Thick as Thieves (The Greystone Family: Stolen Hearts #3)

Chapter 19

19

Xander

“Kitten!” We hear the voice move on the breeze as we make our way towards my home. Our home.

“Fucking John. He’s asking for it,” I say to them. Evie grins and touches my arm, shaking her head to stop me battering John fucking Clayton.

He comes into view and shouts us over. Kell spots Levi and Gabe, who have twinned and have five women with them. Clearly the one:two ratio is lost on them.

“Evie!” I hear Miss Ringmaster shout excitedly.

“Fuck me, they’re all after her,” I snarl out, glaring towards the voice in the darkness.

Kell starts to laugh. “Xander, cool it man.”

I put my hand on Evie’s back. I need to be touching her. I catch Gabe clocking this move and he stares up at Kell.

He takes in the no shirts, and a smile moves over his face. “Talked her into it then,” he says as we walk up.

I feel Evie stiffen. Kell is just about to punch him as Miss Ringmaster pulls Evie into a hug.

“Hey Tamzin, how are you?” she asks, smiling at the larger woman. “Do you have her?” she asks, pointing towards Tamzin’s boots.

“Always, Evie. Do you want to have a go with her? She loved you last time.”

I look at Kellen. What the fuck is going on?

Evie grins and nods, and Miss Ringmaster pulls out the longest, leather whip.

My heart stops beating. It’s not going to survive the night if it keeps stopping.

“No fucking way,” I say in awe to the gathered crowd.

“Whip me, Evie,” shouts Gabe, grabbing at her.

I pull Evie away. “Stay the fuck away, Gabe,” I snarl at him.

Tamzin cracks the whip, and John Clayton yet again falls to his knees. “Oh God, please hit me,” he laughs out.

“Line ‘em up, Taz,” Evie tells her as she takes the whip from Tamzin. The woman looks like she might be a bit in love with Kitten.

Bug and Orla walk over. “Not again, Kitten,” he shouts at her. “Hit ‘em harder this time.”

“I never touched them last time,” she says, laughing at Bug.

Gabe, Levi, and John all drop to their knees in a line up.

Evie walks over to Kellen, kisses him and removes his suit jacket. “Kneel, baby,” she says, and points to a spot next to Levi.

I hold my breath. Is she going to claim me in front of everyone? Or are we hiding in the shadows?

I stare into her face, a challenge in my eyes. She stares back at me, her eyes alight with fire.

She stands squarely in front of me, and I feel as if I’m burning up. “Kneel, baby,” she commands. But before I can, loud and fucking proud, she steps forwards, puts her hands into my hair and pulls my head towards her.

The kiss blisters my lips. I hear Kell say, ‘Yeah, baby,’ as her hands rove over my body whilst removing my jacket. She takes an age as she feather touches my skin as the jacket skims down and off my body. I’m so fucking hard by the time she removes it and lets me go, stepping back.

All eyes are on me, my erection obvious to all. I pull her back into my body roughly and say so everyone can hear. “You better hit me fucking hard. Make it good, Kitten.”

She pushes me to kneel next to Kellen, a salacious smirk on her face.

“Evie, just us baby,” Kell says, pointing between himself and me.

“Fuck off, Marcus. Let her hit who she wants,” Levi shouts.

“Yeah, Marcus, shut the fuck up,” says John.

Everyone is laughing around us as Tamzin and Evie walk behind us all, grinning like lunatics.

“No peeking, otherwise you’re out of the line up. Anyone else up for it?" Evie shouts out, and three others flop to their knees in total submission—one of them a woman who came with Levi.

“You’re all a set of weirdos!” I shout at them. They all start to laugh—they’ve heard of my reputation.

We hear the crack of the whip, and the shout of the victim.

From the corner of my eye, I can see Evie’s not moving. She’s not whipping the others. I smirk as I hear them shout out in ecstasy.

I finally see her move as she gets to Kell and me. The sound the whip makes is slightly different, but it stings just the same. I fucking love it. She hits us twice more with the lash, and then I feel a soft leather slap as she scrapes a leather flogger down our backs.

“I think I just came,” I shout, changing it into a moan.

I hear Kellen groan next to me. His eyes are so fucking wide as he jumps up, spins round, and heads straight for Evie, picking her up and wrapping her legs around his waist as he walks away, kissing her.

Tamzin is still treating the others to her own form of personal gratification.

I watch as Gabe, as if in a trance, goes to move towards Kell and Kitten.

I jump up and move to cut him off.

“Gabe, stay the fuck away, man.” His eyes are wild, and I can see his haze of lust. I shake my head at him. “Leave them.”

“Why the fuck should I? You haven’t.”

Kellen drops Evie down his body. Smiling and stroking her face, he buries his face into her neck, talking to her. She looks up, we lock eyes, and she moves towards me, pulling Kellen with her.

Taking my hand, she asks “Are we going?” but then turns to address the elephant in the room.

