17. Margaux
MARGAUX
M y feet touched the floor of the shower before I could even open my eyes. Ronan held me up, but when a strong familiar body came up behind me, I leaned into him.
“Jett? Wash her up and meet me downstairs. We need to talk,” Ronan said.
That got my attention.
“Wait, you prick?—”
I watched him grab a towel and flip me off as he stormed out.
“What just happened?” I asked Jett.
His hands ran through my now wet hair. God that felt good.
“It’s Ronan, who knows. Pretty girl, want another orgasm?”
My legs practically gave out as he asked.
“I’ll take that as a raincheck.”
I could feel the rumble of silent laughter in his chest.
“Let’s clean you up and get back downstairs. Something tells me boss man’s got some shit to sort out and you’re front and center.”
I let my eyes close as he slid the bar of soap over my body. His touch was the opposite of Ronan’s. Everything about him seemed more gentle than rough. I ran my hands behind me to where I could reach and didn’t miss the raised skin under one of them.
“Stab wound. Want to feel the rest of my scars?”
He spun me around in his arms, still careful to keep us as close as possible.
I was feeling a bit more awake now. A little less dazed by yet more sex. I could really get used to this. The anger I’d worn around as a little devil on my shoulder seemed to be asleep.
Jett let me stand on my own and spread his arms.
“Come map me out baby. My body is your scavenger hunt.”
I raised my hand and pulled it back for a single second before he grabbed my hand and placed it on his chest.
“You guys aren’t even human, you know that? No one looks like this.”
Jett smiled that wide grin of pure happiness, and it made it so hard not to fall in love with him.
“What? You’ve never seen perfect abs marred in scars? You’re probably right. It took years to get this kind of perfection. This scar here?”
He took my fingers and helped me trace a small, almost circular bump around his sounder.
“A fountain pen. Courtesy of my dad when I was ten. And this one?”
He moved my fingers over a longer scar between his ribs.
“My birthday gift from a guy who tried to kill Ronan.”
I left my fingers there even when he let go.
“Pretty girl, I like the way you look at my scars like they’re some kind of story. Wait until you see Knox.”
I swallowed and almost choked.
“Wait, what?” I asked, my voice an octave too high.
Jett was still smiling like he made it his job to make up for the grumpy in this house.
“We’re a package deal. You accept one, you have to accept all. Something tells me that’s what Ronan wants to talk to us about.”
He started to soap up the skin I wasn’t touching and then he finished washing me without too much inappropriate touching, or maybe it’s just that I wanted it.
“I- I have questions.”
Jett let the suds wash away and then he pulled my chin up, kissing me.
“Don’t we all, pretty girl?”
The shirt had to be three sizes too big, but I guess that was a bonus since my underwear seemed to have disappeared.
I tucked my legs into the T-shirt and waited on the couch.
This place was big and I wondered where Knox and Talon slept. The conversation with Jett wouldn’t leave me.
They were a package deal.
What did that mean for me? Did they have to approve of me? Ronan approved, I think. Jett, well I smiled at the thought of him.
“What are you smiling for, princess?”
I looked up to see Talon holding several boxes, and then the smell hit me.
“Pizza?”
I hadn’t been in this room yet, but it was simple and comfortable.
Large wraparound couch. Some floor seats that looked comfy, and they all faced a blank wall.
I’d been to a movie theater with my parents once upon a time and wondered if maybe this was something like that. It didn’t matter. My stomach growled.
“Yeah, princess. Pizza. Jett was supposed to ask what you liked but I got sick of waiting, so just pick whatever you like and if it’s wrong, well, noted.”
He put the boxes down on a square table set between the couch and the floor seats. It didn’t take long for the other three to follow their noses. I was so busy looking at the boxes, my fingers hovering at the little lip of the box to pull it open, that I missed the water being tossed at me.
“Ouch. That was rude.”
I looked up to see Knox scowling.
“What’s rude is opening the pizza before we’re all sitting down.”
I noticed the way his eyes ran along me and I looked down realizing as I’d shifted to the edge of the couch, the shirt had risen.
I pulled my hand back and pulled the shirt down.
“Sorry. I didn’t know this was a proper house where we all wait for the head of the table to sit and start eating. So tell me, Knox. Where will the king be sitting, because I’m starving.”
I couldn’t be sure, but maybe the muscle in his cheek twitched. Maybe he would smile or maybe his face would crack. Either way he looked away and handed another bottle of water to Talon.
“Ignore him. He’s just pissed off at the world. Go ahead and eat. Also, here.”
Talon handed me the phone that he’d held onto tonight. I took it, but I looked up at him expecting some kind of reason.
“Everyone in the phone is here. You already know I won’t be calling for help from my uncle or my fiancé, so why does it matter?”
They all grabbed boxes and spread them apart, opening one after another. They had napkins, but no plates. The way I watched Ronan eat a slice in about four bites might have explained why.
“Princess, grab a slice or two before they eat it all.” Talon pointed to the pizza, and I looked at them.
Cheese and pepperoni. Another one with what I assumed was olives, and the one next to it was for sure a meat lovers.
I’ll just take that one.” I reached over and grabbed the cheese.
It seemed to be the least popular for the moment.
“Cheese?” Jett asked.
I shrugged.
“I’ll eat any of them, but no one touched it so I thought maybe it was better to not stick my hand in front of a bunch of wild animals.”
