Chapter 44
FINLEY
The restaurant is dark and sultry with neon lighting and exotic plants hanging from the ceiling and coiled around industrial pillars. The music is sensual to match the dancers, dotted on podiums around the place. They’re dressed in lace and feathers that flutter with every move.
The whole environment is adding to the suffocating need broiling inside me.
Jesus.
God.
Sweet Christ, please have mercy on me.
I pray on repeat, trying to swallow down every mouthful of food without whimpering.
Thankfully, the vibrator isn’t buzzing anymore. But the fullness is still killing me. I keep waiting for my body to adjust to the sensation…
Impossible—every time I turn to our friends when they’re talking to me, it shifts; every time I lean forward for a bite, it pushes and pulls. My body is locked in want, a constant climb with no peak, and my two possessive men show no hint of mercy.
“Dude, what’s gotten into you? You got ants in your pants or something?” Christina narrows her eyes on me, and they go straight to my breast where Eli’s mark is darkening.
Her stare is on me when the vibrator goes off.
Shit! I grip her thigh tight as her eyes dart to mine.
“What the fuck?” She mouths, followed by a low whisper, “Did you just vibrate?”
I swallow, not sure what to say. When I glance across the table at Eli, he has his phone in his hand. Dark eyes spearing me, chiseled pout extra surly.
Christina turns back to the table, covering her mouth with her hand as she asks, “Why are you vibrating?”
“Because…” I grit through clenched teeth, trying to force myself to relax while I give Eli a pleading glance. “You don’t want to know.”
He taps his phone just as she follows my stare to him. “Oh, fuck me… girl. Girl, I’m getting horny for you.” Her groan morphs to a wanton snicker.
“Maybe you should take back the ‘friends only’ agreement you made with Matheo,” I tell her, breathing through the last echo of the buzz knotting my stomach. “I don’t get it.”
Christina follows the length of the table to find him at the other end. “He deserves better.”
“That’s trash.”
Shaking her head, she forks her food around her plate. “I can’t be who I am and fall into his bed whenever he calls.”
“He calls you every night.” Tucking my hair behind my ear, I cross one leg over the other, hoping it’ll dissipate the rest of the hum thrumming through me.
“Exactly. I told him I didn’t want a relationship, and…” She stabs her fork into the steak on her plate.
“You do now?” I stiffen when Jayden’s hand pushes between my thighs.
His grip tightens as he leans in and asks, “How’s it going, Lucky?”
The sweetness in his voice is taunting. He knows exactly what they’re doing to me, and asking is just another way to keep my mind on the sensations. Of making it impossible to relax.
Fine—two can play. Resting my hand over his, I hitch it all the way to my drenched center and drag our joint fingertips through my wet folds. While he holds his there, I lift mine, and tear off a piece of the cotton-candy cloud decorating my cocktail.
His eyes follow the blue fuzz to his lips. When he opens his mouth to take it from me, I push my fingers inside, making sure he gets a taste of how it’s going for me.
“How’s that, Hotshot?”
He sucks long and hard, pulling all my arousal off my skin with a grin glinting in his eyes.
“The best fucking thing I’ve put in my mouth all damn night,” is all he says, pressing on the curve of the toy so it sinks deeper.
He’s fucking me under the table with our friends talking and smiling and—
“I can’t be in a relationship, Fin,” Christina says, oblivious to how close I am to coming.
I can’t even tell her how ridiculous she’s being. Matheo cares about h-he-her…
Fuck!
I grip the bench on either side of me, biting my tongue so I don’t call out as the heat in my bloodstream roars.
Jesus, please.
I’m almost there. So close. So ready.
Then, JJ rips his hand away. I blanch at the loss. The fire turns to ice; my near release morphs to more tension, more need.
He twists his slick fingers in the candy floss and makes a show of eating it with a long suck as he grins at Eli.
I can’t take much more of this.
I won’t survive it.
But at least I’m not the only one dying.
Eli looks as pent-up as I am. Licking his lips with his nostrils flared like he’s desperate for the taste of me that JJ just had.
And if watching him ache didn’t make the anticipation coiled around me so much sweeter, I might feel sorry for him.
Seeing him so close to unraveling is almost taking the edge off my suffering.
So I don’t.
Instead, I sit back into the bench and relish in the knowledge that he is as desperate as I am.
***
Christina clings to me for dear life as we leave the bar. She’s heading towards tipsy, but making enough sense that if she has enough water, she’ll make it to midnight.
It’s only ten-thirty. The streets are manic, and every so often, the guys get recognized and stopped. They’re impossible to miss—their past-six-foot brawn in all white makes incognito a myth.
Not a single one is shitty about being asked for photos, though. Even Eli poses a couple of times.
“Oi, Bonita,” Matheo croons at Christina as he continues striding backward. “Want me to keep you warm?”
I can sense her fighting the urge to let him sweep her away. Her arm almost releases mine, then tightens. “It’s not cold, Mattie.”
“I mean… It’s a little bit crisp,” I say, trying to help him out.
Matheo has a lot of bravado, but his friendship with Jayden is honest and loyal.
They treat each other like brothers, and given how careful Jayden is about who he lets in, I know Matheo can’t be a bad guy.
Besides, he’s looking at Christina like a sad puppy searching for his lost bone—if a puppy were six-three with dark curls and piercing blue eyes broadcasting emotion in 8K UHD.
Matheo falls into step beside us while Eli and Jayden walk behind me. Jayden hasn’t released my hand since we left the restaurant, and Eli is so close that the toes of his shoes graze my heels.
I zone out of Matheo and Christina’s chatter and focus on the weight of my steps—the way they pull at my core.
I’m achy from all the clenching.
It’s going to hurt when Jayden and Eli fuck me later. And sweet baby Jesus, the thought of it turns me on some more.
My toes curl as I walk, tilting my steps into a waddle with the clench of my thighs. I’m about to ask Christina to slow down when she releases my arm and continues with Matheo. They’re not holding hands or touching, but at least she’s chuckling at his easy patter.
The instant I’m untethered, Eli and JJ fall into step on either side of me.
Jayden’s arm wraps around my shoulders while Eli’s coils around my waist. On his other side, I hear Lex talking about what he has on the horizon for Eli in the new year—new opportunities to shut the door on the ones he’s lost because of us.
“It’s going to be a big year, man.” Lex claps Eli’s shoulder hard enough that he tightens his hold on me. “And we’ve got that Hallman son of a bitch by the bal—”
“Stop, Lex,” Eli cuts him off before he finishes.
Jayden tenses at the mention of Ryker. As do I. We haven’t talked about him since Brian took us into his office in Aspen, and I don’t want to now. That creep does not get to ruin tonight. The only thing being ruined—after all the damn torture—is me.
“Not tonight.” Eli’s tone is finite, which relaxes JJ a tad. “I don’t want to think about any of that stuff. The only people who get my attention tonight are Fin and JJ.”
“Good on you,” Lex hollers with another slap.
Jayden leans closer, giving Eli’s shoulder a tight squeeze, the same way I cinch my arms around their waists and hug them as tight as I can.
With a kiss to the top of my head, Eli looks across me to JJ with a mischievous grin. “Focusing on the good vibes.”
Oh my God.