At our side, Harlow jerks. “That’s not what you told me.”
“Yeah, well, the principle is the same. Play nice, Eli, or I’m going to take my anger out on this pretty little woman of yours.” His grin is just shy of gruesome. “Hell, she’s not nearly as sweet as her reputation says. She might even like it.”
“You piece of shit.”
“Call me karma.” He turns and drags us in the opposite direction that his brothers went. I catch sight of half a dozen trucks and cars before we reach a nondescript gray door. Abel gives Harlow a little shove. “Open it.”
“Stop manhandling me, asshole.” She sounds more angry than scared, but I don’t trust it. I knew when I fell in love with her that having her at my side was the most selfish thing I could do. Being with me puts her in the kind of danger I promised I’d never let touch her again. Still, I rationalized that I could keep her safe from the worst of it.
Joke’s on me.
The door leads to a white hallway and a trio of doors identical to the first. Abel points to the one on the far left. “In there.”
Harlow stalks to the door and pushes it open. Inside is a bedroom. Brushed concrete floor. Plain white walls. King-sized bed. An open door that shows a small bathroom. That’s it.
I stare at the bed. “Abel, you’re not a rapist. Leave her out of this.”
He laughs. The bastard fucking laughs. “I’m going to take a shower. You have five minutes to figure your shit out.” He stalks into the bathroom and shuts the door. A few seconds later, a shower starts.
I stagger to Harlow and take her hands. “You have to run.”
She stares up at me as if she’s never seen me before. We’ve been together five years, but she looks nearly the same as she did the first time I saw her across the street seven years ago. Pale skin, large, dark eyes, a body that just won’t quit. She’s taken to dyeing her hair a light red color that’s darker at the roots, and it just works for her. I’ve seen her laughing, crying, angry enough to commit murder.
I’ve never seen her look at me with disgust.
She yanks her hands out of mine. “You might be an oathbreaker, but I’m not.”
Her words sting. How could they not? “I’ll find a way out of this.”
“Eli, stop.” She drags her hands through her hair. “It’s over. You lost. There is no getting around this or finding some clever loophole or whatever it is that you’re trying to come up with in that impressive brain of yours. We lost. We are handfasted to Abel Paine. It would have been bad enough if it was just me, but you couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you? You had to offer the entire faction up to him on a silver platter.”
I stare. “That’s not what I did.”
“That’s exactly what you did. Or did you not hear the prize for winner over the sound of your own ego rushing in your ears?” She sounds so angry, angrier than I’ve ever heard her. “You fucked up, Eli. You’ve been fucking up. There is no coming back from this. We’re under Paine’s control now, and the only thing to do is make the best of it.”
“I can’t accept that.” There has to be a way. I just need to calm down and think—something nearly impossible with the way pain bellows through my body with each breath. The stiffness hasn’t set in yet, but it will before too long, and then it’ll be a small miracle if I can move at all.
Harlow turns away from me. “You don’t have a choice.”
I don’t know why she’s pissed at me. “All I did was try to protect you.”
“At the expense of the people who really need your protection.” She still doesn’t look at me. “Just…stop. Eli, just stop, okay? Abel isn’t bluffing. If you try to double-cross him, he’ll make you pay.”
By using her.
I slump down into the chair next to the bed. She’s right. I’ve fucked this all up. It doesn’t change the reason for my actions. “I’ve only ever wanted to keep you safe.”
“I know.” She sounds like it makes her sad.
I’ve never wanted to make Harlow sad. I only want the best for her, to keep her as protected as a person can be when they live in Sabine Valley. She’s the most important person in my life, and I’ve failed her. “I’m sorry.”
In the bathroom, the shower shuts off. I stare at the door. If I kill Abel—
“Don’t. Whatever you’re thinking, don’t. Even if you somehow incapacitate him, there are six Paine brothers outside this door. They will kill you, Eli. Even if he doesn’t, they will.” Her breath hitches. “Please stop fighting this. Please just think for a minute. You’re going to make everything worse.”