They all stopped mid-bite and stared at me.
“So you do have some sense of self-preservation,” Knox said, and everyone looked at him like he’d just spouted off Shakespeare.
“Do I?” I said and took a bite of my slice.
Ronan went back to eating without looking at me. Talon winked at me, and Jett came and sat down so close I could feel the heat of his leg through the gym shorts he had on.
I chewed while I looked around. They were all in gym shorts. T-shirts too.
“I really didn’t think you guys owned anything but suits.”
Jett licked the grease from his fingers.
“Family rules. Always look professional like you’re ready to head to a funeral. Or, well, that’s my interpretation.”
Ronan finished chewing and looked my way. “Do you have any idea who we are? You’ve lived in that little gilded cage of yours for a long time. How do you know you didn’t trade that little rat of an uncle for a pit of snakes?”
I took another bite and met his stare.
“The thought occurred to me. But this snake pit has fed me, clothed me in things I like, and, oh right, two of you fucked me like I requested. Or, well, I guess the second was a bonus?”
The silence was thick and all eyes were on me again.
“Did your uncle starve you?”
Talon was the one to say it, but Jett was the one lifting my shirt up. I grabbed for it but lost.
“You have beautiful curves, pretty girl, but you are a little thin.” He grabbed another slice of pizza and instantly started feeding me before saying anything else.
“Who’s up for a field trip tomorrow? I think his secretary said he would be heading to a ribbon cutting in old downtown.”
I took the bite offered while fighting to get my shirt to cover all my bits and pieces and trying to figure out what he was talking about.
“I got fed, but they counted every calorie that went in my mouth.” I finally won and got the shirt down, but that’s when Ronan jumped up from where he’d been sitting and grabbed the shirt again.
This time I didn’t even get a chance to fight him before he had me stripped and bare assed in front of them all.
“Who did that?”
I didn’t have to wonder what Ronan was pointing to.
My lower back had fresh bruises on top of healed scars.
Nothing like what Jett had shown me. No, my uncle had abuse down to an art.
The tops of my thighs had a few poorly healed marks from where he’d taken a belt to me, but again, they stayed hidden.
“This scar,” I pointed to one I had along my hip, “is from the car accident that killed my parents. Same with his one on my arm.”
Ronan grabbed my wrist and looked at the scar I’d pointed at. “And the rest of these? Where are the bruises from?”
I didn’t even try to hide it. I smiled.
“My dear uncle of course. So tell me, Ronan. Why do I like the snake pit better so far?”
No one answered, but when Jett grabbed me and then the shirt from Ronan and put it back over my head, it seemed like everything shifted.
“Alright then, looks like Margaux gets to play princess of our castle since Ronan and Jett don’t appear to be sending her off,” Talon said.
I blew out a breath and sat back down more aware of the pizza Jett was shoving into my mouth.
“You need to eat. We even have ice cream if you’re a good girl.”
I could feel the drip of pizza grease on my lip and slowly took my finger to wipe it off. Before I could even bring the finger from my mouth, Jett was licking the grease from it.
“Right. Okay, back to whatever Ronan wanted to talk about, oh and the phone,” Talon said and pointed. I picked it up.
“The phone your uncle has tracked all forwards to this one now. The phone in question is currently sitting four feet above your father, so if he wants to dig it up he can. If he doesn’t, I guess he can visit the brother he killed.”
I stopped chewing and looked at Talon.
“You think he killed my parents?”
Ronan answered me.
“We know he did. We have enough evidence to get him jailed, only that doesn’t serve our purpose. Not yet anyway. Something about toying with him brings us joy, and there are bigger issues we need to resolve first.”
A tear ran down my face and it took four stares, all completely confused, for me to realize it. They all looked like they wanted to say something but couldn’t.
“I’m sorry.” I wiped the tears away. “It’s just that, I thought I was crazy all these years but you…”
I didn’t know what to say next.
They’d what? Lifted a massive weight that had settled in my chest since the day I watched my parents’ caskets lowered into their graves? These four guys were giving me validation that I wasn’t crazy, and it somehow set me free to hate my uncle without guilt.
“I want in. I want my uncle to feel like he’s losing his mind. I want him to suffer. I want him to watch as his entire world implodes.”
Jett shoved the pizza in my mouth again.
“Sweet. But first you need to eat.”
Ronan stood up and crossed his arms over his chest as he addressed us. The man could command a room.
“So, all votes are for keeping her?”
I scowled.
“I am not a thing?—”
Jett pressed his finger to my lips.
“Shh. Pretty girl, no one is saying you are a thing. We’re asking if you want to be ours. You won’t come between us, right?”
Theirs?
I wasn’t exactly sure what that really meant. But the idea of getting revenge and possibly four men who I would bet could make me believe in god?
“When you say come between you, does that mean that what happened in the shower, with you and Ronan holding me, isn’t ever happening again? Or do Knox and Talon not feel like sharing?”
I watched their eyes darken. I watched the way my words affected Knox and his next breath.
“I mean, I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m hoping you all want to show me?”
And the plan to use them was still among my long-term goals, but the way I wanted them to use me? The way I wanted to know what it felt like to be theirs?
Oh, what would dear uncle think to know the girl he wanted to suppress and control would do exactly the opposite and enjoy it.