He runs his fingers gently through my tangled hair, needing to fixsomethingwhen everything else is spiraling out of his control. “We need to break up our routine. He knew what elevator you would use with only a few days to study your habits. If there’s more involved than those two, everything else could be a security breach. The kitchen and places we usually get delivery from. Our cars will need to be inspected for tampering or trackers.” He grips my hip before asking Kasen, “Garett and Bishop. They’re the only thing standing between the penthouse and the rest of the building... can they be trusted?”
Kasen sounds pained. “If you’d have asked me yesterday, I’d have sworn on my life without hesitation, but I’m not willing to swear on hers.”
He hums in contemplation before kissing my neck. “We should find somewhere else to hole up until we can thoroughly vet everyone; staff and employees. This was-” he swallows. “It could have ended very differently, and though I wouldn’t consider anything about this good, we were lucky. We were careless because we wanted to prove that Scarlett could be trusted to roam around without us hovering to intercept if necessary, but we were overly confident in their fear of us.”
He bands an arm around my stomach, a shaky breath dancing on my skin with his next kiss. “We didn’t give enough credit to biology’s ability to overrule sense. When face to face with two threats, instinct will have you risking the wrath of the lesser evil.”
Craning my neck to give him better access, my eyelids flutter shut as he sucks on my pulse, thoroughly distracting me from the fact that I should be packing a bag while they figure out where we’re going to lie low and how we’re getting there. But honestly, I doubt we have anything to worry about less than twenty-four hours after the failed abduction, because anyone here that may have been in on it will know we’re on high alert and lying low themselves while they regroup. And that’sifthey are even committed to murdering me like some obsession or grudge. It really just depends on what Beck learns; is this a case of people trying to make a statement and stop Malcolm and Archer’s efforts, or were they just scared and thought they were doing the right thing to protect everyone in the building like some twisted vigilantes?
“Does that mean you won’t be mad if I don’t put in a two-week notice? Because no offense, you’re a great boss and all, but I quit.”
He chuckles, the hand on my hip sliding down my thigh to the hem of my towel and inching it up higher with a curl of his fingers. “Gods, you’re perfect. You know that?” Another kiss, this one right on top of Kasen’s mark, and I start squirming between them, intensely aware of not only how little I’m wearing, but Kasen either. “Do you have any idea how much it killed me to watch him leave with you earlier? To have no idea how you were doing while I was stuck scanning security footage? Seeing the way that you were hurt?” His fingers slide to my inner thigh. “To have it thrown in my face over and over again that I almost lost you because of my mistakes?”
Kasen clears his throat before reluctantly pointing out, “We should figure out where we’re going. Make a plan. And your ankle...”
“Is pretty much healed, courtesy of one adamant mate’s insistence. Feeding and some rest did wonders.” Trailing a hand down his stomach, I hook a finger in the towel wrapped around his waist, gently tugging it loose while holding his stare in challenge to see if he’s going to stop me.
“Low blow.”His voice is gravely, even in my head, and brings me right back to that rock on the beach when he whispered dirty things in my ear while finger fucking me into oblivion.“How am I supposed to think straight enough to keep you safe if you keep looking at me like that?”
“Like what?”Wetting my lips, his gaze flicks down to my mouth to track the motion.
“Like you have complete faith in us to take care of you in every sense of the words.”
“This is torture,” Malcolm groans. “What are you two whispering to each other?”
“Just explaining to Kasen that I trust you two implicitly, so I’m not in a rush to flee the penthouse. You know, give us time to come up with a solid plan.” I hold his stare as the fabric pools on his lap. “After all, what’s someone going to do? Fight their way through a bear in his own home just to try and shank me? Who’s really that suicidal? Kasen would tear them apart before they made it across the living room, so I think we have some time to think things through rather than be reactive and walk into a bigger trap.”
Kasen’s attention turns from my lips to the mark on my shoulder, his eyes darkening with lust. “You keep saying stuff like that, it’ll go right to my head,” he teases on a rasp, “when we should be getting ready to abandon ship.”
