50 #2
Gently, I pull my fingers from her and lick them clean with a satisfied hum before kissing a trail over her stomach, planting a couple tender ones to her skin in contrast to the way my lips previously devoured her. She squirms in what seems like both arousal and discomfort.
We’ll work on that because as much as I like things filthy, there’s no way I’m not giving her any softness when I want that equally as bad. And I’m sure if she learned there’s nothing scary about affection, she’d only enjoy it, too.
Nipping her jawline when I reach higher, I rest my forearms either side of her head, catching the uncertainty in her eyes even as I watch her usual mask gradually working to overtake it. Then I smirk at her, and that intense stare narrows. “Taste like hot cinnamon, Hot Cinnamon.”
She scoffs.
I look over my shoulder at the other guys. “Can one of you pass one of the wet flannels?”
“Sure!” Tiger eagerly moves over to the bedside table and snatches one of the small black towels up before handing it to me, and I start to pull the oversized shorts down Ezla’s legs—
Her hand latches onto my wrist in a flash.
“What are you doing?” she hisses, digging crescents into my skin with her nails. Yet she can’t hide the confusion beneath the piping-hot daggers in her slitted eyes.
My brows dip with my own confusion. “Cleaning you up?”
“Why?”
“Uh . . . aftercare?”
“What?”
I sit back on my heels, trying to keep my temper under control. “What’s the problem? You don’t want me taking care of you?”
“First, I do not need to be taken care of. Second, I am simply not understanding the point in this. I have not experienced this before. It is unnecessary.”
A string of emotions roll through me, too many to count and name. I say slowly, “You’ve never received aftercare?”
She scowls, more pissed by the second. “Problem?”
“Kind of, Love,” Scotty says cautiously, he, Tiger, Alby, and Tate all listening in on this conversation intently.
“You did not demand this previous times.”
“Okay, firstly”—Scotty holds up his pointer finger—“we’re not demanding.” He extends another. “And secondly, that’s because it was very obvious it wouldn’t be welcomed.”
A dark brow arches. “Oh, and now it is?”
Scotty looks to me, and my shoulders lift in a shrug before I turn my neck back to Vengeance. “I’m not not taking care of you after I just pounded your pussy with my fingers.”
“Will this do something?” she asks suspiciously, and I don’t miss the way her eyes shift from me to scan over the room, pausing when they land on the chair in the corner where we’ve left her freshly washed Avri suit along with the rest of her belongings we’d had to strip her of.
I do a Scotty-style sigh, drawing her piercing gaze back to me. “If you let it, it can relax you.”
“I do not relax.”
“I’ve noticed,” I deadpan. “Now, are you going to let me clean you up?”
She stares.
Huffing at the lack of response, I take that as good as her assent and continue pulling the shorts down, then her underwear.
Parting her thighs, my nostrils flare, untouched cock begging for some relief, desperate to sink into that tight little hole, but I ignore it as I bring the towel to her skin and carefully wipe up her release.
Vengeance stares me down the entire time, her glare stabbing into the top of my head like she thinks I’m about to rip a bloody chunk of her flesh out, and I dutifully focus on the task at hand, giving her no reason to think I’d ever cause her harm.
“I know all your secrets.”
Eyes snapping up to her face, I freeze.
“But you made me say mine aloud when you had already figured them out. Share with the room, would you?”
My jaw clenches, but I can’t even be mad at her—she has every right to ask after the way I dragged her trauma from her kicking and screaming.
And in all honesty, I’m not too bothered about going into detail with the other men in this room anymore.
Things have shifted dramatically in the last few days, today especially, and I feel closer to each person in my Bonded group than I ever thought I could because of it.
More cautiously, I dab at HC’s swollen flesh, taking my time.
My gaze is much more focused than it needs to be as I avoid looking at anyone.
“There isn’t much to tell,” I begin honestly, voice low.
“Me and my brother had never been close. He picked on me a lot during first school, but he was a couple years older than me, so I didn’t have to see him much anyway for the most part.
And it was never an issue at that point, just your plain old asshole brother.
” My forehead wrinkles. “That all changed in second school.” This feels kind of weird to talk about when my cock’s refusing to go down, but I can’t help it when my Bonded’s pussy is right in my face.
