Chapter Sixteen
Victoria
The rest of the day passed in a satisfied haze. At some point, Craig had made lunch and we'd eaten at the dining table. The smirks on both Leighton and Joey's face drawing images of Joey's face twisted in pleasure, and Leighton's hungry gaze to mind. Somehow, I'd managed to eat my meal without drawing attention to the fact that my mind was replaying the erotic scene from mere hours before.
Az hadn't bothered to eat with us, his anger still radiating off him in waves when he stopped long enough to grab his plate. Even after Joey's method of relaxing me, I didn't have the patience to seek him out and demand he get over himself. He'd managed to revert to the version of himself I'd met at the manor. It was a resoundingly ‘ him ' problem as far as I was concerned.
After lunch, Craig disappeared back into his room saying he had more work to do and Leighton settled into the den, sprawling out on the loveseat. I helped Rich back to his nook, making sure he took his medication before joining Leighton. He eyed me warily as I positioned myself on the couch, tucking my feet beneath me, but he didn't seem to be angry with me anymore.
I pretended to focus on the movie he'd put on, trying to ignore his constant glances in my direction. I thought I was doing a good job of it until he paused the movie and cleared his throat.
"You could have told me, ya know." He murmured. "I told you about Angelica."
I wasn't prepared for the hurt that laced his tone. "I-I'm sorry," I replied, guilt weighing on me.
Leighton frowned and moved to sit beside me on the couch. "I'm going to murder that bastard the first chance I have. Just so you know." He said, reaching out and tucking a stray curl behind my ear. "If I thought I could slip away from here long enough to take care of him, I'd already be gone. I can't, not without risking everyone's safety, but I want you to consider it done. That shit stain will never touch you again."
His tone was so matter of fact that I burst out laughing. Of course, Leighton would announce his plans to murder Benson like he was stating the sky was blue. It was just such a ‘ him' reaction.
"You're not demanding that I leave him alone, so I'll take that as consent." Leighton nodded with a grin.
"I suppose this means I should offer to murder your mother." I wheezed between laughs causing Leighton to fall into his own fit of giggles.
"I think walloping on my sister was plenty ma petit. " He chuckled, pulling me closer. "You don't need to add my mother to your nightmares on my account."
I pulled away just enough to poke him in the chest. "Told ya you have feelings."
Leighton grabbed the remote and pressed play on the movie. "Hush and watch the movie."
We spend the rest of the afternoon and evening watching films, stopping only when Craig emerged from his room to feed everyone dinner. Joey joined us after our evening meal and I found myself sandwiched between him and Leighton, the warmth of their bodies lulling me to sleep as night fell outside the cabin.
"We should get you to bed, Sweetheart." Joey said, startling me awake as he shifted to help me up from the couch.
"Mhm, yeah." I mumbled. "Let me just check on Rich."
"Rich is fine. I got him his evening meds and he's been out cold for the last hour." Joey replied, guiding me to my room. "You, on the other hand, can't keep your eyes open. You need some sleep before Az puts you through another hellacious training session in the morning."
"Maybe I'll just put murder the Az-hole on my to-do list." I murmured letting Joey lead me into my room.
"I have a feeling you'd regret that one," Joey smirked, flipping back the bedding and gesturing for me to climb into the bed. I gave him a sleepy growl in response but allowed him to tuck me in. "He might piss you off, but I'm pretty sure arguing is the love language between you two."
"I don't love that fucker." I grumbled, flopping onto my side to get comfortable. "He's too mean."
I heard him chuckle softly but my eyes refused to open again. "Yeah, alright Sweetheart. Sweet dreams." He whispered somewhere close to my ear before I felt him kiss the top of my head. I didn't hear him leave the room before sleep claimed me again.
My chest heaved as panic gripped my throat. Az was bleeding, on his knees with a gun pointed at his head. Some part of my mind knew this was just my memory, but I was trapped reliving it all the same. Weight slammed into me, a loud bang ringing out as Az's head jerked back. A scream tore from my lips and my eyes shot open.
"Leighton?" I asked, my eyes focusing on the man pinning me to the bed as reality began to replace my nightmare.
"You were screaming." Rich grunted, causing me to turn my head toward the door.
"Wha-" My brows dipped down as I took in Az, Rich, Joey, and Craig standing just inside my room, the door barely on the hinges. "Did you break down my door?"
"You were screaming like someone was trying to murder you." Az huffed. "We had to make sure you were alright in here."
"There isn't even a lock on the door… You could have just… opened it." I frowned.
"Well, since we didn't swoop in to save you properly , next time we'll just hope it turns out for the best then." Az snapped, turning on his heel and disappearing into the den.
