20
COOPER
Scotty had to stay a while in the infirmary, and after a few intermittent updates over the hours using the bond, Ezla’s let us know they’re coming back.
That’s all Tate, Tiger, and Alby could manage to stay awake for before they passed out on our Bonded bed.
They’re knocked out cold, and I’m glad—they deserve the sleep. I myself am far too wired to get a single iota of it, and I tense when I hear the faint woosh of taalk from the living room, my own door left open just for that reason.
Ezla berated me while she was gone, bullying me into having a shower instead of “sulking around like the moody, temperamental asshole I am”, and so I’m all cleaned up and in my black pyjama shorts and top now as I rise from where I’d been sat on the edge of my bed moping.
She’s got some real fucking audacity after what she’s put me and the guys through recently.
Not that it’s her fault. Not at all. I just don’t know what to do with all this built-up crap inside of me, and that commonly turns into wrongly directed anger. Anger I refuse to let spill onto my Bonded or brothers after the absolute nightmare week we’ve already had.
Heading out of my room, I pause in the doorway as I watch Ezla stride ahead of a perfectly healthy Scotty, all demanding and shit as she leads him into his room.
My blood heats to scorching.
Is my body fucking kidding me right now? She didn’t even do anything, for fuck’s sake.
For a moment, I allow my weight to settle onto the thick wall to my left, silently watching them.
Scotty must not have his door set to auto-lock, because it stays open, and my eyes track Ezla as she whips around and glares at my brother.
His lips twitch, and he moves closer like the death stare was an invitation, leaving me holding my breath as he tucks some deep chestnut hair behind her ear.
She’s stiffened, but she doesn’t whack him off and send him into an early grave, and my chest smarts. Envy slithers through me, a poison that infects my veins with each second that passes as Scotty then slides a hand to her nape and presses a soft kiss to her forehead.
Padding over to the room, the first words I hear are, “Cooper, how lovely of you to join us. I was beginning to think you were about to watch Scotty and I have hot, passionate sex for your personal enjoyment.”
I choke on my spit.
Scotty clears his throat while I slap at my chest. Done with attempting to be inconspicuous, I move into the bedroom, glancing at him to see his face cherry red.
“Not one to beat around the bush, are you, Love?” Then he rubs at the back of his neck, eyes dropping to the glinting floor reflecting the dark emerald Avri decorating the room in tasteful strips. “Ah, did you mean that?”
Ezla’s lips curl in amusement, and fuck, that’s a sight for sore eyes.
We’ll still have to talk through everything that’s happened and still happening when the rest of our Bonded group wakes, but after that, I hope we’ll see more of this side from HC that we didn’t properly get to before the Ball.
“You are so greedy for me,” she muses, and that blush on him spreads to the tips of his ears.
Now it’s my turn to clear my throat.
Ezla’s mismatched eyes slide over to me. “Yes, Cooper, I am aware you are also in the room. You will be glad to know that your presence is very hard to miss.” I am, actually. “You two being in the same room together has my anticipation for your upcoming punishments growing, I must admit.”
My brows fly up my forehead. “I think I should be the one to punish you, Vengeance,” I say before I can think it through.
Her eyes narrow to thin slits. “And why would that be?”
Swallowing, I decide I might as well carry on now, and, taking a calculated step closer, I drop my voice. “Because you went off on your own, acting like you’re invincible again.”
“Cooper,” Scotty sighs, dragging his palms down his face.
“But it’s true,” I push on, a spike of anger joining in with the lust in me to create a deadly concoction as I keep slowly moving towards Vengeance. “We could have helped you, Ezla. Why do you never accept our help?”
Humming, she says bluntly, “No.” My brows knit before she continues, “No, you are not doing this. I am exhausted, and as much as I do so love to verbally spare with you, that is not what I am currently in the mood for. I will explain all that has happened and why I made the choices I did tomorrow.”
Pausing in place, I blink at her.
Then the guilt sinks in. “I . . . Sorry, HC. I’m sorry. That was really shitty of me—”
“So tell me what you really want to say.”
I stiffen.
Arching an imperious brow, she keeps her stare steady on me. “I am not oblivious. Now would be the perfect time to let it all out.”
Scotty’s gaze and stance has gradually become tenser, more wary, and his eyes move back and forth between us cautiously. “Love, do you want me to leave—”
“Do not be ridiculous,” she scoffs. “This is your room. Besides, I think you should stay for this.”
