Page 74 of Craving Consequences

My stomach muscles tighten as I realize I was right, she hadn’t wanted to see us anymore. That our time together had meant nothing but a passing amusement until she could be rid of us.

“We’re here because you left,” Van answers without missing a beat. “Because you were attacked and instead of coming to us, you ran.” He takes a slow, even breath. “Do you have any idea how worried we’ve been?”

Everly flinches. Her tiny frame shrinks inward like she’s expecting a backhand. The gesture breaks something in me and I move without thinking.

I gather her up into my arms, careful not to hurt her as I hold her tight.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” I whisper into the top of her head. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

She doesn’t speak, but she’s not pulling away. That alone is a blessing I’m grateful for.

Gingerly, like she’s afraid it might be unwanted, she lifts her good hand. It slides around my waist and curls into the back of my shirt. Against my chest, her breath hitches once. Then again. The third is followed by the warmth of her tears bleeding through the fabric to burn my skin .

I say nothing but press her closer. I smooth a palm along her hair, brush a kiss to her temple. All the while, I thank the heavens she hasn’t pushed me away. That I have this tiny moment of grace.

Over her shoulder, Van stands still. His eyes are a dark storm cloud of pain and need fixed on her. I know he wants to hold her, wants to drag her up into his arms, but he’s letting me have this moment because I need it.

Need her.

Need this sliver of peace.

“I don’t blame you,” she whispers, breaking what little thread I had on my resolve.

“You should.” My voice comes out harsher than I intended, self-loathing a tight coil around my throat. “I raised him. I failed you every time I didn’t tear you away from him.”

My jaw aches with the force of my restraint. It’s all I can do to keep the bubble of shame from rising up my chest.

Her face pulls back and tips to mine. The soft whispers of light wash over the moisture dampening her cheeks. It highlights the starburst of lashes clustered around her big eyes. She peers up at me like I mean something when I shouldn’t.

“You didn’t fail me,” she says. “I knew what I was doing when I stayed. I knew he was bad for me, but my ego kept thinking I could handle him. That’s my fault. ”

I feel myself frown even as I process her logic. “That doesn’t matter. He had no right, no goddamn right to put his hands on you, Everly. To hurt you. None of this was your fault. I should have done more to keep you away from him.”

When she pushes up on her toes, face tilted, lips soft in offering, I don’t hesitate to meet her halfway. I don’t resist the need to taste her.

I kiss her.

I grip her hard against me and sink into the delicious taste of her until my head buzzes.

“I love you.” I press the words into her mouth. “I love you so much, sweetheart. I have for so long I don’t think I can ever stop.” I lift my face to peer down into hers. “But I will let you go if that’s what you want.”

“Do you want to?” she asks quietly.

“Let you go?” At her faint nod, I chuckle dryly. “I’d rather guzzle bleach, but I don’t want you to remember what happened today every time you see me. I don’t want to be the reason you relive what my son did to you. If leaving you will help you heal, I will. Even if it destroys me.”

I appreciate that she seems to think about it. Her head tilts to the side and she eyes me with deep contemplation.

“I didn’t leave because of what Bron did,” she says at last. “I left because I love you. I left because the only way I can protect you both was to no longer be the reason you got hurt. Without you and Lauren, I have no reason to be in Jefferson. But if I stayed, I know I would never be strong enough to live my life every day without you. Leaving gives you a chance to move on and being with someone you don’t have to sneak around to be with.

It’s not fair to me. It’s not fair to you.

I don’t want to live as anyone’s shameful secret. ”

She takes a deep breath and pulls free of my embrace. She turns to face the other man with the same wistful expression of loss.

“There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you. Either of you. Even give you up if it means giving you a chance.”

Van’s response is to close the two steps between them and scoop her up into his arms. Her legs automatically lock around his hips. Her good arm hooks around his shoulders. Her face dips over his and he fists her hair to drag her the rest of the way down.

He doesn’t kiss her.

He lets their lips linger possessively close.

“Tell us to leave.”

I hear the soft hitch in her breath, practically feel the tremor that courses through her. Her hold on him tightens even as she bumps her nose to his and whispers, “Leave.”

“Because you don’t want us,” he adds, and we both watch her features shift into one of pain and frustration.

“That’s not fair. ”

He kisses the tip of her nose. “Tell us to leave, Everly.”

A weak, desperate sound escapes her that nearly breaks my heart.

“Stop,” she pleads quietly.

“This is the only chance you get,” he warns her, uncaring of the shine in her eyes. “Tell me you don’t want us anymore, and we’ll never bother you again. But if you keep us, you are never getting rid of us.”

“Van, please,” she rasps.

“Stay or leave, Evie?”

A tear slips past her lashes. “Why are you doing this?”

The broken croak devastates me, but Van never falters. He’s firm in his hold, in his torture.

“Because I need you to admit you belong to us. I need you to hear it so you never forget. Because the next time you think about running, you won’t.”

Her bottom lip quivers but there’s fire in her eyes when she meets his challenge with a deep frown of her own.

“I’m trying to protect you,” she snaps at him.

“Don’t. We don’t need protection. We need you.”

She sniffles, but rather than demand to be put down, she turns her face into his neck. A shaky sob escapes edged with resignation.

“What if you realize I’m not worth it?” Her voice splinters on the confession .

Over her shoulder, I watch Van’s features soften. His gray eyes meet mine and I know we’re both thinking the same thing.

“That will never happen,” I murmur for both of us. “The only thing we’ll ever regret is losing you.”

She’s still and silent for so long. I know there’s a whole war taking place in her head. A collision of doubts and fears I know all too well. But we don’t rush her. We don’t press as we wait for her to pick us.

“Take me to bed,” she says softly at long last.

