22. Haven #2
“I could take you right now.” His free hand cups my jaw, forcing me to look at him. Blood drips from his nose onto my chest. “Right here, on this floor. And you’d let me.”
“I’d crush your fucking cock with my pussy if you try.”
He laughs. Fucking laughs. “Promise?”
I hate him.
I hate him so much I’d kill him right now if I could.
But when he kisses me, I kiss him back.
It’s not a surrender. It’s war. Our teeth clash, our tongues wrestle, and I taste copper from his split lip or my bitten tongue—I can’t tell which. He releases my wrists to tear at my bra, and instead of pushing him away, I’m yanking at his shirt, desperate to feel skin against skin.
“Say you’re mine,” he growls against my mouth.
“No.”
He bites my lip, hard enough to draw blood. “Say it!”
“I’m not—“
His fingers plunge inside me, and the denial dies in my throat, replaced by a moan I couldn’t suppress if my life depended on it.
“That’s what I thought. Now say it, Haven.”
“Fuck you,” I grit out.
He curls his fingers, hitting that spot that makes my vision white out, and I’m coming before I can stop it—clenching around him, screaming into his mouth, my whole body shaking apart.
“There’s my good girl.”
He’s fumbling with his pants, and I should stop him, should fight, should kick and claw and scream…but I want him inside me more than I want air.
A roar splits the air.
Kai crashes into Bastian like a linebacker, sending them both tumbling off me and across the floor. They hit the sarcophagus with a thud that echoes through the crypt.
I scramble backward, pressing myself against the wall, trying to make sense of the chaos.
Kai’s on top, his fist connecting with Bastian’s jaw once, twice. But Bastian’s fighting back—he bucks his hips, reversing their positions with brutal efficiency.
“Miss me, boy?” Bastian rasps, his hand closing around Kai’s throat.
“Get—the fuck—off me—” Kai’s struggling, but his movements are sluggish, uncoordinated, as if the blow to his head took more out of him than he’s willing to admit.
Bastian flips him onto his stomach, wrenching Kai’s arm behind his back. His other hand tears at the waistband of Kai’s jeans.
“I showed you mercy on Friday night,” he hisses into Kai’s ear. “You were so drunk, I could have fucked you if I wanted.”
Kai’s fighting, but it’s useless. Bastian’s got him pinned, one hand working his own cock free while the other keeps Kai immobilized. And I’m just lying there, watching, because wandering into their orbit feels like a sure way to die right now.
“Looks like you’re losing your virginity tonight, boy.” Bastian’s voice has gone deep, dangerous. “And you have that piece of trailer park trash over there to thank.”
He ducks low to whisper in Kai’s ear, but the words carry as clearly to me as a shout.
“She said you’re ours.”
He spits into his palm, chuckling as his hand slides between Kai’s ass cheeks.
Kai lets out a single, strangled sob and goes limp under him.
Something snaps inside me.
“Stop!” My scream echoes off the granite walls, loud enough to make both of them freeze.
I’m on my feet, shaking so hard my teeth are chattering. I have no weapon, and not even half the strength I need to fight Bastian off—just two shivering fists and the most malevolent glare I can manage.
“Get. Off. Him,” I growl. “Now.”
Bastian looks up at me, blatantly weighing his options.
“I said now!”
I don’t know what convinces him, but he releases Kai with a disgusted sound, shoving himself to his feet. Kai rolls onto his side, gasping, one hand going to his throat, the other tugging his pants back up.
God, we look like the last three survivors in a horror movie.
Bastian’s panting, blood still dripping from his nose. Kai is on the ground, dazed and furious. Me in the middle, naked except for my torn stockings, covered in all kinds of bodily fluids.
“This stops.” My voice is as angry and unsteady as I am. “Right fucking now.”
“Listen, girl—” Bastian starts.
“No.” I round on him. “Shut up. Both of you, just—shut the fuck up and listen.”
I inhale a shaky breath.
“I’m so fucking tired of being fought over like a piece of meat.” My voice cracks, but I push through. “Like I’m some—some trophy for whoever’s cock is bigger. And I’m sick of you fighting like dogs.”
Bastian opens his mouth again.
“I said shut up!”
He closes it.
“Here’s what’s going to happen.” I look between them, these two damaged, gorgeous, fucked-up men who became the center of my entire goddamn universe. “We’re going to stop pretending. Stop lying. Stop playing these fucking games. All this bullshit is stopping tonight.”
“Pretending?” Kai repeats carefully. I’m guessing he’s trying to sound composed, but there’s tension crowding his shoulders, and his hands are shaking at his sides.
“Yes. Pretending.” I take another breath, this one much steadier than the last. “Pretending that we don’t all want each other.” The words feel like ripping off a bandage, and from the way Kai flinches, he feels it too.
“That this—” I gesture between the three of us “—isn’t exactly what we’ve all been too chickenshit to admit we want.”
Kai laughs bitterly. “You’re out of your fucking mind. I don’t want this. I want you.”
“Seriously?” I turn on him. “You just had his cock in your mouth, Kai. You were hard the entire time. And when he was about to—” I wave at Bastian, at the floor, at Kai’s crotch “—you know…” I flick my hair over my shoulder, staring him down. “Tell me you weren’t getting hard again.”
His face flushes, and his jaw clenches, but he doesn’t deny it.
“And you.” I spin to face Bastian. “You’ve been manipulating us this entire time. Playing us against each other because it’s easier than admitting you actually feel something.”
Bastian shakes his head, his mouth forming a hard line. “Careful, sweet girl.”
“No.” I step closer to him without a thought for how easily he could choke me out or bash my head in.
Where the hell this courage is coming from, I don’t know—and I don’t dare question it. What’s important is that, for once, they’re listening and not fighting.