Page 21 of Blood Claims (Garnet Dagger Mafia #2)

SOME VOWS…

“ S o, I have questions,” I said, not long after we had arrived back at the penthouse.

Our time in the park had been… well …

Unexpected.

Especially considering I had spent most of the time smiling like I was starring in some sappy romance movie.

I also couldn’t help but notice the reaction I received from other women.

Who first looked at the two brothers like walking, living candy they wanted to lick.

Two men who only seemed to have eyes for me.

They didn’t even seem to notice the way they were being sized up for sex like it was no different than window shopping for a new handbag.

One woman even purposely knocked into Victor, apologizing in an overly fake gushing voice that grated on my every nerve.

She was dressed in jogging gear that looked like second skin it was so tight, leaving nothing to the imagination.

Not that either brother seemed to take the time to imagine anything, because Victor brushed her off with a dismissive wave of his hand.

And all this was done without once taking his eyes off me or his mind from the conversation the three of us were having.

Of course, I didn’t miss the look of hatred she sent my way, and I know it was bitchy, but I also couldn’t help but snigger because of it.

She was beautiful and no doubt used to receiving a lot of the attention from most men.

Something she probably craved like a drug.

So, it was nice to see someone so full of themselves get the same disrespect that she had shown me.

I think it’s what most people would call Karma.

And the irony to all this was that she would most likely run screaming to the hills had she known the truth and seen the things that I had.

That they were in fact two ruthless Mafia Vampires who ran this city and didn’t mind getting their hands bloody.

If anything, they seemed to prefer it that way.

Or, at least, they certainly did when it was my ex hanging there like a dying fish from a hook.

A sight that would, no doubt, still give me nightmares decades later.

But it would also serve as a brutal reminder as to who they were at their core and how dangerous they could be.

A fact I tried not to think about. Not seeing as my biggest worry was that they would wake one day from the curse being broken and I would become collateral damage.

Because they may have both seemed head over heels for me now, but what would they be like once the curse was lifted?

I tried not to think about it. But that was hard when it was like a darkness that clung to me, catching me off guard when I realized it was still there, lingering beneath the surface.

Just like my nightmare, as if someone was always watching in wait.

Waiting to pull the floor out from under me again.

Something that left me asking myself when I would fall to my death.

Because even if the brothers didn’t kill me, they would leave me broken, regardless.

Hence why I still tried in vain to protect my heart.

“Questions, you say?” Victor replied in a knowing tone, his smirk only adding to this.

“Questions you told me you would answer,” I reminded him as I took my seat, that at this point might as well have my name stitched into the leather because I seemed to have claimed it.

“Fair enough, what do you want to know?” Victor asked, leaning back against the counter like so many times before. His hands curled around the edge either side of him. As for Tal, he was replaying the evening before grabbing beers out of the fridge.

“If it’s what’s our favorite position is, then the answer is any with you between us,” Tal answered with a wink as he twisted the cap off my beer before sliding it to me.

“One track mind, I see,” I commented dryly, making him agree.

“Hard not to be on that track after we know what it’s like to claim you… emphasis on the hard,” he replied, making me blush.

“Ask your question, sweetheart,” Victor said, after ridding his own beer of the cap and tossing it in the sink, which seemed to be a habit of theirs.

“Why are there no clothes in your closet?” I asked, surprising myself that this was the first question I had wanted to ask. And I wasn’t the only surprised one because Tal smirked at his brother, who scoffed a laugh.

“Why do you think there would be?” he asked, making Tal look back to me, clearly interested to know why also.

“Er… because it’s the room you both share,” I said, my tone making it obvious… or at least I thought so until they started laughing.

“We may be twins that share many things, but a room isn’t one of them,” Tal replied with a chuckle. My frown must have said it all.

“That room is for sharing you, and one we will continue to sleep in when you are between us,” Victor clarified.

“So, you each have your own rooms, and I have my own room, so why the need for…”

Victor stopped me by holding up a hand.

“Correction, our rooms, along with your room, are a thing of the past.”

“I’m confused,” I admitted.

“We wished to give you your space in the beginning, solely for your benefit, but that need is at an end, as is the use of our own beds. From now on, there is only one bed, and we will share it together,” Victor stated.

“But why?” I asked, shock clear in my tone, despite how nice it had been waking up in between them and feeling a comfort of the likes I had never known before.

Even if I had been in the throes of a nightmare at the time.

However, this wasn’t going to help me in protecting my heart, but instead baring it wide open for them to steal more of.

“I think that would be obvious seeing as we can barely keep our hands off you. Why do you think that, when night falls, it should be any different?” Tal answered before his brother could.

“So, we will be all sharing a room?”

“Well look at that, Vic, I think she’s getting it,” Tal replied wryly, making me scowl at him.

“And I don’t suppose I get any say in this?”

“Smart cookie,” Tal commented condescendingly, whereas Victor looked like he was being asked to chew glass. His jaw hard and unyielding as he moved to fold his arms across his wide chest.

“Do I have any say in anything?” I asked frustratingly.

“That depends on what it is. But sure, we are not unreasonable,” Tal answered with a shrug of his large shoulders. As for me, I twisted the bottle of beer in front of me, chipping away at the corner of the label with my nail.

“You’re not?” I asked, and this was where Victor hit his limit because he pushed from the counter and made his way around to me, where he put down his beer next to mine. Then he spun the stool so I was facing him, before tipping my head back with a firm grip on my chin.

