by LP Lovell
"You lost, Tobias." Sawyer looks at me. "Now say goodbye, pretty." I turn towards Tobias and Preston, but Sawyer won't release my wrist.
"Goodbye, sweet Ella." Preston cups my face and kisses me gently, his lips whispering over my cheek. "Stay strong. Do what we taught you." He pulls back, his face as serious as I have ever seen it.
Tobias steps forward, his green eyes flickering with something wild, something angry. His jaw clenches. His nostrils flare as he leans down to kiss me. The kiss is hard and violent, as though he's trying to claim me one last time before he pulls away. "Remember,” he whispers, “you are superior, little lamb."
"I love you," I say in a rush as Sawyer yanks me toward the door. His fingers dig into my flesh, his short nails cutting into my skin from his brutal grip. Tobias and Preston wear a look of pain and loss as I'm dragged from the room. I lost. They lost. But we're all still alive, and with this deadly little game we play, that has to be enough.
4
I twist my fingers anxiously in my lap as I sit in the back of Sawyer's car. He pulls something from under the seat and throws it at me. “Change,” he demands. “I can still smell him on you.”
Exhaling, I quickly peel my clothes off and slip into a pair of jeans and plain blouse. Sawyer rolls the window down and takes the dress, balls it up, and tosses it out the window. He clears his throat and sits back down next to me, placing his hand on my thigh just like he used to when we were together, riding in his car. If I close my eyes I can imagine that nothing has changed. So I do. I close my eyes and pretend this is the same Sawyer I once loved, but then my heart releases an awkward, painful beat and I crave Tobias. I want Preston. Everything about them makes me feel wanted and safe, but Tobias...he's starting to feel like the other half of me. Something vital and all encompassing, impossible to survive without. I stare out the window, refusing to look at Sawyer even though I can feel his gaze burning into the side of my face.
"The game is over, Ella. You can ask questions now," he says.
I slowly turn to look him. "Can I leave?"
"If you recall,” he smirks, “in game four you made a choice, jump or remain with us forever—"
"With Tobias and Preston."
He shrugs. "You knew there were three players at that point. You shouldn't assume."
"It was never really a choice, was it?"
A wicked grin shapes his lips. "Ah, death is easy, Ella. It's the living that's hard. You chose the hard path, and you chose to play a game that you had no idea how to win." He arches a brow. "Some would say you'd already jumped the second you signed that contract."
I look back out the window, watching the city buildings whir past. "Am I your prisoner?"
His fingers grip my chin and I jump from the unexpected touch. He gently turns my head toward him, his gaze flitting between my eyes and lips. "Do you know why I picked you, Ella?" I shake my head. "Because I loved you, and I hoped you could become everything I ever wanted. Now you have..."
I jerk my face from his hold. "You loved me, so you threw me into a game where I might jump off a bridge, forced me to kill, made me think I was crazy"— I smile—"and allowed me to get fucked by two other men. That backfired."
His face morphs into a mask of icy indifference, but I see the anger building behind his eyes. "You are mine now, Ella. You lost. Accept it."
"Or what?"
"Or your life will be particularly unpleasant."
"Was it all an act? Sawyer? The life we had?"
He gently strokes his fingers over my cheek, and I let him. I let him because if this is what I am consigned to then I will let him think that I might love him, let him remember that I once did. Allow him to think that I can possibly correlate the man I loved with this monster.
"No." His eyes drop to my lips and linger there. "I brought you into the game, Ella. I do not do that lightly."
I think he might be insane, and down in this deep dark hole, aren’t we all? "Why try to win me when you already had me?"
"I had a version of you. Now though, now you're perfect. Tobias is very good at what he does. I'll give him that. His manipulations do have certain...side effects though."
The car pulls to a stop outside a building and he cuts the engine. I get out of the car and look up at the same expensive townhouse I was brought to yesterday. It looks far too nice and peaceful to belong to Sawyer.
He comes to stand my side and wraps his arm tightly around my waist, yanking me against his side. "Home sweet home, Ella." When he kisses my cheek, I have to force myself not to pull away from him. I’m led up to the front door and he inserts a key into the lock. The door swings open into the foyer. "You will love me again, Ella, and what's mine will be yours. We will be perfect."
