“Tell him, my queen.”

  “Fuck me with your tongue.”

  The doctor obeys, and Ford and I groan in unison. “Such a dirty little mouth for a good girl like you.” He shoves his fingers between my lips. “Suck. Show me how this slut mouth would wreck my cock.”

  I flick my tongue over Ford’s salty digits, eyes closed as I lose myself to the sex-induced high. The three of us move like the sea, working in tandem and rising like an unstoppable tsunami.

  Crying out around the gag of his fingers, I beg to come, the plea but a muffled whine.

  “Not yet, my naughty girl.” Ford hitches me up his abdomen until his erection springs free between my legs.

  Hot disappointment courses through me, then shock when Vance shifts to take Ford’s straining cock into his mouth.

  “Ah sweetest hell,” he groans at my ear. “You made the right choice, baby girl.”

  Ford returns to fondling my breasts, but my attention attaches itself to Vance’s busy head. His lips close around Ford’s mushroom tip, his tongue tasting the flesh there, working it over for several minutes before he sucks down the entire veiny length.

  “Oh fucking hell.” Ford’s breathless epithet shivers down the back of my neck as he arches up to meet the doctor’s wicked mouth with every downward slide of those talented lips.

  I’ve never witnessed anything so raw and erotic, and I’m entranced, blindly fascinated, floating on another realm entirely.

  As if I’m outside my body and looking down at the three of us.

  “Touch yourself,” Ford breathes.

  I bury two fingers between my slick folds, my rhythm frantic and sloppy and as desperate as the way Ford pushes into Vance’s hungry mouth.

  “You’re right. His mouth is fucking heaven. I bet he eats pussy as well as he sucks cock. I’m going to come so hard.” Ford grips me by the nape, upturning my face, and his mouth slams onto mine as he groans through his release.

  It’s all too much. Too surreal. Too intimate as his tongue chases mine into submission. Shaking, unable to move or even breathe, I crash into an orgasm of my own, an extended grand finale so powerful it shoots uncontrollable spasms down my limbs.

  At the peak of intensity, Sebastian’s face strobes behind my eyelids, and I hold onto the image as if my life depends on it.

  Ford and I break apart, and I sob Sebastian’s name, a guttural cry of loyalty and affirmation wrenched from deep inside me.

  Because it’s him. It’s always been him. Always will be him—no matter whose body forces mine into orgasmic surrender.

  But he didn’t stick around to hear my vow, to witness the strength of my need for him. The collision of lust and longing boiling in my veins.

  A roomful of strangers did.

  They watched me drop all of my walls, laying my soul bare as Sebastian owned my heart. They watched something that should have been intimate, private, an act between two people in love.

  Two people…in a tower of twelve men.

  It will never be just the two of us. Not now, in the month of Scorpio. Not even after we marry. The only taste of freedom we had was in that cottage on the beach. A day I treasure, even if it went by too quickly. Even though it ended with an argument on the side of the road.

  Oh, how I wish that cottage was within arm’s reach right now.

  “Let me go,” I mumble, extricating myself from Ford’s arms. As I sit up, putting my dress back into place, Vance gets to his feet.

  “Thank you for choosing me,” he says, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

  I could cut him down with a contemptuous retort, remind him how he was the lesser of too many evils. I could say how Ford’s choice was no choice at all.

  But part of me doesn’t believe it—not when the evidence of my orgasm dampens my inner thighs. As tears threaten to fall, I bolt from the makeshift stage, mortification hot on my heels.

  6

  The women’s powder room is the closest place in which to purge my shame in privacy, but the door barely closes behind me before it blasts open again. Lilith stands with her arms crossed, the pose putting her ample bosom on display, and though she says nothing, the fury in her jade eyes is enough to raise my hackles.

  “What do you want?” I ask, adrenaline and alcohol rushing through my blood. I’m not sure if I’m about to vomit or pass out.

  “You can’t have them all.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Vance. Sebastian. Liam. Even Ford. Stop acting like they’re your harem. They don’t belong to you.”

