Chapter 20 #2
“I got you some, guessing that you wouldn’t have ordered any. We need you to be fit and start some self-defence training. You need to be able to protect yourself, Peaches,” he says, all traces of naughtiness gone, replaced by a serious expression. “Just in case.”
A shiver falls over me, like someone just passed over my gravestone as one of the girls at school used to claim.
“It’s just a precaution, we will always be there to keep you safe, Princess,” Roman tells me, coming up and taking my cold face in his. “We made a promise not to let you out of our sight, but sometimes we have to deal with shit, and I for one would feel better knowing that you were taken care of.”
“O–okay,” I agree, trying to draw the warmth from his palms into my soul.
I’ve never been in danger before, never had to fear for my life.
I’ve also never had to worry about more than what I might like to wear to this party or what I wanted to do after finishing school, but now I’m in this dark world where people buy others for god knows what, and I may have to fight them off.
Pulling my big girl panties up, I decide, fuck it.
If this is my life now, I’m going to make the best of it.
I don’t want to be the weak link that the guys always have to worry about, and it would be nice to know that I can hold my own if it comes down to it.
Plus, it will definitely be fun to get all down and dirty with each of them.
He dips down and presses a sweet kiss to my lips, catcalls and whistles causing me to blush, the heat from my reaction dispelling the coldness of moments before.
“Go get that fine arse in some tight gear, we’ll be waiting,” Roman orders, and I yelp as he slaps my arse when I turn to do his bidding. Wanker.
The changing rooms are nice with lockers and showers, and there are a couple of women getting changed.
I give them a small smile, then head to one of the benches before placing the bag on it.
Inside is a riot of colours, and I smile when I pull out some super colourful patterned leggings, a matching sports bra, and a hot pink vest with large armholes.
There is also a pair of coral pink trainers, and I quickly change out of my boho-style dress and boots, placing them in a locker with the bag and getting into the fitness gear.
There was also a padlock with the bag and a note telling me the combination—the date and month of my birthday, which is kind of cute in a stalkery way, right?—so I lock it all up, and taking a deep inhale, head back out into the gym.
I spot the guys instantly, my mouth going dry when I see they’ve stripped down to shorts and vests, their muscular, inked-up arms and legs on full display.
Damn, those boys are fucking pretty. They’re talking to a couple of guys by some machines, and Rowan’s head snaps up the moment I start walking towards them, his eyes burning a path across my body, leaving me feeling naked.
The others soon spot me too, the guys they were talking to, looking over their shoulders, eyes appraising before Hunter growls something and they scurry off, giving me nods but not looking at me again.
“Hunt, you’re trying to fucking kill us, I swear,” Roman groans, his gaze roaming up and down my body, much the way his brother’s did.
“I severely underestimated how fucking hot she’d look,” Hunter replies, his own green eyes heated, and Jesus, how can a look leave me trembling?
“I’m standing right here, you know,” I chide, trying to shake the lustful thoughts from my brain. As much as it pisses Evangeline off, I can’t spend all day, every day fucking them. They’re right, I need to train if I’m going to survive.
“Oh, we know, Little Lamb,” Rowan states, his voice low as he stalks towards me. “And thanks to Hunt, so does every fucker in here. I should have brought more knives.”
“More knives? How many do you have on you?” I ask, looking over his gym clothes.
“Three,” he answers, as if firstly, that’s normal, and secondly, there is a way to hide three knives while wearing shorts and a vest.
“Three? Where?” My eyes trace over his body again, pausing at his dick, the outline of which isn’t exactly hidden.
“That’s for me to know and you to only find out when you’re tied and at my mercy, Lamb,” he casually says, and I almost choke on my own saliva. Jesus fucking Christ.
“Time to warm up, Peaches,” Hunter declares, and I swear my brain spins with how quickly I need to adjust from sex fantasies to a workout. “Have you done any kind of exercise before?”
“Yoga,” I answer, excitement filling me at the idea of getting in some stretching and losing myself to just breathing.
“Show me,” he orders, and I can’t help the eye roll at how bloody bossy this man is sometimes. I should have known though, because Willow moaned about it all the time when we spoke. I really must, at the least, text her soon.
I look around and spot some mats in the corner, so making my way over to them, I sink down into a cross-legged pose and close my eyes.
