“My little whore, so beautiful,” he whispered.
He set me upright and pushed me towards Drake, who stared down at me for a long moment without moving. He lifted his hand and curled a lock of my hair around his finger. Then he was tugging me towards him and bending down to capture my mouth in one of his searing kisses. I was a puddle of goo by the time he let me go.
Francis made me sit down so we could all bandage up our hands where he’d cut them and clean away all the blood. I smiled at him before I picked up my bottle of cider.
“Can I make a toast?”
They all grabbed their beer bottles and held them, giving me an expectant look.
“I just want to say thank you for giving me tonight. We’ve been through so much shit in our lives, and today we can put it all behind us.” I looked at them each in turn. “Also, it just occurred to me it’s technically our birthday, so happy birthday.” I raised my bottle. “To us.”
“To us,” the boys said in unison, raising their bottles before we all took a drink.
“Did you deliberately choose last night to be the day we did everything so we could do the whole commitment thing on our birthday?”
Francis smiled.
“Maybe.”
I pointed at him.
“You, mister, are a sneaky, deviant little shit.”
He came closer and stroked my cheek.
“You love that about me.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I suppose I do.”
The next thing I knew, I was yawning, as if everything had finally hit me all at once. Exhaustion washed over me, making me feel like I’d aged a hundred years. We were only twenty-seven today, so I suppose that might be a slight exaggeration.
“I think someone needs to be put to bed.”
I set my bottle down and took Francis’ hand.
“Mmm, and so do all of you.”
An idea formed in my mind. One I was pretty sure certain people wouldn’t like, but I didn’t care. They could deal.
“We’re all going to go down to the playroom and sleep together. That’s the only bed big enough for the five of us.”
“Excuse me?” Drake said, his eyes widening.
I tugged Francis towards the door to the roof, expecting them to follow suit.
“You heard me, and I will have no objections raised by any of you. We’ve fucked together. We can sleep in the same bed together.”
I heard Drake grumbling behind us, but he didn’t say anything else.
“You need to teach me how you do that,” Francis murmured in my ear.
“Do what?”
“Get him to agree to anything you want.”
I smiled.
“You’d have to make him fall in love with you.”
Francis made a face. I laughed, the sound of it echoing around the stairwell as we entered it.
“Look, he’s my best friend and all, but I’m not sure I want him being that devoted to me. He’s kind of a lot to deal with.”
“Lucky for you, I know how to handle him.”
“Mmm, you have mellowed him out a lot. We’re all very grateful for it.”
I leant my head against his shoulder as he pushed open the door to the penthouse. We made our way to the playroom, stopping to get extra blankets on the way. I busied myself making up the space for the five of us, whilst the others went to get ready for bed. When I was done, I wandered into Drake’s bedroom, as it was closest to the playroom, to brush my teeth. He was leaving the bathroom when I entered. My eyes roamed over his bare chest. There was no question about it. This man was a god. And I loved him for it.
“Do you really not want to spend the night with us?” I asked when he paused to stroke his fingers down my arm.
“It’s not that. You know I have trouble sleeping.”
I stepped closer before wrapping myself around him, my fingers tracing a line down his spine.
“That’s why you have me,” I whispered into his chest, “I make it better.”
He chuckled.
“I won’t deny that, little wisp.”
When I pulled away, he pressed a kiss to my lips and left me to finish getting ready for bed. I brushed my teeth and pulled my dress off, leaving me bare. I walked back into the playroom to find all four of them already on the bed. Their eyes went to me, darkening when they realised I wasn’t wearing anything.
“Sleeping only. I’m exhausted and you’ve already had your fun with me tonight,” I said as I crawled on the bed and nestled myself between West and Francis. Prescott was next to West and Drake next to Francis.
Prescott leant over and gave me a kiss goodnight. Then they tucked me under the covers and one of them turned out the light. I snuggled up to West, pressing my face into his chest whilst Francis curled himself around my back, pressing a kiss to my cheek. I let out a contented sigh and rubbed my thumb across my ring. A part of me felt more secure knowing we were all together like this. We devoted ourselves to each other tonight after committing what could only be described as a massacre.
It’s over now. You don’t have to be afraid any longer. You can heal in peace with them.
The thought had me relaxing deeper into the embrace of my men and drifting off into oblivion. I was finally safe and free to choose my life. And I’d chosen to live it with them.
Forty Four
Scarlett
My feet practically dragged along the damn lobby as I made my way across it towards the lifts. The whole day had been exhausting. I wanted to curl up in a ball and fall asleep. Who would have thought you’d get grilled so much for being a missing person. The victim of a kidnapping. Although, I supposed, given the circumstances of my captor’s death, I kind of had to give it to the police for being thorough.
I rode up in the lift, leaning against the mirrored wall, and closed my eyes. Three days ago, we’d set fire to Stuart’s estate, having killed everyone inside. Today, I’d turned up at a police station near the estate looking worse for wear with a story about how I’d escaped during the fire.
In order to get my life back on track, I had to deal with the whole being a missing person business. I’d spun them a story about me being held against my will for ten years, missing out the fact I knew exactly how and why Stuart had taken me. They didn’t need to know I’d forgotten everything all that time. There was no one around who could tell them otherwise. Anyone who could was either dead or had left the country. We’d made it possible for the chef, Gio, to disappear and start a new life in exchange for keeping his mouth shut.
The police had little choice but to take what I’d told them at face value. There was nothing to prove my story otherwise. We’d made sure of that when we’d burnt down the estate.
When I got up to the penthouse, I went straight upstairs and took a shower, washing away the hours I’d spent in an interview room. Drying and dressing, I made my way up to the roof where I knew the boys were. They’d finished work for the day an hour ago, and they weren’t anywhere else in the penthouse.