Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38738 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38738 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
No one made a move to get me off him. Grace stood when Charon did. Mel remained seated. There was a glare on her face that I couldn’t see aimed at the other two people in the room as if daring them to try her.
“I think this is the first time you’ve been a bottom, C. How does it feel?” Maverick joked.
Ciaran’s eyes traveled from the hem of my dress to mine, a grin slowly spreading across his face. “I think I could get used to it, but you know better than that. I’m always on top.”
He slipped his hands beneath my dress and grabbed my ass. Grabbing two handfuls, he hefted me up and flipped our position.
Charon laughed as his brother walked around to our side of the room. Grace positioned herself behind the armchair as if that would stop him from getting to her.
“Should we fight too?” Charon asked Mel playfully.
“Not if you want your balls to remain between your legs.”
“Get off me,” I snapped at Ciaran.
“Don’t be like that. You propositioned me first,” he teased with an antagonizing grin. “If I let you go, will you be good, and do as I say?”
“Do I look like a bitch that obediently follows commands?”
“Hmm.” He cocked his head to the side as if truly considering the question. “Your parents seem to think so.”
His words rubbed an already sore spot, prodding at the anger burning in my gut. I pushed myself up. He shoved me back down onto the couch with enough force to knock the air from my lungs. “You’re not quite in control, are you? Someone has to pull those strings of yours.”
He grabbed both of my forearms and pinned them on either side of me. I slammed my head back into the cushion when he lurched down, bringing us to eye level. He came closer and murmured softly. “Unless you want your friends to watch you get fucked every way imaginable, save the foreplay for when we’re alone.”
I silently cursed my debauched desires, clenching my thighs together. This was bullshit. I didn’t spend hours taking self-defense classes to wind up pinned down and defenseless. Another rush of anger had me attempting to headbutt him.
He moved back as if he’d been anticipating the move. With another infuriating grin, he slowly shook his head. “We’re going to have a lot of fun together.”
“There is no we, motherfucker.”
His dickhead friends laughed, watching the two of us as if we were prime-time television come to life.
“I want to help you,” Ciaran amended, his expression morphing to one of somberness. “Here us out. I promise you it will be worth it.”
When I made no move to attack him again, he slowly released me and sat down on the coffee table. I calmed myself as much as I could and sat forward eyeing him with suspicion. “What am I really doing here, Ciaran?”
“I want you to know before any of this happened, I’d made my mind up about you.”
“I’m not following.”
He expelled a heavy sigh and studied me a beat. “I know you came here wanting help to find your sister. Our interests are somewhat similar. I want to help my brother.”
My mouth opened and closed but nothing came out. I crossed my arms and stared, waiting for him to continue.
“Since when do you have a brother?” Mel asked without her usual hostility.
“He’s considered by societal terms a half-brother. My father had him before he finally committed to my mother. We thought he’d gone missing. He simply volunteered himself to enter a world he doesn’t understand thinking he could save your sister.”
“Your brother got Lamia pregnant,” Grace summarized the obvious, her tone soft and understanding.
Ciaran looked away, staring out the floor-to-ceiling window behind the sofa. “I told him not to get in bed with snakes.”
I took that stinging insult on the chin. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard it. There were far more concerning matters at hand than my pride. A sickening realization was spreading through my chest.
If my family knew Ciaran’s brother was the one Lamia was seeing, it would cause a fallout of epic proportions, and it had. The half-brother issue would be the cherry on top. She’d been disowned and essentially kicked out onto the streets for her dalliance.
After weeks of silence, she’d vanished again right after reaching out to me. There were very few people who would know she’d done that. My parents topped the list. All they had to do was check the usage history on our phone bill and they’d see her incoming texts. My stomach twisted as I weaved more of this together.
They couldn’t see the messages themselves, but that would be enough to set them off. It was such a stupid fucking mistake. I looked at Ciaran and refrained from asking if they’d been the ones who put her wherever she was. I knew the answer.