It takes a couple of minutes, but with some focused breaths, I’m soon able to tune all the noise from around me out, and I start to move through some stretches, my muscles loosening the more I do.
“Fuck,” Roman’s hissed curse breaks my trance as I’m on my back, pulling my leg closer to me.
“Help me get deeper, Ro?” I ask, my lips twitching with how fast he rushes to me, kneeling down between my legs and placing his large palms on my calf. “Push when I breathe out, okay?”
“Sure thing, beautiful,” he replies, and when I give him a nod, he pushes, my muscles burning as my knee almost touches my chest, my ankle resting on his shoulder. “Shit, Princess. I didn’t know you were so damn flexible.”
I give a shocked giggle when his hardness pokes into my core, but ignoring it, I breathe through the stretch. Then commanding him to let go, I switch sides.
“So, what do the Shadows do? I mean, aside from running the estate and building community centres?” I ask, looking at Hunter as Ro helps me get deeper on this side.
He sighs, rubbing the back of his neck before doing some stretches of his own, Rowan having moved to one of the rowing machines next to us. “I suppose you’ll find out sooner or later,” Hunt muses, his green eyes tired all of sudden, his forehead pinched.
“I won’t think less of you, Hunt. I know that you’re not lily-white, but you’re not the bad guys either.
You’re good men,” I tell him, tapping Roman on the arm so he eases off my leg.
Sitting up, Roman still between my thighs with a very distracting outline of his cock against his shorts, I straighten my legs and stretch down one side, my face level with his crotch.
I smile when he groans, but he doesn’t move.
“Our crew runs drugs around the West End, not the hard shit, but coke, weed, pills, that kind of shit. And we never sell to kids,” Hunt tells me, and I lift up to stretch the other side.
“But our main gig is stealing high-end cars from the pricks around here and then selling them on the black market.”
My brows raise, my eyes widening when I recall the incident a couple of years ago when someone stole our Rolls. Straightening up, I look at Hunt, who’s stopped his stretches and there’s a flush on his cheeks that I’m damn sure isn’t due to the light exercise we’ve been doing.
“Did you have anything to do with my dad’s Rolls going missing a couple of years back?” I ask, watching as the blush deepens and he rubs the back of his neck.
“Shit! I’d forgotten about that,” Roman exclaims from in front of me, and I whip to face him, my eyes narrowed. “Made a pretty penny from that one too.”
“Bastard!” I hiss, whacking him on his rock-solid pec, pain shooting up my hand. Fucking double bastard with his stupid muscles.
“Awww, don’t be salty, Princess. You got a new one the next day,” Roman teases, and I huff, though he’s standing up and pulling me to my feet in the next moment. “Time to train.”
I pointedly look down at the massive boner he’s not even trying to hide, then back up at his face.
“Seems like you’ve got an issue, Ro. Shame that you’ll only have your right hand to sort it out,” I tell him, deciding that leaving them with blue balls for a bit is a fitting punishment for stealing my dad’s car.
He gives me what can only be described as a devil’s smirk, using his grip on my hands to pull me flush with his body.
“You forget that I don’t need your permission or consent, Princess.
I could fuck you right here, in the middle of the gym, and there would be nothing you could do to stop me,” he whispers in a low purr that does terrible things to Evangeline.
The threats really shouldn’t be hot, there are so many red flags with what he just said I should be running a mile away.
Instead, I practically melt into him, my lips parting as heat fills me up from my toes to the top of my head. His gaze darts down to my hardened nipples, and his smirk widens before he releases me and saunters off, erection bobbing for the whole world to see.
I stare after him, shivering when a hot body presses against my back.
“He’s right, Peaches. You gave us permission to use you whenever and however we like, so your threats are empty,” Hunter murmurs, his large hand landing on my waist and squeezing.
“I–I have a lock on my door,” I stutter out, licking my lips as I try to reclaim some sort of upper hand. He huffs a laugh, his warm breath fanning across my skin and making my core tighten.
“If we can steal a high-end Rolls Royce from your driveway, do you really think a lock will stop us?” Pressing a kiss to my temple, he lets go of my waist, taking my hand and pulling me in the direction that Roman went, the sound of Rowan’s footsteps following behind us.
I am so fucked with these men, and I really don’t give a shit.