"I'll always come to the rescue, ma petit. " Leighton smirked, kissing the tip of my nose.
I rapidly became aware of the fact that he was splayed out on top of me, holding my hands together at the wrists above my head.
"Can you get off of me?" I asked, arching a brow at him.
"You nearly slugged me when I got up here. I'm not moving until I'm sure I'm not gonna be k.o.'d." He smirked. "Besides, I like it here."
"I'm going back to bed." Rich grunted from the doorway. "The rest of you should do the same, meaning you too, Leighton."
"Let me up, Leighton." I said again. "Can you two, I don't know, help me get out from underneath our favorite lunatic?"
"No dice, Bunny." Craig chuckled. "He's your problem now. At least I'll be able to get some sleep without him in our room."
I scowled at him as he nudged Joey and they put my door back where it belonged, muttering to each other that they would fix it in the morning.
"Favorite lunatic, huh?" Leighton grinned, bringing his face so close to mine our noses touched.
"I'm serious, Leighton. Get off of me." I said, ignoring him as I tried to shift my hips to toss him to my side.
"Fine," He pouted, pulling back and releasing my wrists from his grip. "But we're roomies tonight."
"That is a complete overreaction and wildly unnecessary, Leighton." I grumbled, and shifted my hips again, successfully knocking him off of me before I moved from the bed. "I'm just going to grab a drink and go back to sleep. I don't need a babysitter in case I have another bad dream."
It wasn't fair, but I was still reeling from the nightmare, and Leighton's presence was grating on my last nerve. Instead of doing as I asked and leaving me alone, he was behind me before I reached my damaged door.
"Jesus Christ, Leighton! I can get water by myself." I snarled. "I'm starting to understand why you freaked out Angelica so much." I regretted the words the moment they left my mouth.
Leighton grabbed my wrist and spun me to face him, his face twisted in a pained expression as his nostrils flared. "Yeah. Well, I'm starting to see why you're having such a blast slumming it with gangsters." He bit out.
Without thought, my free hand reared back and I slapped him hard enough for his head to jerk sideways. Slowly he turned his head back to look at me, a vicious grin on his lips. Leighton released my wrist and placed his hand around my throat with enough force to slam me into the wall behind me.
"Do that again," he purred in a dangerous tone, bringing his face a hair's breadth away from mine. "I liked it."
My core clenched with need and my thighs pressed together involuntarily. I swallowed roughly around the pressure of his hand on my throat causing him to smile.
"It shouldn't surprise me that you like things a little rough." Leighton said, his lips brushing against mine as he squeezed my throat tighter. "You were made for me, ma petit."
A whimper of need clawed free from my throat at his words. Leighton gave me a knowing smile, his eyes darkened by his blown pupils, and stepped back.
"Would you like to play with me, ma petit demoné? "
"Yes," my voice was breathy and barely a whisper when he released my throat enough for me to speak.
"Strip and wait for me on the bed." He ordered, slipping toward the ensuite bathroom.
I did as he said, anticipation heightening my arousal as my mind whirred with the possibilities of what he had in mind. He returned just as I positioned myself, seemingly random items in hand. My eyes narrowed on the metal alligator hair clips and scissors he held.
"Wha–"
"Don't worry," He said with a dark grin. "I won't hurt you more than you'll enjoy."
Fuck if that wasn't the hottest thing he'd ever said to me, even with my mind railing against the idea that pain had any business in the bedroom.
Ignoring my inner turmoil, my eyes tracked Leighton as he moved to my closet and grabbed a sheet before systematically cutting it into long strips while he held the hair clip between his teeth. Once he was satisfied with his work, he stalked toward me dropping the clips on the nightstand before grabbing my wrists together in his hands roughly and jerking them over my head. I gasped as he set to work using the strips he'd made to secure me to the headboard.
"I thought Craig was the one into tying me up." I laughed breathlessly, feeling a small bite of pain in my wrists as I pulled against the makeshift restraints.
"These are so I don't hurt you more than intended." he replied seriously as he tugged the strips checking they were secure. "I'd tell you to stay, but you're not going anywhere now."
"L-" before I could get his name out he stuffed a balled up strip of sheet in my mouth, booped me on the nose and made his way to the door.
I worked my tongue against the material trying to push it out so that I could scream every obscenity I knew and then some after him. All I succeeded in doing was lodging it more firmly in my mouth. As if called by my mental tirade, he returned with two long, white emergency candles. Setting them on the nightstand beside the clips, he raked his eyes over me and started to strip. Every curse I'd been thinking fled from my mind as he revealed himself to me, inch by delicious inch.
