Page 64 of The Hitman's Prince

Orion

Vince hit me so hard with the paddle, my vision blacked out. My jaw fell open from the shock of it, and before my brain had even finished processing the strike, he landed another.

“Hold him,” Vince said from somewhere far away, and then it was the soft press of Jacob’s fingertips digging into my sides and forcing me back to the present, back to the floor in the middle of my bedroom, back to him being beneath me and Vince behind me and…

CRACK.

“You’re good,” Jacob said gently, and I blinked him into focus, still shocked from how sharply the wood stung against my ass.

Drops of—shit, was I crying?

Teardrops fell against Jacob’s cheeks as Vince continued his assault, striking me so hard and so fast, I’d already lost count.

“You won’t sit for a week,” he warned, landing one final strike that shoved all the breath out of my lungs. Even from two feet away, he could control me that way. I shuddered, gasping in a desperate lungful of air that wasn’t ever going to be enough. Vince kicked the back of my thigh, and it made me want to crawl to him.

“Switch,” he said.

The single word didn’t compute, and it was Jacob easing me onto my back and arranging himself in a straddle, just like I’d been over him.

“Hold me,” he whispered, guiding my hands to his waist.

My brain flared back to life and I grabbed him tightly, nails digging into the angles of his hips and holding him steady above me. Fear flashed across his face, but before he could express it in any other way than accidental, Vince was back at it again.

The first smack against Jacob’s ass stole his breath as much as it had stolen mine, and above me, the priest gasped like a fish. Another strike, and another, until he finally managed to loose a whimper in the small tear-stained space between us.

“You can bear this,” I told him, and he nodded quickly, chin falling toward his chest after the next impact.

I realized, counting Jacob’s, Vince had hit us ten times each. But the way my ass and the backs of my thighs ached and vibrated against the floor, my body was certain the tally had reached closer to one hundred. Vince let thepaddle fall to the floor and walked around near our heads, dropping down into a squat.

“Kiss,” he demanded, fisting Jacob’s hair and yanking us both onto our asses. Jacob winced when he landed, and I was quick to swallow the sound of it into the back of my throat. I kissed him fierce and deep, Vince’s fingers threading into my hair and holding my head in place while I fulfilled his most recent order. He pulled us apart before I was ready to be done, and he must have seen the want on my face because he surged forward and slanted our mouths together next.

He still had my hair in one hand and Jacob’s in the other as he kissed me roughly, biting my lip hard enough to draw blood. He tore himself away from me with a groan, then crashed his mouth into Jacob’s and kissed him just as urgently. He went back and forth between us for what felt like a lifetime, not pulling away when I grew bold and slid my hand up the front of his chest. My fingertips played against the scar from when he was shot, and that wasn’t even enough to make him stop.

“Enough,” he rasped, shoving Jacob and me close enough together that weshouldhave been kissing again. Instead the three of us went absolutely still, waiting, yearning…

Seconds passed, and Vince’s fingers loosened out of our hair. He smoothed his hands down the back of my head, letting them trail down my spine and further to my ass. He poked at a bruise, humming happily when Igroaned at the pain. He did the same to Jacob, then he exhaled loudly and sat back on his ass to see us both.

“Look at the two of you,” he said softly, stare raking over us one at a time. “My pet and my priest, two violent fucking men who have lived long enough to know their place in this world.”

“And Caspian downstairs, a fucking pawn in all of this,” he said. “He’s the catalyst who is going to bring everyone to their fucking knees.”

“How?” I managed to ask.

“He’s going to fulfill his end of the contract.”

“I’ll end him first,” I warned at the same time Jacob cried, “No!”

Vince arched a brow in my direction, and I rocked back onto my heels, not enjoying the way the conversation was heading.

“It’s the best way,” he said, reaching out and pushing me down onto my back. He knee-walked closer, knocking my legs apart, then he pulled his cock out of his pants, long and thick, then he spit on his shaft and notched himself against my hole. There was no prep, no lube, and he cursed under his breath, looking toward the bed.

“It’s fine,” I said quickly, holding him so he didn’t leave. “I want to renegotiate my limits.”

Vince made an interested sound in the back of this throat. “Not sure this is the time for that, pet.”

“I want it to hurt,” I said. “I want it to drag and ache. Maybe not every time, but this time.”

He pursed his lips and gathered as much saliva intohis mouth as he could before spitting it all onto his shaft. “Anything else?”