“Thanks for coming,” Zeke told Isaac, shaking his hand as we stood at the door. “And thanks for agreeing to help my sister.”
By help, I assumed Zeke was referring to everyone’s willingness to open up to Jamie about their lifestyle. Apparently, Jamie was working on her thesis and convincing everyone to let her dig into their psyche had been Edge and Cav’s way of helping out their submissive.
“Thanks for inviting us,” Isaac told the giant Sadist.
Isaac and Ian couldn’t have been more different from Zeke Lautner, at least in a physical sense. Although they were tall, Zeke seemed to dwarf them. I was only five one, so perhaps it was my own height challenges I used as a ruler. Ian and Isaac surpassed me by at least a foot, but the Sadist was several inches taller than they were. Where Ian and Isaac were pretty-boy handsome with their dark hair, chiseled features and deep emerald eyes, Zeke was … intimidating. He wasn’t attractive in the conventional sense. No, more like unique but there was something appealing about him, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
“Everly?”
Realizing I’d been staring, not at all hearing the exchange between them, I jerked my attention away, forcing my eyes downward. “I’m sorry.”
A deep rumble sounded in Isaac’s chest as his arm slid around me, crossing my chest as he pulled me back against him. It was a protective gesture but also a dominant one. It wasn’t the first time he’d held me like that, either, and I’d fantasized about it on more than one occasion.
“We’re going to have a chat about the apologies,” he said, leaning down close to my ear.
“You ready?” Ian asked, his gaze skimming over me, taking in the way Isaac’s arm crossed over my chest, his hand curled around my arm.
“Come on,” Isaac said. “We’ll stop by your house, grab your cell phone and some clothes.”
With his arm securely around me, he steered me toward the black Escalade parked on the side of the driveway. Most of the other vehicles were gone, the party having died off.
“I can afford a hotel,” I told him when he opened the back door, helped me inside.
He leaned in, tipped my chin up. “Is that what you want?”
I couldn’t look away and found myself shaking my head. It would’ve been smart to separate myself from him, yeah, but not what I wanted. And when it came to lying to either of them, I was not going to do that. It wasn’t to my benefit to withhold the truth.
He nodded. “You’ll stay with us, then.”
I could tell he was trying to read my expression, ensuring I wasn’t opposed to the idea. I wanted to be, only because I knew he alone was capable of breaking my heart into a million pieces. That didn’t take into account the damage his brother could do, but I also didn’t want to be alone right now.
The door closed and Isaac climbed in the driver’s side, Ian getting in the passenger seat.
I clicked my seat belt into place, then leaned my head back and closed my eyes. I was so tired. The adrenaline that had flooded me earlier was long gone.
“What’s your address?” Ian asked.
I rattled it off as he entered it into the navigation.
“Relax for a little while,” Ian said softly, staring back at me, concern evident in his expression. “You’re safe.”
My body, maybe.
My heart was another story entirely.
TWO
IAN STOKES
I had known from the very first scene we had with Everly Hughes that she wasn’t going to be easy to get out of the system. I was right. My brother was in deep. The kind of deep that made a man ignore logic and sense, his only objective to acquire what he longed for most. She’d become his obsession, even if he had done a damn fine job of pretending otherwise.
Isaac wasn’t the sort to deny it, either, but I had yet to broach the subject. Mainly because the woman had made it apparent she wanted little to do with us. When we asked her to scene, she was always game, but outside of the intimate club interaction, she held herself at a distance.
That didn’t seem to be the case today.
Then again, scening with her was the furthest thing from my mind at the moment. No, I preferred to encase her in a protective bubble and stand guard to ensure no one got close. Seeing the damage to her face was like a punch in the gut every fucking time.
From the instant she stepped through Zeke Lautner’s door, I’d felt it. I couldn’t pinpoint what it was exactly. Could’ve been my brother’s feelings for her, his innate need to protect her, or it could’ve been something she was projecting. Either way, it felt important, as though I needed to pay attention because it ultimately would change the course of my life.
