AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sit down here with us,” King rasps, clearing his throat quietly.
Thick fingers circle my wrists, gently drawing my hands down and away from my face, he drops down into a crouch before me. His chin lifted, eyes flicking between my own as I blink them open, steely grey orbs tracking over my face, and I want to hide. I want to drag my hair further forward as Rex isdragging it back, holding it at the nape of my neck, his knuckles a welcome pressure against the top of my spine. Unveiling me like some sort of broken object for review.
My shoulders curl forward, arching inwards, trying to hide myself in some way as the man before me continues to shackle my wrists. His thumb and finger a cuff around each of my hands, his other fingers splaying wide, like they’re trying to touch as much as possible, keep hold of all of me.
Rex’s arms slide beneath my own, hefting me up as King rises to his feet, and then they’re settling me on the steps between them, Rex at my side, King at our backs. His knees spread wide, feet parted for me to fit perfectly between his trainers.
Kings hands crawl over my shoulders, pads of his thumbs to my collarbones, holding me against him, Rex clasping one of my hands inside of both of his, King’s leg between us, but it doesn’t stop him claiming my full attention. I glance up at Rex, my hair a welcome hiding place to peer at him through the strands, but with his free hand he’s hooking hair behind my ear, one and then the other, his fingers brushing over the spiked backs of my earrings.
He smooths his big hand over the top of my head, rough palm snagging stray strands, combing through its lengths until his long fingers are knotting in the ends, taking grip with his fist, giving him control over the movement of my head.
“Kitten,” he swallows.
My chin lifts, gaze on his light green one. Lids lined with thick, dark lashes, hollows tinged blue beneath his eyes, his skin paler than normal. It makes me frown. His carefree smile absent from his thin, pink lips, a pursing to them replacing it that makes my skin itch.
“I will never be able to be sorry enough,” he says quickly, biting on his bottom lip, chewing the skin, picking and picking and picking at it with his front teeth.
“Please don’t do that,” I whisper, his hands on me, still but twitching, “you’ll make yourself bleed.” I reach up with my free hand, tugging gently with my thumb on his bottom lip, popping it free.
Rex yanks his head away, surprising me, clenching his jaw, before he swallows, his throat bobbing up then down, “I should bleed after what we did to you.”
“I feel like everyone’s been hurt enough.” I shrug, King’s hands rising and falling with the subtle lift of my shoulders, his fingers digging deeper. “I don’t want that, for any of us.” Slowly, I bring my hand back up between us, my thumb smoothing across Rex’s bottom lip, fingers curling around the wide, square bone of his jaw. “I just want it all to stop now.”
“It has,” King growls, low and deep, his voice vibrating down the length of my spine where I rest in the cradle of his thick thighs.
“For everyone,” I say, licking my lips, glancing from Rex up to King.
His head angled down, a few loose braids dropping forward from their band at the crown of his head, hanging in his eyes. His mouth is so near my own, I can taste his breath, minty and fresh, cold against my lips. I shiver, fluttering my lashes, knowing this is our goodbye.
It’s why I let Bennett stay last night, it’s why I listened to Lynx. And it’s why, now, I’m sitting so closely between these big men, letting them hold me. Selfishly, because I’ll miss this, their smell, their eyes, chiselled muscles and big hands. The names they use, ones that are just for me.
I think of King’s confession to me, how he was hurt too, a different way to I, but pain doesn’t discriminate. It only emanates. Infecting, poisoning, polluting.
If you let it.
I won’t let it be that way for these noxious boys anymore.
“I don’t want any of you to hurt ever again.” It feels like a confession, the way I whisper the words, staring up into dark silver eyes.
“Even Lynx?” Rex asks quietly, drawing my attention back to him, his fingers squeezing mine tight, deep crevice between his dark brows.
Especially Lynx.I think to myself, he just wants to fit too, have someone love him. I feel like I relate more to him now, after last night, than ever before. It was no wonder I thought our connection was the deepest the fastest.
None of this is forgiveness, but I can’t change the past. I can only control the future.
“Even Lynx,” I swallow the razors in my throat as I nod, just once, and Rex smiles, dipping his head, pressing a kiss to my knuckles, our hands still linked, relief easing the tension a little in his shoulders.
“Poppy,” King’s voice rattles my insides in the best and most terrifying of ways.
I look up, arching my neck, Rex releasing the ends of my hair to plant his hand on my thigh, his other still laced with mine. The top of my head brushes King’s abs where he sits on the step one up from us, the rock hard planes of muscle rolling beneath his t-shirt at the contact. He lets go of one of my shoulders, his fingers smoothing up the column of my throat instead. Cupping my chin, my jaw, cradling it.
“I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you. And even that will never be enough. I am broken without you, and you should stay far, far away from us,” it hurts, his words, like a knife twisting in my gut. “But I’m too selfish, Princess, Ineedyou.Weneed you and I know we don’t deserve you, not even a fraction of you. You are more than too good for us. But I will follow you to the ends of the earth, even if you don’t want me, we’ll pave the way, make sure you get there safely. Wherever it isyou wanna go, whatever it is you wanna do. With or without us. We’re gonna protect you, every step of the way, even if it means protecting you from us.”
I look to Rex, tears filling my eyes, the backs of them burning, and I watch, numbly, as, with sad eyes, he nods his agreement.
And I cry.
I sob so hard, I can’t breathe. There’s no time, there’s no meaning, there’s only a slow, piercing, shattering inside of me. My rib bones feel like they’re curling inwards, their dull, blunt ends sinking into my heart with poison tipped ends.
