Chapter 16
My feet splashed into the water where Rowan put me down. I gasped. It wasn’t cold, but still a little jarring.
“I should take you out deeper so we can mess around right in front of them.”
“Not too deep,” I whispered. “I can’t swim.”
“You can’t swim?” He sounded horrified. “You grew up with the beach right here and no one taught you?”
I studied the sky at the horizon, color draining down into gorgeous blues. “I mean, there were offers. I just never wanted to.”
“Why not?”
My head lolled back on his shoulder. Or as close to his shoulder as my short ass could get. My whole body felt floaty and amazing. “Does there have to be a reason?”
“No, but there usually is.”
“Got pulled into a riptide when I was little. After that I just stayed on the beach. I love the beach. The sounds and the way it smells. You remind me of it. Why ruin something I love with fear?”
Rowan hummed, his hands slowly moving over my ribs and down to my hips. Back up to my shoulders and my neck. Just touching me. Because I said yes.
“Did you bring me over here just to stand in the water?”
“No.”
I thought about the list. It was long enough that all five of them couldn’t be into everything there. That would be…
Heat streaked through me.
“What things on the list belong to you?” Was my voice thinner than before?
“I like a little bit of everything, Isolde.”
“But what’s your favorite?”
One hand came up and circled my throat, pulling me back against his chest. His other arm pressed low on my hips so our bodies were flush together. I felt him against my back, hard, and very much not pretend.
“My favorite? I don’t know if you’re ready for that.”
“Try me.”
The hand at my hips slid up beneath my shirt. “First, I need to know if I can touch you.”
“You’ve been touching me.”
“Isolde.” I loved my name growled from his lips. “Tell me.”
I nodded, gasping. “Yes. I’m not out of control. Please, touch me.”
We faced toward the horizon, no one in our view. Since Rowan was the biggest, the only thing anyone would see was his back as he held me. But his fingers slipped beneath the waistband of my shorts, and then my bathing suit. It wasn’t until he slipped one long finger between my legs that I realized how wet I was. How far my mind was ahead of my body.
“I didn’t lie when I said I like a bit of everything,” he bent his head to whisper the warm words in my ear while he toyed with me, fingers exploring, stroking around my clit without touching me there. The hand at my throat squeezed gently. “I like pleasure and I like pain. I like seeing tears well up while you’re trying to take all of my cock down your throat. I like watching you come over and over again, whether that’s on a tongue, fingers, cock, or vibrator.”
Now he did touch me. Barely. Keeping my body desperately tense. My nipples hardened so much you could see them through both the shirt and swimsuit. Perfume whirled around us, stronger as Rowan slid a finger inside me. I jerked against him and it did nothing. He held me where he wanted me, going so fucking, deliciously slow.
He kept using the word you, like he’d already done these things to me. It painted images in my mind. I couldn’t get enough, hanging on every word.
“I like taking you two at a time, feeling you stuffed so fucking tight you’re about to break. But you want to know my favorite?”
“Yes,” I begged, not sure if it was for the words or for him to go faster. “Please.”
“My favorite is your absolute, unconditional surrender.”
I blinked. “That’s it?”
He chuckled. “You think it’s easy?”
“I just didn’t think it would be submission.”
Rowan slid a second thick finger into me at the same time he squeezed my throat. “I didn’t say submission. I said surrender.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Unconditional surrender means that, within whatever limits we set, you take what I give you.”
My breath caught, desire swirling low in my gut, though it was nowhere near enough to get me there.
He kept going. “So if I decide I want to spank you for an hour, that’s what I’ll do. If I want you on your knees beside my chair holding my drink, you will. If I want to spend an entire day exploring you with my tongue, or fuck your throat every hour, or put you on display for the rest of the pack,” the heel of his palm ground down into my clit. “Whatever I think or desire, that’s what happens.”
I panted the words in shallow gasps. “Does unconditional surrender mean no safeword?”
Rowan’s low growl had every hair standing on end. “You will always have a safeword, and anyone who tells you that you don’t need one should be strung up by their thumbs and castrated.”
“Good to know.” I sank further into his hold, savoring the feeling of his fingers and the way he paused to circle and tease my swollen clit. But it wasn’t enough. “Rowan?”
