Prohibited (Tulsa City Sinners #1)

26. Evie

Chapter twenty-six

Evie

Getting ready for bed wasn’t an elaborate affair. She didn’t have cold cream, or rose oil, or a bathtub, or hair pins, or a silk head scarf, or any of the things she used to implement the ritual she’d had for years now before going to bed. All she had was a hair brush and a little water with which to rinse her face, which she did, grateful for the coolness the water brought to her cheeks and the back of her neck, even if the water itself was a little warm from the heat in the room. The hair brush didn’t do much at all to her chopped locks, but it gave her a feeling of comfort to groom herself even a little at the end of the day.

She slipped off the green dress and laid it neatly across the trunks stacked in the corner of the room. The silk stockings, the brassiere, the corset, and the silk knickers Alex’s housekeeper had provided for her all went neatly on top of the dress. Then she was standing naked in front of the window, trying to absorb as much of the cool air as possible. The thin cotton nightgown was laid out across the old quilt, but she had half a mind to leave it off and sleep naked, it was so hot in the room. It wasn’t as if Ryan hadn’t seen her naked before.

The sound of the door downstairs closing startled her so much that she stumbled and had to hold onto the bureau to keep herself righted. Then, she scrambled to pull the obnoxiously virginal nightgown over her head, smoothing it and her hair as the sound of footsteps slowly made their way up the stairs. Though she wasn’t doing anything wrong, she couldn’t help but feel awkward, caught in the act of something. She crossed her arms, prepared to see Ryan, but the breath pressed out of her lungs as the moth-pale figure of Alex emerged from the gloom of the stairwell.

He paused at the top, hand resting on the old, worn hand rail and smiled at her. A simple expression, but it struck her to the heart, a thunderclap of terror moving through her. And below that, the strange hum of anticipation.

“What do you want?” she said. And though her tone would have sounded convincingly blase, there was a breathlessness that she couldn’t suppress.

Her hands, she realized, were gripping her nightgown so tightly that they left wrinkles when she glanced down surreptitiously, then tried to smooth them out against her thighs.

“My favorite toy is broken right now,” Alex said in that crystal clear voice of his, moving into the room with such slow and casual grace you’d think he was wandering through a garden. “I need a Dolly to play with.” The look in his eye did not match his expression or his manner.

Without meaning to, she took a step back as he moved closer to her. A thrill, like a bomb going off inside of her, tangled hopelessly with the fear that his presence inspired. She kept hearing the sound of his switchblade opening, the way he’d tasted her blood with such hunger. Horrible. Intriguing.

“What if the Dolly doesn’t want to play,” she said, all courage leaking away from her now, and she succumbed to her desire to back away and until her backside hit the bureau and she had to steady herself to keep from toppling it over. The closer he moved, the more the genteel facade dropped away. In its place was a fey and vicious thing, beautiful and blood freezing.

Then, he was standing in front of her, body pressing against her, face so close that their eyelashes were nearly touching. His warm hands were on top of hers, trapping them against the aged wood, knee beginning to wedge between her legs which she worked fruitlessly to keep pressed together.

“Oh, but I know she does,” he said, voice low and tender as a lover.

Now, her voice escaped her. An aching hunger was waking up inside of her, the yawning abyss that sought to swallow whatever suffering intimacy might offer her. Gentleness she had asked for from Lindsay. Gentleness before she died. But the darker part of her, the depraved part of her, wanted to hurt. Wanted to suffer. For all that she’d done. For all that she hadn’t done.

“Tell me,” he said. His hot breath moved across her cheek and down her neck. The sound of him breathing deeply, inhaling the scent of her like a predator and releasing the breath with an intense hunger that went straight to the molten heat between her legs. One of his hands went to her throat and applied just enough pressure to make her shiver. “Tell me how much you want to play.”

The bastard was trying to humiliate her. Make her complicit in this game of his. And, God help her, something about that fanned the flames inside of her.

