by Katee Robert
“She’ll have to get in line,” Gaeton gives a rough laugh. “Fuck, I needed that.”
“I’d wager you need a whole lot more than that.” Beast sets the flogger on the nightstand. “But it’s a start.” He surveys us. “Gaeton, on the bed. Hands and knees.”
Gaeton slowly obeys. I can’t tell if he’s resistant to the position or if he’s floating on endorphins from the flogging. It’s been a year, but he’s a thousand times better at closing himself off to me than he was when we were together. Or maybe he simply never bothered to shut me out before. Neither option makes me happy.
He crawls onto the bed and kneels between my thighs with his hands on either side of my hips. His gaze drops to my breasts and his fingers dig into the comforter as if he has to fight himself not to touch me.
“Gaeton.”
We both look over as Beast strips. He does it like he does everything else—efficiently. I can’t help drinking him in the same way I drank in Gaeton. Beast is driven by demons he’s never named, and it’s reflected in his body. A variety of scars cover him from shoulders to ankles, physical marks of things he survived before coming to Carver City. A few of them are bullet wounds, but most are long lines from knives and similar slashing weapons. Each muscle is clearly defined as further evidence of just how hard he drives himself. When we were together, he spent significant time in the gym and gun range, preparing for a war that he wasn’t able to win in Sabine Valley, doing what he could to ensure one wasn’t on the horizon here.
It’s on the horizon now.
A glint of metal catches my eye and I lift my head higher. A gasp escapes my lips at the sight of the metal ring through the head of his penis. “You—You’re pierced.” That definitely wasn’t there the last time I saw him naked.
“A lot of things have changed, princess.” He gives me a cold look. “You don’t know me anymore. You don’t know either of us.”
Before tonight, I would have said that people don’t really change, and certainly not in the timeline of a single year. I still believe it. But there’s no escaping the truth that the last few hours have driven home.
I never really knew Beast and Gaeton to begin with.
Chapter 7
Gaeton
This is a mistake and I can’t stop. My shit is all tangled up inside. Anger and need and the one thing guaranteed to still the frantically circling thoughts in my head for a little while. If things were different, I’d have called Hook to do the deed, would have done anything but give my submission to a man who used to be my enemy. Maybe he still is. I don’t know anymore. Shit has gotten weird tonight, and it’s about to get a whole lot weirder.
Isabelle stares up at me with wide, furious eyes. As if she can will me to fuck her the way I’m aching to. I shake my head. “No.”
She blinks. “No, what?”
“No, I’m not going to forget myself tonight.” I say it as much to remind myself as to remind her. “A punishment isn’t for enjoyment, Isabelle.” Isabelle. Not Rose. No matter what comes of this, she’ll never be my Rose again.
The mattress gives a little as Beast climbs up behind me. I might imagine the way he catches his breath. Hard to say. He’s not my usual type—too mean, too beat-up, too angry—but fuck if seeing him strip didn’t send a shiver of anticipation through me. No matter what else is true, Beast won’t hold back. He’s going to fuck my ass, hard and rough, and I’m practically shaking with anticipation. With need.
He catches my hips, digging his fingers in until it hurts. I moan and have to fight myself not to thrust back against his grip. “That’s it,” he murmurs. He palms my ass, squeezing and spreading me.
I half expect him to simply go for it. I am not prepared for what sure as fuck feels like appreciation.
Isabelle is looking down my body as if she has a chance in hell at seeing what he’s doing. It makes me laugh. “Like I said: punishment.”
Beast spreads lube down my ass crack and presses a single finger into me. “You fuck Hook.”
“Yeah,” I grind out.
“He takes your ass rough.”
It’s not a question, but I answer it all the same. “Yeah. He pounds my ass.”
More lube. “Good.” He removes his finger, and then the head of his thick cock is pressing against me. I can feel the cool metal of his piercing and then it’s just sheer fullness. I exhale slowly and try to relax into it.
