a bondmate.”
“Oh.” My mind blanks and I try to sort through his home, how he lives, anything he’s said, but…. There’s no clue to another woman. “Did she die?”
“No, she rejected him.”
I can’t fathom how anyone would…. Except I can. “It was the monster carcasses, wasn’t it?”
“He didn’t do what so many others do. He didn’t immediately take her to a hotel and cement their bond. And it’s lucky that he didn’t.
“All of the brotherhood have dealt with the fact their own choices have been taken away time and again. I think it’s made all of them very careful about potentially taking someone else’s choices away.”
We might not have the bond, but I know Trench would have felt that rejection keenly.
“What little I know is what D has told me, but Trench didn’t ask for another placement, he has been very careful about keeping his distance from me and the other bondmates….”
“I’d venture he keeps his distance from everyone.”
“Not from you.”
I can’t disagree with her on that, but I can deflect. “That’s because I was dropped in his lap, he has to deal with me. Remember, I’m the one poking and prodding him. It’s self-preservation.”
Glancing across the room, I see Trench talking with Drift. They seem closer than Kimba’s words would have implied.
“Did Drift put us together on purpose?”
“Yes. But I don’t think he had matchmaking in mind. He knows how long Trench has been working with the monsters. Trench understands the processes. He’s a scientist himself in some ways.” Kimba purses her lips, and I know there’s something she isn’t saying. “I know you can’t stay, but I think you’re good for him.”
The problem is that I could stay.
And it would be deceptively easy.
As if he knows we’ve been talking about him—and what else would we be talking about with how much I’ve been looking h
is way—Trench joins us, his hand coming to rest on my lower back.
“I think it’s time to get back to your research.”
Kimba snorts and turns away. “Have fun with that.”
Suspicion creeps in and I look up at him, trying not to blush. “I bet I can guess who delivered that box.”
It’s colder than I remember when we step outside, and Arc is leaning against a bike like the one parked in Trench’s garage.
“You two have a nice night. And remember, you’ve got places to run once you realize….” He leaves the rest unsaid and mounts his bike, disappearing into the daylight with the sharp whine of his engine.
“Has he always been that much of an asshole to you?”
“It’s gotten worse in the last few years, but… for the most part, yeah.”
I get in the car, waiting until we’re out of the shadow of the fortress before I bring up what Kimba told me.
“Kimba is worried about you. She told me about your… problem with your Agency match. Is it true? Did she actually freak out?”
He nods. “I’m the only man I know of who’s requested a bond mate and had her ask to be sent back to Earth.”
“Why in heaven's name would she do that?” I can’t imagine giving him up if he was offered to me.
That thought makes me freeze. Luckily, Trench doesn’t notice.
“You’ve seen what I do here. Like my brother says, I’m a ghoul. I can only imagine what she thought I would do to her in her sleep.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re broken; it just means that they chose the wrong bondmate for you.” I scowl at my own reflection in the car window. “And I know that had to have hurt…. But I’m glad you didn’t bond with her.”
He’s silent for a moment, just looking at me. Then he laces his fingers in mine.
“Me too.”
TWELVE
TRENCH
Lying on the couch with the TV on, I’m not paying attention to the show. I’m exhausted. Being around Arc seems to do that to me anymore. But as Jessica moves around my home, something stirs inside of me. A little spark of hope I thought I’d extinguished a long time ago.
She catches me watching her and leaves whatever it is she was working on.
