Chapter 47
47
“ T here’s nothing you have to do tonight, love. Just sit here in my lap and look beautiful.”
Beside me, Grey tugs Poe down to do exactly that, nestled in between myself and Angel on this long couch overlooking the hall at the club, and she gives a playful swat at his hands circling her waist.
“I still have to be here, don’t I? That amounts to something .” Our girl rolls her eyes, and even though she might be teasing and joking with Grey, I see every time she gives Angel a glance, or a brush of her fingers across his thigh.
He texted both of us earlier, letting us in on the truth now shared between them. It might have been brief words on screen, but every tortured moment when he thought he’d lost her was front and center, even if he didn’t explicitly share those details. Who knows what it might have done to him if Poe hadn’t been willing to understand and forgive.
Who knows what it might have done to all of us.
A heavy weight makes itself present, seated squarely on top of my lungs if I think about what our future might hold if Poe is no longer part of us .
I’ve ended up in too fucking deep before I knew I’d even dipped a toe in the water.
There’s no way I’m leaving this hell without her.
As I swirl the ice inside my glass, I hear the two of them being playful together. It’s what Grey does. He makes her laugh, flashes that grin and those hazel eyes, and she eats up everything—rightly so, because it’s all for her.
Grey gives her something neither Angel nor I can, and I’m damn grateful to him for being so much more generous with his care and affection than I find myself able to.
Of course, it’s different in a sense; when there are power dynamics and sex involved, those moments I can control. The times when I’m with Poe and we have something that sparks between us, it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. A rarified mountain air to inhale deeply, when all I’ve had filling my lungs before now has been choked with grime and disaster and blood.
But here, tonight, I’m on edge. Naturally, I wear my mask and play my role, and yet I’m seated beside the very people who give me a glimpse of something beyond all this.
If that’s even possible, without granting us all a death wish.
“Hawke looks far too serious, little flower. Look at all those boring, frowny lines he’s got on his forehead. What do you say, why don’t you give him something to smile about?”
Poe shoots me a flutter of her dark lashes. Is there ever a moment when she doesn’t look like she could reach straight into my soul and claim my heart inside her fist?
The shade of crimson silk on her dress is perfect against that smooth, bronzed skin, and tonight, her hair falls in loose waves across her shoulders. I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying her company in nothing more than lingerie, but in that halter neck cut to her gown and full, flowing skirt, she’s a dream.
“Our girl knows I’m anything but boring .” I narrow my eyes at Grey, reaching for Poe’s waist to slide her my way. “You look incredible, if I haven’t already mentioned it,” I murmur in her ear as I succeed in tugging her to sit across my lap, facing the other two.
“Well, you’ve got Grey to thank for that… as I’ve recently discovered. I can’t believe you’re the one who organized an entire wardrobe for me.” She settles against me with legs draped across my thighs and shakes her head in disbelief at Grey.
He winks. “Aren’t you glad at least one of us has a sense of style?”
Angel nudges his side forcefully.
Fuck you, Grey.
“Oh, what? You’d have had her drowning in oversized tactical gear and smothered head-to-toe in black this entire time. Our girl looks particularly delicious in blood-red, don’t you think?”
He receives another disapproving look, even if it is absolutely the truth. She looks fucking incredible.
“Is there another reason that I have to be here tonight?” Poe asks me, with more than a little hesitation in her voice. It’s an ever present and lingering challenge to not tell her every detail, to keep things hidden from her that both Grey and I are now aware of. Much like we’ve agreed to conceal it from Angel, I don’t doubt for one second that he’d pull the pin, toss the grenade, and send us all splintering into oblivion when his fury is unleashed.
So, for now, we have to lay low. He knows enough. Poe knows the pieces she needs to be aware of.
“We’re the macabre gods who sit on our thrones and take in an ocean of flesh at our feet every night.” I allow my palm to slide over her hip, caressing the soft fabric and grounding myself in a way that feels so damn right. “Of course, we want our princess to be undeniably seen as ours.”
“Even if I’m not?” She lets her fingertips brush the stubble of my throat.
“What better way to say fuck them all?”
Poe’s painted lips tip up ever so slightly. “I like that idea.”
We sit like that for a while as Grey and Angel exchange messages in the way that they communicate, and the usual array of bodies and sexual appetites begin to flourish under the red glow of the lights and sultry atmosphere this room provides.
This is a replica of countless other nights like this. All the times I’ve been duty-bound to oversee everything in this place, to answer questions from the team I have working here, to attend to the seemingly never-ending requests of the members and VIPs.
