by Coralee June
"NIX!" Blaise yelled before popping out of the pool and running to him for a hug. Blaise leapt into his arms, wrapped his thighs around his middle, and held him like a child. Nix simply laughed while patting his back. "You're back! Don't ever leave me again."
Nix set Blaise down while Grace sat up to look at the spectacle. Ryker got out of the pool next. He was growing his hair back out and droplets of water fell down the strands. "Good to see you again. Have you been working out?"
Nix eyed him appreciatively. "I could ask you the same thing," he said.
This reunion was great and all, but it was only stalling the inevitable. Gavriel and Callum sat in the pool still. "Is Sunshine napping?" Gav asked.
"Yes. And I made sure she ate lunch. She needs more water, though," Nix replied.
Callum climbed out of the pool and started heading toward the door. "On it. I'll put a few chilled water bottles on her nightstand. And her prenatal. And some watermelon."
Nix grinned and nodded. It was sort of surreal watching these badass men falling apart for their woman. I guess I was one to talk. I wasn't sure there was much of anything I wouldn't do for Grace and Nix.
"Can we talk?" Grace asked in a timid voice. I hated how unsure she sounded. I wanted her confidence back. She might look almost the same, but this trip had changed a lot about her. It opened old wounds. It bled her dry.
"Yeah," Nix replied with a long sigh. I knew he wanted to pretend everything was okay, but Grace needed reassurance. I needed to remind Nix that there was no running away from this. I was in it now. In it for fucking good.
Grace stood up and wrapped a towel around herself like a shield. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and guided her inside. She leaned into me, and Nix frowned at us. Tough shit, Nix.
Grace and I were staying in a north-facing bedroom that had a view of the ocean and a large balcony. The king-sized bed had teal sheets, and the warm wood furniture complimented the bright room perfectly. We slept nearly all day yesterday. Both of us were emotionally drained and needed to relax for a bit before facing Nix. I was thankful for the break. It gave me time to decide how to proceed. I tried to think about how I would fix this for Grace as well as reassure Nix that we wanted every part of him, even the risky parts.
I knew my place now. I knew it long before I accepted Grace. "Sit on the bed, Grace," I ordered. She quickly listened and sunk onto the mattress. Nix cocked an eyebrow at me and crossed his arms over his chest.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Taking charge. When you love someone, you step up when they are weak. Sometimes you have to do hard things until they find their place again. Right now, Grace needs reassurance. You're going to go over there and kiss her."
Nix's eyes widened, like he wasn't sure what he was hearing. This was very unlike me. I'd been pushing for exclusivity our entire relationship, but I saw things differently now. "What?" he asked.
"Please kiss me," Grace begged.
Nix gave me another look, and I nodded encouragingly. "I'm so sorry. I thought I was saving you both," he choked out. “I’m so sorry for those awful things I said. I don’t hate you. Either of you. I could never… I was just hurting so much. I felt like it was all my fault and—”
"I know," I replied. "Now go kiss Grace."
Nix shook his head and cautiously walked over to my best friend. It pained me to see Nix so uncertain, so cautious. This wasn't like him at all, but I knew it would take time for him to feel safe again, to feel like Nix again. A part of him died when the Ringleaders took him.
Now he would have to be reborn with the rest of us and pilgrimage this new normal with Grace and me by his side.
Grace tilted her head up to look at Nix. Her eyes were swimming with emotion as she took in his slumped shoulders and soft expression. "I'm so sorry, Grace," he whispered. "I never should have left. I was just trying to—"
"You heard Alessandro. Kiss me. Make me feel how real you are. I need to know you're going to stay."
Nix gently pushed her shoulders back, inching her deeper into the mattress so he could hover over her. I played with the waistband of my board shorts while watching them. Nix landed a sweet kiss on her cheek. Her jaw. Her chin. Her forehead. Her collarbone. Then finally, her soft, needy lips. She whimpered the moment their mouths connected. It felt like a devastating acceptance. "I'll never leave again," Nix promised between kisses.
