Текст книги "Beautifully Loyal"

Автор книги: Nicole Edwards

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 21 (всего у книги 25 страниц)

Chapter Forty-Eight

I love you, too.

Ashlynn heard the words Leyton relayed to Jase, and she felt a longing ignite inside her. This wasn’t desire, it wasn’t passion, it was a hardcore need to feel what had just transpired between the two of them. It was hard to swallow with the emotion bubbling up inside her, but she blinked hard, holding back whatever was trying to break free.

Although she’d thought she had herself under control, was ready to continue, to drive them all crazy with lust as had been her intention when she’d joined them, Ashlynn found herself fleeing from them, running out of the room and straight to her bedroom without looking back. Her chest heaved, her heart hurt as she planted her hands on her bed, trying to regain some semblance of control.

They loved each other. Jase and Leyton. They’d said the words, and she’d heard the meaning behind them. They hadn’t been spoken in the heat of the moment, they hadn’t been rushed … they’d spoken them from somewhere deep.

“Oh, God,” she said, standing up straight because she was suddenly feeling dizzy.

She’d pushed them away, sent them into each others arms, and now she was left with…

“Ashlynn.” Leyton’s hard, authoritative voice startled her, but she didn’t turn around, not wanting to look at him, scared of what she might see.

“Come here, baby,” Jase said soothingly.

And then Jase and Leyton were both there, pulling her into their arms, crushing her between them while her chest ached from something she couldn’t even comprehend. That place inside her that she thought was nothing but a deep, black hole was filled with … something she didn’t understand, something she wasn’t even sure she wanted to understand.

“Don’t run,” Leyton warned, his mouth close to her ear as he stood behind her. “You haven’t let us finish yet. We’re not even close to being done.”

Ashlynn looked up at Jase, and she saw something spectacular shining in his eyes. Happiness, maybe? Because Leyton had told him he loved him? Whatever it was, she suddenly wanted some for herself. For just a little while.

Jase’s arms banded around her, and his mouth brushed hers ever so lightly, a sweet, sensual kiss that morphed into something stronger, more passionate, more intense. She gave herself over to him as he and Leyton moved her toward the bed.

They hadn’t forgotten about her, they hadn’t purposely kept her at arm’s length, they’d simply needed that moment between them, and she understood that.

She really, truly did.

But she needed that moment, too, and she hated herself for being so vulnerable.

“Ashlynn, look at me,” Leyton whispered, tipping her chin so that she was forced to do as he wanted.

“Tell me what you’re thinkin’,” Leyton urged.

Ashlynn shook her head, and he curled his finger beneath her chin, gently tilting her head so that she had to look up into his eyes.

“Tell me,” he repeated, and a flash of heat ignited in his green irises. “Or I’ll make you.”

“Make me?” she countered.

A sexy, seductive smile tilted his lips and made her body heat rise another notch.

He took a step closer, crowding her until the backs of her legs hit the mattress, and then he was hovering over her, forcing her onto her back. She glanced over to see Jase was standing on the opposite side of the bed.

“Up on the pillows,” Jase instructed.

Ashlynn scooted to the center of the bed.

“Take off the shirt and panties,” Leyton commanded before disappearing into her bathroom.

Sitting up, Jase helped her remove the T-shirt, and then when she was on her back again, he stripped her panties down her legs. When Leyton returned, he had two colorful strips of silk in his hand, one red, one white. They were … the ties from her silk robes. He tossed one to Jase, and before she knew what was happening, they each took one of her arms and tied her wrists to the iron headboard.

Her heart was still racing, her mind whirling from all the emotion she was still trying to fight, but she never took her eyes off them, never tried to fight them.

Fully expecting them to join her, she swallowed hard when Leyton disappeared once again, returning with another piece of silk, this one thicker than the others.

“Blindfold,” he said with a smirk.

Kneeling on the bed beside her, he managed to cover her eyes and tie the material at the back of her head. Her heart kicked hard against her ribs at the helpless feeling that consumed her, but then she felt the mattress shift and warm bodies line up against her side.

“Don’t,” Jase whispered against her ear. “Relax, baby. We won’t hurt you. Won’t ever hurt you.”

It took a minute, but Ashlynn managed to fight back the panic. They wouldn’t hurt her, she knew that much. Aside from her brothers and sister, Leyton and Jase were the only two people in the world she trusted implicitly.

“Good girl,” Leyton crooned in her ear. “Now tell me what you were thinking when you ran from us.”

Ashlynn shook her head. She couldn’t tell them.

“All right. Then I’d say it’s time for the torture.”

Another hard thump of her heart against her ribs as she processed the words. But before the panic could set in, the bed shifted, and a warm, firm mouth latched on to her left nipple, making her cry out from the sheer ecstasy of it. Not being able to see, she could only feel. It was foreign to her, something she’d never dreamed of. Giving up this much control wasn’t something she’d ever imagined, not in her wildest fucking dreams.

