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“Babe, look at me.” My heart pounded at the pet name I hadn’t heard from him in far too long. Sliding my gaze to where his hands rested on the bed, I followed the bare skin up his corded forearm to where his bicep bulged before skipping across his surprisingly delicate clavicle to the base of his throat. Black stubble dotted his neck and spread over his jaw in a sexy five o’clock shadow that I knew he struggled with when he wanted to look presentable. Finally, I met his crystal clear eyes.
“I’m afraid we’re going to have to postpone the reward until the end of the conversation,” he said, affecting a sad face that I saw right through. Bastard.
“Rules are there for a reason,” I started, faltering at the grin that flashed across Satan’s face, stunning me for a moment.
“If I let one of us at you, all of us are going to jump in and we won’t stop until you don’t remember your own name. We need you coherent until we can get this mess sorted out. After that... all bets are off.” After considering his words, I met the eyes of each of the men in the room and recognized barely suppressed hunger in every gaze. None of them seemed pissed. No one looked jealous, or even particularly concerned that Satan had just announced that everyone was going to be able to have a piece of me at the same time. The shiver that passed up my spine had nothing to do with room temperature this time. Hope, that long forgotten bitch I thought I’d throttled years ago, raised her ugly head insisting this could work. That I could trust them. Trust wasn’t something I gave away easily, but lust? I was down for that.
Recrossing my legs, I resolved to get this finished as soon as possible so I could receive my reward, which had better have been coming in the form of multiples.
“Fine. So why would Dolph have sold me out? He uses my services all the time, so how does it benefit him to have me out of the picture?”
“We hoped you could tell us that. Our running theory was loss of control. Have you given your father any reason to believe you might have wanted to leave? Or quit?” Satan leaned in further, something in my face telling him all he needed to know. “Joy, were you planning on running?”
“How did you know that?” I whispered.
“Because that was when they decided to take out your mother.”
CHAPTER 4
ON THE LAST CHRISTMAS before my mother left, Santa brought me a pair of ice skates. I had begged for them for half of the year, convinced that I could take up ice hockey or figure skating and move our family to the big city where other famous sports stars lived. When I pulled them out of the pillowcase at the end of my bed, I screamed so loud I woke my father and started Christmas day with an ass so sore I couldn’t sit down because of his belt. It didn’t matter to me, though, all that mattered were those skates. Barely giving Mom enough time to dress, I begged and cajoled her into taking me to the lake near the trailer park. No one skated there, and I thought it would be perfect to start in private so I wouldn’t be teased for falling. What neither of us realized was there was a reason it was empty. With my skates strapped tightly to my toothpick-sized ankles, I crab-walked out onto the ice. It seemed to me that ice skating should be similar to what the kids at the skate park did with inline skates, so I carefully pushed off with first one foot, then the other. When I finally wobbled into a glide, I felt unstoppable. Grinning, I waved at my mom as I circled closer to the middle of the lake.
We found out later when the paramedics cleared me to head home after treating a mild case of hypothermia that the lake we were on never froze solid. They explained there were supposed to be warning signs posted.
None of that had mattered to me because all I could feel was the moment I broke through the ice. The immediate immobility. The stolen breath. The way the icy water seemed to slice the skin from your body while you remained completely intact.
I experienced the same sensation when Satan told me my mom had been killed.
Drifting. Sinking into the endless void. My skin tightened as goosebumps prickled all over my body. A ringing started up in my ears, so high-pitched it made me want to shake my head. I sagged into myself, confused when my hands didn’t move.
Hard fingers gripped my chin a moment before I felt a firm pressure on my mouth. There were lips on mine. Kissing. Even as this registered, the hand shifted, cupping my jaw and forcing my head back. Opening my mouth to a warm, plundering tongue that demanded I pay attention. Insisted I stay in the present. With a groan somewhere between pain and relief, I engaged fully in the moment and kissed him back. I had no clue who had taken the initiative, but I was grateful for the heat that was even now spreading throughout my body.
And then he was gone.
It was Nick, I realized, as he was yanked back by a scowling Chris.
“We’re not done talking yet. You heard what Satan said,” Chris growled, squaring off against his friend.
“She needed it. She’s been through a lot today, you know. Freezing cold, the break and enter, having a knife thrown at her.”
“That was you!” I said, smothering a smile. He put his fingers over my mouth, hushing me.
“Having a gun drawn on her, no Christmas dinner, getting wet.” The leer he threw at me was so over the top I had to roll my eyes. “And now she’s all tied up with no one to play with,” he finished.
“Maybe we should feed her before we do anything else,” Noel said, a frown creasing his brows.
“Anytime you guys want to stop talking like I’m not in the room would be great.” I pulled my knees to my chest and slowly let them drop open revealing my drenched panties to every eye in the room. “Besides, I want my reward.”
Nick groaned and dropped to his knees as Chris and Noel looked to Satan for direction.
“We have a lot to discuss,” Satan started.
“Later,” I said, loving how Nick’s eyes hadn’t shifted from the damp fabric covering my core.
I didn’t want to talk anymore. Didn’t want to return to the cold thoughts of a dead mother and a potentially murderous father that I had sacrificed everything for. I wanted the warmth these men I cared for were offering me. The promise that maybe the life I wanted wasn’t as out of reach as I thought. Stick to sex, Joy, that’s all they’ve promised. Then I was going to enjoy the hell out of whatever time we had.
“Nick wanted his cock sucked and I’m happy to oblige. Are you guys going to watch, or...?”
“Fuuuck,” Nick breathed reverently, shuffling closer on his knees. A half-hearted swipe at his shoulder was all the effort Chris put into holding him back. The man who looked like an angel was ready to do devilish things to me. I couldn’t wait.
