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M om wasn’t back at one hundred percent, but she was definitely feeling better and not coughing up blood anymore because she was meddling.

She was my best friend, and I’d never felt the need to keep secrets from her.

If she asked me something and I wasn’t ready to answer it yet, she accepted and just waited until I was. I appreciated that.

“This could be your opportunity to make up with Neco,” she said. “You both fucked up, but this feud has gone on too long.”

“You’re feeling spunky. Neco doesn’t want to make up.”

Before Mom could say anything, there was a knock on the door.

It was Basselt and Ollie. Basselt was here with food and tea for Mom and Ollie was here for me.

I gave Mom a look and mouthed something about stepdads before I left.

She flicked her middle finger at me and laughed.

Yeah, she was definitely feeling better.

“What’s going on?” I asked, stepping out of our apartment.

It was the Day of Respect, so I couldn’t make money with my tavern and I couldn’t dig into the Ghoul, either, because it was considered work. I kept trying to take care of my mother because she nearly died and still could, and she kept attempting to boot me out our flat to make up with Neco.

I had no intention of leaving her alone, but then Basselt showed up and he was definitely someone I wanted to leave my mother alone with. And only part of that was because he was a skilled healer. Basselt and Mom deserved to be happy.

“We’re kidnapping you. We have the whole thing planned. The Day of Respect sucks financially and the Barons don’t deserve it. We’re turning it into a day to respect each other. ”

“I like that, but shouldn’t I have been on the planning so I can respect all of you as well?”

“You will, in the future. Today is all about you since you have so much to stress about. I asked and Basselt said Caitrin is stable. If she stays that way, he can make the cure. You’re going to catch the Ghoul and we’re all going to figure out how to make him pay.

But we’re not thinking about any of that tonight. It’s forbidden. I will spank you.”

“We played in a brothel as kids, Ollie. Some people are into that. I might be.”

Ollie’s nostrils flared.

“That’s cheating,” he muttered. “We’re going to the brothel first. We worked it out with the Madame.”

“Um, you’re not bringing another girl in, are you? Because that would expose me. I know the girls there are a fortress at keeping secrets, but I’m not comfortable with anyone else knowing right now.”

“Do you trust us?”

“Yes.”

“We’d never expose you like that and we’re also kind of possessive. I’m okay with Beck and Ronan touching you and I’d be okay with it if you and Neco made up and he joined us. I’m not violent, but I might be if anyone saw you like that. Actually, I definitely would be. We all would.”

Wow, so yeah, Ronan was the least violent of us. He avoided fights and got his revenge without laying a finger on you. Ollie was next. He’d usually give someone a chance to calm down and one free punch before he reacted. Beck never started it, but he would finish it.

It was a little comforting they were all that protective of me.

Ollie brought me to the back of the brothel where the Madame, Beck, and Panas kept their living quarters. I didn’t know what we were doing until Ollie let me into the bath house.

I was shocked it was free. Beck had a big family outside of the Madame.

They used the bath house all the time. I always wanted to take a bath here, but they all thought I was a man and it felt weird asking to use it alone since no one else did.

Also, I wasn’t related to them to ask to use their bath in the first place.

This was basically the fanciest, best kept secret in Guttertown. It was a little slice of the Jagged Key Isles, a place I’d never see. The Barons didn’t even have something like this because they didn’t bathe that often.

It smelled amazing in here. It smelled like Beck because he soaked in the perfumed waters daily. He was already lounging naked with Ronan.

“Hey, beautiful. I get why you never asked to bathe here now, but I could always tell you wanted to. Get in.”

“Wait, you’ve all been bathing here?”

“Not a lot,” Ollie said. “There’s usually a schedule and we can’t always get here when it’s Beck’s turn.”

“I swapped with Aunt Keeva because she traumatized me and owes me,” Beck said.

“What did she do?”

Because Keeva was not nearly as scary as her sister. She usually had sweets for us and always thought it was amusing when we cut up. She was honestly probably one of the nicest women in Guttertown. I couldn’t see her saying or doing anything to traumatize someone like Beck.

“So, I’m not going to spill a woman’s secrets without her permission, but she’s got some dual training from my ancestors. She’s only really using the baking, but she could use the other if she wanted. Anyway, I don’t want to talk about it because it still disturbs me. Get naked and join us.”

They’d all seen me naked, but we hadn’t had time aside from once in the barn.

I’d been too busy with Mom and then Folcard gave me his task.

I wanted them again. I didn’t think Mom would care if she overheard anything if I invited them to my bedroom.

She’d probably be happy for me and never say a thing about it.

I just felt like it was a little rude to make my mother hear my sex noises since she told me how long she’d been in labor with me.

I didn’t know why I was shy right now. They’d seen all this before.

They told me how much they liked it. I’d seen plenty of naked women playing in the brothel.

I knew I didn’t look bad, even if I had to hide it.

It was just weird exposing myself to them because I had to spend so much time hiding it.

Ollie came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.

“You don’t have to. You can just roll your trousers up and put your feet in.”

