by Eve, Jaymin
That was the best I could taunt him with because it was all too evident he was up for it. Up, hard, and holy crap… massive. I shifted under him, spreading my legs wide enough to wrap around his waist, then pulling him tighter against my core.
Rafe made a small noise but simply hovered over me a moment, his deep blue eyes unreadable as he peered into mine.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he muttered so quietly it could have been to himself, then crashed his lips into mine with all the intensity of a firestorm.
For the briefest moment, I let it happen. This… this was the sort of kiss I’d read about in fairytales. The sort of kiss that sent heat searing through my whole body and made my toes curl, fingernails claw, and panties melt. This was the sort of kiss I’d thought Alex—
Fucking Alex.
Wrenching my lips from Rafe’s, I gave him my neck.
“We’re not making love, asshole. Take your pants off and fuck me, or I’ll find someone else who will.”
My face was to the side, but I still caught the flicker of anger that crossed his gorgeous face. What he had to be upset about, I had no idea. Wasn’t this exactly what guys like him wanted? No strings, no emotional attachment, just fucking?
“Fine,” he snapped, peeling my legs off from around him and moving to stand up.
My heart sank, and I thought for a moment he was actually leaving. But when he reached over his shoulder and whipped his top off in a smooth, very practiced move, I let out a small sigh of relief.
Holy ever-loving shit, a body like that should be illegal.
Rafe barely allowed me a moment to ogle his hot, tatted body before grabbing me by the ankles and flipping me over in a move that screamed of fight training. My bruised muscles protested the sudden movement, but I just groaned with anticipation.
“Is this what you want, Cinderella?” Rafe’s voice was deep and husky. Dirty. I was damn near gushing already. The distinctive rustle of fabric and slide of a zipper teased me, and I cursed him for denying me a look at his goods. “A quick, faceless hate fuck to wipe that Australasian prick from your mind?” His hands were on my ass, burning hot as he stroked over my flesh and teased at the flimsy lace of my thong.
“Yes,” I replied in a breathy moan, hitching my knees up underneath me and leaving zero doubts as to what I wanted from him.
His low chuckle sent shivers chasing down my spine, and I couldn’t help myself, I wiggled my behind in desperation. Not that he needed the encouragement. As he leaned closer, stroking a hand up my back to tangle in my messy, bloody braid, I could feel the heat and hardness of his own arousal against my ass.
“You think you can wash away the memory of his touch that easily? You think if I fuck you hard enough you’ll forget that you let a two-faced, murderous bastard defile your body?” His lips brushed my ear as he fucking growled those words at me. His voice was heavily threaded with anger, frustration, and hate. But it was also drenched in desire.
Unable to help myself, I turned my head a fraction. His grip on my hair was so tight I couldn’t manage to look back at him fully, but I pushed it enough that my scalp screamed protests and he could catch the arrogant smirk on my mouth. “Only if you do it right, Angel baby.”
The noise he made was barely even human. He’d snapped, and I was solely responsible.
Damn that felt good.
Rafe wasted no time with foreplay. Our whole snarky, combative exchange had been the best kind of foreplay for both of us, really. A sharp bite of pain at my hips alerted me to the demise of that particular thong, and before I could even suck in a breath of surprise, he was fully inside me.
“Oh, fuck,” I groaned, panting as my pussy stretched at the sudden intrusion. The polite thing for him to do would have been to pause a moment, let me adjust a bit, but this was Rafe. We barely tolerated each other, we certainly didn’t like each other, and we gave zero fucks about being polite with one another.
He started moving almost instantly, fucking me hard enough that I couldn’t do anything but hold on and enjoy the ride. My fists tangled in the bedclothes, my breath came in harsh gasps, and my whole body vibrated with that delicious mixture of extreme pleasure and pain.
I was covered in cuts and bruises, aches from my debut in the underground fights, and Rafe wasn’t afraid to remind me of it. His hand slid up from my hip to press down on a particularly painful spot somewhere on my back, and I screamed.
“Well, Violence? Is this doing it for you?” He was taunting me, trying to get under my skin like I’d done to him. Foolish prince. He had no idea just how thick my skin really was.
