Nova
Rane pushes his chair back.
That’s all.
And my face goes hot.
I’m suddenly aware of everything. Them. How close they all are. Locke’s hand still around my wrist.
All of them in this small room at this small table and suddenly it’s very, very warm and I—
Rane stands. Smirks.
Locke leans down as Rane makes his way over.
His mouth is at my ear and his hands tighten on my wrist, not hard, just — holding me there, keeping me from doing anything stupid like standing up or running.
“Shh,” He says, low. “Be a good girl for Rane.”
Oh no.
Good girl.
I know instantly. The shower. Me… Rane… The things I said, the things Rane said, the sounds I made that I thought — It all comes flooding back and heat pools low.
I glance at Kyron. He looks like he wants to devour me.
I take a breath, but it doesn’t help.
My face is on fire. My whole body is on fire. I can’t look at any of them. I’m staring at the table and my ears are ringing and Rane is next to me now, crouching to my eye level with that smile. The one that means he’s going to make this so much worse and enjoy every second of it.
“Don’t worry, beautiful.” His voice drops. “I’ll be gentle.”
I open my mouth to say what, I don’t know. But he doesn’t hesitate, he leans in.
His mouth finds the side of my neck, warm and slow, and my eyes close before I decide to close them. His hand comes up to the other side, holding me there, and he keeps going — unhurried, deliberate — and somewhere at the table someone says fuck under their breath and I feel it more than I hear it.
A hand lands on my thigh under the table.
I don’t know who’s.
My breathing is doing something I can’t control. My fingers curl around the edge of my chair. Rane’s mouth is still at my neck and Locke is still at my ear and there are six of them and I am aware of every single one.
“Guys.”
Rane hums against my skin.
“You can’t — we can’t—”
“Why the hell not?” Kyron says like he’s offended.
I open my mouth.
Rane beats me to it.
“Because then she’d have to admit it,” He says slowly. Pulling back to look at me. “That she wants it.” He looks down at my lips, then back up. “Wants us.” He breathes. “All of us.”
The room doesn’t move.
My face is on fire. “That’s not — that’s not what this is—”
“Isn’t it?” Rane tilts his head. Kisses my neck again. Slow. Like he’s got all the time in the world.
“I just—” My thoughts scatter. “It’s not that simple—”
“It’s okay to admit it, Nova.” Trey. Quiet. Not pushing. Just steady, the way he always is. “We already know.”
A moan slips out before I can stop it as Rane does something with his tongue.
“I think she just did,” Vaelor says.
“Vaelor.” My voice comes out embarrassingly unsteady.
“Mm.”
Rane pulls back again. I drag in a breath. Two.
“You make it really hard to think when you do that.”
“That’s kinda the point.” His eyes find mine. Soft under the smirk. “Isn’t it, Nova.”
Not a question.
I look around the table.
All of them looking back at me.
Waiting for me to catch up to something they’ve all known for a long time.
My throat tightens.
“Yeah,” I say. “I do.”
I look at my hands.
“All of you.”
I breathe.
“More than anything.”
The room goes quiet.
I stare at my hands. My face is still hot. My heart is going too fast.
I look up.
Kyron’s jaw is tight and his eyes are dark and he’s not even pretending anymore. Vaelor’s mouth has curved into something soft.
I turn my head, look at Rane.
He’s grinning like he won something, which he did, which I hate.
Beckett’s just quiet. I can’t read the look on his face.
He’s been still this whole time. Watching.
Then he moves. Shoves Rane out of the way.
“Hey—” Rane starts.
But Beckett doesn’t pause, doesn’t answer. He gets one hand under my knees and one at my back and then I’m up, over his shoulder, the chair scraping back behind me, and I shriek because I wasn’t ready, nobody warned me, this is not—
“Beckett!”
He’s already walking toward the stairs.
“You better hurry up,” he calls back over his shoulder. To all of them. Like it’s obvious. Like this was always where the night was going.
It was always where the night was going.
Behind me I hear a chair scrape. Then another. Then what sounds like Rane and Trey hitting the doorway at the same time and someone swearing.
Kyron yelling at them like they’re idiots.
Vaelor telling everyone to calm down.
He’s not calm.
“Beckett.” I’m laughing. I can’t help it. “Put me down.”
“No.”
“I’m serious—”
“I know.”
He starts up the stairs.
We make it to the bedroom and he throws me on the bed.
I bounce and giggle and my brain is everywhere at once — Rane’s mouth, Locke’s hand on my wrist, more than anything still ringing in my ears — and I don’t even register my shoulder until it’s already done.
Locke walks in.
With purpose. Like he already knows exactly how this is going to go.
He looks at me on the bed and smirks.
The others come in behind him. All of them. The room gets very full very fast.
“Get her clothes off.” Locke’s voice. Easy. Certain. “Now.”
Beckett moves.
Locke holds up a hand.
