Page 55

“It means different things to different people,” he says slowly, “but for me, it means this.”

He takes a pull from the cigar, then slips his hand gently around Annoth’s throat and pulls her face toward his. After blowing the smoke into her open mouth, he kisses her, deep and slow. I can’t help but be painfully aware of the heat flooding every inch of my body, especially when he releases her and turns to faceme, taking another pull of smoke into his mouth. I feel like I’m about to plummet off the edge of the cliff in front of us as his hand snakes around the back of my neck, his fingertips brushing my jaw. I put my hand over his, but I don’t stop him as he pulls me in and blows the smoke down my throat, where it leaves a delicious burn.

“Is this ok?” he whispers. His fingers trace along the nape of my neck and thread through my hair, making it very difficult for me to form thoughts or an answer. Instead, I close my eyes and press my lips against his. It’s everything I’ve been wanting these past few weeks: warm and eager and soft.

I let out an involuntary noise when his grip on my hair tightens and he mutters a quiet apology, but all I want is more. I reach out and grab his jacket, sliding us closer together and kissing him again. He grunts in surprise, but his movements become more intense, one hand roaming down to lift the edge of my shirt. Suddenly, there’s another hand on mine and I open my eyes to see Annoth with her fingers twisted through Ben’s hair and her mouth on his neck. I pull away slightly and Ben opens his eyes too, then reaches back and gently touches her cheek.

She looks up, and when her eyes meet mine, heat and desire coil tighter in my stomach, along with something else. Something vaguely unfamiliar, but not unwelcome. She could have been a nightmare at the soccer game today, but she wasn’t. She could be trying to pull Ben away, or turn him against me somehow, but she isn’t. It’s plain as day that she cares about him, and that it’s because he chose to trust her. He chose to see her as a person, rather than as a monster incapable of change or redemption. Maybe…I can do the same. Maybe that’s how I can save all of us, from each other and from ourselves. I reach past Ben and take her hand, then brush my lips along her wrist while she runs her fingers over my cheek.

“Sweet Theo,” she whispers, tracing my lip with her thumb. I look up at her and she grins, her elongated canines returning. They don’t bother me as much as they did before. Ben snaps out of whatever trance he’s in and slides off the back of the car, then grabs Annie by her thighs and pulls her to the edge, wrapping one arm around her waist and covering her mouth with his. She groans and presses herself into him, arching her back in a way that drops the coil of heat much lower in my body.

“Get in the backseat,” he growls against her mouth. She lets out a breathy giggle, then throws a longing glance over at me before vanishing in a swirl of shadows. The rear window of the car is suddenly blacked out from the inside and my entire body goes on high alert. Once she’s gone, Ben turns back to me and runs his hands up my thighs. I’m already half-hard, and he can clearly see it, but the knowing smile on his face falters when our eyes meet.

“If you aren’t ready for anything…it’s ok,” he says. At the sound of his steady, gentle voice, and the crackle of electricity between our bodies, the tiny spark of uncertainty that’s been burning in my chest goes dark.

“Like I’m going to sit out here and listen to you have all the fun?” I tease. His face remains serious.

“I mean it, Theo. We can just go home. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want you, but…if this is too much, too fast, or…too weird…”

I slowly brush a curl away from his forehead. “I mean, thisisweird as fuck, but beneath all that, I want you too…both of you. I’m just gonna…try not to think too hard about it.”

Ben’s face splits into a wicked smile, and he moves his mouth to my jaw, then my neck, wrapping his arms around me. I tilt my head back and let the feeling rush through me as my thighs tighten around his hips. Then, in one swift motion, he pulls me off the back of the car and holds me against him with one arm while opening the doorwith the other. We fall into the backseat, where Annie is already sitting on the other side.

She laughs when I land beside her with Ben on top of me, then her shadows fly past us and the door slams shut. They spread around the entire car, blocking out all but a little light–enough that I can see the hungry look on Ben’s face as he works my zipper open. He slides my jeans down, along with my boxers, and Annie lets out a sharp breath behind me, then her hands start to move along my chest. But all my other senses are quickly overwhelmed by the sensation of Ben’s fingers wrapping around the base of my cock.

