Chapter 24
Twenty-four
KNOX
“Idon’t want to go back either,” she says, little more than a whisper. “If Gauge is part of this all, we can’t just—”
“We’ll handle it,” Jax cuts in. His hands are fists on the table, knuckles white. “You’re not setting foot near that place, Hope. If I have to tie you to the bed, I’ll—”
Dimitri laughs. “You think she’d stay put if you tied her? Even when she was half-dead, she clawed her way out of the crawlspace. Just fucking listen, Jax.”
“You don’t get it,” Jax snaps. “If she dies because of something I did—”
“Stop,” Hope says, and the word is tiny, but everyone freezes.
“I don’t want to die,” she says, looking at the floor. “And honestly, I don’t want to go back. But I can’t let you do it alone. I’m not… weak. I can handle it.”
Jax stares, jaw set and helpless. I can see the war inside him, he wants to protect her, but he’s not the one who gets to decide. He never was.
Dimitri leans forward, voice softer: “We’ll need a plan cause this all feels like a trap. They are luring us in. I never found anything, and now we found a ping from their whereabouts?”
“Then what, just wait here for one of Gauge’s little presents to show up?
What if it’s not a hand next time, but a head?
” I ask and take the bag of food off the table.
“We never got any closer, and now that Gauge is trying to break us apart, we find where the server of the website is. It’s fake, I know. ”
“But we’re still going,” Hope says.
Dimitri looks uncertain, but he nods once.
Jax sits, deflated, then grabs Hope’s hand and holds it to his mouth like a prayer. “You stay right next to me. You never leave my sight.”
Hope nods. She bites the inside of her cheek, but I can see the relief.
“I’ll handle Gauge,” I say. “He’s not the type to get his hands dirty himself. He’s just a messenger.”
Hope glances up at me, and I see something like gratitude there. But Jaxon cuts in.
“He’s mine, Knox. Promise me, he’s mine.” The stare he gives me sends a shiver down my spine and I stiffly nod.
With a blink, his expression is softer again and his signature grin plastered on his lips, he groans, then sits up. “I brought dinner,” he says, pointing at the takeout in my hands.
“One night,” I say, and my eyes find Hope. “Tomorrow, we fix everything.”
“One night,” she repeats and a smile tugs on my lips.
One night, where she’s ours and the world outside doesn’t exist.
DIMITRI
I don’t taste my food. My mind is elsewhere, watching Hope as she leans into the conversation, following Jaxon’s jokes with real laughter, her eyes darting between us. I’ve never seen her look the way she does now.
She changed into a simple black dress, a little more revealing than usual.
And I’m definitely not complaining. She eats everything on her plate, which is rare, and even picks off Knox’s when she thinks he isn’t looking.
He pretends not to notice, just watches her with a small smile and a glint in his eye that says he likes her greedy more than he thought he would.
Jax tries to keep up the banter, but he’s also tracking her, waiting to see if the smile will crack or if all of this is a dream and she’ll vanish back into that black hole.
I want to remember this moment, file it away under things worth saving. Most of my life is just a list of things I’d rather forget, but if there’s a way to keep this moment in my blood forever, I want it.
She tucks up against me, her head on my shoulder, and I rest my hand on her thigh.
Nothing sexual, just contact, but she makes a noise in her throat and shifts, the hem of her dress creeping up as she moves.
Knox raises one eyebrow at me and leans farther back, stretching out and making room for whatever Hope wants to do.
Jaxon finishes his beer and stands to take the plates to the kitchen.
I can feel him watching us, but he doesn’t say anything, just keeps rinsing dishes with his jaw set.
Hope traces a line up my bicep with her finger, slow at first, then more deliberately.
I meet her eyes and it hits me how close she is. How much she’s letting go.
“Careful, Hope. If you keep that up, I won’t stop,” I say.
