Deviant Knights (23 page)

The words were on the tip of his tongue.
 
It felt like acid dripped there and he didn’t
want to say the words.
 
“I didn’t tell
you everything about my time—with
Paloma
.
 
She—tortured—me.
 
She—”
 

“I can see it on your face.
  
You don’t have to relive it.
 
Unless you need to.”

“I’ve never spoken them aloud, to anyone.
 
I think it’s well past time I did.”

Kadence
took a deep breath, as if she was readying herself to hear what he
had to say.
 
“What did she do to you?”

“She wooed me, seduced me into her bed.
 
She made me wish to have a future.
 
And then she fucked my torturer as I was
forced to watch, cut into bits as they laughed at me.
 
That was when I wasn’t beaten and
maimed.
 
By the time Thierry and Gabriel
saved me from that hellhole, I barely knew my own name.”

“When was this?”

“The Spanish Inquisition.”

Kadence’s
eyes rounded as she looked at him.
 
“So, like iron maiden and the rack kind of torture?”

“Something along those lines, yes.”

“We are going to hunt her down and make her
pay.”

Michel chuckled inwardly.
 
Even a sword piercing her chest wasn’t
stopping her.
 
“No, you’re not going to
get involved, any more than you have to.
 
I can’t—”

He couldn’t vocalize the fear he’d felt, the
words just choked in his throat.
 
If
she’d died, he wasn’t sure he would have held on to his last shreds of sanity.

“You can’t, what?”
 
Tears glimmered in her eyes.
 
He knew she sensed what he was about to say,
but she wanted to hear the words.
 
And
after everything he’d said to her before this moment, she deserved to hear
them.
 
No matter how hard they were for
him to say.

“I can’t—I can’t—lose you.”

Chapter Nineteen

Kadence
looked into Michel’s eyes and saw the raw emotion facing her.
 
He was letting her in.
 
The walls were caving and she could finally
see the vulnerability in him.
 
He was
afraid she wouldn’t accept him after he’d turned away from her.

But she’d known he’d needed to walk away from
what had happened.
 
His nerves had been
raw, cut open, and on display for all to see.
 
He’d needed time for those to heal over, to be able to face what came
next.

Her eyes drifted to Gabriel’s.
 
He stood against the far wall, a look of
utter disappointment on his face.
 
Did he
think she was going to choose Michel over him?
 
Would she?

Gabriel had been the constant.
 
He hadn’t walked away when things had gotten
hard.
 
He’d protected her, soothed
her.
 
He was her dream man.

Michel was the broken man, the one she wanted to
be able to save.
 
He deserved such love,
a woman to fill the empty spots
Paloma
had cut from
him.
 
She wanted to be that woman.

How could she decide between them?
 
How unfair was fate to put these two
perfectly imperfect men in her path and expect her to choose?
 
She wanted them for completely different
reasons, and there was no comparing the two.

She hadn’t seen this in any of her dreams.
 
But now she wondered about those nightly
reveries she’d had of Gabriel.
 
There had
always been that “something” on the edges of her dreams.
 
What did it mean?

Michel looked to her, hope shimmering on his
face.
 
Her eyes looked again to Gabriel, though
he averted his eyes as if unable to gaze into hers.

She wrapped her arms around Michel, pulling him
close.
 
“You won’t lose me.
 
I’m here.”

Before she could turn to Gabriel, she heard the
door open.
 
Gabriel’s back was through
the frame before she could open her mouth.
 
“Wait!
 
Gabriel!
 
Where are you going?”

Gabriel peeked back through the open door, an
angry set to his shoulders.

“I know you wanted me to choose.
 
I have chosen.
 
You were both willing to share from day
one.
 
Why stop now?”

Gabriel’s mouth dropped.
 
“To share a woman for a
night or two, sure.
 
Indefinitely?
 
That’s
absurd.”

“Don’t make me choose, Gabriel.”

Her Spaniard dipped his head, not looking at
either of them as he stood framed in the doorway.
 
Kadence
felt her
breath catch in her lungs.
 
She didn’t
want to push either man away.
 
Gambling
her future, she realized it was now all or nothing.
 
They would either accept her proposition, or
she’d be lost and alone without either of the larger than life personalities
she’d already grown to crave.

“I want you with a depth I’ve never felt.
 
But this—”

“Is asking a lot.
 
I know.
 
But you’re both a part of my life.
 
I have feelings for you both, and you’re
asking me to make a difficult decision.
 
One made even more difficult by the fact we don’t know what tomorrow
brings.
 
Michel is your best friend.
 
He’s stood at your side for years.
 
You’ve both shared me already.
 
I’m only asking for it to continue.”

“Until what?”
 
Michel had been silent up
until now.

“I can’t answer that.
 
It’s too soon.
 
But, I know I want to see what tomorrow
brings—with you both.”

She held out her hand to Michel, holding her
breath, hoping he would accept her proposal.
 
He eyed her fingers warily, before finally clutching her hand in his and
pulling himself into the bed beside her.
 
He nuzzled her neck as she moved her gaze to Gabriel.