I laughed a sexy, throaty sound and arched my back into his touch further. “It’s getting there.” I kind of loved that he insisted on calling me Violence. It felt truer to who I really was… not that I’d ever admit that to him.
He snarled a frustrated sound, and I grinned. Until he flicked open my bra clasp and palmed one of my breasts, that was. Then the smug smile dissolved, and I whimpered with desperate desire as he roughly manhandled my hard nipple.
Fuck. Holy fuck. How he knew what I wanted… how I wanted it…
“Oh shit,” I moaned aloud when his grip on my hair tightened, pulling my head back as he fucked me with fury. “Fuck, Rafe, I’m going to come.” I could feel it building with intense momentum, and I was beyond ecstatic to welcome it.
“Good,” he grunted. “Come for me, Vi. Come hard, all over my dick.”
I gritted my teeth, fighting for breath as the delicious, intoxicating sensations started rushing through me. “I wasn’t asking your permission, asshole,” I snapped back at him. “Just stating a fac—oh shit—a fact.” The end of that statement deteriorated into a moaning scream that seemed to go on for ages. Whatever. Like I cared what Rafe thought of me or my orgasm noises.
When I was done, my muscles like jelly and my cheek smooshed into the comforter, he laughed.
Bastard.
“Is that all you’ve got?” he taunted, gripping my hips with both hands now as he continued to move inside me. His motions were slower. Probably because my cunt was still pulsing and clenching so tight he was having a hard time freeing himself. “Let me guess, that pathetic boyfriend of yours only managed to make you come once?”
“Not my boyfriend,” I snarled back at him, turning my face far enough that I could glare death at the gorgeous creature who was buried balls deep inside me. “And if you think you can do better, please, be my guest.” Every damn word dripped with condescending challenge. It was how we operated.
A cruel smile slid across his face, and he barked a laugh.
“Oh, precious little street princess. I have every intention of doing just that.”
The way he bit his lower lip was almost enough to make me come again right then, but I clenched my teeth and met his stare unflinchingly.
“Well? Go on then, I’m wait—” I didn’t get to finish my taunt.
Seconds later I was flat on my back, my legs draped over Rafe’s shoulders and his face buried between my thighs as I screamed through another crazy intense orgasm. And another. Suffice it to say, he hadn’t been bluffing.
By the time I was balanced on the edge of my fourth orgasm, my short nails had raked bloody lines and marks all over his broad back. His cock was buried back inside me again, and we were both slick with sweat as we moved together. We’d long since given up trading verbal barbs, choosing to use our mouths for far more important things. Like breathing.
Knowing full damn well that if he dragged a fifth orgasm from me, I was probably going to spontaneously combust, I took matters into my own hands. Dredging up what little strength I still had left, I rolled us over until I was on top, grinning down at Rafe’s sweaty, dazed face. His dark hair was disheveled, and my blood pounded harder through my veins at just how stunning he really was.
I braced my hands on his chest, balancing as I rode him with determination. This time I wasn’t just chasing down my own climax, I wanted his, too.
A
throaty groan purred out of him when I shifted my weight, arching my back and finding that sweet spot. That exact, perfect angle that saw the head of his cock rubbing my G-spot.
“Holy fucking shit,” I panted, feeling his huge, rough hands cupping my breasts. His fingers rolled my nipples, pinching them roughly as I whimpered encouragement.
He was close. I could tell by the tension in his shoulders, by the tightness in his jaw and the slightly panicked, deranged look on his face. Still, the way he watched me with those sexy, hooded eyes was a touch too intense for my liking. His walls were down, the neutral mask nowhere to be seen, and it was all too fucking much. He stared up at me like I was some kind of… I don’t even know. Maybe it’d been a while since a girl had rocked his world like this.
It only took a few more seconds for me to be gasping and thrashing with my climax. It was the best one, though, because somewhere along the way Rafe totally lost it along with me. He came hard, crying out with his own earth-shattering release. Or I fucking hoped it was earth-shattering for him, too.
I was done. My body no longer obeyed my commands, and I just kind of collapsed into a boneless heap on Rafe’s muscled, colorfully inked chest. Damn, his ink was sexy.
