Nila crossed her arms, breathing shallowly. Before she could respond, a Diamond brother muttered from across the table, “Yes, I’m sorry if we offended you the other day.”
Nila’s head shot up.
Daniel thumped him in the arm. “What the fuck, man?”
Stupid Daniel.
He didn’t understand how unravelling a person’s psyche went. First came cruelty—a stripping of every high and mighty concept that they were untouchable. Then came tenderness—an acknowledgement of going too far and promises of safety.
This was the second stage.
I’d seen it happen with Nila’s mother. I’d witnessed the bewitchment as she fell under my father’s spell.
That’s going to happen to Nila.
My heart froze at the thought of her looking at me the way her mother looked at my father. Not with fear or panic or loathing but with trust and happiness and...affection.
“Excuse me?” she whispered, almost mute with shock.
The brother who’d spoken, an older man with a goatee, smiled gently. “You have to understand, it was our way of welcoming you into our midst. You do not need to be afraid of us.”
She squared her shoulders. “I’m not afraid.”
I swallowed hard as a foreign emotion crawled into my chest. Goddammit.Jealousy. Again. I was fucking jealous of the men around this table. I wanted to rip their heads off for tasting what was mine.
Don’t go there, Jet.
My father was right to give her to the brotherhood the moment she arrived. If he demanded I strip and deliver her for a round of service again, I would draw a sword from the armoury on the walls and strike him down.
I would never be able to stand behind his chair now. Even though only a few days had passed, so much had happened. Nila had evolved into someone who drove me past rationality and straight into the chaos she wielded so well.
While Nila had been licked and tasted, I’d fought an unwinnable battle of possession. I’d said the words—I went along with the act of sharing her—but that was fucking bullshit now...
Now, I would never be able to share.
Never.
She was mine.
Not my brothers’, not my father’s, and definitely not the conclave of bikers, who by rights were my minions.
Mine.
Another brother broke through my tormenting thoughts, saying toNila, “It was a special circumstance to welcome you into our family. We were all honoured to have you become a part of us.”
Nila’s face twisted in disgust. “Apartof you?”
I jumped in before anyone else could. Ingrates. There was a way of delivering this so it made sense, not repulsed. “We all tasted you. We all licked a part of you and absorbed your sweat, your tears, your fears. No other initiation could’ve broken the barriers between newcomers and old-timers better than stripping you bare.”
Nila’s mouth fell onto the table. The same table I’d spread her over and driven my tongue deep inside.
Fuck, shouldn’t have thought about that.
My cock went from soft to hard in an instant. I shifted in my chair as memories of her blowing me in the forest came thick and fast.I’dcome thick and fast. All down that beautiful throat.
I felt Cut watching me, the intensity of his gaze searing into my skin.
“Whatdid you just say?” Nila whispered, her features strained.
