11. Margaux
MARGAUX
I wanted to hate Ronan and push him away.
I wanted to, but the way his lips felt on mine?
It was different from Jett’s kiss. It still stunned me that Jett had kissed me and I wouldn’t have minded sticking around to see exactly how far the man would take it.
Ronan was like the darkness to his sunshine.
There was no comparing and there was no denying. My body craved both sides of this coin.
“What the fuck? Where the hell did he go? Lady,” Carrow was yelling down the hall, but I forgot to care. I forgot to consider that maybe I wasn’t any safer right now. I knew in this life I had to save myself. Except for the first time I didn’t, did I?
Heat surged within me. Just at his touch, no their touches, I felt alive. I let Ronan kiss me, loving the way he tasted. Loving the way it felt to be wanted. Maybe he didn’t mean it, but he was good at pretending, and right now, this pretend was better than reality.
“What the hell? Where the fuck? Hey, you.” Carrow’s voice sounded closer.
Ronan didn’t stop kissing me, so I didn’t fight it anymore.
“What the fuck?”
Carrow’s voice was pretty much next to us now and the way Ronan pressed his body into mine? I leaned into him and let my hands feel the muscles beneath his shirt. I don’t know what came over me, but I moaned when his hand slid down the bare skin of my back.
Ronan jerked away and I blinked.
I shied away from the rage on Ronan’s face as he reached behind him and pulled Carrow’s arm into a painful looking twist.
He released Ronan's shoulder, and even as he howled in pain, he tried to punch him. Ronan met Carrow’s energy and beat him to the punch, literally. I laughed when Carrow swore.
“Fuck you. What the fuck are you doing? Who do you think you are?” Carrow asked as he covered his eye.
Ronan stepped forward and Carrow stepped back.
“You are delusional if you think someone like you could ever have a girl like her,” Carrow said.
I stepped away from the wall and headed straight for Carrow, ready to try my luck with punching. Two hands held me back, and I looked over my shoulder to see Jett and Knox.
“Delusional? Really? Takes one to know one you piece of roadkill.” I fought against the hold. “Oh and, Carrow, you should probably know who you’re insulting before you make enemies,” I said with as much venom as I could.
Ronan turned around and grabbed me from the other two and pulled me along to the stairs.
“Where the hell are you going? I’m calling my guards,” Carrow yelled after us.
I stumbled, but Ronan caught me, and how he held me, I saw Knox flip off Carrow.
“I wouldn’t call your guards, not until after you figure out who we are. It’s been really nice asshole,” Talon said as Ronan kept me moving. All I heard were Talon’s words as we entered the stairwell. “The auction’s about to start sweetheart. Care to join?”
The stairwell was quiet, with only the echoes of my shoes against the concrete and the heavy thuds of the four men.
“Can someone please tell me what is going on? You all seem to be aware of a joke or something. And why is this auction a big deal? Why are we even here? I just want to go home.”
My shoe slipped, and I lost my balance. I sucked in air as my hands flew out to catch me. Air rushed out of me as Knox’s arms caught me, wrapping me in the safety of his body.
I grabbed the lapels of his jacket without thinking.
“Careful there, angel. If you fall and break your neck, you won’t hear the story, now will you?”
He didn’t let me go, not yet. I hadn’t noticed his piercing blue eyes until now. My brain caught up, finally, and I squirmed to stand on my own. The ache that settled low in my belly was not planned for and he wasn’t letting me go. I just needed to breathe.
The way he studied me should have been uncomfortable, but with him, that sparkle in his eyes just made me more confident.
He knocked the air from my lungs when he lifted me bridal style and started walking down the last flight of stairs. His hold only got tighter when I squirmed.
“We can’t have you falling and hurting yourself. Poor Jett couldn’t handle it.”
Jett? I looked around Knox the best I could and caught the very misleading sweet and terrifying Jett with the most crooked smile.
Ronan slammed his hands into the door and I jerked my head toward him.
I shrunk into Knox’s hold like that would protect me from the anger seething from Ronan.
“What did I do now?”
Knox stopped before leaving the stairwell and put me down in front of Ronan.
“We’ll see you in three minutes, not a minute more,” Knox said and then he grabbed Jett and stepped away. Talon’s hand grazed over the skin of my shoulder as he stepped around me. When Ronan let the door close again, we were surrounded by quiet. Alone.
“Look, I didn’t.”
Ronan grabbed my waist and pushed me against the wall behind me.
“You know that you were supposed to be mine?”
When I didn’t say anything, he continued.
“I didn’t want you. I didn’t want an arranged marriage. I should just let you go back to your uncle and let you marry that prick Thorne.”
My eyes burned with tears that couldn’t decide whether I was angry or sad. When I let the emotions play through me like a low-budget movie, I settled on anger.
“Arranged marriage? Me? You? I doubt that. You’re far too angry; my uncle wouldn’t have ever picked you. He thinks you’re some kind of security guard.”
I shut up as Ronan’s grasp on my hips tightened.
“Not him, little bird. Your father. He knew he couldn’t keep you safe, so he struck a deal with the Barone family, with my father. Funny how you’ve been locked up and kept away from me for these last few years and yet here you are. Tempting me to do exactly what I was supposed to do.”
His breathing was heavier than I thought made sense. He seemed to be fighting something I couldn’t see.
“Seeing Carrow touch you? I wanted to break whichever of his hands touched you. I wanted to watch that ugly face of his pale in pain thinking he could have what is mine.”
I wanted to ask what he meant. I wanted to ask if he knew my father, but the moment he pressed his lips against mine hungry and angry and desperate, I forgot logic.
