16
Manson
I haven’t been able to shake the thoughts of what we did to Rhea. I feel like a real asshole for getting hard every time, but I can’t help it. I think I’m becoming addicted to her.
Asher is too. When we went to work earlier today, I was surprised he admitted how angry he was about that uneven breeding number. Usually he bottles all of that shit up, but learning the fact that his real anger came from not being able to breed her one last time made me feel a little less guilty. For the first time, her not wanting to be fucked turned him off, and that tells me more than anything else. Deep down, he finally doesn’t just want to cause her pain, and if she’s becoming human to him without his knowledge, this whole situation will go much smoother.
When we get back home, we find her passed out on the living room couch, curled up in a ball. The house is a mess, the laundry is still in the dirty piles we left it in, and the kitchen hasn’t been used in days.
I know what’s coming before it happens.
The noise she releases at that first shock has me closing my eyes guiltily, but Asher has never been good at subtlety. “Oh sorry, did we wake you?”
He’s looking at her like sleeping is a sin when we kept her paralyzed for days. Maybe I was wrong earlier.
“Fuck!” she hisses, rolling off the couch to stand up on still-shaky legs. “Did you even try to wake me up without that?”
“We closed the door,” he replies flippantly, moving closer to inspect her neck. “Does our pet want a little break from her collar?”
Her eyes widen in hope then narrow in suspicion within a heartbeat. “I— yes. You know I do. It itches and I can’t bend my neck all the way.”
“Poor baby.” Ash crouches down to her level with a look in his eyes that has me stepping closer. “Did you have a nice nap?”
At least she has enough sense to look scared as she mumbles, “I guess.”
“Good for you. You want a break?” He grips the collar and tugs her forward. “Earn it then. Be a good girl, and take care of the shit you agreed to, then maybe we’ll consider giving you a little break.”
I hear him, the damn house is a mess, but I also sympathize with her at the same time. I don’t know how to help this situation though, so I keep my mouth shut for the time being as she visibly struggles to keep her emotions in check. Ultimately, she nods. “I’ll need a few hours to get it done. Why don’t you two go have a beer somewhere? Relax? I can text you when I’m done and have dinner ready.”
Asher shakes his head to cut her off. “Nah. We want to watch. Take off your clothes.”
She huffs, thinking he’s kidding, then clenches her jaw and undresses with jerky, irritated movements. It slaps me in the face how much damage we did to her — almost every inch of her body is covered in bite marks and bruises. She has to be miserable. “Satisfied?”
His sharp green eyes rake her frame from his kneeling position, traveling slowly up her legs, lingering on her breasts a little longer before meeting her gaze. “Yes.” Slowly, he stands, leaving almost no space between the two of them as he reaches out to swipe his thumb over a bite mark on her shoulder. “Good girl. Now give Manson a kiss like you missed him.”
Fuck. Why’s he gotta bring me into this? And the fact that he’s ordering her to kiss me is annoying because now she’s going to begrudgingly do as told — not because she wants to, and I’m going to take it because I’m not strong enough to deny it. I’d fucking love it if she greeted me with a kiss every day.
It’s a little telling that he didn’t ask her to kiss him, though.
Yet as she walks toward me, I watch her eyes soften. Her shoulders relax as she takes steady steps toward me, and when she wraps her arms around my neck and rocks up on her toes to reach me, I don’t care why she’s doing it.
I catch her lips with mine and grip her ass, losing myself there for a few seconds before opening my eyes to meet his. How angry he looks about it urges me to slide my tongue against hers, and I almost ruin the whole thing by laughing when his whole body tenses with jealousy. This is his doing. “I missed you too,” I mumble against her mouth when we start to pull away. “Believe it or not he did too. I think you two should hug.”
Maybe I’m not helping, but fuck him if he thinks he’s the only boss around here. “Like a real hug, both arms around each other. Don’t be a little bitch about it.”
Asher chuckles like I’m joking, and Rhea looks like I just asked her to lick dog shit off my boots. I can’t say I blame her, but nothing will change if they don’t start showing each other a little bit of compassion.
With an expression that screams I’m betraying her, Rhea stomps over and almost violently wraps her arms around Asher’s stomach.
His arms hang limp at his sides a few seconds too long, and then finally he wraps them around her shoulders and pins their bodies together. “Happy?”
“Not yet.” I make a show of checking a watch that doesn’t exist. “Hold that position, and don’t back away until neither of you are frowning at me anymore.”
Rhea’s body is so taut I can see every muscle she’s got flexed and ready to fight. This could fucking take a while.
But only a couple of minutes later, she relents. Her tense shoulders slump and she buries her face nearly in his armpit, and from the way his t-shirt rises up, I think she’s hugging him tighter.
He’s relaxing more too, his face is buried in her hair, and when he closes his eyes to inhale her scent I know I’ve got them. Fucking hardheads. “See? That’s nice, huh?”
The frown Ash tosses me this time has much less bite to it, but I can’t see her face at all until she leans back enough to look at him. “You’re squishing my boobs.”
“You’re squeezing my stomach, and yet I managed not to complain.”
They make it easy to remember they’re siblings sometimes. Step or not.
