2. Lex
2
LEX
I ce blue eyes as deep as the ocean stare up at me, wanting, needing, hurting.
Juliet’s hands clench on my chest as she fists the fabric of the t-shirt I wear. Her lips part, but nothing that comes out of her mouth next is going to force me to make the verbal choice that I don’t want. No matter what answer I give her, both would be a lie.
So, I do the only thing I can. I kiss her.
My mouth slants over hers, shoving her lips apart and taking anything else she might say. Smelling of smoke and rain, Juliet stiffens at first, but when I dig my fingers into her hips, she seems to give in and sink further into me. My heart hammers against my ribcage as I pull her closer, licking at the seam of her lips, tasting her.
I draw her away from the door, my eyes opening and latching on to the locks behind her. Keeping her against me and letting her take over the kiss when she pushes to, I reach up with one hand. Without both free, I can’t redo all the locks, but I can certainly slip the chain back into place and flip a few of the deadbolts.
With that done, I nudge her around and back towards my bedroom. We only manage to make it to the mouth of the hallway when her hands delve into my hair and she scratches at my scalp. The sharp sensation lights up all my nerve endings. My hands creep down her sides. She gyrates against me, grinding herself against the cock straining at the front of my pants.
Unable to resist the urge any longer, I reach down and heft her upwards. Juliet’s legs part and she wraps them around my hips. Soft little noises of wanton desire escape her throat. Her cloth-covered cunt drives right up against my cock, and stars burst in the back of my head.
Fuckkkkkkkkk. The word comes out on a long, drawn-out internal groan. Bliss and everything devious crawls out of the woodworks and takes over my thoughts. If I thought having her ride me to a penetration-less orgasm in the back of my SUV was the extent of torment, then I was wrong. This is infinitely worse. Because I know that this time will be different. This time, I won’t stop until she’s coming around the base of my cock and I’m filling her with my cum.
I carry Juliet down the hall, trying my hardest not to stumble or slam either of us into the walls. The way she drags her mouth away from mine, gasping for oxygen only to come back down for more makes me insane with lust. I kiss her harder, letting her tongue roll against my own until finally we make it into the back bedroom—the only bedroom in the entire refurbished carriage house.
Thank fuck I changed the sheets. The last woman I’d had on my bed had been one of the sluts from The Veil . Juliet doesn’t deserve sweaty sheets. I’ll have to burn the old ones.
“ Lex .” The sound of my name on her lips makes my cock twitch. I want to hear her scream it. I want to hear all the noises she made that night in my SUV. Only this time, I don’t want her to stop.
I release her from my grip, and her legs slowly drop down to the floor. Her chest rises and falls with each gasping breath. Her eyes meet mine, glittering in the dim lighting. As much as I want to see all of her, I didn’t flip the switch when we came in, and I’m not willing to go back now and interrupt the tension between us.
“Get on the bed.” My voice comes out in a low growl.
Juliet backs up a step and then another and another until her legs come up against the mattress. Her eyes never leave mine.
“Is that all you want?” she asks. Her hands come up, skimming the hem of her shirt.
“No.” I want her naked and spread eagle on that bed. I want her panting, sweating, begging for release as I lick all of the cream between her legs. I want her whispering words of love and affection to me like she had all those years ago.
What I want is so much more than she will ever be willing to give me. I want her everything.
At five years old, I wanted to marry Juliet Donovan. At nearly nineteen, I’d slit the throat of anyone who thinks to take her away from me.
“ Get .” I take a step towards her. “ On. ” Her eyes harden on mine. “ The. ” Another step brings me against her, my chest rubbing against hers. “ Bed. ”
Full, pouty lips curve upward, and I know she’s going to make this a fight. Something set her off tonight. She came here to drive a wedge between me and my brothers. The reason is uncertain, but the truth is clear. She’s angry and she wants to hurt us to make herself feel better. Though it makes me a bastard, I’m grateful that she ended up here, with me, tonight.
Juliet juts up her chin at me. “Make me.”
No sooner has her challenge been issued than my hand is wrapped around her throat. I slam her back onto the bed, her spine meeting the mattress as I crawl atop her and hold her down with my weight. She strains upward, eyes widened in surprise. Her hands snap out, gripping at my forearm as I squeeze, cutting off a little of her blood flow. Not too much—can’t have her passing out before we get to the fun stuff—but just enough to drive home to her how serious I am.
Her blunt nails dig into my skin, the bites of pain not serving to quell the rising need within me even the slightest. I want her. Any way I can have her.
“You drive me insane, baby,” I whisper, hovering my mouth over hers.
“Do I, big man?” she snarks back, more than a little breathiness in her tone. Just when I think, maybe I’ve gone too far, though, her lips twitch and she smiles up at me. “ Show me. ”
That smile of hers does funny things to my insides, but it’s also a warning. It doesn’t reach her eyes. It’s all seduction and no affection. The startling rage simmering in the depths of her gaze hasn’t been erased by the effect of lust. If anything, I have to wonder if she isn’t using her body against me to gain what she hopes is a foothold into the place her words hadn’t.
