Chapter 31
Any more talk like that from you and I’m going to have to punish you.
Holy moly.
Were these guys trying to make her self-combust? Because that’s what it felt like.
She shouldn’t find their possessive, bossy ways hot. But she did.
“I’m tired of waiting,” Jared warned. “Limits. Now.”
Shit. She should have known she couldn’t put it off for much longer. She licked her lips, wondering what to tell them.
“Remember, you need to lay them all out,” North warned.
“I’ve never talked about this sort of thing before,” she told them.
Jared ran his hands along her thighs. Up and down.
Was he trying to kill her? Shivers ran through her body.
“Don’t hurt me,” she blurted out.
“That’s a limit?” North asked. “Not to hurt you? What about a pain that’s pleasure?”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
She felt so naive. She had no clue what she was doing. The most she’d done with Michael was suck his dick a couple of times.
And that hadn’t exactly been a mind-blowing experience.
For either of them.
“What if I was to twist your nipples?” North asked. “The pain could border on pleasure.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know. Can pain really be pleasure?”
“It can,” North said.
“North enjoys pain,” Jared told her. “Sometimes that means I have to choose other punishments for him. How long has it been since you’ve been allowed to come, North?”
“Six days, but who is counting?”
“Oh, I’m sure you are, boy. And when I say you can come, you’re going to go off so quick. Perhaps I will let you come inside our girl here. What do you think of that, baby girl? Would you like North to come inside you?”
“Yes,” she breathed out without even having to think about it.
Was that a flicker of surprise on North’s face? No, she must be seeing things.
“I was tested after . . . after Fergus. I’m clean. And I have an implant so I can’t get pregnant.”
“Good. We’re also clean. I like the idea of taking you bare.”
Jesus.
Did she like that idea too?
“I know you said you didn’t want to be spanked a while ago, but are spankings really a limit?” Jared asked.
“I don’t know if they are a limit or not.”
“I guess we won’t know until we try,” North said.
Whenever she’d read a spanking scene in a romance book, well, it had turned her on.
It wasn’t anything that Fergus had ever done to her . . . so maybe it would be okay?
Maybe you’d even like it.
She’d never thought she might like some pain. Fucking Fergus. He’d taken so much from her and now she needed to claw some of who she was back.
Who would she have been if he hadn’t been in her life?
Was she someone who would just jump into bed with two guys without all this bargaining and talking about limits?
Probably.
“If we do anything that scares you or makes you uncomfortable or causes too much pain, say your safeword,” Jared said. “We will always honor a safeword.”
She swallowed heavily. “I don’t have one, though.”
“Make one up. Or use Red,” North suggested.
“Is that what you use?” she asked him.
“No. I don’t have one.”
“You don’t?” She glanced between them both. “Why don’t you have one?”
North shrugged. “I don’t need it. I trust Jared not to go too far.”
“Because he knows that my limits would kick in before his,” Jared told her. “There is little that North wouldn’t let me do. Some things would be too far for me and he knows it.”
“There’s also little you could do to me that I couldn’t fight my way free of,” North told him.
He looked so unassuming. Like he should be working in a library or an office with his button-up shirt and pressed pants.
But underneath all of that he was dangerous and scary. A panther or leopard.
Stalking their prey.
Just watching and waiting.
A shiver ran through her.
“But that won’t be the same with you,” Jared told her firmly. “You’ll use the word Red if you need us to stop.”
She nodded.
“So have you thought of anything else?” North asked.
“I don’t want to be restrained.”
“Understood,” Jared said.
“Don’t slap my face or restrict my breathing or punch me or kick or pinch or burn my skin. And no belts or any kind of implement. Don’t make me bleed or scar me. And don’t tell me that I’m a slut or a bitch. Or humiliate me.”
Those came out so fast that she was shocked for a moment. She hadn’t realized she’d be able to come up with her limits so easily.
Wow.
She was kind of proud of herself.