She opened and closed her mouth, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it. His hand shifted from her neck to her jaw, and he squeezed her face so tightly that she almost cried out. His index finger slipped along her lower lip, teasing at it. Then, he pressed at her lips until she opened them and he slid his finger inside. They stared at each other a moment before, with a trembling tongue, she caressed the length of it. The look in his eye darkened and his breath hitched. Again, his face was so close to hers that their eyelashes were nearly touching. His voice was a soft, earth shattering rumble against her cheek. “I know what you want, Dolly. And I know how to give it to you the way no one else ever has.” His other hand was catching at her nightgown and tugging it up until his fingers made contact with her thigh .

The fingers on her thigh rose higher, tracing her hip and slipping between them to find her cunt hot and wet. He laughed a little, just a small huff against her face. “Always so prepared, Dolly.”

“Shut up,” she said, after letting his finger out of her mouth. His hand caught her by the face again, fingers biting into her cheeks until she cried out softly.

“I haven’t done a very good job at teaching my Dolly manners,” he said. “My mistake.” All the while, his fingers teased around the bud of her clitoris and then dipped just into the wetness of her slit, causing her knees to weaken more and more by the moment.

Then his hand left her face. Until it came back, crashing against her cheek in a stinging slap that sent her head to the side and caused her eyes to sting with tears.

A small wail of surprise erupted from her. Pain, stinging pain exploded in the side of her face, pain that caused her anger and a horrible swell of humiliation. But it began to shift, to enhance the pleasure he was milking from her with his two middle fingers now plunging in and out of her cunt, stroking over and over the greedy trigger inside of her.

“It’s my responsibility to teach you manners, Dolly,” he said in a soothing, silken voice. He caught her face again and gave her a chin a shake until she looked him in the eye. “But don’t worry. I have a feeling you’ll learn.”

Then, he slapped her again. This time, the sound she made was more guttural, a throb of pleasure in her voice that she couldn’t suppress. Without meaning to, she was spreading her legs wider so he could fuck her with his fingers without inhibition.

God help her, it felt incredible. The expert way his fingers moved, drawing more and more nectar from her cunt, and she could feel it dripping down her thigh. A wet sloppy sound punctuated the air, but she was so far gone that she didn’t care. Lindsay had coaxed pleasure out of her with precise and careful devotion to her gratification. Alex’s fingers were demanding it from her, taking it from her whether or not she wanted it.

“What a greedy little cunt,” he whispered, watching her face closely. “Does that feel good, Dolly?”

She bit down on her bottom lip, and closed her eyes.

Then, another smack, searing the side of her face and causing her to give up another wail of mingling pain and pleasure.

“Yes,” she gasped.

“Good,” he said. And then he withdrew his fingers, leaving her trembling and full of stars ready to explode. It was so abrupt that she couldn’t help but moan in protest. And she was so swamped with pleasure and the abrupt end of it, that she didn’t put up a fight at all when his hands were suddenly on her hips, roughly turning her to face the mirror. There they were together in the foggy reflection, his white hair like a brilliant flame against her black hair as he pressed his cheek against hers. Hand around her throat again.

“How beautiful you are,” he murmured in her ear. “Just like a Dolly. Don’t we make a pair? ”

Then, both of his hands were catching at the hem of her nightgown, pulling it up until she had to put up her arms so she wasn’t trapped inside of it as he made to pull it over her head.

“Mine to dress and undress,” he murmured. Then, he grabbed both of her hands and pressed them onto the bureau. “Don’t move.” Even if he hadn’t ordered her, she wouldn’t have had any choice but to do it, lest her legs give out beneath her.

He kicked her feet apart with his leather shoe. Then, he slipped his finger in her mouth, still sticky with the taste of her nectar. “Good girl,” he murmured in her ear. “Very polite to clean up after yourself.”

