Chapter 42 Zane
Zane
After we rode in circles for forty-five minutes, trying to lose our tails, we brought Les back to the cabin.
We had just gotten her to listen to reason after we trapped her in the car, then Dex called, and all hell broke loose.
She yelled and screamed about us leaving them, threatened to castrate Ryder if he didn’t let her go when I jumped to the front seat and told me I would never lay a finger on her again.
Since we got back to the cabin, she hasn’t said a word, which is even scarier. I would much rather her give me hell. She’s pacing from one end of the small cabin to the other.
“Il mio sole,” Ryder says, trying to talk to her again. She lifts her hand to halt whatever is going to come out of his mouth. He flops back on the couch. “Fuck, she’s pissed,” he says under his breath.
“No shit,” I snort. “Beautiful. They said they were fine and on the way. Why don’t you sit down?”
“Why don’t you kiss my whole fucking ass?” she mutters, still pacing. At least she’s talking.
“Pull your pants down, and I’ll kiss that gorgeous ass all night long,” I joke. She whirls around and narrows her eyes.
“You’ll never see my ass again.”
“We did it for your own good. The guys are fine,” Ryder says gently. “Please sit down.”
I was impressed with how he handled everything in the car when she was raving. Before that, it would have been an all-out war between them. This time, he kept his cool and tried to talk to her. I need to make sure he knows that when Les isn’t glaring daggers at us.
“The guys aren’t fine until they walk through that door!” she yells, jabbing her finger at the front door.
I watch Ryder closely. He takes a deep breath. “We didn’t want to leave them,” he says calmly. “But you are always our priority.”
“What about Holden? Did you suddenly forget that he didn’t do this shit until a day ago? Is he not a priority?” I know she’s lashing out because she’s scared. I hate it, but she’ll work it out in the end. She always does.
I open my mouth to stop the fight I see brewing when Ryder raises his hand to cut me off, looking back at Les. “Don’t do that. Don’t make me feel like shit because I left him behind,” Ryder says evenly. “Every one of them is important to me, and you know that.”
I see the moment Les realizes what she implied; she opens her mouth, and the front door bangs open. Dex, Holden, Gage, and Leo all walk in, and her eyes narrow all over again.
“Shit,” Gage mutters. “Pretty girl…” he says pleadingly, making me snort.
“Don’t pretty girl me, Gage Lawson.” She props her hands on her hips. “What the hell were you thinking running in there like that?”
“We were thinking we were going to take care of that asshole,” Dex answers, jerking his hoodie off with a fist at the back.
“We were thinking we were going to keep you safe. What were you thinking when you thought we were actually going to let you run in that goddamn place after what happened in the car?” Ryder and I exchange a look, his eyes as wide as mine.
I’ve never heard Dex say anything out of the way to Les.
“I would have been fine,” Les answers, waving that away.
“Bullshit,” Dex snarls. “That wasn’t fine.” Gage, Leo, and Holden’s eyebrows hit their hairline, all three creeping around Dex to sit in the living room.
“I can handle myself, Dex.”
“You don’t think I know that!” Dex yells.
It booms through the living room, bouncing off the walls.
“You shouldn’t have to all the time! That’s why you have us.
” He advances toward her, taking slow, measured steps.
“I thought you stopped breathing in my arms. Do you have any idea how that made me feel?”
“I…” Les starts, and Dex raises a big hand, cutting her off. This should be interesting.
“Then, just because that’s not enough, you think we’re going to let you run into a building right after that.” He’s now so close to her that she has to crane her neck to look up at him. “That shit is in the past, Baby girl. You might as well get used to it.”
She puts her hands on his chest like she’s going to shove him away.
He takes three big steps forward, making her walk backward, her back hitting the wall.
He grabs her wrists in one hand and pins them to the wall above her head.
I watch her face for any sign of fear; when I don’t see any, I decide to let this play out.
The big man has something to say; maybe he can get her to listen.
“You don’t have to be in the middle of every problem.
You don’t always have to put yourself in danger,” he says, his nose touching hers.
“Let us do what we promised to do. You have several fucking crews more than capable of doing it. Let them do it.” She tugs her arms, trying to break his hold, and he stretches them further.
Her eyes are wide, and her chest is heaving, but not from fear.
I look at the other guys to gauge their reaction, and everyone is watching this like it’s the best show ever.
“It is my job,” she says breathlessly.
“Your job,” he snarls again, “is to lead. You’re the best goddamn leader this family has ever seen.
Being a leader doesn’t mean you constantly worry the men who have vowed their lives to you, vowed to protect you, vowed to love you.
” He doesn’t want Les to stay home and hide; none of us do.
We just want her to think about herself before she runs into some shit she can’t get out of.
Or run into something where we lose her for good.
“Let me go, Dex.” She tugs again, and he doesn’t give her an inch.
I bet he’s watching her face and reading her body language as close as I am, making sure she isn’t scared.
He knows he isn’t going to get her to agree to anything right now, but he’s going to push her as far as he thinks she can take it.
Les is a lot like Ryder in that way. You have to break through that damn mental barrier that screams at them that they can’t be human.