“Anything more?” Jared asked.
If she’d been paying more attention, she likely would have heard how tense he was. Have seen the way he was holding himself tight.
And she would have noticed North stepping away, retreating. Although that would have confused her more than anything.
“Um, I’m just trying to think. No one else other than the two of you. Oh, when I say no implements, I mean weapons too. And I don’t want to crawl anywhere. Or have to beg you to hurt me.”
“Mother. Fucker. Mother. Fucker.” Jared stormed away while she looked after him in shock.
Shit. It had to have been something she’d said.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Why are you sorry?” North asked.
What was he doing so far away? Were they walking away from her? Did she disgust them?
All of those things . . . yeah, Fergus had done them to her and now they knew.
Fuck.
“Some of those are made up. He didn’t do all those things to me,” she stated.
“Yes, he did and you diminish what you went through by trying to pretend that he didn’t,” North told her coldly.
“I didn’t mean to upset anyone.”
“This isn’t your fault. It’s his.”
“I know, but he was still Jared’s father.”
“He was no father of mine,” Jared said, storming back into the room.
Something had changed.
She ran her gaze over him and immediately zeroed in on his right hand.
“You’re bleeding.” She climbed down off the counter.
“Careful,” Jared barked.
North took a step toward her, as though he thought he might need to catch her.
“I’m fine. I wasn’t that far up,” she said. “Jared, you’re bleeding.”
“You shouldn’t get off the counter by yourself,” Jared told her with a frown as he ran his hand under the water at the tap. “And it’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing. What happened? You were only gone a few minutes.”
“I needed to get rid of some pent-up energy,” he explained. “I’m so fucking sorry that happened to you, baby. I’m going to ensure that nothing like that ever happens to you again.”
He cupped her face between his cool hands and kissed her.
God. What a kiss.
The man was talented, that was for sure. But something felt different about this kiss. It felt like he was trying to infuse her with him. Trying to meld them together so they were never apart.
Or perhaps that’s just wishful thinking on your behalf.
Instead of asking how he intended to do that when she was leaving soon, she kissed him back just as passionately.
Wanting to keep him with her.
Always.
Drawing back, he nipped at her lip and she was shocked as that small amount of pain zinged through her body, making her pussy pulse with need.
He lifted her into the air, against his chest where he held her like a baby. Then he walked over to North.
“Come,” he said to North.
But the other man shook his head, watching her closely. “I’m going to sit this out.”
She tensed. What did he mean? He wasn’t going to be a part of this? But she thought he wanted her?
Oh, was he disgusted by her now?
She buried her face in Jared’s chest. Normally, she’d come up with some bravado comment to push North further away.
Tell him that he was a giant dick who could go suck a bag of dicks.
See, totally eloquent.
But right now she was vulnerable and raw. She’d basically just laid out the things that Fergus had done to her.
Being rejected right now was like being flayed with his whip, having her back torn to bits. She could feel each hit against her skin.
Angie gasped for breath.
“Whoa, baby. Hey, it’s all right. North isn’t rejecting you. He’s actually trying to do the right thing while doing the exact wrong thing.”
“Why is she panicking?” North asked.
“Because you’re rejecting her. She just laid herself bare and you’re running.”
“What? I am not running. I’m right here.”
“You said you wouldn’t sleep with her, right after she told you her limits. Limits she obviously has because of what my father did to her. So now she probably thinks you don’t want her. Maybe even that she disgusts you.”
Whoa.
Jared was good. How did he know all that?
“Angie? Is Jared right? Is that what you think?” North asked
“I . . . yes,” she whispered, trying to be brave.
“Look at me.”
She shook her head at North’s command. She couldn’t turn her head and look at him. She felt too ashamed and embarrassed. And she figured she’d probably burst into tears. Which would likely ruin the evening.
Not that it already wasn’t ruined.
“Look. At. Me.”
There was so much command in his voice that she found herself turning her head to study him.
