18. Laina
18
LAINA
M y heart is still racing.
It’s been pounding against my ribs since we got off the bike, since the heat of his body pressed against mine, pinning me between the bike and something more.
Something I wanted.
And now?
Now I’m inside the Dead Demons’ apartment, trying to steady myself. My breath is shallow and my head is spinning—not from exhaustion or the cold air outside.
But from him.
From us.
The door barely swings shut before the guys notice us.
“Well, well,” Ryder drawls from the couch, arms sprawled over the back, legs kicked up like he owns the place. “Look who finally decided to stop being a runaway.”
I roll my eyes, shaking off the nerves curling in my gut. “Nice to see you too, Ryder.”
Dagger pushes off the kitchen counter looking relieved. His sharp gaze sweeps over me like he’s making sure I’m really here. “You good?”
“Yeah,” I manage.
Liam is the next to step forward, he raises an eyebrow at me. “You planning on running off again?”
I let out a long breath. “Depends. You guys gonna start acting like normal, non-controlling human beings?”
Ryder barks out a laugh. “Babe, we’re bikers. Non-controlling isn’t in the job description.”
I glare at him. “Not helping.”
Liam sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Just—don’t do that again, alright?”
Dagger leans against the counter, watching me carefully. “We thought something happened to you.”
Something in my chest tightens. The tension I’ve been carrying since I had walked in shifts, twisting into something else.
They were worried, I realize. They were genuinely concerned about me.
They might not say it outright, but it was there in their words and actions. In the way, Liam’s shoulders are still too tense. In the way Dagger hasn’t stopped watching me like he’s scared I’ll disappear if he blinks. In the way, Ryder keeps his teasing light enough to hide his concern.
I swallow, forcing a smirk. “Did you miss me?”
Ryder grins but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Only because shit gets real boring without you around to stir it up.”
“Liar.”
He winks. “Maybe.”
Dagger shakes his head. “You should rest. You look like hell.”
“Wow. Thanks, Dagger. Really appreciate that.”
Liam shrugs. “He’s not wrong.”
I roll my eyes at him. “I’m taking a shower.”
Ryder smirks. “Need help?”
I flip him off without looking back.
I feel them watching me as I leave, their presence like an anchor pressing into my back. Not heavy or suffocating. Just there.
And for the first time since I left…
I don’t mind it.
I strip out of my clothes and step into the shower. I stand under the scalding hot water, palms pressed against the wall, head bowed, willing the heat to melt away the knots tightening every inch of me.
It doesn’t work.
Nothing works.
Because the second I close my eyes, he’s there.
Reynolds.
His voice.
His hands.
That doll.
My stomach twists and bile rises in my throat, sharp and fast. I suck in a deep breath to steady myself, but my chest won’t open up. The air sticks, thick and wrong. I press my forehead to the tile and start counting to myself. One. Two. Three…
It’s not real and he’s not here, I remind myself between counting numbers.
But the panic doesn’t care. It presses in. The water roars in my ears, the walls start closing?—
The door suddenly opens.
I don’t hear it over the water, but I feel the shift in the air and the steady, familiar presence.
“Laina.”
I turn too fast and nearly slip, but strong hands grip my arms and hold me up.
Dagger.
I blink up at him, I’m breathing too fast, and my pulse is erratic. His shirt is damp from the steam, his hair curling slightly at the ends. He doesn’t apologize for walking in. He doesn’t look like he cares about anything except the fact that I’m shaking.
“You alright? You’ve been in here for a while.”
I have? I shake my head as the water continues cascading down around me. I’ve been so lost in my head, I lost track of the world around me. Dagger walks toward the shower, his gaze fixed on my eyes.
“I’ll be out in a few,” I say.
His fingers tighten. “Talk to me.”
I shake my head, swallowing hard. “I just—” I suck in another breath. “I can’t?—”
He doesn’t let go or step back.
And I need that. I need something solid to cling to so I don’t lose my sense of reality.
“I keep thinking about him,” I whisper, hating how wrecked my voice sounds. “I keep feeling like he’s right there, waiting to pounce.”
Dagger’s jaw ticks. His thumbs brush against my skin, steadying me. “He’s not.”
I close my eyes. “You don’t know that.”
“I know he’s not here. And I know we’re not going to let him near you.”
My throat feels tight as the weight in my chest presses down. Dagger tilts my chin up, forcing me to look at him. He’s unbothered by how the water dampens his shirt, causing it to cling to his skin underneath, outlining every curve of his muscular chest.
“There’s not a damn thing in this world that could make me let you go,” he murmurs. “You hear me?”
My pulse stutters.
I nod.
But it’s not enough for him.
His gaze flickers with something unreadable. Something I feel more than see. Then—slowly, deliberately—he lowers his head.
