8. Margaux
MARGAUX
“ S tay,” Ronan commanded like I was his dog.
I glared at him.
“Stay? You just rescued me and now you tell me to stay? What am I, a puppy?”
I swore he didn’t have emotions. That should be a huge turn off, I was aware. But the way he manhandled me up to his room?
Where was my crochet when I needed it? Of course, making my own rope didn’t have to be just for murder.
My body burned after being pressed against his. I’d never been on a motorcycle, let alone pressed up against a man. At this point all I could think about was what it would be like to let him do whatever he wanted.
Of course, the way Jett has rescued me had been hot too.
I’d seen him stabbing a man, breaking noses on counters, and yet what my brain and body focused on was the muscles it took to achieve all of it.
Or maybe it was the muscles that it took to carry me around like I was nothing.
I stood on my tiptoes trying to figure out what the dark shadow was on the base of Ronan’s neck.
His hand grabbed mine before I could touch it, but it was probably blood.
“What, little bird, are you thinking?”
I narrowed my eyes and sucked on my lower lip. It was best to create some space, and I tried, but his hand on my lower back made it impossible.
“Fine. Don’t speak; however, I am not treating you like a dog. More like an annoying little bird that can’t seem to keep itself out of trouble,” he said.
I stomped my foot and took a very purposeful step into his body. I shoved my finger into his solid chest, regretting it as it felt like poking a brick wall.
I shook my hand trying to get rid of the sting. I refused to let him be an asshole.
“I was not in trouble because I tried to be. Not my fault my uncle’s a prick and thinks he can just sell me off last minute. Pardon me for destroying your night. Something just tells me that if I enter Carrow’s mansion, I won’t be coming out again.”
I glared.
“What did I interrupt anyway? You boys have a little orgy or something? Please, by all means, go back to it.” On that last word I lost my anger. I guess, in a way, I did have a knack for getting into trouble without even meaning too.
Ronan didn’t move nor did he react to a damn thing I said.
“Fine. You’re right. Trouble follows me, I guess. So thanks for helping me.”
I walked my fingers up his chest, trying a different tactic when he remained a statue. The fucker wasn’t reacting.
“So does that mean you’re my new trouble? I can be a good little bird if you’re the cat.”
I swear I could see his Adam's apple bob. Good, finally. He grabbed my wrist before I could explore any further. When he looked down at me, it was my turn to swallow down the desperate desire to touch him.
“Be a good little bird and stay in your fucking cage. Believe me when I say you don’t want me to catch you again.”
Try as I might, I couldn’t keep my face blank. I couldn’t even force the smile that made my uncle happy. The one that said I would do as told. The one that said I was perfect and silent. No. My lip twitched at the corner. I was dying to play.
“I’ll stay put, wouldn’t want to interrupt your boy time. Are you guys like a thing?”
His eyes flicked over my face and my entire body broke out in a chill.
His index finger lifted my chin.
“We are not a thing. We are chosen brothers, and if a woman were to ever get in between us, well she wouldn’t live to do that,” he said. I couldn’t tell whether he was amused or angry, but his tone told me this wasn’t a threat, more like a promise.
“Fine. I’ll stay, but not because you asked. I’d rather see what happens with the four of you and just one me locked away up here. Which one of you will be my prince and rescue me from my tower?”
I backed away from him and fell to the bed when my legs hit the side. Maybe he has a really good poker face, but the way he watched me? I was getting to him.
“Ronan, I’m interested in revenge, and I’m willing to pay a lot to get it.”
I couldn’t be certain, but I wanted to believe the sparkle in his eyes wasn’t just the lighting. I wanted to believe it was something I said, piquing his interest.
I needed to stay here and needed to make sure he wanted me to. Even in this den of wolves, I felt safer than I ever did in the snake pit.
Ronan turned to leave, stopping at the door.
“I don’t know what you think we’re offering. But if it’s revenge you want, I’m sure we can oblige you for a price, but a prince? No one in the house will ever rescue you, Rapunzel. You’re better finding your own way down.”
He turned and walked out, and I grabbed his pillow and threw it against the door as it closed.
“Jerk.”
I sat on the bed and contemplated what was happening. The room was filled with his scent. I breathed it in. The swirling of anxiety, fear, and anger all seemed to calm for a single moment.
