Chapter Fifteen
Victoria
Rich was breathing heavily and leaning on his cane when we made it back to the cabin's front door. Our walk had only been about a quarter mile, there and back, by my estimate, but it had done a number on him. It was almost alarming to see him look so weak, even knowing what he'd survived between the manor and the impromptu surgery in the cabin kitchen to save his life.
"Do you…"
"I'm fine." He barked. "I can manage getting myself inside, Princess. I'm not an invalid." If looks could kill, the glare he shot me would have dropped me on the spot.
I worried my bottom lip between my teeth as I watched his cane wobble under his weight as he used his free hand to open the door. The stubborn asshole was going to end up face-planting the floor if he wasn't careful.
"See," he huffed as the door swung open. "Just… fine…"
"Whatever you say," I replied, rolling my eyes and waiting for him to move inside before I followed. If I mentioned how winded just opening the door had left him, he'd probably deny it anyway.
Craig was already ushering Rich toward his nook when I stepped inside. The other three were standing in a semi-circle facing the door. Their faces were painted with varying shades of rage, and Az looked like he was on the verge of having a stroke. I'd never seen his face so red, and there was a vein pulsing near his temple.
"Uh… You guys alright?" I asked cautiously.
"I thought you said shit with that bastard ended amicably?" Az snarled. "Do we need to give you a rundown of what amicable means, Princess?"
My brows shot up to my hairline. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
"Benson." Leighton snapped. "The son of a bitch that put you in the fucking hospital."
"Wha– how do you know that?" My voice was nearly breathless from the shock.
"Did you think Craig wouldn't find that when he went digging into the bastard's voicemail?" Leighton asked, cocking his head to the side as he glared at me. "He doesn't half ass his work, Victoria. When he digs, he digs. "
"What happened between me, and Benson is not any of y'alls business." I forced my voice to remain steady. "It's not open for discussion."
Az stalked toward me, anger rolling off him in waves. "It is our business, Princess. The sooner you learn that, the better off you'll be."
"Fuck you, Az-hole . It's not like any of you are lining up to tell me about your exes." I hissed.
"I did though," Leighton spoke so softly I barely heard him from where he stood as I glared at Az.
"Hey! Az, you need to put that shit on ice. We already talked about it." Joey snapped, stepping between me and Az.
"She needs to–" Az started, but Joey stepped forward and shoved him in the chest, causing him to stumble back a few steps.
"She needs to get some air while you take a fucking chill pill and remember what we agreed on. You're absolutely right," Joey growled out before turning on his heel, grabbing me by my arm, and pulling me toward the door.
I nearly stumbled keeping up with him, and he didn't slow down until the door slammed behind us, and we were off the porch. When there was a bit of distance between us and the house, he stopped abruptly, turned, and hugged me tightly.
"Thanks for that." I murmured, wrapping my arms around his waist and burying my face in his chest.
"I know, Sweetheart." he said softly, kissing the top of my head.
We stood there until it became apparent that Joey wouldn't let me go until I pulled away. His body molded to mine like a comforting shield. Heaving a sigh, I broke his hold and stepped back.
"I appreciate you not letting Az and Leighton push about this." I spoke.
His brows knit together slightly as he rubbed my arms. "They… were harsh about it, but Sweetheart, they're angry for you, not at you. That's the first thing I need you to understand."
"It's ancient history though. What happened doesn't matter now." I shrugged. "It was only the one time, and I left not long after. Benson didn't put up a fight when I did either. My history with him just isn't relevant to what's going on now."
He listened to my explanation patiently, but I could see the warring emotions on his face. I'm not sure how he was so much more emotionally intelligent than the rest of the guys, but I was glad for it. He shook his head as I finished.
"Once is once too many, Sweetheart. There is absolutely nothing you could have done that would warrant having that kind of response."
"Well, I mean… Az was pretty dead set on murdering me at one point, so…."
"Two pretty stark differences in those situations. Firstly, Az wouldn't have brutalized you. Even when he wanted to kill you, he never put his hands on you like that. And secondly, Shit-stain was your boyfriend when he hurt you. Az was a stranger who thought you were a rival mobster."
"Total mobster material right here." I snorted, pointing both thumbs at myself before putting on my best scowl.
Joey stared at me with a deadpan poker face for a minute until I got anxious about my little joke before his lips started twitching, and he burst out laughing.
"You're too cute." He said as he got air between laughs. Once he'd composed himself, he booped me on the nose. "Though, you show some promise after how you handled Lacey. Might have to start calling you Bruiser instead of Princess."