His mouth moved like he was just as starved for affection as I had been. This wasn’t the kiss of the playful Jett, no this was the dark sin this man promised, and I craved both.
Ronan consumed the oxygen in my lungs, and before I knew it, I was going to pass out if I didn’t come up for air, except I didn’t want to. I wanted him to devour me.
I panted as he pulled away. His brow furrowed as he studied me.
“Don’t fucking leave us if you ever want out of your cage, little bird.”
That was all he said before he grabbed my hand and moved away, dragging me through the door and back into the hall leading to where the auction would be held.
Too bad I was too dazed to care about the fact my uncle reached for me and Ronan pulled me into his body, making sure my uncle missed me.
Jett, Knox, and Talon moved in close, never far from each other. They blocked me from view.
What had been an expansive room now seemed suffocating.
The only reprieve was the way these four men seemed to orbit me like I was something they needed to protect.
I couldn’t get lost here, not with them.
I didn’t even care when they guided me to a row of seats directly in front of where the Thornes stood ready to sit, because the worst they could do was watch. Watch me defy their perfect plan.
Of course, ruining their plan meant I was helping with another.
Everyone wanted me for something. Carrow’s family wanted me for money and my uncle wanted them for whatever this whole land thing was.
I guess the only silver lining I was getting is that at the very least these four men didn’t benefit my uncle at all.
Was I okay being used?
Someone reached for me as I went to step into the row. I looked down at my arm and watched as a larger calloused hand reached for the manicured one.
“Remove your hand.”
I looked in the crimson face of Carrow.
“She is my fiancé.”
Ronan wasn’t letting go.
“She was mine first. Go ask James Harrington.”
There was doubt etched in the lines of Carrow’s scowl. Whatever was going through his mind made him release me.
“Glad we could see eye to eye, Mr. Thorne,” Ronan said and he slid his hand around my waist, pushing me further into the row of seats.
Everything about tonight settled like one pebble on top of the other, filling my stomach in unease.
My four mafia princes had mentioned marriage. Carrow wanted marriage. I swallowed pretending like I was fine. I could play my part as the rich heiress being protected by her uncle, and the cost was only my soul.
I watched each of the four of them as they settled into seats. Not once had any of them brought up what I was worth. Maybe they’d pushed me to stab a man for proof of my loyalty, but I supposed it was fair when I’d watched them murder someone else.
I’d been so focused on getting the hell out of Vegas and out of my uncle's reach that I’d never considered selling myself to someone else.
My bank account had a few thousand in it, but I wasn’t dumb.
How long would that even last me? And right now, I was out of time. It was Carrow or the mafia boys.
Maybe all along I should have looked at my other options. Sell myself to someone I chose. Of course I’d never met anyone not approved by my uncle until I’d taken matters into my own hands. I would never escape this hell. Classical music filled the time before the auction, giving me time to think.
Knox had helped me wash off the guy’s blood, that had to count as being a gentleman in someone’s book.
Jett wielded some kind of magic and got me dresses to try that all made me feel human even.
Talon, well he was just honest. Brazen and himself.
I stopped when I looked at the man next to me, Ronan.
Had my parents really chosen him? There didn’t seem to be any reason for him to lie.
He didn’t look like he was hurting for money either, so what benefit was there for him without my father alive?
There was nothing to do now except watch these four. What did they want from me and would I be willing to pay their price?
I didn't know until now that I had a thing for men in suits. I looked around the room, finally not just watching my uncle and my fiancé and seeing the candid glances from women, some even on the arms of other rich bastards.
In fact, two women slithered their way into the seats directly in front of us and turned to look at everyone but me.
“Hello,” one of the women said and held out her hand to Knox, ignoring me sandwiched between him and Ronan.
The other girl held out her hand to Talon. Neither man moved, and I betrayed my mask of the perfect little girl and smirked.
They pulled their hands back.
“You all look familiar. Do you come to charity events often? My friend and I can’t seem to put names to your handsome faces,” said the same woman.
I titled my head and for a brief second thought about being smart, and then I let the little devil inside me take over. If I didn’t know what I wanted yet, no one was touching plan A, B, C, and D.
I lifted my hand, crossing Knox’s body, and placed it palm down on his cheek as I faced the woman.
This time they saw me.
“Something tells me you don’t care what their names are.” I leaned in closer to them, watching the boys out of the corner of my eye.
“You won’t get a chance to scream any of their names anyway, they’re taken. Now turn your pretty little heads around and stop looking at what isn’t yours.”
I wasn’t moving, not until they turned all the way around, but Ronan didn’t care. His hand wrapped around my neck, gently enough it made my pussy ache like it shouldn’t but hard enough that he demanded my attention.
I heard a chuckle or two, but I couldn’t turn to see who it was.
Ronan, however, kept my attention and the way his eyes darkened, I knew he’d heard me. He leaned in closer, his lips so close his words tickled my ear.
“Tell me, little bird exactly who are we?”
Did I repeat what I’d implied? I didn’t exactly know what I was doing. In all my years of being locked away in a penthouse in the city of sin, no one ever asked me to explain myself.
When I was about to say something snarky, a man’s voice came over the PA system from the front of the room where we were all facing.
“The silent auction benefiting the Second Chance Foundation is available for bidding from now until midnight. This portion of the event will add a bit more fun to the evening with exclusive items to be bid on live. We will begin live bidding in five minutes.”
There was no way to relax here. My uncle's eyes were burning a hole in the back of my head.
I shivered at the feeling of someone else watching me. It only took a shift of my body to see it was Carrow now sitting in a seat far too close.
“Angel, all eyes are on you tonight,” Knox said, his hand on my thigh while Ronan still hadn’t released my face to see anyone but him.