I’d heard Phoenix walk up long before announcing his presence. I’ve come to read silence as well as voices over the years, just as Phoenix has come to understand the dark. His hands touch my waist, gently drawing me back from the door, and it closes with a loud clang, but I know it won’t wake her.
She won’t open her eyes for a good, long while.
I was planning to be there for it, but the way Phoenix is kissing my neck now, I realize my time can be spent doing better things. James is always a good, acrobatic fuck, and Kane is something else entirely. But Phoenix is…different.
He’s hard and ruthless and unforgiving. His possessive need is almost enough to suffocate even the most heartless of bastards—like me. He’s the only one that can make me buckle under the weight of his attention, and I welcome that now because bringing Alice here has complicated my feelings about this whole situation.
And, if I’m being honest, I’m still reeling from Kane’s disappointment in me. I wasn’t lying when I said that I had no other choice but to bring her along, but I hate not being good for these men. Even when I can’t help it.
Turning my head, I let Phoenix capture me in a kiss as he slams me against the wall in the corridor. We’re just a few feet from Alice’s cell, and it gives me a little perverse pleasure knowing that Phoenix could shove his fingers up my ass and get me off where she’d be able to hear it if she were awake.
Phoenix is a mouthy lover, speaking enough for the both of us, and that keeps me as sane as I possibly can be.
He bites my lip until I taste copper, then moves his teeth to my neck and sinks them into my artery to the point I think he might actually break the skin. “Beg me, beautiful boy,” he orders.
Our language exists of gentle taps and careful strokes over his skin with meaning only a few people in the world understand. He was the first one to become fluent—out of both necessity and want because he couldn’t stand the silence.
He’s already trapped in darkness, and not understanding me added to his isolation torture. He feels even the most subtle movements of my fingers as they seek out bare skin, and I lift his shirt before giving in to what he wants—spelled out right there on his ribs.
‘Please.’ He’s the only one I will ever say that to. ‘Please.’
He laughs darkly before pulling away. In the dim light, I can see the reflection in his eyes—the honey-gold unnatural and so beautiful. His eyes had been blue before. I’ve seen a handful of photos that Kane keeps around from when they were young, and it’s hard for me to imagine that Phoenix had a life before being put in this cage.
I think captivity suits him, but I know he’d kill me dead where I stand if I could have spoken those words aloud.
I press my fingers to his neck. ‘Take me to bed.’
It’s tapped out like an order, but he and I both know what it really is: a vulnerability. I’d rather be fucked in the hard bed of James’ pickup or bent over Kane’s desk when I’m with them. But with Phoenix, I allow myself to indulge in something else.
I allow just the barest amount of softness in this world of blood and knives and shattered glass.
He nods, his head bowed, and then his hand flies between us, gripping me between the legs hard enough that my balls ache. It radiates down to my feet, and he pulls so I’m forced to rise onto my toes.
Fuck. If there is such a thing as love thatIcan feel, I think this might be it. The warmth in my heart because he knows exactly what I need to keep me from spiraling out of control makes me want to scream.
If only I could.
Phoenix holds me pinned there, smirking because he knows if I try to get away, it’ll hurt. Then he gently lowers me to the ground and pulls away completely. Not touching him hurts worse than anything, but I wait. I know my patience will be rewarded.
He says nothing, but he spins on his heel and touches his curled knuckles to the wall to keep himself oriented as he heads toward the stairs, and I’m helpless to do anything except follow.
The house is deathly quiet as we finally make it to his bedroom door, and I wonder if he turned off the playroom speakers on purpose. There’s no way Kane isn’t interrogating the stranger I brought home, and James is probably pissed because I acted without him that night. He locked himself in his room the second we got the fucker tied up in the playroom.
James is well aware the best way to punish me is to withhold attention. I’m not sure if Kane taught him that trick or if he just picked up on our lover’s favorite method of torment whenever we displeased him. Of course, his torment is different for each of us, but I suppose mine was obvious.
After all, there’s no satisfaction in pain when he can’t get me to scream. Or when he knows I’ll like it too fucking much.
James has no right to be angry with me, though. We’d split up when we lost visual on the pretty princess, and I’m better at this game than he is. He’s still young and still learning, and I know that pisses him off.
He can take it out on me all he wants, though.
It doesn’t bother me, especially knowing that in a few steps, my body will belong to Phoenix, and he’ll give me everything I could possibly ask for.
Chapter7
JAMES
I wastwenty-one the first time someone called me a nympho. It was Kane, and he had been fucking me for hours, and I still wasn’t close to being done. I think he said it to try and humiliate me, but instead, I started wearing it like a badge of honor.