Queen of Quarantine

by Caroline Peckham

  I wasn’t going to let my Night Keepers risk their necks while I just sat at home waiting for them to come back like some nineteen fifties housewife. I’d be right there at their sides, ensuring that they got out of there and that that vile place was brought to its knees.

  “But, I am well aware you will refuse regardless and I believe your capabilities in such an operation outweigh the risks of taking you there anyway,” Saint continued.

  “I want to burn it down,” I announced, setting my jaw. “I want it turned to ash so no one else can be hurt there.”

  “Fuck yes,” Kyan said excitedly and Nash cracked his knuckles, nodding his agreement.

  “I’m down,” Blake growled, sucking the last of the ice cream off of his thumb.

  Saint considered that for a long moment and I could almost see the pie charts and bar graphs being mapped out in his mind before he nodded. “Yes, that should be possible.”

  “But we’ll have to get the prostitutes and any other captives out of there first,” I said decisively. I wasn’t going to hurt innocent people, but if the assholes who ran that place were stuck inside when the flames started devouring it, then all the better. It was the least they deserved.

  “We can do that,” Kyan announced as Saint fell into thoughtful silence again. “The annual Moguls’ Banquet is this boring ass members only thing. There won’t be whores at it until the afterparty which normally kicks off around ten.”

  “And where will they be kept before then?” Saint asked curiously.

  “Locked up,” Kyan said with a sneer. “There’s holding cells in the basement. When I was in their…game, they put me there with the other contestants for a while.” His eyes darkened with some awful memory and my heart squeezed. That decided it. I was going to make sure the fuckers burned. All of them.

  Monroe knocked his arm against Kyan’s in a gesture of comfort and I felt their bond humming between them like it was made of iron.

  “Well, I think we have ourselves a plan,” Nash growled and Saint nodded.

  “I shall work out the details,” Saint said then a knock came at the door and we all looked to it in surprise. He walked over, unlocking it and pulling it open. “What the fuck?” he breathed, his shoulders bunching and shock dripping through his posture. I didn’t even have to see his face to read that emotion from him; I didn’t think I’d ever seen Saint Memphis taken by surprise by anything.

  “Who is it?” Kyan popped out of his seat and I jumped up too.

  Saint stepped aside and let in a woman with dark skin, full lips and a short afro. She looked like she was in her thirties and her gaze was pinned on Saint as she smiled smugly.

  “Aunt Jada?” Kyan questioned in confusion. “What are you doing here?”

  “Hang on…” Blake balked as recognition filled his eyes.

  “Oh,” Saint breathed, starting to laugh and I frowned, confused by what the hell was going on as he threw his head back and began clapping.

  “Hey, Kyan,” Jada said with a grin. “I just came here to say hello to Saint. And rub a little salt in the wound I just gave him.”

  “Of course,” Saint laughed then composed himself, extending his hand to Jada. “Bravo. Truly, I had no idea.” Jada took Saint’s hand, shaking it firmly as she grinned victoriously at him.

  “No idea of what?” I pushed, sharing a look with Nash who looked equally stumped.

  “I’m so fucking confused, man,” Kyan muttered, running a hand over his head. “You know Saint?”

  “Of course she does,” Saint said, his eyes full of light. “This is my maid, Rebecca.”

  My lips popped open and I looked to the woman in surprise.

  “What?” Kyan frowned, at a loss. “But-”

  “Clearly she was your father’s spy,” Saint announced. “She was planted at Everlake Preparatory to keep an eye on you.”

  “Yep,” Jada said with a shrug like it was nothing, but clearly it wasn’t. “And it took a lot of planning, let me tell you.”

  “I had background checks done on your fucking background checks,” Saint said, shaking his head in disbelief. “How did you manage it?”

  “I’ve got an army of O’Brien gangsters at my back, Saint. Including my husband, Finn, who does the fake papers for our whole family. Rebecca’s persona has been set up for years. She was the perfect fit when Kyan came home from school one time complaining about you firing another maid and humiliating her in front of half the school.”

  “That was cold blooded,” Blake said as he remembered it.