My jaw grinds. “That’s just fucking cruel, Vengeance.”
“When have I claimed to be anything but?” she drawls.
Huffing, I cross my arms over my chest. “I thought you didn’t want to argue.”
“This is not an argument.”
“Not yet,” I mutter under my breath.
Rolling her eyes, Ezla strides over to me, and it’s then that I realise she left the Bonded chambers in just Tate’s pyjamas. For the entire complex to see.
Satisfaction rolls over me along with a loud need for that to be mine. My shirt and boxer briefs. I’m perfectly fine with the other guys giving her their things, but I also want to claim her for the world to see.
“You are yearning to claim me as yours,” Ezla states.
Glancing away, I almost mumble, “Obviously.”
Her light laugh ignites every part of me, and my widened gaze snaps back to her.
“Beautiful, Ezla,” Scotty murmurs, and an untimely zap of jealousy smacks me in the face yet again.
Vengeance’s smirk is pure evil.
Strutting over to him, her ass sways deliberately, and all the blood in my body seems to flow right into my already-hardened cock, making its throbbing fucking agonising. Then my nostrils flare as she reaches him, grabs the back of his neck, and slams their mouths together.
Scotty’s blue eyes are wide with shock before they flutter closed, his surprised sound drifting off into a muffled moan. And there’s that damn ease again as he pulls her closer.
I could do that, I know, but it wouldn’t be as effortless as it is for him.
It always feels like Ezla and I are in some sort of battle no matter what, and although I love playing that role in our group, being the one to push her to open up to us, taunting her and teasing her past her limits, it creates a tension that I sometimes wish weren’t there.
I don’t want to be the one she’s most cautious around, but I’m nearly certain that’s the case, and that’s my fault.
I storm right over to them.
Grasping her slim shoulders, I yank Ezla backwards, and she lets out a warning growl.
“What was that for?” I demand none too kindly. “You know I’m struggling here, and you’re trying to make me even more jealous?”
Scotty’s brows lower, and he opens his mouth to speak, but Ezla beats him to it. “I am trying to make you own up to your feelings. You are finding it increasingly difficult, it seems.”
My teeth clack together harshly. “If you can pluck everything straight from my head, why do I need to admit anything out loud?”
Vengeance glares.
I glare right back.
Then she shrugs. “Fine.”
When she goes to pull Scotty back in, I snatch her away again. “Fuck! Fucking hell, fine! I’m jealous of him!”
It’s completely soundless for a beat, and my skin heats under the weight of my embarrassment.
Scotty’s mouth has dropped open, and he finds his voice with a slow, “What? You’re . . . jealous? I thought everyone was happy with this arrangement.”
“They are. I am.” One hand stays clenched around Ezla’s shoulder, while the other comes up to drag through my mussed hair. “You just— Fuck, you do it all so easily.” The lines in his forehead deepen, and I continue, “With Ezla, I mean. How do— How can you . . . How do you do it all so simply?”
His features loosen as understanding hits him.
“Ah.” Then his gaze drifts down to meet Ezla’s as he says, “The actions, my behaviour . . . that just comes naturally, I guess. It feels right to do what I do, so I do it.” His shoulders lift like it’s as simple as that, before he adds, “But it’s not as easy as you might think.
Because there’s always the thought in the back of my mind that you might not want what I have to offer.
” Scotty says the last part to Ezla, voice quieting, and his hand lifts to gently graze her cheek with his knuckles.
“And that is not so different from how you are feeling, yes?” Vengeance turns to face me after watching that hand with a laser focus.
“Do you think that I would let you have me, even just once, if I did not want you?” Her words are matter-of-fact, but they strike me and Scotty with the force of a killing blow, though with a far more positive impact.
“When the both of us find it . . . difficult”—she winces at just the small admission—“to share how we feel, it creates quite an issue.”
Running my tongue along my teeth, I nod. “That’s fair. And I suppose you want me to go first here?”
“Hm.”
My lips try to tip into a smirk at that, but I tamp it down. “And if I can’t?”
Her voice becomes a sultry purr. “Then show me.”
Cursing beneath my breath, any restraint evaporates.
My hardness digs into her when she crashes into me, and this time when I slide my tongue over her lips, she lets me in without hesitation.
My mouth moves over hers hard, and her tongue glides against mine in a way that has me straining even more aggressively against my boxer briefs as my palms find her lower back, ensuring every inch of her is kept tight to me.