Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“BLOOD//WATER - ACOUSTIC” BY GRANDSON
LARK
My entire body is still, ice flowing through my veins as I stare at the embodiment of my ruin.
All else fades away as I look at the man who was meant to shelter me, protect me, but instead gave me away like yesterday's trash. I don’t feel hatred like I do when there is a distance between us.
I don’t feel the usual fire of anger burning inside me.
No, I’m numb from the cold, frozen to the core.
As if he can feel my glare burning into the back of his head, my sperm donor turns, his blue eyes so like my own, locking onto me.
It doesn’t matter that there’s glass between us, I want to recoil, I want to run away from the acid in his gaze, but I’m rooted to the spot, unable to move like so many times before.
Helpless.
“Come, Little Bird,” Knox brushes his fingers down my arm, and I feel my body shiver, though it doesn’t penetrate the frost that coats me. “I think we’ll all need some Dutch courage for this.”
Usually, I’d wonder what he means, but I can’t. Not while he stares at me like that. Like I’m his worst mistake.
I let Knox tug me away, but I can feel his eyes on the back of me, scoring me with the burn of ice.
“Here, drink,” Knox commands roughly, shoving a glass of amber liquid into my hand. There are ripples on the surface as my whole body trembles.
Why is he here?
I bring the glass to my lips, knocking the whole thing back in one go. The burn of alcohol going down my throat finally breaks the spell, and I cough, blinking and seeing our surroundings for the first time.
Like downstairs, the dusky pink and white swathes of flowers and silk decorate the space, the cream carpet so fucking thick and plush that my heels sink into it. That’s what she said. A hysterical laugh almost slips past my lips, but I somehow hold it in just as I feel someone come up behind me.
On instinct, I smash my glass against the bar that Knox dragged me to, brandishing it in front of me as I whirl around. To give the eldest Taylor brother credit, he doesn’t even flinch, just pauses and gives me a sardonic look, one dark brow haughtily raised.
“And what do you plan to do with that, Dove?”
“Why is he here?” I seethe, my lips pulled back as I bare my teeth at him. My entire body still trembles, but my hand is steady as I step closer, pressing the glass to his jugular. A bead of red slides down the sharp edge, and I blame these fuckers for the fact that my core clenches.
“I wanted him to see that you belong to us and that he couldn’t touch you now without serious repercussions,” Aeron calmly says, cool as a motherfucking cucumber. I blink, my arm dropping slightly as the realization hits.
“You’re claiming me?”
He scoffs, taking a step into me. Hurriedly, I move the sharp glass edge away, successfully nicking his neck more and blood drips from the wound.
“I’ll claim you in front of this entire fucked up world if that’s what it takes to keep you safe, Dove.
” His voice is fierce, and tears sting my eyes, my chest tightening.
No one has ever been in my corner before.
Not even Rook. It wasn’t his fault, he’s younger and had a dick so didn’t know how they treated me. What they subjected me to.
“Oh.”
“Yes, oh,” he repeats. “If you don’t stop pointing your guns at her, I will empty them down your throats.”
I frown, my gaze darting past him to see lots of big guys dressed in black hastily tucking weapons away. Oops.
“I hurt you,” I gasp, reaching out to his neck which has a line of blood running down the side.
“I’ve had worse, princess.”
I don’t stop to think, just lean forward and lick the line with a slow swipe of my tongue. His hands are immediately on my waist, tugging me closer as he groans low. The metallic tang of his life force sits on my tongue, and my eyes roll at how delicious it is to have this part of him.
Fixing my lips over the wound, I suck, gently at first, then harder when his grip tightens, and he grinds his hardness into me.
“Fuck, Dove. I’m gonna cream in my pants if you keep that up,” he rasps, and I finally release him with a small giggle. My lips pull up in a smile at the large, red hickey on his neck.
“Now we match,” I tell him, looking into his eyes, entranced by the stormy sea that rages in them.
“Our souls matched long before today, Dove.”
My breath stutters out of me, one hand cupping his cheek, the other resting on his lapel.
“Sorry to break up you two kinky lovebirds,” a gruff voice interrupts. “But the race is starting in five and I need to head down there.”
“Of course, Rick,” Aeron replies, still not taking his eyes off mine. “See you later.” I hear soft footsteps getting quieter, and assume their uncle has left when the door closes a moment later. “Let’s go watch the races, Dove.”
Aeron steps out of my embrace, taking my hand and tugging me towards the glass balcony.
As soon as he does, I freeze up again, seeing the hateful way my father stares at me, and my cheeks flush as if they’ve caught me with my hand in the cookie jar.
Or my lips on the neck of our enemy, same difference, right?