His lips brush against mine, gentle but sure. An anchor. A promise.
I don’t think. I just feel.
Dagger's lips move against mine, gentle but insistent. His hands slide from my arms to my waist, fingers splaying across my wet skin, pulling me flush against him. I lean into the kiss and he takes the opportunity to deepen it, his tongue brushing over mine, tasting, and exploring.
Heat flares through me, chasing away the cold panic, replacing it with something infinitely more dangerous; desire. My hands fist in his damp shirt, tugging him impossibly closer. Water cascades over us but I barely feel it, too consumed by the feel of his mouth and the heat of his body.
Even though I’m still a little sore from Ash, I want him. I want all of them.
Dagger walks us backward until my spine meets the cool tile wall. His thigh slips between mine and I moan at the pressure, rolling my hips instinctively against him. He groans low in his throat. One hand skims up my side to cup my breast, his thumb circling my nipple until it pebbles under his touch.
"Laina," he murmurs against my lips, “I’m here for you. We all are.”
“Good. Because I don’t want you to leave me.”
With a growl, he claims my mouth in a searing kiss. His hands map every dip and valley, igniting flames across my skin. I fumble with the hem of his shirt, desperate to feel him, and he breaks away just long enough to rip it over his head.
I run my fingers over the hard planes of his chest, tracing the tattoos that cover his skin. He rains kisses down my neck, his teeth grazing my pulse point and making me shiver with need.
His hand skims lower, over my stomach and between my thighs. When his fingers brush against my most sensitive spot, my hips jerk involuntarily and I gasp in pleasure. Dagger chuckles darkly against my throat.
"So responsive," he murmurs approvingly. He strokes me with a maddeningly light touch, building the ache inside me to an unbearable peak.
I whimper and writhe against him, begging for release. "Dagger, please..."
Taking mercy on me, he slides one long finger inside, curling it just right. Stars burst behind my eyelids at the exquisite sensation. A second finger joins the first, stretching me deliciously as his thumb rubs tight circles over my clit. The dual stimulation has me careening toward the edge embarrassingly fast.
"That's it baby let go. I've got you," Dagger coaxes, his deep voice sending shivers down my spine. “You think I’d let Ash have all the fun tonight?”
“How…?”
“We saw you outside. We’ve got windows, Laina,” he murmurs against my ear. “And it was near painful, watching the two of you without us.”
I'm teetering on the precipice, my body coiled tight and ready to shatter. Dagger's fingers work me skillfully, winding the pleasure higher and higher until I'm gasping and trembling in his arms.
“He doesn’t get to be selfish.”
Just as I'm about to fall over the edge, the bathroom door swings open.
I jerk my head up, startled, to see Liam and Ryder standing in the doorway. For a moment, no one moves. We stare at each other, the shock palpable.
Then Liam clears his throat. "When Dagger said he was going to go check on you and didn’t come back out, we figured something was up.”
Ryder's eyes rake over my naked body appreciatively. A slow, wicked grin spreads across his face. "Room for two more?"
My face flames but I can't deny the way my body reacts to their heated gazes as the ache between my thighs intensifies. I glance up at Dagger with uncertainty.
To my surprise, he doesn’t look angry at the interruption. Instead, there’s a gleam in his eye as he studies the other two. After a pause, he steps back from me slightly.
“Why don’t you come and find out?” he challenges.
Ryder and Liam exchange a look, and an unspoken message passes between them. Then, moving in unison, they start stripping off their clothes.
My breath catches at the sight of their tattooed skin and hard muscles. Soon, they are as bare as Dagger.
“We can’t let Dagger or Ash have all the fun, now can we?” Liam growls in a low voice.
He steps into the shower with Ryder and my heart starts to race as they crowd in close, surrounding me. Ryder reaches out and trails a finger down my cheek.
"Don't worry, doll. We'll take good care of you," he purrs.
Liam presses against my back, his hardness nestling against my bottom as his hands skim up my sides to cup my breasts. "Very good care," he promises huskily in my ear.
I shiver, overwhelmed by the intensity of their masculine presence. My skin tingles everywhere they touch. Dagger watches with dark, approving eyes as Liam and Ryder begin to explore my body.
This might be my undoing.
Ryder dips his head and captures one of my nipples in his mouth, swirling his tongue around the sensitive peak. I gasp and arch into him. At the same time, Liam's fingers quest between my thighs, finding my aching center. He strokes me with teasing, featherlight touches that make me squirm.
All the tension and fear within me starts to undo itself; replaced with an absolute, wild hunger.
"Please," I whimper.
Dagger steps closer again and tilts my chin up to meet his gaze. "We've got you, Laina. Just relax and let us make you feel good."
