Page 78 of The Invite (The Massacre Ball #1)

Nessa

Ace bucks his hips, trying to dislodge me when I don’t answer.

Pushing him down with a palm on his right pec, I press the blade harder as he breathes roughly below me. I run the blade down the slope of his throat. He stops breathing as his entire body goes still as a statue.

It’s worth noting how something as small as a knife can bring a powerfully built man to heel like a dog listening to its master.

You aren’t supposed to enjoy this, Nessa .

No! I’m doing this for Ace’s benefit. Even though he has no clue.

The more scared he is, the better it is for me and him. Augustus was stupid to think Ace would be anything but terrified after waking up to a stranger straddling him in the middle of the night. His reaction would be the same even if he knew who I was.

Skimming the knife to his chest, I lightly scratch it in the middle, making him suck in a sharp breath. Circling his nipple, I press down on it with the cold blade until he hisses. A vein pops out on his forehead.

Without his specs, he’s even more gorgeous and his blue eyes are more intense.

They narrow when I shift down his body, trailing the knife lower. But I ignore him and meet Augustus’s eyes watching me possessively. The moment of truth is about to be revealed and I don’t want to miss his reaction when he realizes he lost.

“What are you doing?” yells Ace. “What is it you want? Damn it.”

My ass brushes against Ace’s clenched abs. Seconds tick by in slow motion.

One.

I keep crawling backward.

Two.

A hint of a victorious smile forming on my lips.

Three.

I feel it.

No . My smile withers as I feel Ace is hard beneath me. How is it possible? I’ve done nothing but terrorize him. A lump forms in my throat as I blink at Augustus. A storm brewing in those dark irises.

I want to yell it doesn’t mean anything, but the fear of giving our identities away keeps my mouth shut. The panic bubbling deep in my chest like lava.

Ace’s cock jerks when I accidentally nick him in the stomach. The confidence I was feeling turns to smoke and I scramble off his lap, falling on my side on the bed.

A low and throaty chuckle rings out in the awful silence.

I almost break my neck from how fast I snap it toward Ace.

He is looking up at Augustus. “Fuck! Grayson. You’ve corrupted our little runaway well.” Tilting his head my way, he winks. “Almost well.”

Little runaway?

Little runaway!!

How does he know that name? Only two people do!

This… I… No, this cannot be right. It was Maverick in the woods. Not Ace. I heard Augustus call him Mav.

What is happening?

“Not ours. Mine,” growls Augustus territorially. His voice breaking through my inner monologue.

I gape at him with horrified eyes.

“August?” My tone is confused and full of unspoken questions.

I’m unable to wrap my head around what they’re indirectly revealing to me. The dots aren’t connecting.

A pointed fingertip against my cheek turns my face to Ace. My mouth catching flies, I watch all the friendliness drain from Ace’s blue eyes. They darken into two pools of darkness and cockiness. The same pits of void I stared into the first night I arrived in Fallthorne.

Oh Lord.

I had it all wrong.

Ace is Nightcrawler.

“It was you,” I accuse. “But how is… yo… you can’t be.”

“Oh, but I am, sweetness,” he rasps in a deep timbre I remember all too well. A bit dark. A bit cocky. “My name is Ace Melrose-Sinclair.”

Sinclair?

“What?”

He smiles in amusement at my reaction. “I’m Maverick’s cousin. Not many people know that.”

I cut my eyes to a quiet Augustus. His eyes giving nothing away.

“Is it true, August?” I demand with more steel in my voice.

“Yes.”

Betrayal and hurt crack my chest wide open and rip out my heart. Tonight really was a game. “You both conned me!” I yell angrily, and spit at Ace, “I thought you were my friend.”

Ace shrugs remorselessly. “It was the only way to keep an eye on you. The dates with you were fun. I would’ve liked more, but then you had Augustus whipped for you.”

“Shut up!” I crawl backward to slide off the bed and get the hell away from both of them. I don’t even make it an inch before Augustus rounds the headboard to my side and I smack right into his chest. “Don’t you dare touch me, Augustus.”

“August,” he corrects darkly and pushes me to the middle of the bed.

He slides in after me, and I growl, “Fuck you! August .”

“Oh, I will, little prey.”

“You’re dead wrong if you think I’m letting you fuck me.” As I shout at him, it dawns on me that I’m furious but not enough to stop loving him or end our relationship. I’m just upset he didn’t tell me sooner. “I hate you!”

“You love me,” he growls, twisting me on my side.

I gasp when I turn my head and lose myself in a pool of ocean blue eyes. Nothing else. A masked Ace stares back at me and I momentarily lose my fight.

“You aren’t skipping away this time, little runaway .”

