52. Penelope
PENELOPE
The boys drive me back to the Skull & Serpent Society and park the car on the property before hopping out. Dylan opens the door for me and holds out his hand. “Milady.”
I snort. “That’s awfully chivalrous, even for you.”
When I take his hand, he says, “I thought it’d be a nice contrast after I just rearranged your guts.” He pulls me close to him, too close, and I can barely breathe when he smirks in my face. “Do you like it?”
I don’t even know how to respond. “Um… Yes?”
His eyes narrow. “Are you getting flustered, Pen?”
Fuck. Now I really can’t stop the heat from flooding my face.
“You’re really yearning for a beating, aren’t you, Dylan?” Felix says as he slams the door shut.
“I’m just having fun,” he retorts.
“By bullying me again?” I jerk my hand away from his.
“Bullying?” He scoffs, still keeping me close to him. “I prefer the word tease.”
“Enough playing around,” Felix barks as he marches to the door. “Get inside.”
“Woof,” Dylan barks back, and the glare Felix throws him is so funny it even makes me laugh.
“He’s right, though,” Alistair says as he walks up to us. “The Phantoms have obviously made her their target. It’s too dangerous to stay out here.”
He’s right.
Those fireworks in my sister’s room were definitely a message to me.
This means we’re getting closer to whoever caused her misery … and now mine.
I swallow as Alistair steals my hand away from Dylan and drags me along with him. “C’mon.”
“Hey, wait for me,” Dylan growls, jumping up the steps to the building.
We head inside and go through the main hall where the big staircases are. The last time I was here, it was dark and filled with sparkling lights and lots of people dancing around. Now it’s like a ghostly anteroom with doors and windows on all sides, all closed off.
“Jesus, this place needs some light,” I mutter under my breath.
“Felix doesn’t want people to snoop from the outside,” Alistair says.
I frown. “It’s a multistory building. Who’s gonna snoop on the second or third floor?” I point at the window at the top of the stairs, where thick curtains block the light.
“No need,” Dylan replies, and he flicks a switch.
A giant chandelier in the hallway turns on and brightens it with pretty crystals glittering onto the walls, and I stop and stare for a moment at its beauty. That light alone is expensive as fuck, and it makes me wonder how much money has been sunk into this society … these boys.
Alistair lets go of my hand and wanders off to the other side of the hallway. “If you need me, I’ll be in my room.” He adds a wink.
“C’mon, I wanna show you my room,” Dylan says, and he drags me along with him before I even get the chance to reply.
“Dylan …” Felix rumbles from the other side of the hall.
Dylan ignores him and pulls me into a different room.
It reminds me of a hollowed cave, with steps lowering into an area where a red, velvety arch in the wall outlines a beautiful beige king canopy bed with a white curtain all around.
To the left of the bed is a fireplace and to the right a door through which I can see a big bath.
Soft lights with intricate Moroccan designs fills the bedroom, and the furniture looks so soft I could probably fall asleep on them and never wake up.
“Wow,” I mutter.
“Better than sex, right?” Dylan muses, and he jumps onto his bed and splays himself in a playboy fashion, rubbing the bed like he wants me to join him. “But what’s even better is this bed plus you.”
I snort as I approach him. “You’ve got to be kidding me, right?”
He raises a brow, and it only makes me laugh harder.
I clutch one of the bars of the canopy bed. “This actually works on girls?”
He frowns. “Are you actually bullying me for a change?” He gets up. “I can’t believe it. Come here, you little rat.”
He lunges at me and hoists me onto the bed while I squeal and laugh at the same time, and he rolls me around until he’s on top of me.
“Wait, but we’re completely soaked!”
“I don’t care. I’ve got you now,” he says, pinning my hands above my head. “Just like I caught you the day you ran at the Halloween party.”
A hot flash runs through my body. God, I hate to be reminded of that day. Not because I despised it, but because of how every time I think about it, my clit still thumps.
“You weren’t alone,” I reply. “It would’ve been much harder for you if you were.”
“Oh.” His eyes flash with curiosity. “Are you suggesting I wouldn’t have been able to trap you myself?” His grip on my hands tightens. “What would you have done to avoid me then?”
“I have knives,” I reply, swallowing away the lump in my throat.
“And you think that would deter me?” he retorts, biting his bottom lip. “The challenge only gets me hard.”
I lift my knee, pushing against his bulge, which throbs from the touch, and even I have to admit it feels powerful to be the one to cause that kind of reaction. “You wouldn’t be able to handle me on your own.”
