by Shayla Black
Raine cried out for relief. Love. Dominance. Them.
As Macen rubbed toying circles around her clit, his lips brushed her ear again. “Your surrender is heady. Your begging makes us hard. Keep burning, baby. We’re going to push you to the edge of orgasm and make you hold it. When you’re desperate, that’s when I’ll work my fat cock into your narrow backside. You can plead all you like, but you’ll be forbidden to come, especially as Liam eases that thick crest of his into your little pussy one wicked inch at a time. Once you’re packed full of us, then…” His breath heated her nape as he chuckled. “But if you think you’re ready to beg now… Oh, you haven’t even started.”
Raine didn’t doubt him for a moment. She whimpered, writhed, silently imploring them to start.
Liam bit at her nipple, sending a shock of pleasure-pain trilling across her senses. She was still processing the fine shiver when he urged her to face Hammer. Suddenly, she was looking into Macen’s molten hazel eyes.
“Kiss him,” Liam demanded thickly behind her. “And spread your legs for me. Now, Raine.”
Their power converged in the air around her, swirling tighter, faster, like a whirlpool sucking her under. The gravity of it was unbeatable, so she gave herself over, drowned willingly—and obeyed.
As she layered her mouth over Hammer’s, he was ready, crashing into her and taking her with a demand that stole her breath. As Raine let go of the last shred of rational thought, she bent one knee and placed her foot flat on the mattress.
Liam had plenty of space to slide his big hand between her thighs. He plunged his fingers inside her slick opening. She gasped into Hammer’s mouth.
Neither man showed her mercy. Macen’s kiss and Liam’s digits both delved deeper, determined to take more of her. Her Irishman bucked against her, pressing every dizzying inch of his hard shaft against her backside.
“Hammer will soon be fucking this ass, love. While he’s filling you, I’m going to watch your face. Every widening of your eyes, every gasp, every shiver of pleasure, I’ll drink it in. While I’ve got my fingers in your cunt.” He wriggled them—as if she needed the reminder—and added a softly brutal swipe of his thumb over her throbbing clit. “And tormenting you in every way I know how.”
“Liam,” she gasped.
“Once Macen has buried himself inside your wee opening, I’ll be sliding your body down to mine and squeezing my way into your pussy. Such a sweet, tight fit.” He groaned. “But you’ll open to me and give us all of yourself, Raine. Is that clear?”
Hammer didn’t release her mouth so she could answer. Desperate, she moaned, clung, squirmed in agonized need.
“Yes.” Satisfaction laced Liam’s voice. “You will.”
Every single time you want me.
While she lost herself in Hammer’s unrelenting kiss, she swooned at the feel of Liam’s fingers strumming her every sensitive spot until she didn’t care if she couldn’t move or breathe. She only cared about the honeyed pleasure they oozed all over her, thick and seductive…and so close she could taste it.
Finally, Macen eased back, leaving her with eyes closed, lips parted, body disintegrating into a puddle of liquid desire while Liam continued toying with her screaming clit. Gaze raking down her body, Hammer stroked her hip while he watched his best friend torment her. His eyes turned a deeper shade of magnetic allure.
“She’s on the edge, trying so hard not to disobey us and come,” Hammer murmured. “Fuck, she’s pretty.”
“And so hot around my fingers. She’ll burn our cocks.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” Macen eased off the bed. “You mind keeping Raine flushed and desperate? I want to watch while I get ready to fuck her.”
“My pleasure.”
No, no, no! But Raine was beyond forming words. Instead, she mewled and continued to melt under Liam’s sweltering touch. Hammer gave her a bawdy smile as he shucked his clothes, revealing the big body that never failed to have her biting her lip in need. With a slow gait and a tall staff, he prowled to the nightstand and drew out a tube of lube.
Raine knew what he intended next. Her breath caught. These two always made this act the most potent thrill, had her feeling delicate, submissive, and taken.
She begged Hammer to hurry with her eyes.
He juggled the tube in his hand. “You want something, precious?”
