7. Manhandled
Chapter 7
Manhandled
Raven
Present Day
“ H i,” I whispered softly looking up at Levi through my lashes. My throat was raw, and I wondered how long I was gone from the world this time. My body was still in pain and weak, I had only been awake for less than thirty minutes, but I was done being confined to this bed.
I tried to start disconnecting myself from the machines, but Levi stopped me.
“You know what happened last time?” He laughed, but I could hear the concern in his tone.
Raising a challenging brow, I removed the last of it. I wouldn’t be strapped down any longer.
“Stay on the bed at least?”
That part I obliged and shifted up until I leaned against the headboard. “What exactly went down after…after my strings were cut? How long has it been…” My attention caught on Jayce sleeping in the chair next to me and my heart softened further. These two men made me feel safe, even when I was always one breath away from death.
“It’s been seven days.” I felt the heat of Levi’s gaze and turned back to him. “I almost killed you.” His amber eyes were glassy.
A week? I couldn’t understand why the Creators nursed me back to health. Why force us to fight each other to the death only to hook me up to machines after the game to keep me alive.
But why had I been out so long this time? There was one specific point of pain on my body and my hand went to it. A long puckered line of stitches on my side, but it seemed to be mostly healed now.
I breathed out heavily. “No, you didn’t. That was Enzo, but he didn’t have a choice .” Guilt beat against my rib cage, Levi deserved the truth. “I knew that you weren’t guilty. Enzo told me what he did,” I admitted into the air. “I’m sorry.” My vision blurred. I lifted a hand gently to my eyes and found tears. My cheeks heated in shame.
“You knew?” Levi rasped.
I shut my eyes. His voice was breaking my heart. His pain and sadness were palpable. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know how to tell you. I wasn’t sure if I should.”
He moved on the bed, I expected him to get up. To leave. I was surprised when I felt his arms wrap around me carefully, tugging me onto him. “Come here,” Levi stated gruffly, enveloping me in his strength.
My back was laid against his bare chest, my ass pushed into his hardening length, his head fell to the crook of my neck.
“Levi,” I gasped out, trying to wriggle away .
“Just let me hold you and stop moving. I don’t want to hurt you.” Levi’s breath tickled me as he grumbled into my ear.
“What if I want you to hurt me?” I whispered barely audibly.
Levi’s stiffening form was the only indication that he had heard me. “Raven.” The word was a warning.
I tended to ignore those.
My attention shot to Jayce.
He was awake now, watching us as he slowly moved a finger up to his lips before smiling and nodding his head.
My body was in pain, we were still in this fucked up game, the Creators or Sponsors clearly had it out for us. But there was one reprieve in all of this. Well I guess two to be exact.
I had Jayce and Levi.
And in this moment, I wanted to feel something , anything, good.
I grinded back against Levi’s length.
His breath hissed out into my ear and I trembled. “You just woke up from your deathbed. I am not fucking you,” he growled.
“I’m a big girl. I know my limits.” I rolled back against his cock that was now hard as steel pressing into me. I needed relief. “And besides, I’m basically healed now.” The lie fell from my lips before I could catch it.
But I knew Jayce and Levi wouldn’t go along with this if they thought I was in pain and could hurt me.
I needed Jayce and Levi to solidify our connection before we got to the chaos that would ensue once Enzo confessed to everything he had done.
Shit would be hitting the fan then.
“Please?” The word came out a raspy plea, but it landed.
“Red,” Levi grumbled our safe word into my ear. “Get over here, Jayce. ”
“I—” I spluttered the word out as Levi practically threw me onto the bed, flipping us so that he now hovered over me. It hurt when I landed on my back, but I welcomed the pain.
After the last game where my body was numb to everything, I wanted more than anything to feel .
I blinked a few times, meeting Levi’s concerned stare.
“If this is too much you need to tell us.”
I lifted my lips and continued looking into Levi’s eyes. They were brewing with concern, adoration, lust.
“I need this. I need to feel alive. To have control over something in my life. And like I said, my body had time to heal. I’m not in pain or anything.” At least not anymore than I could handle.
My words seemed to be the final hammer against his concern.
“Okay, darlin’,” Levi obliged as he rolled carefully off of me.
I immediately missed his warmth and began to protest, but the bed shifted.
“Oh hey there my sweet Raven.” Jayce’s face was swirling with emotion. For the first time in the entirety of knowing the man, he almost appeared unsure.
My anger at Jayce had long since faded. I was aware enough to admit that I had never fallen out of love with Jayce. He would always and forever hold my heart. We were connected.
