Chapter 13
Thirteen
Sebastian
Ella comes to visit as soon as she’s done with her work shift in the morning, and I’m in the process of getting discharged. We go outside—me being wheeled in a chair—to where Kellan’s waiting with the car.
It’s fucking great to be out of the hospital.
“You’re a free man,” Ella says, snuggling next to me in the back seat. “Where do you want to go?”
“Home,” I say. “Home with you. I have a surprise there for you.”
I look at her carefully to see if the surprise got spoiled while I was in the hospital, but she seems clueless. Good—I want to see her face when she opens the door to the spare room.
When we get up to my apartment, Schrodinger meows loudly at me until I carefully bend down to scoop him up into my arms. He rubs his face over my beard and kneads my shoulder.
Then he bites my earlobe.
“Fucking psychopath,” I laugh, setting him down.
Ella fusses over the refrigerator. “Do you want me to run to the store? This lunchmeat should probably be tossed, and Bash, have you ever met a vegetable?”
I come up behind her, pull her into my arms, and push the fridge door shut. “I’ll arrange a grocery delivery in a little bit, and I’ll be sure to add plenty of vegetables to it, okay?”
“Okay.” She smooths her hands over my beard. “You had a little bit of cat hair right there.”
“Thanks,” I say, scowling at Schrodinger. Turning back to Ella, I say, “So? Can I show you your surprise?”
She grins. “Yes.”
I lead her to the spare room situated across the hall from the master bedroom. “Open the door, princess.”
She grabs the handle, turns it, and pushes open the door.
Her mouth falls open and her big brown eyes grow even larger as she takes in the scene before her—some of the soundproofing materials on the walls are still exposed, because I didn’t have a chance to finish making it look nice.
But the mics are set up, as well as some camera tripods and other equipment like interfaces, a MIDI keyboard, and speakers.
My laptop sits in the corner, loaded up with a few different software options.
“This is…this is…Bash,” she says. “I don’t know what to say. This is my surprise?”
“Yep.”
“Wow.” She walks into the room and trails her hand over the desk where my laptop sits, then examines a couple of the mics on their stands, adjusting their reach.
“Well?” I ask. “Do you like it?”
“I absolutely love it,” she breathes. “There are two mics.”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“Does this mean…you might want to sing with me sometime?”
“I always want to sing with you, princess. Anytime you ask, I’ll be here.”
Her eyes fill with tears and she rushes me, throwing her arms around my shoulders. Even in her excitement, she’s careful not to jar my healing knife wound.
“Let’s try it out,” she says, “if you’re up for it?”
“Fuck yeah,” I say.
I grab my guitar and we play around with the equipment. We don’t record anything, but it’s fucking fun to have a jam session with Ella. We sing our own songs, and we sing other peoples’ songs, and we make shit up just for the hell of it..
For an hour or so, cocooned in the studio, we can forget all the danger and drama going on in the outside world.
Ella
When I wake up on Friday, Kingston is already gone. Sebastian rolls over in bed and pins me down with his legs.
“Someone’s feeling better,” I say, rubbing my leg that isn’t pinned against his. We haven’t had sex since before the attack in the alley.
“I’m feeling a lot better,” he says, pressing against me so I can feel his cock, already hard, rub between my legs.
I let out a false sigh of disappointment. “Too bad I have to take a shower and get ready for work.”
“I’ll be really quick,” he murmurs into my neck.
“Oh, that’s so tempting,” I joke.
But my amusement transforms into lust as he nuzzles the sensitive place behind my ear and runs his hands up my sides before pulling back enough that he can fondle my breasts.
My phone rings on the nightstand.
“Ignore it,” I say.
“I thought you need to get going?” Sebastian teases, looking at the screen. He grabs my phone and hands it to me. “Besides, it’s Kingston. Answer him.”
I swipe the screen to answer the call. Just as I’m about to say hi, Sebastian leans down and takes one of my nipples in his mouth, sucking it through my cami.
I moan instead.
“Ella?” Kingston says.
“Yeah, hi,” I say, shooting Sebastian a look.
“Are you okay?”
“Yep—”
Sebastian does it again, and I gasp.
Amusement laces Kingston’s voice as he says, “You sound a little busy.”
“Sebastian’s here with me,” I say.
“Ah. Gotcha. Put me on speaker.”
I do as he asks. “Okay, I did it.”
“Good girl,” Kingston says. “Now, I’m going to need your full attention, little girl.”
I squirm beneath Sebastian, who has a deliciously wicked look in his hazel eyes.
“Okay, Daddy, I’m paying attention,” I say.
“I want to discuss your schedule next week.”