"It's going to take me a while to believe that," she whispered back.
I made my way over to the bed and sat down next to them. Nix positioned himself to Grace's side, and they held each other tightly. His hand was threaded through her hair. The relief was evident on both of their faces.
"This is it. The three of us. There's no going back," I said. Nix turned to face me with tears running down his face. Grace draped her thin arm over his middle as I lay down to look at him. The three of us were comfortable on the mattress. It seemed fitting. Nix was between us, but also the person bonding Grace and me together. I stroked his cheek.
"Are you sure? You want this?" Nix asked. "How can I be deserving of this?"
Ah, there was the root of it all. It took me a long time to understand Nix, but this experience taught me a lot about the man I fell in love with. He wasn't searching for new love because he was bored and needy. He was looking because he didn't think he was deserving of anything real. It took two people to love Nix fully. And I now had someone worthy of sharing the job of loving him with.
"I'm positive. Grace is my Sunshine, Nix. She's the only person in this world I love enough to do this with. You need both of us. We all need each other. No more running when things get difficult. No more being the martyr. We do this together, or we don't do this at all. You understand that we love you for exactly who you are, or we stop this right now. We fucking love you. "
Grace kissed Nix's shoulder and eyed me. She had a small smile and nodded encouragingly. "It's true, you know," she whispered. "I love both of you. I want this, but don't ever make me go through the pain of abandonment again."
Nix shuddered. "I promise."
I grabbed his chin and kissed him softly. His lips parted on a sweet gasp, and I invaded his mouth with my tongue, lapping up his sweet taste as our lips clashed. Our kisses were wet with tears. Happy tears. Thankful tears. Tears of relief and need.
I could see Grace touching herself under the covers. No, I wanted her to feel everything. "Touch her," I growled while jerking his pants down. "Taste her," I demanded. Nix helped Grace out of her one-piece and tossed it on the floor. Grabbing her hips, he eased her onto his face, burying his lips into her slick pussy.
I watched in hungry fascination. Perhaps this was why Grace enjoyed watching so much. She rode his face with her head tossed back while twisting her nipples between her index finger and thumb. Her moans were a beautiful symphony. I positioned myself at Nix's cock and stared at the hard length pulsing in front of me. I licked my lips. "I love watching you ride his face, Grace," I rasped before licking the length of him. Nix moaned against her clit. Grace twisted slightly to stare at me.
"Let's see if he can make me come while you get him off, hmm?" she asked with a wink.
I opened my mouth and slid all the way down his cock. His hips jerked. Grace fell forward and had to brace her hands on the mattress. Moans filled the room.
Up and down I went. My palms held Nix down as I sucked his cock with greedy fervor. He rocked and groaned. Grace cried out, her orgasm hitting hard. Watching her come was a beautiful sort of shattering. She collapsed on the bed beside Nix and stared at the ceiling with a wide, satisfied grin as I continued to work him. My eyes were trained on the slick sheen covering his chin. The way his licks savored the taste of Grace's cum on his mouth.
I moved harder, faster.
Nix gently grabbed my hair and pulled me off of him. "My turn to take charge, my love," he whispered. Nix hovered over Grace and kissed her raw. I wondered if she could taste herself on him. "Grab some lube."
Luckily, Bla
ise had set us up with quite the welcome basket. I quickly grabbed some and waited for further instruction. This was what I'd been waiting for. This was the Nix I craved.
He settled between Grace's thighs and licked her nipple before sucking it. "You ready, beautiful?" he asked.
"Fuck me already," Grace moaned in response. "I want you to fill me up."
Nix slammed into her in one fell swoop. She yelled and writhed on the bed. It was such a gorgeous tangle of legs. Outstretched arms explored desire with every jerk and thrust. Moans and screams. An entire lifetime passed on that bed, and I watched with my mouth parted and my dick in my hand.
"Get over here," Nix commanded. "I want you to fuck me hard, Alessandro."