“Mmm, yes, Omega?”
“When I mentioned it’s hard for me, I wasn’t kidding.” A different heat rolled through me, staining my cheeks and spreading up my chest. “This feels really good, I promise. It’s just that I can’t quite…” Pressing my lips together, I tried to relax. But now that I was in my head, I didn’t know if I’d be able to get back to that place. Not in public.
The hand at my throat held me still while Rowan gently pulled out of me, still teasing my clit before lifting those fingers to his mouth and sucking them clean. The sound that came from him made my vision go blank with desire. Fuck, why couldn’t this be easier?
“Maybe we should go back to the suite, where there are fewer eyes and ears, and you can let everything go when we make you scream.”
“We?”
“If you’re okay with it.”
All I saw behind my eyes were visions of tangled limbs and hands, shared breath and close bodies and yes. “Yup. Very fine with that.”
He turned me around, keeping our bodies flush. “How would you like to get out of here?”
“What do you mean?”
Rowan drew his hands down my arms. I hoped he didn’t notice the goosebumps that followed. Just a simple touch from them and I was losing it. “Do you want to walk out of here with us? Do you want me to carry you? Do you want me to throw you over my shoulder and show your asshole of an ex how much we want you?”
My mouth went dry. I shouldn’t want to shove it in his face. Years of living here in a world where appearances meant everything taught me I should be better than that. But fuck it. I wanted him to know exactly what he lost, even if it wasn’t real.
“You choose,” I said, knowing exactly what would happen.
Rowan crouched and brought his arms around my legs, hoisting me over his shoulder while laughter bubbled out of me. The joint he gave me wasn’t too strong. I was pleasantly relaxed, but this high wouldn’t last long. Still, I loved the feeling of dizzy flying.
“Let’s go,” Rowan said to the others, laughing.
“We’re going to get that room now,” Vaughn said to Beau. I couldn’t see him from this angle—the only thing I could see was Rowan’s glorious ass—but his expression was probably priceless.
We hit the grass, and Rowan began to jog, jostling me. “Okay, that’s going to make me way too dizzy,” I laughed.
One tug on my legs, and I slid over Rowan’s shoulder only for him to catch me in his arms. “We’re far enough away. No need to manhandle you now.”
“What if I like being manhandled?”
His mouth came down on mine. Fuck, he tasted so good. The sweet rawness of coconut and that nearly intangible flavor of salt on the wind. I whined, melting deeper into his arms before I got dizzy all over again. Rowan dropped me on the bed.
All five of them stood there, staring down at me with hunger in their eyes. Bottomless, fathomless hunger. Was I blind enough that I hadn’t seen it before? Or had they hidden it? Was it even real?
I shook my head to clear it. Whether or not all of this was real, you couldn’t fake the lust rolling off them. There was no way. They wanted me, even if it was just for now.
Nerves built up, and I looked between them. Finally, I focused on Rowan. “Remember when I said I couldn’t turn my brain off?”
“We’ll help with that.” Joel went to the bank of switches on the wall and dimmed the lights. Not all the way, but I no longer felt like a spotlight was on me.
Rowan knelt at the side of the bed, tugging me with his hands to sit in front of him. “I’ll admit this isn’t the sexiest conversation, but I’m not taking chances. I’m not fucking you tonight. None of us are.”
My shoulders fell, and he caught me by the arms. “Not because I don’t want to, but because we’re going to have a conversation about sex, substances, and what you’re okay with if you’ve had something like one of my treats.” He winked. “But that conversation has to happen while you’re entirely sober.”
I wasn’t as high as I’d been, but he wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t sober. “And the rest of it?”
He locked eyes with me. “Did you come to the bonfire wanting this? Wanting us? Or did you decide after?”
“Before,” I said. “I was planning on it. All the joint did was relax me enough to actually ask.”
“In that case,” he murmured, rising up on his knees and catching my lips with his. “I—we—plan on touching you. Everywhere. Kissing you. Also everywhere. Learning exactly what makes you come and making you drown in pleasure even if it doesn’t happen. Does any of that sound like too much?”