And somehow, I’ve never felt this at ease as with Poe curled up beside me, quietly watching on. Her fingers rest over the front of my shirt, placing as much of a claim on me for anyone who might be watching on from the shadows as I am by having her on my lap.
Because there are any number of submissives here with their Dominants tonight, and the majority that are currently occupying this public area are either kneeling at their feet, or between their legs.
This is Poe’s opportunity to show to every single person that she isn’t part of a scene right now. She doesn’t have to be on show for anyone, and yet voluntarily wants to be here by my side.
From what I can tell, Poe is more than fascinated by this world. She doesn’t shy away from any of it—and maybe that’s because it resides in her veins like an ancient promise—in fact, she exhibits an open curiosity about the sex, the blood, and even the body parts Grey keeps as his little trophies.
“What’s running through that pretty mind of yours, hmm?” Grey slides his fingers up her ankle, causing a shiver of pleasure to cascade through her body. “There’s a question dancing in those eyes.” He wets his lips, studying her carefully.
“Do you think they’re here… right now?” Poe says. It’s not with hesitation or trepidation; in fact, there’s something that lingers in the hitch to her breathing.
“Impossible to know.” I dip my head, allowing my lips to press against her ear.
“Do you want them to be, little flower?”
Angel’s shoulders stiffen, already on alert at the mere thought that whoever it is wanting to take her from us might swoop in at any second and do just that.
“I want them to know—I want them to see that you’re who I choose.” She exhales as that confession floats between the four of us, and goddamn, does it do something to resurrect a part of my heart I’d long been convinced was so decayed and broken it would never beat again after what I’ve been through.
Poe shifts her hand to stroke my jaw. “I want them to have to always live with knowing that even if I might be taken from here—”
Beside us, both men make a sudden noise. Angel’s is a rumble of warning, and Grey interrupts. “Not going to fucking happen.” His voice is low and gritty.
“But if it did, then I want them to have it seared in their mind, that outside of initiations and all the bullshit of the Anguis, I want them to know that it’s you who I’ll always be thinking about. They can try to force anything upon me, but I’ll only ever be choosing the three of you. I’ll only ever be closing my eyes and seeing you.”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” I say, trying to keep my voice even, because there’s a terrible destructive force threatening to burst from my chest just thinking about the scenario she’s just painted.
Especially knowing who has been partly responsible for what has happened to our girl so far.
“Last time I was here, there was a requirement to be fulfilled. This time, I want them to see that every second I’m with you, it’s by my own free will. I want those assholes to see with their own eyes how much I want you all.” Poe tilts her head back to look up at me, and I wish there was a way to simply shut down all the chaos inside my mind. The schemes, the plans, and the multiple layers that are always at play. I’ve never wanted so desperately to just enjoy a quiet moment where we can descend into nothingness, just like all the others who frequent this place are able to.
I want more opportunities to sit together, sharing stories at three a.m. over a tub of chocolate fudge and watch her tongue try to catch a tiny smear of ice cream at the corner of her lips.
“Is that so, princess?” Is the only thing I can murmur, captivated by her mouth, as she smiles softly my way. Reaching out to touch her chin gives me the opportunity to drag my thumb over that plump swell of her bottom lip.
Poe takes the opportunity to run the tip of her tongue over the pad, before wrapping those soft lips around my thumb and sucking me into her hot, wet mouth ever so gently. My dick just about groans in anticipation of having her do the same thing while settled between my knees in the way she does so perfectly.
“Fuck, that’s so hot.” Grey echoes the words racing in laps around my own mind. “Are you gonna play with your meal right here in front of us all, Calliano?” He rasps, leaning against Angel so that both of them can watch us.
Those brown eyes glimmer as my girl smiles around my thumb, then pops it out of her mouth with a wet noise. Her gaze strays from my eyes down to my lips, with a longing there that makes every other noise surrounding us become deadened as if consumed by a thick mist.
Right now, it feels like only the four of us exist, and it’s extremely tempting to forget who we are or why we’re here in the very first place.
Poe tempts me to forget everything I’ve ever known, and that feels impossible for a man like me. Except, the lure of her taste and those sultry little moans of pleasure are capable of driving me to believe. Maybe, just maybe, what might have been implausible only a few short weeks ago is materializing before my very eyes.
“What would please you the most, Sir?” She hums, with dark eyes still watching for the words of permission she’s waiting on.
“I’d like you to tell us exactly what you want. Let us all hear.”
Her thighs squeeze together as this gorgeous girl starts squirming in my lap directly above my hardening cock.