When Beast speaks again, his voice has gone even more gravelly. “Keep your cock away from her pussy. Anything else goes.”
“Yes … Sir.” The words feel dragged from my throat. It’s just for this scene, just to deliver this punishment. It doesn’t mean a single damn thing. I don’t even like the bastard, even if I want to fuck him.
He grips my hips and shoves the rest of the way into me. Another moan slides free, despite my best efforts. “Fuck, that feels good.”
Beast barely lets me adjust to his size before he’s moving again. For all his promises of a rough fucking, he takes his time finding the right stroke that has me squirming on his thick length. My body goes hot and my cock is so hard, I have half a thought that I might come without anyone touching it.
Isabelle writhes beneath me, trying to see, to touch, to do something. “I hate you both!”
A small vindictive part of me enjoys how the tables have turned. She’s part of this, and yet kept separate. It’s nowhere near enough to balance the scales, but it’s a start.
Beast presses a hand to my back, urging me down so my ass is in the air and he’s sinking deeper yet. “Tease her.”
“You bastard, I swear—” She trails off in a whimper as I brace my elbows on either side of her chest so I can palm her breasts and press them together for easier access. Isabelle always did have sensitive nipples, and a year hasn’t changed that. I tongue her, but I’m too distracted by Beast’s cock in my ass to do a proper job of it.
He’s fully fucking me now. Strong, driving thrusts that I’m forced to brace against to avoid being shoved up Isabelle’s body. “Fuuuuuck.”
“How close?”
Strange that for all I dislike this man intensely, we’ve worked together for enough years that it’s no effort to read between the lines. “I’m close.”
He catches my left upper arm and tows me up and off Isabelle, until my back is pressed against his front. I have a good six inches on him, so he has to stretch to sink his teeth into the sensitive spot where my shoulder meets my neck. I curse and shudder and, fuck, that’s good.
It’s even better when his hand closes around my cock and he starts jacking me. I stare hazily down at Isabelle. She’s spread out in my bed, her pussy damn near weeping with need. Beast’s cock is in my ass and he’s fucking me with his hand. I don’t know how to comprehend this turn of events, so I stop trying. I give myself over to the pleasure he’s dealing out in rough strokes.
His low voice caresses my ear. “Come all over her pussy, Gaeton. Punish her.”
Another stroke. Two. On the third I lose control. I come so fucking hard, it feels like the top of my head explodes. My body ceases to be my own. It becomes a thing driven by lust and anger, thrusting into Beast’s fist as my come spurts all over Isabelle’s pussy and up onto her hips. The sight of it is lewd as shit. I never, ever would have pulled a stunt like this before with her. I never would have dared debase her even the slightest in the way we are systematically doing now.
I love it.
Beast shoves me back down on all fours and resumes his relentless pace. I didn’t realize he was holding back, not until the moment he stops holding back. Each thrust drives a grunt from my throat, and I have to brace hard against the mattress, my face pressed against Isabelle’s sternum, to keep from sliding with the force of them. It feels so fucking good. I never want it to stop.
Against all reason, my cock starts hardening again. I curse and Beast laughs roughly. “Down.” He presses me down onto Isabelle, taking the time to line us up so that my cock slides through her pussy lips and up
over her clit with each stroke, lubed up with my own come.
“Oh gods.” She lifts her hips as much as she’s able. “Please. Please, Gaeton, please, please, please. I ache for you.”
I almost forget myself, almost slide back enough to give me access to where we both want me to be. Beast’s hands gripping my hips stop me. “Don’t you fucking dare, Gaeton.” I’ll have bruises from his fingertips tomorrow. “You sink into her pussy, and I’m going to put a ring around your cock and play with you for hours before I let you come—if I let you come.”
Fuck, but that sounds hot as hell. Agonizing, but hot.
Still, I can’t let Beast get any funny ideas about what’s happening here. I drop my face to Isabelle’s neck and groan. “You’re not my Dom, asshole. I stop obeying you when this scene ends.”
Another savage thrust. “Then obey.”
