by Becca Steele
“Thanks for that.” I rolled my eyes. “You know, you could consider wearing a T-shirt or something.”
“Nah, I wouldn’t want to deprive anyone the pleasure of seeing this body.” He flexed his pecs, making me laugh, then tugged me towards the lounge, keeping me tucked under his arm. We entered the room, still laughing, and I came to a sudden stop when I saw Caiden sitting on the sofa, staring at us. His face was impassive, but I could see the tight set of his jaw and his stiff posture. Swallowing hard, I ducked under Cassius’ arm and crossed over to Caiden, throwing myself down next to him.
Things between us since the whole conversation where we decided to take a step back and just be friends had been…not awkward, exactly, but we were pretty much tiptoeing around each other, on our best behaviour. Okay, yeah, it was totally awkward. And so difficult. I couldn’t magically turn off my feelings, and all I wanted was to be with him. The rest of the Four, and Kinslee, had been given a heads-up, but it was obvious to me that they didn’t take it seriously. They were still pretty much acting like we were together—well, acting like they were waiting for us to get back together, at least. Okay, I was waiting and hoping for the same thing to happen.
Sitting next to him now, his thigh pressed against mine, sent shivers up and down my body, my breath growing shallow as he leaned in to whisper in my ear.
“I fucking hate this,” he rasped.
“Me too.” My voice was the barest whisper as I turned to look at him. “I just—I need to know you trust me.”
He bent his head closer to mine, his breath skating across my lips. “I know.” It would have been so easy to lean forwards and kiss him. Was I making a mistake in saying we should just be friends? Should I try to provoke him into action?
Before I could lose myself in my own head, Caiden was moving away from me, leaning back against the sofa and closing his eyes. I slumped back, still next to him, but the distance between us felt huge.
Pulling on a hoodie, Cassius came to stand in front of me. With a gleam in his eye, he tugged the hood up over his head and put on a deep, sinister voice. “We’re gathered here today to initiate you, Winter Huntington, into the cult of—”
“Cass? Shut the fuck up.” Caiden rolled his eyes, and Cassius smirked at him, pulling his hood back down.
“Chill, mate. I’m just fucking around while we wait for Z. Where is he, anyway?” he muttered, as Weston entered the room, Kinslee following behind him. “West? Have you seen— Never mind.” Zayde appeared in the doorway, holding a tray in his hands.
“What the fuck are you meant to be? The butler?” Cassius eyed him.
“Shut up, dickhead.” Weston cuffed him round the back of the head.
“You’re gonna pay for that.”
I tuned out their bickering and watched as Zayde came closer, placing the tray on the coffee table.
Well.
I wasn’t expecting that.
NINE
I smirked at Winter’s sharp intake of breath as she stared at the tray, her eyes wide and confused. Zayde had given me a heads-up, so I knew what to expect, but I guess Winter hadn’t seen what was in the bag that Creed had given to him.
Leaning forwards to take a closer look, my thigh brushed against Winter’s again, and she shivered. Fuck, it was driving me crazy being so close to her and not being able to touch her. I wasn’t going to deny myself anymore. Brushing her silky hair away from her face, I lined my lips up with her ear. “You okay there, Snowflake?” I murmured, trailing my hand down through her hair, down her back, and around her waist, pulling her closer to me. She sat statue still the whole time, but her shallow, quickened breathing gave her away.
“Y-yes,” she managed to croak, her tongue darting out to lick her pouty lips. Fuck. I needed those lips wrapped around my cock. In fact, I needed to be buried inside her, fucking her until she was screaming my name. My dick stirred, hardening in my jeans, and I shuffled, trying to get myself under control.
Winter’s head turned and her eyes darted down to my jeans, and she gave a gasp, her eyes widening even further. “Cade…” Her voice was tortured.
“It’s what you do to me.” I pulled her even closer so she was pressed right up against me, and she stared into my eyes. So many different emotions played across her face—I wondered what she was thinking.