“Except for the panties.” His eyes make their way down my body. “White ones today, right?” He tilts his head. “I like those.”
I stare at him.
“Bet you do,” Trey says from somewhere behind him.
“They’re your favorites too, Trey.”
“They are.” Zero shame.
I look between them. “Since when do you guys pay that much attention to my underwear?”
Beckett stops.
Looks at me.
“Since always,” he says. Completely serious.
Oh.
Oh.
I open my mouth. Close it.
They’re all watching me figure it out and nobody is helping and I think my face might actually be on fire.
“Oh,” I say out loud.
“Yeah,” Rane says. Grinning. “Oh.”
Suddenly, there are hands everywhere.
Someone finds the hem of my shirt. Someone else gets my jeans. I lift my arms without being asked. The shirt moves over my head and before I know it I’m lying there in just the white cotton while five men look at me like I’m the only thing in the room.
I wait for the feeling.
The one where it’s too much. Too exposed. Too seen.
It doesn’t come.
“Huh,” I say out loud.
“Huh?” Rane raises an eyebrow.
“Nothing. I just—” I look down at myself. Look back up at all of them. “I thought this was going to feel weird.”
“Does it?”
“No.” I blink. “That’s the weird part.”
Trey laughs. Short, surprised.
Vaelor’s hand finds my jaw. Tips it up. He looks at me for a second like he’s looking for something. He must find it because his face relaxes and his thumb brushes my cheek before he pulls back.
“Good,” he says. Simply. Like that’s all that needed to be said.
Rane opens his mouth.
Locke walks back in.
Everyone stops.
He’s in the doorway. We all notice what he’s holding at the same time I do.
I see Kyron’s smirk.
Dammit.
Locke’s eyes find mine across the room.
“I want—” He stops. Rubs the back of his neck like he’s nervous. He tries again. “I know we don’t know what happened in there, not really.” Still just looking at me. “But if this is okay—”
I look at the rope.
Look at him.
He’s standing in the doorway looking like that, and I don’t know how I can deny him.
“Yeah,” I say. “It’s okay.”
He nods.
“Tell me if it’s too much and they’re gone. Okay?”
“Okay.”
Oh no…
I see it — the moment the switch flips in Locke. Something in his face goes from asking to certain and he crosses to the bed and the room reorganizes around him without a word.
“Hands up,” he says. To me, not them.
I put my hands up.
Beckett takes my wrists. Gentle. Positions them above my head against the headboard and holds them there while Locke works the rope.
It’s soft. I don’t know what I expected but not this — not soft, not slow, not the way Locke’s hands move like he’s thought about exactly how this goes and he’s in no hurry at all.
I test it once when he’s done. Just to feel it.
He watches me do it. Watches as my wrists catch.
He smirks.
He likes this. He likes this way more than I understood.
My thighs clench at the thought.
Trey shifts position beside me and pulls his shirt over his head and I don’t know what thinking is anymore.
It doesn’t matter how many times… Because right now with my wrists tied and my body on fire, I just — stop. On his stomach. The definition there. The way it moves when he breathes.
“Nova.”
“Mm?”
“You’re staring.”
“I’m aware.”
Locke’s hand finds my jaw.
Turns my face back toward him.
“Eyes here,” he says. Calm. Like redirecting my attention is as natural as breathing.
I look at Locke.
He nods. Satisfied.
Rane’s mouth finds my collarbone, working his way up my neck.
I tilt, giving him access and the sound he makes shoots right through me.
“That’s it, Beautiful,” He whispers in my ear.
Vaelor’s hand moves along my side, slow, like he’s been waiting to learn exactly this and now that he can he’s not going to rush it. His thumb brushes the bottom of my breast and my back arches.
Trey’s mouth finds mine and I make a sound against his lips that I feel everywhere. Because Beckett is low on my stomach, kissing his way down.
My body feels on fire. I stop trying to track anything.
Just feel it.
Just like I know someone isn’t here.
“Where’s—”
Locke’s hand stills. Someone shifts.
I lift my head and—
Oh.
Kyron pulled a chair into the corner of the room.
He’s sitting in it. Fully naked and completely relaxed. One arm draped over the back, the other stroking himself, slow and deliberate.
He’s not even slightly embarrassed about any of it.
His eyes never leave mine.
“Damn,” Rane says.
Kyron raises an eyebrow. Daring someone to say something.
Nobody does.
“Carry on,” he says.
Vaelor turns back to me. His mouth finds my shoulder. His hand moves and I stop thinking about Kyron for approximately four seconds before I look back over because I can feel his eyes and knowing he’s watching from that chair is doing something I didn’t expect it to do to me.
He notices me looking.
His mouth curves. Slow.
Locke’s hand finds my jaw.
Turns my face back.
“Eyes,” he says.
I look at him as he kneels between my legs.
Locke moves closer.
Beckett pulls back. Murmurs something low.