She tilts her head and kisses my jaw, soft. She lingers, brushing her lips up to my ear, and the hair on my arms stands up. “Maybe I don’t want you to stop.”
Her voice is steady, but I see the crackle of anxiety in her eyes. She wants it, is terrified of it, and is working as hard as she can not to flinch.
“Whatever you need,” I tell her, and I mean it. I would cut myself open and let her crawl inside if it made her feel safe.
Hope turns, swings one leg over my lap, straddling me. She’s so small it barely registers as weight, but the movement is bold and it draws a laugh from Knox. “Damn, sweetheart. You going to ride him right here?”
She ignores him. Eyes on me, arms braced on my shoulders, she presses her mouth to mine and kisses me, slow and careful at first, then with a burst of hunger that surprises even her. I grip her hips, anchoring her, and return the kiss, parting my lips when she pushes her tongue inside.
She shifts in my lap and I know I’m going to lose it if she keeps this up.
The more she moves, the tighter her thighs clamp around me, and my hands can’t help themselves, wandering up her ribs, memorizing the pattern of her heartbeat.
I expect her to panic, to freeze, to pull back, but instead, she leans in, forehead pressed to mine.
“Never leave me,” she whispers, voice small but sure.
“I belong to you, Hope,” I tell her, and tuck a stray hair behind her ear.
A sly smile forms on her plump lips and she kisses me again. She grinds against me, hips slow, and the friction is fucking devastating. My cock already hurts from the pressure, and she moans.
She pulls back slightly, her cheeks flushed. “Want you,” she admits, and it’s so honest, I nearly forget to breathe.
Every cell in my body is screaming to pin her down, but I don’t.
I only move when she does, match her breath for breath, lean into every signal she sends.
My hands trace the hem of her dress, and I feel the shiver that runs through her.
She guides my palms higher. Up her thighs, over the soft skin, then under, all the way between her legs.
Fuck me. She’s not wearing anything underneath.
I gaze her in the eyes, just to make sure, and she holds that stare, challenging me.
I slide my fingers up, find her wet and ready, needy as I am. Her whole body clenches and I can feel the catch in her throat as I stroke slow, gentle, not wanting to startle her off. She shudders but doesn’t stop.
“You want to move to the bedroom?” I ask her, careful, giving her every out.
She shakes her head. “No. Here.”
This bold little thing. I could die.
I barely remember Knox until he makes a sound, a single low “fuck” under his breath, and the heat in the room spikes.
I carefully thrust my fingers inside her as she buries her face in the crook of my neck.
“I want to feel you, Dimitri,” she whispers and lets her hands wander. Down my chest, over my ribs, and then all the way to my belt where she hesitates, fingers trembling.
She glances to the side, finds Knox watching us, and when Hope meets his eyes, he raises his chin in a way I’ve seen only a handful of times: permission, but also the promise that if I do it wrong, he’ll break my jaw.
The wildest part is that Hope’s not scared by it. If anything, she relaxes, her hands steadier as she undoes my belt.
She leans into my ear and says, “Will you say ‘good girl’ if I do it right?”
I can’t help but shudder. “Every time you want.”
She drags my zipper down and finds me already hard. She teases me through my boxers, slow at first, just testing the outline, then braver, wrapping her hand around me as best she can.
With my free hand, I bundle up her dress and glide it up her body. I’m halfway when Jaxon comes up from behind and pulls the dress off of Hope’s body, revealing her naked skin beneath. She doesn’t hide, or cower, and she frees my cock.
Jaxon takes a seat to our right, a smirk plastered on his face as he licks his lips. I palm Hope’s breast and lift her hips.
I pull my fingers from her pussy and line my cock against it. I watch her closely, not wanting to miss a single moment. And carefully, I let her sink down on me. Her lips part, her eyes roll back.
She’s so tight around me, perched on my lap, wet and trembling. She sets the pace, starts slow, little shifts of her hips.