He groans with delight and pulls out his lighter, hovering it so close to my breasts I can feel the heat burn through the fabric.
“I like your tenacity, Pen. I like how fearless you are in the face of pain.” And he leans in to press a kiss against my neck, turning off the lighter the moment it almost threatened to burn through my dress.
Suddenly, a loud clearing of a throat has us both turn our heads.
Felix stands in the door opening, clutching the doorpost with one hand, with a possessive, almost unhinged look on his face.
“You’re really doing this now?” he growls.
“Yes, what about it?” Dylan replies.
Felix’s nostrils flare. “She’s wet.”
“Not just from the rain,” Dylan retorts with a smirk.
He grips Dylan’s door so harshly I can almost hear it break. “Get off her. Now.”
I can practically see the fumes coming from Felix’s mouth when he talks, and my God, it actually makes my heart thump in my throat.
“You really know how to sour a mood,” Dylan says, sighing out loud as he rolls off me.
I sit up straight and adjust my hair, pretending nothing was going on, because I get the feeling he’s not just mad at Dylan.
Felix suddenly lunges at me and grabs my wrist, hauling me with him.
“Hold up, what are you doing with her?” Dylan says.
“Just because she’s cold doesn’t mean you can burn her,” Felix says through gritted teeth.
He drags me through the hallway all the way to his room, where he kicks open the door and pulls me inside, slamming it shut behind him before locking it.
One hand slams into the wood beside my face. “Do not push me, Pen.”
I frown. “I didn’t—”
“If you ever let him touch you like that again …”
“Like what?” My eyes narrow. “Like he could actually be more than just someone who uses me for my body?”
The muscles in his arms tighten as though it takes everything in him to hold back. “You belong to me .”
I hold my breath as he closes in on me, his free hand traveling up my body without touching me. I can still feel the electrical current between us, and I know he can feel it too.
“I’m only willing to share if I’m there to watch.”
My eyes narrow. “You’re jealous?”
His eyes darken as he clenches his jaw. “Don’t mistake my possessiveness for jealousy. I allow them to play with you.”
I snort. “But only when it pleases you.”
He pounds his fist into the wood, making me jolt.
But then he grabs my face and smashes his lips on mine.
It’s not a sweet or gentle kiss, but an unholy one, full of unspoken desires. An all-consuming kiss that makes my toes curl and my knees buckle.
When he pulls back, my lips still yearn for more.
He looks into my eyes for a moment, but it feels as though it lasts an eternity.
His hands still linger on my face, the look in his eyes mesmerizing to the point that I feel like I can’t breathe when he looks at me.
“You’ve unlocked something inside me I thought I killed off.”
I don’t know if that’s a compliment or a threat.
“No matter what I do, what I say, who I fucking play with … everything reminds me of you.”
Who he plays with? What is he talking about?
Or does he mean that girl at the club?
I swallow away the lump in my throat.
“Enough with your games,” he says, and he pulls away, only to grasp my hand and drag me along with him. “Time for a shower.”
“What? But we just came out of the pouring rain,” I splutter.
Too late. He’s already turned on the faucet, and the water splashes down right on top of me and onto my dress. My eyes instinctively close with the rush of the water.
Great, now I’m wet again.
“Let’s get this off.”
My eyes burst open. He’s right in front of me, underneath the same water, with his expensive black long-sleeve shirt and pants still on. A knife in his hands glitters in the bathroom light.
He cuts through the fabric around my shoulders, then peels away the off-the-shoulder dress, slowly pulling down the fabric until he’s exposed my breasts.
RIP!
He cuts through the rest in a way that’s almost too meticulous. Like he’s thought about how to do it. Studied it.
His Adam’s apple bobs, and I don’t know why I focus on it, but I do. And when he slowly sinks to his knees to take off the rest, leaving me bare, my entire body erupts into goose bumps.
He pulls off my heels and chucks them aside like they’re only in his way.
But he won’t let go of my foot.
“You’re playing a dangerous game, Penelope,” he mutters.
He leans in, planting a kiss on my foot.
“A game that has no winners.”
His eyes bore into mine as he drags his lips up to my knees, and I hold my breath in anticipation, my pussy throbbing with excitement again.
God, it’s only been an hour since we last fucked around in the cemetery, yet I already feel like I could go again.
Is this what my sister felt when she was with them? Is this what they did to her? Why she felt like she couldn’t escape?
Their greed is suffocating.
And they make me want to offer the leftover oxygen in my lungs for free.
“If Dylan got you so riled up already, then I will be the one to take care of it. I can’t have you falling for them,” he says.