Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Captain’s Hall, Freedom
R obyn
It’s Monday evening. I’m resting next to Eden on the bottom bunk bed in his bedroom.
I’m being lulled by his deep, rumbling voice, as he reads from the book that he bought for me in Alice’s Book Café.
That was an awesome bookstore.
Coffee, books, and an entire wall of spicy Wonderland retellings that have nothing to do with Disney…?
I’m here for it.
In fact, I bought one of those retelings.
It’s making me wonder whether D’Angelo has held a Wonderland fetish event.
He’d look impossibly hot dressed as a modern-day Hatter.
I’d be his Alice.
Shay would make an adorable Cheshire Cat.
I don’t think that Eden is the type to dress up.
I’d love to be proved wrong.
D’Angelo has promised to take me to Freedom’s new costume shop to pick out outfits for Dad’s Halloween party tomorrow morning, before the first game. I don’t know whether Eden will want to go with us yet or not. It would be overwhelming for him.
It’s his choice.
I’ll choose him something that will make him look dominantly gorgeous anyway.
A woman can dream, right?
Eden is reading the contemporary retelling to me.
“ Hatter’s hands are pinned behind him ,” Eden reads, “ but he licks down the center of my pussy with even strokes, never taking his gaze from mine… ”
The words bleed into each other.
I’m simply enjoying lying next to Eden closely in the small space of the bottom bunk bed.
Of course, the sexy bedtime story doesn’t hurt.
Silvery moonlight gleams on the metal framed bunk beds. A closet and mirrored chest of drawers and wardrobe stand against one wall.
The twins are sharing the smallest bedroom in the mansion, when they’re not curled around me in my room.
They need their own space.
Before they arrived in America, they’d never been separated. They need to be close to function and feel safe.
Knowing their troubled past, I understand why.
Now, they’ve finally begun to feel secure enough to spend increasing amounts of time apart.
This evening, for example, Eden is up here with me in our book club, while Shay is being taught piano by D’Angelo.
It’s good to take both their minds off the diamond Rolex and the disturbing message that went with it.
It’s an escalation.
The style of the message. The tone. The way that it has turned into demands.
Wear this on Halloween…
Is this a direct reference to Dad’s Halloween annual event? Is it someone known to us? Or is it simply chance because of the PR that I’ve been doing around D’Angelo as the devil transformed to angel of the team?
Have I put him in danger?
I feel fucking guilty.
Except, hasn’t that been my job? I can’t police how people interact with the media that I put out, or if they twist it like this.
Then I’ll know that you think of me, as much as I think of you.
Does this mean that they’ll be watching?
I wince, as another discordant piano chord wafts through the open door.
Neither twin likes to stay in rooms with closed doors.
D’Angelo asked me pleadingly if his piano lessons made him a good man.
I wince again at another enthusiastic clash of notes.
Fuck yeah they do.
The only light in the room is from the moon and the glow of the small, spherical lamp on the nightstand.
It feels secret somehow being in here with Eden.
Perhaps, we should do something more illicit than read the books that we bought in the bookstore to each other.
We should set up a sex club like I suggested.
Except, then D’Angelo and Shay would definitely want to join and it wouldn’t be private anymore.
In fact, D’Angelo would campaign to become the president.
I’m beginning to have the sneaking suspicion that he’s already the president of some kind of kinky club.
I pull the messy, scarlet covers up to my waist.
I’m only dressed in Eden’s comfortable, large KIT-TEA t-shirt that he gave to me.
This is actually Shay’s bed. The top bunk is Eden’s, but I’m not clambering into that.
In contrast to Shay’s bed, Eden’s is military neat.
Eden looks smug every time that we invade his brother’s bed.
“It makes up for all the times that he fucked women in my bed at college because mine had clean sheets,” Eden explains.
Fair.
I turn on my side, resting my head on Eden’s shoulder. He’s lying on his back, holding the book above him.
I study him.
He’s only dressed in gray joggers. Moonlight streams across the pale skin of his bare chest.
He looks ethereal like a beautiful Greek statue but one with glinting, pierced nipples and beautiful tattoos.
The way that Eden is holding the book emphasizes the bulge of his strong arm muscles.
Also, the bandage around his newest tattoo. The one he had done for me. Or at least, for both of us.