An envious light lit his eyes.
 
He wanted her; she could see it.
 
He also warred with his inherent sense of
right and wrong—this being wrong in his mind.

“I want you for my own.”

“I am yours.”

“And his.”

“I have enough—”

“Enough, what?”

Kadence
choked on the words.
 
She
knew where this was leading.
 
They had
shared too much, seen too much, not to face the fact that they were forever
entwined within each other’s lives.

“I have enough—love—to share with you both.”

Gabriel visibly softened at her admission.

“But, I’m making no declaration here.
 
I’m saying that I care for you both
deeply.
 
I want to see where this takes
us and I need to know you want to follow alongside me.”

“Agreed.
 
I make no promises.
 
I only agree to this journey to see where it
leads.”
 
Gabriel smiled slowly.

She smiled in return, her body easing at his
response, although she instinctively sensed he held back the true wealth of his
emotions.
 
She reached to him, a silent
request for him to join them, to become part of a whole.

“You’re well enough to consummate our
arrangement?”
 
Michel asked from her
side.

Consummate.
 
It was such a heavy, expectant word.
 
It reminded her of all the dreams she’d had with Gabriel, how close
she’d been to pleasure, reaching out in need for so long, only to be
denied.
 
Now, she had both these
incredibly virile men at her side, ready to give her exactly what she needed,
to consummate the relationship they’d just agreed to attempt.

The men had brought her to such heights of
pleasure, run the gambit of emotions.
 
And she knew there would only be more of the same, a roller coaster ride
their journey.
 
She still was unsure of
what she was, what her future held, but these two strong men would be there at
her side to help her find her path.

“I’ll let you know if I need to stop.”

Gabriel sauntered into the room, closing the
door behind him.
 
He stalked to the bed
and crawled in, capturing her lips in a ferocious kiss that nearly stole her
breath.
 
He pushed her back into the bed,
pressing his hardening cock against her, a massive show of strength and
dominance.
 
She played a precarious game
with these two strong alpha males.
 
The
testosterone alone could kill her.
 

But what a way to go.

Michel’s pants tented, an affirmation of his
desire, his cock straining to reach her.
 
He lowered a hand to it, stroking his dick through the material.
 
Her eyes followed the trail and watched as he
gripped his dick through the denim, fascinated with his raw sexuality.
 
He was completely unafraid to touch himself
as she watched.
 
And she had to admit to
herself that she enjoyed watching him.
 
Watching him masturbate on the train had been one of the most erotic
visions she’d ever seen before.

She saw the lust spread through Michel as he
watched Gabriel peel back the sheets and cautiously remove her bra from around
her wound, releasing her swollen breasts.
 
Gabriel’s hands plumped the flesh, his mouth fastening on a nipple and
pulling it into his mouth.
 
Michel
enjoyed watching as well, his breaths coming faster the more he watched Gabriel
touch and caress her fevered body.

Gabriel reached under the sheets and slid her underwear
down, the dampness coating them grazing her inner thigh as they moved. She was
ready and willing for them both, delayed only by her body, still healing slightly
from
Paloma’s
sword.

Her eyes moved back to Michel, his wickedly
decadent motions enough to make her come on the spot.
 
Seeing him touch himself intensified her
longing, and she sighed aloud when he unzipped his pants and freed his cock.
The thick hand and strong forearm pumped the shaft, his hands stopping for a
moment as he removed his t-shirt, revealing the firmly packed abs that rippled down
to his narrow waist.
 

He quickly returned to thrusting his shaft into
his palm as she watched a pearl of fluid rise to the tip. Her lips quivered
with the need to taste his cum, but she’d never experienced that with any man
and hesitated now.
 
Michel’s face shined
from the light coat of sweat that appeared on his brow, and his lips parted as
he began to breathe harder.
 
He was
nearing the edge of control and that was where she wanted him.

A hand swiped over her mound, descending lower
through the wetness of her pussy, forcing her eyes downward. Gabriel slid down
to lie between her spread thighs, his tongue swirling through the folds of her pussy,
his eyes locked with hers as he tasted her.
 
A finger stroked her labia and carried wetness down to her tight bud.
Caught up in his caresses, she let her eyes drift closed, her head tumbling
back against the fluffy pillows.

Opening her eyes, she sought out Michel beside her,
still stroking his dick. He’d yet to touch her and she needed his hands on her
aching flesh.
 
She reached out, replacing
Michel’s hand on his cock. She thrust the shaft in her palm, rejoicing in the
feel of the supple skin covering the hard, engorged organ.

She pulled him closer, bringing him up on his
knees beside her.
 
She then lapped at the
springy, plum-shaped head with her tongue, whirling it around the tip that held
a pearly drop.
 
Covering the slit, she
scooped his essence up, swallowing his flavor.
  
His taste was musky and slightly salty, and all male.
Kadence
eased her tongue down the entire length and back up
again, capturing him between her lips and sucking as much of him as she could
into her mouth.
 
The head of his cock
bumped the back of her throat and she could take no more.
 
His stifled groan told her of his
appreciation.