“Maybe I was just born this way,” Saint replied, though I could tell there was more to it than that.
“Oh come on, there’s gotta be something else. Something that made you hate eating food by hand. What do you do with a sandwich anyway?”
“Lunch abides by different rules,” he said simply like that wasn’t an utterly ridiculous point to make. “Not that I choose to eat hand held meals very often even if they do fall at appropriate times of the day.”
“That’s not an answer to my first question,’ I pushed.
“I’m not nearly drunk enough to recant those stories,” Saint said in a low voice.
“Besides,” Kyan cut in. “None of us really wants to sit around discussing all the reasons for us being a fucked up pack of monsters, do we? I, for one, am just glad I found a tribe of my own making and don’t have to bow to the whims of any other fucker for the rest of my days.”
“You see being a Night Keeper as freedom?” I asked him.
“Yeah,” he replied with a smirk. “We’re untouchable. Unbreakable and irredeemable. Just the way I like it.”
“And what about Tatum?” I asked.
All of them looked her way and Blake shifted in his seat like he was uncomfortable.
“She’s Night Bound,” Saint said simply. “She chose to pledge her life to us, to serve us and satisfy us. That choice was an act of the ultimate freedom.”
“Seriously?” she scoffed, leaning back in her chair. “I’m not even allowed to pick out my own clothes half of the time, let alone choose where I go or who I hang out with. I’m the least free person I know. I can’t even go and get laid.”
The three of them practically growled at the implication that she might want to hook up with someone outside of this room and I had to admit, I didn’t like the idea of that either.
“You’re just too angry to appreciate the beauty of your position,” Saint replied evenly.
“And what’s that?” she demanded.
“That being owned by monsters raises you up to a position of ultimate power. We might torment you and rile you up and punish you when you step out of line, but we protect you too. We’ve killed for you, we’d die for you. And we all worship you as well, if you hadn’t noticed.” He said that so calmly, so seriously that it was hard to even deny it. And all I could really do was look at her as she tried to come up with a way to bite back at him for his words.
“It’s hard to feel worshipped when I’m a prisoner,” she muttered eventually.
“Prisoners don’t volunteer for their position,” Saint replied. “You touched the Sacred Stone. You spoke an oath to us. You gave yourself to us.”
“Under duress,” she growled.
“We might have taken you down there, baby, but none of us forced your hand onto that stone,” Kyan added.
“You threatened me if I didn’t do it.”
“All’s fair in love and war,” Saint said with a shrug. “We wanted you. We wanted you badly enough to try and force your hand. But ultimately, you were the one who chose this life.”
“You’re all deluded,” she scoffed.
“Well, we never claimed to be sane,” Blake added with a grin.
“One day you’ll realise that this was fate,” Saint purred, reaching out to tuck a lock of her long hair behind her ear. “And you’ll wonder why you ever wanted to escape it.”
Tatum tutted dramatically, pushing to her feet and gathering the dirty plates from the table.
I stood and helped her grab them and was surprised when Blake did too.
Between us, we carted them to the sink and I set the water running, planting myself before it to wash them for her.
Blake started drying and she eyed us suspiciously before heading off to take a seat on the couch. It pissed me off that she was made to clean up after them and cook for them all the time like some kind of live-in cleaner.
Kyan headed off down to the crypt and by the time we were done with the dishes, he’d returned with a crate of beer, a bottle of Jack and some rum to mix a drink for Tatum.
Blake headed across the room and changed the music so that Believer by Imagine Dragons washed over us as he cranked the volume, ending the classical playlist Saint had been listening to. To my surprise, Saint didn’t seem to mind at all and he just moved to take his seat on the wing backed chair beside the fire, leaving the rest of us to join Tatum on the couch.
I chose a spot at the opposite end to her and Kyan dropped down between us, taking up most of the additional room.