I popped the cap of the lube and positioned myself behind Nix. I wasn't exactly sure how this was going to go. It felt like a clumsy position that required synchronization, but I trusted Grace and Nix with my imperfections. We were learning from experience. Fucking through our needs. I poured lube down his tight hole and massaged it onto my throbbing cock. I pressed against him, and he stopped moving. His hand was pressed against Grace's clit, working her to another orgasm as I waited for his command.
"Now, Alessandro," he growled.
I slammed inside of him with one hard thrust. It was like sinking beneath a strong, overpowering wave. I felt him everywhere. It was like coming home.
It took some time to work out. But we found a rhythm, the three of us.
We moved imperfectly but still with meaning. The three of us cried out, our moans matching in intensity and power. Wet and wetter. The sounds of our slapping skin sounded filthy and beautiful to my ears. Teeth biting lips. My hand wrapped around Nix's throat. The pleasure felt beautifully gift-wrapped. A treasure I hungered for. We moved.
"I love you," Grace whispered.
"I love you," I cried out.
"I love you both." Nix came. We fell apart.
I refused to take this moment—or any moment—for granted. We fought for this. We cried and lost and evolved for this. I'd die for this. Forever.
Forever.
Epilogue
Sunshine
Curly, dark hair. Brown eyes. Soft skin.
Our baby was perfect. She had my lips. She had his long lashes.
My men and I decided not to do a paternity test. We didn’t want anyone to feel left out of raising our daughter. But naturally, Gavriel’s looks and personality superseded that. Sofia Grace Moretti was her father’s child, but she had every single one of my men wrapped around her finger.
She came into this world fighting for her life. She came on her own terms, too. One month early. I’d never seen something so small. It was terrifying. Now, three months old, her developing personality was fierce and playful. She was the best combination of all of us.
“She’s so fucking perfect,” Blaise whispered while sitting in the glider and staring at me.
“She kept me up all night,” Ryker said with a sigh. I bit my tongue. I knew for a fact that he spent most of the night just watching her breathe. I guess you could say we all had the new-parent jitters. I never thought it was possible to love someone as much as I loved my daughter.
“I’ll take the next shift,” Callum offered enthusiastically while handing me a nutrient-dense breakfast shake. We sat in our master bedroom, watching our daughter feed. My breasts were heavy and sore. Breastfeeding wasn’t so bad after all. I didn’t think it was possible to feel this tired but still be so damn happy.
“She is definitely a Bullet. Resilient little princess,” Gavriel said before kissing my neck. He was lying beside me on the mattress.
I was so scared to become a mother. I was so terrified to take the next step with my family. But things were perfect. We fought for this. We died for this. Like my best friend's namesake, something beautiful was born from the ashes of our evolution.
Bullets Forever.
A Lovely Obsession
Hunter’s Story
Preview
ROE
My heels wobbled on the slippery tile in Nicole Knight’s kitchen. Bodies were herded together, crashing into one another with flirty looks and lingering stares. I had a buzz in my bones, a tingling forgetfulness that tempted my good sense.
To some, it was a house party. To me, it was a rare escape.
“Have another drink, Roe,” Nicole said while jabbing a dirty shot glass in my face. I’d seen at least a dozen of my classmates wrap their chapsticked tobacco lips around that very rim. I wasn’t in the spirit to catch mono, but the clear liquid inside of it tantalized me.
I wasn’t much of a partier. Wasn’t much of an extrovert, either. But tonight—just for tonight—I needed to pretend to be someone else for a bit. Someone that didn’t strategically know every danger in the room.
“I should stop,” I replied. I had already devoured enough tequila to make my body chatter, and my cotton mouth pout was begging me to drink some water.
Nicole frowned. She was my friend of the month. Tragically beautiful, she had bright blond hair and sparkling jade eyes that seemed to spill with sad mischief. She moved here two months ago, which meant she hadn’t been around long enough to know what I was about.
“Come on, you wanted to forget that asshole, drink up!” she encouraged, pressing the cool glass to my lips. I took it from her and swallowed, letting the scorching hot liquid land on my tongue before shooting it down my throat.