She wants to be between the guys and me? I’m happy to put her there, but not as a way to drive us apart. If anything, fucking Juliet should bring us all together.
Hooking my free hand around one of her thighs, I drag it upward, wrapping her leg around my side before spanning the width of my palm over her belly. Underneath my hand around her throat, her pulse jumps wildly. She swallows but otherwise shows no wariness, no fear.
How brave my baby is. How fucking… beautiful she is.
“You want to push me to take you, baby?” I whisper into the quiet of my bedroom. “You want me to fuck you until you can’t remember why you’re angry anymore? I can do that.”
Her eyes narrow on my face. “I’m not here for a therapy session, Lex,” she snaps, venom and rage hidden in those words. “If you want to fuck me before you make your decision, fine. But don’t act like you’re using me for anything more than a good, hard ride.”
I blink. Well, I can’t say I’d expected that. Tilting my head to the side, I slowly scan her features for any sign that’ll betray the reasoning of her words. Nope. She means them. At least, she thinks she does.
“You really think that, don’t you?” I ask.
Her upper lip curls away from her teeth, and I’m already shaking my head. “You know what, no,” I say before she can reply. “You’re angry right now. I don’t know why, but I don’t want you to spit bile my way when I know you’ll regret it later.”
“No, I won’t,” she argues. Her leg slides off my side. She plants both of her feet on the mattress and arches upward, bucking against me. “Get off me, prick. I’m done. If you’re not going to fuck me or help me, then I’ll go to one of the others.”
“Why?” I ask. “So you can try and manipulate him the same way you’re trying with me?” Letting my voice drop an octave, I frown at her. “No. Now, no more cussing at me. Be nice to me and I’ll be nice to you. Be mean and… well…” I tighten my grip on her throat, letting her know the truth with my actions versus my words as I squeeze against the sides of her neck to compress the blood flow the tiniest bit.
The moment she realizes that it’s not air she’s cut off from, but her blood, is a blessing. Her eyes widen a fraction and her lips part, but there’s no way to keep her blood flowing up to her head unless I release her. Dark lashes flutter and her chest pumps up and down. Once. Twice. By the third jolting action, I relax my hold.
Her lips flower open and close. She breathes against me, the hot fan of her breath hitting me in the cheek as I lean closer. Her body shudders as the fluttering, floaty sensation I know she had to have been on the verge of begins to disperse. The snarl returns. Oh yeah, she’s going to love the sensation of me choking her until she almost passes out. She’ll grow higher and higher, and when all the blood rushes back, she’ll squeeze my cock so tight as she comes.
“Fuck you, Lex.”
“Oh baby, I intend for you to.” With those words on the tip of my tongue, I release her throat and flip her over.
One thing about not having a lot of money over the years, I’ve had to build a lot of my furniture by hand. Aunt Gemma’s husband had taught me before he passed some years back. The success of my efforts is a reward to me now as I yank down one of the ties I’d secretly hidden in the headboard.
I settle my weight atop her once more as I grab her hands, pulling first one up and then the second. When I release her again, it’s to the bindings pressing her wrists together.
“What the fuck!” The curse shoots out of her mouth, and I have every intention of making her pay for it as well as for the ones before.
I reach around her waist, quickly undoing the button and zipper of her jeans. It takes effort to peel the semi-damp fabric down her thighs and legs, but oh God… her ass is a sight to behold. Plump and round, Juliet’s ass is the kind that women in Hollywood pay thousands of dollars for. No amount of squats or injections could make this natural phenomenon anything but a masterpiece.
Sending a thank you out to the universe for such a perfect ass, I reach the bottom of her legs where her shoes prevent me from finishing the job. Unlacing the sneakers and pulling them as well as her socks from her feet, I toss them onto the floorboards and send her pants following an instant later.
The tiniest black thong I’ve ever seen sits between the cheeks of her ass and rises up to arch over either one around her waist. Leaning down, I press Juliet’s kicking feet beneath me, pinning them with my knee to the back of hers. I kiss first one cheek and then the next. Cupping and squeezing the ass that’s more a thing of beauty than it is a body part, I part my lips and sink my teeth into her flesh.
Juliet jerks at the sensation, a soft and oh-so-feminine gasp escaping her. A grin grazes my lips. At least that got her to stop kicking. I press a kiss to the bite mark before trailing more up to the small of her back, then to her spine and higher, lifting her shirt as I go. Dragging my hand up the length of her, I gather her still damp hair and move it all to the side. Blue flutters down over one shoulder as I bend and kiss the side of her throat.
“Lex…” My name is a warning on her lips. I wonder how long it’ll be before I hear her call me Alex again. No one else ever called me that. My parents had used my full name. The guys call me Lex. Only she had ever dubbed me “Alex.”
“I can give you what you need,” I whisper against her flesh. My jaw aches to take her between my teeth. Like a hungry lion sitting before a buffet of bloodied meat, I find myself salivating at the need to mark her, brand her in a way that everyone else will notice.