Blake didn’t even hesitate before moving to sit on the floor before her, turning sideways so that she could place her bare feet in his lap. He took one of them into his grip and slowly began to rub it for her, his thumb circling against the arch of her foot and she bit her lip as she looked down at him, like she was torn between pulling away and letting him continue.
My hands balled into fists as I watched them and I had to bite my tongue against the desire to tell him to get the fuck off of her. The lines between protective and possessive were blurring in my mind when it came to her and that wasn’t a good thing. That girl wasn’t mine. Never could be, never would be. So she could get a foot rub from any fucker she wanted to. Even if it made my blood boil and my jaw grind.
I pulled my eyes away from them and grabbed a beer, finding Saint smirking at me like he’d taken a peek into my head and had pulled out every thought I’d just had. I gave him a flat look, mentally directing him to eat shit. If he really could read minds then maybe he’d do it and give us all a laugh.
“Maybe we should head out tonight,” Kyan suggested. “We could tell the Unspeakables that we wanna play hide and seek and hunt them down like animals.”
“And then what?” Saint asked.
“String them up by their ankles and leave them outside all night,” he replied with a dark smirk.
“No,” Tatum snapped. “You’re not using them for sport.”
Kyan sighed dramatically like she was being unreasonable and Blake chuckled.
“We could call Bait down here if you want someone to beat up, Kyan?” he suggested.
“Leave Bait alone,” Tatum said firmly. “I think he’s suffered enough.”
“For putting your life at risk and letting that fucking rapist in here to lay his hands on you?” Kyan snarled. “Bait could suffer in agony every day for the rest of his miserable life and he’d never come close to paying for that.”
“Agreed,” I said and Tatum looked at me in surprise.
“It’s raining now regardless,” Saint interrupted lazily. “I don’t wanna go out in that and there’s no way that cretin is stepping a foot over my threshold.”
“I can’t be fucked to beat him up anyway,” Kyan added. “There’s no point to it with someone like him. I might as well be pounding on a corpse for all the resistance he’d put up. I can’t get my kicks out of fighting someone who can’t match me.”
“You wanna take me on then, Roscoe?” I offered and he straightened in his chair instantly.
“Or you could take me on and I could leave you groaning in pain on the ground again,” Tatum mocked and Kyan looked at her hungrily.
“Only because you took the cheap shot,” he grunted.
“Oh, so you using your weight and strength advantage to overpower me is fair game, but me going for your weak spot is crossing some arbitrary line?” she asked.
“Fine. If it means that much to you, then you can say you beat me,” Kyan said, rolling his eyes. “But if you’re going to be touching my dick again tonight, I’d rather you didn’t use your knee.”
“Keep dreaming, asshole,” she muttered.
“She’s not going to be touching any part of you,” I said as I swigged my beer. “That’s why she made those fucking rules. To remind you that you don’t just get to do whatever the fuck you want with her whenever you get the urge to.”
“What crawled up your ass tonight, Nash?” Blake asked, still rubbing Tatum’s foot like he couldn’t think of
a single thing he’d rather be doing than that and the looks she kept shooting him said she liked it way too much.
“He’s jealous,” Saint taunted.
“Of what?” I asked, my blood heating at the implication.
“Of Barbie giving herself to the rest of us.”
Kyan laughed darkly and Blake cocked his head as he looked at me like he was noticing something for the first time.
“She’s my student, I don’t care what she does with any of you or anyone else,” I said dismissively, refusing to so much as look her way as I drained my beer and reached for another one, sinking that one too.
“That’s it?” Saint asked with a knowing smirk on his face.
“I’m not some fucking predator,” I snapped.
“We’re all predators here of one nature or another,” Blake taunted with a laugh.
“Besides, she’s not that much younger than you,” Saint added. “And she’s beautiful, captivating, tempting.”
“None of that matters,” I said firmly.
“So kiss her and prove it,” Blake dared. “Prove you don’t like it.”
“No.”
