I moved forward to put a stop to it, and Fallon shouted, “Stay!”
I froze, but the Elders and the members all continued on as I watched. Her body dripped in paint, her hair wet with the color, and yet she appeared pale as man after man marked her as nothing but a broken belle.
I looked to Montgomery for help, but he simply stood with his clean hands at his sides. His eyes were focused toward a weeping willow tree in the distance near the cemetery. It was as if he could actually see the spirits of our forefathers watching on. Montgomery was here physically, but his mind had detached. I suppose I needed to learn this if I were going to be able to pass the Initiation myself.
Block the evil out.
Chase the haints away...
“Rafe Jackson,” one of the Elders spoke, breaking me from the flurry of blue hell that I was cast in. “It is your job to chase away Timothy Jackson. This is your Trial tonight. You must.”
And how the fuck did they expect me to do that?
By standing here watching my old best friend get violated by every rich fuck in the South?
My Fallon, I thought with a possessiveness that caught me off guard.
Only mine.
But she wouldn’t let me help her.
Used goods. That’s the only way the Elders saw this belle before us. She was covered in blue paint. Fresh handprints covered the older, drying ones. They just kept going. Touching. Leaving behind those invasive markings of what they claimed as theirs.
Fallon stood stoically and took each touch with her prideful stare locked with mine.
But finally…
She had enough. Her eyes told me. Her slumped shoulders announced it. Now she needed me.
It was about goddamn time.
I stepped forward, and she nodded.
That was all I needed to clear the distance between us. I took her by her blue-covered arm and pulled her to me, away from the last two men still touching her. I hadn’t forgiven her for her defiant act, but no way would I let another man touch her again tonight.
I too had had enough.
The Elders began pounding their canes as one said, “Claim the belle. Chase the haints away by claiming the belle beneath the blue.”
Standing stiffly, surrounded by softness, my body stirred at the brush of warm lips against the side of my neck. “Make this all go away,” she whispered.
The gentle caress sent shivers coursing down my spine, branching off deliciously at my chest and gut then shooting with a jolt of sensation to my already-hard cock.
Fallon grinded against me, her smooth legs rubbing against my pants, forever staining them in blue. Her nipples pressed against my chest, as her eyes looked up at me in silent plea.
She couldn’t take the assault anymore. She couldn’t stand their touch, their trespass of the woman she once was, their claiming of what didn’t belong to them.
When my cock twitched in response to her need, nudging against her thigh, her mouth curved into a seductive smile, and she gave a low, throaty mewl, the heated exhale washing over my skin.
“Touch me. I only want you to touch me,” she finally confessed in her sultry voice.
“I thought you had this handled.” I grinned.
What fool wouldn’t step in and do exactly as she asked? But part of me wanted her to pay some more. Or at the very least beg me to help.
She’d forced me to stand there and watch these assholes do to her as they wished, and she all but forbade me from stepping in. Her stubborn pride nearly drove me mad, and now she wanted me?
I should make her pay. I should—
Fingers slid along my stomach, gliding over the hard plane that rippled in reaction. She inched downward, past my tense lower abdominal muscles, and beyond jutting hip bones to where I longed for her touch the most.
Not making me wait long, she unfastened my pants, lowered them as fast as she could, and encircled my dick, squeezing in a tight fist before parting her plump, paint-splattered lips.
Blocking out all that was around me the best I could, I took hold of her shoulders, feeling the wetness of the paint coat my fingers and pushed her down to her knees before me.
I didn’t want her hand. I wanted her goddamn mouth.
Her tongue slipped out and licked the tip. Her husky moan of delight while lapping at the end of my cock proved she was willing to pay her penance.
She was mine, and she better damn well know it. And it was time that every member of the Order witnessed it for themselves. Those fuckers could touch all they wanted, but at the end of this, I would get to have so much more. Only me.
Her lashes fluttered open, and she gazed up at me, eyes dark and sparkling with desire as a grin tilted up the corners of her luscious pink mouth. Paint-soaked hair clung to her face, her shoulders, and dripped down her back.