I watch her face through it all. I want to remember every flicker of pleasure, every stutter of her eyelashes, the way soft moans spill from her parted lips and how she starts to tremble when she realizes that for once, she’s the one in control.
She can do anything to me, and I’ll take it, crave it, beg for it.
“That’s it, Hope,” I whisper.
She rides me, and I force myself to move with her, hands guiding her hips, keeping her rhythm even as she starts to lose it.
Her eyes flutter shut, and when I ease my thumb to her clit, she gasps so loud I feel it echo in my own chest. She clamps down on me, and holy shit.
“Fuck, Hope,” I groan, and try not to come as she clenches. “Good girl. Good—Christ—girl.”
I want her to let go, to come for me while Knox and Jaxon watch, but I feel the hesitation, this little spike of fear in her, and I slow just enough that she’s not overwhelmed.
Knox groans again. I look at him and see the hunger on his face, the need in his eyes.
“She wants all of us,” I say, and the words are raw, hungry, true. “She needs it, Knox.”
Knox edges closer, then gently pulls Hope’s hair so her head tips back, neck exposed. He kisses down her throat and murmurs, “You’re such a good girl, Hope.”
She moans at the praise, rolling her hips faster. I fuck up into her, feeling her get tighter and wetter with every second. I’m close, but I don’t want to end it yet. I want to see how far she’ll go, how much she can take.
Jax moves next to us, all teeth and wicked charm. He pushes Hope’s thigh aside, his fingers replacing mine, rubbing circles over her clit where we’re joined. The feeling, the sight of it, her opening up for us, taking everything—it breaks something in me.
“You guys,” Hope whimpers, but doesn’t stop, never slows down. “Don’t stop, please.”
Jax flashes a smile. “Didn’t plan to.” He leans down and kisses her shoulder, then her cheek, then captures her mouth for a second, bruising and rough.
My hand wanders to her breast, to the scars we gave her. I bend closer, my lips tracing over the raised edges.
“Mark me, sweetheart,” I whisper against her skin, sensing her heart stutter under my lips.
Her breath falters. “Now?” she asks and Jaxon places a knife in her hand before she can even think about it.
I see the doubt, the turmoil. I thrust up and toy with her nipples, drawing her back to the pleasure. She swallows her moan, her shoulders relax and she glides the metal over my shirt.
I smile at her and rip my shirt in half, baring myself before her. I take her hand with the knife and press it on my skin.
“Own me, Hope,” I groan and peel my fingers away from hers.
Her blue eyes flick to mine and she holds my stare as she increases the pressure on my skin.
“Good girl,” I whisper and I see the last bit of doubt fading from her eyes.
I hold her hips and I keep thrusting upward, slow and deep.
I feel how the knife slices through my skin. How my blood seeps out slowly. But I don’t stop. I’ll never stop when it comes to her.
She bites her bottom lip, and her eyes skim down as she finishes her initial.
Her pussy clenches around me and she drops the knife on the couch. “Mine,” she whispers with a shaky smile.
“All yours, sweetheart,” I groan and she picks up her pace. Following my thrusts.
Knox loops his arm around her from behind and presses her back against his chest.
“That’s it, baby, take all of him,” Knox purrs, lips on her neck, fingers caressing a lazy circle around her nipple.
She throws her arms behind her, around Knox’s shoulders, and the sight of them together, her wild and untamed, blood on her fingertips, him holding her like a possessed thing, is the most fucked-up, perfect moment of my life.
“Come for us,” I whisper, and Knox echoes it, his hand moving flat over her belly. “Let go, sweetheart, let us have it.”
Jax’s hand is back on her clit, circling fast, and she arches, her body trembling.
Her eyes screw shut, her mouth open in a silent scream as she locks down around me and shakes.
I keep thrusting into her, desperate, greedy, and I whisper, “Good girl, good fucking girl, that’s it, that’s it,” and then I’m gone, filling her deep with my cum.