Just like I did in the amphitheater.
But I couldn’t sit there and watch him take my woman. I barely have any memory of following her down the stairs, of challenging him to another fight. The fight itself? Every single missed opportunity is tattooed across my mind. Even with all my training, I was no match for Abel.
I never was, even when we were kids.
I drag my hand over my face and wince when the move reopens a cut on my cheek. I’m a fucking mess. “I won’t make things worse for you tonight,” I say softly. The knowledge of what comes next clogs my throat and has rage creating an inferno inside me.
The door opens, and Abel appears, a towel wrapped around his waist. He looks… Fuck, he looks good. I hate that he looks good. Now that the blood is cleaned away, I can see the scattering of new scars across his torso, the sign of a life roughly lived.
Where’s he been for the last eight years?
My father’s men chased the Paine brothers for years after their father’s death. I know for a fact that the search continued until my father’s death five years ago. They never found a trace of anything. It was as if Abel and his brothers disappeared into thin air.
Abel never was one to let a blow go unanswered, and my family dealt him several on that bloody night eight years ago.
He looks at me now, and there’s nothing of the man I used to know. Abel always was harder than his brothers, as befitting the heir to the Raider faction, but he was never cold. Now, it feels like the room temperature drops twenty degrees as he walks in.
He looks like his father. More, he feels like his father.
That scares the shit out of me. Bauer Paine was one of the most monstrous people I’ve ever come across, and the one thing Abel never wanted was to become his father. That the events of that night put him on this path…
I can’t afford to feel guilty. I can only deal with the situation at present.
He gives me a long look. “You have two choices, Eli.”
As much as I want to wring his neck, I can’t help drawing on my public persona. It’s a stress response, but it’s served me well throughout my life. People underestimate me constantly. Abel won’t, but that doesn’t matter. Lifelong habits are impossible to break. I laugh. “Let me guess; an easy way and a hard way.”
“You got it.” Abel doesn’t miss a beat, doesn’t blink. “You can be a good boy and go take a shower so you don’t get blood on the sheets, or you can choose the hard way.”
Go take a shower and leave Harlow alone with Abel? Out of the question. “Fuck off.”
Abel arches his dark brows. “Figured you’d say that.” He nods at Harlow. “Bedside table, top drawer.”
For a second, it looks like she’ll argue, but she finally nods and obeys. A few seconds later, she turns around with handcuffs dangling from her finger. “Kinky.”
“You have no idea, sweetheart.” He motions to me. “Cuff him to the chair. Do a good job of it, or I’m going to have to hurt him. Again.”
Harlow thins her lips but doesn’t argue. She moves behind the chair I’m sitting on and slaps the cuff around one wrist. I feel her lacing it through the back of the chair, keeping me in place, and then she cuffs the other wrist. I yank on it. I can’t help myself. The chair is metal. Even if I wasn’t one big ball of pain right now, there’s no way I could break free. “Fuck you, Abel.”
“Don’t put this on me. You chose
the hard way.” Abel gives me a vicious grin. “I was trying to be civilized. You’re the one breaking your word and putting everyone you care about in danger. I’m merely the natural consequences in action.” He turns to Harlow. “You good?”
She glares. “Good is not the word I’d choose.”
“Figured as much.” He stalks a slow circle around her, devouring her with his gaze. “You’re a sexy little thing, aren’t you? Bet you can take a beating.”
I tense, and the cuffs rattle against the chair. Harlow looks at me a long moment, and there’s something in her dark eyes that I’ve never seen before. She turns away before I can fully comprehend it, but the image lingers in my mind. Realization washes over me.
Rage.
Not just angry. Not just upset. She’s fucking furious with me.
And Abel knows it.
4
Abel
I let myself enjoy the shock on Eli’s face for several long moments before I turn my attention entirely on Harlow. She’s surprised me several times already. From the information we were able to gather on her, she seems to be a fragile thing in need of protection. Or at least that’s how Eli treats her. He has a guard on her at all times when she’s outside their compound, and she’s never once fought in the amphitheater during Lammas—something unheard of in a ruler or partner of a ruler. All the others have, including Eli.
