Epilogue
I skidded around the corner, heart racing as the cold marble prickled my bare feet. The scent of Jonah’s plants was thick and intoxicating in the muffled dark room. I batted a vine out of my way, unconcerned about the way it swayed in my wake.
This was a chase, but not one that I wanted to escape from.
Earthy musk followed me into the kitchen, and I considered taking the elevator down to the basement garage and letting this chase spill out onto the streets. How exhilarating to make my men hunt me through Greenich Bay. But it would also delay the inevitable.
“Keep running, volpe mia.” Ray’s voice cut through the dark like suede.
I froze for a second, illuminated by a shard of moonlight as clouds drifted away through the glittery night sky. The expansive windows of the penthouse gave an incredible view of the bay, and part of the city we loved so much.
Jonah filled the doorway, catching his swaying vine with a soft noise of reproach. I smothered a laugh and darted in the opposite direction, toward the sauna. Thrill curled around my ribs, making my rapid heartbeat throb between my legs.
“Catch me if you can,” I called.
My toes curled over the slight step, and I almost lost my balance before I pulled back, stumbling past another overflowing pot. This new penthouse of ours had been sleek and cold for its previous owners, but with Jonah’s plants, it thrummed with life.
“I’ve been patient with you, informant. If you give yourself up, our boss might show mercy.” Beck’s stride was purposeful, like a panther stalking its prey.
I danced on my toes in the doorway, daring them to come closer. “You think you can get me to talk?”
“Watch your mouth. Or maybe I can find a use for it.” Beck was close now, enough for me to hear the heavy pant in his breath.
It was powerful how much the idea of me made him wild. A shadow broke away behind him, and I took in Ray, dressed all in black, with his hair slicked back. He had worn sunglasses but had tossed them off, complaining he couldn’t see me well enough.
The scar over his eye caught the light, and I couldn’t help admiring it, even though I knew he was sensitive about it.
Ray was Ray, always obsessed with his looks, and even though he pretended to be fine, he was worried about his face not being enough to keep me.
Jonah confided in me earlier this week, which is why I planned this role-play.
Jonah closed in from the other side, graceful despite his size.
“Have you given up?”
I smiled and ducked inside, shaking with anticipation. The way their eyes followed me burned like a brand, each marking me to my bone.
“Are you going to give us the information we want?” Beck stepped inside our main bedroom. His menacing soft voice carried. “I didn’t think you’d be so easy to beat.”
I spun, hooking my fingers around the sash knotted around my waist.
“Who said I was done?” I let the mid-length robe fall and watched their expressions falter for a moment.
I ran my hands down the two-piece red set I’d worn long ago, at The Den. I’d been trying to lure a different bait, but tonight I wanted to take us back, when Ray and Jonah broke down my defenses in more ways than one.
The first time I toyed with the idea of being with all of them.
Taut control snapped in my hand, threaded with unspoken words. Warmth. Desire. Lust and love. They had all of me. Ray pushed to the front, his gaze greedy and heated.
“You think you can seduce your way out of death, informant?” Ray sneered as his fingers drifted over the scar on his face.
It had become an unconscious action, one he repeated often throughout the day. I didn’t want him to focus on his insecurities tonight. My head jerked at the gilded floor-length mirror on the wall and the reflection of us all.
“I can do anything you want.” I sank to my knees, letting my voice drop to a whisper.
Jonah’s rumbling laugh rolled out behind me, and he gathered my hair in his hands.
“You hear that, boss?”
My heartbeat skipped.
“What do you think, big guy? Should I let this dirty little informant suck her way out of trouble?”
Beck sprang up beside me, his hand straying to the bulge in his pants.
“I can warm her up for you.”
“She’s mine,” Ray said, voice sharp, but there was a softness like velvet in the smirk that followed. This was how I wanted him, puffed with pride and excitement. The way he deserved to be, always.
Jonah’s hand tightened around my hair. “Open that pretty mouth.”
Adrenaline crystallized in my veins, and anticipation set it on fire. I ran my tongue over my lips before dropping it open in capitulation. Did Ray see himself as I did? The playboy heir concealed grit and heart. His fingers dragged down the sharp line of my jaw, and heat radiated off him.
“You want me?”
“I love you,” I whispered, letting my hands dance over his dark slacks to his zipper.
