Slowly, Ren brought Oli to sit on the floor, and I shifted to Ren’s side, studying Oli’s bright pink cheeks and wide pupils. He’d come and he’d enjoyed himself, right? But there was also something off about him. I couldn’t put my finger on it.
“Kitten, talk to us,” Ren whispered, voice gentle and coaxing. I’d never heard him speak this way. The softness was new, but so were the narrowed, concerned eyes.
Oli trembled so roughly his teeth chattered. “I’m—I’m sorry. I don’t—” He sobbed harder. “You left me out.”
My lips popped open in abject horror. My muscles tensed. Was that how he felt?
“Noooooo.” I laid a hand on his shoulder, fingers curling to dig into his skin, tomakehim look at me. “We were teasing you, not leaving you out. You didn’t enjoy it?”
He hiccupped and nodded. “I—I did, but—Fuck.” He wiped his eyes angrily. “Fuck! Fuck!” He slammed the base of his palm against his forehead, but Ren intercepted his wrist before he could do it again.
“Shh, stop, Kitten. Stop.” Dominance leaked into Ren’s voice, the order clear in his tone, and immediately, Oli froze. “Talk to us. Tell us how you’re feeling.”
I held my breath.
17
OLI
My mind whirled and weirdly felt like it had grown teeth and was gnawing on itself. I had trouble making sense of what was being said to me while my chest ached and I fought to drag in air.
“Why do you care? You were.... I mean, I know you blew me, but—” My cheeks burned. It began to filter into my mind that my ass was cold. We were on the floor. How did we get on the floor? “What did you ask?”
It was a shock when Ren’s tattooed muscular arms tightened around me. I brought my knees up between us, forcing him to move back a bit, and wrapped my arms around them. The lack of artwork on my skin seemed weird next to him. Emotions rippled across his face and landed on irritated as he covered my kneecaps with his palms instead of hugging me.
KC moved around until he was behind me, and I flinched when he wrapped his arms around me, trapping me. A thousand sparks rippled across my back when he pressed his warm, strong chest close. Earlier, I would’ve killed for this. He carefully settled his hands on my shins and tugged me tight against his chest.
My heart rioted.
It was obvious he was trying to comfort me, which I wanted, but after the way I’d been restrained.... I shivered as he planted his chin on my shoulder, completing that caged-in sensation.
Ren blew out a long breath and squeezed my knees. “How are you feeling?”
My mind blanked. “Don’t really know. How can you ask right now?” I sucked in a deep breath and blinked as sweat gathered on my eyelashes.
“Shh.” KC cuddled closer, and I shivered.
“Try to answer.” Ren’s steady tone made me sit up straighter.
“It’s a hell of a lot to go from getting ignored—” The bones in my chest were shrinking. “—to this.”
“Being the center of attention?” Confusion was heavy in KC’s caring voice. “But if you didn’t want to be ignored, wouldn’t this be what you need from us?”
“I don’t know!” I slid my hands up and tugged my curls.
Ren grabbed my wrists. “Stop. You will stop hurting yourself.”
At first, I wasn’t sure what he was telling me not to do, but then I registered the pain in my scalp and let the strands go with a shaky breath.
“My stomach hurts,” I whispered.
One of KC’s big hands began to massage my abs, and even though that felt good, it was also overwhelming. KC wrapped his other arm around my chest and the sensation of ants crawling over my skin had me whimpering. I shot to my feet, but it was an elbowing, shoving maneuver that left KC and Ren leaning away from me on the floor.
KC’s brow was furrowed and the hurt in his blue eyes was impossible to miss.
Ren’s eyebrows were near his hairline and his lips were parted.
I snorted because even though I felt like a thousand different kinds of hell, I’d never shocked Ren, not once, and that was something to savor.