He used one hand to balance over me and the other found my cheek, caressing it with his calloused fingers. “I’m sorry I failed again. I couldn’t save you.” His voice cracked.
Levi laid next to us, but instead of feeling intrusive, it was comforting to have both men so close.
“I couldn’t keep Sparrow safe,” I confessed. A wall that I had firmly placed around the piece of my heart for her crumbled just a bit .
Levi stiffened, but he didn’t say anything.
Jayce peppered kisses across my cheeks and nose before resting his forehead against mine. “No, that wasn’t your fault.” His hand on my face moved to the back of my neck, his long fingers digging in. “She will always live on in both of our hearts.”
I couldn’t continue on with this. I wasn’t emotionally stable, I needed to ground myself.
Reaching my hands up to Jayce’s face, I captured his lips. The move took him by surprise, but it wasn’t long before the grip on my neck tightened and his lips moved against mine in only the way an old lover’s can. The memory of our past encounters mixed in with the present. Comfort, reassurance, warmth. My hips lifted off the bed, trying to find friction against something. Anything. “I want you. I need you. It’s been too long.”
“Raven.” Jayce pulled back. “Are you sure you’re healed? That we won’t hurt you?”
“Jayce, stop treating me like the girl I was! I know what I can handle. Don’t you trust me?”
Of all the things I expected, it wasn’t for Jayce to laugh. He turned his head to Levi and ordered, “Help me.”
I was surprised when Levi didn’t argue; he simply chuckled along. “Sure thing, anything for our girl.”
Our girl. The words sent a heavy dose of warmth into my heart.
Levi carefully shifted on the bed and Jayce sat up, no longer covering me.
“Come here.” Levi leaned against the headboard and tugged me into his lap, my head falling back against his chest, his massive hands on my hips scorching me.
My pain was now the very last thought in my mind. His cock was hot against my ass, and we were all entirely too clothed.
“Always manhandling me. ”
I was still weak from my most recent near death experience, but I wouldn’t be showing it. I knew these men would put this to a stop if I did.
“Jayce?” I asked, softly looking up at his eyes.
He tugged his shirt up and over his head.
It was at that moment I realized I hadn’t seen him shirtless since we had been reunited. A gasp left my lips. The tattoos that littered his skin didn’t stop at his shirt’s edge. All of the intricate lines that swirled along his body in odd patterns formed together across his chest.
A raven and a much smaller sparrow made from the hundreds of tattooed lines. The raven’s wings wrapped around the sparrow in a tender embrace. It was chaotic. It was beautiful. It was heartbreaking.
“Jayce,” I croaked as my heart swelled at the sight. “Fuck.”
Levi nuzzled into my neck before reaching up and carefully removing my shirt from my body. With it gone, my chest was entirely bare and Jayce’s eyes focused there, hooding in lust.
He kneed his way onto the bed, never breaking eye contact. “You’re fucking beautiful.” His words landed in the desire pooling between my thighs. I shifted uncomfortably in the restricting sweats I still wore.
“She is,” Levi confirmed.
His lips found my neck and he began to suck and kiss on the sensitive area. The knot in my belly was burning, pulsating, scorching me from the inside out. My nipples pebbled to uncomfortably hardened points. I needed relief.
I let out a breathy moan and it set both of the men off. They worked together to remove my remaining restricting clothes. Levi’s strong hold lifted me up as Jayce swept in to tug my pants down and throw them onto the floor. Levi let me go, my bare ass landing on his lap.
“Darlin’,” he hissed as I tried to gain relief by rubbing against it .
Jayce shimmied out of the last of his clothes. His cock popping free and curving upwards towards his belly.
My body was intimately familiar with it and a hot breath of air escaped my lips. Now that we were both naked, I was acutely aware of the masks still covering all of our faces.
Jayce seemed to notice where my attention went, but he didn’t bother to remove his. “Hold her open for me.” He didn’t wait for Levi’s response as he lowered his face to the apex of my thighs.
Levi didn’t argue, he simply grabbed each of my thighs in a hand and spread me slowly. "How far can we stretch you?” Levi rumbled the words into my ear.
I didn’t fight the men as they positioned me. I knew that if at any moment I needed to stop, they would listen.
Unlike my past encounters.
Levi’s strong hands held my legs, keeping them stretched apart for Jayce. I leaned back against his sturdy chest. It was bare and the hair there tickled my skin.