“Ah, you’re right.” Carefully raking my nails over his shoulder, I pull away, but with Malcolm pressed against my back, I don’t make it more than a few inches. “I’ll stop tempting you for five seconds so we can pack some bags.”
He palms my cheek. “Gorgeous, that’s impossible,and you damn well know it.” His lips crush mine with a dangerous sound that travels straight between my legs.
Wrapping one arm around the back of his neck to keep myself steady, I kiss him back with reckless abandon. Reaching behind me with my other, I tangle my fingers in Malcolm’s dark hair as he yanks on my towel, sending it tumbling to my thighs. I lose track of whose hands are whose, simply reveling in every touch that quickly morphs from reverence to demanding, their fear and anger fueling their desperation. Palming my breasts, rolling my nipples, snaking beneath the towel on my lap to tease me; every brush of their fingers sends my nerve endings into overdrive. As Kasen possesses my mouth, gripping my ass while I roll my hips against his rapidly hardening length, the last of my fleeting restraint goes up in smoke.
I’ve been holding back because I was afraid of things becoming too serious too quickly, but why is that a bad thing when the people I’m rushing towards are them?
“Tell me I don’t have to stop,” Kasen murmurs, sending a shiver down my spine as a rush of energy teases my clit from Malcolm’s ministrations.
Tearing myself from his lips, I crane my neck to capture Malcolm’s, rocking my hips in a bid to getsomeone’sattention where I need it.“If you stop, I can’t be held responsible for what I might do.”
Malcolm is swallowing my gasp the next moment as Kasen plunges two fingers inside of me, curling them in a come hither motion. Teeth gently clamp around my bruised mark, gradually tightening until I’m a trembling, soaking wet mess on the verge of begging someone, anyone, to put me out of my misery.
Kasen reaches between us to line himself up and I pull away from Malcolm long enough to watch him, savoring every tense muscle and sharp breath. Holding my gaze, he thrusts, slow and deep until he’s fully sheathed. When he reaches the hilt, he releases a soft, contented moan that I mirror, my nails digging into his shoulder.
Malcolm leans away to give us a moment, and when Kasen breaks our stare off to capture my lips with renewed vigor, I nearly come apart then and there. There’s a sound of a cap flipping open and closed before the mattress dips with Malcolm’s return, a slicked finger pressing into my ass a few seconds later. At my gasp, a feral sound escapes Kasen and he palms the back of my neck, pulling me down on top of him while kissing me breathless.
Malcolm works deeper, Kasen’s hand on my hip the only thing keeping me from jumping out of my skin when one finger turns into two as Malcolm continues to stretch me, circling my clit to keep me distracted from the pinch of pain. The next snap of Kasen’s hips as he thrusts into me has my palms settling on his chest to brace myself, holding on for the ride as he bucks beneath me. All pressure disappears as Malcolm retreats, but the small reprieve is replaced with all of my muscles locking up when the head of his cock starts pressing into my ass.
“You trust us to take care of you, right?”Kasen’s smooth timbre asks, the sound alone a balm to my nerves.“Breathe. Relax.”
I’m not sure what to make of what I’m picking up from my bond with Malcolm. He’s a chaotic, contradictory mess right now. Worried he’ll lose me at any moment and desperate to possess me in every sense of the word, angry, but all of it’s blended with love so intense that I hardly know how to process it. Loosing a breath, I recapture Kasen’s lips, using his mouth and touch as a distraction so the tension can bleed from my shoulders.
The two work in tandem to make me relax. Malcolm sending love and assurance down our bond, and Kasen whispering praises in my head. All the while, Malcolm works his way deeper with shallow thrusts and quiet, tortured sounds.
“That’s my girl.”Kasen’s tongue rolls against mine, his fingers on my ass tightening to spread me wider.“Do you feel what you’re doing to him, to me? Have you ever done anything like this before?”
Self-conscious, I reply softly,“No.”
