Abel squeezes my hips again. “We’re not going to do anything you don’t want, sweetheart. You say stop, it stops.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to say stop now, but I swallow the word down. I don’t know what strange alliance is going on between the men in this moment, but I already decided I’d do anything for this faction.
Except…
I can’t pretend that I’m saying yes solely because the faction. No matter how much this scares me, I want it. I won’t lie to myself and say I don’t. “Okay,” I whisper.
“Let’s go.”
I take a deep breath and then another. It’s not enough to slow the racing of my heart, but it’s enough to help me think. I duck back into the bathroom to grab my toothbrush, and then there’s nothing else to do but walk in a strange little group to Eli’s room.
The door barely closes behind us when Abel pulls his shirt over his head and drops it on the floor. I don’t miss the way Eli’s gaze catches on his chest and lingers, but I can hardly blame him when I’m doing the same thing. The man is built like a fucking tank and having all that power focused on sex is a heady thing.
He jerks his chin at us. “Get in bed.”
Holy shit, is this really happening.
20
Abel
Harlow is skittish as fuck, but she drops the robe and walks to the bed, her chin raised as if about to step in front a firing squad. I check out her round ass and thick thighs, enjoying the little jiggle with each step. She’s built like the mythical Amazons the faction in Sabine Valley get their name from, but my girl likes to eat. I love that shit.
I lift my gaze to find Eli watching her, too. For just a moment, before he locks himself down, he has the expression of a man standing in a desert who’s just laid eyes on an oasis. No matter how ugly things have gotten between them, he obviously still loves her. The thought sends an unwelcome pang through me. Love or no, he fucked up his chance. She’s mine now.
They both are.
Like I told him earlier, I don’t give a fuck what the status quo was when it was just the two of them. I’m here now. Harlow can think what she wants. Eli can keep hatching plans in that impressive brain of his. It doesn’t matter. I’m not going anywhere.
Harlow skirts the edge of the mattress closest to Eli and climbs on the other side. She scoots to the top of the bed and leans against the headboard. She catches me watching her and raises an eyebrow. “Big talk, but you’re just standing there.”
There you are.
I give her a slow smile, enjoying the way I can see her catch her breath even from across the room. I stalk forward and grip the back of Eli’s neck when I come even with him. He tenses like he’s going to throw me off, but I don’t miss the way goose bumps rise over his exposed skin. Eli likes being handled roughly, and fuck if that knowledge doesn’t tie me in knots.
“The same thing I said in her room goes for you, too.” I say it quietly. “At any point, if you want this to stop, say so and it stops.” No matter how much I want to punish him, to fight him until we’re at a standstill, I’m not interested in forcing anyone into my bed who doesn’t want to be there.
He leans back against my grip, just a little. “Even after all this time, you know me better than that, Abel.”
“Do I?” The question feels ripped from my chest. I thought I knew him, once upon a time. I thought I knew a lot of things.
Eli twists a little. Not trying to break my hold on him; just moving enough that he can meet my gaze. “People don’t really change. You’re the one who told me that.”
I remember that night. How could I forget? It’s the night everything changed. My father had just pulled some fucked up shit with Cohen, and I’d had to step in. It’d fucked me up. I knew my father was a monster, but having that violence turned on us had rocked my world view in a way I wasn’t prepared for. I was twenty-seven at the time.
That was the night that I realized working at the ground level to change things in the faction would never do a damn thing as long as Bauer Paine ruled.
Eli’s the one who found me on the roof, sitting there in silence in the freezing night, unable to release the storm of emotions inside me. He’d offered me what comfort I’d allow, sitting close with his shoulder a reassuring steadiness against mine, and asked me what I wanted to do. I’d told him that people didn’t change and my father is a threat.