This time, my eyes narrow. “Clearly I have.”
She damn near giggles, creeping closer.
“But have you had him alone?” She blocks the doorway, her head tipped to the side, her tone low and illicit. “Do you know what makes him tick, what he likes... how he likes it?” Another laugh, and then a whispered, “No, I don’t think you do.”
She steps around me, spreads her hands out on the beam in front of her, staring down at the two boys waiting for me just below. “Have fun, Jameson.” Her eyes cut over her shoulder, locking onto mine. “I can’t wait to watch this blow up in your face. And it will.”
I frown at her, but she doesn’t see it.
She’s stuck on the little sports car below.
Her words spin in my head as I slip out the front door and make my way to the curb, where Beretta stands beside the open door.
“Hurry, he’s going to need us,” he says, jerking his head for me to climb in the back.
I do, but don’t bother asking where he is.
All I know is ‘he’... isn’t here.
We started at Beretta’s, but when Ransom called them to say he would be longer than planned, we left for my house.
The boys moved Monti’s video game console into my room and have been playing an obnoxious shooting game for the last half hour while I finish up homework for my English class.
The boys are as lost in their online world as I am in modern-day literature so we don’t hear him walk in.
We don’t realize he’s here until my bedroom door is slammed shut.
I jolt, my laptop flipping off the pillow I had it perched on, my head snapping to the right as my legs slip over the edge of the bed.
Ransom leans against the wall directly beside it, his hand reaching over to twist the lock, trapping us inside. His head is dropped against the frame, and he stares down the length of his nose, right at me.
I hardly register the TV being shut off, but I do glance over my shoulder when my shutters are pushed closed, every trace of natural light fading around me. I meet Beretta’s gaze as he draws the curtains shut, and then all that’s left is the glow from my light.
My toes burrow in the carpet at my feet, and then Arsen is in front of me.
His hand glides up my neck, and when I take a deep breath, he nods, stepping back.
I stand and Ransom pushes off the door.
His body is weighted, sagging, but his eyes are wild and raking over mine like he’s famished and only I can satisfy the hunger burning inside him. The need radiating off of him. The desperation thumping in the veins of his neck.
Goose bumps form along my legs as his focus falls to the satin of my lounge shorts, and his teeth sink into his bottom lip.
My ribs constrict, my core muscles clenching.
He tears his shirt from his body, stretching his shoulders out wide, but he quickly falls against the door, and slowly, his friends glide closer.
“Take off her top,” he rasps, and his words are felt between my legs.
My body twitches, but when it’s Beretta’s hands that fall over my shoulders from behind, a grating voice seeps in, hijacking a moment that should be mine. Ours.
Have you had him alone?
Beretta’s fingers float along my sides, to the hem of my shirt, and slowly, he pushes the soft fabric up and over my breasts.
Ransom’s nostrils flare, a mix of anger and envy, a hint of something else.
Do you know what makes him tick?
My top is lifted over my shoulders, and as my hair slips free, spilling over my chest, Ransom’s hands wrap around the buckle of his belt, pushing. Squeezing.
Arsen slips closer and my eyes slide his way.
His smile is small, gentle and he looks to his friend.
Have you had him alone...
My eyes drop to the floor, realization weighing me down.
She has.
Amy.
She’s had Ransom alone, just him and her.
She knows what he likes, how he likes it...
Just him and her.
That’s what she was hinting at, isn’t it?
My skin prickles, frustration I have no business feeling sweeping over me. Bitterness I’ve never felt creeps in, doubt I’ve never experienced right behind it.
I’m hot all over, irritated.
Is this what jealousy feels like?
Heat in your chest, a nasty swirl low in your abdomen, a queasiness that pisses you off?
I jolt when knuckles find my chin, guiding my head up, but I wait until the last absolute second to raise my eyes.
Arsen’s thumb lifts, tenderly gliding along my lip.
“The shorts, Arsen. Take off the shorts.”
Arsen steps closer, pausing dead in his tracks when I say, “no.”
I spin, facing Ransom.
The hand gripping his unfastened belt, ready to yank it free, freezes in place.
I stare him dead in the eye, witnessing his eyes sharpen with every second that passes.
I don’t have to look behind me to know Beretta and Arsen are frozen in place, I can see them from the corner of my eye, but I don’t pause.
I walk closer to Ransom, and with each step I take, his muscles grow stiffer, his gaze snapping from me to his buddies and back.
“No?” he rasps.
I shake my head, stopping two feet in front of him. “Not him. You.”
His eyes tighten in protest, but then they fall to my body, slowly devouring every inch, every curve.
His want is clear, undeniable and straining against the briefs peeking from the open zipper of his black jeans.
My pulse jumps, a flair of expectation flickering low in my belly. The stupid thoughts from moments ago evaporating as he brings himself closer.
He takes slow steps, each one eliciting something deeper inside me. It’s torture, waiting for him to reach me, to be close enough to reach for me, but then he’s right there.
His chest brushing mine, causing my nipples to harden beneath my bra.
His breathing grows shallow, labored, and the pit of my stomach tingles, the need building inside me overwhelming.
Our eyes lock and a pulsing knot forms in my core.
He reaches out, and my body shivers in anticipation.
With my gaze as his prisoner, he licks his lips, his brows caving as his knuckle comes down on my cheek.
His chest rises, his hand twitching until his thumb meets my lips.
He shuffles even closer, and I would stumble back, if a warm chest wasn’t already there to catch my fall.
His lips lower, and he glides them along the tip of his thumb.
My breathing quickens, my head dropping onto Arsen for support.
Right as his thumb slips from between us, his lips land on mine...
And the lights go out.
My eyes, that must have closed for a split second, fly open, my muscles locking. The room may now be a blur, but the situation couldn’t have become clearer.
I’m the toy.
Ransom doesn’t want me, he just wants to play with me, the same way Anthony will, like a doll he can pull out and dust off as he wishes.
I willingly accepted the role, I know that, so it should be a relief to realize this, to know I’m simply the girl they chose as their latest game piece and will likely replace tomorrow. As they should.
I’m unkeepable anyway.
Greedy, heated lips, I don’t know whose and I don’t care, fall on mine and I meet their every sweep with my one. Hands glide along my thighs, and when my shorts are pushed down, I step out with ease, prepared to enjoy every second of what comes next.