Chapter 39 Bram
brAM
I knew Maeve was ready to go back to the hotel and fuck, which was why I suggested a walk in the park instead. She was so fierce, so in charge all the time. I loved that about her, but tonight I wanted her soft and whimpering with pleasure, begging for our mouths and cocks.
I let Remy take her hand as we left the restaurant.
Denying myself access to Maeve’s body had become a kind of erotic self-discipline.
She was the thing I wanted most in the world, my hunger for her body and soul insatiable.
Forcing myself to wait had become a twisted kind of turn-on, the only way to exert control over a situation — over feelings — that were way beyond any semblance of real control.
It was cold as we made our way north through the city, and Poe walked slightly ahead of Remy and Maeve while I dropped back. It was instinctual, a protective formation around Maeve, like we could keep her not only safe but warm just by giving her cover.
The lights in Greenwich were a soft glow through the windows, the scrape of cutlery on restaurant plates oddly confronting and familiar.
Music drifted through the doors of the upscale neighborhood bars and streetlamps cast a soft amber glow across the city winterscape.
Above the shops, apartments glowed with lamplight.
We passed other pedestrians on the street, people heading to a bar for a late-night drink or hurrying out for a hookup, all of us part of another world, the one that came out after dark in cities around the globe.
There was no need for words, and I watched as Maeve leaned her head on Remy’s arm, grateful that she was with us, safe and sound where she belonged when six weeks earlier she’d been in Romania with Ethan Todd.
I wanted to keep her with us forever. Wanted to keep her safe forever.
Traffic thinned as we moved farther north. There were fewer pedestrians here, the shops mostly closed, their storefronts casting long stretches of darkness between the lights of the few open establishments. Even the traffic was sparse, the signals cycling over nearly empty intersections.
The cold felt sharper, and Maeve huddled a little closer to Remy as I shoved my hands in my pockets for warmth.
“Want to go back?” I called out to them.
Maeve glanced over her shoulder and I wanted to freeze the image in time, her hair glossy under the streetlights, cheeks pink with cold, pale blue eyes bright as a diamond under glass. “I’m good.”
I was glad. The cold only made me more excited to get her back to the hotel — to strip her naked and feel the slide of her skin against ours, to warm her from the outside in — and the anticipation was half the fun.
Plus, there was a small part of me that wanted to prove I could still wait for Maeve.
To prove that I wasn’t entirely lost.
The city got even quieter as we approached Central Park. Here there were no open bars or restaurants to cast noise into the night, just the whoosh of tires on pavement and the wind in the surrounding trees.
The old-fashioned streetlamps around the park glowed softer than modern streetlights. It was like stepping back in time, like the last half hour had been more than a walk, it had been a slipping between worlds.
The paths through the park were lit, but behind the path was a darkness, snowy fields and banks of trees disappearing like voids in space.
I picked up my pace to walk closer to Maeve and Remy, watched as Poe fell back to do the same.
It wasn’t generally advisable to walk the park at night, but I wasn’t worried.
Any street thug looking to lift the wallets of a few tourists would be in for a nasty surprise, and I was pretty sure one look at us would deter most of them from the start.
We weren’t small men, and there were three of us.
I almost hoped someone would try. My rage at Ethan Todd wasn’t even close to being satiated, and I could think of worse things than taking some of it out on a small-time thief looking to score in the park.
Maeve didn’t ask if it was safe for us to be here, and I hoped it was because she knew it was safe, knew she was safe anywhere with us.
“It’s so quiet,” Maeve murmured. “So strange in such a big city.”
I brushed against her as we walked, the touch electric even through our clothes. My dick was already hard, my patience waning.
“It’s not the safest at night,” Poe said.
“It’s not?”
I liked that it had never occurred to her. That she’d just assumed it was safe because she felt safe.
Poe chuckled. “Not really.”
“But it looks so peaceful.”
“Looks can be deceiving,” I said.
She nodded, her expression serious. “I know.”
She did know. She knew that an average-looking guy could be hiding the heart of a monster, knew that an average-looking life could be blown to bits in a heartbeat. That was something we shared.
We came to a stone bridge over a body of running water that might have been a small river in summer but was reduced to a creek thanks to the winter freeze.
Maeve stopped at the center of the bridge and looked down, and for a long moment there was nothing but the faint trickle of water and the sound of the wind through the trees.
We huddled around her, a quest for body heat and something else: the need to be as close to Maeve as we could get, an imperative I was beginning to realize was permanent.
I pressed the front of my body against her back and slipped my arms around her waist.
Her laughter fogged the air when she felt the press of my dick against her ass through her coat. “Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”
“It’s a gun,” I said against her ear. “But not the kind you mean.”
She turned in my arms, trapped between my body and the stone wall of the bridge, Remy and Poe on either side of us.
“I’m not complaining,” she said.
I didn’t make the decision to kiss her. It was inevitable.
Like breathing.
My mouth found hers and she moaned as our tongues came together. The heat of her mouth was enough to make my dick throb, and I dove deep, sweeping every corner of her mouth, pressing so hard against her body that she leaned back over the stone wall.
I held her face in my hands, taking the kiss as deep as I could, wanting to consume her, wanting to crawl inside her body and stay forever.
I was barely aware of Poe and Remy, kissing her cheek and neck, their hands roaming her back until we were a feverish tangle of mouths and tongues and it didn’t matter that it included Poe and Remy because there was no separation between us.
Because pretty soon we all were going to be naked and fucking. We were going to be driving into Maeve’s soft body and tight ass, watching her take our dicks in her mouth, hearing her cry out while we made her come again and again.
I didn’t know whether I was kissing Maeve or Poe and Remy, didn’t know whether she was kissing me or them, and it didn’t matter.
Not one fucking bit.
We were all gasping for air when Maeve finally pulled back. “I’m going to fuck you all right here if we keep doing this.”
“I wouldn’t complain.” Remy leaned over the stone bridge to look at the creek below. “Although with my luck, I’d end up falling into whatever that is.”
“Another time, I might actually pay to see that,” Poe said. “But right now I’m too fucking horny to test the theory. Also, Maeve is shivering.”
“Poe’s right,” I said. “As much as I’d love to lift your sweet ass onto this wall and fuck you here and now, we need to get you warm. Then we’re going to fuck you until you scream.”
“Warm sounds good,” she said. “And the rest of it too.”
I took her hand and pulled her away from the bridge, toward the night and the thing I wanted most of all, which was always going to be her.