“She’s working you like putty, boss.” Beck appeared at Ray’s shoulder, playing his role as subordinate with ease.
He was used to slipping into roles, though there was less need for us to pretend now that The Unseen was disbanded and we’d whittled down the council members. We spent our time helping Adelaide rule Greenich Bay and making sure the organization didn’t rear its head again.
“I don’t care,” Ray groaned, brushing a lock of hair from my face.
My lips curved in a smile, and I took his throbbing length in my hand. This game was thrilling, but like all our games, it was anchored in one thing. Love.
“Swallow him up, informant.” Jonah tugged my hair.
He wasn’t capable of causing pain, even in these role-playing games. Jonah was barbed wire around a marshmallow. Once you slipped through the prickly wall, designed to keep you out, there was a mountain of softness.
I did as he ordered, licking the reddened tip first. Even when I was on my knees, I knew I was the one in charge, controlling the movement. Jonah pressed against my back, pushing my head with a gentle nudge. He knew I could take Ray deeper, and they all wanted to see it.
I ran my tongue over his piercing, enjoying the sensation of the cool metal turning molten in my mouth.
Ray’s scar caught in the low light of the bedroom lamp. His chest rose and fell as my tongue worked his length. The taste and heat of him traveled down my spine, between my legs. A lustful heartbeat. I dug my nails into his quivering thighs, dragging another soft groan from his lips.
“Fuck, I’ll never get used to seeing you like this.” His voice was rough, like being dragged over rocks.
A flood of salty musk covered my tongue, pre-cum that I swallowed with hunger.
Jonah let out an appreciative noise. He enjoyed this as much as I did, his two lovers together.
Beck only watched me. His careful, dark gaze fixed on my watery lashes and reddened cheeks.
The flush over my chest and flare of my nostrils.
He stored it all away like precious jewels.
“I could get used to this.”
I pulled him from my mouth and rocked back on my heels, against Jonah’s legs.
“You want to keep me?” As always, our role-play unraveled as our clothes came off.
“Was that ever in doubt?” Ray growled.
A strand of warmth wrapped around my heart, and I dragged my hair from Jonah’s hold and raced to the bed, laughing as they followed. I never thought love could be so playful and intimate.
Jonah and Beck hung back as Ray climbed on top of me, pressing me into the bed with a grin. This was a game with so much layered underneath. Ray’s breath puffed against my cheek, and I closed the space between us and pressed my lips to the faded red of his scar.
The scent of earth and greenery filled the room.
Jonah’s jungle of potted plants crowded one corner.
It made the space feel alive. Like the pounding of my heart.
He relaxed into the touch, his eyes fluttering closed.
The excitement of the chase hung in my lungs, but our shared breath made me languid.
We needed no words at this moment. Not when he hinged my thighs and took the place he owned. I wasn’t wearing any panties. Ray gusted a soft noise, a little choke as he sank deep inside me, his gaze chased the diamond at my neck.
Ray owned me the moment he put it around my neck.
I didn’t need a necklace to know he was entirely mine.
Ownership lived in the rush of his breath, like each one was a gift for me.
The glitter in his dark eyes, obsidian diamonds, too precious to know their wealth.
Ray brought charm, mixed with adrenaline and motor smoke.
He was wildness that kept me smiling and my chest light.
In a world where I’d tasted darkness beyond what I thought I could handle, he dragged me into the light, even when he didn’t realize it.
He thrust deep, and I wrapped my legs around his waist, eager and ready for him.
I had been from the moment he told me to run in our darkened penthouse.
Ray’s neck strained as he found his pace.
I ran my fingers to the buttons on his shirt and popped them open.
My nails cut red lines into his defined chest.
Ray’s piercing added pressure to my walls that had me gasping with each swing of his hips.
“Ah, volpe mia, let’s stay like this forever.” Ray panted above me as a lock of his coiffed hair fell over his face.
I arched my back, meeting every heated pound of his body. Jonah climbed onto the bed, and pulled his shirt over his head before tossing it to the ground. His barrel chest loomed as he wrapped his hand around Ray’s neck and pulled him in for a hungry kiss.
Beck let out a soft sigh behind us, collapsing into an armchair in the corner. He wasn’t interested in Ray or Jonah. There had never been room in Beck’s heart for anyone but me. I was the hook to anchor his stony heart, and make it beat for something other than destruction.