Unable to stop myself, I set my teeth back to her skin and bite down. Her back arches, her ass bumping up against my groin as she groans. She might not want to, might try to resist it, but my sweet baby likes the pain.
“You think I need your dick?” I’m sure she means the question to come out harshly, taunting. I’m pleased to hear the note of breathy anticipation in her tone instead.
“I think you need an escape from reality,” I tell her honestly. “And I’m happy to provide it.”
“I don’t—” Letting her talk has gotten us nowhere, so without waiting for her to finish, I reach down and slip out the pocket knife I keep on me at all times. Flipping it open, I smile when her voice cuts off at the sound as she tries to look back at me. “What are you…” Her eyes widen a fraction when I hold up the blade for her to see.
“I won’t hurt you,” I promise her. “Not in any way you won’t like.”
She doesn’t reply, so I make quick work of her shirt, slicing it off her and tossing the remains to the side. Slowly, I scrape the edge of the knife down her side. Goosebumps follow in its wake. When I slide the sharp edge beneath one side of her thong, Juliet releases a sound. The gauzy fabric pulls tight and then loosens as I cut that away too, leaving her bare and naked beneath my much larger body.
Hunger the likes of which I’ve never known spills into my veins. I snap the pocket knife closed and slap it on the mattress as I bend down and press a kiss above her ass.
“Lex…”
Gripping her hips, I lift Juliet up until she’s on her knees. I wedge myself between her thighs, pushing both of her legs out until mine keep them apart. Then, I let my fingers trail down further, parting her cheeks. She tenses when I pause over her asshole. If my dreams really are going to come true—if I’ll get to keep her and my brothers then, eventually, I’ll get to take her here.
The fantasy is visceral in my mind even as the reality is before me. I press my finger to her hole, not quite entering her as I rub in slow circles. The muscles of her back bunch and contract, but she doesn’t stop me.
“You came here angry tonight,” I murmur thoughtfully as I finally take my finger away and move down some more to the wet center of her cunt. “You came here to deliver a message.”
“I came to make you choose,” she hisses when I shove two fingers unceremoniously into her soaking pussy. Liquid inner muscles clamp down on me.
“No,” I say. “You came to try and drive a wedge between me and my brothers.” As if to show her that I’m not angry about it, I bend and press an open-mouthed kiss to her shoulder blade as I fuck my fingers in and out of her.
Her hips rotate and roll, following my hand when I drag them out and thrust them back in. “Did you think I was the weakest link?” I ask, only half curious. “Of the three of us, Gio’s the sex fanatic, but you didn’t go to him, did you? You came to me.”
Gio. Lying in that hospital bed, unconscious, brain swelling.
Gio. Bloodied, battered, bruised, and completely unaware of his own injury.
“Ugh.” Juliet arches against me, her wrists twisting in the restraints as she tries to use them to drag herself upward.
With one hand flat against her spine, I press her down until her arms and ass are pushed upward. Only then do I withdraw my hand from her cunt and slap the rounded cheek of one side of her ass. She screams—a sound of pure shock because I damn well know it hadn’t actually hurt. Unable to help myself, I smack her again, enjoying the flush of pink that stains her skin.
“If you slap my ass one more time, I’m going to kick you in the dick,” Juliet swears, her knees restless against the black satin sheets, and her head coming up as she turns to look over her shoulder.
The blue strands of her hair flutter down her back, a direct contrast with the cream of her skin. “Why did you come to me and not one of the others?” I ask her again.
She bites down on her lower lip, eyes turning away from me again, but I can’t allow that. I jerk forward and grip her chin, forcing her gaze back to mine. “Answer me.”
“I don’t know,” she snaps.
“Lie.”
With one hand still holding her in place, I reach down and let the flat of my palm move over the place where I’d struck her. “I’m not lying,” she says quickly. “I don’t—” She grits her teeth, closing her eyes for a moment before reopening and settling them on my face. “I needed to go somewhere and I was too pissed at Gio for forgetting and pissed at Nolan for being an asshole. You were the only one I wasn’t mad at.”
My entire being softens. “Baby, Gio didn’t forget?—”
“ No. ” Juliet’s gaze hardens. “I don’t want to talk about the two of them right now,” she says. “I don’t want to hear any excuses. If you want to fuck, fine. Let’s fuck, but do not try to placate me.”
A groan of annoyance sticks in my throat. Stubborn. Vengeful. Wicked. Brat. That’s what she is, and she’s so damn lucky that I’d do damn near anything for her.
“You want to forget for tonight?” I ask, bending until our foreheads brush.
“What I want, you obviously won’t give me,” she replies. “So yes, if forgetting is all you’re going to offer, then I’ll take it.”
She’ll take a hell of a lot more before the night is done. If this is what it’ll take to keep her in place, to borrow time until the truth can be revealed, then fucking Juliet Donovan is the sweetest payment I’ll ever give.