Jayce didn’t wait any longer, his mouth found my clit and he began to suck on it as he brought his fingers up to push in and out of me.
My eyes fluttered shut as I fell into the sensations. Electricity sparked from Levi’s large hands holding my thighs all the way to Jayce nipping and sucking at my clit as his fingers pushed into me in a rhythmic beat.
Levi breathed out onto my shoulder, the air causing goosebumps to form. “That’s a good girl, let him stretch you. He’s going to make you ready to take him and then when you’re feeling better?” He paused, his teeth grazing my skin. “You’ll take us both.” The promise saturated the air with tension.
Jayce took it as a challenge and his fingers crooked, finding a point just inside that caused a wanton noise to stutter out .
“You like that, don’t you?” He spoke the words with my clit in his mouth, the vibrations ramping me even further towards the edge.
Levi’s grip tightened on my thighs, but instead of pain, it caused a completely different feeling.
Jayce curled his fingers up again, pushing in and nipping on my clit simultaneously. As he did so, Levi tugged my legs further apart and his teeth latched onto my shoulder, biting down on the sensitive skin.
Instead of pain, all I felt was pure ecstasy as I convulsed around Jayce’s fingers.
He didn’t stop. After a few more beats, I was a hot, overstimulated mess, and right before I began to wriggle away, Jayce pulled back from me to sit up on his knees.
An arrogant smile graced his lips. “This cunt is exactly how I remember it. Sweet .”
Levi unlatched his teeth from my shoulder, sucking on the spot instead.
“So that there is no question whose you are,” he murmured, slowly letting my thighs go.
Jayce’s eyes found mine. The familiar shade held a new glint to them. “I need you. I need to bury myself inside you. To stamp into you that I am never going anywhere.”
Afraid to speak, I jerked my head in agreement.
Levi shifted behind me almost as if to leave, but I reached back squeezing his arm. “Stay.”
“Anything for you darlin’.” His rough hands moved forward to my hips and before I could react he flipped me over onto my hands and knees.
“That’s better.” Levi leaned against the headboard, his lap directly in my point of vision.
“Always throwing me around,” I murmured.
My focus landed on his hardened cock that was now inches from my face. Without thought, I tugged his pants down and it popped free, bobbing up. Taking his cock into my hands, I brought my mouth over it.
“Holy fuck,” Levi’s voice pitched in admiration as I swallowed down his length.
I couldn’t fit it all in my mouth, but I brought my hand up to circle the portion I couldn’t .
I was so wrapped in my motions, that I didn’t notice Jayce had moved.
Not until his tip pressed into me from behind.
“Rub her,” Levi commanded.
Jayce didn’t argue, he brought one hand up and found my clit. It was still sensitive from before, but that only made his fingers on it that more intense.
“Now fuck her hard. She can take it, she said so,” Levi demanded.
For a moment, I thought I heard a hint of mirth in Levi’s tone, as if he were calling my bluff, but then he put his sturdy hands on my shoulders. Without any warning he pushed me back onto Jayce, burying him fully.
Moaning around Levi’s cock, I welcomed the sudden intrusion.
“Raven,” Jayce groaned in appreciation. His free hand found my hip, careful to avoid my stitches, and he used it as a handle as he began to pound long, sure strokes into me, while simultaneously pinching my clit with his rough fingers. Every beat pushed me further onto Levi.
I was choking, tears running down my eyes, but I was enjoying every second.
The ecstasy of being here with Levi and Jayce. Fucked senseless and mindless. Reminding me of why I wouldn’t give up, why I would continue to fight.
Because these two men. They were mine .
Levi used one of his large hands to wrap into my long hair controlling my movements and his other reached further to one of my sensitive nipples.
“That’s it, you can take more of me in that mouth of yours. Just let me guide you.”
He pinched down on my nipple. Hard . I gasped around his cock and he used that to push further into my throat; I was choking.
“Swallow around it. Be a good girl–I know you can.”
Doing my best to breathe through my nose, I relaxed my throat and swallowed. I had done this a lot in the past, but I had never felt so good . Never enjoyed it, never put this much into it.
“Just like that. Jayce, she can take a bit more, can’t you?”
“Mmmm,” I moaned out as best I could.
“Fill her up, stamp yourself into her. That cunt is his, isn’t it? You’re just a needy girl who needs as much cum as you can get, aren’t you?”
Volts of delicious electricity hit directly in my core with every word.
Jayce kept a steady rhythm from behind, pushing into a spot deep inside. Between that and the air deprivation from Levi’s cock down my throat, dots were flickering across my vision.
