Page 20 of Taste of Thorns (The Firestone Academy #3)

Chapter Eighteen

B riony

I’ve just got back from another lesson with Fox and I’m lying on my stomach on my bed, the covers gathered all around me, when my bedroom door flings back and Beaufort Lincoln comes stomping inside. His face is full of thunder, his eyes like lightning in a stormy sky.

“You know it’s polite to knock,” I point out, my eyes not leaving the book I’m reading.

“Want to tell me about the writing on your door?” he hisses.

I roll my eyes and mark my page.

“Me and Fly fancied sprucing up my door.”

“Briony, I can see that word buried underneath all the paint.”

“Just assholes,” I say.

“Why haven’t you removed it?”

“Me and Fly have tried. It’s permanent ink or something. I’ve tried soap and water, nail polish remover, bleach. In the end we decided to embrace it.”

“Did you try magic to remove it?”

I give him my most unimpressed look. “You know I don’t know how.”

He smirks at me, lifts his hands and in a matter of seconds his dark shadow magic is racing over the door, sweeping away the large red letters buried under Fly’s design. Then he kicks the door shut.

“You know who did it?”

“No, and if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.” I slam closed my book. “Besides, it’s a pretty accurate description. And I’m fine with that.”

“Ahhhh,” he says, dipping his head, to meet my gaze full on. I turn my head away. “You’re not a–”

“I’m sleeping with three different men, Beaufort. I think we can all agree I’m a slut.”

“Three?” he says. And I curse myself. I walked straight into that one.

“Yes.”

“Tudor?”

I pick up my book and toss it in his direction. He ducks and it sails over his shoulder. “Yes, and before you tell me you told me to stay away from–”

“Briony, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“He’s my mate. You had no right.”

“I agree and I am truly sorry. I just want to keep you safe and I don’t know who we can trust right now.”

“We can trust Fox,” I tell him. He nods but I can tell he’s still not one hundred percent convinced. I sigh. “So you admit to once again being an asshole?”

“I do.”

“Beaufort, I wish you would stop it.”

“I’m trying,” he says. “For you, I’m trying.”

“Try harder.” I narrow my eyes at him. “Also, who else apart from Fox would I be sleeping with?”

“I don’t know,” he says with one of his arrogant smirks. “You are pretty slutty.”

“Asshole,” I tell him, throwing my pillow his way this time.

“Probably a slutty asshole,” he teases, catching the pillow one-handed and slinging it back towards my bed.

He strides over to me and I roll up to sit, peering up at him.

His muscular form seems even more gigantic from this angle, towering above me like the broadest of trees.

He reaches down and slides his hand into my hair, cupping the back of my head. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too.”

“Also, you are not a slut and you shouldn’t care what people say or think.”

“I know that. But sometimes it’s easier said than done, especially when they’re all talking about me. It gets inside my head.”

“I understand.” Which is … an interesting response from Beaufort. He’s not dismissing my words as usual or arguing with me. Maybe he really is trying to be a better person. “But, sweetheart, all that matters is if we’re happy with the arrangement. And we are.”

“Are you, though? Truly?”

“Tudor cares about you. I think he’d do anything to keep you safe. Therefore, I can’t be anything but in favor of it.”

I smile at him. “I think you may be lying to me, Beaufort Lincoln.”

“I’ll get used to the situation,” he says a little more begrudgingly.

Then he leans down and kisses my mouth. It’s a long, slow kiss that tells me just how much he’s missed me and honestly I can’t remember why I’ve been staying away. Except that he irritates the hell out of me sometimes with his arrogance.

He crouches down in front of me, and he’s so tall our eyes are level.

“And now I have something to say that you really aren’t going to like,” he tells me.

“Urgh. What is it?”

“Me and Dray went to talk to the Hardies.”

“Talk?” I say, raising an eyebrow.

“There was very little violence involved,” he says, a smile hovering on his lips.

“Did you find anything out?”

“They admitted to being behind Odessa’s attack on you in the forest.”

“We knew that already.”

“They denied anyone put them up to it but I don’t believe them. I think I’m right about this. I think there’s a wider plot brewing.”

“And I still think Bardin is behind all this, Beaufort. Did you hear another student was killed? She was really talented – she was leading the scoreboard in terms of us ordinaries.”

He shakes his head. “I hadn’t heard. But I think Bardin is just a pawn in a bigger game.”

“You don’t know her like I do,” I say, thinking of all the times it’s felt extremely personal with the Madame.

