Chapter Twenty-Five
When the reception ended, Seth helped Heavenly into the passenger seat of Grace’s SUV. Beck and Hudson climbed in the back.
As Seth pulled from the parking lot, warmth still bloomed in Heavenly’s chest from watching Grace and Carl pledge their vows, the way they’d looked at each other—like the rest of the world had fallen away.
The soft glow of happiness that had lined their faces reminded her of everything she wanted.
Everything she and her men were so close to having.
If Grace accepted them.
Letting out a shaky sigh, she glanced down at the engagement ring on her finger. One day soon, she, Beck, and Seth would recite their vows and live their happily ever after without hiding. Without pretending.
Maybe then she’d forget the sight of Beck sitting white-knuckled and frozen at Grace’s dinner table, forced to listen while Seth announced his engagement to her.
From that moment on, everything about this visit had stripped Beck of what made him him. No control. No dominance. He couldn’t claim her. He couldn’t even touch her, except like a casual friend. He had to be careful when he spoke to her. Even when he so much as looked at her.
Since then, she’d seen Beck bleed in silence while maintaining his carefully constructed mask. This subterfuge was killing him inside. And she hurt for him.
Seth wasn’t doing much better.
God, spending Thursday afternoon in that house he’d once called home, surrounded by the ghosts of his murdered family, she’d sobbed her heart out. Beck had been overwhelmed, too. But Seth had nearly broken in front of them.
Heavenly couldn’t stand it anymore. Her men were hurting. Deeply. She needed to heal them—and she only had one thing she could possibly give them tonight.
Herself.
Finally, at one a.m., they pulled up in front of the Cooper house. Relief flooded Heavenly as Seth killed the engine. Since Carl and Grace were spending their wedding night at a hotel in the city, they had the house to themselves.
Beck could stop pretending. Seth could exhale.
And she could finally give them both what they needed.
They climbed out of the SUV. Hudson grabbed a box of leftover cake Grace had insisted they take home while Seth collected the gifts that hadn’t fit in Carl’s car.
Beck moved to the back, reaching for a box at the same moment Heavenly did. His hand closed over hers. Too tight. Then gone.
She glanced up and caught the rigid set of his jaw, the tension vibrating through him like a wire pulled taut. He wasn’t impatient. He was restrained—but the kind that frayed at the edges.
Heavenly let her fingers trail up his arm as she withdrew, slow and deliberate. Her silent way of telling him she saw him. She felt him. And soon, she could give him what he’d been denied.
Beck snapped his stare her way, dark and hungry, before he turned sharply and headed for the house.
Seth moved with his usual efficiency, gathering the last of the bags, but Heavenly knew him too well. His calm came from bracing, not peace. He was holding himself together by a thread.
It was going to snap. Beck’s composure, too. She could feel it.
Inside, Seth locked the doors and set the alarm. They deposited everything in the mudroom, then climbed the stairs together. Each step made Heavenly’s pulse accelerate. Anticipation coiled in her chest.
Soon…
Down the hall, Hudson paused at his bedroom door. “Night, guys.”
“Hey, Hudson Cooper,” Seth called softly.
“Yeah?”
“Sleep tight, son.”
A slow smile tugged at Hudson’s lips—pride and belonging wrapped in two words. “You too...Dad.”
“See you in the morning, kid,” Beck added, his voice rougher than usual.
“Today was a big day. Get some good sleep,” Heavenly murmured.
Hudson grunted in reply and nodded, then disappeared into his room. His door clicked shut.
An electric silence followed. The air between the three of them crackled.
They were finally alone.
Now she could begin making them whole again.
All of them.
Beck rolled his shoulders and flexed his hands like he was itching to touch her now that he was finally allowed to. “Inside.”
Heavenly swayed into the bedroom. Beck followed, hovering behind her as she removed her jewelry—earrings, necklace, engagement ring—and set them on the dresser. Seth entered behind them and closed the door.
They were alone.
Before she could turn around, Beck slid a thick arm around her waist and spun her to face him. Her heart skittered as he devoured her with a dark, desperate stare. The distant, polite mask he’d worn for Seth’s family shattered, replaced by a fierce, consuming gaze.
The palpable urgency rolling off his body practically singed her skin.
Heavenly didn’t wait for Beck to take the lead. She twisted from his arms, stepped to the center of the room, and slowly, deliberately, sank to her knees at his feet, head bowed.
The air left Beck’s lungs in a harsh breath. “Heavenly—”
She lifted her chin and peered up at him with beseeching eyes, letting him see the total surrender she offered. Freely. Intentionally.
