by Reid, B. B.
“The correct word you’re looking for is aspiring,” Griffin informed him.
“Oh, I guess that means I’m talking to your girlfriend then?”
It was obvious Loren had called them out when Griffin and Maeko’s eyes nervously darted to Braxton, who unsurprisingly looked unsurprised.
“Is there a reason why you’re in our suite?” Braxton asked with a sigh. She didn’t bother to acknowledge what Loren had just told her.
“Your suite, babe. We didn’t invite them.”
Crossing her arms, Braxton shot back, “I did.”
Loren gave her a subtle smile before sinking his teeth into his bottom lip while he gazed at her lustfully. “Doubt that.”
She wanted to be alone with us too. If we needed to scheme so she could pretend that she had no choice, we were happy to oblige her.
For now.
Eventually, Braxton and her friends would have to come to terms with the fact that we weren’t going to let her go.
“Ready?” Houston asked her when her silence became a little too telling. We had the green light we’d been waiting for. Nothing more needed to be said. I just barely resisted smiling smugly at her friends.
“Yes,” Braxton answered before slowly walking toward us.
I could feel her gaze on me as I admired her long hair pinned up in a ponytail with a few strands framing her face and neck. I didn’t appreciate the white, satin slip dress that looked dangerously like lingerie so much. She wore it with a black leather jacket and her combat boots, but she was testing my fucking patience when I once again questioned if she was even wearing panties. I didn’t like anyone seeing what was mine unless his name was Houston Morrow or Loren James.
Our show was tonight, and then it was off to Hamburg, Cologne, Mannheim, and Munich. No fucking clue if that was the actual order.
When Braxton tried to pass me, I grabbed her hand. She stopped.
“Panties?” I asked when her gaze met mine.
She pulled her hand away with a smile that was soft but devious. “Is that your concern anymore?”
“It never stopped.” I held her gaze so she’d know I was completely serious. “Panties?”
God help her if she made me ask again.
I watched her roll her eyes as she looked away. “Yes, Jericho. Can we go now?”
I don’t know what came over me. I pulled her into me, wrapped my hand around her nape, and…I ruined the black lipstick painting her lips.
She let me.
For a while.
And then she remembered the right was no longer mine.
Braxton pulled away, and I immediately began to relive that kiss. I didn’t know when I’d be able to steal another. It had been too long since I felt her lips. It felt like I’d been trapped inside a drought. With one kiss, she’d brought me back from the brink of death. At least, that was how it seemed.
We made it to the stadium.
We made it through soundcheck.
We made it onto the stage, and I was still thinking about that kiss.
Braxton’s gaze had traveled to mine more than once during the show. She was looking at me now, black lipstick restored, and her gaze wondering what if.
What if I kissed her again?
What if she forgave me?
What if I meant every one of the words she still wouldn’t allow me to say?
I do, baby. I do.
I know you love me too.
After the show, everyone was wired, so Loren suggested we do something we hadn’t done in a while. Celebrate for no fucking reason at all. He made a call, and it was done. The six of us hopped in the black Suburban and drove for thirty minutes.
The club Loren brought us to had one of the strictest door policies ever and was…weirdly obsessed with wearing black? I eyed Braxton’s white dress, and so did the bouncer after we bypassed the long line. Either Loren had the pull, or even the formidable guard with tattoos and hella piercings could spot a rebel masquerading as an angel.
We passed through the graffiti-covered door after having the lens on our phone cameras taped over and entered the industrial building that reminded me of a middle-aged cathedral but concealed one of the most secretive and exclusive clubs in the world.
Above the cavernous ground floor bathed in darkness and dancers, loomed ceilings sixty feet high and supported by concrete pillars. The club had loaned us four of their bouncers since they hadn’t been generous enough to allow us ours. They cleared a path through the stomping, air-punching crowd of fifteen hundred people dressed in little and some in nothing at all. I even spotted what looked like people openly fucking while others danced around them. As the bouncers pushed aside the revelers, the crowd began to push back when they recognized who had passed them.
I was starting to question whether we should be there until Braxton and her friends started dancing. They didn’t stop the entire way up to the DJ’s booth on the platform above the dance floor.
As we continued to the far edge of the balcony and the empty corner cloaked in shadows, Loren broke off from our group to embrace and talk to one of the guys standing at the mixer. He was wearing headphones, so I assumed he was the DJ.
“Let’s go to the bar!” Maeko shouted to her friends. She and Griffin started to go, but as soon as Braxton moved to go with them, Houston pulled her front into his chest and kept her there with his arms around her waist and his gaze fixed on her friends. “Let our friend go, please.”
Houston stared at Maeko before shaking his head at her over Braxton’s shoulder. The bouncers had already left, which meant the four of us were stuck here until we were ready to go. Griffin and Maeko could go anywhere they liked.
With a crowd that size and in that state, it was a risk for anyone just being in the building. For Bound, that danger was tenfold. Braxton was staying right here.
“Let me go, Houston,” she tried to assert anyway.