“Look, let’s agree to disagree and keep both hypotheses open until we know more.”

“Okay,” I agree.

“Briony, I think it’s really important that …” He cuts off. “Wait, did you just agree with me?” I nod. He narrows his eyes in suspicion.

“Look at us,” I say, “having adult conversations without fighting.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure I like it. I find it kinda hot when you’re spitting and hissing at me like a hellcat.”

“That’s because you’re a little bit kinky, Beaufort Lincoln.”

“I am, am I?”

“Yes.”

He stares deep into my eyes. “Want me to show you just how kinky I can be?” he growls.

I sigh. “I’m a little slut, remember? I’m hardly going to say no.”

“Yes, you’re my little slut and I fucking love how much you want it.” He places a hand on my knee and even that pretty vanilla action is enough to have my belly swooping. “You want it now?” he says so darkly, that sensation in my belly swoops even lower and a pulse drums between my thighs.

“Uh huh,” I manage to gurgle out.

He leans in closer so his mouth rests against the shell of my ear. “Then turn around my little slut, bend yourself over the bed and lift that ridiculous little skirt of yours.”

I swallow and consider my next move. Didn’t he just say that it makes him hot when I argue back. Wasn’t our original row also about him ordering me about?

I lift an eyebrow, give him my feistiest look and say, “No.”

“No?” he says, eyebrows rising.

I cross my legs and my arms over my chest and repeat myself. “No.”

“Oh fuck, my little slut, behave and do as you’re told. Bend yourself over this bed and show me your ass.”

“Make me,” I say, lifting my chin.

His magic crackles with excitement, tingling against my skin and making that pulse between my legs positively pound.

He chuckles. “That is one fucking challenge I’d gladly accept.”

He lands his hands on my waist and I feign a struggle but totally let him flip me right over and press my chest into the bed. He leans over me, weight forcing me further into the mattress, stiff cock hard against my ass.

“There’s a good little slut. You didn’t put up so much of a fight after all and that’s because we both know you want it, don’t you?” He slurps his tongue over my ear and I whimper. “Tell me you want it, beautiful.”

“I do want it,” I gasp, rubbing my ass back against his cock.

He scrabbles between us, flipping up my skirt and sliding down my panties.

“I know you do. But if you want me to stop at any time you tell me, right?” I hear the buckle of his belt, followed by his zipper. I hold my breath, knowing what comes next, wanting it so bad. “Briony, did you hear me? What do you say if you want me to stop?”

“Stop,” I murmur.

“That’s right. But I don’t think that’s gonna happen. I think you’re gonna take it like a good girl without any fuss,” he murmurs, totally absorbed in this little role play we’ve created.

His fingers jam up inside me first, pumping at me and stretching me open until I’m writhing beneath him.

I’m breathless waiting for more, knowing how good it feels when he’s inside me.

But next he’s gliding his fingers out of me, the sound wet and sloppy, and instead of jamming me full of his cock, his fingers creep up to my exposed asshole.

“You’re so pretty here too, sweetheart,” he says.

He skims a wet finger over me.

“Beaufort,” I say, “I’ve never … I’m not ready to …”

“Shush,” he says, stroking his fingertips lightly over me. “That’s not for now. We need to make you ready first, but you know me and Dray want to share our little mate, right? That we want to take you together, at the same time.”

A little moan escapes my mouth, because that idea has everything in my body tingling, and Beaufort slips a finger inside my asshole.

Not far, just a little way. It feels so different and yet it’s not unpleasant, especially when he reaches around me with his other hand and presses his thumb to my clit.

Then he’s getting me off there, using his magic to stimulate and caress me, sinking his finger a little further into my ass as he does and then gently pumping me there.

“Beaufort,” I whimper, because the sensation is a lot and I don’t think I can handle it.

“It’s okay, sweetheart, you’re doing so well for me, so fucking well. Can you take a little more?”

He pushes another finger inside me and I squeal as my hips lift up off the bed, the action causing his fingers to slide even further inside me.

He groans. “That looks so …” He leans over me and nips at my shoulder through my shirt and it’s enough to send me tumbling over the edge, my pussy convulses as the waves of pleasure soar through me and I squeeze around his fingers.

It makes the sensation even more intense and another orgasm follows right after the first.

“Look at you, you needy, filthy little slut, with my fingers in your ass, squeezing around my fingers. Fuck, I can’t get enough of you, Briony.”

Carefully this time, he pulls his finger out of me, spreads my legs a little wider and then there’s the nudge of his hot cock at the entrance to my pussy.