But I didn’t care.
I felt too good to change any of this moment.
“Raven, fuck, you are magnificent taking us both.” Jayce’s grip on my hip tightened. “She’s almost there,” Jayce advised before removing his fingers from my clit.
I made a noise of protest, but then he was slapping my clit with his hand and it was everything I didn’t realize I needed. Every smack shot directly to the desire that had already built.
Smack.
Smack.
SMACK !
“Fuck!” The word was a garbled mess as I choked around Levi and came around Jayce convulsing in ecstasy.
The orgasm was so intense it shot prickles along my nerves, up and down.
Jayce grunted, and I felt as he pulsated deep inside.
“Swallow it all,” Levi demanded as hot liquid filled the back of my throat.
Levi wiped my tears away while I did my best to swallow it down.
“You did so well, taking us both.” Levi was gentle as he pulled me from Jayce carefully into his arms. “Get something to clean her up,” he directed to the other man.
Jayce grumbled, but didn’t say anything. Instead, he got up and walked to the bathroom.
“I almost lost you from a secret. No more, okay? And we’re not doing that again until you’re fully healed. Don’t lie to us,” Levi rasped into my ear as he tugged me into his warm embrace, back to his sweet doting self.
My body was weak, the pain simmering to the surface as the pleasure dispersed, but I didn’t want to acknowledge it. Instead, I welcomed the security of his arms. The shockwaves from the intensity of being fucked by both men left me more drained than I would be admitting to either of them.
Now that the dust was settling, he was right. Secrets would get us killed. But there was something else I had in mind.
When Jayce returned, he took his time carefully cleaning me with a warm washcloth before taking up his spot on the bed in front of me.
“You okay?” Jayce asked gently, watching me with adoration.
“It’s time we talk about her,” I replied, emotionless. I steeled myself for the coming conversation.
Jayce stiffened, his face turning white. “Are you sure? ”
Reaching out, I traced the sparrow on his chest. “Yes.” I pushed off Levi just a bit to capture Jayce’s lips. He was familiar, security, a home to always return to, and with the pandemonium of emotions flowing through me, I needed that, needed him, to bring these memories to light. After all, this was one unbreakable tether we would always have.
Our daughter.
We finally separated after our breaths calmed, leaving my lips tingling and my heart pounding in my ears..
Falling back into Levi’s waiting arms, I began, “When my sister stabbed me, she wasn’t just trying to kill me. She was trying to kill our unborn child too.”
Levi, who had stayed silent throughout my exchange with Jayce, now vibrated a growl into my ear.
Wriggling further back into his arms I attempted to provide reassurance before continuing my story. “She told me Jayce knew her plans, and I was just an obstacle that was in the way of a liberation. That we both needed to die. That we were cherished . That our deaths would make a difference and nothing would stand in her way.” My hands stroked lines up Levi’s forearms. “At the time I thought that meant Jayce knew her plans.” My eyes landed on his. “But I have since realized that was wrong. The pain of the knife as she plunged into me, the terror that she was going to succeed in killing Sparrow. In ending my life too. It is the last thing I remember clearly before waking up with Geoff, the doctor.”
Levi’s arms tightened around me, his muscles hardening under the pads of my fingers.
Jayce’s face turned ashen, uncertainty flashed across it, before his jaw tightened. “If we’re sharing everything, there’s something else I need to tell you.” Jayce reached up, cupping my face and stroking my cheek softly with his thumb. “I think I know who saved you. ”
Leaning into his touch, I used it as the grounding I needed. “Who?”
His thumb dug into my cheek. “Julian.”
My eyes flashed to Jayce’s. Uncertainty wrapped around my nerves, but in my heart, the name landed.
My best friend growing up. One of the few I knew with undeniable certainty would never betray me. That had given me needed support while Jayce and my sister disappeared more and more. That had always been honest to a fault. That I had trusted my deepest, darkest secrets to.
My heart beat rapidly in my chest as I thought about him. I squeezed my eyes shut as anxiety and unease swirled through me, but underneath it all was concern .
I hadn’t allowed myself to think about it, but I missed him. More than I had realized.
Over the years, I had wondered where he ended up, if he had landed in these games himself, but I found it was too much to bear, and I had no idea where or even how to find him. It was easier to not think of him at all, to pretend he was living his happily ever after somewhere far away from here.
But the more I considered it, the less likely it seemed. I clenched my jaw, letting out a full body shudder.
I hope you’re okay, Julian .