He keeps her in a glass house, and it was my impression that she liked it. That she needed it.
She’s blown that assumption out of the water. I didn’t expect her to be so practical. I sure as fuck didn’t expect her to push back. I thought she’d faint like the princess in a tower the entire city believes her to be.
She’s pretty enough to be a princess. Strong features, a solid body that isn’t delicate in any way, lips made to wrap around a cock.
All in good time.
She’s wearing a cute little sundress thing, which might make me laugh under other circumstances. It’s completely impractical. She knew she wouldn’t be fighting tonight.
To test her, I reach out and take her shoulder, sliding my thumb beneath the strap of her dress and her skin. She shivers, but she doesn’t flinch away from me. Good. No matter what Eli believes of me, I’m not in the business of forcing sexual partners. Not even tonight.
“I’m taking off your dress now.”
“No need to draw it out.” Before I can react, she reaches up and tugs the straps off her shoulders, knocking my hand out of the way. She works the thin fabric down her full breasts and wide hips and lets it drop to the floor. It leaves her standing before me in only a pair of blue cotton panties.
For a moment, I simply stare. It feels a little like we’re playing a game of chicken, just the two of us. If she thinks she can brazen her way through this, she’s got another think coming. I take a step back and drink in the sight of her. I’m aware of Eli going stock-still in the chair to the side of us, but my attention is solely on Harlow.
Fuck, she’s sexy. Nice tits, soft stomach, a hint of muscle definition in her legs and arms, pert little ass.
She huffs out a breath. “Stop looking, and let’s get this over with.”
“You got somewhere to be?”
She glares. “I prefer to rip off bandages all at once, rather than taking my time.”
That surprises a rough laugh out of me. “You wound me.”
“I’m sure you’ll survive.”
“Mmm.” I close the distance between us, stopping just short of pressing against her, and take her chin. “You going to close your eyes and bear it? Do your duty and get this nasty business over with like a good little martyr?”
She arches a perfectly shaped brow, but I can see the way she shakes a little. “I agreed to consummate the handfasting. I didn’t agree to enjoy it.”
Eli curses, but we both ignore him.
I lean in, shifting until my lips nearly brush her ear. “Oh, you’re going to enjoy it.”
“Unlikely.”
Fuck, but I think I like her. She’s got some steel in that spine, and it’s appealing in a way I didn’t expect. I thought I might have to get creative to bring her around, but this is just another battle. I’ve been fighting my entire fucking life. Harlow doesn’t stand a chance of resisting.
I turn my face and press a slow kiss to her neck. My mouth hurts like a motherfucker, but it’s irrelevant. I’ve experienced worse, and I will again. “You’re furious, aren’t you, sweetheart? You were going to do the right thing, and then he went and tried to make you break your word. Fucker didn’t learn his lesson, either. He’d tell you to knee me in the balls and run right now if he wasn’t too busy choking on his own tongue out of pure fury.”
“Stop it.”
I drag my mouth up her neck. Fuck, her skin is soft. “Take it out on me. I can handle it.” I take her hips in a light grip. “Just like I bet you can handle anything I give you.”
“You are such a bastard,” she whispers.
“Not according to my mother.” She’s been gone fifteen years, taken by cancer. That loss barely stings anymore. Some days I wonder if it wasn’t a blessing that she didn’t live long enough to see us lose everything. Other days, I suspect Eli’s father never would have made the move he did if she were still among the living. She tempered Bauer Paine in a way I never could, and when she died, he lost what little humanity he had remaining.
Dark thoughts. Not the time or place for those.
I lift my head and look down at her. “You want to lie back and think of England? Go for it.” I motion to the bed.
For the first time, Harlow looks a little uncertain. But she finally sets her jaw and nods. “Sure.” She skims off her panties, and fuck if my mouth doesn’t water at the sight of her ass as she walks to the bed and crawls onto it.