"You better not go back to calling me Princess." I gasped in mock offense and slapped his chest. "Do that and I'll show you ‘Bruiser'."
A low growl sounded from his chest, and he raised a brow. The step he took toward me had an entirely different air, and I felt my pulse quicken.
"Is that right?" he asked, almost menacingly.
A flush bloomed across my entire body, and I took a step back from him and placed a hand on his chest.
"I… Uhm… Well…" I tried to find words to backtrack, and my brain returned nothing.
Joey grinned savagely before leaning in and kissing me on the cheek. As fast as his mood had shifted, he was himself again.
"Sweetheart, you're not scaring anyone. Your adorable little threats are just an invitation I'm not sure you're ready for right now, Pet. And don't forget, you owe me."
I took several deep breaths to steady myself, my mind playing images of how he'd hunted me in the woods of the manor. I needed to pull myself together before I rose to the unspoken challenge in his words. He was right that now really wasn't the time, but that didn't stop me from needing to change my panties when I got back into the cabin.
"Now, let's work on making your threats carry more weight. You handled yourself as well as anyone could have asked during the assault. Actually, given the situation and your lack of training, you did really well keeping yourself and Az alive; most people in your shoes would have froze." Joey chose his words carefully as he spoke, evident in how he watched my face to make sure he wasn't triggering me somehow. "However, the next time you have to pull a trigger to keep yourself alive, you might not be at point-blank range. It's time you learn how to use a gun properly."
"Next time?" I balked.
"We're going to do everything in our power to make sure there isn't one, Sweetheart, but after the manor. Well… We'd be foolish not to train you for a next time just in case."
"Joey… I don't know. I don't think I'm comfortable with this. I don't–"
"As much as I wish it wasn't necessary, that's not the case. We're not in a place anymore where hand-to-hand training is going to cut it." He touched my face and gently caressed my cheek with his thumb. "The most important thing is keeping you safe, and part of that is teaching you how to keep yourself safe if you need to. We'll go at it slower if needed, but we have to do this. It… It'll help all of us sleep better."
The idea of having another gun in my hand didn't sit well, and my stomach turned. The logical part of my mind knew Joey was right, but the rest of me was screaming against it. Flashes of the invasion at the manor assaulted my mind. The yelling, the gunfire, the explosion… Fuck. Whether I liked it or not, I was neck deep in a world I wasn't familiar with. I knew that if I didn't get brought up to speed, then more people would die trying to keep my inept self alive. And if I died, then all the shit we'd all been through would be for nothing.
When I finally pulled myself from my thoughts enough to notice my surroundings again, I realized Joey had led me to sit in a chair they guys had pulled from storage in the last few days. He pulled the small table and another chair they'd brought out at the same time so that they were in front of me and sat, placing his gun on the table between us.
"I'm not going to have you shooting yet. I think the best place for you to start after everything is just getting used to the gun." He spoke. "I want you to watch carefully as I take this apart and put it back together, because I'm going to have you do that when I'm done."
I nodded, my eyes falling to the weapon sitting between us.
"Guns need to be cleaned to function well. If you know how to take it apart and put it back together, cleaning it will be easy for you. I expect you to maintain your weapons better than Az does." He smirked. "Unlike that asshole, I'd be pretty upset if yours jammed or backfired on you. If I have to use yours and they jam, I'm taking it out of your ass, Sweetheart."
I snickered at the thought of Az injuring himself because of his own arrogance. "Agreed."
"Good." He smiled back. "Now watch, then repeat."
I watched closely as he took his gun apart, talking me through what he did before slowly putting it back together and handing it over to me. Joey had made it look so simple when it was anything but. It took several attempts with him offering guidance as I worked before I got the thing back together without missing the spring piece. Joey patiently told me all the names of the gun parts as I worked, but he may as well have been speaking a dead language for all they stuck.
"Sweetheart, how do you expect the thing to fire if you keep forgetting to put the firing pin and spring in?" he asked gently.
"The what? Why are there so many springs?!"
Joey released an exasperated sigh and visibly cringed as he picked up one of the pieces I'd managed to leave out in my latest attempt. "You need all of this that you've left on the table, but this one makes the gun go bang."
"Yeah, well, if I don't file a 990-T for the youth center we lose our 501C3 status." I snapped.
"What?" he asked, his face pinched in confusion.
"Exactly." I huffed, crossing my arms.
"I think that's probably enough for today." He mumbled as he made quick work of taking what I'd done apart and putting things back together correctly.