“He’s a good boy,” Tatum added, batting her eyelashes at me. “He wouldn’t cross that line. No touching. Just looking.”
I tutted irritably and reached for another beer. I didn’t like the way this conversation was going, but losing my shit would only encourage them.
“If you like looking so much you should watch the tape Blake made of the two of them,” Kyan suggested with a dirty grin. “That shit is hot.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I demanded. “She didn’t give permission for him to make that fucking tape. Showing it to other people is breaking the fucking law. Not to mention disrespectful and-”
“Not if she gives her permission,” Blake interjected. “I’ve never shown it to anyone except Kyan and she was the one who said I could.”
“I’m not interested,” I insisted.
“Why?” Tatum taunted and it just pissed me off more that she was playing along with this shit. “Are you afraid you’ll like it?”
“No,” I said through gritted teeth. This was getting beyond a fucking joke now. And I was about five minutes away from walking out on their childish shit.
“What’s the problem then?” Tatum asked. “I don’t care if you guys watch it. I’m not ashamed of my body.”
“That’s because your body is fucking extraordinary,” Kyan said and Tatum flushed at the compliment, her eyes trailing over him as he covered his smirk by pressing his thumb to the corner of his mouth.
“This isn’t funny anymore,” I growled, but apparently I was the only one who didn’t think so.
Tatum leaned forward and dipped her fingers into Blake’s pocket and he smirked at her as she took her time rooting around for his phone.
“What are you doing?” I asked as she lifted the phone into her grip and Blake unlocked it for her.
“Taking control of my own destiny,” she said, her eyes twinkling in that way that always spelled trouble. She hadn’t even finished her second drink so I knew this wasn’t some drunken stupidity. She was the master of her own insanity. “And this tape can only hurt me if I’m ashamed of it. Which I’m not. Why should I be? I mean, I don’t exactly want it broadcasted to the entire world, but on my own terms, why shouldn’t I be able to enjoy it?”
“Our wild girl,” Kyan murmured appreciatively and the way he said our made my skin prickle. What did he mean by that? I knew they’d claimed some kind of ownership over her and I was supposed to have that hold on her too, but I didn’t really know what that meant to them. I knew they wanted control of her, but there was something almost tender in the way he’d said that word which didn’t sound like he was playing a game.
Before I could even consider questioning it though, the TV flashed to life as Tatum shared the file from Blake’s phone to it and my throat tightened as I found myself looking at her and Blake completely naked and fucking like they’d never get enough of each other.
My muscles tightened as my gaze stayed locked on the screen for way too long and her moans of pleasure washed over me as I drank in the mind blowing sight of her body bending to his.
I should have been getting up, walking out, closing my fucking eyes or something. But I was just staring at her, captivated by the movements of her body as I watched how much she was enjoying it.
My blood was getting hotter and I had to fight the urge to tug at the neck of my shirt. Or rearrange my fucking dick which was liking this way too much.
Christ, what the hell is happening right now?
My gaze stayed fixed to the screen as she cried out in pleasure and I shoved myself from my seat suddenly, striding for the door with my jaw locked in fury.
I didn’t give a shit about being rude or falling into the fucking trap they’d just set me. None of it mattered. I just needed to get the fuck away from that house, that girl.
I kicked on my sneakers and strode out into the rain without looking back. I got half way down the path before a hand caught my elbow and I twisted around to find her standing there with the rain pouring down over her blonde hair, her feet bare on the cold path and her blue eyes full of some emotion I couldn’t pinpoint.
“What?” I snarled.
“I didn’t mean to upset you,” she said, biting her lip. But all that really did was remind me of the way she’d been biting it in that video as Blake slammed his dick into her and she fought to meet his thrusts with the rocking of her hips.
“I’m not upset,” I snapped.
“I didn’t mean to make you angry then,” she tried.