Sebastian sucks my nipple hard and I yelp. He gives me a soft bite before letting go and scooting down the bed, trailing hot, heavy kisses over my belly before he gets to my pussy.
“So, that schedule?” Kingston prompts. “Pay attention, or Bash won’t give you what you want.”
Oh, shit. “Yes, yes, I’m paying attention. My schedule.”
Sebastian yanks my sleep shorts down, exposing my bare pussy. “No panties,” he says, shaking his head in mock disappointment. “Dirty little girl.”
“What days are you working next week?” Kingston asks.
Words fail me as Sebastian blows softly on my pussy. I grab his head and try to bring him to me—I want his tongue and lips there so, so bad.
“Ella,” Kingston warns.
“I’m working today and tomorrow,” I gasp.
“I’m asking about next week,” he says.
“Right,” I say, the word strangled as Sebastian gives me one long, hot lick from my opening to my clit. Panting, I say, “Next week I’m working on Monday, Tuesday—”
Sebastian presses a finger into me while he licks my clit. Forgetting about my work schedule, I close my eyes and try to clamp my legs over Sebastian’s head to hold him in place. But he holds my thighs open with his hands and pulls back abruptly.
“Wait—why?” I ask. “Daddy, please!”
“Kingston asked you a question,” he says, glancing toward the phone I laid next to me on the mattress.
Growling, I say, “I tried to answer him, but then you had to go and finger me.”
“Right,” he says, narrowing his eyes at me. “So I’m going to stop doing those things until you can answer him properly.”
“I work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday next week,” I say, sticking my tongue out at Sebastian. “Which you both already know—you’re just trying to torture me.”
“Oh, that’s it,” Sebastian says.
“What’d she do, besides mouth off?” Kingston asks through the phone.
“She stuck her tongue out at me. Impertinent little brat. Up on all fours for Daddy,” Sebastian says.
“There’s a paddle in my top drawer,” Kingston says.
I gasp. “What? A paddle?”
“I’d rather use my hand this time.” Sebastian taps the side of my leg. “You better listen, princess, or you’ll be feeling this spanking all fucking day.”
I don’t want a spanking—I want head. At least, I think I do. But as I do as he asks and get onto my hands and knees, even more arousal gathers between my legs. I can feel him staring at me and I feel exposed and vulnerable.
“Daddy,” I whine. “I’m sorry, I’ll be good.”
“I know you will, brat,” he says, before his hand comes down on my ass cheek.
I yelp, more out of surprise than pain. The sting radiates outward and I feel it in my pussy.
He does it again. “Count for us, brat,” he says.
“Two, Daddy,” I say.
He spanks me fifteen times. My ass cheeks feel like they’re on fire and I’m simultaneously squirming with pleasure and gasping with pain by the time I count off, “Fifteen, Daddy!”
“Goddamn, I love punishing you,” Sebastian says, rubbing his rough, bearded cheek over the sensitive skin on my backside.
I moan. My brain isn’t sure of how to process these sensations.
“Are you going to fuck her now?” Kingston asks over the phone.
I look at the phone in surprise. Carried away by the spanking, I’d forgotten he wasn’t actually in the room with us. I wish he were here in the bedroom, not just on the phone.
“I miss you, Daddy,” I whisper as Sebastian positions himself behind me.
“Imagine I’m feeding my cock into your pretty little mouth right now,” he says, “at the same time Bash is filling your cunt.”
It’s easy to imagine him shoving inside, to imagine myself surrounded by these men, especially with Kingston’s low voice coming through my phone. Sebastian squeezes my hips and fondles my ass as he pushes inside.
Bliss.
The full, exquisite pressure of him filling me, combined with the sweet sting of his hands on my punished skin, and then Kingston’s low voice murmuring filthy encouragement in my ears and filling my mind with even more sensual images—it’s enough to make me lose myself.
I rock back against Sebastian, moaning with pleasure. Every slide of him within me is a gift, a blessing. I could have lost him, but he’s here. Both of these men treasure me.
Sebastian’s thrusts gain speed and as my pleasure heightens, I can feel I’m about to come.
“Now,” Kingston says. “Come for us, little girl. Come on Sebastian’s cock.”
My body shakes with tension, and then release. I cry out and bury my face in the pillow, feeling the pulsing of Sebastian’s cock within me as he comes, too. He grunts and falls against me for a moment, before straightening and pulling out of me.
I flip over onto my back so I can look at him. His hazel eyes are fierce as he looks me over. His shirt is off, exposing his tattoos—except for where the bandage on his abs is taped.
Reaching up, I touch the edge of the bandage. “You didn’t overdo it, did you?”
