Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
WREN
I put down the ring I was working on, set my loupe aside and rubbed my aching back.
I'd been bent over my desk for at least an hour, trying to get the design just right. Making pendants shaped like dicks and pussies was easier than a custom engagement ring.
The customer was paying a fortune for it to be perfect, so that was what it had to be. Right down to the exact placement of the massive princess cut diamond. Not to mention the six smaller ones.
The bell tinkled as the door opened and closed.
Dad coming back from his meeting with Caleb, I presumed.
Some of our best diamonds came from the second oldest of the Brantley brothers.
I didn't think too much about how Caleb got his hands on them.
We bought them cheaper than we would anywhere else and sold them for only slightly less than other jewellers.
Ask no questions, make a bunch of money. That might be Dad's motto.
"It's about time you got back," I called out teasingly over my shoulder.
Sudden pain lanced through my head.
I was pulled backward by my hair, until my chin was raised towards the ceiling.
Tiger loomed over me, a fistful of my hair wound around his fingers.
"What are you playing at?" he growled. His dark blue eyes blazed with fury. His grip on my hair tightened.
I met his gaze evenly. He’d startled me, but I wasn't scared of him. Maybe I should be, but I knew he wouldn't hurt me. Not in a way I wouldn't enjoy.
"What are you talking about?" As if I didn't know. He'd been avoiding me for so long, let him work for whatever answers he thought he needed to hear.
He jerked my head back harder. "I'm talking about Lex Stone. You two were fucking cosy the other night. Did you think I wouldn't notice?"
"I know you noticed," I said. "You couldn't stop staring at me. But that's all you were doing. Staring. This might surprise you, but there's more to relationships than just looking at each other."
"No shit." He cupped my cheek with his other hand. "You know you belong to me."
"Do I?" I raised my eyebrows at him. "You gave me the impression you didn't give a shit. What was I supposed to do with that? Wait around for the rest of my life, guessing? You weren't exactly fighting Lex off me."
"Neither were you." He stroked his knuckles down my skin.
"Of course I wasn't, I enjoyed his company," I said. "He doesn't mind admitting he's interested in me."
"He's more than interested." Tiger's fingers moved slowly down to my neck. He wrapped his hand around my throat. "He wants you to belong to him. I've seen the way he looks at you. Not only the other night. Before then too. He's been waiting a long time to claim you."
"I know," I whispered. The pulse in my clit was throbbing like crazy. My panties were ruined and probably the chair I was sitting on.
He leaned in and spoke softly in my ear. "So have I. I've waited long enough." He squeezed my throat a little tighter.
"Why did you wait?" I asked.
His grip loosened. I immediately regretted asking, but I needed to know the answer.
"I've been waiting for Nicholas Fiorelli to resurface," he said.
"I've focussed a lot of energy and resources on finding him.
It's been a distraction, but a necessity.
When he abducted you, you were collateral damage.
He wanted Sinclair to get Coast's attention. The moment he knows I’m looking for him, he'll look for targets.
If I was seen with you, that would make you one.
If that prick comes anywhere near you, he's going to end up the same way Sawyer did.
With a bullet in his brain, courtesy of me. "
"You've been staying away to keep me safe?" I said.
"Exactly, but I can't do it anymore," he said. "Seeing you with Lex… Imagining him touching you, tasting your pussy…" He shook his head. A brief frown crossed his brow.
"Did you fuck him?"
I averted my gaze from his.
He jerked my chin sideways, forcing me to look back at him. "Did. You. Fuck. Him?"
"Yes." The word passed my lips before I could stop myself. I swallowed hard. Had I signed Lex's death warrant? Tiger was volatile at the best of times. I could totally imagine him killing Lex for touching me.
Tiger stared at me for the longest time, conflict flashing through his eyes. Finally, he let go of my hair and throat and stepped back. He turned away from me and ran a hand over the back of his head.
"Fuck."
I slumped in my chair and tried to catch my breath. Tiger was like an ice storm, fierce and unpredictable. Deadly.
"I had no idea—" I started.
He turned around. "No. Of course you didn't. How could you? I suck at stuff like this. I should have told you. I was so hellbent on revenge because of what he did to you. So focused on that, I neglected to tell you. I should have."
I shook my head and pushed myself up out of the chair. "I can't blame you for trying to keep me safe." I glanced down at the floor for a few moments, trying to compose my thoughts.
"I could have come to you and asked you what was going on, but instead I hooked up with him in front of you." In front of Bray too. I had a feeling that would bite me in the ass at some point.
"The truth is, I like him too. I'd appreciate it if you didn't kill him."
He opened his mouth as though he was about to deny even thinking that, but closed it again.
Yeah, that was what I thought.
"If he was a lot of other guys, I'd have no choice," he said slowly. "But Lex is… Better than most." A brief, rare flash of vulnerability crossed Tiger's face. "Are you choosing him?"
Was I? I was attracted to Lex, but what I felt for Tiger was like a magnet. As compelling as gravity. I couldn't escape it if I wanted to.
"Can I choose you both?" I asked tentatively. That was a big deal to ask anyone.
We were surrounded by groups that made it work, but that didn't mean he wanted to be a part of that.
It was his turn to glance down at the floor. When he looked up again, he was fully in control of himself.
