CHAPTER TEN
KEY
Helia agreed to a frat party on a leash.
She’s the single prettiest, most addictive sight I’ve ever seen, and she's attached to my wrist as I tow her along behind me. Kash, of course, brings up the rear—no one is allowed to touch her but us. He talks to her softly, his voice too low for me to hear. I’m not sure if he’s whispering secrets to her that leave her dripping or praising her for being so good for us.
Either way I’m on edge from the way she behaves for us. Too good. Too perfect. Like this is how she’s meant to be by design, and not ours.
I tug on the leash a little harder. She stumbles forward to the music of Kash’s laughter, and some of the boys drinking around us. Naturally, in her stockings and mini dress—black, of course to our pale suits and white shirts, she draws a crowd. Or perhaps, we do.
Spinning on my heel, I stalk back toward her, meeting her halfway as she stumbles into me.
Our mouths clash together in a collision of teeth and lips and tongue.
Helia softens in my arms until I let her go, throwing her backward.
Kash catches her easily., but the hurt in her eyes is unmistakable.
She doesn't know what she’s done wrong, and I can’t explain that it’s my fault.
I shouldn’t have put her on display, and now that we’re out, I can’t drag her back to our room and fuck her without completing the night first.
And so she’ll have to wear my ire until we’re done.
I thought that by claiming her like my twin suggested, my obsession would plateau. Instead, it's grown to something monstrous and out of my control. I gripped her leash shorter, pulling her close to my side.
“Don’t look at anyone. For fuck’s sake don’t talk to anyone. Only do what we tell you.” What I tell you.. But I couldn't ask her that with Kash present, and so I didn't.
“What you say,” she repeated softly.
“Perfect,” I grated out as we reached the Kingman frat house at one end of campus.
I didn’t bother with the front door where everyone congregated, catching friends and enemies alike.
Tonight I used the backdoor, sliding in behind the garden.
Kash locked up behind us, pocketing the spare key so no one could follow our path.
“Good girl,” he praised Helia as she slipped between dancers without touching anyone, his voice just loud enough to reach me. “Now follow Key, and when he reaches beau, you do exactly what he says. Do you understand?"
She didn’t answer. I twisted back and found her pressed to him, their mouths moving slow and sensuously together.
But that wasn't on the cards for tonight. I tugged her leash sharply. She disengaged from my twin with a gasp, trotting to me, her hands pressed to her sides. An apology flared in her eyes, but she didn’t mouth it.
Good, because I probably would have spat between those pretty lips before I made her swallow it right here.
The urge to shove her to use knees and used her in someone else’s house is strong, but not as strong as the need to go home and take my desire out on her until she screamed into my hand for me.
Hell, I would have loved to muffle her prettiest sounds with my fingers crammed into her mouth.
We made it to the living areas where the dancers thinned out.
I searched for Bennet, but the head frat boy was conspicuous in his absence.
Usually he floated about his own parties, but apparently he was off doing other things tonight.
His girlfriend, Silvie, was also not in attendance, and I didn’t have to stretch my imagination too far to work out what they were doing for the evening together.
Beau Bennett had plenty of kinks to choose from. In his local community his girlfriend was known by that three letter word that wasn’t an acronym, for anything: Toy.
“He’s not home.” Crush, the captain of the Rippton Allstars ice hockey team, rose from one of the chairs. His girlfriend, Waverly, slid into the space and tugged a pillow in front of her like it might save her from us.
“Do you need help?” She mouthed to Helia.
Cute. I smirked and turned my attention back to Crush. “That’s great. Tell him to call me when he’s back.”
“I’m not his fucking PA. You can run your own comms.”
I let him take one step away. “You still owe me a deal, Napolean.” The extra sports names shit me. They always had.
Crush rolled his shoulders, his shirt stretching hard across the muscle layered beneath. “I remember that scorecard being even. But if you recall otherwise then I’ll pay up,” he replied evenly, holding my gaze.
Damn, the kid had balls. No wonder he made captain early. It’d be a sorry sight to see him go at the end of the year. As much as I disliked the Kingman frat house in general, we’d lose a solid run of boys at the end of this year.
“I’ll see what I can come up with.” I wouldn’t call him out on it unless I needed him. But it was fun to see him squirm. I did have my asshole factor on tonight, more than usual. I tugged on Helia’s collar with her leash. “Time to go.”
“We just got here.” Surprise blew her eyes wide, though Kash looked as ready to leave as I did.
I wound her in, heedless of our audience until she stood within an inch of me, and leaned down. “We’re leaving, wraith. Tonight is done. Is that understood?"