“Sit up,” he instructs me, but I’m not sure if I can move now. Annie already has all the buttons on my shirt open. Her shadows wrap around my torso, gently tugging me up and pulling the shirt off at the same time. I manage to lift myself and turn so I’m sitting against the back of the seat, now the only one of us that’s completely naked, which seems a bit unfair. Ben slides down to the floor between my knees, and I slip my fingers into his hair, suddenly feeling calmer and more in control.

“Shirt off,” I say, sounding like a caveman.

He just keeps grinning and straightens up. “Be my guest.” He squeezes his fingers and strokes them slowly up and down my shaft. It’s clearly a challenge, and I can’t let him see how weak he has me already, so I start unbuttoning. With each one I finish, however, his pace or his pressure increases, until I can barely even remember what a fucking button is, nevermind how to undo them.

I lose patience and rip the last one clean off as I pull the shirt down over his shoulders and toss it aside. Pressing him against the back of the front seat, I kiss him hard, running my fingers through the dark hair on his chest, then stopping when I touch his necklace. I haven’t looked at it before, but now I glance down and see that it’s a saint. He watches me closely as I turn it over and read the inscription.

“You’re not a lost cause, Ben,” I murmur, searching his face. The intensity in his eyes only increases as he grabs the back of my neck with one hand and kisses me hard.

“I’myourlost cause now,osito,” he whispers, then his eyes flicker to Annie for a moment. “Both of yours.” He looks back at me and continues to slowly, torturously jerk me off.

“Ben…” I gasp, leaning forward and brushing my lips against his jaw. “I-I need…need…”

His teeth find my lower lip and he whispers, “Use your words,” sending a shudder of desperation through my body.

“I need your mouth. Please…”

When he shoves me back against the seat, I willingly collapse, but then Annie’s hands are on my chest and shoulders, and she’s kissing my throat. Her curtain of red hair obscures Ben, so I can only feel it as his tongue swirls around the head of my cock. My back arches as he takes me deeper into his mouth, and I pull Annie closer, just to have something to keep me tethered to reality. She leans back to look at me, her smooth skin flushed pink, licking her lips like she’s just found a lake in the desert.

“Kiss me,” she whispers. “Please, Theo.” The heady mixture of desperation and command in her voice makes my head swim. I’ll do anything she wants when she asks for it that way, so I pull her lips against mine.

I half expected her to taste like fire and brimstone, but instead it’s Skittles and tequila, and I want more. Ineedmore. Both their mouths on my body, our breath mixing together inside thealready-foggy car, and the sound of their tiny groans is almost too much already. I also can’t get enough of it.

I tilt my head back and close my eyes as Annie trails her fingers and mouth over my neck, then my chest. She takes my hand, pulling it beneath her skirt. Barely able to focus because of what Ben’s tongue is doing to me, I run my fingers over her blazing-hot skin, higher and higher on her thigh until I feel the panties she’s wearing, which are soaking wet. I can’t contain the noise that tears from my throat.

I try to move them aside to touch her–to make her moan the way they’re both making me moan–but she swats my hand away with a smirk and drops back on the other side of the bench seat. Ben pauses and licks his lips, still pumping my cock with his hand. While we both watch, Annie waves her hands and all her clothes vanish, except the skirt. Then, she spreads her thighs, propping one foot up on the front seat and keeping the fabric strategically draped to hide what’s beneath. Her body is fucking perfect, soft and curvy and lush in all the right places. I know she made it that way on purpose, but right now I can’t bring myself to care. I need to taste every single inch of her.

“Damnit, Annie, you can’t do that,” I mutter, and Ben says something under his breath that I can’t make out. She flashes a depraved smile and slides her hand under the skirt’s waistband, then falls back against the door, her tits bouncing and making me, if possible, even harder.

“As you were,” she orders, with an imperious gesture. Ben looks like he might just rip the entire car apart to get to her.

“Annie,” he rasps, “I can smell your sweet little cunt all the way over here, and if you don’t show us what you’re doing under that skirt…I swear to God–” He’s cut short as she suddenly lunges forward and seizes him by the hair, jerking his head back and exposing his throat to the black claws that have appeared on the ends of her fingers. A jolt of fear runs through me for a second, but Ben just laughs.