“Hey, Gabe.” She’s checking him out, her voice soft and calm as she speaks. Touching his arm and trying to settle him as she can see he’s all over the place. “Did you enjoy Tamzin? She’s great with that thing.”

She laughs as Tamzin comes up and pulls her away to the bar, leaving us band brothers standing together.

“Stay away from her, Gabe,” Kell warns. “She’s off limits.”

His eyes bug out of his head. “No fucking way. You let him fuck her but it’s a no for me?” He nods towards me.

“We’re together, all of us, no one else. It’s not just fucking,” I tell him.

“Fuck off,” he laughs scornfully. “You two and her, no fucking way.” His lips are curled in disgust. Levi strides over, and the four of us are stood alone, out of ear shot of anyone else.

“She’s off limits,” I tell Levi before Kell or Gabe get a chance to say anything.

He looks from me to Kellen, and nods. “Bout fucking time. I’m pleased for you all.” Levi breaks out into a massive smile, smacking our backs.

“Are you fucking kidding me? You agree with this shit show?” Gabe is starting to shout, losing his cool.

“Keep it down, Gabe,” I say, trying to pacify him.

“Why? Everyone will fucking know before long. What the fuck will Tim say? It’s fine for one night, but all the fucking time? No way. NO. We’ll be crucified.”

“I don’t give a fuck,” I tell him. “And you better get behind us, the same way we would with you.”

He starts to laugh. “What a joke. Fuck you, Xan. You said it was a no go. You fucking said.” He turns to Kell, pleading. “Marcus are you for real? You’re going to do this with him and her? What the fuck, man?” He looks at Kell in desperation, begging with his eyes for it not to be true.

Kell nods at him. “I am, Gabe. I want them.”

Gabe looks like he’s going to cry. “I can’t fucking believe this shit,” he chokes out, and walks away across the lawn, back towards the tent.

“Fuck. Really? What’s going on with him?” asks Kell in disbelief.

“Marcus, you’re so thick at times,” Levi says, pointing at him. “He wants you. He always fucking has, and you know it. You should’ve told him a long time ago about you and Xan. I knew. I'd seen you once. But he didn’t. He tiptoed around you for fucking years.”

“I always told him no, no to a relationship. Always. I never said I would. He's as bad as those fucking women who never listened to me. I just didn’t think about him like that, and I told him that. What a fucking mess. I’ll go talk to him,” Kell says, scrubbing his hand down his face. I can see he feels guilty.

“No, leave him. I’ll talk to him tonight. You can do it later, when it's not so charged an atmosphere.” Levi pulls Kell in for a hug.

I hear Evie’s laugh ring out into the night sky, and I turn to see Tamzin getting a bit touchy feely.

“We need to go,” I say to Kell, and nod my head in that direction.

“You pair of fuckers, finally getting a taste of your own medicine. Everyone’s after your woman.” Levi starts to laugh, “I can’t wait to watch this.” He sets off in the direction Gabe went, and we move to collect Evie out of Tamzin’s clutches.

“I’ve promised Evie some lessons for you, Xan,” she says to me.

“No need. If she wants any, I can teach her. But generally it’s me with the whip, not her. Or him.” I thumb towards Kellen.

She laughs. “Lucky you. Well, keep in touch, Evie. I’ll see you later.”

As Tamzin saunters away, Evie turns her concerned eyes on us both. “Is Gabe okay? He seems upset.” I can tell she’s worried about him. She cares about everyone in our band family, and I love that she cares so much.

“He’ll be fine,” says Kell, unconcerned, deflecting her from the subject. “Come, it’s getting late, and we need to move.”

We’re stood on either side of her as Bug and Orla come over, kissing us all. Bug is grinning ear to ear as he pulls Evie to him, and I can see him whispering in her ear.

She looks at him with tears in her eyes. “Love you, Bug,” she tells him, hugging him tightly.

Orla is just shaking her head at them. “He’s hoping for a girl, Evie,” she tells us and rubs at her stomach. The two women are hugging in celebration. We didn’t know Orla was pregnant.

“Well, you’ve got your own experienced medical team with Eamonn,” I tell her. “He’s a pro. Coolest head in the room.” I pull them both into a hug.

“He’s nonstop talking about the twins. We can’t wait to see you in the holidays,” Orla says.

We three move away from Bug and Orla towards the house, picking up glasses of whisky enroute to my room.

I can see Kell is not fully with us, his mind elsewhere. What the fuck is wrong with him? “Kell?” I raise my eyebrows at him as I open the door to my room. It’s the largest bedroom on this floor of the house.

“Gabe,” he says in answer. “He’s bugging me. I’m gonna go find him. I know Levi said not to, but I just don’t want this to break us up. I’m fucking happy, I just don’t want him unhappy. I don’t know, I can’t just leave it.”

“Do you want us to come with you? Or just Xan and you?” asks Evie, concern on her face.

“No, you both stay. I’ll go. It’s me he’s got the issue with. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

He kisses Evie as he moves towards the door of the room. I stop him, touching his arms and hands. “I know,” he says and kisses me. “Look after Evie. I’ll be back soon.”