“I guess it’s not surprising he took to the violence promoted like a duck to water.
I’ve never understood how the fuck he was an Evot, though.
I mean, he put up a good front, but I always thought it was obvious how vile he was beneath the masks. ”
Realising how that sounded, I snap my chin up to look at Ezla. “Not that all Exots are vile. You’re far from it, Vengeance. You’re just . . .”
“Savage in the good way,” Tiger supplies.
“Yeah, that,” I mutter before getting back on track, eyes falling back between my Bonded’s legs even though I’ve already cleaned her up well.
My hand keeps gently moving the damp towel back and forth, something about the motions soothing my mind and making it easier to tell my story.
“So, anyway . . . there was no reason other than his sadistic tendencies for why he started beating me any chance he could at second school when I caught up a couple years after him. My parents have always been good people, and I know they would’ve stopped him had they noticed any aggressiveness towards me—but Danny was good at hiding it, even when they did suspect something was up with him.
He knew that, too. And when we were both living at the same school, in the same damn room because the school board thought it would be nice for us brothers to be roomed together .
. .” I glance at Tiger and Scotty. “I’m guessing you guys were roomed as well?
” They both nod, blue eyes solemn with the heaviness of the topic, and I continue, “When he knew there was no one to stop him, that nobody would actually care what he did in a place solely focused on encouraging violence . . .” I shake my head.
“He just let it all out. I’d had no training yet—wasn’t strong back then.
Didn’t have any friends. Danny was popular, and I was this weak little guy living in his shadow. ”
I shift my gaze to Alby for a moment, and he swallows.
There are similarities between our stories, I know, from all he’s told us about Troy and Aider over the weeks, and a look of understanding passes between us: his best friend and my brother, both hiding who they truly were from the world until they let it all out on us the moment we got to second school.
And I don’t think Alby expected anything like this from me, not with the way I am today.
But I hope this makes him feel less like an outcast, because I can see on his face sometimes that he still wonders if he fits in here.
Because when you’re treated like an anomaly for so long, you start to believe that’s exactly what you are. And that’s a hard thought process to collapse.
“As the years went by, I got stronger, of course.” I pause.
“Danny’s beatings got worse. No one cared, and I know people knew.
” I shrug, and although these are shitty memories that aren’t at all nice to think about, speaking them out loud is easier than I thought it would be.
“Took a lot of Avritabs to be able to function. Was in the infirmary at least once a day.” Pressing a quick kiss to HC’s inner knee, my lips twitch up at the corners when a small jolt shifts her body and her nose scrunches adorably.
With that picture now seared into my mind, I keep going even more effortlessly.
“I was strong enough to fight back by this point, to send him there, too. But it only spurred him on, as if he got off on the challenge.” My own nose wrinkles in disgust.
“I got another break when he moved to third school, and that’s when my strength and skills really improved without me constantly needing patching up.
However, when I got to EvTS 290, he’d gotten huge—had a lot of muscle on me and improved just as much as me.
So, yet again, nothing changed. I’d always fight back, but I was also extremely fucking depressed, and I knew if he didn’t go too far and kill me, I would likely end it myself. ”
Tiger sucks in a sharp breath, and Alby’s eyes are watery.
“Don’t feel sorry for me. I’m still an asshole, remember?” I smile tightly, but the words fall flat, and I sigh. “I fucked off to clubs every time I could, using all my credits to just mess around and drink shit away, you know?”
Ezla scowls, and a wave of unmistakable jealousy crashes into me. Before it’s abruptly cut off.
Multiple brows ping sky-high, five sets of eyes whipping her way.
“Stop staring at me,” she seethes, her own eyes promising a gruesome death as she stabs them into each of us. “Whatever you think you felt, you did not. Carry on before I hang you by your testicles, Cooper.”
Clamping down on my amusement and the satisfaction thrumming through me, I obey: “It was a dick thing to do when I had parents to visit. And even though I told them everything was fine over text, they knew it wasn’t.
But they could never be sure exactly what was going on, and I wasn’t about to tell them.
So I got by, day by day . . .” I flick my gaze back to Ezla. “Until you happened.”