"Show off," I mumbled, rolling my eyes as I stood and moved to the cabin door. I was frustrated, and while I knew it wasn't anything Joey had done, it didn't really matter. I stomped into the house, through the den, and into the kitchen. The other guys weren't anywhere to be seen, and more's the better for it. I didn't want to deal with them or their attitudes while I was in one myself.
I got a glass of water because it was all I could think to do once I got into the kitchen. I didn't know what to do; I wanted to stomp around. I gulped down the water and set the glass down too hard. I noted the time on the stove and told myself I should probably get some food. I was probably hangry.
Opening cabinets and closing them again, I couldn't think of anything I wanted to eat. The more I looked, the more irritable I got until I was slamming cabinet doors. I slammed the last one so hard that it bounced back and narrowly avoided it colliding with my face. I whirled around when I heard an amused snort from behind me.
"Is your tantrum making you feel better, Sweetheart?" Joey asked, leaning against the kitchen wall with his arms crossed.
"No." I snapped, turning away from him.
"Awww, poor thing. Little miss brat ass in a bad mood?" I could hear the grin on his face, and it grated on my nerves.
"Fuck you." I huffed and stomped into the dining room.
I hadn't made it more than a few steps into the dining room when I felt a hand in my hair before being jerked to a stop and pulled back. My back collided with Joey's chest, and I felt his breath on my neck.
"Wanna try that again, Pet?" His voice was a low growl in my ear that sent shivers down my spine.
"Oh, did you not hear me?" I snarked, trying to jerk away from him but succeeding only in having his grip tightened in my hair. "I said, ‘fuck you' Joey."
He inhaled deeply as if taking in my scent and chuckled darkly in response. It was my only warning before I was turned sharply and pushed back against the wall, causing me to yelp in surprise. He pushed up against me and caged me in with his body, one hand still gripping my hair and forcing me to look him in the face, the other holding my hip tightly.
"That's what I was hoping you'd say." He grinned, a predatory excitement rolling off of him. "Seems my pretty pet has gotten herself in a bad mood and forgotten her manners…"
"Wait… I…" Heat bloomed through my core, and I felt the flush rushing across my skin again under the weight of his hungry gaze.
"Gonna try and walk it back now that I've called your bluff, Pet?" He tsked and smirked at me. "What happened to all your tough talk, hmm?"
I sneered at him, struggling against his hold, but my voice was dead in my throat.
"You've had a bad attitude for a while, and I think you're long overdue for an adjustment." he said, his voice dipping low as he leaned his head down to brush his lips against the corner of my mouth.
I turned my face to complete the kiss, parting my lips in an invitation that he readily accepted. I moaned into his mouth, encouraging him to deepen the kiss further. Just as I felt his grip on my hair loosen slightly, I pulled his bottom lip between mine and bit down.
He jerked back with a growl, but instead of anger on his face, it was lit up with pure excitement. He grabbed me by my throat and pushed me back into the wall, his deep brown eyes glinting a dark promise.
"Since you seem so desperate to misbehave with your pretty little mouth, I've got a much better way for you to put it to use." he said, stepping away from me and pulling back on my hair until I had no choice but to follow his lead. His other hand on my shoulder pushed me toward the floor until I was kneeling in front of him. "You're so beautiful on your knees, Pet."
Somewhere between the kitchen and now, my entire mood shifted, and I was practically salivating as he undid his belt, and I reached out to finish undoing his pants. He slapped my hands away.
"No. No touching until I tell you." Joey's voice was deep and dark and hit me straight in my core. I could feel how slick my thighs already were in anticipation. He took his time removing his belt and slowly undid the button on his pants. It was agonizing, and my hands twitched with the want to intervene.
After what felt like ages, he finally sprung free from his pants; I licked my lips and shifted. He hadn't released his grip on my hair, so I knew I wasn't moving until he did. I looked up at him and saw him just staring down at me with an amused little grin.
"If you try to bite me again, Pet, I'm going to make sure you're so sore that you won't be able to sit down for days," he said with a little raise of his eyebrow. I nodded eagerly, shifting again, wanting to be let go. "Use your words."
"Yes."
"Yes, what ?" he asked, giving me a little jerk.
"Yes… Alpha ." I said slowly, tasting the honorific on my tongue.
"Good, now open your mouth." I complied, and he released his tight hold on my hair, allowing me to move.
I licked my lips again as I grasped him and sized him up with my eyes. It had been a long time, and I hoped I could take him the way I desperately wanted to. I licked him hesitantly, running my tongue across the head and swirling it lightly. He sucked a sharp breath in and groaned. The sound emboldened me; I gently sucked his head into my mouth, working my tongue in gentle swirling motions as I took him in slowly.