His Robyn taking flight from the thorns of his past.
For Eden, this gesture meant more than a marriage proposal.
He had my name tattooed on his skin.
Considering how he feels about being owned, this is huge. Except, it’s not about ownership.
It’s a statement.
I free him.
When I trace over the skin around the bandage, Eden’s skin goosebumps, and so does mine.
I bite my lip, overwhelmed.
It still doesn’t feel real.
I sat with Eden this afternoon, however, in the tiny tattoo parlor that was painted in bright colors and smelled of antiseptic and cleaning solutions and held his hand, watching closely as the design came to life.
It was the most intimate moment of my life.
It shocked the breath from me because I didn’t expect to feel such a flood of emotion, as I watched Eden’s skin being pierced.
First, the design was traced out, before it was shaded and colored.
Eden remained stoic and silent throughout.
We held each other’s gazes.
It was a communion.
A moment without words.
Love, deeper than I’ve felt before.
There wasn’t a flicker of pain on Eden’s face, but I knew that it must hurt.
It’s no wonder that Eden can hide his pain so well from us.
It’s worrying.
“Pain scale?” I whispered at the start.
He didn’t reply.
“Seriously.”
Finally, Eden arched his pierced brow. “One, as if a lit match is being traced over my skin. Or possibly, a cat is scratching me.”
“That’s only a one?”
“My cat in England, Silky, scratched me all the time, when I was a kid. He had wild, feral moments.” Eden sounds fond. “Silky was sweet. But then something would set him off. He reminded me of my twin, when he loses it on the ice.”
Now, I catch a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye.
A tiny red squirrel with tufted ears and a pointed face is scampering along the branch of the old oak that grows outside the window.
“Your squirrel is outside saying good night,” I whisper.
Eden stops reading.
He glances up. “Puck never learns the time that she should be in her nest. She’s a rebel or possibly, she could be an insomniac like Shay.”
I trace down the strong muscles of Eden’s chest.
I love that I’m the first woman he’s shared his body with.
Looking at the bandage that covers his tattoo, I believe now that I will be the last.
Unable to resist, I duck my head and lick across his pierced left nipple.
When Eden stumbles over the word that he’s reading, my lips curl into smile against his skin.
I love how sensitive he is.
I push my hair behind my ear and suck on his sensitive nipple.
Eden growls, struggling to stay still.
“Keep reading,” I say, innocently. “It’s starting to get interesting. Isn’t she close to falling into Wonderland on Hatter’s tongue?”
I slide my hand down Eden’s joggers to find that he’s already half-hard.
That makes me wetter.
Eden takes a steadying breath, as I slowly circle his velvet shaft at the same time as I alternately lick over his nipples.
Making him come in his pants underneath the covers, while pretending that we’re having our normally serious book club is going to be fun.
We’ve both earned this, right?
I deserve it for Eden’s selection of Ulysses for next week. That’s a couple of hours using Cliffs Notes that I’ll never get back.
I won’t be admitting that part.
Eden’s hands tighten around the book, which he’s pretending to focus on. In reality, I can feel that every part of him is anticipating the touch of my mouth and the stroke of my hand up and down his cock.
“ Hatter can’t touch his own pulsing dick because he’s bound. ” Eden’s voice is progressively less steady.
Encouraged, I work harder.
I nibble and kiss around Eden’s nipples. At the same time, I tease the sensitive head of his cock. His hips instinctively hump off the bed.
He huffs, as if frustrated with himself.
“What happens next?” I add a twist to my hand job, relentlessly working Eden under the cover of the bedding.
Eden clears his throat. “ Cat and Knight, the twins, place their hands on Hatter’s head. They wrap their fingers in his hair, pulling on it. Hatter groans but never stops licking between my thighs… ”
Finally, Eden breaks off with a groan.
He throws his head back, and I can’t resist.
Eden is so fucking gorgeous like this.
I release his tormented, reddening nipple and dive up to capture his plush lips in a kiss.
He kisses me back, deeply.
At the same time, I tighten my hold on Eden’s cock and make my strokes faster.
It’s rough.
Intense.
Eden comes, while never letting go of the book.
Our heated gazes meet.
We’re both breathing hard.
But then, I laugh.
Eden does that twitch of his lips that always makes my heart light up.
