“Fuck, I love your tits.” He bent his head and flicked his tongue over each of my nipples, then ran his nose up the valley between them.

  “Go to the bed, put your hands on it, and stick this ass out for me,” he ordered as he yanked his shirt off, dropping it, then unzipping his jeans.

  I did as I had been told, and he came up behind me, then slapped my butt hard, causing me to jump and cry out. I looked back at him, and his eyes were glowing with a darkness I hadn’t seen before. He slapped his hand across the other butt cheek, and his eyes flared brighter. I watched in fascination as he continued to spank me, then run a hand over the red mark he had left. Each time seemed harder than the last, and the inside of my thighs were coated with my arousal. I wasn’t sure if it was the spanking or the way he looked at me as he did it.

  He dropped to his knees and began to kiss the now-tender skin. His tongue came out and licked at it over and over. I knew there would be handprint bruises on my butt tomorrow, and I hoped he’d be okay with that. I would be. The thought of it only made the pulse between my legs stronger.

  He pushed my legs open further, and then he stilled. I knew he was seeing how this had affected me. I could feel how wet I’d gotten. He sucked in a breath, then hissed.

  “Damn, sweet baby needed spanking,” he murmured, then licked at my inner thigh. “You’ve made a mess, like a good girl.”

  I whimpered as he licked everywhere but where I needed his tongue.

  “So fucking naughty,” he whispered just before his tongue circled my clit, then began to suck it.

  My knees buckled, and I cried out his name.

  “So sweet,” he said, then licked again. “Mine.”

  He stood up then and grabbed my hips before sinking into me fully.

  “God, yes,” I moaned, my hands fisting at the cover underneath me.

  “Trying to watch a fucking football game, and all I can think about is this pussy,” he growled, pumping harder.

  The sound of our bodies slapping against each other filled the room. Gage’s grunts made me more desperate. I wanted to feel him come inside me, hear the way he sounded when he reached his release. I loved to see his face.

  “Hot little ass with my handprints all over it,” he groaned. “Makes me feel like a fucking animal. I want to sink my teeth into that soft, juicy ass and bite it. Leave my damn teeth marks in your skin.”

  That was all it took to send me flying over the edge. His name ripped from my chest as my body bucked wildly with my orgasm. Another hard slap of his hand on my bottom, and he shouted my name as his warm release pumped into me.

  I felt marked. Owned. Claimed. And I loved it.

  Thirty-Five

  Gage

  I took a beer from the fridge, then turned to see Destiny walk into the kitchen. Where the fuck was Levi? If he was going to bring her to shit, then he needed to keep his leash on her. I opened the beer and took a drink, ignoring her while I went to get a chip.

  “You missed the last part of the first half,” she said, walking toward me.

  “Yep,” I agreed and stuck a chip in my mouth, then moved farther away from her.

  She didn’t take the hint.

  “It was a good one. I wish you’d been there,” she said, closing the distance I’d put between us.

  “Don’t,” I warned her.

  She was going to ruin my good mood. I’d just found out that Shiloh still liked her ass spanked. Destiny needed to back off and let me revel in it.

  “I need you,” she whined, pressing her tits against my back.

  “I said, don’t.”

  She ran her hands over my sides and down the front of my shirt until she reached my pants. “Please, spank me, Daddy. I’ve been a bad girl,” she purred.

  I shoved her back and got the hell away from her. This shit wouldn’t work now. I had what I wanted. I had what I’d been fucked up over. No one else was going to fill that hole. Not when I had the real thing.

  “Gage, she’s going to bore you soon. I know you. We’ve been doing this dance for a while. You’ll need to feel that leather belt in your hands and hear the hard slap of it against an ass. She’s not going to let you beat her. Not like I do. I want it. I crave it. That twisted-up sickness you have? I love it.” She pulled her dress up to her waist and stuck her finger inside her pussy. “See how wet just talking about it makes me? You remember. I know your dick was throbbing hard the other day while you watched Levi beat my ass. You wanted to do it to me so bad.” She grinned and flashed a triumphant smile over my shoulder. “Oops.”