Oh god. A toxic, fuming mix of shame and black desire was churning in the center of her. She closed her eyes and put her head back as his practiced fingers circled her backside, kneading and massaging the cheeks.

“Gorgeous,” he said, a word that made her bite down on her lower lip. “It will be more gorgeous with my cock inside of it.” Oh god. He slipped his fingers inside of his mouth, still damp from her own, and then dropped down and teased at the tight ring of her ass. She barely had time to moan and tense her body, then he plunged a finger inside of her without care or caution, causing her to wince and yelp at the horrible sting this sudden invasion produced.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” he said in a light, pleasant voice. Then, his free hand slipped over hip and her pubic bone. Fingers found her clitoris again, rubbing deep, delicious circles.

Then, suddenly, the hand disappeared and came crashing down in a heavy smack onto the most sensitive part of her. A small shriek erupted from her.

“Hush, Dolly,” he said in her ear. “You’ll bring the whole house. Answer me when I ask you a question.”

“Yes,” she choked, still fighting with whether or not she had enjoyed the slap to her cunt. “It hurts.”

“But it feels good too, doesn’t it?” The finger was easing out, and she thought at first he was done with the penetration, but before she could draw another breath, he plunged it back in with a second finger, causing such a horrible sting that her knees buckled and she had to gulp down air and grit her teeth to keep from crying out. His hand was at her clit again, teasing pleasure from it like a song.

“Yes,” she moaned.

Suddenly, he turned his head, looking away from her, over his shoulder.

“Dolly,” he said to her in that mocking voice of his, laced with amusement. “Why don’t you ask Ryan very nicely if he would like to play with us?”

“Wha–” Her head snapped around and she froze. Ryan stood at the top of the stairs, hand on the rail, watching them in an oddly frozen, rapt way. There was a hypnotized look in his eye. She hadn’t even heard him come in.

Shame rammed into her, especially because Alex didn’t stop moving his hands–two fingers fucking her asshole while his other hand massaged her cunt. She was afraid, maybe, that Ryan would be angry with her for letting Alex do this to her. A confusing jumble of feelings.

“Go on,” he said, in that silky soothing voice of his. His hands withdrew from her body and he stepped away from, giving her a little swat on the backside. “Ask him very nicely.”

On shaking legs, she took a step or two toward Ryan. Something about the tension radiating off of him told her that if she stepped even slightly wrong, he would bolt like a wounded predator. But even with tension, she knew the look in his eye.

Desire.

Those glowing blue eyes were nearly radiating light, his desire was so intense. Desire polluted by conflict. A man at war with himself. She could think of a thousand reasons, but she didn’t particularly care what the answer was right now. God help her, she wanted him to stay.

It was the applejack. It had to be. Forcing her to cut the cords of her reason and set it free while she remained here in this shadowy room with two men who were capable of very bad things. Who had already done very bad things to her.

Her bare feet whispered across the carpet as she walked to him. His eyes drifted down her naked body, lingering on the swell of her breasts, the pink peaks of her nipples. The swell of her hips, traveling down to her neat ankles, and then back up to her cunt, secreted between her thighs, sopping wet and ready for him. For both of them. The look on his face nearly had her floating across the floor.

Of all of the times she had imagined being with him again in this way, this was not how she had pictured it. But right now, with her inhibitions dangerously absent, it didn’t matter.

“Ask him on your knees, Dolly,” Alex suggested behind her. She looked at him over her shoulder and nearly shivered at the look he gave her. At the look he gave Ryan.

Interesting.

She looked back at Ryan, who still stood at the top of the stairs. Some of the tension had been drained from him, but that energy was being reinvested into the intensity of the desire radiating off of him, hot as hellfire.

“On your knees now, Dolly,” Alex instructed. “Crawl to him.”

God help her, she didn’t even hesitate. She moved gracefully to her knees. Ryan’s lips parted, the tiniest shift in expression, but it was nearly enough to send her over the edge. She crawled to him, feeling the carpet and the floor biting into her tender knees. It was humiliating, but it was exciting. Her cunt and her ass in the air for Alex to stare at while she crawled. Ryan watching her with intense interest as she moved toward him, a supplicant on her knees. A sinner.