“I’m not angry either,” I snarled. Though I was. But not at her. Not at the Night Keepers either really. I was angry at this whole fucking situation. At the fact that I’d had her pressed against me in that shower, her lips parting for mine, her heart pounding for me and I’d had to break away from her. I was angry that Blake fucking Bowman could have her even when he didn’t deserve her and no one in the world would give a shit. But if I took her, even for a single second, even after everything I’d done to prove how much I cared about her, I’d still be the monster who abused his position. Who took something that never should have been offered. Who wanted something I had no fucking right to want.
“Are you angry because you liked it?” she breathed, her grip tightening on my arm as the rain crashed down on us and neither of us gave a shit. Because the storm didn’t even exist in that moment. It was just me and her.
“This is so fucked,” I breathed because I couldn’t fucking lie to her. My clothes were clinging to my body as the rain weighed them down. She only had to glance down to see how fucking much I’d liked it as my dick stayed solid for her despite the cold. “I’m not allowed to like it.”
“Says who?” she asked, raindrops clinging to her lashes.
“Says the world.”
“Fuck the world,” she growled. “The world wasn’t there for me when I was at my lowest. The world didn’t give a shit when I was cut open and left bleeding. The world didn’t hold me when I shattered and remind me how to be strong when I needed someone to believe in me. But you did. So I don’t give a shit about the world. I don’t want the world. But I do want you.”
My pulse was thundering in my ears at her words and every bit of restraint I had was threatening to cave in, fall apart, come crashing down and crush both of us with the force of it.
I moved towards her before I could stop myself, my body making the decision that my head wanted to fight.
She tipped her chin up so that the rain washed over her face and the moment my lips met hers, I was lost.
I was weak, cast adrift, forgotten, broken and alone with her.
A hungry moan escaped her as her hands curled around my neck and she dragged me down to deepen the kiss. Everything about it was raw, brutal, dirty and desperate and I felt like I might drown in it if I didn’t pull back soon.
Her lips moved with mine in a
frenzied rhythm that made me ache as I pushed my tongue into her mouth. She tightened her arms round my neck, tugging me closer as the rain soaked us and our heartbeats found their own perfect rhythm together. She tasted like the sweetest kind of relief, like the sun breaking through the clouds and washing over my skin, warming me through in a way I hadn’t even known I’d been craving. This felt so right that it was impossible to believe it was wrong and as she moaned into my mouth, I knew that I wasn’t just going to be able to forget about this. Us. This tangible, undeniable force which was urging us together and making me ache with the need to claim her as my own.
Her body pressed to mine and I was sure that I’d never wanted anything like I wanted her right now. But having her could ruin everything. If we were discovered, I would be ripped out of her world and away from the revenge I’d given my life to. I’d lose my chance to exact vengeance on Saint’s father for what he’d stolen from me. For Michael, Mom.
I broke our kiss as suddenly as I’d initiated it and forced myself to step back as the rain thundered over us.
“It’s okay,” she said, looking at me with sadness and understanding in her eyes. “I know why we can’t. I just wanted you to know…I wish we could.”
“I wish we could too,” I said, my voice raw with the emotion of denying her. Denying us.
In any other circumstance I would have caught hold of her and never fucking let her go again. I would have taken every risk, every chance to be with her, but how could I do that knowing what it might cost? I owed my family justice. They deserved that much, even if there was nothing else I’d ever be able to offer them. Troy Memphis had taken their lives from them. Had taken everything from me. And I had to see this through. I had to finish what I’d started or I knew I’d never be able to find peace. What good would I be to her if I didn’t achieve that? If I was just this broken, aching shell forever more. It wasn’t fair to my family. It wasn’t fair to me. And it wasn’t fair to her.
We gazed at each other for an eternal moment before I turned away and took off down the path.
Tatum Rivers was just another thing on this Earth that I couldn’t have because of Troy Memphis. And I’d make him pay for that along with the rest. Even if it took everything I had to do it.
Kings of Lockdown: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep Book 2) Page 39