  My stomach dropped, and I turned, hoping like fuck that wasn’t who I thought it was.

  Shiloh stood there. Her eyes wide and full of pain. I moved to her, and she backed away, shaking her head.

  “Shiloh!” I had to get her to listen to me.

  “He didn’t do it. Don’t be so dramatic. He just watched Levi beat my ass while I was bent over the sofa, naked, what was it, two days ago?” Destiny kept talking.

  “SHUT UP!” I roared, glaring back at her.

  When I turned back to Shiloh, her eyes glistened with unshed tears. Fuck no. I shook my head.

  “No, baby. That’s not what happened,” I assured her. “Come here.”

  She shook her head and kept backing up until she hit the wall. “Don’t,” she said, holding up her hands to stop me.

  “She’s never gonna let you share her with Levi. If this freaks her out, you won’t get to fuck a woman sandwiched between you two anymore.” Destiny’s cold, calculated words made Shiloh flinch and close her eyes.

  Seeing the way she was falling apart was killing me. The moment her tears began streaming down her face, I could feel the detonation inside me as the beast consumed me. I turned, stalking to Destiny, no longer seeing her as a female. My hand wrapped around her throat as I slammed her against the wall, holding her so that she couldn’t touch the floor.

  “You’re a fucking whore. One I wish I’d never used. You think that I’ll stand here and allow you to hurt what is mine? I warned you only because she wouldn’t want me to kill you. But you’re as fucking dumb as you look.”

  “GAGE!” Levi’s voice called out.

  “Oh damn,” I heard Kye say, coming up to my left.

  If the kid fucking touched me, I’d lay him out.

  I tilted my head and glared up at her with loathing. “You don’t matter to me.”

  Her face was turning blue.

  “He’s gonna fucking kill her,” I heard Levi say behind me, and I laughed. It sounded as twisted as my chest felt. “Back up, Kye. You’re not ready for this or his crazy ass.”

  A large hand grabbed my wrist and forced my hand to lower.

  “Let her go,” Huck demanded.

  “NO!”

  Levi was on my other side, pulling my arm back as Huck forced my fingers to release Destiny’s throat. I heard her gagging and gasping for air, but I didn’t care. I tried to break free and attack her, but they both held on to me, keeping me from getting to her.

  “You’re scaring the shit out of Shiloh,” Huck warned me.

  I swung my gaze to her, and her arms were wrapped around her stomach, her red-rimmed eyes wide with horror. She was trembling. I pulled free of them, needing to get to her, and this time, they let me go.

  “Baby,” I said as I reached her, and she stiffened. “She lied. I never watched. Levi and Huck can back me up on that. I got the hell out of that room. I walked in on it happening, not knowing. She wanted to hurt you.”

  I put my hand on her hip and pulled her to me. She didn’t relax against me, but she didn’t fight me off.

  “You—you we-were choking her,” she stammered.

  “She hurt you. I can’t—” I swallowed hard. “I can’t handle seeing you hurt. It flips a trigger in me. I lose control.”

  Shiloh tilted her head back and looked up at me. “But you were gonna kill her.”

  “I didn’t.”

  She blinked. “Because they stopped you.”

  “And I didn’t kill her.” That wasn’t the best defense, but I didn’t have another.

  She was right. I was gonna fucking kill Destiny.

  She glanced over my shoulder. I had heard the others leave. Levi would get Destiny out of this house and away from here.

  “Is this what Levi meant?”

  I brushed the tears from her face with my thumbs, hating to see her cry. Fuck, I hated it. “About what, baby?”

  She blinked several times. “About you … being crazy.”

  I nodded. Fear had my throat in a choke hold now. We’d been down this road. It hadn’t ended happily for me. It’d crushed me in ways I never recovered from. Not without her.

  “You can’t …” she said, dropping her eyes to my chest. “You can’t just kill someone because they hurt me. That’s not … normal.”

