Page 51 of The Ecstasy of Sin (Brutal Brotherhood #1)

Wren

My eyes flutter open, and the only thing I see is a shifting, geometric rainbow streaked across half my vision. The other half of my sight is gone. My brain can’t process signals in that region while the neurons misfire.

I wince. “Damn it,” I groan, trying to roll over and bury my face in the pillow, when strong arms tighten around me.

“What’s wrong?” Dominic’s voice is rough with sleep, his chest pressed to my back as he spoons me.

“Migraine,” I respond, and instantly Dominic stiffens. “A real one this time. No more lies, I promise.”

His body relaxes. He presses a kiss to my shoulder before slipping out of bed. I hear Hunter’s nails click softly against the floor as he gets up to follow Dominic into the bathroom.

When Dominic returns, I can’t see him clearly, but I can feel the familiar touch of painkillers as he presses three pills to my lips.

“Open,” he commands, and my body obeys, even with the electrical storm raging across my brain. My lips part, and he places the tablets on my tongue. One hand cradles the back of my head while he brings a glass of water to my mouth.

“Drink. ”

I do. The water is cool, soothing the dryness in my throat. “Thank you,” I murmur, rubbing my eyes with the palm of my hand.

“Of course, baby. Is there anything else that helps?”

I think for a moment. When I was homeless, I didn’t have options. But before that, when I had a home and parents, I’d take a hot bath. That always helped with the numbness, the tingling, and the pain.

“When I was younger, I used to take a long, hot bath.” I explain. “It helped with some of the pain, and the numbness.”

“I’ll run a bath.” He says, and then I hear his footsteps disappear toward the bathroom.

I close my eyes against the nauseating chaos of the aura and sink back into the plush pillow beneath my head.

It’s been so long since I’ve had a migraine while in a place that didn’t make everything worse. Not a loud shelter, or downtown Toronto under the blazing sun. Not curled up in an alleyway in the middle of a smoggy night.

Being here, safe in Dominic’s ridiculously comfortable bed, stirs emotions I’m not ready to face. I don’t know if I deserve any of this. I didn’t work for it. I didn’t pay for it. I did nothing to earn what Dominic is giving me.

Toxic thoughts move through me like smoke. The guilt, the shame, and the weight of failure—those emotions suffocate me.

I sit up in the bed, my vision still fractured. I wrap my arms around myself as I stare at what I think is the bedroom door, a tremor in my hands .

I jump slightly when the mattress shifts under Dominic’s weight. I turn toward the heat of his body as it radiates beside me.

“Is something else wrong?” He asks, his voice quiet.

I hug myself tighter, trying to hold my fragile pieces together. “I can’t do this.”

“You can’t do what, exactly?” he asks, a dark edge threading through his tone. He reads me too well. It’s unsettling.

“I can’t live here. For free. I can’t be useless, worthless. I—” I gasp as Dominic grabs me, pulling me into his lap.

“Stop,” he says firmly, pressing his lips to my forehead. “We can talk about what you’re feeling, but you need to understand that you’re not leaving. Not now. Not ever. You belong to me, and you belong with me.”

I don’t know what to say, so I say nothing.

He stands, lifting me easily in his arms and carrying me to the bathroom. He sets me down in front of the tub and pulls his t-shirt over my head, leaving me naked in the soft glow.

A fragment of my vision has returned, and from the corner of my eye, I catch the flickering light of several candles dancing in the dark.

Dominic closes the door, plunging us into a candlelit oasis of warmth and shadow.

I hear his sweatpants hit the floor, and then his hands are on me, guiding me into the tub. Before I can lower myself in, he steps in behind me.

He sinks into the water first, then pulls me down into his arms, cradling me in his lap .

I melt into the blissful heat, my body relaxing against his. He is powerful, broad, and unshakable. He wraps me in his strength and steadiness, and it’s almost enough to chase the terrible feelings away.

“Tell me why,” he whispers, pressing a kiss to my shoulder.

I sigh, my eyes closing as I force my tense muscles to relax.

Nearly half of my vision has returned, but it’s still more comfortable to just surround myself in darkness. “I’ve been homeless for so long. Everything I have… I had to fight tooth and nail for. Every little thing I managed to keep, I earned. It’s hard to… m—move o—on fr—from th—that.”

“Shhh,” he croons, stroking slow, soothing lines up and down my back as the aphasia hits. “If it makes you feel any better, you don’t have a choice. You’ll learn to let go of those feelings… and embrace being mine.”

“You’re a m—maniac,” I whisper, a small smile spreading across my lips. “An ah—addictive maniac.”

