CHAPTER FOUR | CHERRIE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHERRIE
THE WIND IS SCREAMING and slamming into the house when I come awake. Teeth chattering. Body shivering. The room is a cube of ice. My breath fans in front of me. I almost don’t want to move from the tiny indent of warmth I’d made in the mattress, but I can’t stand it.
Twisted up in the comforter, I pad across a frigid floor and out the door. I pause between Milo and Tieran’s rooms, decide against waking them up and hurry downstairs.
My goal had been hot tea. Anything to warm my aching bones, but the roaring fire in the living room has me making a beeline.
“Oh!” I moan and practically throw myself in front of the grate.
The heat washes over me and I bundle up even closer, half tempted to crawl in with the logs.
“You’re going to catch on fire if you sit so close,” says a husky murmur behind me.
I yelp and spin. The blanket bunches under me and I tumble fully on my ass but I’m too surprised by the presence of another person I’d missed in my haste for warmth to notice. I blink up to find Cal reclined across the sofa. One bare foot is propped up on the opposite armrest. A mountain of pillows elevates his dark head, and he only has the throw from the back of the sofa loosely tossed over his stomach. His naked stomach, his naked and tattooed torso, arms and shoulders are on full display and I’m too weak to resist taking it all in.
Absolute perfection isn’t entirely an accurate depiction of the raw power of him just casually lying there like some Playgirl model. I can only thank the Gods that he’s wearing pants because it’s taking a lot of willpower to remember I’m pissed at him.
“I’m sorry,” I blurt, turning my eyes away. “I was cold, but—”
“Fuck,” he groans, rubbing a hand over his eyes. “I forgot to turn the air off.”
I stare at him, jaw unhinged with horror and outrage. “The ... air? There’s a whole ass storm outside. Why not pop open the window? Why do you need air?”
The ghost of a smile lifts the corner of his mouth. “I tend to run hot, so I like it cold when I sleep.”
The word hot has my attention wandering over all that beautiful flesh getting licked by firelight. I’ve seen all of them topless at some point during the summer. Each of them possesses a work of art under their clothes, but I’ve never been this close. The proximity has me swallowing audibly.
“I should go.”
Because I’m suddenly not cold at all, but sweltering. The combination of the fire and the blanket and ... Cal with all those delicious muscles and all that ink...
I scramble awkwardly to my feet, nearly tip myself backwards into the fire when my foot catches the blanket, but I’m up and ready to run.
“Come here.”
I falter. “No, I’m okay.”
“Come here, Cherrie.”
“Stop telling me what to do,” I stammer stupidly.
“Now.”
His eyes are bright in the firelight. Warm and dark, and possessive. I nibble the corner of my mouth as I shuffle over.
One, large hand catches my blanket and pulls me down blanket and all, and folds me protectively into the curve of his chest. Though, rather than snuggle in and sleep, he goes up on one elbow and peers down into my face.
“What happened tonight?”
My gaze drops and catches on the sharp, jagged edges of his tattoos. The hard lines and rough patterns carved into his flesh just beneath his collarbone.
“What do you mean?”
One hooked finger tucks beneath my chin and he forces my eyes back up. “Did they hurt you? Were they too rough?”
I want to laugh but he’s being so gentle. So sweet. I shake my head.
“Did you not want—?"
“No, I did. I want...” I bite my lip, terrified of being judged again.
“What?” he urges.
My heart is hammering in my throat. I wonder if he can hear it. “You.” I suck in a bracing breath before adding, “Tieran. Milo. I want ... you.”
He’s so fucking beautiful. I’m having such a hard time staring at him. Into his eyes. At his lips. He’s just so perfect, even with the tiny scar across the corner of his bottom lip.
“Then what happened tonight?”
Hot tears well and I try to avert my eyes, but my chin, my jaw is in his grip and the sheer, burning focus in his eyes breaks my will and a tear escapes.
“Cherrie?” He’s practically sitting up, concern wild on his face. “What...?”
The tears are falling faster, adding seasoning to my mortification, but it’s too late to stop now.
“I saw your face when Tieran told you to taste me. You were so disgusted.” My chin wobbles and a fresh flood of tears spill. I bite my lip to stop, but I can’t. I taste blood but that’s not helping either.