When she reached him, she rose up on her knees, slipping her fingers into the waistband of his pants. She met his eyes, accepting the full weight of the look on his face .

Her fingers worked quickly at the buttons, shaking while they pulled his pants open, and then his union suit beneath. With a practiced flourish, she freed his heavy, thick cock and moaned at the sight of it. Just as beautiful as she remembered. The desire boiling inside of her was so greedy that she didn’t even take the time to admire it, or stroke it. Instead, she drove it straight into the back of her throat, drawing a gorgeous groan of pleasure from Ryan.

“That’s it, Dolly,” Alex said, voice coaxing and loaded with pleasure.

She fell into a familiar rhythm, stroking the base of his cock while she worked the column of it in and out of her mouth, savoring the salty hint of pre-cum joining the spit in her mouth, leaving a slick trail up and down the length of him. He moaned, muttering curses under his breath while she swallowed his cock. Then, his hand came around the back of her head, catching her hair and holding her head in place. He pressed his cock into her throat slowly, once, twice, and then he began to thrust into it. She caught his wrists and did her best to relax her jaw, to let him do whatever he wanted to do.

Drawing pleasure from him was of paramount importance. A hypnotic desperation overcame her, an ache that spread through the center of her. The full weight of what she’d done to him, what she had had a hand in taking from him was opening up inside of her, while she held the most vulnerable part of him in her mouth. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, and she didn’t know if they were from the roughness with which he was fucking her throat, or because of the ache yawning inside of her.

Without warning, he withdrew his cock, and then yanked her to her feet. Much like he’d done earlier that day, he stooped and pressed his shoulder into her hip, and stood with her hanging down his back. This time, she didn’t fight him. She just breathed deeply, gulping down the air that he had rationed so sparingly with his cock pressed into the back of her mouth. Her throat was sore now from the beating he had given it, but it barely registered when he threw her down onto the bed. Out of the corner of her eye, she barely noted that Alex was already lounging on the bed, watching them with sharp interest, like a bird of prey watching its next meal.

Ryan ignored him and pressed her knees back, and then yanked her to the edge of the bed, so that her cunt was flush with his cock, which he slipped inside of her. The tight fit of her cunt around his thick cock made them both moan when he entered her. They both paused for a moment, holding their breath, eyes locked together. For a moment, she was back in the gardening shed. He caught her hands and moved them over her head, pressing them down into the mattress while they stared at each other. The song of cicadas around them. His hot, sweet breath against her throat. The gorgeous feeling of being invaded by him. Her first.

Then, he dropped his eyes to where their bodies were locked together .

“Oh god,” he moaned while he watched his cock gliding in and out of her, the sweet smell of applejack on his breath. A stab of envy went through her, that she couldn’t see what he could see. She would give anything to watch the pink petals of her cunt clutching at him while he fucked her like this, with heavy, sharp thrusts that made her eyes roll back into her head, face still wet with tears.

The mattress next to her shifted and she turned her head to see Alex watching them from a hair’s breadth away, a fact that caused a surge of dark pleasure. He had his head propped on his hand, eyes fixed on Ryan’s face. The intense hunger she saw there surprised her. For Ryan?

His eyes shifted to her and a small smile traced his lips. One of his beautiful fingers moved to her cheek and scooped up one of the tears he found there, and he slipped it into his mouth like it was a precious, delicate morsel.

“Come like a good girl for Ryan, Dolly.” Alex caught a fist of her hair in his hand and pressed his forehead against hers. His voice was thick with pleasure now, a shocking loss of composure. “He’s going to be a gentleman and won’t finish until you do.”