“Alright, I think that was a good exercise. Next time I’ll make you two kiss it out.” The look they both give me has me holding up my hands in surrender, but even though I know they’d fight it I can see how badly they both crave it as well. I swear these two are going to age me. “Go shower, Ash. I’ll take one after you and then we’ll have a drink. Sound good?”
He reluctantly pulls away from Rhea and leaves without another word, leaving me to deal with the aftermath of that damn hug. “You’re frowning again.”
“Forgive me for not wanting to hug him after he shocked the fuck out of me,” she says quietly. “I’ll get to work now.”
With bruised arms, she gathers the first pile of laundry and disappears down the hall. I can hear her slamming the doors around, and take it upon myself to clear off some trash I left out last night and order us a pizza. I know we’d all prefer a home cooked meal, but this is a way we’ll all be fed much faster and less hangry.
When she walks out from the laundry room I have to force myself to look up from her perfect boobs to let her know. “I ordered pizza so you don’t have to worry about cooking.”
The way she flinches tells me we’ve done more damage than I thought. “Oh. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I respond, watching her closely as anxiety seems to build inside of her. “What’s wrong? I thought I was helping.”
“You are,” she assures me. “It doesn’t hurt that bad. I’ll be okay.”
“Your body? Yeah, that’ll probably be sore for a bit.” The shower turns off, making both of us spin toward the hallway in anticipation. “Don’t look so nervous. I think that hug threw him off balance, but that’s why I did it. There’s no way he’s still angry.”
“Until he finds out I weaseled out of cooking.” She scrambles over to start cleaning the kitchen as I realize what she meant earlier — she wasn’t talking about her body. She thinks he’ll shock her for this.
Nodding in understanding, I rush over to his room and grab the remote for myself, spinning around just in time to run straight into Asher. “What are you doing?”
Shit. I won’t lie, but I was hoping to keep him in a good mood tonight. “I wanted this.” I show him the remote. “I’m allowed to use it too.”
He has no argument there, but now I’m actually gonna have to use the fucking thing which is exactly what I was trying to prevent. At least I can give her a heads up and keep it on a low setting.
He’s grouchy about it, but relents, stepping aside in his towel, and once again I have to fight the urge to check out another naked person. Why am I in clothes? “You should stay that way.”
I nod toward the towel, and relax when Asher chuckles. “Yeah? Think so?”
He tosses it aside to give me a peek, and I take the longest mental picture I can muster before turning away. “I vote threesome.”
“I vote food. I’m fucking hungry, and the last thing I need is for Rhea to see me struggle to perform again.”
Aw, poor little Ash is embarrassed. “I ordered pizza. She can make us breakfast in the morning, but I was craving Rio’s.”
I’m happy I have the remote when he shoots me a frown and grabs the towel to cover up again, but I know he won’t be mad at the fact that I ordered his favorite place.
I leave him there before he can say anything else and join Rhea again in the kitchen, showing her the remote with a huge grin on my face. “Peace of cake. Wait, speaking of, do you ever bake?”
“I do whatever you two ask,” she reminds me.
And the reminder is like a slap in the face. “Really? We can’t even have a normal conversation, Rhea? You know what, forget it. I’ll go shower then.”
I excuse myself without another look back and remind myself what we’re doing to her. It’s hard to remember we’re forcing her into everything when it shouldn’t be, she reminds us every single day. I’m just an idiot who wants to play pretend with someone that might actually kill me if she had the chance. Asher sure thinks she might, but there are times where she looks at me and allows me to believe the lie I keep trying to tell myself.
Once I’m clean, I walk back out to the living room with my head right. Ash may be an asshole, but he’s my asshole, and if she’s going to make me choose, I can’t keep getting distracted by the pretty lies. I have to trust he knows what he’s doing.
“I thought you ordered pizza,” he asks me before I can sit with him, and after we track our delivery driver, I watch him relax. I wonder if they’ve even said a word since he came out here.
“Be here in five, hangry,” I say loud enough for her to hear, lowering the strength on the shock collar as low as it goes before I tap the button. “You’ll be fed soon. Hey, pet. Can you bring us some beers?”
It’s still enough to make her body jerk as she drops the spray bottle she was holding. Without a word, she brings us each a beer and refuses to make eye contact.
The timer on her phone dings to let her know the washer is done, and we both check out her ass as she walks away from us to take care of it.
“What are we going to do about her attitude?”
Asher seems genuinely curious about my thoughts here, but I don’t know what to say that we’re not already doing. Escalating seems... dangerous. “Accept it?” I offer halfheartedly. “We’ve done just about everything we can do except for actually cage her.”
Something dangerous flashes in his eyes a second before we share a small laugh. “Yeah, you’re right. Accepting it seems like the easiest route to take.”
“We’d have to break her completely to ever get rid of it. And something tells me that’ll be harder than we think.”
“I don’t think she’s someone who breaks,” he replies, and somehow it feels like the biggest compliment he’s ever given her. “She’d end up breaking us in the end.”
Watching the way his eyes darken and he takes a slow sip of his beer, I have to wonder if she already has. Neither of us seem to know which way is up anymore, and if we’re not careful... we’re all gonna wind up in pieces.