I grind down against Isabelle’s pussy, on her clit. For just a moment, I allow myself to fantasize about if things were different. If we weren’t fighting, weren’t punishing Isabelle for a pair of broken hearts that festered instead of healing, if things were simple and I could sink into her as Beast sank into me, if we became something more than a fucked up love triangle.
I orgasm again, and this time Beast follows me over the edge. He yanks out of me and then his come hits my back. I barely manage to catch myself before I collapse onto her, and it’s Beast who guides me over to slump next to Isabelle’s smaller body. He moves to kneel between her thighs and gives her a cold smile. “You’re furious.”
“You have no idea,” she snarls.
“When’s the last time you were denied something you wanted, princess?” He skates his fingers down her stomach, smearing my come across her skin. “You don’t need to think so hard. I already know the answer—never. You’ve never been denied.” He pushes two fingers into her. Even over her moan, I hear his breath shudder.
I understand the reaction down to a cellular level. Getting my mouth on her after a year felt like … I don’t have the fucking words to describe it. Isabelle might have clawed my heart out of my chest, but I still miss the fuck out of her. Apparently I’m not the only one.
Beast fucks her slowly with his fingers. I don’t like the guy, but best I can tell, he’s a decent Dom. There are a couple ways to play out the end of this scene depending on what we’re trying to accomplish. The cruel thing would be to leave Isabelle hanging on the edge, denied one last orgasm. It’s not how I’d handle things, but Beast is leading this time around, so I push back the instinctive desire to make her come screaming again and let him work.
And that’s when I realize what he’s doing. He’s using my come as lube to fuck her. He circles her clit with his thumb again and again until Isabelle digs her heels into the mattress in an attempt to get closer. “Please. Please don’t stop.”
I don’t expect Beast to turn those baby blues on me. “What do you think, Gaeton?”
“Don’t leave her on the edge.”
“You’re so fucking nice sometimes.” He shakes his head. He’s still drawing Isabelle closer and closer to the edge, for all that he’s focused on me. This, too, is a dose of humiliation to our woman’s pride.
I follow his lead and don’t look at her, though I’m clocking her reactions out of the corner of my eye. “Someone has to balance you out. For someone so pretty, you’re a real dick.”
Amusement flares in those blue eyes, and the warmth it brings would knock me on my ass if I weren’t already lying down. “You didn’t have a problem with my dick a few minutes ago.”
My body sings in response. No point in denying it was good. He’s got his fingers coated in the evidence. I shrug. “I like the way you fuck. Doesn’t mean I like you.”
He drags his gaze over me, lingering on my shoulders, chest, and then down to my hips and where my cock is trying to twitch its way back to life. Fuck, but I don’t think I can go again so soon, no matter how motivated this situation makes me. He finally lands on my thighs and calves, before moving back up again, just as slowly, to my face. The warmth isn’t gone from his eyes, and I don’t know how to deal with it.
He gives a shrug of his own. “On that we can agree.” He twists his wrist, and Isabelle’s spine bows.
She sobs out each exhale. I finally give into the temptation to look at her, and fuuuuuuck. Her whole body is flushed and she’s writhing under Beast’s touch. She’s so wet, I can hear every time he thrusts his fingers deep. He could have taken her over the edge, but he’s building her up to one hell of an orgasm, a single stroke at a time.
She turns wide dark eyes on me. Her lipstick got smeared a little somewhere along the way, and the imperfection just makes me want her more. “Please.”
I should withdraw, should maintain the distance Beast has established. The better to play this game out. I can’t. I never did have a damn bit of sense where this woman was concerned.
I cup her jaw and kiss her. The second my tongue strokes along hers, Beast stops playing around and picks up his pace. I jump when he braces a hand on my thigh and lift my head enough to look at him.
He’s leaning over us, his expression intense. “Don’t stop.”
I don’t even pause to consider disobeying. I simply turn back to take Isabelle’s mouth again. Kissing her after all this time feels like crashing through a hard shell I spent so long building up from the ruins of my heart. Melodramatic? Fuck yes. But it’s the truth.