He shakes his head. “Not until I hear you say it.”

She draws back and peers down into his face. Her eyes search his as if trying to find his weakness.

“I want you. Both of you,” she turns her head in my direction.

“Nothing will ever change that.” She takes a deep breath, one that lifts her shoulders nearly to her ears.

A bracing one. “Stay,” she blurts. “Stay with me. I know it’s asking a lot, but I don’t want to sleep alone or only have you on weekends.

I want to wake up with you in the morning and know you’ll come home to me at night. ”

Van makes no response and I’m not given the chance to when he jostles her higher and starts in the direction of the stairs.

I don’t ask where he’s going. I’m already jogging after them, hands twisted in the hem of my top .

In the bedroom, he sets her down gently on the mattress.

Only one half of the bed has the sheets thrown back, the side with the lit lamp and the forgotten novel on the pillow.

She doesn’t hesitate scooting back towards the center, towards the headboard, as Van and I discard our tops and kick our shoes off.

She watches us with appreciation, the kind that definitely would have already had her flat on her back, but we’re not done talking.

“Done,” Van tells her as he climbs up on her right side.

She swallows audibly. “You should think about it before—”

He shakes his head. “Done.”

Her head turns to me as I take her other side. “It might take some doing, but we’ll figure it out.”

She stares between us, eyes bright with unshed tears. “Are you sure?”

Van kisses her.

I bury my face into the side of her neck and follow the vein to the hollow of her throat. We’re both careful not to nudge her injured arm, but she’s making it damn hard when she’s dragging Van over her.

“Easy.” He chuckles against her greedy lips. “We’re not doing that tonight.”

Panting, Everly looks between us. “Why? ”

Van and I exchange glances, neither of us certain how to broach the topic I know we’re both thinking.

I take a tentative attempt at it. “Sheriff Brewer told us what happened.”

She blinks. “He did? What did he say?”

I nod, my stomach souring all over again. “That Bron attacked you. Assaulted you,” I add quieter, barely able to bring myself to say it out loud.

“Oh,” she says softly.

“There’s no need to rush anything,” I continue. “We’re not going anywhere.”

“We’ll wait for as long as you need,” Van pipes in.

Everly shakes her head. “Thank you, but I don’t need to wait. He never got the chance to.”

Neither Van nor I interrupt her as she slips back to this morning and the horrors she had to face alone. We don’t look away or make a single movement as she opens her wounds and spills her pain into the room. Her voice remains steady, even like she’s completely detached herself from the ordeal.

And I don’t blame her.

The deeper she goes into what Bron did to her, the less I want to hear it. It has nothing to do with guilt, but everything to do with the bone deep fury begging me to find my son and put him into the ground .

When she gets to the part, the moment he has her on the ground, I involuntarily suck in a breath. My entire body jerks reflexively like I can somehow jump in and stop him.

Everly turns her head to me, her eyes filled with compassion I don’t deserve as she touches the side of my face.

“I’m okay,” she says ... assuring me.

Me.

She’s trying to soothe me when she’s the one I should be comforting.

“I’m sorry,” I say again, face turning into the palm brushing my cheek.

Everly shakes her head. “I’m okay,” she repeats. “Lauren got there just in time, and we got away.”

“You remember nothing about the clearing or what happened to Bron?” Van asks, drawing her attention to him.

“I barely remember the drive back.”

I kiss her.

I pour my gratitude and guilt into the gentle motions of our mouths meeting. I gather her up into my chest and press her as close as I can without merging our bodies together.

I stop when she reaches for the front of my jeans, struggling with only one hand, but getting the button unfastened.

“You need to rest,” I breathe against her mouth.

“Need you,” she argues, breaking our connection to capture Van’s mouth. “Please. ”

The plea barely leaves her lips when Van groans low and primal. His mouth drags down her jaw and I replace him at her mouth. I cradle the back of her head and angle to deepen the kiss.

At her other side, Van has shoved her top up around her waist, baring her thighs, her panty covered mound. His hand skims up her thigh, stops at her hip bone.

“You sure?”

“Yes.” She kisses me in between words. “Sure. Don’t stop.”

That’s all the confirmation Van needs to free her of the scrap of fabric. To push her thighs wide and fill them with his shoulders. She gasps as he slides his hands up the backs of her thighs and lifts her to his mouth.

“Van!” Her breath stutters with the first sweep of his tongue. Something between a sob and a moan spills from her lips and I taste it.

I devour it.

Her.

I consume every helpless little sound until I’m filled with her pleasure.

I send a hand down the quivering plains of her belly to slip between my friend’s lapping tongue and her wet folds. I spread them. Hold them open. Give her as an offering to the man sinking two fingers into her tight channel .

Her shaky little whine sings through me and I nip on her bottom lip.

“I want you on top riding me the way you like,” I tell her.

“Yes. Please.” she gasps, digging her heels into the mattress and grinding into Van’s face. “There!”

Van angles his fingers inside her and her entire body bucks off the mattress with a sob that is echoed by a secondary cry of alarm.

All three of our heads jerk up to find Lauren in the doorway, a horrified Teddy right at her shoulder.

Van is quicker to react when he pushes to his knees and jerks Everly’s top down around her thighs.

“Lauren?” Everly scrambles the best she can to detangle herself from us.

“Oh my God!” Lauren spins away, hands slapping over her face. Even without her eyes, she shoves at Teddy, urging him back. “It’s called a door!”

We hear their shuffling down the hall.

“You brought Lauren?” Everly hisses, struggling to crawl to the side of the bed.

“We didn’t exactly bring her,” Van protests. “She was worried about you.”

“And Teddy?”

Van purses his lips. “I don’t want to talk about him.”

Everly glances between us, gives a shake of her head and hurrying from the room.