“And yet you love me,” he whispers back, his voice reverent. “Every fucked-up part of me.”

He shifts me around until my back is pressed against his chest, and I’m sitting between his legs.

His hand slides between my thighs. My fingers instinctively drop to rest against his, uncertain of his intentions.

“I did a lot of research,” he murmurs against my hair. “One of the studies I read said that an orgasm during the aura phase, or early into the migraine, may reduce some of the pain.”

He brushes my hair back with his other hand, his tongue tracing the shell of my ear. My back arches slightly, a tingle racing down my spine from his deep voice rumbling in my ear.

“Relax for me,” his voice rumbles like distant thunder. I exhale as he spreads my thighs wider, hooking my feet on either side of his legs, opening my body up to him.

A soft moan escapes me when his fingers glide through the lips of my pussy, slow and deliberate, stroking back and forth before circling gently over my clit.

The pleasure he gives me is devastating in its precision. He touches me like he has memorized my body, and knows exactly what it takes to make me come apart for him.

My clit throbs gently beneath his fingers, but I force myself to relax, resisting the urge to tense or grind into his hand. He wants me relaxed, yielding to him, and I want to obey.

Then his fingers dip lower, and I shiver as two of them slide inside of me.

I moan, my hips bucking gently despite my efforts to stay still.

“Your body is mine” he growls against my ear, eliciting another shiver from deep inside me. “And you’ll do whatever I tell you, won’t you?”

I nod, my breath coming in soft, desperate pants.

He starts pumping his fingers in and out of me, stroking me from the inside out, and I quiver in his embrace.

He sucks at the soft spot below my ear, his voice deep and low as it rumbles through him. “You take my fingers just like you take my cock,” he groans, his filthy words making my thighs fall open a little wider.

His fingers surge deeper inside of my swollen pussy, and I moan.

“That’s it, baby… let me all the way in.” His voice is gravelly with lust. “Just like that. Good girl.”

I gasp, my legs shaky as he fucks me with his fingers, brushing against my g-spot with every stroke.

“Come for me. Show me how pretty you look when I make a mess out of you.” His other hand dips between my thighs to rub my clit, his fingers pumping slow but hard.

I shatter.

My whole body tenses, then melts as waves of pleasure crash through me, dragging me under. My breath catches, like I’ve forgotten how to breathe, and my pussy clenches around his fingers in rhythmic, aching pulses.

“Such a good fucking girl,” he groans, his cock throbbing against my spine. “That’s it… just like that.”

Dominic presses his lips to my throat, dragging his teeth across the fragile skin before he kisses it. And just like that, I remember how to breathe. I inhale deeply, shuddering on the exhale.

His arms wrap around me, strong and steady, his hands moving in slow, soothing strokes over my body.

I’m lost to him, lost to his intoxicating touch. Enslaved by my addiction to what he does to my body, and what he does to my heart .

Between the orgasm and the painkillers, the pain has vanished. Even if it’s temporary, I surrender to it: this feeling of being safe, protected, and loved.

For the first time since losing my mother, someone makes me feel like I’m everything.

Wrapped in the safety of Dominic’s arms, and in something that feels like forever… I drift off to sleep.

***

When I awaken, Dominic is adding hot water to the tub. The noise rousing me from a deep sleep. I yawn, my jaw popping as I stretch lazily against him.

“How long was I asleep?” I murmur, glancing around for a clock but finding none.

He kisses my temple, swishing the water with his hand to mix the fresh heat with the cooler half. Once steam begins to billow across the candlelit surface, he shuts off the faucet.

“About an hour and a half,” he says quietly. “I was hoping you’d stay asleep, but I didn’t want the water to get too cold.”

His selflessness has tears gathering in the corners of my eyes.

I take a moment to check in with my body. A dull ache lingers on the right side of my skull, and there’s a hint of nausea, but it’s nothing compared to earlier. I’m still groggy, heavy with sleep. “I hate that you had to lay here with me for so long. ”

“There’s nowhere I’d rather be,” he whispers against my ear. “Though I’ve been busy.”

“Busy?” I lift a brow, confused.

He nods, reaching for the bar of soap resting on the edge of the tub. As he lathers his hands, he explains. “I arranged a flight from Vancouver tomorrow. The country’s top neurologist is in the city, and she’s agreed to come here and meet with us.”

Shock doesn’t even begin to cover what I’m feeling. “I’m sorry, did you just say you paid for a neurologist to come here and meet me?”

“Yes.” His voice is calm and casual, as if flying in a world-renowned specialist is no different than ordering takeout.