I never stopped wanting her.
I never stopped loving her, either.
She comes with a cry I drink down, and even as it feels so damn good to be this close to her again, I can’t shake the feeling that making this pact is a mistake I’ll never recover from.
Chapter 8
Isabelle
It feels like I take one long blink and we’re in the shower. It’s not a particularly large shower, though it is a walk-in, and with Gaeton’s broad shoulders taking up space, it feels small. Even so, neither of the men even brings up the option of us taking turns. I’m not complaining. After the events of the last few hours, I don’t think my legs can hold me. That weakness is something that will bother me. Tomorrow. Tonight, I don’t have the capacity to do more than lean against Gaeton’s chest and watch Beast soaping up.
Gaeton keeps me on my feet with an arm around my waist, and I let myself sink into that touch a little. My whole chest aches from wanting him—from wanting them both—but I know better than to say as much.
If tonight has proven anything, it’s that I don’t know these men nearly as well as I thought I did.
“You’re thinking awfully hard over there, princess.” Beast steps beneath the spray of water to rinse off and then moves out of the way. “Give her here.”
Gaeton squeezes me a little and then passes me over. Once again, I feel like a living doll with no will of my own. I frown up at them. “I am more than capable of standing on my own.”
“No, you’re not.” Beast turns me and takes a position identical to the one Gaeton had, his arm around my waist, his chest to my back. He’s only a few inches taller than me, so he rests his chin on my shoulder easily. “You’re shaking, and if left to your own devices, you’d be a sobbing puddle on the floor.”
I try to jerk away, but he easily holds me captive. “I would not.”
“Yes, you would.” Gaeton ducks under the spray and, when he comes up, he shakes his head like a dog. “The effects of a scene don’t end when the scene does.”
I cross my arms over my chest, and then feel foolish for doing even that much while we’re all standing naked in this enclosed space. “I’m fine.”
Gaeton gives me a long look. “The truth, Isabelle.”
Damn him. I lift my chin and try not to notice how my body shakes. “I am scared and uncertain and feel entirely unmoored. I’m also pissed as hell that you pulled that stunt in the bedroom with each other to punish me.”
“Better,” Beast murmurs. He steps back, pulling me with him. “Why don’t you go change the sheets
and I’ll finish up here?”
Gaeton nods and he trails his fingers along my stomach as he passes us out of the shower, leaving sparks in his wake. We listen to him walk out of the bathroom and then Beast moves me a bit away from him. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”
“I can do it myself.”
He shoots me a look that stops me from reaching for the soap. “If I want you to do it yourself, I’ll tell you to do it yourself. Now stand still.”
I obey. Partly because I promised to. Partly because something in me that’s been buried deep responds to the snap in his voice. It wants me to fall to my knees and wait for his next command. I shove it away. This arrangement is required for their agreement to return to the territory. That’s it. Yes, I crave rough sex and, yes, I’m weirdly turned on by Beast’s harsh words and carelessness with me, but that doesn’t mean I want to submit to either of these men outside the bedroom.
Right now, we are outside the bedroom.
“You’re doing it again.” He doesn’t lift his voice as he soaps down my body. “Already contemplating breaking the pact?”
Yes, but I will never say as much. Instead I change the subject. “I don’t understand this. Shouldn’t you be telling me to sleep at the foot of the bed, covered in come and weeping openly?”
At that, he looks at me and raises his brows. “Someone’s been reading some interesting fiction.”
Guilty. I flush even as I try to fight down the embarrassment. “That’s not an answer.”
He moves to my hair, soaping it up with intense thoroughness that has me fighting not to close my eyes. “Yes, it is. There are relationships where that sort of thing might be the norm, and that’s those people’s business as long as they’re both consenting. That is not how I operate, and it’s sure as fuck not how Gaeton does, either.” He guides me back beneath the water and rinses my hair and body.