“I want to kiss you.” Her tongue darts out to moisten her lips. “I want them to see how it looks when I kiss you, because I’d never give them that.”
My palm settles around the front of her neck, and Poe has barely uttered the words before my mouth seals to hers. It’s slow, sensual—a long drink of her lips as I sink forward. There are no thoughts of anything but how good having Poe feels. And I want every fucking prick in this place to know without doubt. She’s mine. She’s ours.
Whoever thinks they own her, well, they can see for themselves. Watch on as my girl melts into me. See how our tongues slide together and the way she whimpers with pleasure as my unhurried claiming of her mouth demonstrates just how much Poe wants this.
Pulling back, my pulse thuds relentlessly in my chest, taking in the sight of her starry-eyed and flushed. A sight that I don’t get to enjoy for quite as long as I’d hoped for because Grey has already leaned over and hooked the back of Poe’s neck, dragging their bodies together .
I get a prime vantage point to watch them kiss with the kind of languid, biting playfulness that has Grey smiling wickedly against her mouth. He tugs her bottom lip between his teeth, pinching and drawing a quiet moan as he does so.
“Too eager to hear what our girl has to say, hmm.” I flex my fingers against the soft crease of her hip. Grey’s mischievous eyes flick to mine as he goes back in for another slide of his tongue with hers. As he kisses Poe, he watches me intently, and I know what he’s doing.
There’s something between us that flickers occasionally. It’s not an urge to be with him in the way he and Angel are in whatever undefined kind of relationship they have. It’s purely a sexual thing, an itch that I’ve never scratched. Mainly because I don’t have a desire to be with men, much as I don’t want to be with any other woman than Poe. Yet, the sensation drifts in every now and then like a note of perfume on a breeze. It asks me the question of whether I’d set what I know about myself aside for a man like Grey. No, not a man like Grey, but for him.
In moments like this, when his hazel eyes find mine, as his mouth fuses with our girl’s, and they look so fucking good together, I can see a way to maybe consider exploring that sensation. It’s only ever been with him, though. Angel and I can spend hours and hours alone together and there’s a familiarity there, a comfortable connection there, but I feel the same for him as I do my brothers.
Keeping his eyes on mine for a final, drawn-out moment, he then gives Poe his full attention. “Goddamn, the taste of you is addictive, little flower.”
She’s breathing a little harder now, and there isn’t a need for words to explain what she needs next. Angel leans across and settles his lips against the side of her throat, right above that fluttering pulse. He soaks up every vibration and quickening of Poe’s blood beneath his mouth, while Grey reaches out to absently stroke Angel’s leg .
Her sigh is a beautiful thing. In it, I can hear just how relieved our girl is to know Angel’s heart—even though we’ve both known for so long now exactly how deeply carved the grooves of his all-consuming obsession have been upon his soul. It might be the worst thing for all of us to admit how hard we’ve fallen, but she deserves to know.
It makes me realize my own failings in not being able to show her just how much she means to me. Spotlights just how messed up I am when it comes to intimacy because I don’t know that I could ever adequately express my feelings. When there’s never been anything but pain, how do you transform that into the type of gentleness and tenderness someone like Poe deserves?
Angel brushes their lips together, only briefly, but with a promise of how much more there is once we leave here tonight. After the day they’ve had together, no doubt he’s still feeling immensely territorial when it comes to the pretty little thing innocently grinding on my lap, even if she doesn’t realize that she’s doing it with each of their kisses.
“Now, be a good girl and use your words, princess. Tell us what you want next.” My thumb strokes her hip, and I give her a little reminder of exactly where my handprint fits perfectly when I slide my palm to cup one of her soft ass cheeks and squeeze. She might be left biting her lip and already desperate for more of Grey and Angel’s kisses, but there’s no denying how much she enjoys it when I indulge that side of her pleasure.
“I—I like seeing you together.” Poe nibbles on her bottom lip, giving the other two a look that says everything about how much she cares for them and their connection, too.
Grey’s mouth quirks, and he tilts his head to take in her kiss-bitten lips. “You wanna see if Angel’s mouth looks just as good on mine as it does on your pussy?”
My girl shifts around, no doubt imagining just that judging by how hard her thighs just clamped together .
“Answer his question.” My breath dances across the side of her face, and I tuck her hair over one shoulder, dragging my fingers through those silky waves.
“Yes. Please.”