I could breathe for the first time that I could remember, and I wondered: Was this peace?
Now I had time to kill. Maybe I could learn about the room’s owner. The space was all dark wood and black. It was what I’d expect of Ronan.
The room was quiet too. I got up and looked around. There wasn’t much here. I moved to the floor to look under his bed. I rolled my eyes at the lack of even a single dust bunny. He was all control, that was clear.
Maybe I could snoop, but at the end of the day, maybe this was just meant to be me and my thoughts.
What could I offer that would make one of them want to keep me around?
I wasn’t a fool. The writing was on the wall. I fought for any chance I had to get away for years. But at the end of the day, I didn’t have access to money or anyone powerful enough to help me.
Was this my chance? They’d risked themselves for me, but who were they?
I laid down and played with the blanket, trying to relax. There might have been four dangerous strangers outside this room and they may not know it yet, but I was willing to sell them my soul as long as it was my choice.
“What the hell are you doing, Jett?” Knox asked.
I turned around at the new voices. When I saw Talon and Knox standing in Jett’s room, I tried to ignore the rush of, well it was something and I didn’t hate it. I tried to ignore the way my entire body heated at the idea of them all watching me.
“How about this one?” I asked. I’d been here for an entire day and no one was taking me back to my gilded cage.
I looked at myself in the mirror. Even if this was a new cage, I liked it so much better.
I liked the idea of three of the four of them being here just to watch me try on dresses.
A strange and new sensation, a need, that I couldn’t quite figure out how to satisfy swarmed in my lower belly.
Maybe I wouldn’t mind them touching me, and this time not just for the end result of pissing off my uncle.
I smoothed over the dress and tried to figure out my own mind.
I tried to ignore just how beautiful these men were.
Tall, muscular, personalities that boarded on scary.
They were all perfectly scarred too. The tattoos decorating Knox’s chest, or at least from what I could see in the reflection of the mirror, seemed like another skin for him.
Not that they all didn’t appear to have their own piercings and tattoos, his were just more.
I didn’t mean to, but I was licking my lips, unable to stop myself from watching their reflections. I should have been making the idea of lusting after all of them go away. But my overactive imagination didn’t care. What would it be like to have them all touching me?
I scoffed at myself in the mirror and tried to focus on the dresses. Touching me? Right. I couldn’t even throw myself at Ronan, let alone these other three.
I stretched, my body hating the damn couch, regardless of how soft the thing was and if it had been just one night.
“Well? Anyone have a thought? I’ve never picked out my own dresses for anything, let alone an auction.”
I stretched my shoulders before turning away from the mirror and back at my odd new captors.
It was really hard to not laugh at the fact Jett was lying on his stomach on his bed watching me with a fascination that would have made me think he was a teenage boy rather than a man with knives and guns tucked away.
It was stranger yet to find myself wanting to laugh rather than cry or put back on a mask and hide myself away. I should have been hiding still. I should have been full of mistrust. Should was key, but I couldn’t seem to figure out how to feel that way. Not here.
“She’s modeling for me, go away. You want to go to that auction? She needs a dress. So, assholes. What do you think?” Jett pushed himself up and my mouth watered. The muscles of his arms flexed as he moved. He needed a shirt, but maybe I didn’t remind him of that.
At this point, where should I even look? There were three beautiful men here.
I wiped at my mouth absently.
“What? Are shirts against your religion, boys?” I asked.
Talon came a little closer, and I backed away just to be stopped by the balcony doors.
“Princess, there is no god. The only religion is between the sheets when you worship me,” Talon said.
My body tingled at the touch of his hands wrapping around my waist. I forgot how to breathe for a second. He took another step closer, and I had nowhere to go. His body pressed into mine.
“I’m certain a few hours in my bed could make you believe in heaven.”
After I caught my breath, I found the part of me that wanted to play this game and chuckled.
“That is the worst pickup line ever. Are you taking advice from Jett?”
Too bad when his finger traced down my jaw, chasing the neckline of the low-cut dress, I shivered. Bad pickup line or not, my body was onboard.
His finger faltered over a scar that this dress couldn’t quite hide.
I squeezed my eyes closed in between loving the feel of his touch and trying to calm myself. What the hell was wrong with me?
Men were not something to want. They were meant to be used to get what you wanted.