by Sadie Moss
Because no matter how forceful it was, it wasn’t blind rage.
It was anger with a purpose.
He was using it to protect me.
I felt… safe.
My entire body is still trembling slightly, not so much from fear as from an excess of leftover adrenaline. Everything that just happened was totally unexpected. And I don’t just mean the fight. I mean the way all seven of the sins rushed to protect me—with no hesitation, nothing held back.
To see Ford going out of his way to look out for me was surprising, to say the least. And it wasn’t just about the competition. I’m sure of it. This was above the competitive streak I know he has. He could’ve helped me to win without going almost Berserker-like in his rage.
But the other six men—it’s their actions that have thrown me for a complete loop.
They didn’t need to step in. In fact, it’s their fault we’re disqualified. I can’t have more than one partner, the rules clearly stated that. And yet, they all hopped in to fight without a second thought.
I’m frustrated and worried about the disqualification, because we need that Barakah Crystal to stop this portal mess. But at the same time, I can’t stop thinking about how they all looked, towering around me in a circle, united, each of them furious.
Ford’s eyes had been glowing ever since the fight, feeding off the wrath of his brothers. I’ve never seen any of their eyes glow so brightly before. I almost imagine I can see it shining from his skin, lurking just beneath the surface. Kind of like my angel light.
They probably knew it would blow our chances in the competition if they got involved. None of them are stupid, even if Nix managed to fool me into thinking he was for a time. But they did it anyway, more determined to keep me safe than to win their precious prize—the one we all need. The one that could end this crazy mission once and for all.
I don’t know what to make of that.
It makes me feel warm inside, safe and protected, but also a bit exhilarated in an odd way.
And I have to know why.
Why did they do that?
“Okay.” I press away from Ford until he releases me from his hold, then put my hands on my hips. It’s been silent the entire walk up, and if none of them are going to offer up an explanation of their own free will, I’ll just have to yank it out of them. “What was that?”
As if my movement broke some kind of invisible tether, Ford storms away. He doesn’t look back at me, stopping in front of one of the windows instead and gazing out with his thick arms crossed over his chest.
Remi gives me a heavy, soft sort of look, like he wants to say something but isn’t sure if he should. Sawyer looks at all of his brothers, then shakes his head ruefully, as if he’s disappointed in all of them. Knight stares at me, saying nothing, not even a hand signal.
“You all can’t avoid me,” I point out, even if that’s exactly what Beckett and Ford are currently doing. Ryland too.
All three of the most volatile sins are standing still as statues, as if they’re hoping if they don’t move I’ll just drop this and move on. Nix is shuffling his feet, looking at the floor mainly but glancing up at the others from time to time, like he’s still trying to follow their lead.
“That seems to be exactly what they’re trying to do, beautiful,” Sawyer notes. Unlike several of his brothers, he is looking at me, but the expression on his face is one I’ve never seen before. It’s like lust, but… not. Something different but no less intense.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” I cross my arms, trying to focus on the hard facts and not the soft, confusing emotions crashing around in my chest like trapped birds. “We can’t afford to get kicked out of the competition. We need that crystal. You should’ve let me handle it.”
“Oh, that’s what we shoulda done, huh?” Ford scoffs, still not looking at me. “Yeah, you had it real well in hand up until that point. You were about to get fuckin’ eviscerated. Gutted like a fuckin’ fish. Are you seriously suggesting I should’ve let that happen?”
“No. You were my partner, and I appreciate you protecting me.” My throat feels tight, but I keep my voice soft and even, not giving in to the wrath I can feel pouring from him.
Ford’s head whips toward me, and he blinks at me in surprise. “What?”
I swallow. “You protected me. As my partner, that’s what you agreed to do, just like I agreed to protect you. I’m not saying you didn’t go a little… overboard, but I get why you stepped in. What I don’t understand is why the rest of you did.” I swivel my head to look at the other six brothers. “Why? What was that?”
“We should have let you die?” Beckett’s voice is like steel. His back is stiff, his muscles bunched and tight. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“That’s not what she’s saying, Beck. You know that,” Remi interjects quietly.
My eyes sting, and I know it’s just because I’m coming down from a crazy adrenaline high, but I suddenly feel a little like crying. The softness of Remi’s voice contrasts with the hard edge of Beckett’s to pluck at a string in my heart, strumming a chord I never knew existed until now.
I lick my lips, taking a step toward Beckett. “I’m saying there was no need. You didn’t have to do that—to risk yourselves and our mission like that. Ford had it all in hand.”
“He didn’t,” Ryland says.
Beckett’s voice may be cold, but Ryland’s is cool, and that’s somehow worse. Coldness is the opposite of heat, it’s at least something. But Ryland sounds so distant, so damn removed that I want to punch him in the face.
He was just as worked up as the others in the arena, his body trembling with fury, for once not the unreadable, impersonal pillar of stone. And now he thinks he can just go back to that without any consequence? Without me asking questions?
Fuck no.
I know that there’s something underneath all that now. He can’t hide from me.
“I thought you didn’t care about me.” I pivot in place and step up to him, my eyes narrowing. “Why protect me? Why would you, of all people, do that?”