Liam’s fingers did another sweep over the terrible ache behind her clit. “Answer the man. I’d like to hear this, too.”
Holding her breath to fight the climax railing at her, she tried to gather her words. Her thoughts slid around like oil. But every place they touched her burned like dry kindling under their flame.
“Silence, love?” He bit at her shoulder and heaped on more suffering.
“Fuck me,” she managed to gasp. “Now. I…need…you.”
“There it is.” Hammer smiled again. “But it sounds like she thinks she’s giving the orders.”
“It does,” Liam mused.
Lunging on the bed, Hammer grabbed her hair in his hand again, his face hovering right over hers. “Do you give the orders?”
“No,” she blurted. “You and Liam. Please…”
He eased the grip on her hair, then stroked her cheek. “Good answer.”
“You could reward her,” Liam suggested slyly.
Yes, yes, yes! But she said nothing, merely blinked at Hammer, silently supplicating. His smile widened. God, they were enjoying their power. And she was relishing every second of surrendering to them.
“Or you could,” Macen tossed back. “But you didn’t have an orgasm in mind, right?”
Liam shrugged. “Of course not…yet.”
“Then we’re on the same page.” He flipped open the cap of the lube.
Raine froze, suspended in the throes of this excruciating ache, hoping, praying…
Until Liam took his fingers from her clit. Another swipe or two and she would have been tumbling into a gasping, stunning euphoria.
And both disobeying and disappointing them.
Pressing her lips together to hold in her protest, she put her faith in them. They would eventually end their torture and give her the most sublime ecstasy.
“Her face is priceless,” Hammer drawled. “You’re fighting it, aren’t you, precious?”
She gave a wild, shaky bob of her head, not trusting her words.
They grinned as Liam rolled her to face him, then eased onto his back, sending her sprawling on top of him. “On your hands and knees, wench. Give him that lush, wee ass he wants.”
Raine scrambled to comply, poised over Liam and blinking into his eyes as Hammer stepped up behind her. She heard the squirt of the lube, felt the cool gel slick across her rosette, then imagined him slathering the liquid all over his shaft. God, she couldn’t breathe. Her heart was about to beat out of her chest.
Suddenly, the tube plopped on the bed next to her knee. Macen’s body heat warmed the backs of her thighs. He palmed her ass. “Arch your back.”
“Down on your elbows,” Liam added. “Look at me.”
Instantly, she obeyed. His eyes, usually a warm sepia, had darkened to a raw umber, and she couldn’t stop herself from breathlessly plummeting into their depths. She had no beginning; he had no end. Here she found her undoing, both her enslavement and her salvation.
She whispered his name. He palmed her crown.
Then Hammer set his crest against her opening, worked past the ring of muscle, and inched inside her at a crawling pace that had her digging into Liam’s shoulders with a gasp.
“You must be doing something right, mate. I’ve got her nails in my skin.”
“Yeah.” Macen sounded strained. “Her walls are clenching my cock. Oh, fuck.”
“I intend to…in good time.” Just as he’d promised, Liam worked his hand between them and circled her clit again.
Raine sank her fingers deeper into him with a high-pitched whimper that seemed to come from someplace in her throat she’d never used. Lia
m paid her no mind, just watched her face as Hammer gripped her hips, pressed forward, and slid deeper.
God, she wanted to wriggle, find more friction—anything to end this incendiary agony. But she had nowhere to go, no way to usurp the ruthless control they had over her body. Hammer filled her at his own pace, and Liam enjoyed every helpless emotion that ripped across her face.
Finally, Macen gave a guttural groan from deep in his chest. The hair on his thighs gently abraded the backs of hers. He surged forward, trying to root in even deeper, but he was in to the hilt. All she could do was gape as he dragged the swollen head of his cock over her sensitive tissue.
“Hurry the fuck up, man.” Hammer rocked back, then shoved in again, pushing her closer to Liam—and the edge. “Holy shit.”
“On it. Lower yourself onto me, love. Give me your cunt.”
He didn’t have to tell her twice.