  Her accusatory tone flips a switch inside me—one that’s long overdue—and I advance until we’re an arm’s length apart.

  “How ironic, since every man you mentioned thinks I belong to them.” I mimic the square set of her shoulders.

  “You’re a toy they like to play with, is all.” She purses her burgundy-painted lips. “They’ll tire of you eventually.”

  “I hope you’re right, because I’m tired of playing.” And I’m tired of this conversation already. In fact, I’m tired of this night. I move to step past her, my focus on the door, but she halts me with a harsh grip on my bicep.

  “You’ve already hooked Sebastian. Leave the rest of them alone.” Gouging me with her manicured nails, she sneers at me.

  I shoot her a warning glare and shrug off her grip. “Your jealousy is not my problem.”

  Her eyes narrow. “Don’t be absurd. I have no reason to be jealous of anyone, least of all a naive girl who’s little more than chattel.”

  “At least I’m not carrying the child of a man who wants nothing to do with me.” I should feel a trace of guilt for using her pregnancy against her, but I can’t muster another drop of the soul-crushing emotion right now—not for her.

  I’ve filled my quota of guilt for a lifetime.

  But instead of disarming her, my cattiness seems to amuse her. The corners of her mouth turn up in a cruel smile.

  “It digs under your skin, doesn’t it? Knowing he loved me.” She inches closer, lowering her voice. “Do you see us together in your mind? Imagine his cock sliding into me? I won’t lie. We were great together. That boy came for me like nobody’s business.”

  Fury boils in my veins, and to be fair, it’s not all directed at her. No, plenty of it is directed at myself for allowing her to tear me apart like this. Her words only hurt because I allow them to.

  And I’m angry at Sebastian for putting me in this position. I’m angry with them all. But she’s the one in front of me right now, urging my claws to come out, and I wouldn’t want to disappoint her.

  “Sebastian told me he made a mistake when he fucked you goodbye. You should thank me for stepping up to take on your responsibility.”

  “What are you talking about?” she grinds out through clenched teeth.

  “Your child. Sebastian asked me to help him raise the consequences of your poor choice.”

  Denying her the chance to respond, I push past her and barrel out the door. I’ve barely made it three steps down the hallway, my limbs heavy and sluggish, when I realize I’m more inebriated than when I escaped the aftermath of Ford’s public display of indecency. Either that, or it’s adrenaline from the confrontation I just fled. Maybe it’s a bit of both, but as I approach the ballroom’s entrance, the wall all but invites my body to lean into it.

  That’s where Ford finds me, using the wall for support as the hallway spins.

  “Here, hold on to me,” he says, offering me an arm. “A little too much champagne?”

  “A little too much everything.” After the show we put on in front of his guests, I can’t even look at him.

  He tilts my chin up, his fingers gentle on my skin. “You have nothing to be embarrassed about, Novalee. There isn’t a person in that room that didn’t enjoy what they saw.”

  “I think Sebastian and Liam might disagree.”

  “They’re the exception. Those two love-sick fools are much too invested, exposing their bleeding hearts for everyone to see.”

  In my alcohol-laden mind, I play back all the times my own heart bled, especially over Sebastian’s situation with Lilith. “They must be so upset with me.”

  “Sharing the queen is tradition, and it’s expected. They’ve been preparing for you their whole lives. We all have.”

  “Sebastian didn’t want any of this.”

  “We’re in it whether we like it or not. If he cares about you at all, he’ll figure his shit out. None of this is your fault.”

  “Why did you make me do it?”

  “To break the ice.”

  I shake my head. “You did it because it thrilled you.”

  “Well,” he says, one brow raised. “That too.”

  He begins ushering me into the ballroom, but the floor seems to tilt underneath me again. I cover my mouth as nausea rises.

  “Okay,” he says, snaking an arm around my waist. “I think it’s time to tuck you in for the night.”

  “I’m fine,” I protest, even though I know I’m not.