With that, he slants his mouth over mine in a deep, drugging kiss. I’m caught in a whirlwind of sensations as Dagger kisses me deeply while Liam and Ryder caress and tease. I moan into Dagger's mouth as Liam's fingers stroke my clit and Ryder tastes and licks my wet skin.
Breaking the kiss, Dagger trails his lips down my neck, nipping and licking as he goes. "You're so beautiful, Laina," he murmurs. "We're going to make you feel so good."
Ryder's mouth moves even lower, blazing a path of heat down my stomach until he settles between my thighs. Meeting my eyes with a wicked grin, he leans in and licks a slow stripe up my whole center. I cry out sharply as my head falls back against Liam's shoulder.
He chuckles, his breath hot against my ear. "You like that, baby? Ryder's tongue on your sweet little pussy?" His fingers continue to tease, adding his touch to Ryder’s tongue.
Dagger's hands skim down my back to grip my ass. He pulls my hips against his so that I can feel his hard cock pressing insistently against my stomach. "I can't wait to be inside you," he groans.
It's almost too much stimulation to process and I’m lost in a sea of blissful sensations. My nerve endings are on fire, my core clenching with need. I'm rapidly approaching the precipice of ecstasy, but I try to hold back, wanting this blissful torture to last.
"Let go, Laina," Dagger urges, sensing my struggle. "We've got you. Come for us, baby."
His words, combined with Ryder's lips closing around my clit to suck hard, send me flying apart. I shatter with a hoarse cry, my body shaking as waves of intense pleasure crash over me again and again. The men hold me steady, working me through the aftershocks until I collapse against them, spent and sated.
"Good girl," Liam praises, pressing a kiss to my temple.
Ryder gets to his feet. "You're exquisite when you come," he tells me with a satisfied smirk.
After catching my breath for a moment, cradled between their strong bodies, I look up at Dagger with heavy-lidded eyes.
Without a word, he lifts me effortlessly and I wrap my legs around his waist. The head of his erection nudges at my entrance and I moan in anticipation. Inch by delicious inch, he lowers me onto his hard length until he's fully sheathed inside me. We both groan at the exquisite sensation of being joined.
He starts to move, thrusting into me with deep, powerful strokes that make my toes curl. I cling to his shoulders, meeting him thrust for thrust as the pressure builds rapidly between my thighs again.
Liam and Ryder press in close on either side, their hands roaming my body, amplifying my pleasure. Liam captures one of my nipples in his mouth, swirling his tongue around the sensitive bud. Ryder nips and sucks at my neck, leaving marks I'll proudly wear later.
Lost in the haze of sensation, I surrender myself completely to Dagger and the others, trusting them to shatter me apart and put me back together again. My world narrows to the feel of Dagger's thick length inside me, the brush of Liam and Ryder's skin against mine, and the coiling tension building rapidly at my core.
"That's it, baby," Dagger pants, increasing his pace. "Take what you need."
As his thrusts become more urgent and desperate, I feel the walls of pleasure inside me start to crumble. I'm on the brink of another orgasm as Liam and Ryder continue to work my body with their hands and mouths.
Suddenly, without warning, Dagger pulls out and Liam takes his place behind me. His hands grab my hips and he plunges into me with a force that knocks the air out of my lungs, his body aligns with mine and slides in effortlessly, as if it were meant for him all along.
I glimpse Ryder’s face, eyes half shut in pleasure as he watches Liam enter me from behind.
The deep thrusts combined with the sensitive state Dagger had already brought me to, hurtles me toward another peak embarrassingly quickly.
"Oh! God!" I scream out, pushing my hips back to meet his movements. The new angle allows him to hit a spot deep inside me that has stars exploding behind my eyelids.
Ryder steps in front of me and tilts my chin up. "Open," he commands, tapping his impressive erection against my lips. I obey eagerly, taking him into my mouth and swirling my tongue around the thick head. He groans in approval, fisting a hand in my wet hair.
Lost in the overwhelming sensations of being filled at both ends, I surrender myself to the pleasure, letting it consume me. Liam's fingers dig into my hips as he pounds into me, chasing his own release. Ryder thrusts shallowly into my mouth, letting me control the depth.
It's not long before the coil in my core snaps and I come undone again, my cries muffled around Ryder's cock. Liam follows right after, spilling himself deep inside me with a guttural moan. Ryder pulls out with a satisfied grunt and finishes on my face and breasts, his cum dribbling down my nipples.
We remain like that for a long moment, catching our breath as the warm spray of the shower washes over us.
Boneless and sated, I slump against Dagger, my head resting on his shoulder as we all try to catch our breaths. Liam reaches out and shuts off the now lukewarm water.
Ryder hands me a fluffy towel with a satisfied smirk. "That was quite the show, doll."