Another set of lips grazed her right nipple, and she hissed in a breath. For the next few minutes, they both feasted on her, teeth nipping, mouths suckling until she was writhing, pulling at the ties on her hands.

“Need more,” she pleaded.

“All you have to do is talk.”

“What do you want to know?” she asked, her chest heaving from her labored breaths.

“Why’d you run?” Leyton asked.

“It was too much,” she admitted, wishing she could use her hands to hold them to her breasts, to increase the friction.

“What was?” Jase questioned, his cheek abrading the sensitive skin of her nipple as he teased her relentlessly.

“You love each other,” she blurted.

“Does that bother you?” Leyton’s voice was closer to her ear that time.

“No.” It didn’t bother her. Not the way they thought, anyway.

“Then why run?” Jase asked, his lips brushing against her ear.

“It was beautiful,” she hissed when fingers pinched her nipples.

“Tell us,” Leyton encouraged.

Ashlynn focused on the glorious sensation as fingers tweaked and pulled her nipples, making her moan. All thought fled momentarily, but then the hands stilled, and she was tempted to cry out.

“Want more?” Jase slid his tongue down the outer shell of her ear. “Keep talkin’, baby, and we’ll give you more.”

She didn’t want to talk; she wanted to come.

But the fingers didn’t resume their torment, and Ashlynn knew they would hold back.

“What was beautiful, Ashlynn?” Leyton asked. “Watching me make love to Jase?”

Was that what that was? She could totally see it now. Leyton hadn’t merely been fucking Jase. They’d become one in that moment, two souls reaching out to one another.

“Yes,” she choked out.

“Say it,” Jase demanded.

“Watching Leyton make love to you was beautiful,” she said with a sob. “So beautiful.”

“Is that what you want? Us to make love to you?”

Swallowing hard, Ashlynn was suddenly grateful for the blindfold, because the tears that formed in her eyes would’ve been embarrassing otherwise. Rather than answer, she nodded.

“Ask for it,” Leyton said, his hand sliding down over her stomach, his fingers sliding through her folds.

When he teased her clit briefly, she shifted, trying to get closer to his hand, but she couldn’t speak. The emotion was choking her, and she didn’t know how to ask for something she didn’t understand.

Jase’s hand slid down her stomach then, his fingers joining Leyton’s. Before she could process what they were doing, they each pushed one finger inside her, filling her completely. Her back bowed, the intrusion so delicious she wasn’t sure she’d survive it. They began fucking her with their fingers, slowly, gently, until she thought she would implode.

“Say it, Ash.” Jase’s tone was more impatient, as though he needed this as much as she did.

“Yes,” she blurted. “Yes, I want you to make love to me. Both of you.”

Their fingers picked up the pace, thrusting deep and sending tiny electrical currents pulsing along her nerve endings. Just when she thought they would send her over the edge, give her the release she was desperately striving for, they stopped.

The ties on her wrists disappeared, then the blindfold.

When her eyes focused, she was lying on her back, both men on the bed with her, one on each side. Opening her eyes wide, she met Leyton’s shimmering green gaze. Before he said anything, Leyton was shifting, readjusting their positions so that he was partially sitting up against the pillows, partially lying down while she was between his legs, her back to his chest.

Then Jase was there, hovering above her, pulling her hips, adjusting her position once more so that he could…

“Oh, God,” she cried out as he filled her, his cock pushing past her body’s natural resistance until he was stretching her, while Leyton’s arms locked around her, holding her in place, keeping her between them.

“Let us love you, Ashlynn,” Jase whispered.

Her ass rested against Jase’s thighs as he knelt in front of her, her legs bent up close to her body. While Leyton kept a firm hand behind her knees, holding her open, Jase began thrusting into her, sending electrical pulses along sensitive nerve endings, driving her higher and higher. But it wasn’t only the physical act this time that had her inching closer and closer toward release. This was more; this was something else entirely.

Jase’s eyes locked with hers while Leyton’s lips pressed against her ear. “Say it, Ashlynn.”

Always the dominant one, Leyton was.

Ashlynn tried to process his words, but her brain wasn’t functioning properly. She was running on pure emotion.

“I love you,” Jase said, his thrusts slowing.

Ashlynn’s eyes opened wide as she stared back at him. Then the words she’d never said to anyone before came tumbling out of her mouth, “I love you, too. Both of you.”

Oh, fuck. What had she done? She’d broken herself wide open, given more of herself than she’d ever wanted to give to anyone.

“I love you,” Leyton whispered against her ear. “Always. Don’t panic on us, little one.” His hands tightened beneath her legs, and Jase thrust into her again.