Raine gladly sat back on his cock, standing thick and waiting between her legs. With a wriggle and a nudge, she began taking him in, her hungry pussy swallowing inch after inch. The sting of the stretch they demanded of her openings as she took them both always had her grappling to accommodate and marveling at the wondrous feeling of completeness they gave her.
Beneath her, Liam surged up the rest of the way. As he fell back, Hammer invaded. Their perfectly synchronized dance drove her up, soaring toward an intoxicating rapture that would launch her straight to the heaven only they could give her.
Liam lunged. Hammer parried. She moved with them, sinking her teeth into Liam’s shoulder, moaning. Astonishing. Exhilarating.
Perfect.
They felt as if they were made for her. Yes, they’d all had struggles, but each of them had fought their way back to the others time and again. For this. Because they were meant to be.
And she couldn’t hold back the wrenching, undeniable love she felt for them anymore.
Heaving for her last sane breath, she lifted her lips from Liam’s skin. The purple love bite there barely registered as she howled out for them. “Please…Sirs. I’m begging.”
“Fuck, I could almost beg, too,” Hammer muttered.
“With you, mate. Christ…” Liam panted, a flush rushing across his skin. “Nothing turns me on more than watching you come. Do it, Raine. Shatter hard!”
She jolted, her entire system bucking and spasming as she splintered into a million pieces for them. As they crashed into her, they followed her into bliss, roaring out a chorus of curses and groans. The aftermath was a hush of whispers filled with devotion, tender kisses, and an unspoken hope that their every tomorrow could be this full of love.
* * *
Friday, February 15
* * *
At noon the next day, Raine emerged from Hammer’s Audi at the cemetery. Wearing a somber gray suit, Liam opened the door for her and held out his hand. By the time she gathered the flowers she’d brought, placed her fingers in his, and stood, Macen was beside him, locking the sedan with a concerned glance her way. River pulled up in his big black truck and killed the engine. He was slow to emerge.
As they left the parking lot, everything became more real. Her entire body trembled.
“You don’t have to do this today, love,” Liam offered.
Maybe it wasn’t the best timing in the face of everything else going on but… “Yeah, I do. I know you want to protect me. But I owe my mother and sister my love and respect. I’ve waited too long as it is.”
Raine squeezed his hand in unspoken thanks before she released him.
“We understand. We’re here for you,” Macen murmured.
With a grateful smile their way, she gathered herself and walked the rolling hills toward the edge of the park where Hammer and Liam had arranged for her mother and sister to be buried side by side. She needed to thank them for that, too. It had taken weeks for the investigators to find their complete remains and arrange for their transfer into her care. She’d been distraught, racked with morning sickness, nightmares, guilt, and grief. As always, they’d shouldered so much of the burden, sheltering her from the worst of the storm.
Swallowing, she trekked the last steps softly, almost afraid to read the headstones. Seeing her mom’s and sister’s names freshly etched in marble would make everything so much more real. But they had already been gone for years. If she’d felt abandoned by them in life—believing they’d voluntarily left her to escape the hell Bill had wrought—they must have felt she’d utterly forsaken them in death. She’d regret that forever.
Forcing herself to look at their graves, she blinked through tears. No blinking them back anymore.
Her loved ones were here…yet not. They’d never be with her again in this life except in her heart. Maybe if she was lucky she’d see something of them in her coming child. She’d cling to that hope. Somehow, she’d have to make do with that possibility, though it would never be enough.
Her body bucked with sobs that came from nowhere. All she did was cry now, it seemed. Pregnancy had sharpened her emotions, and they bled just under her skin every day. But finding River and laying the other Kendall women to rest with him while dealing with the doubt swirling over Hammer’s head… She just couldn’t hold her mourning in anymore.
She’d barely dragged in another ragged breath when Liam and Hammer flanked her, bracing her, lending their strength. A few feet away, River watched, looking stoic, his eyes almost too blue in his sunken sockets. No missing the guilt tightening his face.
“Precious?”
