6. Prudence
The next day, once I’ve hidden away in Creed’s room and soaked in his comfort until I felt whole again, we decide to tell the others our plan. Neither of us have seen Asher or Griffin since breakfast yesterday morning, and I both equally hope that they’ve been together and also hope that Asher has been alone in his own room to sit and sulk. It’s what he deserves, right? Except, even as I try to stick with that line of thought, I almost feel guilty about it.
Asher is a lot of things, and maybe we’ll never get along, but in a weird way… he’s grown on me. As much as I can rely on Creed for a vicious kind of protection and Griffin to be my teddy bear whenever I need him, I can also count on Asher pushing my buttons, riling me up, and fighting with me until our dying breaths. That’s somehow oddly comforting. It’s like months of back and forth, months of threats, and — god, help me — sexual tension, and now I need him in some sick, twisted way. Maybe it’s unhealthy as fuck, but I’m a bit too broken to really care. I’ve lost too much to give a shit about what’s normal or acceptable. Plus, is he really all to blame? I can’t say for sure anymore. I understand him a bit better now, having personally met his nightmare of a father and witnessing the abuse that happens there. And knowing all of that makes me second guess all of our interactions from the moment we met.
I think Asher was merely a puppet, moving at his master’s command. Does that mean he’s absolved for his actions against me? No, definitely not. But it does mean that maybe I can see things from another angle and I’m maybe willing to see who he really is now that we’re away from The Celestials. Doesn’t mean that we won’t still fight, because I have a feeling that even without his father’s influence, Asher can be a royal dick, but hey, I think I’ve shown him that I’ve got a backbone and don’t take his shit lying down.
So where does this leave us? Me and these hypnotizing, debilitating, and infuriating men? I have a bunch of questions about it tumbling around in my head, but never staying long enough for me to form any thoughts on them.
To say this is all getting messier is an understatement, but I’m too tired to worry about it. I’m going to roll with the punches, let things fall where they may, and I guess we’ll just see what happens between me and these three guys. And between Asher and Griffin. And if I have a place there, or if Asher is going to be a possessive ass. If he tries to keep me away, what would Griffin do? Actually, what would Creed do? Because I know he wouldn’t hesitate to jump in for my honor if he thinks his cousin has hurt me, yet again…
Ugh, I’m stressing myself out.
I close my eyes and sigh, still lounging in Creed’s hotel bed while he showers. He invited me to join him in there, and it was beyond tempting, but I still feel like my mind is lost in a fog of misery, grief, and fear, and I don’t think I’d be very much fun. Leaving him to a peaceful shower without me felt like the right thing to do. Heaven forbid he starts gently washing my hair or soaping up my body with tender hands and I do something embarrassing like break down in tears. Again. I’ve done a lot of crying the past few days, and even though it’s helped me come to terms with losing my mom, I still feel like I’m walking on a razor’s edge and liable to fall off at any moment.
Maybe I shouldn’t talk to Asher today. If anyone sets off my river of tears, it’ll be him. Either because he’ll agree to go with us all to Serene Acres and give me some peace, or because he’ll flat out deny the request and break my heart. Either way, there may be more tears to come today, and the sun has barely even risen over the horizon.
“What has that look on your face right now, baby?” Creed asks the second he steps out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist and his inky hair wet and dripping water down his chest.
Jesus Christ.
Did I really turn down shower sex just to mope on my own? Because now, there’s no fucking doubt in my mind that Creed would have happily and diligently distracted me with his talented fingers. And tongue. And dick. Fuck, I’m stupid. Never again will I pass up an invite into the shower.
It really says something about me that the lethal look in his eyes has me dripping. The fact that Creed will go hunting for whatever has me upset without a second thought possibly turns me on more than his gorgeous face and body. Or maybe it’s all equal, combined into an irresistible package that is my storm of a man.
“Nothing,” I answer casually, settling deeper into my pillow as I hold his stare. The unimpressed raise of his brows tells me he doesn’t believe my shit for a second. I smile softly, rolling my eyes at him. “Really, Creed. I’m fine. I was just lost in my head with my emotions again. You should be really proud that I didn’t have a breakdown while you were gone. Did you ever imagine you’d end up with a literal train wreck like me? I bet I’m fulfilling all your wildest dreams, huh?” I say that last part teasingly, but still, a small whisper in the back of my head is insistent that Creed would be better off with someone who wasn’t so messy. He has enough to deal with and cope with without my life exploding every other day.