He wants me to love him. He wants this picture-perfect life that we once talked about. How can he not see how everything has changed so entirely? Everything here screams of wealth and affluence, everything I always thought I wanted. But now that it's here in front of me, I want no part of it.
"I did love you. I thought I would marry you," I tell him truthfully. I did. I was so blind, so unable to see past the mundane, the obligatory, the expected.
He turns to face me with a soft smile on his face as though I would truly believe his false kindness. "I have always loved you, Ella." He grabs my face and kisses me. It's wrong, invasive and yet not near invasive enough, but I part my lips anyway, welcoming him in. His tongue sweeps against mine and his fingers dig into my cheeks as he groans against my mouth. I fight back bile. "I missed you."
I pull away from him and clutch the front of his shirt, looking for a trace, a hint of the man I once loved and placed above all others. The man I believed held the key to my happiness, my future. "Tell me that things can go back to the way they were."
His eyes search mine and I know he's looking for the lie. I hold his gaze without flinching. His thumb strokes over my jaw. "Do not think that I forget—you are in love with him," he says through gritted teeth.
"You sent me into their game!" I shout. "Wasn't that the point? They would manipulate me into thinking I was in love with them? I'm not crazy. I know what I feel for him isn't real, but I feel it all the same." I take a deep breath. "I hate you right now, but you were my world at one point and, in a twisted way, I suppose it's almost flattering that you went to such lengths to have me." Damn psychopath.
"I did, pretty little Ella. I would go to any lengths for you."
I take a deep breath. "Do you have any wine? I need a drink."
Smirking, he turns away and walks through the beautiful house. I follow him through the rooms with tall ceilings, taking notes of the chandeliers hanging along the hallway. He leads me into a kitchen that's almost the size of our old apartment. "Why did you ever choose to live in that apartment if you had all this?"
He opens the door to a fully stocked wine fridge, running his finger over the tops before he chooses one and takes it out. I catch sight of the label as he sets it on the counter to open it. Chateau Ste. Michelle. The wine I always picked up from the store around the corner from the apartment. "I knew from the second I met you that you were special, Ella. I knew after our second date that you were the one. I wanted you in the game. I imagined what it would be like to watch them fuck you, to watch you blossom into something untouchable. But if I hadn't been with you, lived with you, loved you,” he gestures between us, “then this wouldn't have been possible." This isn't possible.
"And Maria?"
"All part of the game, my love. I never wanted her. I only fucked her to hurt you. It was necessary."
"But why was she in the game? I mean, for Christ’s sake, Sawyer, I fucked her and then thought Tobias had killed her."
His lips press together as he pours the wine into a glass. "I wanted to know how jealous she made you. I wanted to see if you would kill for me. I was bitterly disappointed, Ella."
"I wasn't going to kill her for your mistakes."
"But you would kill Lily Davis to save Tobias..."
His expression darkens. "Careful, pretty. My patience only goes so far." He hands me the glass and steps close to me.
"You drugged me and raped me," I say quietly, reining in my temper, because if I don't I'll likely smash this glass in his face.
"No, no, no." He brushes my hair away from my face. "I just wanted you. It was all part of the game." He's unhinged, genuinely and absolutely deluded. He turns away, placing the wine bottle back in the fridge. I shuffle to the right and swipe a small knife from the block, tucking it into the waistband of my jeans. I step back to where I was and he whirls around. Smiling, I lift the wine to my lips. He moves closer and takes the glass from my hand, threading his fingers through mine. "Let me show you the house."
Only he doesn't show me the house, he takes me upstairs and walks me along a corridor and into a gigantic master bedroom. A huge wooden sleigh bed sits in the center of the room perfectly made with dark satin sheets. The door closes with a click and I glance over my shoulder, trying to steady my breaths. In my periphery, I watch him move towards me. His fingers trail over the back of my neck and my skin erupts in goosebumps.