I laughed quietly, even though the music drowned me out, as I leaned against the wall next to them. Loren was still standing with the DJ and his entourage, talking with everyone like the social butterfly he was. I didn’t miss the furtive glances Houston and Braxton drew our way with their embrace either.
I was sure everyone had heard the rumors by now, and we didn’t care to disprove them. Especially considering that, for once, they were true, and we had no intention of hiding Braxton.
“Promise not to make me cause a scene?”
Braxton glared up at him, and taking that as her answer, Houston held her tighter.
No one remarked on the fact that she didn’t fight him.
Sighing, she turned her head toward her friends while Houston kissed on the side of her neck she exposed as she told them what drink to bring her. The moment Griffin and Maeko were gone, Braxton shoved away from Houston, and he let her with a smile.
“I think it’s time we get shit understood,” she started before she was interrupted by Loren, who’d snuck up behind her. Turning her around, he immediately began tonguing her down.
“Tell us, baby,” he said between hungry kisses. “Put us in our fucking place so we can put you back in yours.”
She pulled away to gawk up at him. “My place?”
As “Spastik” by Plastikman began to play, Loren walked her backward until she was sandwiched with her back against Houston’s chest, and Loren pressed against her front. He cut his gaze toward me when I hesitated for the brief moment it took me to wonder if I should tread carefully with her.
He still didn’t trust me not to bolt.
My divorce had been finalized, and he was still afraid of losing me.
Why the hell did that make me feel guilty?
I thought I was in love with Emily when I married her, and I still believed it when Loren took it upon himself to rip my marriage apart to prove a point. Anger simmered at his audacity. I hadn’t been the only one to hurt my friends, yet he liked to pretend.
I felt the recklessness rise and the need to fuck some shit up.
; My gaze fell on Braxton as I moved in to block her only escape.
Perhaps what I truly felt was the desire to take what I wanted and damn the consequences. Forget having patience and waiting for Braxton to forgive me. I could figure it out along the way.
“Any more questions?” Loren inquired once the circle was complete, and we all stared down at her, trapped between us.
Braxton was smaller and shorter, but her brass painted a different picture. She portrayed a woman destined to make men sit up straight whenever she entered a room.
My toes curled from the anticipation of our rebel pushing back after we reminded her who was in charge. She’d demand respect, and then she’d give us no choice but to give her everything she asked for and more.
I was really looking forward to the latter.
“Yes. Which part of we’re over was unclear?” She frowned as if she were genuinely confused. “I’m concerned you don’t seem to be getting it.”
“The part where you agreed to finish the tour to save our asses? The part where you showed up even though you knew what would happen? You came because you were hoping we could convince you to take us back. We will, baby. Just give it time.”
“You’re off base by a mile,” she returned dryly.
Loren’s hands slipped beneath her short dress as he stared at her like nothing was amiss. “Then what’s with the attitude?” His hands moved up and down as he caressed the back of her thighs.
“Because you lied to me?”
Her gaze cut to me and my stomach twisted sharply. Guilt was the reason I was forcing myself to be a spectator to what Braxton still hadn’t realized was unfolding.
“Nah. You said it yourself that you forgave us. You’re upset because we’re taking too long to earn back your trust.” He kissed her tenderly when she looked like she’d sock him. “It’s true,” he whispered as he pecked her again. “You know it is.”
Loren’s hands moved up to her ass at the same time Houston shifted his hold to her arms. As smooth as if he were straightening his tie, Loren tore Braxton’s panties from her and made her gasp. He smoothly snuck them to me, and I stuffed them in my pocket for later.
“What are you—”
“Have you been touching yourself?” Houston interrupted. She shook her head and then immediately rolled her eyes at herself for answering. “Good girl. Tonight, we take care of your pussy. Tomorrow, we see about your heart.”
“Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” she muttered bitterly.
Loren’s lips quirked. “One’s not as stubborn as the other, but rest assured, baby fawn, we’ll have them both.”
“Someone will see,” she pleaded in a last bid to come to her senses. It was too late, though. She’d already given in.
“See what?” he pretended not to know even as he unbuckled his belt.
“You fucking me.”
Houston lifted her leg from behind, opening her up for Loren, who was now freeing his dick. “Let them see,” Loren whispered as he stroked himself. “Let this happen like we know you will, and we can be done before your friends return.” He brought himself to her entrance, and she whimpered from the pleasure when he began pushing inside. I avidly watched every inch he filled her with. “We can be your dirty little secret,” he promised as he reached the hilt and began pumping his hips. “Would you like that?”
All she could manage were a few broken sounds.
This close, I could hear over the music how wet Braxton was as Loren moved inside her. There had been no foreplay, no precedent to this moment. There was only the need building inside of us all in the month since we last had her.
Groaning, Loren sped up.
“Make no mistake,” Houston said to Braxton as Loren fucked her silly against him. He held her still for our best friend’s enjoyment, and Braxton loved every second of it. “We’re not going to stop, we’re not going away, and we’re never giving up. You’re Bound. That can never be broken.”
“Houston.”