God, she didn’t know if she could prevent herself from coming if she tried. She was teetering on the edge, so precariously, brought closer and closer with each stroke of Ryan’s gorgeous cock plunging inside of her over and over again. Alex tugging on her hair, Ryan invading her body with pleasure. She was drowning in sensations, completely at the mercy of her senses. The sounds Ryan was making made her cunt clutch more tightly at his thick cock. She turned her head to look at his face–his expression the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, a look of pleasure so intense that it nearly destroyed her.

Glowing blue eyes boring into hers, he licked his thumb and found her clitoris with it, stroking the little bud with practiced perfection. The sudden addition of pleasurable sensation was more than she could bear. So close to the edge, she lost her voice, and even her ability to breathe.

“That’s it, Dolly,” Alex said next to her. But she couldn’t look at him, to see whether he was looking at her or at Ryan. Her eyes were rolling in the back of her head. Her hand found the hand that Ryan had around her ankle and clutched at it so hard that she might have drawn blood with her fingernails.

For one perfect moment of supernova, everything stopped.

And then the orgasm blew through her, more powerful than a tornado, ripping up everything she was as it went. A scream exploded from her throat, but was trapped neatly by Alex’s hand pressing over her mouth. She screamed and screamed as Ryan fucked her harder and harder, taking her all the way through her release, until she was reduced to a frail puddle of a human being.

Then, abruptly he pulled out of her. In the post-orgasmic daze that settled over her, she blinked her eyes open.

Ryan reached down with both hands and ripped Alex up from the bed. Alex’s hands went around Ryan’s and tried to break his grip as they struggled. Evie raised herself on her elbow, watching them with stunned, silent fascination.

Inevitably, Ryan who was much larger than Alex prevailed, and turned him around, slamming him face down into the bed. He had one of Alex’s wrists in his hand, twisted around behind his back and he held him pinned there while they both panted.

Ryan lowered his face until his mouth was at Alex’s ear, and he spoke quietly but forcefully between pants.

“Is this what you want? Hm?” There was a crazed sort of look in his eye when he glanced up at Evie very briefly. “You like watching me fuck her? You like pretending it’s you?”

“You fucking–” Alex started to say , but Ryan twisted his arm hard enough that his face twisted too. “Ah fuck!”

Ryan sank forward until his cock was pressed into Alex’s ass and his weight was on Alex’s smaller body, pinning it to the bed. He stayed like that for a long moment, panting hard.

Anger colored Alex’s fair face and he struggled against the bigger man’s weight and the force of his hold, to no avail. “What do you think you’re doing?” he said, voice cold and trembling.

“Exactly what you want,” Ryan said. Then he took his hand back and yanked Alex’s suspenders down both arms and tucked both hands under him to get at the buttons on the front of his trousers. Alex pressed both hands into the mattress and tried to push up and back, to force Ryan off. But still to no avail. Ryan, having loosened enough buttons, yanked Alex’s trousers and his underpants down, exposing the smooth flesh of his backside.

With some struggle, he got Alex’s arm behind his back again and forced his head onto the bed with his other hand.

“You just can’t stand not being in control,” Ryan breathed in his ear.

“Fuck you,” Alex said, his eyes firing. He twisted and wrenched against Ryan’s hold, but it was a struggle in vain.

“Tell me to stop,” Ryan said, his voice barely audible. “Tell me you don’t want this. That you haven’t been dreaming about this for years.”

Alex fell silent and closed his eyes, breathing hard. Always so composed, the conflict on his face was shocking.

“You never thought it would happen like this,” Ryan said, huffing a small laugh. “But you’ll take what you can get, won’t you?”

“You fucking–” Alex said again, starting his struggles anew. Ryan held him fast and silenced him by shoving a finger in his mouth. Alex looked angry and shocked for a moment, but he couldn’t help himself. He began to suck on Ryan’s finger like it was his cock, worshipful and eager. Pleasure touched Ryan’s face and caused his eyelids to grow just a little heavier while he watched Alex’s face.