I blush and duck my head, feeling shy about my wanton behavior now that the heat of the moment has passed. I wrap the towel around myself, trying to regain some modesty.
Liam chuckles and tips my chin up to look at him. "Don't start getting bashful on us now, sweetheart."
Dagger presses a tender kiss to my temple. "You are perfect, Laina. Never doubt that."
By the time I step out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, my body feels wrung out. The heat from the shower worked some of the tension from my muscles, but not all of it. Not enough.
I suck in a breath, grip the towel tighter around me and wander into my makeshift bedroom.
Dagger is in there, leaning against the wall just outside the door, watching me with a careful, unreadable expression. He’s just thrown on a pair of boxers, but his hair is messy and damp.
Liam and Ryder stand near the doorway, talking in low voices. Dagger pushes off the wall first. “You okay?” he asks.
Ryder sighs and shakes his head, stepping past Dagger and looping an arm around my shoulders. “Come on, runaway,” he murmurs teasingly, but there’s an edge of something softer there. “You’re done for the night.”
Liam pulls back the bedcovers, and the second my knees hit the mattress, exhaustion crashes into me like a freight train.
Liam pulls the blanket back. “Lie down,” he says softly.
I do.
Ryder climbs in next to me, stretching out like he belongs there, arms behind his head. “You better not steal all the covers,” he mutters with a smirk, but I feel the warmth of his body just beside mine, steady and grounding.
Liam moves to the other side and settles in without a word. His hand brushes against my arm—just a whisper of contact—but the heat lingers and soothes something deep in my chest.
Dagger leans against the doorway for a long moment, watching us. Then, after a beat, he says with a sigh, “You know this is getting complicated, right?”
No one answers.
Because we already know.
But none of us move.
None of us leave.
And for the first time in a long time, I let myself close my eyes without feeling any fear.
“What a day,” I whisper. The exhaustion is already taking hold of me. These guys made sure I wouldn’t have an ounce of energy left to keep me up.
“Yeah, and a pretty great night too,” Liam whispers, kissing the top of my forehead. “Get some sleep. We’re not going to let anything happen to you.”
The world is warm.
That’s the first thing I register.
Not the lingering scent of whiskey and leather. Not the heavy weight of exhaustion pressing into my bones.
Just warmth.
It curls around me, sinks into my skin, and drags me deeper into the haze of half-sleep. I don’t want to wake up yet. Not when this moment—this rare, fragile moment of quiet—is still mine to hold onto.
But then the warmth shifts.
A slow exhale against the back of a neck. A solid, steady weight at my side. The press of a relaxed hand against my stomach.
Suddenly my eyes snap open and it takes half a second for my brain to catch up. To remember where I am and who I’m with.
Dagger is behind me, his body curled around mine, steady and solid.
Ryder is sprawled on my other side, his arm flung over his face, still half-asleep.
Liam, perched on the edge of the bed is already awake. He’s rubbing a hand over his jaw and letting out a yawn. His sharp eyes flick toward me the second I stir.
For a moment, none of us move then Dagger rolls onto his back with a groan. “Morning.”
Ryder mumbles something into his pillow, still not fully awake.
Liam gets up and stretches, far too alert for so early in the morning. “You were out cold.”
I know. I haven’t slept like that in weeks. Maybe longer. For the first time in a long while, nightmares of Reynolds didn’t haunt me through the night.
I press a hand to my face, exhaling sharply. “This is insane.”
Dagger chuckles in amusement. “You just figuring that out now?”
I shoot him a glare, but it lacks heat because he’s right.
This? The four of us, no, wait, the five of us.
It’s a mess. A tangled, complicated, reckless mess. And somehow, I don’t hate it. Which is probably the most dangerous part of all.
Suddenly, the roar of motorcycle engines followed by shouts cuts through the quiet like a blade.
One second, I’m tangled in the sheets, still reeling from the fact that I actually slept, and the next?—
Liam is up.
Dagger is moving.
Ryder is already at the door.
My pulse spikes as the energy in the room shifts from groggy morning haze to sharp-edged tension within seconds.
“What the hell—” I start, but Dagger is already shoving on his boots, his face set in that unreadable, steady expression he wears when shit is about to go very wrong.
Ryder peeks through the blinds and swears under his breath. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”
My stomach twists in knots. “What?”
Liam strides past me and pushes the door open. “See for yourself.”
I scramble out of bed, ignoring the way my head spins as I cross the room and yank the blinds open.
And then I freeze.
Outside, parked in front of the clubhouse, are Hellfire Riders.
Hawk. Tank. Vance.
And standing in front of them, with his arms crossed, his expression set in stone is Ash.
A cold chill slams down my spine.
“What the hell are they doing here?” I whisper.