by Eva Ashwood
Gray chuckles, and Elias draws in a deep breath, his finger working in and out of my ass as Gray leans down to kiss me.
“Fuck,” Declan groans. “I can feel that. You like it, don’t you?”
I nod, my lips still clinging to Gray’s. I’m about to combust. To explode just like he is. But I need to feel my men come with me when I do.
“Yes,” I whimper, rolling my hips so I can fuck Declan’s cock and Elias’s finger harder. “Yes. So much.”
“Someday, I’ll fuck your ass,” Elias promises, his voice heavy with lust. He’s stopped teasing my breast, and I can hear the sound of him stroking his cock behind me. “Someday, we’ll all be inside you at the same time.”
As if to illustrate his point, he withdraws his finger and moves closer to me, sliding his cock between my ass cheeks as Declan thrusts into me from below.
The liquid heat in my belly is an inferno now, burning so hot I feel like my skin must be on fire. I nod feverishly, almost undone by the feel of Elias’s cock pulsing between my cheeks. “Yes. Oh god, I want that.”
“Give me your mouth, Sparrow.” Gray’s voice is so deep and gravelly that I know he’s about to come. “Wrap those gorgeous fucking lips around my cock.”
And I do.
Declan helps keep me steady as I brace one hand on his chest and wrap the other around Gray’s pulsing shaft. I’m hanging on by a thread, my body moving as if by some kind of primal instinct, rocking in a shared rhythm with the three men.
I slide my lips over Gray’s cock, swirling my tongue over his tip, and when Elias reaches around and starts playing with my clit, I bob my head, sucking and licking and hollowing my cheeks.
I lose track of time. I can barely keep track of where all my limbs are. All I know is the feel of Elias behind me, Declan beneath me, and Gray’s cock in my mouth, his hand in my hair.
And when I finally come, it’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before. It surges through my entire body, and it doesn’t feel like it’ll ever stop. I scream around Gray’s cock, and then he’s pulsing against my tongue, filling my throat with jet after jet of salty cum.
“Fuck, Soph. God, I’m coming!”
Declan grips my hips as he surges up into me, and I feel warm ropes of liquid splatter across my back as Elias follows close behind, biting down on my shoulder and pinching my clit as he comes.
One last aftershock rips through me, and as it fades, it’s like all the bones dissolve out of my body.
Drool slides down Gray’s cock as I release him from my mouth and collapse against Declan’s chest. Elias pulls away, and he and Gray settle onto the bed on either side of us, their hands still touching me all over, as if they need to maintain some contact between us all as we recover. As if they need to be sure this is fucking real.
I don’t blame them.
After the shitty start I got in life, I learned to expect the worst. To brace myself for people to hurt me or let me down. For the inevitable moment when I would be on my own again, left with nothing but bitter pain and another layer in the armor around my heart.
But this is real. And if I don’t deserve to be this lucky, well, I don’t fucking care. Because these men are mine now, and I’ll protect them with everything I have in me.
Just like they’ll protect me.
Lifting my head from Declan’s chest, I lean over and press a kiss to Elias’s lips. Then I kiss Declan, squeezing my walls around his softening cock and drawing a groan from him. When I turn to kiss Gray, he palms the back of my head and lifts his head to meet me, pressing his mouth to mine.
“Thanks for putting me to bed, Sparrow,” he murmurs, and I can feel his smile even though I can’t see it. “I feel a hell of a lot better already.”
A grin stretches my lips too, matching his. “Anytime. Welcome home.”
Epilogue
Three Months Later
In just a few more minutes, we’ll reach our destination in the foothills outside LA. It’s a place that means a lot to me—a spot that’s worth an hour of hiking to get to, especially with the Sinners by my side.
Up ahead of me, Declan and Elias banter as they hike over the rocky terrain, sweat trickling down the backs of their necks and making the hair at their napes glisten. They’re both fucking gorgeous all sweaty like this, and I can’t stop my hungry gaze from trailing down to their muscled asses and strong legs.
I don’t even feel a little bit guilty for eyeing them up, either. After all, they do it to me all the time.
The chemistry between the three Sinners and me has only gotten hotter since we confessed our feelings for each other.
I used to relish the thrill of picking up a stranger in a bar, just like I did with Gray all those months ago. But I’d never experienced the flip side of that coin—sex with a man, or men, who know me intimately. Who practically see right into my soul, and who love me with every fiber of their beings.
It’s better than I could’ve ever imagined, and now that we’re no longer dealing with a crazy powerful psychopath and his son, we actually get to enjoy each other the way I hoped we would.
We get to bask in this unconventional relationship we’ve been lucky enough to build, and it’s fucking amazing.
The end of the school year was busy and chaotic, and not just because the professors all seemed to take it as a personal challenge to devise the most brutal finals imaginable. In the aftermath of Alan’s death, the media descended on Hawthorne. His entire web of secrets and lies came crumbling down in one huge shit show that made headlines for weeks. And it was more than just the Montgomery family that was toppled. Information about people he dealt with came out—their secrets exposed, their power and empires crumbling.