  “She left my hand-stitched loafers outside in a snowstorm, Bowman,” Saint said icily. “They were one of a kind.”

  “Jesus,” I breathed, my head still spinning. “So you’ve been spying on Kyan?” I stepped toward the woman, not liking the idea that there’d been someone watching him and not even Saint had worked out it was her. What did she know? She’d never been at The Temple unless we weren’t there, but what if she’d set up cameras or – no…she couldn’t have. Saint would have known. And if she had, Liam would know about everything. That I wasn’t just with Kyan but all of my boys. And Liam wouldn’t have let that lie.

  “Just watching out for him,” Jada said with a shrug as Kyan folded his arms.

  “You wanna elaborate there, Jada?” Kyan pushed and she rolled her eyes.

  “I was tricking the Lord of OCD,” she said. “How close do you think I could ever get to you? I was just put on campus as a set of eyes on Liam’s favourite boy.”

  “Yes,” Saint said thoughtfully. “You must have had to be very careful indeed not to step a toe too far in Kyan’s direction or I would have caught you.”

  “Yeah, and you didn’t,” she said smugly. “Anyway, seeing as you’re all hiding here for the foreseeable, I figured the game was up and I just needed a moment to gloat.”

  “Well deserved,” Saint commented and I was kind of surprised at how well he was taking this. But I supposed it did make sense that he’d appreciate anyone who could outwit him. I guessed it was a pretty rare occurrence. “And if you want a position as a maid in future, do let me know. You were impeccable.”

  “With my help,” Blake coughed and Jada snorted a laugh.

  “Nah, I’m good thanks. Though the perks were fucking excellent, I wouldn’t mind you being my boss again, just not for cleaning toilets.” She winked, waved and headed out the door just like that.

  Saint tossed the door closed then scowled at Blake. “What was that about your help?”

  “Humans make mistakes,” Blake said with an eyeroll. “After the last maid you fired, I decided to give this one a helping hand.”

  “No one’s perfect,” I said, remembering what Blake had told me about Rebecca accidentally staining Saint’s whites pink in the wash once.

  Saint sighed, his shoulders dropping. “How disappointing.” He walked toward me, gripping the back of my neck and pulling me in for a delicious kiss.

  “What was that for?” I asked as he released me, heat rising in my cheeks from his touch.

  “It’s a goodbye. You will have to stay in here alone with Kyan tonight. While Rebec- Jada is here, it clearly isn’t safe to take the risk of us staying together in case she comes snooping on us.”

  “Oh man,” Blake complained.

  “I’m tired of you getting privileges because of your fake wedding,” Monroe growled, getting to his feet.

  “It wasn’t fake,” I reasoned. “But that doesn’t mean I want him more than any of you.”

  Kyan yawned broadly, walking over and slinging an arm around my shoulders. “That’s it, wife, feed them the bullshit so you can spend some time with your favourite.”

  I dropped my hand and grabbed his balls, squeezing tight enough to make him release a very un-Kyan noise.

  “I don’t have a favourite,” I growled and he gripped my wrist, pressing down on pressure points to try and make me let go of his junk. But my fingers were locked tight.

  “Alright,” he rasped and I released him wh
ile the others chuckled.

  Nash and Blake came to kiss me goodnight, grabbing some of their stuff before they left with Saint and my heart ached to be parted from them.

  Kyan caught my waist, pulling me onto the bed on top of him with a grin then winced a little as I pressed my weight down on his thigh.

  “Are you hurt?” I asked in alarm, kneeling up between his legs.

  “Naw. Well, it’s nothing a good cock sucking won’t heal, baby,” he said, placing his hands behind his head.

  I punched him in the stomach and he wheezed a breath as I smirked at him then started unbuckling his pants. He chuckled as he lifted his hips, kicking his shoes off as I pulled them down and found a dressing on his thigh.

  My lips parted. “Did you get a new tattoo?”

  He sat up, picking at the tape on his skin. “I couldn’t sleep last night so I started one.”