She took a deep breath, and I could see the moment she came to a decision because a gleam came into her eyes, a wicked smile curving her lips. Leaning into me, she put her hand on my thigh, so fucking close to my cock that I had to bite back a groan. “You know what you need to do.” Her voice in my ear was a sultry purr, her hand inching further up my thigh. “Let go, and trust me. That’s all I’m asking for.” Her lips brushed against my ear, her words taunting me. “Do you know what you do to me? Do you know how wet I am for you right now?”
Fucking hell.
I whipped my head around so fast that our lips brushed, before she could move. “You little cock tease,” I growled, then before I knew it, my mouth was on hers, and she was kissing me back.
“No!” She pushed me away with an effort, both of us breathing heavily. “That wasn’t fair. You don’t get to kiss me yet.”
I chuckled darkly. “What did you think was going to happen, when you were practically fondling my cock and heavy breathing in my ear?”
She pouted, a frown on her face, but I could see the smile she was trying to hide. Fuck, she was gorgeous. “Well. Just don’t, okay?”
“Keep your hands to yourself, and we won’t have a problem.” I smirked at her as she huffed crossly, shrugging off my arm and slumping back again with her arms folded.
I suddenly became aware of everyone’s eyes on us. I’d forgotten they were there, but they were all staring at us in amused silence.
“You two have issues,” Zayde muttered, shaking his head.
“How the fuck could you get a boner when there’s a severed finger staring at you?” Cassius’ voice was incredulous.
“Fingers can’t stare; they don’t have eyes.”
Cassius turned to my brother. “You know what I meant. Hey, maybe we could give this finger to Petr, to replace his missing one.” He swiped the blood-encrusted severed finger from the tray, brandishing it in the air. “Hey, Littlefin—”
“Put. It. Down. Now.” Zayde’s voice was glacial, and Cassius dropped the finger back on the tray, pulling a face.
“Sorry, mate. Got a bit carried away.”
My brother crossed to the tray and grabbed an antibacterial wipe from the packet there, throwing it to Cassius. “Use that.”
Zayde pulled on a pair of latex gloves, snapping them into place.
“Bloody hell, Zayde in rubber gloves. I’ve seen it all now.” Kinslee buried her face in Weston’s shoulder, her laugh muffled.
Z ignored everyone, fully focused on his task. He gripped the finger and picked up a scalpel, scraping carefully at the decaying flesh around the ring that was still attached. It was so tight that the flesh was bulging either side of the metal band, so the only way to remove it was to cut it off. Me, I would’ve used pliers and pulled the thing off, but I guess Z didn’t want to risk damaging it. Or maybe he just wanted to make the most of the opportunity to cut something. Hard to tell with him.
“That’s fucking gross.” Winter made a fake gagging sound but leaned closer to watch, fascinated. Zayde finished scraping away the flesh and worked the scalpel blade under the band of the ring, finally freeing it, and it fell onto the tray with a clatter.
He wiped the ring over with an antibacterial wipe, then began cleaning it using a cotton bud and jewellery cleaner.
“How do you have all this stuff?”
“Best not to ask,” I murmured to Winter. She shuffled closer to me, and I forced myself to ignore the urge to touch her, focusing on Zayde’s actions instead.
“Z. Can we get a fingerprint?” I indicated the severed digit.
He shook his head. “No prints. The boys said all his fingers were the same.”
“That’s fucking shady.” I pulled on a pair of the latex gloves and picked up the finger, examining it more closely.
“Use the magnifying glass,” Zayde suggested without looking up, still intent on cleaning up the ring.
“Can I see?”
I glanced up at Winter staring at the finger, curiosity in her blue eyes.
“C’mere, then.” I tugged her onto my lap. She made a small noise of protest, but I held my arm around her waist like a steel band—she wasn’t going anywhere. “Pick up the magnifying glass, and I’ll hold the finger.”
Obediently she took the magnifying glass from the tray, her hand shaking slightly. My girl was fighting her reaction to me—her little game of teasing me earlier had backfired, and she was back to being in denial about the way I affected her. I bit back a smug grin before she noticed; that would go down as well as a fucking lead balloon. “Good. Hold it over the top of the finger,” I instructed.
