The forest canopy obscured the moon and stars. Quinn didn’t seem to need light to see where he was going. I guess they’d been down to the cabins enough times to know the way by heart.
Don’t think about it. Not tonight. It doesn’t matter how many times they’ve been here before, and with whom. Tonight they’re yours and you’re theirs, and that’s all that matters.
The line of pods came into view, their fiberglass shells shimmering under the waning moon. Quinn slid me off his shoulder, setting my feet on the ground and kissing me with desperate urgency. My lips exploded with his touch – Quinn Delacorte knew how to fuckingkiss. When I was in his arms, I felt like the only woman on earth, like he’d been lost in the desert for years and I was the first sip of water on a parched throat. He kissed like he needed me to breathe.
“You’re not afraid of me anymore.” I struggled to catch my breath between kisses.
“I don’t know what I was thinking.” Quinn’s eyes glinted with something that might’ve been regret. “You’re the only person who has ever fought for me, who has ever believed I’m worth fighting for. You aren’t a monster, Hazy – you’re a gift.”
I staggered back, stunned by the depth of his words. Quinn looked like he didn’t quite know what to do with himself either. He ran a hand through his sandy hair. “I’m not good at being all deep and poetic and shit. That’s more Ataturk’s territory. But yeah… I’m not sure I was afraid of you so much as I was afraid of how I felt about you. All my life the people I’ve loved have hurt me, so I try to keep them at arm’s length. I make jokes because it gives me distance – it’s like pulling a little box over my heart where I can hide. But you came along and fucking kicked in the box with those vicious Docs of yours. I’m out here all exposed, and it’s scary. But exciting, too. Especially…” Quinn leaned in to kiss me again, his fingers stroking my cheek with unusual tenderness. “Especially now that we stand a chance of getting out of here. Now that I can imagine a future with you in it.”
I knew that wasn’t true, and I hated keeping that secret from him, but his lips devoured mine and his fingers laced in my hair and I lost myself in his fruity scent and sweetness and I wanted so badly to fall into his delusion that we’d have a life together.
But I could fall into him – into all of them – instead. In some way, maybe what the four of us had would endure beyond the stars, living on in our memories even when we were ashes and dust.
Ayaz and Trey waited on the porch of the largest cabin, the one the Kings always reserved for themselves. I shoved my hand in my pocket to dig for the key, but Ayaz drew back his arm and thrust his fist through the tiny window. Glass smashed. Ayaz reached inside and unlocked the door.
“I had the key,” I told him.
“Fuck the key. I’m not waiting another moment.” Ayaz swept me into his arms and crushed my lips with his. His hands trailed over my body, wrapping me in that rich scent of his that takes me out of my body to some exotic, faraway place where things are different and fairy tales really do come true. When Ayaz touched me… it was tinged with bittersweet longing and vicious desperation. The intensity of it sloughed off all my edges, leaving me a mess of feelings and nerve endings and hot, urgent need.
We staggered across the room, shoving and tugging in urgency. My shins hit the edge of the bed and I sank back, falling into the sheets. Ayaz crawled on top of me, his hardness grazing my thigh. He claimed my lips again, driving me into the bed with the force of his need.
This was a different side of Ayaz to the sweet guy who I lost my virginity to in my creaking single bed. Ayaz cupped my face in his, and he teased out the darkness that cloaked my heart, igniting the flame inside me that burned for him. He was wild, impassioned, the artist finally free of the shackles of his servitude.
I loved it.
The bed creaked as Trey and Quinn climbed up, one on either side of me. Ayaz tore his lips from mine and sat back, and I stared up at my three Kings. It was hard to believe that only a few short months ago they were the source of all my misery, and now the thought of being without them made my chest tight.
The look in their eyes made my chest burn with heat. But behind the hunger, there was something else. Something deeper than words, more powerful than the rage that had kept us all prisoner. Something that might endure across eons and beyond stars.
“Hands up,” Trey commanded. I lifted my arms above my head. Trey gripped my wrists while he and Quinn worked the velvet dress over my body. The fabric caressed my skin as they yanked it over my shoulders. Quinn flung the fabric against the wall.
“Don’t come back!” he yelled at the offending clothing.
I wanted to laugh, but hot lips on mine stifled that idea. Trey held my wrists above my head, pressing me into the bed, willing me to submit to them. I sucked in a breath at the sudden loss of my power. His weight against my hips, his hands circling my wrists… if I wanted to escape, I’d never be able to throw him off.
Good thing I didn’t want to be anywhere else.
I’d never been one to like to give up control, especially not to an arrogant bastard like Trey Bloomberg. But in that moment, I fucking dug it. I arched my back, begging them for more.
Bring it the fuck on, bully boys.
I’m about to be with three guys at once.I should have been afraid. Back at my old school, girls whispered horror stories about this exact situation.
Trey was asking me to trust him, to trustthem.
Heat crawled through my body. I tipped my head back, exposing my neck and parting my lips, offering myself.
For tonight, for one night only, they would be mine, and I theirs. I dragged away the broken glass surrounding my heart. I let them inside me, even though each kiss tore jagged cuts across my soul. Because I knew it would be my last.
The guys exchanged a silent conversation while my skin flushed with anticipation. Trey’s words nagged in my mind.Do you know long we’ve thought about this?
What did they want to do to me? What did Iwantthem to do to me? Everything. I had to live off this night for eternity. I wanted to savor every exquisite moment and every depraved action.
Ayaz was the first to bend toward me, his lips finding mine. While we kissed with frenzied urgency, Quinn’s lips circled my nipple. His teeth scraped the sensitive skin, the slight pain of it only driving the fire higher. Heat circled my palms as I lay them across Quinn’s back. He shuddered for a moment, then surrendered to trust.
Trey let go of my wrists to strip off his shirt, folding it neatly and dropping it down beside the bed. He slid off his slacks and crawled up beside me, his lips laying a trail across my cheek and along my jaw. He fought for my wrists again, trapping them over my head. Like fuck I was going to stop him, not with Quinn’s lips wrapped around my nipple and Ayaz attacking my mouth with his.
