Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 44252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 221(@200wpm)___ 177(@250wpm)___ 148(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 221(@200wpm)___ 177(@250wpm)___ 148(@300wpm)
I thrash my bound arms, irrationally angry at the idea of her going anywhere near them. But also, I hate that I don’t have Briar’s confidence. If she were here, she'd bend herself up like a pretzel and have the time of her life.
For Briar, sex is easy and fun. It’s no strings attached. For me, sex is traumatic. I wasn’t sure I wanted it that first time. My vagina sure wasn’t wet. Jimmy didn’t seem to care about checking in on me, either. He shoved it in, and after two pumps, he rolled over and asked me if I came as hard as him. The experience was so horrible that I’d rather use my wand than look at a man.
“Where’d you go?”
Lorne’s deep voice pulls me from my thoughts. “To the past.”
Lorne shakes his head, his hair flopping over his emerald eyes. “The past is never a good place. You try to outrun it, but it always seems to be there, lingering.”
“For a psycho, you’re profound.”
He sits beside me, pulling a cigarette out of the pack and lighting it. “Profound isn’t always a good thing. Usually, it means you’ve lived too much of life.”
“What are you going to do to me if I say no? If I don’t want to be a part of your merry little band.”
“Let you go.”
“That’s it? I say no, and you let me go on my merry way to live peacefully, far from your prying eyes?”
Lorne takes a drag of his cigarette, a lopsided smirk on his full, kissable lips. “I never said we’d let you live peacefully.” He turns to me, wiping the cum off my face with a clean cloth. “You’re kerosene, Snow, and we’re the flames. Once the two have been introduced, there's no going back. The explosion has to happen. But as fucked up as we are, we could never harm you.” He takes another hit of the cigarette, inhaling deeply. “Besides, you help him, and no one has ever been able to help him.”
“Help who?”
“Declan.”
“Declan? The guy who stormed out of here like I killed his mother?”
“The same. He’s got issues. You triggered him, but trust me, Snow; you’re the key.”
I stare up at the ceiling. “Is that a noose up there?”
Lorne peers up and laughs. “Never said Declan was the only one with issues.”
I take in the thick brown rope hanging from the ceiling. What kind of fucked up shit are these three into? I should run, tell them to fuck off, and move to a different continent. But Lorne’s lost expression and sad smile make me say something I fear I may regret in the worst way. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yes. Untie my arms and legs and get the other two nutjobs back in here. If I’m going to do this, we need ground rules.”
Chapter 14
Noelle
I look out the window at the surrounding forest. Trees as far as the eye can see. Someone could easily get lost out there with no way home. It’s a refuge for the lonely and a shroud for those who wish to hide.
Cas walks into the room first. His almost-black hair is wet. He plops himself on the bed beside me with a goofy smile like a child on Christmas morning. “You couldn’t resist my cock, huh?”
I turn to Lorne. He holds his hands in the air, feigning innocence with a smirk. “He was listening at the door.”
Cas gives me a sly wink. “I’ll go easy on you the first time.”
Declan is the last to enter the room, his hands working what appears to be a rosary set. I only know because my grandmother constantly fidgeted with one.
He refuses to look at me, and I hate it. “Can you come here, please, Declan?”
His head shoots up, and he hesitates for a moment before he steps forward. Declan reminds me of a stray beaten so badly he’s not sure if he should run or bite you. He sits on the other side of the bed and stares out the window.
“I’ll only try this if you’re in.”
He lifts his head, and his mesmerizing steel-gray eyes glare at me. “For God knows that on the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
I’m taken aback by his quoting scripture.
“Genesis 3:5. Though, I’m not sure if I’m the apple or the serpent,” I say with an amused smile.
His eyes bore into mine, and the silence in the room thickens as we all await his response. “You’re Eve.”
“So I guess I’m about to take a bite of the apple, and my entire world is going to change?”
“You took that bite the first time I saw you. And as much as this is wrong, and I know I’ll pay for the choices I’ll make because of you, I can't walk away. I’ve searched for peace my entire life and never found it.” Declan stares out the window, swallowing hard as if fighting an internal battle. “Until you.”