I glance at Eli. He looks like a man staring death in the face. Good. “How many times do you think I can make her come before I finish?”
He flinches. “You’re such an asshole.”
Guilty, but that’s never stopped me from taking what I want. It’s not my fault he makes it so fucking easy. The Eli I remember used to have his shit together. He wasn’t walking around with an open spot in his armor big enough to drive a truck through. Harlow is a pressure point that he can’t seem to help reacting to, and I’m going to take great joy in smashing that button over and over again.
I just didn’t expect to enjoy the method of vengeance so much.
I stalk to the nightstand and pull out a string of condoms and toss them onto the bed next to where Harlow has positioned herself. She stares. “We only need to do it once.”
“Let’s keep our options open.” I snag her ankle and tow her around so that she’s lying perpendicular on the mattress. The better to maximize Eli’s view. “Spread your legs.”
“For fuck’s sake, Abel, just get over here, and fuck me already.”
Eli startles hard enough to rattle his cuffs against the chair. “Jesus, Harlow.”
She sits up and glares at him. “Don’t you dare judge me right now. You did this. You agreed to this. You put us in this position. I’m just following through on it. Sit there, and be silent.”
I whistle. “You’ve pissed her off something fierce, Eli.” They’re really making this easy on me, but that doesn’t mean I’ll hesitate to twist the knife every chance I get.
“You.” She points at me. “Stop talking, and let’s get this over with.”
“Yeah, no. I’m not operating on your timeline.” I lean down and grab her thighs, using the hold to yank her to the edge of the bed as I go to my knees next to it.
She blinks big, dark eyes at me. “What are you doing?”
“Don’t worry about what I’m doing. You were planning on just enduring it, right?” I give her a wicked grin. “Just lie back, and suffer.” I push her legs wide and run my hands up her thighs. Her expression is uncertain for the first time since she walked down to join me on the sand. Can’t have that. I part her pussy with my thumbs and g
rowl. “You look like my favorite kind of dessert, sweetheart.”
“Abel—”
I dip down and drag my tongue over her, cutting off her words. Her thighs shake, and she makes a sound suspiciously like a whimper. I keep her spread as I explore her slowly, but my gaze is on her face. She’s staring at me like she’s not sure if she wants to kick me in the teeth or dig her fingers into my hair and ride my face to orgasm.
I know which I’d prefer.
I flick her clit with the tip of my tongue. “Problem?”
“What are you doing?” she hisses.
“Don’t worry about me.” I trace her clit again. “Unless this feels too good? Be a damn shame if it’s distracting you from your suffering.” I pause, my breath ghosting against her clit with every exhale.
Harlow seems at war with herself. She doesn’t want to like this, but there’s a fierceness in her that can’t help but respond to the challenge. I feel it, too. I don’t know what the fuck is going on with her and Eli, but it’s not as simple as I thought. There’s almost an animosity there on her part, and he seems determined not to see it.
She glances at Eli, and her expression goes flat and angry. It’s like a flip is switched; gone is the hesitation, the shock. She digs her hands into my hair. “Fine. Fuck, fine. If you’re going to do this, do it right.” She drags me back to her pussy and lifts her hips to meet me.
I hear Eli cursing, and I grin against her heated flesh. In all the scenarios I ran, this didn’t number as a possibility. I couldn’t have planned this better if I tried. Even if I didn’t want her, I’d still use this as leverage to widen the wedge between them. But I do want her, and that changes things.
Tonight, I’ve taken everything from Eli.
His territory. His people. His fucking woman.
5
Harlow
A person shouldn’t be able to feel so much rage and still keep moving. I am furious at Eli, furious at his insistence on making things worse, on trying to protect me when I don’t need his fucking protection. I love him, I’ve loved him for years, but he’s never seen me. After tonight, it couldn’t be clearer that it will never change. He doesn’t listen to me. He doesn’t care about what I want, what I need, that I’m more than capable of holding my own and being a full partner. Full responsibility, full capability of protecting our people.
Abel: A Sabine Valley Novel Page 3