Chapter 52
CHAPTER 52
NORTH CAROLINA
B ryson strained against his restraints. Adria looked positively radiant as she screamed into the ceiling. He wasn’t jealous that his brothers gave that to her. But his body was on fire. He craved her touch on a primal level.
He wanted to run his hands over her skin. Needed to feel her shake under his brothers’ expert hands.
She was punishing him by deliberately excluding him.
It broke him.
As she lay there, basking in the experience, Bryson was acutely aware of everyone’s breathing. The moment was laced with a fervent mix of ease and tension. What they had just done was completely insane.
Not only had they attacked their contracted Mistress, but they had also pledged fealty to her house and pushed her to a near breaking point.
Adria had to make the next move. All Bryson could do was hope that they had done enough to convince her.
Bryson could tell by the subtle shift in Kaydon’s body that he felt it, too. Seth was slower to rise, but even in his blissed-out state he couldn’t hide from this.
Adria stretched, a gentle arching in her spine, hands flexing overhead. She made circles at the wrists. She had an ability to feign comfort with ease. It made the energy shift that much more ominous. It was like a snake coiling before the strike.
She traced a finger along Seth’s collar bone.
“Whose idea was this?” she asked innocently.
Her hand stayed on Seth, but she eyed both him and Kaydon.
“My idea,” Bryson said, his voice rough and strained.
“It was a group decision,” Seth purred under her touch.
She arched an eyebrow. “A group decision.”
The words hung between them, and Bryson realized their mistake.
“You’re angry,” he said.
She plastered on a sweet smile. “Why would I be angry?” She stood, dawning a silk robe.
“A day before I’m required to sell you three to someone else, you get a wild hair up your collective asses. Force your way in here, pin me to my bed and swear loyalty to me.”
She knelt down, locking eyes with him.
“What could I possibly have to be angry about?”
Bryson’s face twitched as her words sank in. “We didn’t think?—”
“ We ?” she asked. “Certainly not me, I wasn’t consulted. You three decided this on your own.”
“We want you to understand that you should sell us to Vega. We want you to be safe. Need to know that you’re safe,” Bryson said, pleading into the room.
Why couldn’t she understand that it would kill them if she was hurt while they were gone. They owed her, yes, but it was more than that at this point. Bryson didn’t pretend to understand why, but it was the truth.
“Again, decisions you have decided on, not me.”
A knife flashed in front of Bryson’s face, and in a second his bonds were cut free. Staying kneeling, he rubbed his wrists, raw from fighting.
Adria sat down on the bed directly in front of him. “You expect me to believe you want to serve under me?”
She leveled him with a serious stare, one he doubted many men carried with her.
The question caught him off guard. He did care about her; he wanted to help her, protect her. Wasn’t that enough?
She took in his face, his indecision obvious.
“You want to serve with me?” she asked. “Above me?”
He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
“We want to work with you,” Kaydon said.
She held up a finger. “I want to hear it from your brother.”
Bryson’s mind went blank.
What the fuck did he want? Why couldn’t he just talk to her?
“Okay, I get it. Words are hard. Let’s put it to a test instead,” she said, rounding the bed.
Beckoning both Kaydon and Seth, she positioned them on all fours. Pushing their faces into the mattress, asses up. Bryson’s arousal was now painful. His body screaming for contact. Rough or otherwise, but preferably rough.
Seeing Seth and Kaydon, on all fours on the bed, their erections bobbing with each shift of the mattress, Bryson thought he might break from the weight of it.
He watched as her soft hands expertly caressed the two of them. Each of them receiving their own personalized attention. Seth got the feathery pads of her fingers, swirling down the small of his back, while Kaydon got her nails raking up his ribs.
Bryson could practically feel her touch on him. She would use her entire palm, pausing on all his sensitive areas. She would confuse him, keep him off balance, until a hard pinch would cause him to cry out.
But instead, he was left to kneel there naked, dripping and trembling.
“Keep your eyes on us and don’t move,” Adria ordered.
Sitting on her chair, she laced up her thigh-high leather boots and stood tall, in nothing but the boots and a robe.
Adria walked to the closet and stalked back into the room, a long leather belt dragging behind her.
Bryson sucked in a breath. Fuck, she was radiant.
The soft silk delicately touching her, accentuating her every contour. As she stood there, Bryson strained to be near her. The vibrant hues of her tattoos harmoniously enhanced her beauty, adding an artistic allure to her already mesmerizing presence.
She was always wearing long sleeves to hide her tattoos and ascension scars, but Bryson didn’t understand why. He especially liked the large angel on her right bicep, holding a dagger above her head.
The belt came down suddenly with a crack. Seth jumped, but judging by how Kaydon pushed his face into the mattress it was him that was struck. Bryson’s assumptions were confirmed when a crimson-red mark bloomed across Kaydon’s backside.
Seth was next. Adria moved between the two of them until their red thighs pressed together and muffled noises went into the comforter. To both Seth and Kaydon’s credit, neither of them moved or shied away from the punishment.
Bryson felt adrift.
His brothers were prostrated shoulder-to-shoulder, they bore her marks, but he was just a spectator. Alone.
The belt fell to the floor, and Adria ran her fingers over their tender flesh .
A whine escaped Bryson’s lips.
A fucking whine.
He was kneeling, begging for attention like a dog. The disgust he felt for himself turning into rage.
He yearned for her.
Every nerve in his body screamed to cross the space between them, to seize her like he had before. To wrap his hands around her waist, dig his fingers into her flesh until she felt him.
Saw him.
He was the one who had broken down the walls, shattered the illusion of distance between them, and now, she acted like he didn’t exist. Like he was invisible.
Each time she ignored his whines, his quiet aching, it fueled something darker.
In his mind, he reached for her. Dragged her in and pinned her tight, her back hitting the wall with a satisfying thud. His growl would rise low in his throat, animal and raw, vibrating through his chest as he pulled her flush against him. Her scent, floral and warm, would fill his lungs, anchoring him to this moment.
He’d whisper her name into her neck. Feel her shiver. Feel her arch into him.
In his fantasy, her body would betray her pride, reaching for him, needing him. Just like he needed her.
Their desire would crash between them, heat and want and stubborn need, wrapping around them like gravity. Unshakable. Inevitable.
When he came to his senses, back to reality, he saw Adria coming out of her closet, a large red dildo strapped to her waist.
His entire body flushed. And he ached to feel her under him. For her to allow him the honor of showing her what he could do if the roles were reversed.
Stepping closer to the bed, she applied lube to the device .
“Adria, please…”
She stopped. “Please what, pet?”
She stood there, daring him to continue. To lay himself bare in front of her.
Something about the way she looked at him, like his father did sometimes. As if she already knew that he was going to fail and was impatiently waiting for him to do it.
“What am I to you?” Adria asked.
Her fingers probing Kaydon’s entrance, and he moaned into the sheets. “You think pledging your fealty gives you rights to my bed?”
The words were like ice. That had never been his intention. Is that what she thought of him and his loyalty?
“I know you are kneeling for your own gain and not for mine.”
Hurt snapped in his chest, but it was quickly replaced with anger.
He stood, ready to leave.
“Well, that didn’t take long,” Adria said, triumphantly.
“Fuck you,” he spat, rage filling him.
“I think we’ve established that isn’t on the cards for you. Now, if you wouldn’t mind taking your false fealty and fucking off.”
Kaydon moved his face to look at Bryson. Bryson saw the slight shake of his head, warning him not to go. But he didn’t care. Adria didn’t want him here. It was clear she didn’t trust him. It didn’t matter what he did. People were always going to see a monster.
Without another word, he left.