  I tightened my hold on her. “I’m not normal. You’ve been told this.”

  She sighed. “I didn’t realize this is what that meant.”

  My heart was slamming against my chest so hard that it hurt. Fuck, she couldn’t do this to me. I couldn’t lose her.

  “You’re all I care about. Just you. I have to protect you, and in doing that, I might not always stay sane. She pushed me. She said shit to hurt you after I warned her to stop.”

  Shiloh shook her head. “She said things though. She’s right. I-I … don’t want to be shared. I don’t want that.”

  I grabbed her face and forced her to look at me. “Shiloh, if another man were to see you naked, see you come, touch you, I’d be put in prison. There would be no way to save my ass from the destruction I’d leave in my path. I don’t want to share you.”

  She still looked so fucking lost. Her eyes were full of pain. It was ripping at my soul.

  “Do you want to … do … the beating thing? Is that something you need?”

  I ran my thumb over her bottom lip. “What we did upstairs earlier, that wasn’t new. You used to love it when I spanked your ass. You begged for it. Not with a fucking belt, but my hand. You wanted it hard, and you got off on it. When Levi brought Destiny here the first time, she wanted to be beat with the damn belt. I—” I clenched my teeth, hating I had to tell her this shit. “I did it because, inside me, this fucking monster that couldn’t have you needed to hurt someone. She willingly offered for me to hurt her. It helped with my rage. You’re the only person who, just holding you, can take that rage from me. Without you, I have no other fucking outlet.”

  I watched as she let my words sink in. She was quiet, and I wanted to beg her to talk to me, but I was afraid of what she would say. I couldn’t push her.

  “I’m scared,” she whispered.

  “Of me?”

  “I’m scared that I’ll be the cause of you killing someone. I don’t think I could live with that.”

  I brushed hair back from her face. “I shouldn’t have lost it tonight. Not in front of you. That’s on me. Not you.”

  She shook her head. “That’s not the point. If that was enough to send you into a murderous rage, what if—what if someone hit me?”

  My eyes narrowed. “Then, they’d die.”

  She shoved at my chest. “No! That is not the answer, Gage. That’s not something you kill over.”

  “We disagree on that.”

  She let out a long sigh and covered her face with both hands. “I want to go home.”

  “You’re not leaving me.” I would tie her to my fucking bed if I had to.

  She dropped her hands and looked at me. “No, I’m not. I just mean, I want to go back to the apartment. With you.”

  Relief felt like a fucking wave crashing over me.

  I nodded my head and pulled her to my chest. “I’ll get your things, and we can go.”

  She nodded her head against my chest, and the invisible grip on my throat eased away.

  Thirty-Six

  Shiloh

  When I opened my eyes, I was surprised that I’d been able to sleep. I hadn’t expected to after last night’s events. Gage’s warm chest was pressed against my back. In the light of day, was I that surprised by his reaction to Destiny last night? No.

  That didn’t make it okay. He crossed lines and didn’t care. He didn’t have boundaries or morals. I wasn’t sure if he had a conscience. But knowing all of that, I couldn’t imagine going back to a life without him in it. Which made me question everything I knew about myself.

  I turned on my back to look at him. Through hooded eyes and those thick lashes, he stared back at me. My heart fluttered, and I felt that thrill I got when I was with him. All the things I’d read about and thought didn’t exist, I’d found it. In a psychotic killer.

  “We need to talk,” I told him with my voice still husky from sleep.

  He narrowed his eyes. “If you think you’re gonna try to end this, I’m flipping you on your back and fucking you until you can’t walk.”

  A smile curled my lips, and I felt him let out a relieved sigh. “No. It seems I can’t quit you. Even though you need some serious mental help. I want to talk about former me. Us. I need to know all what happened.”

  He groaned and buried his head in the pillow beside my head.

  “I already know it’s bad. But I need to know how bad this can get.”