No. I wasn’t passing up something I’d been wanting to do for most of my life with people I loved because I was still getting used to not hiding around them. I pulled out of Ollie’s arms and yanked my shirt off. Ollie traced the edge of my binding with his finger.

“You’re beautiful as Lucy or Lance, but I hope one day, you don’t have to wear this because it looks like it hurts.”

It was uncomfortable, and I had scars, but I was used to it.

If I could ever stop wearing it, I’d jump at the chance, though.

I went to take it off, which was always a pain, but Ollie stepped in to help.

He wasn’t as big as Neco or Autar, but he was still bigger than me and muscular from helping out on his uncle’s farm. He was still just so gentle.

Once I was naked, I was fine. I didn’t want to cover myself up. I liked the way they looked at me. I felt beautiful. I felt like Lucy.

I groaned as I sank into the pool. We bathed more often than most of Nestran because we had easier access to water. The palace had decent access and I couldn’t imagine royalty walking around as ripe as the Barons and merchants did, but I’d never meet them to confirm they didn’t stink.

We could either bathe in the ocean or haul water home. Unless you had access to this. The Madame had a pit cut into the ground and lined with stones. She filled it with water and perfumed oil.

This was the most luxurious thing I’d ever done. I was figuring out when Beck had his baths scheduled so I could sneak over if it didn’t interfere with the tavern.

“You can bathe with me whenever you want, but you can’t make that noise unless you want sex with your bath,” Beck growled.

“That was definitely a sex noise,” Ollie said.

“It really was, Lucy,” Ronan said.

Yeah, maybe I was feeling a little more confident than I originally thought. We’d known each other since we were babies. I rested my arms out on the sides of the pool and gave them a good look. I really was just enjoying the bath, but if they wanted to go there, I wasn’t going to stop them.

“Maybe it was supposed to be,” I purred.

I might have been pretending to be Lance, but Lucy paid attention at the brothel just in case Lance ever got to go away. They all started swearing.

“Well, we were going to wash you after you’d soaked a bit, but not if you’re going to have a filthy mouth,” Ronan said.

“Maybe you should put something in it to shut me up.”

We hadn’t done that last time, but I knew it was something men liked. I wanted to try it. Ollie stood up so fast, he tripped over Ronan and ended up in Beck’s lap. My mouth went dry.

I knew they were together, too, because they told me, but they’d kept that from me because they didn’t want me to feel left out before. I wanted to see it. I thought it would be sexy, but I also had no idea what I was doing.

“Show me what you like.”

“I have an idea,” Ollie chuckled.

We were all naked, so I was pretty sure we weren’t going to end up in the cells this time, but this was also one of Ollie’s ideas and stranger things had happened before. Ollie stalked over to me, picked me up, and placed me on the side of the pool.

“I know what these arseholes like. They know what I like. We need to learn what you enjoy, so I’m going to figure that out while Ronan shows you how Beck likes it.”

I let out a whimper because I very much wanted that. I locked eyes with Beck as Ollie and Ronan knelt before us.

“Ollie and Ronan love giving oral,” Beck said. “The only reason they aren’t fighting about it is because we’ll definitely do this again, but with them switching.”

Ollie devoured me. Beck and Ronan were standing where I could see everything. There was just something beautiful about watching a man as deadly as Beck receiving pleasure. If I was the one doing it, I wouldn’t be able to see it from this angle.

Oh, I definitely planned to be the one to do that to him. All of them really. The Madame had rules since kids also lived at the brothel. Everything had to be done in one of the rooms. If someone had a thing for doing it with an audience, they had to pay for another girl and go to one of the rooms.

So, I overheard a lot of shit, but I’d never actually seen any of it at the brothel. I’d seen a little, though. If someone was getting drunk and handsy at the tavern, we usually tossed them so they could go home and do what they wanted to do. Sometimes, they got as far as the alley.

I didn’t stare because that was weird. I just walked away. I was staring now. I was enthralled, even if it was really hard to concentrate. Ollie said he needed to figure out what I liked, but I seemed to enjoy everything he was doing. There wasn’t a single thing I’d change.

“Fuck!” I yelled.

I was about to lose my mind. Ollie was really good at this and the show I was getting was just egging me on. Beck grabbed Ronan’s head and just kind of started fucking his mouth.

“Pull his hair, Lucy. It sets him off and I promise, you’ll like it,” Beck growled.

I tangled my hands in Ollie’s golden locks.

I pulled him a little closer, but I also yanked his hair a bit.

Ollie went completely feral on my clit and I couldn’t hold on anymore.

I was trying to wait for Beck so I could see what sent him over the edge, but I was completely gone after I pulled Ollie’s hair.

I leaned back on my hands while I caught my breath. Ronan and Beck were smirking at me and Ollie was nuzzling my inner thigh like he was immensely pleased with himself. Yeah, he should be. Sometimes, he was proud of himself when he definitely shouldn’t be, but this time, yeah.

“We were going to bathe you and then feed you, but you changed the plans. We can keep going, but only if you’re ready.”

“I want to keep going, but I’ll say no if it’s something I don’t want. What did you have in mind?”

I gulped. They were all grinning at me like Neco did when he was thinking about killing someone.

That was a dangerous look.