She watched as Jase’s attention shifted, his gaze sliding down to where their bodies were joined. With his hands resting on her shins, he began thrusting forward, fucking her harder and deeper, faster, until she was pleading for more, begging him to make her come. She didn’t want him to stop, didn’t want this moment to end.

Leyton lifted her, which gave Jase a better angle, so he drove into her, pumping his hips faster, harder until she couldn’t take any more. Crushed between them, unable to move, Ashlynn let the sensations take over.

“That’s it,” Leyton urged. “You’re so beautiful when you come.”

Her muscles locked, her lungs momentarily stopped working as every molecule in her body split in two.

“Say it again,” Jase said. “Tell me you love me, Ash.”

His hands tightened on her legs, and she knew he was holding back, so she forced her eyes open and peered up at him. “I love you.”

He grunted, his hips slamming into her once more before his body stilled and he spilled himself inside her body. Turning her head, finding Leyton’s mouth with hers, she kissed him softly. “I love you.”

“I know,” he said with a soft chuckle. “I’ve always known.”

She was glad someone had, because she certainly hadn’t.

Chapter Forty-Nine

If there was ever any doubt, not anymore.

Hell does exist.

Something jolted Leyton awake. He glanced at the clock on the bedside table, straining his ears so he could try and identify the noise he’d heard. Ashlynn and Jase were sound asleep beside him, neither of them moving.

Three thirty in the morning.

Pushing up onto his elbow, he peered around the darkened room. He knew he was in Ashlynn’s bed, in Ashlynn’s house, but he had no idea what the sound was that had woken him. When he didn’t hear it again, he eased back down onto the pillow, sliding his arm over Ashlynn and allowing his hand to rest on Jase’s chest. He closed his eyes, ready to drift off as the memory of how they’d professed their love for one another flickered in his mind.

And then he heard it again, this time the noise registering instantly. He was out of bed, gun in hand before the automatic gunfire ceased.

Jase was instantly awake, launching himself out of the bed, then grabbing his jeans and yanking them on while Leyton did the same. No more than half a minute passed before they were standing side by side in the hall at the top of the stairs. Jase yanked open a door and retrieved something before slamming it shut and turning back to the stairs. Leyton’s attention dropped to the automatic weapon Jase wielded in his hand.

“What the fuck was that?” Ashlynn cried out from behind them.

“Stay right there,” Leyton demanded. “Do not leave this room.”

Ashlynn, wrapped in her black silk robe, glared back at him, then pointed the business end of her AR15 semiautomatic at his head. “Fuck you, Leyton.”

Okay, point taken.

More gunfire erupted, this time shattering the windows in the front room downstairs.

“Kitchen,” Jase yelled, remaining directly in front of Ashlynn while Leyton flanked her back.

The three of them stomped down the stairs and went right to the kitchen, dropping down behind the center island. The handle from the wine refrigerator dug into Leyton’s back as he got settled, keeping his eyes on the doorway. The island offered some cover, but not enough should their guests come into the kitchen. However, they did have more visibility there, so Leyton understood Jase’s reasoning.

More gunfire, then yelling, as someone came crashing through the front door. Leyton turned his attention to the back door in time to see Teddy drop down on one knee and aim his gun at the door.

No one moved, no one spoke, leaving the room eerily silent. That didn’t last long. Jase yelled for Ashlynn to get down, and Leyton instinctively covered her with his body. More shots in rapid succession and then nothing.

Ashlynn squirmed beneath him, pushing him back. “Get off me!”

Glancing over his shoulder, Leyton saw that both Jase and Teddy had disappeared. He reluctantly rolled off Ashlynn, sitting on the floor beside her.

“Teddy?” Ashlynn called out.

“I’m here, boss,” came the response from another room.

“Where’s Leo and Derrick? Cowboy?”

“No idea,” he hollered.

“Rock and Sal?” Leyton asked.

Teddy reappeared, and Leyton saw him shrug his wide shoulders.

Before he could stop her, Ashlynn was on her feet, wielding her gun as she moved toward the front room, remaining close to the wall as she peeked around it.

Tires squealed outside, and then Rock’s heavy footsteps sounded. “All clear, boss.”

Now it was time to assess the damage.

Getting to his feet, he walked the interior of the house with Rock close at his heels, peering out the windows to ensure they were clear before going upstairs. He’d been to Ashlynn’s many times over the years, knew his way around her house probably as well as she did. He checked all the rooms before coming back down. When he saw Cowboy standing at the foot of the stairs, his eyes wide, Leyton knew something was very, very wrong.

“What is it?” he asked as he approached slowly.

“Derrick,” Cowboy grumbled. “He’s…”

Fuck! Leyton didn’t need him to finish that sentence.