Both of them need to find that happy medium.
I’m helping Ryder with his. Dex might be the one to help Les with hers.
“You don’t want me to let you go, and I’m not going to let go until you say yes, Dex; I understand.”
“I’m not saying shit,” she says sternly. Well, almost. She’s too breathless for it to have its intended effect.
“Alright.” Dex nods. “Have it your way.”
Using his hold on her arms, he spins her so that her back is to his chest, then locks her arms behind her back in one hand.
He marches her over to the coffee table and pushes her so that her face is touching it, her ass in the air.
Reaching around her with his free hand, he starts undoing her pants.
“What are you doing?!” Les asks, her chest still heaving.
He jerks them off her hips with her panties, letting them pool at her feet. “You know exactly what I’m doing. You seemed to have forgotten who’s in charge behind closed doors. You need a reminder.”
Is he going to do what I think he is?
“Hold her arms,” Dex grits out. My head jerks up from Les’ red face to his, and he raises an eyebrow.
Ryder reaches out and hooks his hands over her wrists, pulling until she’s stretched out again.
Gage pulls the chair over so he has the prime view of what I know for sure that’s about to happen, Leo sitting on the arm of it.
Holden is sitting beside Ryder, wide-eyed, looking innocent as hell.
Dex reaches back and jerks his shirt over his head, rolling his huge shoulders back.
Once his hands are free, he steps on the center of her pants and pulls her legs free, kicking them away when he’s done.
“Dex. Let me go,” Les says again.
He smooths a palm down her ass, making her whole body jerk in response. “Say the words, and I will.”
“It’s not that easy!”
“Yes, it is.” With that, he rains down several blows on her ass with his palm, one right after the other. I watch in amazement when she sinks her teeth into her bottom lip, trying to stop her response. He smooths his hand over it. “Say it.”
“No.”
That goes on several more times until her ass is bright red, tears are streaking down her cheeks, and her legs are shaking.
“Say it, Baby girl,” Dex rumbles, rubbing his hand over it again. You can see his dick straining behind his zipper, just as turned on as she is. “Say it, and I’ll make it go away.”
“No.”
He lights her up again, his hand smacking so hard that you could hear it echo throughout the cabin. I have to adjust my hips, my cock straining and throbbing. Ryder glances over and grins. That sure as fuck doesn’t help.
When Dex smooths a hand down her ass this time, she can’t stop the moan.
It comes from down deep in her chest. “Fucking hell,” Gage mutters, scrubbing a hand down his face.
We’re all feeling it. It isn’t about watching her get punished.
It’s watching her body’s response to it.
She doesn’t even realize that when Dex stops, she raises her ass in an offering for him to do it again.
“Say it, and I’ll make that ache in your pussy go away, Baby girl.”
“There isn’t one,” she says, not giving an inch.
“You’re telling me if I slide my fingers between your thighs, you won’t be fucking soaked?” Dex asks.
“I’m not.”
Dex slides his hand down between her legs. When he pulls his hand up, it’s glistening, proving how much of a lie that was. He smacks her ass hard. “Who loves you?” No answer. Smack. “Answer me.” Smack.
“You! You do!”
Smack. “Who protects you?”
“YOU!”
Smack. “Now. Say it,” Dex asks again. We all wait, wondering if this finally got through to her. We aren’t trying to control her, just like I told Ryder I wasn’t doing to him. It has nothing to do with control. We just want to fucking protect her.
“Yes!”
“Yes, what?”
“Yes! I understand!”
Ryder immediately let her arms go. Dex drops his jeans and boxers, slamming inside her. “Good girl,” he groans. She whimpers, but it’s not from pain. It’s from knowing she made him happy.
“Are you going to think about yourself from now on?” Dex grunts, still slamming his cock inside her.
“Yes,” she moans, propping her hands on the table so she can push back against him. Dex slides his arm around her, rubbing her clit. Her hips drop, and she moans again.
“Come for me,” Dex demands, and she goes off with a scream, so keyed up from his hand on her ass, she was already primed.
“DEX!”
“Good girl,” he groans again, slowing his strokes, then slowly pulls out. He pulls her up, turning her around and wrapping his arms around her.
“I get it, Dex,” she whispers, sliding her arms around his waist.
“I know you do, Baby girl,” he says, then pulls her back, wiping the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” She smiles. “I love all of you.”
One by one, we make our way to her, kissing her, telling her how much we love her, and how proud of her we are. Gage gets to her last; he kisses her until she’s moaning into his mouth. “Show us how much,” he says with a grin, breaking the tension in the room.
She raises a brow. “Did you forget about the bet?”
“I will gladly forget it to worship that pussy, Pretty girl,” he runs a palm down her backside, “Or that cherry red ass.”
She shoves him back, and I think she’s going to walk from the room. Stepping back, she pulls her shirt over her head, unsnapping the front clasp of her bra, and letting it slide off her shoulders. “I think I’ll pass.” His mouth pops open, and she giggles. “You’re going to have to work for it.”
Gage’s face says it all. He’s more than up to the challenge.