“Are we seriously cuddling right now?” His raspy, sarcastic question magically mustered up a flicker of strength in me. Amazing how that worked.
Growling a pissed-off sound in my throat, I rolled off him, then used my jelly legs to shove him off the bed. “Fuck off, Rafe. We don’t kiss and we sure as shit don’t cuddle.” One final shove with my feet saw him thump onto the carpet, and the pained groan he let out said he was just as wrecked as I was. Hah. Served him right.
I draped an arm across my face, feeling my chest heave as I still fought to catch my breath. Rafe made more exhausted complaining noises as he stood up from the floor, then the mattress dipped with his weight as he leaned over me.
“We’ll see about that, Violence,” he whispered, his breath feathering my skin the only warning before he sucked one of my nipples into his mouth and gave it a teasing bite. “I’m taking a shower. Someone got blood all over me.”
I didn’t move, didn’t breathe again, until I heard the bathroom door close and the water turn on. Only then did I sit up just enough to frown down at my body.
Yep, sure enough, I had a half dozen small cuts and lacerations from my tournament fight, which were still oozing fresh blood. My brain barely registered anything more than a dull ache from them, but it wasn’t pretty. Maybe a shower wasn’t such a bad idea…
Maybe I should join Rafe…
Just as that thought crossed my mind, the heavy click of a door unlocking reached my ears, and the front door of the studio burst open.
“Violet!” Jordan exclaimed, his eyes widening when he saw me sitting there on the bed. “Thank fuck you’re okay!” He crossed the room in all of three steps, and the next thing I knew his lips were on mine.
Shock didn’t even begin to describe what was going on in my brain. Jordan was kissing me? Jordan. Prince of New America. Kissing me. After I’d just fucked his best friend six ways to Sunday.
Shock was fully to blame for what happened next.
I kissed him back.
Jordan hadn’t really been on my radar until now. I mean, sure, I was attracted to him on a physiological level, but I’d been so consumed by Alex and then… Rafe.
Confusion stunned me, and I acted on instinct.
My fingers threaded through his hair, pulling him closer to me, even as he pressed me back into the bed. He nipped and sucked at my lips like he’d been thinking about doing this for way too freaking long, and damn if I didn’t repay the favor. Could I actually be crushing on Jordan as hard as Rafe? Where the hell had that come from?
“Violet, baby,” he groaned, his fingers flexing on my bare hip, “you’re naked. Wait.” He pulled back from our kiss, a frown creasing his brow. “Wait. You’re naked. Why are you naked?”
“Probably because she was about to join me in the shower for orgasm number, oh, what are we up to now, Vi? Six? Seven?” Rafe’s cocky sneer was full of venom as he leaned on the bathroom doorframe. A pale blue towel was tucked low around his hips, and his huge, muscular arms were folded across his inked chest. The part that turned my stomach and chilled my soul, though, was the ice-cold look in his eyes.
“Five,” I replied, trying to sound sassy and just coming out croaky.
The smile he gave me back was all sarcasm. “Oh yeah. I lost track when you were coming all over my face.”
“Whoa, what the—” Jordan was playing a huge game of catch-up, but neither of us seemed all too inclined to fill him in.
“I see you’re happy to kiss my best friend then,” Rafe continued, ignoring the friend in question and just pinning me with his deadly glare. “That’s fine. I got what I wanted.”
“Oh please,” I scoffed back at him, mocking. “We both know I took what I wanted. You were just along for the ride.”
Rafe’s mouth opened to shoot back what I’m sure was going to be another poisonous barb, but Jordan had finally picked his jaw up off the floor.
“Enough!” he roared. “Both of you, just fucking enough.” He shot Rafe a scathing glare, then flickered a sheepish look at me. “Violet, do you need something to wear? I can’t concentrate when you’re all…” He waved a hand at my stark naked, post-fuck-session state, and I couldn’t hide a grin. His sharp gaze seemed to run over not just my nudity but also every cut, scrape, and bruise like he was mentally cataloguing them all and storing the information for later. He didn’t baby me or ask if I was okay, and I loved that.