  “You will be after some aspirin and a good night’s rest.” He changes course, escorting me in the opposite direction of the raucous dance, and Lilith emerges from where I left her.

  She strides back toward the ball, the scowl on her face a notch above lethal, but she doesn’t say a thing. I glance heavenward, offering a silent thank-you for small favors.

  “What was that about?” Ford asks.

  “We had words in the women’s room.”

  “About what?”

  “About Sebastian and Vance. She didn’t like what happened back there.”

  Ford scoffs. “She has no say in it. She’s just jealous because you have access, if not a right, to what she wants herself.”

  “She wants Sebastian.”

  As Ford presses the call button for the elevator, he laughs. “He’s not the ones she wants.”

  “Then why was she so hateful toward me?”

  “Because Vance would rather play with you than her.”

  I think back to the night I watched the two of them together in his kinky chambers. They tore at each other like wild, starved animals desperate to feed. He wanted her the way Sebastian and Liam want me.

  “I don’t believe it. There’s no way he’d rather have me over her.”

  “It’s true. He’s cross with her over her knocked up status. Hasn’t set a finger on her since he found out.”

  His admission stuns me into silence for the remainder of the ride up to the sixth floor. As he helps me to my quarters, I’m still trying to process our surprising exchange.

  Because I was certain Lilith’s jealousy stemmed from my involvement with Sebastian—not a one-off public display of humiliation with the man who had to negotiate to get her in his bed.

  Ford switches on a lamp at my bedside, and that’s when the silver mask—left abandoned in its fancy box on the ottoman—catches my attention. That mask reminds me of how far this night digressed from the outcome I’d hoped for. All I’d wanted was to spend the evening with Sebastian, wrapped safe in his arms.

  Oh, how cruel hope can be.

  Before I realize my composure is crumbling, emotions escaping down my cheeks in hot, bitter tracks, Ford brushes the tears from my skin.

  “Why are you crying?”

  “I had such high hopes for tonight. I thought Sebastian and I would talk, and he’d forgive me. At least, I hoped he would. Instead, I betrayed him all over again.”

  Ford cradles my face. “Listen to me. You haven’t betrayed anyone. No matter what you’ve done with Liam, or Sebastian, or Vance, or me, we all have the right to touch you. An equal right. You need to put the guilt where it belongs, on us. It doesn’t belong on your shoulders.”

  “I didn’t have to enjoy what we did.”

  He grabs my dress and yanks it up my body, leaving me standing in the nude before his appreciative eyes. I let him ogle me, too drunk and weak to care about covering myself at this point.

  “If I wanted to lay you out on the bed and eat your cunt, you couldn’t stop me. You’re powerless here, so stop blaming yourself.”

  “You’d force me?” Instead of shaking off my guilt, the whimper that escapes my lips only heightens it. Cements it in my heart, because I can see everything he just said, the images looping in my mind. The visual is too strong, and it shoots renewed desire between my thighs.

  “Not force,” he says, shaking his head as he backs me into the edge of the mattress. “Coax, Novalee. You might feel the need to protest, but I’d make you feel so incredibly good that you wouldn’t be able to fight me for long.” He gives an easy shove to my shoulders until I’m sitting on the bed. With a gentle tilt of my chin, he commands my gaze. “Do you want to sleep, or do you want to feel good?”

  “I don’t want to sleep.” Sleeping brings on nightmares and loneliness and horrific memories I can’t escape, not even in slumber. “But I don’t want option two either.”

  “Why are you so ashamed for wanting what you want?”

  “Have you ever been in love?” I counter.

  He shakes his head.

  “Not even a little?”

  “I never gave myself the chance.”

  “Why not?”

  “I grew up with two parents who resented each other for things out of their control. The queen’s duty made things like loyalty an impossibility. So I eliminated it early on.”

  “By not falling in love?”

  He leans over me on the mattress. “Emotional attachments only bring misery.” Swallowing hard, he glances down my naked form. “Like you right now, trying so valiantly to fight Vance’s drug, all in the name of love and loyalty.”

  “It’s who I am.”