He arches a dark eyebrow. “Because my brothers care for you. I care about my brothers.”
“Is that so? You didn’t seem to think that way before. When Beckett summoned you—when they all summoned you—the first time, you didn’t come, and you didn’t want to help me. If this was just about trying to help someone your brothers like, you would’ve agreed to this mission without a fight from the beginning.”
“She’s got you there,” Nix points out, but his tone isn’t as languid or amused as it usually is.
Knight and Remi exchange a glance I can’t quite interpret, and Sawyer shakes his head. The tattoos on his skin shift as he braces one hand on the wall beside him, cocking his head as he gazes at me. “Oh, you beautiful little innocent, you still don’t get it, do you?”
“Enlighten me then,” I snap. My patience is at an end. Maybe that really is my fatal flaw, my sin, not being able to wait, needing answers and solutions immediately.
But if it is, I’m as helpless against it as these seven are against their sins.
I need to know.
No bullshit.
No lies.
No riddles or secrets. I just need to know why these men act the way they do around me. I need to know what they feel for me.
Whether they feel anything for me.
Instead of giving me an answer, Sawyer looks over at Beckett, raising his eyebrows in a way that’s almost challenging.
My gaze shifts to follow Sawyer’s, and my eyes widen a little at the expression on Beckett’s face. His jaw is clenched tight, and the green of his irises is churning like there’s a storm brewing inside him. He shakes his head, his dark hair gleaming in the light as he looks at Sawyer. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do.” I glare at him. “And so does he!” I point at Ryland.
“Forget it, little angel,” Pride says in that same cool voice I’ve come
to hate. “It’s over. We lost. We’ll pivot, recalibrate, figure out a new plan for how to stop the portals—”
“That’s not what I’m talking about!” I yell. I’m well aware that I sound like a crazy person now, but the emotions inside me are boiling over and I can’t contain them.
I can’t stand this anymore. I can’t take it.
My heart drums in my chest as I storm up to Ryland, lifting my chin defiantly. “You can’t lie. I know there’s more to you than that stupid mask you wear. I thought you were the closest thing to evil out of all your brothers. No feeling, no compassion, just ruling with an iron fist. Never coming when your brothers call you, even if they need you. Trying to one up people and win every encounter. Becoming a lawyer just so you can sue your brother’s company and make him miserable.”
Ryland’s dark eyes narrow, and even though I can tell he’s angry, I don’t stop. I want him to be mad. I want him to feel something.
“But when we were in that pit, I saw another side of you,” I say, breathing so heavily now that my chest is rising and falling wildly. “I know you have feelings. You were pissed off, and you were scared for me.”
“What’s your point, angel?” His voice is clipped.
I wave one hand around to encompass the other occupants of the room. “My point is that every single one of your brothers jumped into that pit! There was no reason for you to jump in too! If you didn’t care about me, you would’ve stayed out of it—but you cared so much that you lost reason, you lost logic. It wasn’t logical for you to jump in there, and it wasn’t because of pride either! Your pride should’ve had you staying out of it instead of debasing yourself to help an angel, of all things. But you did. You helped me!”
I’m right up in Ryland’s face now, and we’re glaring at each other. His façade is cracking, and I can see anger and frustration in his eyes. But there’s something else too, hidden so deep in his dark brown irises that I almost can’t discern it.
Fear.
He’s afraid.
Not of me, but of something.
And it hits me in a flash that I’m afraid too. That maybe we’re afraid of the same damn thing.
Before I can second-guess myself, I fling my arms around Ryland and kiss him.
I’m not a bad kisser, I don’t think, despite the fact that my experiences are all rather recent. This kiss isn’t that great, because Ryland is stiff as a board, not responding, apparently in shock.
Then, for one moment—one shining moment—I feel him melt a little, becoming pliant against me.
But before I can revel in that small victory, he goes stiff again. His hands land on my shoulders, as firm and unyielding as his lips, and he pushes me away, breaking the connection between us.
He draws himself up, his spine straightening as he gets that cool look on his face again, but I can see his fingers shaking as he draws his hands back. “What do you want, Trinity?”
I freeze. That’s the last thing I expected him to ask. The question throws me.
What do I want?
I want to go home. But more than that, I want to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is good in the sins—not because I’m supposed to redeem them but because I genuinely want to see that in them.
Because I care about them.
Because I’m drawn to them.
Because I need them.
“You.” The word bursts out of me, the most truthful syllable I’ve ever spoken. “I want all of you.”
Chapter Twenty-One
TRINITY
Each of the men visibly reacts to that. Sawyer looks pleased and a bit relieved, like he’s grateful we’re finally getting it all out in the open and he can stop drowning in all of our lust, or at least drink in the power of it openly. Ryland’s eyebrows shoot up.
Oh, shit, Trin. What did you do?
It’s out there now.
They know. I told them.
Ryland’s dark eyes flash, and the full lips I was just kissing a moment ago purse slightly as he narrows his eyes. I can feel some kind of tension radiating from him, but I can’t quite guess what it is. And besides, I’m so tense myself that it’s hard to concentrate on anything except my own nervousness as I wait to see how the men will respond.
