51. Orion
Orion
I t had been a week since Vince told me he planned to let Caspian kill him.
And it had been a week since everything had…
settled. I lit him fires every night, sometimes he let me suckle on his cock until dinner, sometimes he didn’t.
He’d been tentative about touching me—and Jacob—on account, I imagined, of how intense the bruising from the paddling had been.
Even after years of play—and sometimes abuse—I’d never been as thoroughly sore on my backside as I was since that night.
I’d also tried to change my limits in the afterglow of an orgasm, which would have been ill-advised on a good day.
Either way, the bruises and the ache had left me almost constantly hard.
Jacob was in very near the same state, on edge and frustrated by the whole thing. Vibrating with need because of the arousal, but also because of the impending upheaval to our lives .
Again.
The four of us were at the dining room table eating dinner, the freshly replaced window reflecting the streetlights against the far wall, when a knock at the door and a subsequent text message announced Daren’s presence.
He had Luca with him, because of course he did, but their smaller and fairer third was also in tow.
Bellamy Marchant, an unremarkable man with hair like sunshine who trailed behind Luca like they were walking into the wolves’ den.
At their arrival, Jacob and Caspian both glanced at me, the latter far more nervous than the former.
After the attack at the house and Vince’s subsequent plan, Caspian had gone to Vanessa directly, received a new timeline with a promise her aim would be more accurate next time if he failed again.
He assured her he was working to get close, that he had to get through me and Jacob first. She believed him, or not…
we’d find out one way or another sooner rather than later.
“I don’t imagine you’re here for dinner,” Vince said, greeting the trio with handshakes.
They settled in at the massive table, looking weary.
“No, but it smells delicious,” Daren said. He reached under the table and took Luca’s hand in his, and from the corner of my eye, I watched Jacob do the same to Caspian. I arched a brow at him, and he smiled at me, a soft and secret thing.
Fuck him for a thousand different reasons, but most of all, fuck him for making me care about him. Fuck him for making me invested in an outcome where I had three people to worry about and not just one...not just Vince.
“You’re here because it’s time,” Vince said.
Daren nodded.
“They know about Caspian, about Vanessa. They know the timeline; they’re planning to call?—”
Jacob’s phone ringing interrupted him.
“Jake,” Daren finished.
“Answer it,” Vince instructed.
Jacob untangled his hand from Caspian to fish his phone out of his pocket, answering the call on speaker and setting it on the table.
“Hello?”
“Jacob.”
He sighed. “Obviously.”
“How have you been? I know the church is restrictive and probably boring.”
“It’s fine,” he said before his father could say anything else.
To a stranger, he would have sounded calm and unbothered, but I could hear the tension in his words, see it in the tight set of his jaw.
I reached over and rested my hand on his thigh.
His eyes widened briefly, then he grabbed me—hard.
Holding my hand with far more force than he’d held Caspian’s.
Different uses, I reminded myself, thinking of our places with Vince.
“Tomorrow, someone is going to move against Vince Angelini. ”
All of us looked to Caspian, who dipped his chin toward his chest, expression laden with misery.
“Move how?” Jacob asked.
“Another attempt on his life.”
Jacob let out a low laugh. “How many have failed? Why do you think this one will be successful?”
“There are plans in place,” his father said. Jacob tightened his grip on my hand. “After it’s done, you come into play.”
“What do you need from me?” he asked, tone deadpan.
“Tomorrow is the only chance North and Sinclair will have to bend the knee,” Phillip Moore said. “If they don’t…you know what to do.”
“You want me to…” he trailed off.
“You know what to do.”
Jacob cleared his throat. “Alright.”
“In two days, everything will be back as it should be,” Phillip continued.
Jacob’s palm sweat against mine.
“The Moore family will finally have the power they’ve always deserved. Too long we’ve been complacent and subservient to the Sinclairs and that time is over.”
“Understood, Father.” Jacob ended the call and shoved away from the table, his hand still tight enough around mine that he pulled my chair back at the same time.
I glanced at Vince, who gave me a nod. As Jacob’s fingers loosened to detach from mine, I gripped him harder, letting him pull me out of the dining room and up the stairs.
I thought he would go to my bedroom, instead he went to his, and I kicked the door closed as he yanked us both past the threshold.
“I hate this,” he rasped, falling onto his hands and knees in the middle of the room.
I sank down behind him, wrapping my arms around his chest and pulling him up onto my lap.
“I know,” I whispered.
He flailed against me, cursing through gritted teeth at my tenderness. I did my best to hold him down, but his fist connected with my cheekbone hard enough for me to see stars. The impact sent me reeling backward, and I pressed my fingers beneath my eye, surprised to find blood.
“I don’t want your gentle fucking handling,” he seethed.
“Do you think they’d give me this task if I wasn’t capable of it?
I’ve killed people before, Orion. Just because I’m a masochist doesn’t mean I can’t wring the life out of someone with my bare hands, doesn’t mean I won’t put a fucking bullet in someone. ”
Jacob’s eyes were wide and frantic, hands shaking as he spoke.
I realized why he’d brought us to his room and not mine.
With Vince’s nod of consent fresh in my memory, I crawled around Jacob and pulled his little black toy bag out from beneath his bed, and catching his angry stare, I unzipped it.