“See why spicy books are good?” I pull my hand out of his joggers.
I grimace, wiping my hand clean on the bedding.
Sorry, Shay.
Except, it’s not really the steamy book that tipped us over the edge so soon, or at least not only the book because reading smut together is definitely on my list of top ten best activities for couples.
It’s the memory of sitting in that tattoo parlor together.
Our love.
Connection.
Eden appears sleepy and happy.
It’s a good look on him.
“Your boring book club is still going then?” Shay saunters into the bedroom.
Eden’s gaze darts guiltily to the bedding.
Confused, I blink.
Oh, messing up his twin’s sheets. But then, Shay did enough of that to Eden in college.
They can both sleep with me tonight. Then we can have fun messing up my sheets together.
“ Boring , huh?” I look affronted. “So says the astrophysicist.”
Shay balances on the edge of the bed, trying to sit as close as he can to us like he’s afraid of missing out.
Of course, he just has.
Eden and I share a secret smile.
“Don’t knock astrophysics, love.” Shay crosses his arms. “How could anyone not be excited by dark matter, cosmic rays, galaxy formation and badass black holes?”
“You’ve done it now,” Eden mutters. “You’ve set off his geek talk.”
“You’re the two who waste your evenings reading .” Shay says reading with a shudder like it’s the same to him as laundry or in fact, any type of adulting.
Although, I’m with him on the adulting.
Some days, it sucks.
Eden waves the book at me, lifting his eyebrow.
I catch on and take it from him.
Then I sit up and crawl down the bed toward Shay with a dangerous slink of my hips.
Shay looks startled. “You’re not going to spank me for being a rebel against reading, right?”
“Tempting.” I lean up, close enough that my lips graze Shay’s ear. Then I read from the open book, “ The twins shove Hatter’s face rhythmically up and down my pussy, as if I’m riding his face. ”
Shay sucks in a shocked breath. “Bloody hell, what are you reading?”
The way he says reading is different now, more breathy with excitement.
Satisfying.
“Sometimes, novels are even written about people in poly relationships like ours. Strange, huh?” My lips quirk. Then I drop back into a sultry murmur, hoping to fluster Shay further, “ The coiling ecstasy that surges through me, as Hatter struggles, a gorgeous toy who’s being used by three men to pleasure me, is better than anything that I’ve experienced before… ”
“Fuck.” Shay’s eyes are blown wide.
He attempts to move backward, but I crawl after him, predator after prey.
I cage him against the side of the bed.
Shay’s cheeks are flushed.
It’s rare that he’s not the kinkiest one in the room. I’m enjoying the reversal.
Books are the one thing that Shay avoids, since his bitch of a teacher humiliated him.
Perhaps, I can give him the confidence to realize that they’re only stories and can’t hurt him anymore. In fact, they can show him people who are going through struggles like his own, falling into messy love, or open whole new worlds to him.
Shay is breathing fast.
“Should I stop?” I whisper.
Shay swallows. “Don’t. Perhaps, I could change my mind on this whole book club idea.”
Eden snorts.
My breath is hot against Shay’s ear. “ Rabbit’s expression is dark and dominant. “Don’t be lazy.” He wrenches Hatter’s arms up even higher. “Work hard to show our Alice pleasure, toy! ”.”
Shay shivers. His eyelashes flutter.
He clenches his hands on his knees. “ Toy? Fuck, don’t let Jude read this book, or I’ll be in trouble. And don’t read any more, love, or you’re going to make me come in my pants.”
“At least then you’ll match with your twin,” I reply.
Shay laughs like the rays of the sun. “Really, bro? In my bed?”
Eden frowns, flushing.
“I’m sorry to interrupt what is a much more interesting scene than I was expecting.” D’Angelo is leaning in the doorway. “But I just had an email from Garcia.”
Instantly on the alert, I turn to D’Angelo.
He’s too pale. He’s holding himself too still.
What’s happened?
“Has Garcia found something out about the gifts?” I demand, standing up.
D’Angelo’s blue eyes are icy. “Garcia has tracked down RebelLover22. She’s a woman called Tanya Vega.”
“There’s something else, right? I can see it in your face.”
D’Angelo’s expression tightens. “Vega lives right here in Freedom. Her house is within sight of Rebel Arena.”