I tried to keep my head down for most of it and focus on my studies, but it was hard. There were countless trips to the police station for more questioning and statements, DNA testing so that I could claim part of my father’s inheritance, and his funeral—which I didn’t attend.
As it turns out, Charles Davenport never took me out of his will. He probably assumed he didn’t have to, since I’m pretty sure he thought I died after I ran from Alan’s bunker. But according to his will, I was entitled to half of his estate, and my mom made no objection to that. I think she felt like it was the least she could do.
We’ve been rebuilding our relationship, and it’s been weird but nice. New bits and pieces of my time in the bunker still pop up in my memories from time to time, but now that I have no need to sift through those memories looking for clues, I try to let them go. Sometimes I’ll paint them to get them out of my head—my way of purging my demons.
When my mom and I talk, we tend to focus on the time before I was snatched away from my old life or on the present. Thanks to our talks, I’ve remembered snippets of my childhood. And even though the memories are tainted by the knowledge of what my father would eventually do to me, I’m still glad to have them. They make me feel like more of a complete person. Like I’m no longer missing pieces.
Even if what’s inside me is a bit of a mess sometimes, at least I’m whole. Alan never managed to splinter me apart.
Cliff was charged as an accessory to Beth’s murder, since he helped his dad cover it up, along with a slew of other charges. He should rot in jail for the rest of his life, which is honestly better than he deserves.
And Reagan was released from prison shortly after the night Alan died. Her parents’ dealings with Alan were laid bare, and her whole messy history came out. I decided not to press charges for the kidnapping, and she went to live with her grandparents in Colorado.
It’s honestly the best outcome I could’ve hoped for. I’m glad she’s not stuck in prison, since she spent enough of her life locked up. But I’m also glad I don’t have to see her every day. We’ll never be besties, despite our shared trauma, and I’ll never really be able to forget that she tried to kill me. It’s not the kind of thing you just get over.
But I don’t wish her ill either. I know her grandparents insisted
on getting her into therapy, and I hope one day she’ll be able to find some kind of peace.
I finally have, thanks to my Sinners.
That’s part of the reason we’re out here today.
Now that the semester is over, things have finally calmed down a little bit, and this hike is one I’ve been talking about doing with the guys for a while now. Gray’s injury had him out for longer than he would have liked, and even though the school was more than accommodating, he was absolutely fucking stir crazy by the time summer break rolled around.
Things between Max and Aaron have gotten a lot more serious between since the summer started, and all six of us have been hanging out a lot. Despite the fact that the Sinners gave him serious side-eye for a long time, they've all grudgingly admitted to me that they like the guy. But since Max and he are in Boston visiting her family for the next several days, this seemed like as good a time as any for a hike into the foothills with my men, despite the fact that it’s hot as balls.
“How much farther, Sparrow?” Gray asks from behind me.
He’s slightly out of breath as he pulls up beside me, and one hand brushes over the spot where the bullet hit him, as if it aches a little. But his eyes are bright and his smile is broad, banishing the slight twinge of worry that creeps up in me.
“Not too far.” I grin at him, slipping my hand into his.
Declan and Elias are a few steps ahead of us, still giving each other shit and bantering about who could hike the trail faster if it were a competition.
“You’re both wrong,” I call out, raising my voice a little to catch their attention. “If I seriously put on the gas, you know I could kick your asses in a race.”
“She’s right,” Gray throws in, and I grin. Then he cocks his head as if considering something. “Unless I was in the race too. We all know I’m in better shape than all of you. I’d win.”
I gasp in mock outrage, smacking him on the arm. “I thought you were coming to my defense!”
“Hey, I took a bullet for you,” he protests, then tugs me closer and presses a hot kiss to my lips. When we break apart, his eyes gleam with love and amusement. “Besides, we all know you don’t need protecting. You’re a badass bitch and can fight like a fucking hyena.”
That’s definitely a compliment coming from him, so I just roll my eyes and accept the praise. “Thanks. I love you too.”
The words fall from my lips easily, and he seals them with a kiss.
I never used to be so open with my feelings. I kept everything wrapped up as tightly as I could, tamping emotions down until I could barely feel them.
Now? I tell the men I love them at least once a day. I never want to stop telling them. I never get sick of the way their faces soften when they hear the words, or the love I see reflected back at me in their expressions.
Elias turns around, hiking backward as he speaks to Gray. “Oh, I forgot to tell you. I got that meeting with Howard and Weisman all set up. We’re good to go for lunch with them on Wednesday.”
After struggling with it for years, Elias has finally accepted that a long-term football career probably won’t happen. We’ve had several long conversations about it, and I know how much he misses the game. But he’s never been the type to let shit keep him down for long. I’ve been catching bits and pieces of his conversations with Gray recently, and it sounds like they’re looking to start a company together after graduation. It’s given him a purpose that I’ve never seen in him before, and it suits him. Suits them both, really.