"I want you, Ella. Pretty, pretty, Ella." I turn to face him, not wanting him to find the knife at my back. I press my lips to his and slowly back him toward the bed. He falls back against the mattress and I follow him, straddling his hips. When he attempts to touch me, I pin his hands to the mattress. I can't have him feeling the knife. Slowly, I unbutton his shirt. He sits up and slams his lips over mine as he shrugs out of the shirt. He deepens the kiss and grabs at the hem of my shirt before ripping it over my head. Inhaling, he slides his palms over my bare breasts and lowers his mouth to my nipple sucking it in. I force myself to rub over his arms, to make it appear that I want him. Raking my fingers over his neck and up into his hair, I can’t help but remember how beautiful I once thought Sawyer was. Funny that compared to Tobias he now seems so painfully average.
“Oh, Ella,” he mumbles as he kisses up my throat.
“I want you,” I whisper, my stomach churning as I push him back down on the bed. Our eyes lock as I reach for his belt, yanking it free. His pants go next, his boxers, until he's lying on the bed completely naked and so perfectly vulnerable. I will kill him because he is a bad person. I will kill him because he’s hurt me. I will kill him because it’s not wrong.
The hinges to the door creak and I jump when the door swings open. I glance over my shoulder and find Tobias looming in the doorway. Anger and dominance pour off him as his dark eyes lock with mine. I know what this must look like. I know what he must think and I drop my gaze, a blush creeping over my cheeks.
"Don't be shy now, Ella," Sawyer says. "Or does it upset you for Tobias to see you with me?" He smirks. "You see, this was the agreement. You lose and Tobias has to fuck us. No Preston. Just me and you and him."
"No," I whisper, glancing at Tobias. "It's fine for him to see." I beg for him to see the lie, but he's already unfastening the buttons to his shirt. His jaw clenches. His nostrils flare as he steps toward the bed.
"And oh how the mighty have fallen," Sawyer says with a laugh. He grabs my breast, twisting my nipple. "I have your favorite little toy now, Tobias." He leans up and flicks his tongue like a serpent over my taut nipple.
Tobias' uneven breaths are audible in the cold silence of the room. "As I said,” he growls, “you may take her body, but you'll never take her soul. That's mine."
Sawyer laughs. "Seven days, Tobias. It's nothing more than lust. A form of Stockholm Syndrome. You give yourself too much credit."
"I can hear the doubt in your voice," Tobias says. "You of all people know the power I wield, Three."
Sawyer's eyes close on a deep inhale. "You're like a drug, Tobias. Addictive and deadly." His eyes flash open and he stares straight at me. "Wouldn't you agree, pretty?"
"Yes," I whisper.
Do I crave him or do I love him? I'm not even sure what love is anymore. Some dark destructive force that wishes nothing but death. Whatever it is, it swirls around Tobias. It lives and breathes within the air between us. I'd kill for him. I have killed for him and I wonder, would he kill for me? After all, isn't that the definition of love? That it's limitless. It knows no bounds. It’s self-sacrificing.
Kissing Sawyer one last time, I climb off him and stand beside the bed. I lock my eyes with his before I slowly walk backward toward Tobias. I know Tobias can see the knife tucked in the back of my jeans. I circle behind Tobias and he turns to face me.
"Do you want him, Sawyer?" I glide my palm over the parted material of Tobias' shirt. "Isn't he beautiful?" I press my body against his as I look at Sawyer sprawled out on the bed, his cock hard and rising up to meet his flat stomach.
"Oh, pretty,” Sawyer breathes, “I have wanted him long before you and I ever met." He rolls off the bed, crosses the room and opens a drawer, pulling out a gun and cocking it as he walks back to me and Tobias. I tense, eyeing the gun in Sawyer's hand as he circles around Tobias, trailing a finger over his bare, muscular shoulder before he presses a single kiss to Tobias' throat. I watch Tobias’ eyes flicker, his jaw tense. And then I feel the cold metal of the gun press against my temple. "Now, this makes it much more exciting, doesn't it?" Sawyer says.
Rage swirls in Tobias' eyes, that power he wears so well fighting against the cast iron restraints he has it under. I shake my head ever so slightly, pleading with him. He needs to play into this right now.
We can finish this together. His little lamb wants to make him proud.
5
Tobias
Rage pummels through me like an angry ocean tide battering at an old pier. Sawyer stares at me, a sick smirk inching its way across his face as he takes my hand and wraps it around his cock. "I don't know why you've always fought this, Tobias, I really don't," he says. "You and I are one and the same, really."