Creed studies me carefully, his warm brown eyes tracking over every inch of my face. He hasn’t moved from his place in the doorway into the bathroom, he’s just standing there, wet and sexy as sin, like a dark god come to wreck me.
“Prudence,” he rasps. His tone is soft, but holds a note of warning in it, like I’m testing him beyond belief. With a few long strides, he’s at the edge of the bed, one hand clutching the towel to keep him covered while the other pulls the sheets back and exposes me to all the cold freaking air in this hotel room. How very rude of him. I groan and try to roll away, back into the safety and warmth of the comforter, but Creed isn’t in the mood for games, I guess. A thrill shoots through me at the stern look he gives me.
He grabs my thigh, his fingers digging into my pale skin to keep me from moving, and then he drops his fucking towel and climbs onto the bed. He doesn’t say a word until he’s lying over me, settled between my legs and pinning me in place. He holds my throat in one hand, his thumb stroking over my pulse point, as he murmurs, “If you’re a train wreck, then I’m the broken tracks that set you up for collision. Don’t you see that by now? We are one and the same, baby, perfectly imperfect in the way we complement each other. However broken you think you are, you fit into my jagged edges like you were always meant to be there.” He pauses to lean down, just close enough that our lips whisper against each other with the promise of the kiss we’re both suddenly craving. “I don’t want to see that doubt in your eyes ever again, Prudence. You’re mine, for now and forever. No regrets.”
I swallow, loving the barely there pressure from his hand. He’s not squeezing or pushing into my airway, it’s more of a possessive hold, like he’s making sure I stay right here with him, and I curse myself because of the way it makes me feel safe. It’s like my brain short-circuited long ago, and now I crave all the messed up ways Creed can love me. I don’t even know what the hell I’d do with boring and normal anymore.
“No regrets,” I echo back, my voice hardly audible in the tension between us. I arch into him a little, not even totally aware I’m doing it. “I don’t doubt us, I promise. I just think… your life might be simpler if—“
His hand locks around my throat with a silent command, and though I can still breathe, my words cut off immediately. “That’s enough. Keep speaking like that and I’ll make sure you can’t walk by the time I’m finished convincing you that you’re perfect for me.” He growls the words in a deep, rough tone that has my nipples pebbling with need.
I have to swallow twice before I manage to croak out, “I think I might need that lesson. Show me the depths of your devotion, and make me believe those pretty words.” I aim for a sultry purr, but with his hand cutting off my air flow, I definitely don’t succeed. Still, the heated and absolutely famished look he gives me in return is a promise of the pleasure he’s about to offer.
Creed finally closes the distance between our mouths and claims me with such a brutal, possessive kiss that I can hardly catch my breath. But I’d sooner die from the lack of oxygen than pull away from his lips. I whimper as I wrap my arms around his neck, keeping him close like he’s the only thing keeping me alive right now. Creed keeps one hand on my throat — I’m sure he knows I love it — and blindly reaches down with the other hand to shove my panties aside and plunge two fingers into me.
The groan this man releases as he feels how wet I already am is almost enough to have me coming.
Creed breaks our kiss as he pumps his fingers in and out of me, watching my every expression with a crazed kind of need in his gorgeous eyes. “I love this pretty pussy. Let me worship it the way it deserves. We can spend all fucking day in this bed and I won’t stop until you’ve screamed yourself hoarse,” he rasps as he adds him thumb to the mix, circling my clit with an expertise that threatens to tip me over the edge far too quick.
In the back of my mind, there’s a faint little reminder that we need to find Griffin and Asher and talk about going to Serene Acres, but with the high I’m riding, the orgasm approaching, and the promise of many more today, I can’t be fucked to stop this and actually have that heavy conversation. Instead, I nod, completely incapable of speech right now as I lift my hips to chase his fingers every time they pull out.
Creed laughs, soft and dirty, before burying his face against my neck to kiss, lick, and bite his way across my skin. When he reaches my ear, giving it a teasing nibble as he curls his fingers inside me, he whispers, “So fucking wet for me, baby. Do you get this wet and needy for Griffin too? Your pussy just begging for his attention, hmm?” There’s no trace of jealousy in his voice, just plain arousal, and I suddenly get the sense that he’d get off on some, um, group action. Fuck me. Before I can get my tongue to work and offer Creed any kind of answer, someone knocks on the door and shatters my high like a fucking popped balloon.