Dark eyes blazed at me, and for the first time, I knew I had a fight on my hands but fuck it, that could wait until we were back at our place, or hers, and then we could deal that shit out in bed together.
“Let us take you home, Little Alice,” Kash came in with a different approach. She softened, though her gaze still fixed in mine, blazing and hard. “Let us lead you home and strip you down. Fight us in bed. Fight us when we fuck you., Maybe we could let you run and we could chase you?”
Her lips parted on a soft breath and my blood surged. Fuck, yes I wanted to hunt her down. Let her run and hide in the woods behind the clocktower and find her in the dark.
I nodded. “Helia?”
“Alright,” she whispered, as though the entire room wasn't hanging on her reply, as well as we were. “I’ll come with you.”
I nodded curtly, unable to do much more, and strode out the front of the Kingman house less than five minutes after we walked in the back door of the ostentatious building.
Kash walked beside me, Helia trotting to catch up.
More than once her breath hitched, and I knew that the heels she wore offered torture more than help.
Finally, I paused once we were well away from the frat house, but a fair distance from most other places, including the clock tower or the exit to campus that led to the street.
Then I turned on her. “Take the shoes off.” I held out my hand for her small bag that I’d let her have for the evening.
Helia paused then tentatively handed it over knowing, I suspected, that she wouldn't get out of this without a fight that she no longer seemed to want.
But I did.
Beside me, Kash shifted on his feet, a sure sign that he’d join me in a moment. “Dress,” he murmured.
“What?” Helia backed up a step, forgetting I held her leash. “No. No.”
I snapped the leash, pulling her into me. “Dress, Helia. Why don’t you fight us more?”
She stared up at me, frowning. “Is that what you want? A girl who runs and screams?”
I stared down at her. “Better than a girl who agrees with everything that I say because someone told you to do it.” I wasn’t sure until a second before but now I am.
Damnit, she was so perfect. So motherfucking perfect.
I was sure we found her on our own. Right up until a moment ago, I was sure of it. And now…”
“What?” Helia backed off a step, shaking her head as she glanced between Kash and me. “No. No, I’m here because–” Confusion brushed across her face. It was almost comical to watch as she came to the same conclusion as I had.
“I think someone swindled us both, Helia. Come on. It’s time for some punishment,” I said kindly, holding out my hand.
She placed her hand in mine, and my cold fingers folded over her warm ones. Her skin was soft in my grip as she registered my words, and then she pulled back. But it was too late.
“What? Hell, no,” she shrieked. “You fucker—”
I unclipped the leather leash and handed it off to Kash. He doubled it over, and slipped it between her lips, effectively silencing her as he stood behind her.
I smiled down at her as she cried and shook for me.
And it was the prettiest sight. A sigh left me.
“You see, Little Lost Alice, my obsession isn’t done yet.
I think it’s just getting started. So while I know this isn’t good for either of us, I can’t let you go.
But I can make it so you want to run and run and run…
. even when you can’t.” I paused as Kash cut her dress off her with one hand.
“Did you tell that girl in the frat house that you were safe? Waverly, was it?”
“Wheeeeee.” Her muffled protest were the cutest sound I’d ever heard.
“Wrenlee,” Kash interpreted for me.
“Ah, I got it wrong before. Thank you for correcting me.” I leaned in and licked her lips around the leather as she began to cry then slid my hand between her legs.
She was fucking soaked. I fingered her lightly as she writhed for me.
Kash laughed licking and sucking at her shoulders as he ground into her from behind.
“We both want you so bad, Helia,” he murmured. “If you survive tonight, maybe we’ll take you home and fill all your holes, then leave you out for the drink frat boy to play with.”
She shook her head, wild eyes meeting mine laced with fear.
I stroked her face. “I don’t know how to forgive, Helia. And I don't know why you’ve been set in our path. But tonight I'll find out.” I kissed her again, mouthing her lips and the leather. “I promise.”
“Maaadddyyy.”
Kash looked at me over her shoulder and shrugged. “Who fucking knows.”
“Did you print lipstick, Alice?” I pawed through her bag and tossed the contents on the grass.
Helia sobbed softly. I found a red tube and wrote across her belly as Kash used her collar to wrap her wrists together.
I had a spare and backed her up toward a light post. A moment's work and it was done.
“Last touch.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead and cut a strip of lace from her dress with my blade. That was tied around her neck as a makeshift collar, the blade dangling low at her belly. “Now, if you don’t move, then you don’t get cut. If no one touches you,...”
I laughed softly.
“Good night, Helia.”