And because none of us are interested in denying this girl, they dutifully oblige her request. As their lips lock and the two men kiss, chasing each other’s mouths with a forceful push and pull of their energies, Poe dissolves. With each long moment we get to enjoy seeing them find their own connection together, I can sense just how hard she’s biting her lip, trying not to whine out loud.
Meanwhile, I’m the lucky one who gets to enjoy her soft body pressed up against mine as she spirals out of her head with want and need.
Keeping my mouth right at her ear, my words are rough-edged now with how much this is dragging me toward simply giving in to the desperation to leave. To say fuck it all and get away from this mansion even though I rarely do this early in the evening.
“Does that make you wet for us, princess? Watching them?”
She gives me a slow nod, unable to drag her gaze from the sight beside us.
“What else do you want? I need you to use your words.”
The other two separate, and from where we’re seated, it’s easy to see how they’re just as turned on by getting to share this moment. It might be nothing more than kissing, and in a place like this, that’s about the most tame thing you could engage in. However, it feels so much more than that; in a way I can’t explain, the simple act of locking lips feels a thousand times more intimate than if we were to be fucking right here on this couch out in the open.
This time, with her plump lip still caught between her teeth, Poe glances between Grey… and twists her neck to look up at me .
Of course she does, and I’m secretly proud of her for being confident enough to tell me that’s what she wants, even if she hasn’t actually said it out loud. “Do you want to watch Grey melt for me, like he does for Angel?”
“Only if you want to…” She’s already apologizing for even floating the idea for a brief second, and I don’t want Poe to feel some sort of way for enjoying seeing us together.
Reaching over, I fist the front of Grey’s shirt and yank him toward me. “Such a pretty mouth you’ve got, butcher. Our girl wants to see what those lips look like when they’re on mine. What do you say?”
His pupils dilate as his eyes bounce between mine, my mouth, and then to our girl. A cocksure grin crawls onto his expression as he winks at Poe, before returning those glittering eyes to rest on my own.
“I’d say, don’t go falling in love with me, Calliano.”
A dark noise comes out of me as I pull him against my mouth, letting the wetness of his lips close against mine and being consumed with a whole range of scents that are somehow familiar and foreign at the same time. We’ve known each other so damn long, it’s impossible not to feel like this is something natural between us, yet my brain is stalling on the fact that I’m kissing Grey for the first time.
His stubble rasps against my own in a way that feels so different from kissing Poe. Where she’s softness and delicate features when I hold her and let my mouth roam, with him, there’s a rough edge that feels like he won’t shatter beneath me. That I can push him harder, and he’ll take everything without question.
There’s all the masculine hints of him coating my tongue, with a sharp spice of alcohol and mint and the taste of something alluring in the way he allows my tongue to press forward.
My teeth nip at his lips, and I feel him grin beneath my pinching hold; I hear and taste his chuckle. It’s as if he knew all along that it would feel like this and that I’d eventually find myself in a maze trying to navigate a way forward to a new moment, one where our friendship becomes far more complex.
I still don’t know if I’d do more than this with him; my body is still unlearning so much abuse I suffered when I was young, but right here with him—kissing him—I feel safe to take my time, and he’s not going to screw me over.
Grey has been there for the longest time, and I see how his own demons need their space to come out and play. He’s witnessed the worst of me, and I know the worst of him. Somehow it’s fucking poetic that we’ve found ourselves here in this mess.
“What do you think, little flower? Horny enough after all that?” Grey draws back, and my fingers slowly unclench from his shirt. “Look at what you’ve started.” He pulls her out of my grasp, and even though I’m reluctant to let her leave my side, I also know just how desperate Angel will be to be near her.
Sure enough, she finds a spot to settle beneath his arm, reaching up to stroke his beard with a blissed-out smile, and he dips his head to brush their lips together.
“How much longer do we gotta stay here amongst this fuck fest?” Grey stretches his legs out and gestures at the room, raising one eyebrow my way.
I’m grateful to him that he’s not making a big deal out of us kissing. He’s not going to throw smart words or stir shit just for the sake of it. But I do know he’ll be storing that knowledge away for a future moment in time because he’ll have felt whatever that magnetic pull was between us.
The fact that I can still feel the scrape of his stubble against my lips, with a tingling sensation left in the wake of that moment.
“Can we leave?” Poe’s dark eyes flicker between the three of us .
“I think you’ve put on more than enough of a show, princess.” I nod their way. And even though in my head I’m mentally running through the checklist of everything that I would usually need to attend to on a night here in the club, for once, I can think of no better reason to set it all down and gladly forget.
For tonight, I’m not needing to be the Hawke Calliano I’ve always had to be.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here.”