Hammer wanted to know if she was all right. Honestly, she wasn’t sure. Everything inside her felt confused, brittle, lost.
But she’d come to get closure with the two women who had most impacted her youth. She’d come to give them her love and promise to carry their memories into her future.
She didn’t want to worry Macen even more, so she nodded his way. Then, through her watery vision, she knelt in front of her mother’s grave and placed the flowers in the holder. Liam took the other bouquet from her grip and helped her to her feet again.
As she stared at the gentle mound of earth, Raine stuttered. It wasn’t lively, as her mother had been. It didn’t hold her or laugh or brighten up her world. Her mother had moved on, and Raine wasn’t sure what to do now. How did she say good-bye, wish a peaceful death to the woman who had given her life?
“I miss all the time we didn’t have together. I hate that years separate us like a divide. Wherever you are, I love you.”
A million memories she’d locked away for years rushed back. Mom had always been about doll clothes and dress-up, baking sweets to lift her spirits and pretending to leave home on great adventures. They’d act as if they were traveling to Africa or China or Fiji. Or Paris. Mom had always wanted to go there. Every once in a while, her mother would get a gleam in her eye, hand Raine a suitcase, and tell her to believe the world could take her anywhere. Looking back, those episodes usually happened after she’d heard her parents arguing. Inevitably, her mom would be wearing a lot more makeup than normal over the next few days and walking on eggshells around her dad. But never once had Robin ever pretended that she wouldn’t be taking Raine with her on these faraway escapes.
The clues had been there. Her mom would never have left her kids of her own free will.
Raine fingered the bracelet Liam and Hammer had made for her with the pendant her mother had gifted to her. Despondency crashed in. And she fell apart.
“I’m so sorry I believed for so long that you’d left me. I’m sorry I yelled at you, blamed you… You tried to give me normalcy and hope. I didn’t…”
Face in her hands, she cried in anger, at the futility of her mother’s death, for her own youthful inability to understand, for the years afterward of poking her head in the sand because she’d been getting by and the truth had been too terrible to contemplate.
As her shoulders shook, Macen curled a hand around her waist. Liam smoothed his hand down her back. They were there in silent support—steady, stalwart. Constant.<
br />
“Storm cloud…”
She lifted her head to watch River approach. This wasn’t just about her sorrow. River must have tons of it, too. The tight clench of his jaw and the rapid blinking told her that he worked hard to keep himself together. Whatever his faults, he’d loved Mom, too.
“You okay?” Her voice shook.
“Are you?” His face almost broke. He swallowed, looked away, and got it together. “Mom wouldn’t want to see you cry. That’s why I gave you that nickname, you know. She always said you were a sweet Raine, not a storm cloud. But when I was a punk kid, it was more fun to tease you.”
The memory burst out of the dark corner she’d shoved it in, and she laughed through her tears. “You always tried to make me cry back then. Bully.”
“I thought it was a big brother’s job to tease his sisters.” His smile fell, and he dragged in a shaky breath. “I can’t believe he killed her.”
“And we’ll never know exactly why.” Raine closed her eyes. Of everything that pained her about her mother’s murder, that might hurt worst of all.
“No. But I suspect she wanted to leave him and take us kids.”
“He would never have allowed it. The day I killed Bill, he told me he’d been sure she was having an affair with his brother.”
River shook his head. “That must have been all in his delusional head. Even if it was true, would you blame her?”
Never. “I just wish she’d gotten out alive.”
He shifted his weight from one foot to the next, his gaze darting, as if desperate for some way to focus his energy away from his emotions. “Yeah. But I try to look for the silver linings, tell myself that things happen for a reason. If Mom had really taken us from Bill, I would never have joined the army. You would have never met Hammer and Liam.”
River was right. She’d give up almost anything to still have her mother in her life today. But she would give up everything to keep the men she loved.
“I hope Mom can see us now and that she’s proud.”
Her brother looked Hammer and Liam’s way—seeking silent permission?—before he stepped closer to her and dropped his hand to her stomach. “She’d be happy for you. I want you to be happy, too.”