When I was really exhausted, I lost control over my emotions and they all just played out on my face. All of them. And right now I feared he could see exactly how confused and turned on I’d been by his kiss.
“Seriously, the way you’re looking at me makes it really, really hard—”
Rafe snorted.
“—to concentrate.” Jordan finished, shooting his friend another glare.
As funny as I found the current dynamic, Jordan had never done anything to deserve my malicious anger, so I dragged a sheet over my body and gave him a small smile. “Better?”
“Marginally,” he muttered, his heated gaze staring at the thin material like he wanted to make it disappear. With a sigh, he sat on the side of the bed and ran his hands through his hair several times while Rafe and I just waited to see what he needed to say.
“What the hell did I walk in on here?” Jordan finally demanded, encompassing us both in this line of questioning.
I just shrugged and deferred to Rafe. Let him sort this out; I’d just wanted hot, meaningless sex to wash Alex out of my brain. Ugh. Fucking Alex.
An arrogant sneer curled Rafe’s lip, and he scoffed back at Jordan. “Shouldn’t I be asking the same thing? Since when did you and Cinderella start swapping saliva?”
I spluttered. “Uh, since never. That was a first, and I’d also really like to know where that came from.”
The small, apologetic frown that touched Jordan’s brow when he looked over at me struck a nerve. Had that been something more than just adrenaline at play?
He let out a small sigh, turning away from me again and giving Rafe a small headshake. “You knew I liked her. If you felt the same, you should have fucking said something sooner.”
“That’s not even remotely what this was about,” Rafe replied, his jaw clenched with frustration.
I was officially lost. There was more going on in the subtext than I was picking up on, and it was making me twitchy.
Clearing my throat, I folded my arms—holding the sheet in place to retain what little shreds of dignity I had left. “This was about my need to erase my ex-boyfriend from my mind for five fucking minutes.” Rafe quirked a brow at me, and my cheeks heated. “Or longer. But it doesn’t change anything. Prince Prickly and I still hate each other just as much as yesterday.” I paused, frowning as I remembered everything I’d learned before the fig
ht. “Maybe more than ever. Did you know that the Princess Ballot was rigged?” I speared Rafe with my stare. For some reason, some stupid, hopeless reason, I wanted him not to be the epic, unredeemable asshole I suspected he was. I wanted him—and all my friends for that matter—to be ignorant of the secrets Alex had so carelessly spilled.
His long hesitation filled me with dread.
“What? No, we don’t know anything about that,” Jordan responded, his confusion clear in his voice. But my gaze never moved from Rafe’s. He fucking knew something. “Rafe? Bro? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
I genuinely believed I didn’t care what Rafe thought of me. We weren’t friends, and despite all the sex we’d just had, we certainly weren’t lovers. But somehow as I stared into his angry, unsurprised eyes, my heart broke a little bit more.
“You knew, didn’t you?” I whispered. “You knew that I was chosen because of my DNA. That Alex was planning on making me fall in love and sign some archaic marriage contract. Is that what happened to all the ballot winners? Did they all get tricked into getting pregnant, too? ’Cause that’s what Alex had planned for me.”
At this, I finally got a reaction out of him. “What?” he spat, his face twisted in disgust. “No! I didn’t know anything about that. That’s…” He trailed off, shaking his head with disbelief. “No.” His gaze returned to mine, and this time there was no pretense. His eyes were full of what appeared to be a sincere apology. “I swear, Vi, I had no clue that’s what they were up to. But… yeah, I have suspected since the last ballot that something weird was going on.”
I nodded slowly, releasing the heavy breath I’d been holding. Suspecting wasn’t knowing, and that made all the difference to me. He’d also tried multiple times to warn me away from Alex, in his own fucked-up way, and I’d chosen to ignore him. I had no one to blame but myself for this mess.
“Well,” I muttered, feeling my shoulders sag under the weight of all my issues. “Maybe you can understand why I needed to forget all of that for a while.”
A fake cough near the door alerted us to another participant in the conversation, and Nolan grinned a sly, sexy grin. He held my missing blade, which he must have rescued from the tournament. Relief flooded through me that it hadn’t been lost or stolen. I’d worked too damn hard to earn that blade.