I exhale, fighting the overwhelming anger making my vision red. I focus on the gun cocked and pressed to my little lamb's head. "Move the gun away from her."
"Now, if I were to do that, where would the danger lie? There's no fun if there's no danger."
Exhaling a ragged breath, Ella squeezes her eyes shut. After all she's done, everything she achieved, she doesn't deserve to be caught up in Sawyer's crazy power trip over me.
"Unfasten his slacks, pretty," he tells Ella. She fumbles with my fly, her hands shaking as she unfastens the zipper and shoves my pants down my thighs. "And while you're down there," he says, burying the barrel of the gun hard against her temple as he forces her to her knees. "Suck my fucking cock."
My heart pounds against my chest and a slick heat washes over my body. I can see her fighting tears, fighting anger as she places her lips against the head of his cock. That knife is just sitting against her lower back, and I keep thinking that any second he’s going to see it. His sick little dick is still in my hand and I start to let go so I can take the knife from Ella, but he grabs my wrist. "No, Tobias, you are going to help her."
And how long do I let this go on? How far do I let him go? How much will it take for him to lose himself? That is, after all, the aim of the game—for the player to lose.
I eye the gun as I stroke over his cock, my fingers meeting Ella's warm mouth as she sucks him back. Sawyer rubs his fingers up and down the length of my dick, a sick moan bubbling from his throat as he does. "I've dreamed of this, Tobias," he says, "of me and you and her." He fists my cock and pumps over it hard and fast. I grit my teeth. "Come for me, Tobias."
My gaze darts to his. I know the hate and anger must be evident, flashing in my eyes like a beacon in the night. But he's too blind to notice it. Three thinks he's won, but he lost so long ago. Before Ella ever signed that contract. He loved her and he lusted after me, and this was his twisted way of attempting to own us both. He's unhinged with a total loss of control. Mad with emotions, and never is a man weaker than when he's become a slave to his own heart. I should know. I am a wiling slave for my little lamb, which is why I am here, but a shepherd can never
lose his way.
Ella leans over to suck more of Three back and I see the slight glint of silver peeking out from the top of her jeans. "Little lamb," I whisper and her eyes flash open, locking with mine as she works away at Three. "Let me fuck him,” I smirk.
“Oh yes, fuck me, Tobias.” I can feel the excitement tremble through Three as his grip on my cock tightens. He's so very weak for me and that is a fatal flaw.
I shove him away, taking my cock and fisting it as I stare him down. "Do you want me to fuck you, Sawyer?"
His tongue darts out to wet his lips. "I want to fuck both of you."
"I'm very particular," I say as I step toward Ella. My heart thumps, adrenaline shoots through me as I think about what I'm about to do. It will be a form of art really, seduction, manipulation, sacrifice.
I stop beside her, glancing back at Sawyer as I wrap my arm around her back, take the handle of the knife in my hand, and pull. It's small enough that my hand can conceal most of it so, I carefully close my fingers around it and move my hand behind my back. "She really does have the prettiest pussy," I say, using my free hand to unfasten the button of her jeans. I turn my gaze to her and hold it. "Strip, little lamb." I just need a tiny distraction for Three.
She does as told, because she's a good little lamb. When I turn back, Three’s eyes are glued to her and he's working over his dick with frantic motions. I circle behind him, trailing my fingers along his spine before I grab him by the back of the neck and shove him to the floor. "On your knees if you want me to take that tight asshole."
He immediately drops to the floor on his hands and knees and I kneel behind him, rubbing my palm over his ass. "How bad do you want me deep in your ass, Sawyer?"
"I'm desperate for it," he breathes. "Pretty, come here.” He motions Ella over with his finger. “Spread for me."
Ella obeys and lays on the floor in front of him, spreading her legs wide to show her perfect pussy to us. The sight of her spread out like that has my dick hard enough to actually fuck Sawyer. Her eyes lock with mine and Sawyer leans down, ass in air as he swipes his tongue over her pussy. I take my cock and press it against his tight hole. There is no part of me that wants him, but there is a part of me that wants to defile him and ruin him, so with one violent thrust I tear into his ass. A sick groan bubbles from his throat and he hovers over Ella’s spread legs, panting.