“You want us, little angel?” Pride repeats, his eyebrows rising a fraction of an inch. “Which one of us do you want?”
Oh. Geez.
I thought my face couldn’t get any freaking hotter, but I’m pretty sure if someone threw a bucket of water on me right now, it would turn into steam before it ever even hit my body.
But I’m in too damn deep now. I can’t un-dig this hole.
I lick my lips nervously, but I keep my chin held high as I answer Ryland. “All of you. I can’t choose. It’s… I want all of you.”
Another ripple seems to go through the men at that, as if my words have literally altered the atmosphere somehow. Remi sucks in a breath, and I worry for a second that Sawyer might OD on all the lust gathering in the room. Is that even possible? Can a sin overdose on his chosen vice?
Before I can dwell too long on that question, Ryland’s voice interrupts my thoughts.
“Then why don’t you take what you want?”
There’s a challenge in his words, but there’s an invitation too. He makes no move to close the space between us, and I don’t know if the others are following his lead or acting on their own instincts, but none of his brothers step closer either.
None of them move away, though. They all stand frozen in place, watching me intently as possibility and attraction hover in the air around us. I’m still blushing furiously, and forty-nine percent of my mind is screaming at me to take the way out Ryland is offering me. To flee back to my room and pretend this never happened. To let the tension between all of us go back to being unspoken and unacknowledged.
But fifty-one percent of my brain refuses to do that.
Maybe it’s partly because I’m not really the type who likes to bottle up any of my feelings.
And maybe it’s because I feel like I’ll die a little inside if I don’t get to kiss Ryland again, or Beckett, or any of the others. If I don’t get to see what it would be like to kiss Sawyer or Knight.
So I summon every bit of courage I have and force my limbs to move as I turn and walk toward Nix.
I don’t quite know where to start, who to kiss first, but I’m a lot less intimidated by him than I am by some of the others, so this seems like a good bet. I’m already going way out on a limb here, so far out of my comfort zone I’m basically on another continent, so I might as well start with one of the men who’s least likely to shoot me down.
And Nix definitely doesn’t do that.
His blue eyes light up with pleasure as he watches me move toward him, and when I stop less than a foot away, he loops an arm around my waist to close the last bit of space between us.
“Lazy motherfucker,” I hear Sawyer mumble, although there’s amusement in his voice. “Of course he gets her to come to him.”
I want to laugh at the joke, but as my gaze locks with Nix’s, the laugh dies. Because he doesn’t look particularly lazy right now. He looks hungry and intent, like now that he’s got me in his arms, he might eat me up whole.
A little shiver runs down my spine.
Why does that sound so good? Why do I kind of want that?
Nix’s hands come up to frame my face, tilting my chin up as he dips his head. Then he kisses me.
He’s an incredible kisser—I remember that from the last time we did this—but I’m still unprepared for the effect his kiss has on my body. My knees go a little weak as his lips move expertly against mine, his tongue licking into my mouth as he explores me deeply.
I could kiss him for hours and never get tired of it, but as I revel in the taste and feel of him, I become aware of movement around us.
At last, the men have broken ranks, stepping out of their frozen tableau.
Remi steps up on my right side, and Ford is on my left,
his presence forceful and demanding in contrast with Remington’s softness. Sawyer is behind me, and as I feel the heat from his body at my back, a fresh wave of desire washes through me.
I told Ryland I wanted all of them, and now that it’s happening, now that I’m truly surrounded on all sides by sin, I feel like my heart might explode out of my chest.
Remi’s fingers find my chin, and he turns my head as Nix and I break apart. My tingling lips barely have a chance to recover before they’re swallowed up in another kiss.
I moan into Remi’s mouth as the men move in closer around me, and when Sawyer spins me to face him, I go willingly.
His amber eyes burn like twin suns as he cups my face in his hands and kisses me for the first time.
Oh. Holy. Wow.
It’s not that he’s a better kisser than his brothers. It’s that his kiss is infused with pure lust, a desire so strong it makes a gush of wetness flood my panties. My wings pop out so fast that Nix gives a startled yelp, and the men back up to make room for them before closing ranks around me again.
But this time, as they press close, I feel their hands not just on my body but on my wings too. Ford groans low in his throat as his large, calloused hands stroke my feathers, and I cling to Sawyer for dear life as sensations buffet me from all sides.
This is nothing like I imagined it would be.
It’s better.
So much better.
Sawyer’s palms slide over my hips and butt, and the next thing I know, he’s lifting me into his arms as if I weigh nothing. My legs automatically wrap around his waist, and as they do, I feel his cock press against my core, sending a new ripple of pleasure through me.
“Bedroom!” I gasp.
I mean, I’m pretty sure that’s where he was planning on taking me anyway, but I don’t want to take any chances. Whatever snowball we just chucked off the top of a mountain, I don’t want to let it stop now.
Sawyer smiles against my lips as he kisses me again, and then we’re moving, his long legs eating up the floor as he carries me through the massive house. The other men don’t leave our side until we finally reach the room that’s become mine over the past few days.