CHAPTER 6
KENT
Ariel is the most beautiful woman in Map Room. No. It’s even more than that. She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. She’s all curves and her long red hair is a damn vision. I get a flash of it clinging to her sweaty body as I wrap a hand around her neck, my cock filling her while she begs me to let her come.
The moment we walked through the door, Cy leading the way, I knew he spotted her by the way he sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. His entire body went rigid and when I saw her, I understood exactly what was going through his mind. He was trying to hold himself back from stalking over to her and grabbing her.
When I saw her, I had to fight the same impulses. I could feel her looking at us, could feel her eyes taking us in slowly, but I could also see the wariness in her eyes. I knew she didn’t know we were the guys she was meeting up with so I could only assume why she had that look on her face and all the reasons made my skin feel too fucking tight.
Did she not think she was good enough for us? She couldn’t feel the same fucking electricity between us we could?
Then that fuck touched her. He fucking touched her, and I could practically smell her fear even though she tried to hide it under bravado. I’ve hidden the beast inside of me for a long fucking time, but, in that moment, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to contain it if the fuckface talking to her crossed a line.
I wasn’t the only one who was on edge. Cy let out a low warning growl even though we were too far away for it to be effective. Gabriel was already moving, and I almost tripped over myself to follow right behind him. Cy was the last one on the move, but he was the first one to lob a threat.
The guy looked at us and took us in and I could see a flash of uncertainty and fear in his eyes. He should have listened to his instincts. He had no idea, but he might as well have signed his own death certificate when he called our little mermaid a ‘fat bitch’. Even just thinking about it makes my blood boil.
Then to have the audacity to try and say we could all share her? Yeah, no fucking way. She’ll be shared all right, but only between the three of us. If anyone else thinks they have a chance with her, they’ll find out very fucking quickly how wrong they are.
I have no doubt Gabriel threatened the man’s life when he leaned in and whispered something to him. I didn’t have to hear the words to know it. Gabe is just as possessive and territorial when it comes to our woman as the rest of us.
I was a little afraid that the guys would be jealous when I wrapped an arm around our woman’s shoulders, but it didn’t happen. They were happy for me to give her comfort, for me to shore her up.
The moment she realized who we were, the way her eyebrows furrowed together, and the wheels turned in her head, was so damn adorable. She still hasn’t recovered from the shock of it all, her light blue eyes, wide and surprised.
I can’t help but bark out a laugh and those eyes look up at me and blink a few times. Her voice is so soft, I almost miss it in the din of the bar around us, “Kent?”
I smirk down at her and take advantage by kissing her forehead. When I pull back and look down at her, she blinks a few more times as if she’s trying to clear the fog from her head. Yeah, I don’t want her too lucid. It’ll make it easier for her to accept us if she can’t think enough to lodge any valid protests.
Call me an asshole for it. I don’t really give a fuck.
“Yup,” I pop the p, “got it on the first try, little mermaid.”
Her cheeks pink and it takes all my willpower not to pick her up and throw her over my shoulder to carry her out of this place so I can have my wicked way with her. She’d look so damn pretty with my handprint wrapped around her neck. I swallow hard and try to get myself under control; I don’t want to scare her off.
It would devastate me.
She looks over at my best friends and her blue eyes shimmer when she nods toward Cy. “You’re Cy,” she looks at Gabe, “and you’re Gabriel?”
Both men smile at her, it’s wide, but there’s also a hint of madness in it which has our girl sucking in a sharp breath. She doesn’t run though. No, not our girl. Her breathing shallows and I’m close enough to watch as goosebumps cover her skin.
She might not know what is happening, not completely, but she can’t deny her reaction to us.
I almost crow at the top of my lungs and beat my chest in triumph, but I hold it in. Looking at my friends, they both have predatory as fuck looks on their faces.
“Knew you were a smart one, Ariel,” Cy husks.
He closes the distance between them and wraps his hand around the side of her neck and gives a squeeze. The way her eyes widen makes my cock throb in my jeans. Fuck. She’s going to kill us.
Oh, but what a way to go.
“Nice to officially meet you, little mermaid,” Gabe’s voice is formal when he speaks to her.
If I didn’t know him better, I might be put off by the way he speaks, but there’s a fire in his eyes. Her eyes dance over to him, and she must see the same thing I do because I feel a tremor work its way up her body. I try and hide my grin, but I fail. I fail big fucking time.
I reluctantly let her go and take a seat next to her. My palm tingles with the need to grab her thigh and never let go, but I hold myself off. I wasn’t even aware I had that level of willpower, but I guess with her anything is possible.
“Wow,” she breathes out as Cy and Gabe take a seat, both sending me a pointed look, since I’m the one who got to be next to her.