  “Let me see,” I asked excitedly and he peeled it off, showing me the beautiful outline of a compass. It was big, covering most of his upper thigh and done in black and grey. The centre of it was filled with a portrait of a woman with flowers in her hair and makeup on her face that made it look like stitches ran from either side of her lips up her cheeks. There was face paint around her eyes and nose too. It reminded me of one of those beautiful Day of the Dead costumes. The compass surrounding her held letters at its points but instead of N E S and W, they were S K N and B. “It’s beautiful.”

  “I was going for badass, but I’ll take it.”

  “Wait a second,” I said as I continued to look at it. I bit my lip as I drank in the details and suddenly recognised myself in the face of the girl. “Is that…me?” My cheeks flushed at the idea of him branding his skin like that for me and my heart began to pound.

  “Of course it is.” He grinned, capturing my wrists and pulling me against his chest, his trousers still halfway down his legs. “Now how about that blowjob, wife? I’ll eat you out for an hour after.”

  I laughed, kissing the corner of his mouth, an idea circling in my head. “There’s something I want first.”

  His brows arched. “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah…” I ran my fingers down his chest, pushing the open shirt aside to caress the ink over his pecs. “I want a tattoo.”

  His eyes lit up like a little kid’s. “You wanna write ‘property of Kyan Roscoe’ above your pussy?”

  I smacked his shoulder with a laugh. “No.”

  “What then?” he asked teasingly.

  “I want…something that represents all of you.” I chewed my lip, running my hand over his shoulder to brush around the back of his neck. “I want an arrow. No, I want five arrows. One for each of us.”

  His expression became thoughtful and he suddenly scooped me off of his lap, dumping me on the bed and pulling up his pants as he jogged into the closet. He reappeared with his sketchbook and placed it on the desk, taking a seat on the cushy chair and flipping it open. He started drawing, his eyes intense as he focused, a small crease forming between his eyes. He looked fucking beautiful, like a Roman statue poised for someone to sculpt.

  I stood up and moved toward him, curious as I eyed the page over his shoulder as his pencil moved back and forth across it. I cocked my head to get a better look, but he ripped the paper out, screwed it up and tossed it across the room.

  “Not good enough,” he muttered, starting again.

  “Can I do anything to help?” I asked and he looked over his shoulder at me, wetting his lips.

  “Yeah. Fetch a bottle of Jack Daniels from my bag,” he asked and I nodded, heading to the closet to where I knew he’d stashed some last night. I grabbed the whiskey then eyed myself in the mirror and smirked as I made a decision. I stripped out of my clothes, walking back into the room buck ass naked. He couldn’t see me from where he was hunched over the desk, sketching in furious lines then tearing the page out and screwing it up again.

  I took a glass from beside a bottle of water on the nightstand and poured out a measure before filling another one for myself. I took a sip then walked over behind Kyan, placing his whiskey down on the desk.

  He caught my hand before I could pull away, kissing the inside of my wrist and leaving charcoal fingerprints on my skin then starting to draw once more, making my heart beat harder.

  I moved to the bed, lying down on my back and swallowing the measure of whiskey in my glass, the burn of it rolling all the way to my gut.

  “Fuck,” he hissed before draining his own glass. “Just gimme the bottle.”

  I swiped it off of the nightstand, bringing it to my lips and taking a swig. “You’ll have to come and get it.”

  Kyan looked over and his eyes widened as he found me lying there naked with his favourite drink in my hand. I smiled seductively as my heart stammered from his penetrative gaze and he rose from his seat, striding toward me at a slow pace. He drank me in like I was the whiskey he wanted, and goosebumps prickled across my flesh.

  He leaned down as he reached the bed, taking the bottle from my hand and drinking a long measure. His chest heaved and fell as his eyes raked over me and he reached out to touch me.

  I knocked his hand away, snatching the Jack Daniels from him. “Uh, uh. You can’t touch me until you’re ready to brand that tattoo on me.”

  His eyes flared and he wet his lips. “Well talk about fucking motivation, baby.” He shoved a hand down his pants, rearranging his hard dick before dragging his eyes away from me and moving to sit back at his desk.