“Ignore him, Nightingale,” Jude says, slinging an arm around my waist and helping Aeron drag me to the doors. Fucking heels, I’d totally be able to resist them if it wasn’t for these fucking shoes, pretty as they are.
“We won’t let him near you, Azizam,” Tarl adds, placing a hand on my lower back, the warmth of his touch calming me a little, and urging me forward. “Never again.”
They completely fucking overpower me, so I give up, and straightening my shoulders, I take a deep inhale and decide to put my best tit forward and stride out like a badass bitch.
The noise of the crowd hits me like a wave as soon as I step out of the doors, and when we reach the balcony edge, I look down to see that we’re pretty fucking high. I love it, feeling a sense of freedom even with the looming presence of my sperm donor as I look out over the racecourse.
Aeron steps away, only for Knox to replace him at my side, Jude on my other side, and Tarl next to him.
I feel a warmth at my back, Aeron’s fresh cotton mixed with amber and vanilla scent engulfing me as he steps so close that our bodies touch all the way from my shoulders to hips.
I grind back a little into his hard length, just able to reach it, and he chuckles darkly.
“Do you want me to make good on my promise to claim you in front of all these people, Dove?” he murmurs into my ear, and I swallow hard. “Do you want your father to know exactly how much you belong to us?”
Like before, I don’t think.
“Yes.”
He growls and shivers cascade over my skin at the primal sound.
“Be very fucking sure, Dove. It’s not just me. Each of us will take our turn, take you until our cum runs down those pretty thighs, and they’ll hear your cries in the stands below. Your father and his crew will know that we are fucking you, and their dicks will never be inside you again.”
“Please,” I beg, not pausing as I squirm more against him, his words making me burn. This time, unlike my father coating me in ice, my entire body is alight, on fire for him. For them.
He doesn’t ask again, doesn’t hesitate as I feel the back of my skirt being lifted, the cool breeze tickling my legs as he draws it higher.
“Don’t worry,” he assures as he lifts it higher, “no one will see anything that belongs to our eyes only. The boys will make sure of that.”
I look to the side, seeing Knox facing me, his back to my father’s balcony and blocking me from view. Turning to glance at the other side, Tarl and Jude stand side by side, blocking the people in the next box from seeing what we’re up to.
A soft sigh falls from my lips, their combined scents and the caress of Aeron’s fingertips on my sensitive flesh making me forget our surroundings, my father, everything apart from the Tailor boys. My Tailor boys.
“Jesus, Little Bird,” Knox hisses out.
“Naughty, Nightingale. Not wearing any underwear just to tease us,” Jude hums, and I turn to see his eyes devouring my exposed flesh.
“She just knows how we like it, don’t you, Dove?” Aeron asks, gently stroking my backside, sending tendrils of electricity across my skin, his fingers getting closer to the place that I really want him to be.
“Yes,” I whisper, arching my back and sticking my ass further out as I lean over the railing, hoping that it will encourage him. He just laughs darkly.
“Look at how she glistens for us, how her pussy drips for us,” he comments, swiping a finger through my slick folds, and I gasp at the explosion of pleasure that threatens to overwhelm me already.
“Please,” I moan, pushing back further. “Please, please, please.”
Suddenly his hands leave my body, a whine of protest starting in my throat but cutting short when I hear a buckle being undone. My body tingles, my fingers gripping the railing tight, and my heart pounds as I wait for that first delicious stretch.
A hand grasps my chin, and tugs me to the side, bright hazel eyes full of fiery lust boring into mine.
“No one but us will ever touch you again, Little Bird. You are ours now until we decide to end you, and even then we won’t let the devil have you.” His voice is low, full of violent promise and a pleasure I can’t even imagine, and I long for the end that I know now only they can give me.
Without giving me a chance to answer, although fuck knows what I’d say to his dark declaration, he slams his lips onto mine just as Aeron thrusts inside me.
Knox swallows my scream, made up of part pleasure and part pain as Aeron’s piercing drags against my inner walls, sending sparks shooting straight to my core.
Aeron gives me no time to adjust, not even a moment to get used to his length and jewelry as he pounds into me, Knox inhaling every cry and whimper that leaves my lips.
My body flashes hot as a hand reaches around the front of it, fingers toying and playing with my swollen, aching clit, another snaking around my throat and squeezing tightly.
I want to scream that it’s too much, that I can’t take them all like this, but I have no voice.
They’ve all stolen it as they brand me with their claiming, doing exactly as they promised and showing the world that I am property of the Tailor boys.
Knox finally releases my mouth, and we’re both panting, his lips puffy with my kisses. He moves slightly, and ice-cold, blue eyes catch mine, dousing me like a bucket of cold water.
But at that moment, someone pinches my clit hard, and holding the gaze of my father, I come harder than I ever have in my entire life.