Fuck! Why am I like this?
“Jesus, sweetheart.” There is relief and a small measure of amusement on his face. He grazes my jaw with his fingertips. “Is that what you think?”
I frown and sniffle, and glower up at him.
His grin pulls up the corner of his mouth. The corner with the scar. His head dips and he nudges his nose to mine. The gesture is so sweet. It makes my stomach pitch.
“I’ll share you with Milo and Tieran. I’ll watch you fuck them. I’ll watch you cum for them. Hell, I’ll even fuck you at the same time.” He steals my shaky gasp with a slow, mind-numbing kiss. “You’re ours. You’re our one exception. The one person we all want.”
God, I can’t think. I’m so hyper aware of his hand pushing apart my blanket burrito and skimming my nipple through Milo’s top. He circles the bud. Squeezes the mounds.
“Cal!”
Dusky lashes lift. Golden orbs fix on my face. His hand unfolds and unwraps my legs from the covers.
“And it wasn’t disgust on my face, baby. It was annoyance and worry.”
The hem of my top is hooked on his finger and lifted. Baring my cotton panties. My smooth belly. My naked breasts.
“Why?” I breathe, too scared to move in case he stops.
The tip of his tongue traces my nipple. Flicks it. He sucks on it lightly, and I’m trying not to grind into him for relief.
He swaps nipples. Repeats. And I’m going crazy. I’m ready to climb on top of him and handle the matter myself.
“The roads were shit. I couldn’t see past the hood. We were up the side of a mountain and you didn’t have a belt on. If something happened ... I was pissed at them for risking your safety.”
“Oh...”
He works his way down my belly, over my navel. His fingers curve into the elastic of my panties and I think, finally, as I lift my hips to help slide them off.
They’re tossed to the floor and I’m splayed with one leg up and over the back of the sofa and the other dangling to the ground. He’s between them. Kneeling on the cushion under my ass and palming a very impressive cock through his gray sweats.
“As for tasting your cum,” he pumps faster, harder. His eyes on my opening. Bright. Feverish. “I want it warm, Cherrie, and fresh. I want it straight from your cunt.”
I have a million words in my head that vanish the second he’s diving for my center. I go blank with the first sweep of his tongue up my pussy. My hands fist in his hair. I’m mesmerized by the sight of him tongue deep inside me. His hands are clamped down on my inner thighs, cutting bruises into the soft flesh as he holds me open.
“Cal, oh god, that feels so good,” I grit through a clenched jaw.
His tongue is magic and fire dancing up and around my clit. I’m clutching him to me and rutting against his taunting. I’m making so much noise, it’s a wonder Tieran and Milo haven’t run down to see what’s happening. I’m whimpering and begging Cal not to stop and he’s watching me over the spread folds of my lips as he fucks my hole with his tongue.
“There! Oh God, Cal! I’m...”
I crest. My back bows. My thighs quiver around his head. All I need is one more flick of his tongue. Just one.
His fingers thrust up inside me. So fast and unexpected my eyes fly open. I cum. I scream. My legs kick uselessly as he latches to my pulsating clit with his lips and sucks and I’m falling forever. My walls drench his fingers and spill hot and sticky between my ass crack to soak the already damp cushions.
Cal is watching me when I can finally focus. His eyes are black. His expression ravenous as he lifts his head. The firelight shines off my mess smeared across his face. Wordlessly, he draws his fingers out of me and brings them to his mouth. He holds my eyes as he sucks them clean.
“As for Tieran...” he drawls slowly. Thickly. “I’m not sucking your cum off my brother’s fingers.”
I hadn’t thought of that. In the moment, it had seemed so telling, but when explained ... so thoroughly...
“I didn’t think of that,” I pant.
He moves over me and kisses me. Fills my mouth with my own musky taste. He sucks on my lips. My neck. He presses kisses to my nose and eyes lids. Every brush is soft and intimate and unhurried. Controlled. It hums through his vein and I’m so curious what out of control Cal is like. What he’s like when he’s lost in his desires.
I’m still thinking about it when he swaddles me up in the blankets and himself and tucks me into his body.
“Sleep,” he commands.
And I grin as I nuzzle his throat and comply.