"You belong to me," he stated. That was a stone cold fact and he wasn't budging a hair on it.
I won't lie, it was hot as fuck. Knowing he wanted me as much as I wanted him, that he felt the same magnetic draw. We were as inevitable as the sun rising in the morning.
"But if the only way to have you is to share you, then that's how it has to be," he said. "I have the balls to do that."
My whole body relaxed and I smiled. "I have no doubt you do. We can make this work if we want it hard enough." I glanced down at the front of his jeans. Hard was the right word for it. The fact I did that for him was hotter still.
"You're not going to want seven boyfriends are you?" He winced. "My brother is one of seven."
I rubbed my cheek as though I was actually contemplating exactly that. "I mean, if that's what happens, then…"
I needed seven boyfriends like I needed seven holes in my head. I didn't know how his brother's girlfriend managed. She must be one hell of a woman. Or absolutely out of her mind. Possibly both.
Tiger sighed out his nose. "Whatever it takes, I'm here for it."
"I know you will be," I said. I wasn't sure if Lex was, but that was a conversation for later. There were other things we needed to discuss before that.
"Have you found Nicholas?" Tiger was right, he would come for me if he knew Tiger was sniffing around. He'd come for both of us and anyone we cared about.
Personally, I thought if he knew what was good for him, he'd stay right out of everyone's way for the rest of his life.
Like the rest of his family, he was ambitious, and it only took one to rebuild. He still had a lot of contacts and a shit load of influence.
"I have some leads," Tiger said. "Nothing concrete. It seems like he's getting desperate. He wants to make a big play, to return to the way his family was under his father."
"So he may come after Reuben or Caleb?" I guessed. "Or Samuel Bell and his daughters." The best way to make an impact would be to take out the biggest players. Once they were on ice, he could step right into their shoes.
"Or he might start with the Brantleys’ biggest supporters," Tiger said. "People like Aidan, Phoenix's brother Ric, Coast because he's Aidan's right-hand man at times. Me because I'm up to my eyeballs with all of them."
"Potentially all of us," I concluded.
Tiger stepped closer to me and placed a hand on my hip.
"I will personally not let anything happen to you, even if that means I have to stay away from you in public for a while longer.
If Nicholas tries anything, I'll pluck out each one of his pubic hairs, one by one.
Then I'll staple his balls to his leg. Then a bunch of other shit I haven't thought about yet.
" He pulled me to him. "Nothing will happen to you. "
"That's a shame, I wouldn't mind something happening to me," I said with a flutter of my eyelids and a smile.
He gave me a long look before he crushed his lips against mine. His tongue demanded entry to my mouth.
I opened to let him inside.
He swiped across my lips and tasted my tongue and the inside of my mouth.
He pushed me back against my desk and pulled up my thick, woollen skirt. He hooked his fingers into the top of my panties and tore them in two. He tossed the scraps aside and slid his fingers down my seam to my pussy.
"You're so fucking wet for me." His voice was rough, gravelly.
"Of course I am," I said. He drove me wild.
He wrapped his large hands around my hips and lifted me up onto the edge of my desk. He parted my legs and leaned back to look at my pussy like it was his prize.
“So fucking gorgeous," he whispered. "So fucking mine."
He leaned forward to run his tongue from my rear hole to my clit. "So delicious." He licked around my pussy, tasting my arousal and driving me even crazier.
I pressed my palms flat to the desk on either side of me, careful not to lean on my tools or the ring I was making. After all the hours of work, I didn't want to ruin it. The only thing I wanted ruined was my pussy.
He slipped a finger inside me, then another. "Who does this belong to?"
"You," I said breathlessly.
"That's right. Who's going to tell you when you can come?" He drove his fingers in and out of me hard and fast, his tongue flicking against my clit every few moments.
I groaned. "I'm going to—"
His hand stilled and he pulled his face back. "Who's going to tell you when you can come?" he asked again.
"You are," I ground out.
"That's right. No coming until I say so." He lowered his face back down to me and worked me even more thoroughly than before, keeping me right on the edge without letting me tumble over.
“Tige—"
"Not yet," he insisted, barely taking his mouth off me to speak.
I was so close. I wanted to launch myself over the edge of the waterfall, right into the deepest water. Only his determined words kept me from flinging myself into the abyss.
Instead, I opened my eyes and looked up at the ceiling. It could use a coat of paint.
"Look at me." He lifted his face, his blue eyes intense, commanding. "Look at me while I eat your pussy."
I swallowed and focused my gaze on him, watching his head between my legs, glancing at me every few moments.
"I need to come," I whispered.
He didn't answer and for the longest time I didn't think he was going to. He just went on licking and grazing his teeth over my clit, his fingers working inside of me.
Finally, he nodded. "Come for me." He nipped my clit and sent me right over into a whirlpool of bliss that spun me around and dragged me under. If this was how I died, drowning in pure pleasure from his touch, then it was a hell of a way to go.
I arched my back, but managed to keep my eyes locked on his while I came, rocking my body on the desktop.
I flopped back, panting and trying to catch my breath.
"You're fucking hot when you come," he said. He kissed his way down my thigh before he stood and adjusted his pants.
I sat up. "Do you want me to—"
He waved me off. "Yeah, but not here. We have plenty of time. Enjoy walking straight while you can."