Brushing past Cowboy, he ran to the front door, cutting his bare feet on the glass that covered the hardwood but not feeling the pain. He scrambled out into the night, and his breath halted in his chest as he came to an abrupt halt.

“No! Don’t you die on me! Goddammit! Derrick! No. Please. No. Don’t close your eyes.” Jase’s tortured voice echoed in the night, carrying on the chilly breeze. Ashlynn’s sobs added to the pain that filled the air.

There, lying on the porch, was Derrick, his eyes closed, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. The glow from the porch light allowed Leyton to see him clearly. Bullets had riddled his body, giving him no chance of survival.

Rock appeared at his side, along with Teddy, Leo, and Cowboy. Leyton glanced at the bodyguards briefly.

“We took out three of theirs. Two got away,” Rock informed him, his eyes hard.

“How’d they get up here?” he asked, still watching Jase.

Cowboy rushed over to Derrick and Jase, dropped to his knee, and pressed his fingers to the pulse point on Derrick’s bloody neck. When the older man’s eyes slid up to Leyton’s face, he knew that Jase’s brother was indeed dead.

“They plowed the gate,” Teddy offered. “Took the whole thing down.”

Fuck.

“Where’s Sal?” Leyton asked, meeting Rock’s gaze.

The grim look on Rock’s face said it all. Sal was dead.

Fuck.

Rock touched Leyton’s arm. “We have to get her outta here, boss. If they come back, we’re sittin’ ducks. Not to mention, the cops’ll be here soon.”

Leyton looked down at Jase, his heart aching for him. He knew exactly what Jase was going through because several months ago, Leyton had thought he’d lost Max—the closest thing he had to family—after Max had been gunned down in front of him.

Only Max had lived.

And Derrick … he hadn’t. And neither had Sal.

Leyton wanted to howl, to let go of the rage and hatred that filled him. Inhaling deeply through his nose, he unclenched his teeth and turned to Rock once more. “You and Teddy bring the Escalades around.”

“Yes, sir,” Rock growled, grabbing Teddy’s arm and urging him into the house.

Leyton approached Ashlynn. “Honey, we’ve gotta go. You know we do.”

Ashlynn’s red-rimmed eyes peered up at him from where she kneeled beside Jase. She was lost, and he knew just what she was feeling.

“Come on.” He held out a hand to help her up. “Jase, man, the cops’ll be here soon. We’ve gotta get her to Max’s.”

Jase’s crystal-blue eyes shifted to him, but Leyton knew he hadn’t heard a single word he’d said. Instead of waiting for him to comprehend, Leyton pulled him to his feet, never letting him go as the two Escalades squealed to a stop in front of the house.

“Go with Ashlynn,” Leyton instructed Jase. “Get her to Max’s now.”

Jase stared blankly back at him. Leyton grabbed Jase’s face, pulled him close until their noses touched. Lowering his voice, he spoke as gently as he could. “I’m so fucking sorry, but we have a job to do. And we have to fucking do it now. I’ll be right behind you.”

Jase nodded but didn’t pull away. Leyton shoved him toward the Escalade as Leo opened the door. Leyton stuck his head inside. “Don’t fucking stop for anyone, you understand? I’ll call Max, let him know you’re on your way.”

Teddy nodded, and Leyton slammed the door closed behind him.

When he turned back, Rock was out of the other Escalade, the back hatch open, and Leo and Cowboy were coming out of the house. Apparently following whatever protocol they’d set up for this, they were carrying bags and computers, shoving them into the back, then running back into the house. Leyton took one last look at Derrick lying dead on the front porch, and he again fought the urge to yell, to hit something.

The next thing he knew, Rock was forcing Leyton into the Escalade, Leo and Cowboy running back into the house. When they returned, Cowboy was carrying two more bags, Leo hefting what looked like a small safe.

They left once more. This time, they lifted Derrick’s lifeless body, moving it farther out away from the house. That was when Leyton saw it. The orange glow that came from inside the house.

“It’ll burn,” Cowboy stated somberly when they hopped in the backseat. “That’s what Ashlynn wanted.”

Her house would burn to the ground with everything in it. Leyton hated to see it happen, but he understood. The Feds would have a fucking field day taking apart the house otherwise, because it was now a crime scene. They couldn’t risk them finding anything.

“You get everything?” Rock asked them.

“Everything we’ve been instructed to get, yes,” Leo confirmed.

As Rock peeled out of the driveway, Leyton stared out the window. He hated that they’d had to leave Sal’s and Derrick’s bodies there, but he hadn’t had a choice. They would retrieve the bodies, give them a proper burial, no matter what Leyton had to do in order to accomplish that. But the Feds would be brought in on this one, and they would need an alibi, so getting to Max’s was crucial.

What had started out as the best night of his life, thus far, had just ended in hell on earth.

And from there, Leyton knew it would only get worse.