  He lifted his head. “We were different. You were different. We were like a fucking volcano that kept erupting.”

  “I want to start from the beginning and hear it all to the end. I’m calling Uncle Neil and staying home today. It’s time I heard this. Please.”

  Gage stared down at me. I could see the reluctance in his eyes. “I’d rather you stay home and let me give you more orgasms than you can count.”

  I shook my head. “Not until I’ve heard it all.”

  “But you know how talented I am with my tongue.”

  “Gage”—I reached up and cupped his face—“I want to hear about us.”

  He finally nodded. “Fuck.”

  “I’ll go make breakfast first,” I told him, then tossed back the covers and climbed out of bed.

  Standing up, I looked around for my robe since I was naked. He’d refused to let me sleep in anything.

  “Fuck,” he whispered as his hand gently brushed over my bare butt. “Damn, baby. I hit you too hard.”

  I couldn’t tell if that was his aroused voice or pained one. Maybe both. I reached for my robe.

  “I bruise easy. I’m fine. It’s my pale skin. You should have seen my wrist after you almost broke it. I had your handprint around it for almost two weeks.”

  My feet were off the ground, and I was on my back, staring up at him. Gage hovered over me, his hands on either side of my head, holding himself up.

  “I bruised your wrist?”

  I nodded, trying not to look at his beautiful body.

  “You never showed me.”

  I shrugged. “You hated me.”

  He winced and then picked up the wrist that he’d once hurt. I watched as he brought it to his lips and kissed it. My breath caught as his tongue darted out against my pulse.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, pressing his lips to it again.

  I squirmed underneath him. “You’re forgiven.”

  He frowned, then put my arm down. “Your ass has my handprints all over it.”

  I smiled. “I’m sure it does. Didn’t you leave marks on my ass back when you used to spank me?”

  He shook his head. “We didn’t get to see each other like this. You lived with your parents. Who didn’t find out about me until close to the end, but they hated me. I didn’t get to see you naked in the mornings. The spanking thing was also later in our relationship. I got mad at you because you fucking flirted with guys to piss me off. I lost it one night at a bar we all used to go to and took you out to my truck, then spanked your ass. I was so fucking angry. Then, you started moaning and asking me to do it harder. I swear to God, I almost shot my load in my jeans. You were so wet that you had to take off your panties.” He put his knee between my legs and pushed them open. “Now, I need to fuck you. Talking about that has my cock throbbing.”

  It had made me wet too. I bent my knees and lifted my hips to take him in fully when he thrust inside of me.

  “Did I flirt with guys because the sex after was hot?” I asked.

  He paused and looked down at me. “Fuck,” he whispered. “Holy fuck.” He shook his head. He started moving in and out of me slowly. “You might be onto something. Every time you did it, we fucked like maniacs after. How had I never realized it?”

  “Maybe we fucked a lot, so you didn’t see the trend.”

  He began to move faster inside me. “Once I got inside you the first time, I became a fucking addict. All I could think about was burying myself inside you again. And you were too damn young. So fucking sweet. Then, you started playing with my cum when it leaked out of you,” he groaned. “It made me unhinged.”

  Teenage me was an adventurous sex partner. I started thinking about his cum on my fingers as I touched myself, and my clit pulsed. My nails clawed at his back as he became more intense.

  “Think of it this way. Today, when you tell me about the past, you can give me explicit details about our sex.”

  He made another low sound in his chest. “You’ll be fucking sore tomorrow. This is hot as hell.” He paused and leaned down to brush his lips against mine. “I ate your pussy for the first time when you were only seventeen. I was a fucking starving man. I hadn’t been able to fight it off any longer. And it was the sweetest damn thing I’d ever tasted in my life.”

  Fuck! Why is that hot?

  I cried out his name. “Harder,” I pleaded.

  He pulled out and flipped me over, then jerked my hips up. “Let me look at this pretty, bruised ass while I shoot my load in you.”

  “Oh God,” I moaned into the bed, clutching the sheets tightly in my hands.