“Little girl, you don’t have to—”
“I want to.” Her voice was steady. Sure. “I need to…Sir.”
She saw the moment he realized she wasn’t just giving her body, but offering to refill what days of denial had taken from him—to restore the control he desperately needed.
Beck’s eyes flashed dangerously, his chest heaved, but instead of the harsh command she expected, his expression softened. He lifted his hand and cupped her face, his thumb brushing across her cheekbone. “I know what you’re doing. You’re giving yourself to me, to take what I need.”
“Yes, Sir,” she murmured.
For a long moment, he stared. Heavenly began to squirm as he slid his trembling thumb against her bottom lip. Had she misread him?
Seth moved closer, eating her up with his stare before he settled his hand on her crown, his fingers threading through her hair—gentle where Beck was demanding, tender where Beck was raw.
“You’re beautiful like this, angel.” His voice sounded thick with emotion. “Giving him what he needs.”
She looked up at Seth, saw the understanding in his eyes. He knew what Beck had endured. And he was giving this moment to Beck without hesitation.
“I will, Sir.”
Seth caressed her one last time, then stepped back, leaning against the dresser—present and supportive, but ceding control.
Then Beck’s eyes darkened, something fierce and hungry burning through the tenderness. He glanced at Seth briefly—a silent question, maybe even a challenge—before his gaze snapped back to her.
“You know what you’re offering me.” Not a question. A statement.
“Yes, Sir.”
“And you know I’m going to take it.” His voice dropped, dangerous and dark.
Her breath caught. “Please.”
Something shifted in his expression—the last of his softness hardening into an utterly dominant hunger. He curled an impatient finger under her chin and forced her stare to meet the demand in his.
“Be very sure, little girl,” he warned, his thumb pressing against her pulse. “Because I’m starving, and I’m not going to be gentle about reclaiming what’s mine.”
Her breath caught.
Her heart raced.
Heat flooded her pussy, quivering with the same desperation etched on his face.
“I’m sure,” she whispered.
“I’m going to make you beg for me, little girl.
I’m going to use your sinful little body until you’re sobbing and pleading.
And if you’re good, I might let you come.
But not when you want to. Not when you’re ready.
Not even when you’re hanging on by the tiniest thread.
” His grip tightened fractionally. “You’ll come when I decide to let you. Not before.”
Her nipples beaded.
Her womb cramped.
Desire thickened her voice. “I understand, Sir.”
Beck’s eyes flared. “You think you do. Stand.”
It wasn’t a request.
Heavenly’s stomach whirled with excitement as she kept her eyes locked on his and complied.
“Strip,” Beck ordered, brushing his lips over hers before curling his hand around her throat in pure possession. Then he reluctantly released her. “Slowly. I want to watch you reveal every inch.”
She trembled with anticipation as she clasped the zipper of her dress and dragged it down, letting the sound fill the sexually charged silence. Then she lowered the silk, inch by deliberately measured inch, until it whispered down her legs and pooled at her feet.
Until she stood before him in nothing but delicate lace.
Heat blazed from Beck’s eyes, searing her skin as he raked a greedy stare down her body. “Now the rest.”
Seth exhaled hot against her neck as she unhooked her bra. When it fell away, he stepped in beside Beck. She slowly slid her thong down her legs and stepped out of it.
Both men groaned in unison—low masculine sounds suffused with hunger and need. Their hot stares of appreciation were like live touches, pumping liquid fire through her veins.
“Oh, little girl.” Beck trailed his fingers over her breast before brushing a teasing thumb across her nipple. When she gasped, he flashed her a dirty smile. “There she is.”
He bent to her, skimming his lips up her neck until he found her thrumming pulse. “God, I’ve missed the taste of your skin. Missed the sounds you make when I touch you…”
Then he dragged his tongue over the spot and rolled her nipple between his thumb and fingers, twisting, tugging, torquing.
She quivered under his touch. Her knees threatened to buckle.
“Missed seeing you naked and waiting for me to command you.”
She moaned at the raw emotion in his confession. “I’ve missed you, too. So much it hurts. Every night without your hands on me, your body against mine—”
“Yes…” Beck gripped her hips and rolled his forward, pressing his stiff length against her pussy.
She shuddered at the contact. “Beck!”
“That’s ‘Sir’ to you. And as much as I’ve missed watching you come apart for me, if you can’t behave, I won’t see that tonight, either.”
“You can’t do that,” she whined, purposely provoking him. “It’s been too long. I need you to make me come, Sir.”