Room Twenty-Two: Hide and Seek

“Kian isn’t a liar. I know exactly what I’m getting with him. A fucking psycho.” She turns to Kian and offers her hand. “Guess being a prick will pay off for you tonight. Let’s go!”

“Wait, you’re picking him over me?” Axel demands.

Stella turns around, her long dark hair whipping in the wind. Her eyes smolder as she storms toward Axel and jabs him in the chest with her pointer finger. “Fuck you, Axel. You’re the reason I’m in this mess.”

Axel grins. “Wrong, Kitten. You’re in this situation cause you had a little peep show at our expense.”

Chapter Thirteen

STELLA

“What are you doing?” I ask, ripping the overnight bag out of Kian’s grasp.

He rolls up the sleeves of his dress shirt as if preparing for a fight. “Packing.”

“I don’t know why you’re packing me for now. Get the hell out of my room.”

His moss-green eyes shroud with mischief, and he smirks at me. He grips my chin and growls a low visceral sound. “You already forgot our deal, Sweet Girl?”

“Your deal. I had no choice in the agreement.”

Kian gazes at me. His intense stare takes in every inch of my body as if he’s trying to process every part of who I am. I don’t like it; I’m naked and not in the way I was in the forest. It’s like he’s seeing right to my heart and soul and exposing every dirty part of me. He’s taking away my power and shifting it to him because with one look, he’s done what they couldn’t in the forest. Kian is the one I need to watch out for cause his cruelty isn’t expressed with a belt or his hands. It’s embedded in his mind.

“Do you want out?” he demands.

“Does it matter what I want?”

Kian takes a moment. His fingers move in the tips of my hair before he tucks a strand behind my ear. “Yes. If you tell me you want an out, I’ll make sure you get it.” He leans in, his deep voice caressing the shell of my ear. “It matters. As much as you want to think we don’t give a fuck, the truth is we did all this cause we care too damn much.”

“People who care don’t coerce you.”

“They do when it’s the best thing for you.”

“How is being your sex slave best for me?’

Kian chuckles. “You’re avoiding the question.”

“What question?’

“Do you want out?”

Kian’s question is a ton of lead pushing against my heart. It’s not a fair question. No matter how I answer, I lose. I could tell him I want out and never have to deal with them again. But it would be a lie because I’ve never been as wanted until these three men. They bring out something in me I’ve denied my entire life, and now it’s released, I’m not sure I can go back to locking it up and ignoring it.

Kian takes a step forward, pushing me back. He smiles and does it again until my back hits the wall. “I’m waiting for an answer, Sweet Girl.” He presses his nose to my neck and inhales. The act is so erotic, as if he’s scenting me like an animal. “Do you want out?” he growls.

I want to say no, to show him I’m in charge here, to prove I hate him, hate all of them, but my lips can’t formulate the lie my spite wants to tell. “No.”

“Then pack up, buttercup, cause you’re coming home with us.”

“Home? Don’t you all live here, in the manor?”

Kian shakes his head. “We have a penthouse on the North Side.”

“The North Side of Chicago? Damn, y’all must have God money. Crime must pay well.”

Kian shrugs as his fingers roam the spaghetti straps of my dress. “We do alright.” He pulls me to him and slaps my ass. “Now, get packing.”

“That was amazing,” I say to Kian as we pull into his parking spot, and he helps me off the back of his motorcycle. “The freedom on that bike.”

“We can get you one.”

“You’d let me drive a motorcycle?”

“Yes, why wouldn’t I? You just need to get your license.”

Axel’s Porsche arrives, followed by Ronan’s Lamborghini. I stare down at my target dress and dirt-covered knees and shame washes over me. I’ve never cared about money or material things, but the contrast of wealth between them and me is glaring.

“I don’t like you riding the bike,” Axel says.

I glower at him. “I don’t give a fuck what you like.”

Axel growls as he barrels toward me, grabbing my throat with force. “You will, Kitten. You’ll be begging for my dick to do all kinds of things to your cunt. I promise you.”

“Gonna be hard since I’m with Kian tonight,” I snap before my foot connects directly with his balls.

He lets go of my neck and grabs them as he bends over on the ground.