Jax palmed her breast and bit her shoulder, and with a cry of pure ecstasy she slid her fingers into Hudson’s hair and rode them both harder, taking what she wanted, what she needed, unleashing a deep growl from Hudson’s throat, the whole scene making my heart pound as fiercely as a Midnight storm.
Just like that night in the apartment with Jax, I almost felt guilty watching her like this—seeing that blush creep up her thighs and over her breasts, knowing it was the mouths and hands of other men that’d put it there. But there was somethingsofucking right about it too. About being here with them, being part of this, all the blame and our bullshit fights and the last few weeks of anguish and torment on hold for just a little while—just long enough to offer a night of pure pleasure to the woman we all loved.
And I knew it then, truly and deeply, that wedidall love her. That something beyond logic or obligation or even the loyalty born of our blood-before-roses oath connected us to her and—if I was being honest, which wasn’t the easiest fucking thing for me these days—to one another. She was the center of it, though. The beating heart of us all.
Haley met my gaze again, the pulse of her immense desire echoing through my balls, my cock throbbing for her, my blood simmering. The scent of her in that moment was overpowering, making my head swim.
I must’ve smiled at her, because suddenly my girl was smiling back again, the sight of it warming me head to toe.
I’d nearly lost her tonight. Nearly lost all of them tonight, and so many fucking nights before, but they were still here. Yeah, Jax and I had fought—we probably always would. But we were still fucking brothers, just like I’d told him. And for all my fuckups, for all that I’d put them at risk, I wanted to be better. So much better, because they deserved a friend and brother who could take care of them. Who wouldn’t fall apart or fall prey to some vicious addiction.
And I wanted to be better for me, too. To find a way to live with the pain of the clawing emptiness inside me, the losses, the unanswered questions, the fucking tragedies, because living with them was the only way I would ever truly appreciate the beauty as well. The love. The brotherhood that was all around me.
I closed my eyes, shame coursing through my veins, my gut churning. Fuck, I’d been dancing with the devil for so long, those little black pills felt like my oldest friends. Even now, two nights clean, feeling better than I’d felt in years, I still hungered for them. Still felt the whisper of their dark promises on the back of my neck, the sweet oblivion that was never more than a swallow away.
They were killing me. Ruining me. Destroying everything and everyone I cared for.
But as badly as I wanted to turn my back on the Black for good—as badly as Ineededto—I just didn’t fucking know how.
And that, more than anything, fucking terrified me.
22
JAX
After all the time I’d spent chained up in the fiery pits of hell, I thought I knew fear. Thought I’d experienced it so often, in so many different forms, I’d never succumb to its dark powers again—that I wasn’t evencapableof it.
But earlier tonight, seeing her broken body on the bed, blood spilling onto the floor from her wounds…
There was a moment—a single heartbeat—where I thought she might actually be dead.
And in that moment, fear—the truest and sharpest blade I’d ever felt—sliced right through my heart, putting every last one of hell’s brutal tortures to shame.
Now, having her with us again—warm, alive, moaning my name as I slid deep inside her—felt like a second chance. One I hadn’t even realized I’d been begging for.
Since our very first kiss in the corpsevine fields—and the chase that ensued—I’velovedfucking my sweet angel, teasing and biting her in all the sinfully delicious ways I knew drove her absolutely wild. I never thought I’d even consider sharing her—not at the same time, anyway—but tonight? When she’d looked at each of us in turn and put her whole heart on the line just to tell us what she wanted? To tell us how to make her feel whole again?
Fuck. It was just like I’d told her—there wasnothingI wouldn’t give her, nothing I wouldn’t do for her, nothing I wouldn’t accept if only to bring one more smile to her beautiful face. It didn’t matter that I was still pissed at Saint for risking her life with his blood earlier, or for all the things he’d done to put his own life in danger. Yeah, he and I had some bad blood between us. But that shit was nothing compared to the bond that connected us as brothers. Not just because of our oath, but because of Haley. Through her. Our heart.
“You feel amazing, angel,” I growled against her soft neck, sliding my hands down to grip her hips as she took me in deeper.
Across from us, Saint sat in the chair, his eyes smoldering like hot coals. I wondered what their agreement entailed, why he was keeping his distance. I wondered what he was thinking—whether he was imagining himself in my position, fucking her hot and deep, or in Hudson’s, sucking her sweet little pussy while she raked her hands through his hair, begging for that hot mouth. Or maybe he was thinking about where he might fit into this tangle of arms and legs, of sweat and seduction. Would he take her mouth, fucking her until he lost himself to the velvet slide of her tongue? Or would he wait his turn, claiming her in all the dark and devious ways she’d never even imagined before her monsters crossed her path?
Just knowing how much pleasure that would bring her made my cock stiffen even more, and Haley rocked back against me, her every movement sending waves of red-hot euphoria straight to my balls.
Fuck, I wanted to come inside her so badly.
To know and believe—just as she needed to know and believe—that I was still fucking alive, despite the universe doing its damndest to take our asses down.
I wanted to fuckingfeelit.
I bit her shoulder again, and she gasped, her thighs already starting to tremble, Hudson’s relentless mouth claiming her flesh as I rolled my hips and fucked her harder, deeper, the strawberries-and-cream scent of her skin making my heart stutter, the smoldering coals of Saint’s eyes igniting into a blazing fire as she whispered his name and reached for him, riding me harder and faster, her soft whispers cascading into a moan of heady pleasure that threatened to shatter us all.
Her body tightened hard around me like a fist as the orgasm slammed into her, and with one hand reaching back and sliding into my hair, she reached again for Saint with the other, crying out all of our names as we made our sexy, beautiful witch come.
Burying my face in her dark hair, I tightened my hold on her hips and railed into her once, twice, three more times, carrying her through the aftershocks of her release as the same heat spiraled through my chest, my abs, right down into my balls and finally—fuckingfinally—I exploded inside her, the intensity of it ripping a deep and primal growl from some ancient, dark place inside me, a place as old as Midnight itself, a place that no one else had ever reached.
And no one else ever would. Only Haley. Only my angel.