“Nope,” he says. “If King wants to talk about your schedule some more, I could probably even go again. I’ve missed fucking you, princess.”
“I’ve missed it, too,” I say. “Especially both of you with me at the same time.”
“It’s settled, then,” Kingston says over the phone. “More fucking for all of us.”
“How about after Naked Dinner tonight?” I suggest.
Kingston chuckles. “Sure, little one. I’ll try to get home early for it, too.”
I can’t wait.
Ella
Every step I take causes my silky panties to slide against my spanked ass. I freaking love it—it makes me feel so sexy, so alive.
As soon as I get to Dorado Terrace, I get straight to work.
My mind whirls with music. Every so often, I have to stop what I’m doing to make a note on my phone of a verse or melody.
The studio Sebastian set up for me is a dream come true.
It doesn’t have a full keyboard, but I can record the piano music at the university, then sing to it in the studio.
I can do a little bit using the MIDI keyboard, too, although it isn’t the same.
But in every other respect, the little studio is exactly what I would’ve chosen if I’d picked everything out myself. His thoughtfulness is astounding.
As I’m wiping a toddler’s grubby handprints from the wall, the elevator opens and a familiar head of curly brown hair sticks out to look down the corridor—first in the other direction, and then toward me.
“Tommy?” I say.
His blue eyes crinkle in a smile. “Ella! Happy birthday!”
Pissed as I am at him, I miss my brother. I pull him in for a hug. “That was Saturday, you butthole.”
“Sorry.” He squeezes me before stepping back. “I miss you, E.”
“How on earth did you even find me here?” I ask.
“You told me you started working here, when we visited Dad’s grave.” He shrugs and gives me a sheepish smile. “I wanted to say hi and was just hoping to run into you.”
“Well, hi,” I say. I’m cautiously optimistic about this conversation, because it’s not like him to go to such lengths to find me unless he wants something from me.
“Can you take a break?” he asks.
“No, sorry.”
“Okay, cool. I’ll be quick, then. I was wondering, do you know what Dad’s first car was?”
“Like, make and model?” I ask, scrunching my nose.
“Yeah.”
I shake my head and give the handprints on the wall another scrub, obliterating them from existence. “No idea. He might’ve mentioned having a pick-up truck at one point, but I can’t remember if that was his first car, or what. That’s a weird question.”
“Yeah, I guess. I was just thinking about him the other day. Like about before we knew him. He had a dog as a kid, didn’t he? Spike, or Bruiser, or something?”
“Frank,” I say. “He had a dog named Frank. Did you never listen to his stories?”
“Of course.” Tommy smiles. “Just forgot the dog’s name, that’s all.”
“You’re being weird.” I shove his shoulder, and he shoves me back.
The move causes my mind to flash back to the alley last Saturday.
I can’t ignore it any longer, as much as I wish I could just push it into the dark corners of my memory.
Tommy’s involvement with those guys caused them to come after me.
And as a result of that altercation, Sebastian ended up in the hospital.
Seeing the change on my face, Tommy says, “Oh, fuck. What have I done now?”
“Do you know those guys? The ones I sent you the photo of?”
“What?” He immediately looks cagey.
“I sent you a text. On my birthday. I asked if you knew some guys who were staring at me.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never got any text.”
“They stabbed Sebastian, Tommy. We could put them in jail.”
“Even if I did know those guys, trying to put them behind bars is the last thing you should try to do. They’re probably more powerful than you think.”
“Then you shouldn’t be hanging around them or interacting with them at all,” I say. “Ever.”
“Well, if I could just pay them off, they’d get off my back and I’d be free.”
So he admits it. Not that he needs to—I already knew he knows them.
He looks at me from under his too-long, curly bangs. “Do you have any money you can give me? It doesn’t have to be a lot. I can turn a little into more.”
He means he could gamble with it.
“Tommy, no ,” I say. “I can’t keep doing this, and you can’t keep doing this. You need help.”
“That’s why I’m asking you.” He stomps across the hall, then turns around to scowl at me. “Why are you even still working as a maid? You have two rich-ass boyfriends. You have more than you need, and I have nothing .”
“I’m still working because it’s important that I pay my way when I can,” I say. “I want to contribute, not just take other peoples’ money all the time.”
He’d have to be a rock to not see my point.
“I never thought my sister would throw me away like a piece of trash,” he whispers before whirling around and walking off.
“I’m not throwing you away,” I say.
Tommy doesn’t turn around. He doesn’t even wait for the elevator and instead goes all the way down the hall to take the stairs.
I lean against the sparkling-clean wall. A minute ago, it was covered in grubby handprints. I wish it were that easy to scrub away grubby familial obligations.