His eyes moved to my legs as I slammed them together, desperate for any friction, and he chuckled darkly before climbing on the bed and wrenching them apart. Without a word, he eased himself down until he was between my knees before licking and biting his way toward my aching core. My breath hitched as he hovered just over where needed him. My hips bucked toward him in a silent plea, the sheet around my wrists burning as I strained against them.
Leighton clucked his tongue before moving to my left hip and biting hard enough to bruise. Somehow that only turned me on more. Giving me a knowing look, he worked his way up my body with a trail of bruising bites that he soothed with his tongue before moving on. I was practically thrashing on the bed with need when he reached my breasts and pulled back just enough to grab the hair clips from the nightstand.
"Rap your knuckles on the headboard twice if this hurts too much, ma petit," he commanded before pinching one of my nipples roughly.
Leighton lowered his head and continued his ministrations, sucking my other nipple into his mouth, nipping at it until it was a taut peek. Releasing it, his skilled hands clamped the metal hair clip in place of where his teeth had been moments before and I moaned against the material in my mouth. Kissing his way to my other breast, he repeated the action. The bite of metal into the sensitive skin set my skin ablaze.
He sat up, leaning on his heels between my thighs and smiled. "Fucking beautiful."
I lifted my hips toward him, so lost to my need that I didn't notice the pain from his makeshift restraints any more. A pleased smirk settled onto his face and he leaned over me again, this time grabbing one of the candles and lighter. My eyes were locked on his face as he lit the candle and waited for wax to start dripping down the sides.
"Remember, two raps on the headboard." He said absently before tilting the candle and dripping a trail of burning wax from my stomach to my core.
My back arched off the bed when the hot wax hit my throbbing clit and my core clenched around air. Leighton continued to drip the wax down my thighs with one hand and thrust two fingers inside me with the other. He wasn't gentle, his eyes dark with intent as he roughly slammed his fingers into me as the other continued to leave trails of wax on my thighs and abdomen, pushing me to the brink.
"Come for me, ma petit, so I can give you what you really want." He commanded.
My orgasm ripped through me like a lightning bolt causing my entire body to arch and tense. Before I had even come down, Leighton sheathed himself to the hilt. My legs wrapped around him of their own accord, my heels digging into his muscular ass to press him closer. He groaned in pleasure and bit down hard on my shoulder. The slight sting had my core clenching around him again.
"I can't be gentle." He gritted out as he began slamming into me.
I clung to him, moaning around the cloth in my mouth. Each thrust sent me hurtling closer to my second release. Leighton snapped his hips forward causing my eyes to roll back as his piercings pressed against my inner walls, and then bit the fleshy part of my breast. I screamed, the cloth strip doing nothing to muffle the sound as the pain from his bite mingled with the pleasure of his thick cock pumping into me. My vision blacked out and I came harder than I ever had in my life just as Leighton's hips stuttered, my sex gripping him so tightly he softly cursed under his breath.
My body collapsed against the bed, my eyes fluttering closed. The mattress shifted as Leighton moved to undo my hands and stand from the bed.
"Stay," I murmured.
"I'll be right back, ma petit ." He assured me, kissing me sweetly on the lips.
I drifted in and out of consciousness until he returned and I felt the metal clips being removed from my nipples. Cracking my eyes open, I watched him through my lashes as he set them on the nightstand before using a warm wash cloth to gently wipe away the wax he'd poured on my body. When he reached for my wrists with a frown, I fully opened my eyes and looked at him, confused.
"What are you doing?"
"Shhh. I'm taking care of you." He replied. "I never wanted to do this for someone before, I always just let the professionals deal with it, but with you…."
Sucking air through my teeth, I hissed as the sting of antiseptic hit my wrists before he slathered some sort of ointment on them before wrapping them in gauze. His lips pinched together as he looked down to my neck and then the breast he'd bitten. Following his gaze, I realized he'd bitten me hard enough to break the skin.
"Fuck." He whispered. "I'm so sorry, ma petit ."
"Why? You told me what to do if I wanted it to stop." I replied gently as he worked to cleanse and bandage the wounds.
"I hurt people." He sighed. "I hurt you ."
"You didn't do anything I couldn't handle, Leighton. Besides, I enjoyed it. Maybe it makes me as twisted as you, but I'm kinda into this whole being marked up thing you and Joey seem to have going on when it comes to me."
Leighton paused bandaging my breast and looked at me. It was clear from his expression he was searching for something in my expression, but I meant what I'd said.
"Let's see how you feel about it in the morning." He said finally with a tight nod of his head.
He finished securing the bandage over the bite mark he'd left before helping me under the blankets and climbing in beside me.
"What are you doing?" I asked as I worked to get comfortable.
