Klaus barks out a soft laugh—dark, disbelieving. “Now you want to talk?”
“Yes.” My throat works harshly around the word. “Because if we don’t, then whatever happens next is just going to…ruin me. Or you. Or all of us.”
Nick shifts his weight, studying me like he’s searching for cracks in my armor. “Then go on,” he murmurs. “Tell us why you really left.”
I swallow.Hard.My heart feels like it’s being pried open and I’m useless to stop it. “Because I love you,both of you,and I couldn’t choose between you.” My voice breaks, just a hair. “It was too much.”
Silence.
For several long moments.
Klaus eventually moves first—one slow, deliberate step toward me, his expression unreadable. “So you ran.”
“I thought it was better than hurting you.”
“Newsflash, kitty kat…” He tilts his head aside, green eyes glinting in the golden light. “You hurt us anyway.”
My breath shudders out, hands curling at my sides. “I know, and I’m sorry. I just—” I shake my head. “I couldn’t choose without losing something I wasn’t ready to lose.”
Nick’s gaze cuts to Klaus then back to me, something almost dangerous sharpening behind his calm. But it’s Klaus who speaks, his voice a low, wicked register.
“What if we make you choose?”
SIX
My chin tipsupward of its own accord, eyes narrowing challengingly. “How are you gonna do that?”
His lips tilt in that cocky smirk I love so much, and before I can so much as anticipate his next move, he has both of my wrists caught in his grip behind my back. “Get the lights, old man.”
I can’t see Nick, but I can both feel and hear the way he sighs at the nickname as he shuffles away from us. A loud zip rents the air, then mere seconds later, rolled up Christmas lights appear at my side. My eyes widen at the sight of them and when I glance up at Klaus, he’s full-on grinning.
Devilishly so.
“A leash always works well, kitty kat. Don’t you think?”
Words fail me as the reel of filth that was last year’s Christmas Eve plays vividly in my mind again…
I’m crawling.
To a man.
On my hands and knees.
With a festive as fuck leash around my neck.
This is the part where I finally wake up, right?
Either that or I’m going to fall flat on my face because Klaus just pulled down his mask and shrugged out of his robe, and holy shit… He’s beautiful—in that tall, dark, and intimidating way, like he’s the exact type of man you’d find hidden beneath a mask. Unlike Nick, a sleeve of tattoos adorns the left side of his body, and although I don’t spot any covering his torso, now I’m really eager to see what else lies beneath those gray sweatpants.
Slithering up between his legs, I push onto my palms and use the girls to my advantage, taunting him with their presence. Those clear greens snap down to where they jut out for him, lingering for a moment before another tug of the leash drops me into his breathing space. The way he looks at me screams nothing short of I’m going to eat you alive—and I’m here for it.
Teeth catching my bottom lip, he draws me in closer and licks hungrily into my mouth. I open for him the same way I did Nick, barely withholding myself from climbing into his lap.
“Mmm, so sweet,” he murmurs, fingers pinching at my nipples teasingly. “Yet such a dirty little mouth.”
“It’s supposed to be on your cock,” I remind him, “Or did you want to skip to the part where you stuff my stocking instead?”
‘Cause I’d be down for that…