In fact, all of us are doing well. Declan’s music is doing better than any of us ever dreamed, least of all him, and I actually sold a bunch of my paintings—the final pieces of my past that were poisoning me.
If I think about it too much, it still bothers me that they exist out there in the world somewhere, but I’m not complaining about the paycheck. As it turns out, a lot of people remembered me from the art show that now seems like forever ago, and the pieces went quick once I put them up for sale. I couldn’t be more thankful to have someone take them off of my hands.
Looking back on it now, I suppose I could’ve just burned them, but there’s a certain karmic rightness in building my future out of the wreckage of my past.
When we take the final bend in the trail, it opens up to a beautiful scenic overlook that I love, despite the hard memories that come with it. I break away from the men and walk over to a small ledge of rocks, looking out at the vastness of the sky and the foothills.
Hey, Jared, I think. It’s been a little while. But I’m doing okay. Better than I was last time I was here.
Last time I was here, I was letting go. I took the hike when I was alone and fucked up in the head, spreading Jared’s ashes in this special place that he showed me one of the few days we got to spend together away from Brody’s house. It’s one of my best memories from that shitty time in my life.
My lip curls as I think of my foster father. The media attention that fell on me bled onto Brody a bit too, and he didn’t come off great in the press at all. His communications with Cliff discussing the possibility of framing me for his wife’s murder were leaked to a major newspaper in LA, and they had a fucking field day with it.
Serves the asshole right.
I grin as that thought enters my head. I swear I can almost hear Jared saying the words.
Fuck, I really do miss you, I tell him. But the craziest thing happened. I met these three great guys. They love me and take care of me, and they somehow manage to do it without ever making me feel coddled or stifled. I’m a badass bitch who can fight like a hyena, and they respect that. You’d like them, Jared. I know you would.
Somehow, I find myself able to smile. Thinking of my foster brother used to hurt like hell, and it still does, but there’s peace in my heart as I speak to him inside my mind.
He’s gone, and I hate that the system failed him. I hate that I lost him. But I’m still here, and the best thing I can do to honor his memory is to live my life well.
There’s so much in front of me that it hardly seems to matter anymore what’s behind me. That time in my life will never lose meaning, but it’s not who I am now.
This is who I am.
Gray comes up behind me, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close. He lets his chin rest on my neck as we silently take in the beauty around us, the fresh air, the warm sun on our skin.
He knows what this place means to me. And he knows what it means that I brought them here.
He took me to visit Beth’s grave a few weeks ago, just me and him. It was a big thing for him, sharing it with me, just like sharing this place with them is a big thing for me. We’re both working toward healing, tending to old wounds on both the inside and outside—but we’re doing it together.
All four of us are, really.
My family.
I turn in his arms, our noses brushing as I wrap my arms around him and kiss him. Deeply, lovingly, slowly.
Declan and Elias come to stand on either side of me, their bodies leaning into ours as Gray and I rest our foreheads together.
And with all three of my Sinners surrounding me, everything feels right.
Thanks so much for reading! Want a little more of Sophie and her guys? I couldn’t resist writing one more steamy scene between them. ;-) Click HERE to join my newsletter and claim your free bonus scene.
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Looking for another series to binge? If you liked Sophie, I think you’ll love Mercy! Turn the page to check out the cover and blurb for Fight Dirty, an enemies-to-lovers romance with a badass heroine and the three sexy alphaholes she goes up against.
In Fairview Heights, there’s one rule everyone knows. Don’t cross the Black Rose gang. Not if you want to live.
My father broke that rule.
Now he owes the notorious Black Roses a favor, and to make sure he pays up, they’re ta
king me as collateral. Until Dad completes whatever job they gave him, three gang members will be my keepers.
Sloan, Rory, and Levi.
The boss’s son.
The man with a secret.
The flame from my past.
They’re all dominant, cocky, and hot as hell, and I know from personal experience that one of them is a damn good lay.
But none of that matters. They shouldn’t be allowed to run people’s lives like this, and I don’t plan on letting them get away with it. If they’re looking for a pawn in their little game, these guys picked the wrong girl.
Because my dad raised me to be a fighter.
And I fight dirty.
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Books by Eva Ashwood
Clearwater University
(college-age enemies to lovers series)
Who Breaks First
Who Laughs Last
Who Falls Hardest
Magic Blessed Academy
(paranormal academy series)
Gift of the Gods
Secret of the Gods
Wrath of the Gods
The Dark Elite
(dark mafia romance)
Vicious Kings
Ruthless Knights
Savage Queen
Slateview High
(dark high school bully romance)
Lost Boys
Wild Girl
Mad Love
Sinners of Hawthorne University
(dark new adult romance)
When Sinners Play
How Sinners Fight