Some onlookers cheered. Bad decisions were more palatable when you had good company.
“How are you doing, girl?” Nicole asked while draping her slender arm around my shoulder. She smelled unmistakably of cheap beer and cotton candy body spray, but she was noticeably sober. I realized a couple of weeks ago that she liked to host the parties, not become them.
“I’m fine,” I lied, the words like ash on my tongue. That expression was getting on my nerves. It was one of those lies everyone could see through, like a sheer blanket you wrapped around yourself before bracing for a blizzard. But it wasn’t my recent breakup that had me out of sorts.
“Are you sure?” she asked. “You seem so sad tonight. It’s a fucking party! Liven up!” Nicole fist-pumped the air just as a guy bumped into her, rocking us both as he staggered to the living room. She rolled her eyes at him when he didn’t apologize, before turning her attention to me. “I didn’t even think you liked Joel that much. I mean, you broke up with him, right?”
Joel was my ex. He was nice but vacant, and he worked perfectly for what I needed. He smoked pot on the weekends and liked to play video games. We lasted longer than most of my relationships, mostly because he seemed more concerned with getting high than asking questions. But of course, it didn’t last.
Joel started to get too close. He started to want to know about my likes, dislikes, past, present, and if I could imagine a future with him.
So naturally, I ran.
“I know. I just wasn’t expecting him to move on so quickly,” I replied, the lie easily rolling off my lips. If I were being honest, I wasn’t drinking myself into oblivion because of Joel, but Nicole didn’t need to know that. I’d rather she think I was heartbroken than know what was really bothering me. The truth wasn’t as easy to swallow.
Joel spent all week fucking through anything with a pussy, and any normal girl who could actually fall in love would feel devastated about that, but not me.
I wasn’t healthy. I devoured affections and spun them into sophisticated insecurities, ending them without a care. I was a serial dater. A clingy friend that kept things surface level, then fled. There was a certain high I felt when getting to know someone. I was obsessed with hoarding personalities and hyper-focusing on the intricate tics of others to avoid my own. I liked making friends. I liked kissing random boys. It was sticking around that I struggled with. I was running out of people to fall for.
“You know what they say,” Nicole began. “The best way to get over an ex is to get under someone else.” She knocked my hip with hers and giggled. I doubted s
he had ever gotten under anyone. Nicole might’ve liked to host parties to piss off her parents, but she wasn’t actually as rebellious as she claimed to be. It was another one of those quirks I’d picked up on.
“I’m tired of the dating pool at Mountain Prep,” I argued. “It’s a bunch of fumbling boys that use your vagina like a fleshlight before asking, ‘Did you come?’” My chuckles filled the room as Nicole gaped at me. Our school was nestled in suburban utopia just outside of Denver, where the middle class thrived and every day at school felt like a reality TV show. People liked to create drama so their small town boredom was more palatable.
Nicole laughed as she peered around the room, assessing the growing crowd in her house. “I don’t know, I heard Chris is good in bed,” she offered, nodding at the preppy quarterback currently hitting a Juul and blowing smoke in some poor girl’s face. Oh yes, I knew Chris very well.
I shrugged, thinking back to our fumbling romp in the janitor’s closet at school. In Chris’s defense, it was standing room only, but our brief, messy moment was not worth remembering. “His dick is nice, but he’s got no rhythm. It was like fucking someone possessed.”
Nicole snorted, her eyes wide in shock. “You’ve slept with him?” she wheezed while looking at me. I saw the curiosity in her eyes. Our friendship was still fairly new. She didn’t know just how reckless I was, but she’d soon realize that the rumors were true.
I’d developed quite a reputation over the years. Many called me a slut, and I guess they were right. I didn’t think it was anything to be ashamed of. Those who were crueler liked to pick apart my alienation, blaming every indiscretion on my daddy issues. They just simplified deeper problems they knew nothing about. My body was a vessel for control. My heart was a rabid beast out to prove something. I cracked my soul wide open and watched as the world slipped on the oil that fell out.