  “I figured as much.” With a sigh, he backs away. “Such a goddamn shame, my queen, because I was going to make you come until you couldn’t handle it anymore.”

  As my nipples pebble in the chill of the room, I whimper. “The doctor’s drug is only effective on my body. It has no affect on my heart.”

  “A product defect I’m sure he’ll work on.” His mouth twitches. “No one ever accused the Brotherhood of giving up when it comes to the conquering of queens.” He tucks me in bed before bringing me a glass of water and two aspirin.

  “Thank you,” I say, warming up to Ford’s sweet and thoughtful side, despite the games he likes to play.

  “Feel better. Maybe tomorrow will bring a little sunshine with it.” He kisses my forehead and turns off the lamp.

  After he leaves, I think about what he said, allowing myself to hope that things will look better in the light of day. But it isn’t long before the first hint of rain splashes on my bedroom window, an omen for the aftermath of this disastrous night.

  7

  Naked bodies are sprawled everywhere. And when I mean everywhere…I mean everywhere. As I stand in the middle of Ford’s great room with my mouth agape, rain pelts the windows, obliterating any chance for a ray of sunshine. The tap-tap-tap does little to drown out the snores of too many sleeping bodies.

  The place is trashed. Discarded articles of clothing clutter the floor, and half empty crystal tumblers, ice cubes long ago melted in various shades of amber liquid, take up every tabletop in the room. Sweat, smoke, and overly sweet perfume floats in the air. Guests are wrapped around each other on the couches, some in groups, their limbs tangling in intricate familiarity. Others are passed out cold on the floor.

  I gawk at the lewd scene for a few moments before spotting Ford on the center couch with a redhead sprawled on top of his bare chest. A man covered in tattoos has his head in Ford’s lap, soft snores coming from his drooling mouth.

  I can’t believe I slept through this last night…whatever this was. An orgy? An afterparty sex club? Is there even a term for what I’m witnessing? But maybe this scene is nothing new to Ford Stryker—just another night of fun he ticks off on the calendar.

  As if sensing someone from the land of the living, the redhead stirs, stretching her muscles as if she slept in that position on top of him all night. She turns her face my way, skin puffy under the eyes, hair matted to her forehead.

  A suggestive smile crosses her plump, well-used lips. “You want to join, sweetie?”

  Her words stun me into a breathless stutter. “N-no.”

  Keeping her jade eyes on me, she moves down Ford’s abs and pushes tattoo guy out of the way, uncaring when he slumps to the floor. The guy groans, shifting onto his side and falling back to sleep almost instantly.

  The woman arches a brow. “Are you sure? I’ll take care of Ford’s cock so you can get off on his face. He enjoys eating pussy first thing.”

  I gulp, croaking out an, “I’m sure” as she fits her lips around his morning erection. I should avert my eyes, find an excuse to leave—any excuse—but I’m frozen to the spot, watching in morbid fascination.

  A throaty moan escapes him as he awakes, both hands drifting to her auburn locks. Taking hold of her head, he settles his sleepy gaze on me, and that’s when I stumble back, about to flee to the safety of my quarters.

  “Please don’t go.” Leveling me with a smoldering stare, he pushes deeper into her mouth. “I’d love for you to watch.”

  “Last night was mortifying enough.” I turn to take my leave, one hand gripping my pounding head, when a sound of commotion has me peeking over my shoulder.

  Ford is on his feet, cock still standing at attention, and the redhead glares from her spot on the couch, her body in a heap as if he just dumped her there like an afterthought. He gives a loud, decisive clap that echoes through the space.

  “Everyone! Party’s over.”

  The man must be a magician, because his guests start to stir, one by one. As people search for their belongings, the redhead pouts.

  “Ford,” she draws out in a long whine. “We were just getting to the fun stuff.”

  “Another time, baby. The queen and I have a breakfast date.”

  “We do?” I eye him warily, but he just grins, unabashed by his nudity, so I wander to the wall of windows to give him and his guests some privacy while they dress.

 

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