The sound of his name on her lips and Loren’s groan as she came around him seemed to break Houston’s control. “Shit,” he said to Loren as he released Braxton’s neck and forced his hand between them to undo his jeans. “Speed this up. I can’t wait.”
Bracing his forearm on the wall next to Houston’s head, Loren sped up his thrusts, pounding inside Braxton with no remorse and making their skin slap as she cried out without any thought of keeping her voice down.
“Basiel” by Amelie Lens drowned them out, but the three of us could hear loud and clear along with the small group surrounding the DJ at the booth just fifty feet away.
They couldn’t see, but they could hear the remnants of her cries. Even though it was just another night for them and no one bothered to look our way, I made sure my body blocked Braxton and what we were up to as I looked on.
My dick was as hard as a brick, while my gaze couldn’t decide where to settle. I watched Braxton’s tits bounce under the low cut of her dress since she’d once again gone without a bra. I watched the muscles in Loren’s naked ass flex as he pumped inside her. I even watched and listened as Houston whispered dirty threats in her ear. I knew he’d make good on every one of them once Loren was through.
“Today, Lo.”
With three more hard pumps and a grunt as he came, Loren obliged Houston without argument. He stayed inside her a few seconds longer, kissing her lips and whispering how much he loved her in between before pulling away.
Braxton didn’t react as he knew she wouldn’t.
I could see the frustration in Loren’s eyes as he fixed his clothes, but he said nothing.
Houston had already turned Braxton around and stolen her attention. He shed her leather jacket, letting it fall to the ground. The thin straps of her dress were next. Houston slipped them off her shoulders and let her dress fall, too, baring her completely as if we weren’t in the middle of a fucking club.
“Houston,” I scolded, unable to hide my apprehension.
Had we gone too far?
Ignoring me, Houston gripped Braxton’s breasts in both of his palms, and together, they moved deeper into the shadows until they were completely shrouded as they kissed.
Not even I could see what they were doing.
I knew the moment he began fucking her, though.
As Loren casually leaned against the wall, I drank in every one of Braxton’s incoherent cries and Houston’s harsh grunts as he fucked her like it was their last time. He rode her hard, and she took everything he gave.
It seemed to go on forever, and at the same time, not long enough.
“Oh, Houston,” she told him.
“Fuck, Braxton,” he told her.
Their choked gasps were the last thing Loren and I heard before it stopped. It was a couple more minutes before Houston led Braxton back out of the shadows with a hand on her waist as he kept her upright and steady. Her hair had fallen from her ponytail, and she was already bearing the marks from their attention. I don’t know how she expected to hide what she’d done from her friends, but our mission was accomplished.
I could see our victory building in her eyes.
The capitulation.
Her inevitable surrender.
And my permanent undoing.
Almost there.
Loren turned to me and lifted a brow.
“You don’t want a turn?” he asked as he lazily chewed a stick of gum.
I saw Braxton shiver at his tone and his question. She only liked being treated like our possession when her clothes were off and her inhibitions were down. If he’d tried it any other time, he’d be on the ground holding his balls.
My throat bobbed as I swallowed the desire that made my mouth water. “Not this time,” I whispered as I reached out and brushed her naked nipple with my thumb. “I think we need to have that talk first, right?”
I took my gaze off her breasts for the beauty of her brown eyes.
Braxton nodded eagerly, and I could see her gratitude for my res
traint. She wasn’t strong enough to turn me down right now, and I didn’t want her hating herself in the morning. Regret was not what I needed her to feel whenever she thought of me.
I thought about our kiss earlier, and she must have thought of it too.
Rising on her tiptoes, Braxton planted one on my cheek. “Thank you for understanding,” she whispered before settling on her heels again.
I simply nodded as I looked away so she wouldn’t see my hidden thoughts.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
Paris.
I was in Paris.
I inhaled a nervous breath and slowly exhaled the brine. When that didn’t work, I started to fidget, adjusting the wig I wore that was long, layered, black with blue ombre, and had side bangs covering my right eye.
Going with the flow, I’d lined my eyes heavily with black liner and clipped the faux silver piercings to my nose and lip. I completed the look picked out for me with fishnet stockings, black jeans with holes in the knees, and a cropped tee.
Seeing my reflection now in one of the seventeen large mirrors made from three hundred and fifty smaller mirrors, I knew without a doubt who’d left the disguise.
The handwritten note asking to meet here and at this time made it clear too. I’d woken up this morning to both waiting for me inside my hotel suite at the foot of my bed that I’d slept in alone.
And now I waited with butterflies in my stomach for him to arrive.
It’s been two weeks since Berlin.
Two guilt-ridden weeks since the club and the sex that I wouldn’t allow myself to think about, but somehow, I always managed to think only about it. Houston and Loren had shamelessly poured their frustration into me while Jericho watched. They made me not just see but feel how much they needed me. I needed them too, but it wasn’t the same.
This wasn’t hiding fear and apprehension behind cruelty like before.
They’d lied to me.
How do we come back from that? How do I learn to trust them again? I keep waiting for some sign that may never come. And if it didn’t, what did that mean?
I was afraid to know the answer.
I wasn’t ready to accept the truth if it meant being without them.