"Fuuuck…" He breathed as I started bobbing on his cock, setting a slower pace to start until I found my tempo. His grip on my hair tightened again, but not so much as to restrict my movement.
I snaked my hands up his legs and dug my fingers into his thighs as I sucked him off, reveling in the sounds he made and that I was the one pulling those noises from him. Flattening my tongue against his length, I worked up to a faster rhythm until I was testing myself on how much I could take all at once. My name fell from his lips alongside a string of curses, and he pumped himself into my mouth a few times before pulling out and stepping back.
I groaned unhappily and reached for him and grasped at nothing before he pulled me back up onto my feet. He pushed me back against the wall and started ripping me out of my yoga pants and clothing. I couldn't be bothered to care when I heard seams pop as he pulled my clothes off of me.
He fell on me in a fury, his mouth exploring my body and leaving a new trail of bite marks across my torso. One hand played with my nipple roughly, and the other sought out my center. I cried out when two fingers slipped inside me without any preamble. I felt him grin against my skin.
"You're already soaking, Pet." He growled in my ear as he worked his fingers inside me, his thumb working circles around my clit. My head fell back against the wall. Desperate wasn't a strong enough word to describe my need for relief. Az's continued denial of my satisfaction had done a number on me, and it didn't take long before I was panting under Joey's ministrations and clawing at his back as he pushed me closer to my climax.
"Fuck, Alpha… Please, don't stop." I bit the words out between gasps of air, arching my back and digging my shoulders into the wall as I closed in on the edge of my orgasm, my nerve endings lighting up as my core tightened.
Not a second later, my eyes flew open as he slipped his fingers out of me and removed his hand.
"What. The. FUCK?!" I nearly screamed, digging my nails into his shoulders so hard they likely broke the skin. He groaned deeply, a little smirk playing on his lips.
"Settle down, Pet. We're not done." He led me over to the table, haphazardly kicking the chairs out of the way and pushing the few things littered about the table away. "Up."
I eyed the table, a little unsure that it would hold my weight. When I didn't move to follow his command, Joey's palm cracked harshly across my ass, making me cry out.
"I–" I didn't have a chance to say anything further when he lifted me by my hips like I weighed nothing and slammed me down on the table. I squeaked out my surprise.
"I don't generally like to repeat myself, Pet. Don't make me do it again." He snarled, pulling me to the very edge of the table. I instinctively wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his shoulders. He teased me with the head of his cock for a bit until I was all but whimpering and pleading for him to finish what we'd started.
He gripped my hips as he slammed into me to the hilt, causing both of us to groan with satisfaction. My eyes fluttered as he stretched and filled me so deliciously. When I opened them, a slight movement over Joey's shoulder caught my attention. It took a second for me to be able to focus, but when I did, my gaze fell on Leighton.
He was standing in the doorway to the dining room, leaning against the frame with his arms crossed. He didn't move or make any noise; he was just watching us. His eyes were dark and hungry, and he had his lower lip pulled between his teeth. I could see the outline of his hard cock in his pants as he took in the scene before him.
We locked eyes at the exact moment that Joey snaked his hand between us and rubbed his thumb in circles around my clit. The dual sensation caused the nerves in my body to burst like fireworks and my head to spin. Something about having Joey fuck me senseless on the dining room table while Leighton watched me lose myself to the feeling was a heady mix that made the already overwhelming sensation feel so much more intense. I wasn't breathing so much as I was just consistently moaning and begging Joey not to stop.
My orgasm hit me like a fucking train, and there was no stopping the scream that tore its way out of my throat. Leighton never broke eye contact with me. His only movement was to adjust himself as I rode the waves of my climax. Joey wasn't far behind me, digging his fingers into my hip and his pace sputtering slightly as he finished.
As Joey and I panted, coming down from our coupling, Leighton stepped back from the doorway, licking his lips. He gave me another once over, dragging his thumb across his bottom lip before he was gone just as quietly as he'd arrived. I stared at the spot for a moment longer before returning my attention to Joey.
He touched my face gently and kissed my forehead and the corners of my mouth. I trembled slightly in the after-glow.
"You okay, Sweetheart?" he asked, still panting slightly.
I huffed a weak laugh and smiled, still floating in a satisfied haze. "Better than okay. You have no idea how much I needed that."
He gave me a knowing look and chuckled. "I had an idea. And besides, you deserved it. Orgasms are for good girls."