Evie was completely invisible now, afraid to move or to speak, lest she derail whatever was happening. It was brutal, and it was raw. And it was also strange. They shared a brother, didn’t they? But they weren’t, themselves, brothers. So it wasn’t necessarily taboo, was it? But it was still strange. She hadn’t had a single idea that they desired each other. Did Lindsay know about this? Too many questions swirling through her alcohol and pleasure addled mind.

Ryan took his finger back and slipped it over Alex’s backside, plunging the digit inside his ass without warning.

Alex made a guttural sound of pain that was still somehow beautiful, a sound that hardened Evie’s nipples. He closed his eyes.

“It hurts, doesn’t it?” Ryan said, mocking what Alex had said to Evie. Then, he leaned forward so he could whisper again. “But don’t worry, it’s going to hurt even more.”

He drew his hand back and spit into his palm, causing Alex to open his eyes, and his eyebrows to draw down. Then, Ryan stroked the saliva up and down the length of his cock, still sticky with Evie’s nectar. And with a slight shift of his weight and a thrust of his hips, he shoved himself inside of Alex.

Alex gritted his teeth together and squeezed his eyes shut and made a low, sharp growl of pain in his throat. “Holy fuck!”

Ryan’s face was transformed again by pleasure, his eyes foggy and dark. His voice was breathy now, shaped by the union of their bodies. He held perfectly still for a moment, panting and staring down at Alex’s face. Neither of them said anything for a long moment .

Then Alex picked his head up and looked back at Ryan.

The look that passed between them was almost enough to make Evie come again, though she didn’t dare move or breathe.

Then, very slowly, Ryan shifted his hips slightly. Alex’s face contorted a bit, but he didn’t look away. Their eyes remained locked together, brilliant and jeweled. Nothing else in the world but the two of them. He shifted his hips again, a very slow, gentle rocking until he drew himself out, almost entirely, and thrust forward, drawing a moan of pleasure from Alex.

“You fucking bastard,” Alex said, voice breathy. His hair was disheveled, cheeks pink. “You’re drunk.”

Ryan leaned forward, lowering his face toward Alex’s. “Not nearly drunk enough.” His big beautiful hand came around Alex’s chin and he turned suddenly and looked at Evie. “Look at her. She’s watching you get fucked like a bitch.”

Evie felt her face sting with a blush, but still she didn’t dare move or speak, except to meet Alex’s eyes. He stared at her, the same angry expression simmering on his face that had been there since Ryan had thrown him down on the bed. He said nothing, and held Evie’s gaze until Ryan thrust into him again. Then, his eyes closed and he clenched his teeth again and moaned, rolling his own hips into the mattress below him.

“Not how you pictured it, is it?” Ryan said, watching his face with such an intense intimacy that Evie nearly looked away. “But you want it anyway, don’t you? You want me to stuff my cock in your ass until you come all over yourself like a fucking schoolboy.”

Alex chose to say nothing, and seemed instead to be giving himself over to the tension of pleasure and pain as Ryan began to fuck him with a slow, but steady rhythm that drew more and more intense puffs of air from both of them.

“Fucking Christ,” Ryan said in a voice diluted by his breath. “You feel so fucking good.”

This drew a particularly sharp moan from Alex, who briefly turned his head to press his face into the mattress, before laying his head back down on his ear. Watching his beautiful features contort with pleasure and discomfort was beyond fascinating and intensely sensual. All control gone, all dignity, all composure.

He was fucking gorgeous.

Ryan, overcome by pleasure, abandoned all pretenses and all composure, as well. He rested forward on his elbows and rested his face against Alex’s, lips smearing against his cheek in a raw sketch of a kiss. The moans that Alex let loose as Ryan fucked him became richer, more sensual, and from deeper within him.

“God,” Alex said, writhing beneath him. “Oh my god. That is so fucking good.”

Ryan tucked an arm under his shoulders, holding him tightly in place while he fucked him with increasing intensity. Face pressed against the side of Alex’s head.