  He started working on the image again, his brow pinched in concentration and the tension ran entirely out of his body as he fell into the art. I rolled onto my side to watch him, propping my head up on my hand as I studied his handsome face and every hard line of his features. His eyes held a sea of dark and light in them, twisting together in an endless tunnel as he poured his whole soul into the work.

  I’d forgotten all about the deal I’d made with him by the time he looked up, tilting his head to one side as he regarded his work.

  “This is the one,” he said gruffly, turning to look at me. “It should go on the back of your neck, like ours.”

  I nodded, my throat tightening as he got up, walking to the bed and placing the sketch down beside me. His eyes fed on me as he headed away to the closet and I picked up the paper, my breath hitching at the incredible, intricate image on it. The four arrows of the Night Keepers crossed each other and the fifth stood at the heart of them, pointing upwards, the feathers on the end of it softer than those on the boys and decorated with little flowers.

  Kyan knelt on the bed as he returned and I looked up at him with my heart in my throat. “I love it,” I said seriously and his face softened with pride.

  “I’ve wanted to mark you with ink from the moment I first saw your body, baby. All that pure, golden flesh has been begging for my tattoo gun for the longest time. I’ve ached to brand you as mine. And all jokes a-fucking-side, I’m happy I can brand you for the other Night Keepers too. It just feels…right.”

  I reached for his hand and drew him toward me. “It feels right to me too.”

  He took hold of my waist and flipped me over, his hand clapping hard against the back of my thigh. “Now stay down or I’ll end up fucking you before I even start,” he growled and I laughed into the pillow.

  He set up the tattoo gun then straddled my back and pushed my hair away from my neck, his calloused fingers dragging over my skin in the most enticing way. He ran a cold alcohol swab over the flesh he was about to mark and a shiver ran through me, making him curse as his hard cock pressed firmly into my spine.

  “Stop being so fucking tempting, will you?” He pulled the pillow out from beneath my head and I rested my cheek on the mattress as he turned the tattoo gun on and a buzzing filled the air. “It’s gonna hurt a bit.”

  “I want it to,” I breathed and he released a deep noise in his throat that said he liked that response.

  When the needle pressed to my skin, the sting of pain made me bite down on my lip,
but there was something addictive about it too.

  He was silent as he worked, the teasing and joking falling away as he concentrated and I couldn’t help but love being the sole focus of his attention like that.

  It took almost two hours for him to finish it and he gently wiped away the blood, his breath warm as it fluttered over the mark.

  “Ours,” he growled, placing a kiss to the sore skin and making a moan pass my lips.

  “In every way,” I agreed.

  He started trailing kisses and bites down my spine and my breaths turned to pants as he made it clear he was going to mark me as his with a carnal act too and I was more than happy to go along with that. But as he pulled my hands behind my back and locked them at the base of my spine, I frowned.

  “Kyan?” I tugged at my hands and he held onto them for a moment before his grip loosened.

  “You okay, baby?” he asked and I pulled my wrists away from him, rolling onto my side. He dropped down beside me, pushing my hair behind my ear with a gentle stroke that made me feel loved so fully, my heart swelled. I snuggled up closer to him, laying a soft kiss on his lips and he watched me, seeming a little out of his depth. Things with Kyan were always passionate, rough and raw. And I loved that about him. But I wanted him to know it didn’t have to be that way all the time. I wanted him to feel comfortable enough to be vulnerable with me. That he didn’t always have to be the big bad wolf.

  “What if I said I didn’t wanna be restrained tonight?” I asked, biting my lip as I gauged his reaction. A shadow slid over his eyes and his adam’s apple rose and fell.

  “Don’t you like it?” he asked gruffly, his brow furrowing.

  “Of course I do,” I said, laying my hand on the curve between his neck and shoulder. “But we don’t always have to do it that way. Sometimes, I really wanna touch you…” I ran my fingers down his chest and I could see him fighting some fervent urge in him. It made my heart hurt to know this was causing him discomfort. But I wanted to break this barrier down between us. I knew we could do it if we worked together.

  “Is it because of Deepthroat?” I whispered and he cringed at that name, his eyes moving somewhere over my head so he didn’t have to look at me when he answered.