"This is what the kids call snuggling if I'm not mistaken." He laughed. "Now hush and take my post-sex-snuggle virginity, ma petit. "
I snorted in response, but let him wrap his arm around my waist and pull me close. It didn't take long for the heat of his body to lull me back to sleep, this time without the nightmares.
It was nearly noon when I finally rolled out of bed the next day. The side Leighton had been on was cold, but I wasn't surprised even with his insistence on staying the night. I used the bathroom, brushed my teeth, and splashed cold water on my face before dressing quickly, fully expecting Az to be in a pissy mood about me sleeping in. Instead, I found all five guys seated in the den playing Yatzee. Leighton and Joey both had a self-satisfied look on their faces and I wasn't sure if it was because of the game they were currently playing or the ones we'd played together.
Az was the first to notice me as I crept closer to them, intent on checking over Rich even though he was settled into the loveseat playing with the others.
"Afternoon, Princess." He said with an evil grin.
"Oh no, I know that look, Az-hole. Whatever punishment you have in mind for me not working out and training today, stuff it up your ass. If you wanted me to do any of that you could have woke me up."
"You were dead to the world, what did you want me to do? Pour a bucket of ice water on your head?" He smirked, making it clear he was teasing me.
"Don't act like you didn't consider it." Rich drawled.
"He could have tried, but I'd have gutted him before he got to you ma petit ." Leighton grinned, hopping up from his seat next to Rich and sauntering toward me.
He drew to a stop in front of me and gently grabbed my arms, bringing them up to inspect my wrists.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Damn it, Victoria. You didn't change the bandages. I left clean ones right beside your toothpaste so you wouldn't miss them." He all but growled at me.
The energy in the room shifted so fast you could almost hear the record scratch as it happened. A few seconds later Craig, Joey, and Az were standing shoulder to shoulder with Leighton and looking me over.
"What the fuck do you mean bandages , L? What did you do?" Az growled at him.
The way Leighton's shoulders tensed told me he was still unsure how I felt about it, so I spoke before he could respond.
"Nothing I didn't enjoy. Hell, maybe you could take a few pointers because he at least knows how to make me cum." I snarked, warmth spreading through my chest at the soft smile that spread across Leighton's face as his shoulders relaxed.
The feeling in the room shifted again, even more quickly than the first time. Joey started laughing out loud, and clapped Leighton on the shoulder before going back to the sitting area. Az raised an eyebrow and a slow, evil smirk crawled across his face.
"Is that right, Princess? Duly noted." He leaned forward, close enough to where our faces were just inches apart before booping my nose. "When this comes back to bite you in the ass, I want you to remember that statement."
"Do you mind? I'm trying to take care of her wrists." Leighton said, shoulder checking Az out of the way.
All four guys' gazes snapped to Leighton wearing matching expressions of shock.
"Bro, you should close your mouth. It's not cute." Leighton laughed at Az before turning his attention back to my hands.
I snickered at his remark as he produced a tube of some sort of cream and new gauze from his pockets and set to work rebandaging the rope burns and slight tears in the skin from the strips of sheet he'd used as restraints.
"Jesus Christ, L. What did you use as restraints?" Craig asked, his eyes narrowing on my wrists before he jerked it out of Leighton's grasp.
"I cut up a sheet." Leighton shrugged.
Craig snapped his gaze up to Leighton's face, his eyebrows raised in surprise. "You did what ? Leighton! That's not a good restraint! Not even factoring in the way it's going to hurt the skin with resistance, knots slip. What would you have done if it had gotten too tight to untie?! Did you even have any safety shears for emergencies?"
"Bro, you don't need a hairline when you can get your eyebrows that high." Leighton laughed. "Besides, I had scissors."
Craig slapped Leighton on the back of the head, hard enough to make his head snap forward. "You had scissors… We're gonna have a whole conversation about this. And what are you even putting on these friction burns?"
"No idea. Whatever I stole out of your weird little stash of rope in your top left draw." Leighton grinned, thrusting the tube toward Craig. "I'm done with it for now though, so you can have it back."
"Is nobody gonna mention how fucking weird it is that LEIGHTON is doing aftercare?" Az asked, looking between me, Craig, and Leighton.
"You're not supposed to point out good behavior as weird, Az. It makes it hard for people to continue doing it." Joey said, his tone amused.
"I know our first time is the time that shall not be discussed, but what's so weird about him rebandaging my wrists anyway?" I asked.
"I… have a tendency to leave damage in my wake," Leighton said hesitantly.
"It's normally something that one of us or a doctor has to patch up. It's just… unusual to see the change is all." Craig added gently, seeming to not want to come across as critical of his friend.
"It's hard to do something you've never been taught." I replied, softening my gaze as I looked at Leighton. "Maybe all you needed was someone to teach you."