I moved my face next to hers so we could both look through the glass. “See how the tip of the finger is all smooth?” I angled my head slightly, letting my stubble graze the soft skin of her cheek.
She shuddered, swallowing hard. “Yeah. How? How did it happen?”
“My guess,” I said, moving my head again, my lips almost touching her skin, “is that they were burned off. It’s a quick and easy way to do it. See how the skin’s a different colour here?”
My stubble scraped against her cheek again as she nodded, but neither of us moved our faces away.
“Enough with the flirting, please,” my brother groaned. “Sort your shit out. It’s clear you both wanna be together. Fix whatever it is”—he glared at me—“Caiden, and we can all play happy families again.”
“I’m kind of turned on watching the two of you,” Cass interjected, waggling his eyebrows at us. Fucker.
Winter groaned, clearly uncomfortable, her cheeks flaming at the attention. “Please, Cass.”
Best to ignore them.
I removed my arm from around Winter’s waist. “Sit back down, Snowflake.” She moved off my lap, leaning forwards and propping her chin on her elbows, which rested on her thighs. Before she had a chance to protest, I dropped a light kiss on her hair, then placed the severed finger down and quickly changed the subject. “Anyone else want to look at the finger?” No takers. “Z? You done with that ring yet?”
“Yeah.” He indicated towards the magnifying glass, which Winter passed to him, and he studied the ring in silence for a moment, then wordlessly handed both the ring and the magnifying glass to me.
“Fuck,” I breathed. “I think this is the same ring Petr was wearing that day at the hotel.” It was a tarnished gold, sovereign-style ring. In the centre of the sovereign was a cloaked man with arms outstretched, one holding what looked like a lightning rod, and the other resting on top of what was either a number eight or an infinity symbol.
I passed both items to Winter, who studied them intently. “You’re right. I’m sure of it. Do we have any photos of his hand wearing the ring?”
“Yeah, we do.” I pulled my phone from my pocket and scrolled through my picture gallery as Winter passed the ring over to Cass. “Here.” I zoomed in on the photo. It was clear that it was the same ring.
“This is great. I’m gonna send photos to Mercury and see what he can pull up.” West stood, stretching. “Speaking of Mercury, he found something. It’s not much, but it might be everything. He found record of Petr working at the docks last year. And, get this, he’s also employed as a server at AMC. Right now. He’s only had the position for a few months—looks like he works both there and at the Crown and Anchor. Dunno which days he works at AMC, but we need to check this out.”
“This is great news.” Winter smiled at Weston. “I finally feel like we’re getting somewhere. Now we know there’s most likely a connection between Petr and the dead guy. I mean, it’s kind of clear to me at this point that the dead guy is the one who attacked me, since he was the one keeping me captive, and now he’s dead, and whoever got me out of the docks took me to a hospital.”
“I agree.” Cass nodded. “Makes sense, and that was my feeling when we found the body. We have a probable connection between dead fingerless guy, Littlefinger, and the docks, so I’d say the odds are high.”
“I’ll send this stuff to Mercury now. Unless we need to discuss anything else?” West glanced at me, and I shook my head.
“I’m heading back to campus now.” Kinslee stood.
“Do you have to go?” Winter pulled a sad face.
“Don’t go guilt-tripping me, bitch. I’ve got shit to do.” Kinslee gave Winter a stern look, and they both dissolved into laughter. Zayde raised a brow at me, and I shrugged, mouthing “women” to him.
“I’ll drive you back. You wanna come?” Cassius turned to Winter, and she jumped to her feet.
“Yes, please. Can we stop at the shop on the way back? I’ve got a craving for Doritos, and you ate the last bag.”
“Deal. As long as we can get chocolate.”
“Goes without saying. Anyone else want anything?” Me and Z both shook our heads, and they left the room. We fell into silence as Zayde started packing away all his tools and whatever other shit he’d brought in.