Never deterred, Creed pulls back enough to grin salaciously at me, his fingers deep inside me and his thumb working over my clit. “Oh no, Prudence, we’re not done. Come for me, baby. Let me make you feel good. And when you’re done, I’m going to bury my face between those silky thighs and clean you up.”
I gasp and moan and squirm, fighting with myself to stay quiet even as my pleasure rockets up in seconds and my climax is near once more. It’s enough to give me freaking whiplash. I’m acutely aware of someone standing on the other side of the door, but my body is screaming for this release, and there’s just no way I will leave this bed until I get it.
“God, Creed, I’m so close,” I whimper, digging my nails into his back and arching into him. I don’t have a bra on, so there’s only his thin shirt I wore to bed between us, and the sensation of his chest rubbing against my nipples has my eyes rolling back in my head. His hard, hot cock pressing into my thigh doesn’t help. I so desperately want to beg him to tear my underwear off and sink inside me.
Another, more insistent knock echoes around the room, but I’m too far gone to care. When Creed leans down to kiss me again, biting my lip like he wants to consume me as badly as I want to with him, I explode. Pleasure races through me, curling my toes as I drop my head back against the pillow to cry out. He works me through the entire thing, murmuring praises and filthy promises that I don’t really process while I’m riding out my orgasm.
“Creed! Open this fucking door,” an all too familiar voice snaps just as I slump into the mattress, my body spent and utterly sated.
A scowl immediately forms on my face as I glare at the damn door. “Cock blocker,” I mumble.
Creed breathes out a laugh, pushing up onto his knees between my legs. He is gloriously naked, his dick leaking precum and calling out to my mouth. What I wouldn’t give to taste him in the back of my throat. To tease and suck and stroke until he’s trembling and groaning. What a fucking vision he would make.
Except I can’t have what I want, because Asher is waiting on the other side of the door.
“Yeah, coming! One fucking second,” Creed calls back. He holds my gaze as he slips his fingers into his mouth, closing his eyes with a satisfied hum while he tastes my release. It’s way hotter than it has any right to be. He pulls his fingers away with a smirk, saying quietly just for me, “Let me get rid of him, and then I’m fucking you until neither of us can remember what”s wrong in our lives.”
I nod happily, biting my lip. “Yes, please,” I murmur back as he gets off the bed. Sadly, he has to put that gorgeous dick away, jumping into black gym shorts on his way to the door. I pout the second his lower half is covered, my pussy a greedy thing right now. My underwear are uncomfortably wet and my nipples are clearly visible through my thin shirt, so I scoot back against the headboard and tuck the thick comforter up to my chin, just in case Asher peeks past Creed and gets an eyeful of me. My feelings for him are muddy and confusing, but if I know anything for sure, it”s that I don”t want him to see me like this. Not yet anyway.
Moments later, when Asher shoves his way into the room, ignoring Creed”s cold dismissal, I deflate. There”s no way he”s going to leave, not judging by the set, stern look he”s giving me.
”Am I interrupting something?” he asks, looking from me to Creed and back. There”s no doubt in my mind that Asher would have heard my climax through the door if he was standing close enough, and my cheeks heat from the knowledge. Griffin follows Asher into the room, giving me an apologetic smile while Creed shuts and bolts the door with a heavy sigh.
”Yes, actually, so what do you want?” I answer, crossing my arms over the comforter to keep my nipples covered. I”m equally uncomfortable and unashamedly turned on right now, knowing his eyes are on me, and I really don”t know what the hell to do with all that.
Asher holds my gaze for a moment, his jade eyes intense and almost haunted, and then he pulls a flip phone from his jean pocket. We all agreed to leave our cell phones behind when we left Blackwood, just in case The Celestials could track us somehow, so Asher must have picked this one up at a gas station or something. Or he”s had it stashed with his money for the purpose of running one day? ”I don”t know how, but my dad found me,” he huffs, waving the phone in the air before handing it over to Creed. Looking back at me, Asher adds, ”We have to leave, and this time, we have to actually stay hidden, or we all die.”
My stomach plummets.
What a way to kill the lingering high of my orgasm.