The arrogant warning jolts me out of my reverie. I try elbowing Augustus but I’m unable to move my arms. Shit! They’ve trapped me between them.

Fear doesn’t encompass me.

I’m undeniably… turned on beyond words. I’m not shocked. Fighting with Augustus always brings a wave of lust in my veins.

“You asked me to finish what started in the woods,” hums Augustus in a filthy voice while grinding his hard cock into my ass. “We’re giving you what you wished for, little prey. I’m going to fuck you while they help me make you come as many times as I want.”

“They?” I stammer.

“It wouldn’t be the same if Maverick wasn’t here, would it?”

A tall and bulky figure in all black appears in the doorway, drawing my attention. When it comes out of the shadow, I’m struck speechless at the sight of Maverick. He’s wearing the same skull mask as Augustus. Except his is red.

My heart jackhammers at the wickedness swirling in the room as he approaches the end of the bed. I shiver under his hot gaze as it drags up my stocking-covered legs to my masked face. The anonymity among all of us makes the scene ten times more forbidden.

“But you just told me it was Ace.” There was no third person except when the girl showed up.

“Who do you think was recording the scene, Nessa?” says Maverick smugly.

Looking over my shoulder at Augustus, I whisper, “If I say no to all of this?”

“Are you?” His fingers drift up my thigh, taking my skirt with it.

“Answer us,” coaxes Ace with a grip on my jaw when I take too long. “Are you going to run again?”

He throws it like a taunt.

It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience. One I’m very tempted to jump into. But I have a condition. “This will be a one-time thing.”

I’m thrown onto my back, my arms shoved over my head as Augustus glares down at me.

“This isn’t an invitation for them or anyone else to fuck you whenever they want.

You’re not a toy I’m passing around. You’re sure as hell not feeling any other cock besides mine inside you.

Tonight isn’t about sharing. It’s all about your desires. It’ll only ever be about you.”

The last part is whispered with so much reverence and devotion, I fall for him all over again.

Caressing my cheek with the back of his knuckle, he hands the power to me. “If you don’t want this, say the safe word.”

I wasn’t completely honest with him. I’ve always wondered what it’d be like being worshipped by more than one man. Just once. But I let myself forget it because I knew how possessive Augustus is. God knows it’s the same for me.

I’m not ashamed to be a hypocrite because if the roles were reversed, I won’t let another woman touch him. So, I ask him, “Will you ever want the same?”

“And what is that?”

“Invite another woman into our bed?”

“Have I ever given you a reason to think that?”

“No.”

“There’s your answer,” he murmurs. “To me, desire, lust, dreams, and fantasy mean the same. You . My entire world revolves around you, Nessa.”

I smile, all my fears melting away.

“Now tell me, are you safe wording?”

I shake my head.

His eyes warm before darkening with carnality. Switching our positions, he sits against the headboard with me on his lap. Spreading my thighs apart for the two men, he commands in my ear, “Show them what belongs to me.”

Maverick stays standing at the foot of the bed while Ace enters my line of sight just as I reach for the string holding my corset together. My nipples are hard and aching beneath the soft leather.

As I tug the string through the loops, the top comes undone until my breasts spill for everyone to see.

A collective appreciative groan rings out in the lust-drunken room.

“Fuck!” curses Maverick when Augustus tears the piece of fabric off me. The roughness making my breasts bounce crudely.

“You seriously can’t keep those tits off-limits to us, Grayson,” says Ace thickly.

Cupping the undersides, Augustus squeezes and rolls my nipples with his thumbs. I moan, arching my chest for his touch. “Shall I allow them a taste, little prey?”

I shake my head. “Maybe if they had told me the truth sooner, I would’ve.”

“Augustus lied too, sweetness,” taunts Ace.

It’s like I’m talking to a stranger. The Ace I knew till yesterday was respectful and caring. This one is unfriendly, malicious, and filthy-mouthed.

“He did, but he loves me,” I retort, smirking at Ace. “And he can touch me even when I’m mad at him.”

“I own that body, don’t I?”

A bite to my ear draws the answer out of me. “Yes.”

“Show them my pussy,” orders Augustus. “Slide your panties to the side and let them see that tight hole.”

Trailing my hand to my center, I touch my panties and they’re soaked. They have been since the moment I put a knife against Ace’s throat. Both men’s gaze zeroes in between my thighs as I bare my pussy. Their matching eyes turn half-mast at the visible flesh.

“Is she wet?” Augustus asks them, making my cheeks turn pink.

“Drenched,” groans Ace.

“Her pussy looks untouched, Augustus,” says Maverick. “Have you not been fucking it day and night? Do you even fit inside her?”

Oh god!