“Semantics.”
“Aurelia, my hand is twitching.”
“I don’t see what the big deal is. My uncle isn’t stupid. He’s here for a reason, but we’ve got the upper hand.”
“Do we?” Zeke challenges.
Aurelia spins around to face him, and he tries to hide his surprise. “I mean, I guess?”
“So what is the plan now that we have the upper hand, wolf? I’m dying to know how going to see him is keeping you safe and alive.”
“I’m still working on it.”
“I’m pretending to be shocked, but I’m having a really hard time at it. You were reckless.”
“I’m sorry?”
Thorin smiles sharply. “Even if you meant it, it wouldn’t be good enough, songbird.”
“I’m really sorry?”
Even though I can feel his exasperation, the look Thorin gives her is utterly devoid of emotion. It does its job and makesAurelia squirm. Her brown eyes turn pleading, but it has no effect on Thorin whose mind is already made up.
Aurelia needs to be punished.
“You will be. After a few days of not being able to sit comfortably.” Thorin produces a long and thin but sturdy enough looking branch, and Aurelia’s eyes widen as she backs away. “You’re going to be spanked, and you’re going to take your punishment like a good girl. Do you understand?”
“That depends. Do I get a turn strippingyoubare and bending you over to be spanked? I know about Tyler, youpieces of shit. I know he’s alive, and you kept that from me.” Only Zeke reacts to the news, but he’s probably just wondering who the hell is Tyler.
“You also must know the reasons we didn’t tell you,” Thorin admits unfazed. “You’re ours andwe don’t share, so what now? Are you breaking up with us to go back to him?”
“What?” Aurelia is visibly startled by the question. “No, of course not. What does that have to do with anything? Tyler was mybodyguard, not my boyfriend.”
“Yeah, and I’m not wild about him having anything to do with your body. Protecting it, fucking it, touching it—it makes no difference to me. He’s treading where he doesn’t belong. Unless Tyler being alive changes things for you, there’s absolutely zero point in knowing his fate. You’ll never see him again.”
Aurelia’s lip curls. “Yeah, you made sure of that, didn’t you?”
“Yes, and I’d do it again.”
“You’re an asshole,” she hisses at Thorin. The two of them always fight the hardest because Thorinisan asshole and Aurelia doesn’t back down.
“And you’re deflecting. I’m done talking about Tyler Westbrook. Take off your fucking panties.”
“What if I say no?”
“Unless you use your safe word, that means nothing to me, wolf.” We wait for her to use it and safe out, but she doesn’t. “Good girl. Now take off your panties.”
Aurelia looks like she wants to argue, but one look from Thorin and she thinks better of it before reaching under the T-shirt she’s wearing. She hesitates long enough to meet each of our gazes before realizing that none of us is coming to her rescue. Not even Zeke is as detached as he needs to be. With no way out, Aurelia finally curls her fingers around the waistband and pushes the cheap green lace down her thighs.
The shirt falls back into place with the hem resting just past the bottom curve of her ass, so I step forward and relieve her of the shirt entirely, until she’s standing naked in the middle of the circle we make.
“Get on the table,” I whisper in her ear.
“You’re a jerk,” she whispers back, and I smile.
I go to take a seat on the sofa while Aurelia tiptoes closer to the table, closer to where Zeke is sitting. When she tries to bypass him, I lift my leg, resting my foot on the coffee table so that she can’t pass, and I smirk when Aurelia shoots me a look of betrayal.
Thorin is already blocking the other side, so Aurelia realizes with a tormented whimper that she has no choice but to stand between Zeke’s spread legs.