“Z.” I hadn’t even meant to speak, but his sharp gaze shot to mine at my tone. Fuck it. May as well say what was on my mind. “I saw you and Winter earlier, when you got back from meeting Creed. You looked…” I trailed off, shrugging helplessly. “I don’t know, comfortable with each other.”
He remained silent, reading me as well as he always did, and I continued, asking him the one question I needed to hear the answer to. “Do you trust her?”
When he finally replied, after a long silence, he spoke the words simply, with no hesitation. “You know what? Yeah. I do.”
“Why can’t I have that with her?” I scrubbed my hand across my face, frustrated.
“You feel too much for her. Mate, I know you. You’re not allowing yourself to trust her completely because it means opening yourself up to be hurt by her. You’re trying to protect yourself.”
Fuck. Am I? “I’ve fucked this up.”
“No. Get your shit together, and let her in.” He stood, holding the tray. “Just don’t leave it too late.” I saw an expression that could almost pass for sadness flicker in his eyes, gone before I could work out if it was really there or just my mind playing tricks on me. Then he was gone, and I was left alone with my thoughts.
Trust.
It went against everything I’d known. But then, the only people I did trust all trusted her. Maybe it was time to take that leap, and yeah, that was a scary as fuck thought, but the thought of Winter not being in my life? Or being with another man? Those were thoughts I wasn’t even willing to entertain.
Time to man the fuck up and put myself on the line for my girl.
TEN
My first day back at university, and I was itching for some normality. I’d managed to keep up with everything I’d missed, thanks to my lecturers sending me notes and assignments. In actual fact, we were so close to the end of the semester that the workload had eased right off. I only had one week left, and I’d be done until January.
After my morning lecture, I headed to the library, then met Cassius and Kinslee to get lunch.
As we entered the cafeteria, a hush descended on the room. People stopped talking. Literally stopped mid-conversation and turned to stare at me.
What the fuck?
Then the whispers started, growing in volume until they were too loud to ignore.
“I heard she gave James Granville a blowjob in the library.”
“No, you’re wrong. She had a threesome with James and his cousin. You know, the TA?”
“Yeah, he’s hot. I’d have a threesome with them.”
“What’s so special about her, anyway?”
“Fucking slut, cheating on Caiden Cavendish.”
“Who would even cheat on him?”
&
nbsp; “I sucked his dick once. It was so big, I couldn’t fit it all in. Made my jaw ache.”
I gritted my teeth, straightening my spine.
Fuck them all and their rumours.
“Want to get out of here?” Kinslee whispered to me.
I shook my head. Better to face them, rather than run away like I was guilty.
Holding my head high, I continued making my way through the room to the lunch line. I chose and paid for my food on autopilot, answering Cassius and Kinslee without really hearing them.
As I slumped in my seat with a sigh, my skin prickled with awareness. I was so attuned to his presence that it felt like a magnet was pulling me in his direction.
I turned my head.
Over on the far side of the room was Caiden. My breath caught in my throat as I stared at him. His raven hair was all tousled, the muscles in his arms flexing under his tattoos as he leaned forward, planting one hand on the wall and shoving the other into the pocket of his jeans. He was so sexy, so assured, confidence radiating from him as he effortlessly commanded my attention, without even being aware he was doing so.
I wanted him.
So much.
It was taking everything I had to keep him in the friend zone, but I couldn’t—
Wait a minute.
My eyes slid from Caiden to the person he was talking to. Until that moment, my entire focus had been on him, until I saw the slim hand landing on his arm, sliding up his bicep.
Hot, raging jealousy filled me, and I gasped aloud at the force of it. If I’d ever doubted my feelings for him, there was no doubting them now. My whole body vibrated with tension, desperate to race over to him and pry Portia’s claws from his arm and claim him as mine.
Mine.
I couldn’t tear my gaze away. I watched as he smiled down at her, watched her toss her perfect hair, batting her perfect eyelashes, thrusting her perfect tits towards him.
It hurt. Way, way more than I thought it would.
“Winter,” Cassius hissed, bending his head to my ear and putting his arm around me. “All isn’t as it seems.”