“What is it you want, Nessa?”

I swallowed hard, because I had been asking myself the very same thing. What did I want, other than my freedom? Other than my right to choose? Other than for this to all be real and for them to trust that I would stay because I wanted to?

“I don’t want to be a prisoner,” I told him, making him sigh down at me.

“And I don’t want to chase you all over the damn city when you run,” he countered, which was when I closed my eyes and sighed again, because I knew we were at a crossroads. But I also knew that I had a chance to change it. So, I took a deep breath, opened my eyes, and told him softly,

“What if I didn’t want to run?”

His eyes widened, and he was clearly shocked by my admission. Shocked but pleased… because they soon started to glow slightly. It was subtle at first, his brown eyes seeping away as light stole the color.

“Then you wish to be ours?” he asked, his voice thick and hoarse, as if he feared to hope too soon.

“I don’t want to run anymore, but I can’t live like a prisoner, Victor, or this relationship you both want with me will never work like you hope it will.

Bitterness would replace the…” I paused before I said too much.

But it was too late for that. I knew that when his eyes narrowed and the silver in them started glowing hungrily as he came closer.

“Would replace what? Tell me, Vanessa.”

I felt Tal move in behind me, once again putting me in a vulnerable position where I felt trapped. Especially when Tal’s lips found my ear, whispering, coaxing, luring my secrets from me with only two words.

“Tell us.”

So, I closed my eyes and said the word I knew would give them the last shred of power they held over me.

“Love…” Then I looked up at Victor, and then to Tal as he came to stand next to him.

“It would replace the love I already feel for you both.”

There was only a single flash of wonder shown before they acted.

First with Victor, his lips crashing down over mine, forcing him to swallow my cry of shock with his kiss.

A kiss that felt utterly consuming, as if he was trying to reach my soul and brand himself to it.

To touch it in a way that meant never letting it go.

He wanted to own me.

They both did, and a growl next to me was Victor’s only signal to share.

So he pulled back so his brother could claim my lips next.

Tal palmed my neck and yanked me into him, his kiss hungry and dominating.

The groan of pleasure that rumbled from him was enough to have me near panting.

My fists clung on to his T-shirt as if this would help to keep me anchored to the now.

As if it would stop me from just floating away on this blissful cloud he had plunged me into.

“Fuck, girl,” he growled when he pulled back to put his forehead to mine as he tried to catch his breath. As for Victor, he had circled around us both, so he was now at my back. I felt his heavy hands rest at my shoulder, and it wasn’t a warning for me, but for his brother to allow him space.

It always amazed me to see how well they worked together. So in sync with one another that they didn’t need words. Just like the way Victor brushed my hair back from the side of my neck so he could dip his face there. His lips trailing featherlight kisses up to my ear before he whispered,

“I’m having bad thoughts, Vanessa.”

I swallowed hard before asking,

“Bad thoughts?”

“So many… delicious… bad thoughts.” He hummed again as he sucked at my neck in between words, making me moan at what he was doing to me.

As for Tal, he nodded once to his brother, as if this was the go ahead to take hold of my waist, and lifted me straight from the chair.

I cried out in shock as he swiped an arm out along the island, spilling the beer across it.

Then he sat me down on the marble, my ass getting wet from the beer.

But I was too lost to care. Especially when he gripped my knees and yanked my legs open before filling the space with his large body.

The height of the island was perfect for grinding his hard length against me, after he took hold of my hips and slid me closer.

“Tell me how much you want this… tell me…” he hummed against my cheek but when I didn’t answer, his hand fisted in my hair so he could yank it back.

I cried out in surprise at the slight bite of pain, but it was one that quickly morphed into pure desire and arousal.

The thrill of what this man could do to me was like a drug I would happily lose myself to.

“Say yes to me… now!” he warned on a growl of words that made me shiver in his unyielding hold.

I was powerless to stop myself as I let the single word slip past my defenses…

“Yes.”

He snarled. A sound so animalistic, so primal, that it made me flinch. A reaction that was lost the second he tugged at my waistband hard enough the button slipped free, practically tearing into my jeans to get them open. The motion jerking me to the side with the rough way he handled me.

But it was the glowing intensity in his gaze that I couldn’t take my own eyes from.

Tal was barely holding himself back. My jeans soon became obsolete as he dragged them down my legs and tossed them behind him in one swift motion.

But as for my panties, these were left in place as he lowered himself enough to run his nose up the center.

He took in a deep inhale, making me shudder as his nose grazed my clit.

“Mmm… tell me, pretty girl… how long have you been wet for us?” he asked, looking up at me from between my legs.

I felt my cheeks heat, embarrassed by the fact that it had been all day. But seeing as I was too ashamed to admit it, I said nothing.

However, this wasn’t good enough for them both, as Victor was soon in on the action. He positioned himself to the side of us and started to walk his fingers up my torso between my breasts.

“I believe my brother asked you a question, sweetheart,” he said, making Tal agree right against my sex, one he was still breathing in as if addicted to the scent of me.

“That I did.”

“I… I… vowed I wouldn’t,” I admitted, which was when they both grinned at me, now moving slowly, almost predatorily.

Victor ran the back of his fingers down my left cheek, at the same time Tal rose up to do the same down the right side of my neck. Both of them consuming my space completely as Victor leaned closer and told me,

“Don’t you know, baby…” He paused so his brother could finish off for him, and Tal whispered by my other ear…

“…Some vows just beg to be broken.”