He nodded as though he’d read something in her face. Then he grasped hold of her chin and leaned in close. “Do you know that I’ve only ever wanted to kiss one person in my life.”
“What?” she asked.
“Yeah. The man holding you right now. He’s the only man I’ve ever wanted to kiss. The only person I’ve ever trusted not to harm me. He’s going to take good care of you.”
“I know he will,” she said.
“Better care than I ever could.”
Oh.
Did he think he might scare her?
“I’m not scared of you.”
He tilted his head to the side, studying her like she was a bug under a microscope.
But she didn’t take offense. She let him look at her while she wore her certainty on her face.
It seemed that these two guys were experts at hiding their feelings.
Especially North. She figured that what they all needed was some honesty.
“You’re not scared of me?” North asked.
“No.” She made certain that she had no doubt in her voice. Because he would pick up on any small nuance.
There seemed to be very little that North didn’t notice.
“You should be. You don’t know the things that I’m capable of. The things that I’ve done.”
“Will you hurt me, North? More than what I ask for, than I can handle?”
He sucked in a breath as though he hadn’t expected her to come straight out and ask him that.
“No.”
“I knew you wouldn’t. Because even though I might not know everything about you, I do see you, North. And you have a lot of good things about you even if you don’t see them. You’re loyal and smart and strong.”
“I’ve done bad things.”
“Haven’t we all?” Jared said.
“Things even you don’t know about,” North told Jared.
Oh. She could tell Jared didn’t like that.
“Right, but are you going to do bad things to me?” she asked quietly.
“I already have. I kidnapped you.”
And that was bad. There was no other way to put it and if she sugar-coated what he’d done, well, he’d see through it. And he might try it again. With someone else.
“And you won’t be doing that again, will you?” she said.
“Well, not to you. But I can’t say that I won’t kidnap anyone else.”
“You can only kidnap bad people,” she declared.
North stared at her for a long moment. “Are you giving me orders?”
She raised her chin into the air even though she was nervous as heck. “Yes.”
Angie noticed how tense Jared had grown.
“All right. I will only kidnap bad people from now on.”
“Shit,” Jared muttered quietly enough that she knew North wouldn’t have heard him speak. “Never thought I’d see the day he’d take someone’s orders.”
“He takes yours,” she whispered back.
“When it suits him.”
Well, that was probably how it would be with her too. But she’d take that for now.
North walked over to them, grasping hold of her chin with cool, light fingers. She stared into his dark gaze.
“Know this, though. You can ask anything of me, but I won’t always give it to you.”
Right. Okay.
“And you will follow my orders.”
“Your orders?” Jared asked him.
“Yes, you’re at the top, then me, then it’s our girl.”
Our girl?
He’d really just said that, right?
Holy crap.
Her heart was racing so hard that she might be ill.
But wait . . .
“How did I get on the bottom?” she asked.
The corner of North’s lip twitched. Involuntary? Or was that as good as a smirk from him?
“You’ve always been the bottom.”
She wasn’t sure she liked that.
“But that doesn’t mean you come last,” Jared explained. “All that means is that we’re your Tops. I’m your Daddy and your Dom.”
“I need Jared to Top me,” North explained. “I need those . . . limits and consequences. But not with you. With you, my Angel, I’m going to be the boss.”
Sheesh.
And she was no angel.
“So what you are saying is that you both get to tell me what to do?”
“Yes,” they said together.
“And I have to do it?” she asked.
“Unless you want to be punished,” Jared said as he carried her out of the kitchen and along the hallway.
Nerves flooded her as she stared at North over Jared’s shoulder. There was something anticipatory in the way he moved.
Something that both scared her and made her horny as hell.
“You both get to punish me?” she squealed.
“Remember you have a safeword,” Jared said.
As if that was meant to be reassurance.
This is just one night.
But it didn’t feel that way. It felt like this was her forever. And she needed to hold on tight and never let go.