Both of their bodies moving in tandem. Pleasure washing everything away on Alex’s face. Ryan wearing an almost identical expression. Deep, strange intimacy in the way Ryan held him, clashing with the violence with which he clutched at him and rammed his cock inside of him. Such gorgeous sensuality, the way Ryan moved, moaned, breathed. There was an earthiness to him that lent to that sensuality, a guileless sexuality that boiled off of him wherever he went, that allowed him to throw himself totally into his sexual encounters with no self-consciousness or reservations about his body or his partner’s. It was absolutely intoxicating.

Alex came first, releasing with a low cry and a series of moans, eyes fluttering closed as his face was filled with nothing but rapture.

Ryan wrapped his hand around Alex’s throat and hunched his back, looking for all the world like a ferocious beast attacking him while he fucked into him, driving toward his own completion, the air punctuated by the slap of skin against skin and both men moaning, panting–

Ryan finished, leaning into Alex, thrusting one, two, three times and then coming to a halt. They both stayed like that for a long time, panting. Alex kept his eyes closed, looking for all the world as serene as if he had gone to sleep. Ryan stared down at him for a long moment, hands planted on either side of him, expression unreadable.

Alex opened his eyes suddenly and looked up at Ryan, eyelids heavy and cheeks still flushed from pleasure.

They stared at each other for another stretch, something tense and throbbing passing between them .

Then, without a word, Ryan drew himself out of Alex and stood up, tucking himself back into his trousers. He glanced at Evie and, to her surprise, caught a strand of her hair between his fingers as he walked by. He disappeared down the stairs as quickly as he had appeared, leaving her and Alex alone in the bedroom together.

Alex lay where he was, eyes closed again, drawing deep, heavy breaths. Evie lay next to him, her back cramping from how she was sprawled on the bed, but she didn’t dare to move, and still hardly dared to breathe.

After what seemed like an eternity, Alex finally moved, as if waking from a spell. He pushed himself up without looking at her and pulled his trousers up. His gestures were deliberate, smooth. Working steadily at regaining his dignity and his composure. Try as he might, though, his hair remained tousled, and his cheeks remained pink. The effect was quite charming.

“Were you in France, too?” she asked suddenly, head leaning into her hand. The tension in the room was more than she could bear. What she just witnessed was well beyond her understanding, and wrestling it was proving to be too heavy, too exhausting. Changing the topic entirely seemed the best course of action.

Alex looked at her, and for a moment she thought he might be angry with her for speaking to him. But instead he laughed, a sound of real mirth as if she had said something funny, and reached out to run a finger along her bottom lip.“No, Dolly. I have better sense than to stick my neck out for the greater good. I don't believe in it."

This didn't surprise her but it was still unsettling to hear. "What do you believe in then?"

He turned to look at her, the corner of his mouth quirked into a tired smile, a post-coital glow hanging around him like a halo. One of his hands drew fingers down the side of her face.

“You look so beautiful with your lips swollen from sucking his cock,” he said, blue eyes staring at her mouth with a look of hungry admiration.

The desire to ask him what the hell had just happened hovered on her lips, but she didn’t dare. Instead, she said, “Do you believe in anything?”

“Vengeance and pleasure, Dolly,” he said in a slightly hoarse voice. Eyes darkening a touch. “I believe in vengeance and pleasure.”

A shiver went through her.

His fingers skirted over hip, eyes following. “I must see to my Pony. I enjoyed our little diversion, Dolly.” His eyes met hers. “It won’t be the last.”

With that, he moved away from the bed, walking with slow, graceful dignity to the stairs. He didn’t look back as he descended and disappeared into the darkness below.

Letting out a long breath, Evie laid back on the bed and stared up at the old beams overhead until at last she closed her eyes, determined to fall asleep.

But instead, she lay there for what felt like an eternity, listening for Ryan’s footsteps.