They carried me upstairs and put me in the bathtub, running the warm water to fill it while washing me like their pet dog. I would have preferred a shower, but there was no way my shaking legs would have held me up.
“You okay, little monster?” Vandal asked when Zero had gone to look for a clean towel to wrap me in. He was gently cleaning the mess from between my legs. “You’re not even bleeding. It’s like you were made for our kind of abuse.”
The water felt uncomfortably hot and stung my ass where he’d spanked me, not to mention on the rest of my tender bits.
I leaned against his shoulder, trying not to get turned on from the kind way he was touching me. “Is my ass okay?”
“Your ass is fucking amazing.”
“Shut up,” I laughed, straightening up. “You know what I mean!”
He chuckled, tucking a wet lock of my hair back so he could see my face. “Your ass is fine. This isn’t my first rodeo. I know what I’m doing.”
“I noticed. I’m glad you didn’t just cram it in there.”
“I made you like it.”
“No!”
“Excellent. It’s my favorite way to punish mouthy submissives, so it would suck if you secretly enjoyed it.” He grinned, and I splashed him in the face with water.
Zero came back with the towel, and they helped me to my feet, then lifted me out like I didn’t weigh a thing.
“There, all clean,” Zero declared.
“Except for that big, perverted brain of yours,” Vandal added. I thought he was talking to Zero, but then I realized he was looking at me.
“Me? I didn’t do anything. You two jumped me out of the blue.” I was mystified. I’d been writing and then waiting for his feedback. Had I instigated this somehow?
“She’s no pervert.” Zero groped my stinging ass cheek under the towel, then patted it like he owned it. “She’s practically an angel.”
“A perverted angel maybe,” Vandal mused. “You take her for a nap. I need a shower.”
Zero led me down the hall, an arm around my waist to help steady me. When we got to his room, he stripped my towel off and sat me down on the edge of his bed. My nipples pebbled, and I whimpered, even though he only used the towel to squeeze the water from my hair.
“What’s the matter?” he asked kindly. He brushed his thumb over my bottom lip, and I worried at the tip of it with nibbling teeth. “Sadie, behave.”
A stream of air conditioning played along my still-buzzing skin as he pulled his hand away from my mouth. My pussy and ass were sore where they were pressed against the sheets.
“Be a good girl, now.”
Vandal came into the room, apparently having taken the fastest shower in history.
“Zero. Shower.”
Zero was gazing at me. “I think she wants more.”
“Shower,” Vandal insisted. “We can decide if she can handle more after we all calm the fuck down.”
Vandal pushed Zero away from me and toward the door, then tipped me over to lie on the bed, covering me to the chin with the sheet. The queen-size bed smelled like Zero’s soap, and I found my lids closing almost immediately, as though I were a doll with weighted eyes that closed when my owner laid me down.
To my surprise, Vandal moved in behind me, wrapping a strong arm around my waist and pulling me to his hard chest. He made me feel like the very smallest of spoons.
“I hate you,” I murmured, not meaning a word, feeling more sated than I ever had in my life.
“I hate you too,” he whispered back almost affectionately, hugging me to him. “Hurry up and go to sleep before Zero comes back for more.”
I didn’t need to be told twice.
Chapter 16
The first drops of rain came from the sky like fat, graceless tadpoles plopping to the asphalt as we flew down the highway. The weather had been hot and dry for so long I could almost hear the water hiss as it landed, and I imagined puffs of steam rising.
“Am my deluding myself or is that actual rain?” Zero asked, leaning toward the windshield as though he needed a better look to be sure.
A monster drop splattered square in the middle of the windshield, and Vandal turned on the wipers.
“Go figure—Vandal finally gives us a day off and it rains.”
The man in question turned his head to glare at me where I was squashed into the half backseat then turned his attention back to the road. “You say that like you never go swimming or get laid or take naps in the middle of the day. If you’re that lazy, no wonder you lived in that shithole apartment.”
“Oh my God, I used to work full time before I got laid off. It’s not my fault that I have trouble staying focused on writing as long as you do. I don’t think my brain is designed to do one task for so many hours a day every day. My mind wanders.”
Vandal snorted. “Then keep it on a shorter leash. You and Zero give me the same excuses. If your mind is undisciplined then you need to work on it, not shrug your shoulders like it’s completely beyond your control.”
“Different people have different abilities, Van,” Zero said, playing mediator as he often did. “Just because something is easy for you doesn’t mean the rest of us are pseudo-androids.”
“Lord help me. My best friend and my protégée are both whiners.”
I barked a laugh. “How did I go from thief, to interloper, to unwanted guest, to protégée?”
“I believe that last step has something to do with letting him have your ass.” Zero shot me an amused look over his shoulder. “If I’d been the one who’d fucked you in the ass, I’d upgrade you to something sexier like my mistress or my…paramour.”
“So to get a fancy title I’d have to submit to another ass-fucking?” I asked, grinning back at him. “I’ll pass for now, but I’ll keep that in mind. Maybe if Vandal does tricks for us, we can give him a fancy title too.”
“I’m not your fucking boyfriend, if that’s the title you’re thinking of,” Vandal said with unnecessary churlishness.
“Wow—I’m crushed. Truly.” I laughed. “But your attitude is going to get you stuck with a title like ‘prick’ or ‘asshat’ if you’re not careful.”
He snorted. “Good.”
The man was impossible, but I was starting to find it funny.
“How are you so old and grouchy at your age?” Zero asked, sounding sincere.
“I wouldn’t feel so old and grouchy if I wasn’t surrounded by fucking idiots.”
I eyed the back of his head speculatively. “I bet he has writer’s block, and that’s why we all got the day off.”
“I do not have writer’s block!”
“It happens to the best of us,” Zero assured him. “I should know, since I’m the best of us.”
“You wish. You’re definitely not better than I am, and the girl listens to me more than you do. She’s going to be better than you in no time.”
“She’s already better than me. You, however, use too many flowery descriptions of gore. People want gritty gore, not pretty gore.”