I shook my head. “No. I want all of that. Tried pretending I didn’t, and it didn’t work.”
Vaughn slid onto the bed behind me, dropping his lips to the skin of my shoulder before lifting my shirt up and off. I felt him pull his off too, and we were skin on skin. “Why?”
The way he dragged his mouth up my neck made all the words disappear out of my head. The only thing in the entire universe was where his hands grazed my ribs, lips below my ear, Rowan’s hands on my hips, getting rid of my shorts and leaving me in nothing but my royal blue bikini.
“Why what?”
“I’m guessing he’s asking why you tried to resist.” Hawk’s voice drew my gaze to him and the fact that he lost his shirt. So had the others. Just like last night in bed when I couldn’t even focus because they were close and they looked like that.
“That’s not fun.”
Cade was the one to lift me out from between them and spread me out on the bed. A necklace dangled from him, the charm I couldn’t see brushing between my breasts. I felt rings on his fingers where he held my wrists, stretching them over my head and rendering me helpless beneath him.
Oh, fuck.
Blue eyes pinned me in place, and he smiled. “I can see you didn’t lie.”
“I might have.”
“Is that so?” He leaned down and kissed the edge of my bathing suit, so close I got a hit of his scent. Sandalwood, vanilla, and a touch of smoke like the fire. “Then why did you drown me in perfume the second I pinned your hands? Arch your back and close your eyes like it’s everything you’ve craved.”
That single word carved itself into me. I did crave this. So much more than I’d had and experienced. I wanted it all, and I was so sick of feeling guilty and sad and like I wasn’t enough.
“You gonna keep lying, princess?”
“Princess and not angel?”
He smirked. “Definitely not treating you like an angel tonight. But a princess gets both what she wants and what she needs. Now are you going to keep lying?”
“No,” I gasped, arching again just to feel him. “No.”
A hand slid across my stomach and up over my breasts, slowly finding the ties to my suit. I didn’t look away from Cade while it was pulled off, watching the heat build in his gaze before he took in the rest of me. “Fuck, Isolde.”
He broke, kissing me hard enough to bruise. Yes. More than just them and what they liked and wanted, I craved their marks on me. I ached for all of it.
I moaned into Cade’s mouth, the delicious feeling of being able to let go slowly coming back. I needed to be overwhelmed and taken past the point where my brain could dig in its heels and question if I was good enough or any of the other bullshit it invented. I needed to feel—
A gasp and a whine slipped out, captured by Cade’s mouth. There it was. At the core of it, I still felt like I belonged to Beau. Not in a literal sense, but because he threw me away. His fingerprints were all over me, and I didn’t want it anymore. No more thinking about him. No more trying to avoid everything that made me remember. I just wanted it to be over, and they were already helping.
Hot tears pressed against my eyes. These men barely knew me, and they’d already shown me so much more than he had in four years.
“Woah,” Cade pulled back, seeing the gloss in my eyes. “You okay?”
“I’m good.” A choked laugh. “I’m so good. Promise.”
Strong arms tugged me away from Cade, and I was suddenly arranged against a very naked Hawk. Those tattoos ran all the way down the legs that now bracketed mine, his cock long and hard against my back. Such fucking sweetness in his scent I could bathe in it forever.
He untied the strings of my bikini and tossed it aside, leaving me bare in front of them. “You mind if I hold you, baby girl? I like to watch. I want to see and feel you get off with their mouths between your legs.”
“Not the best view,” I told him.
“I don’t know. I think it’s pretty great.” He slid his hands up my stomach, lifting my breasts in his palms. “Looking down your body and seeing your clit peek out? Feel these gorgeous tits of yours? Fucking fantastic.”
Vaughn appeared beside us, bending to take one nipple into his mouth. Joel’s mouth was suddenly on the other, and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Hawk’s fingers crept down, brushing over my clit. All I could do was moan, my voice rendered useless by mouths and fingers.
“You never told us why,” Vaughn said. “I think we’re pretty irresistible.”
“Not something for right now.”
Rowan moved between my legs, pulling me toward him and down Hawk’s chest before glancing up. “Help me out, Hawk.”
“Wha—”
Hawk pulled my legs over his so I was spread wide and captured my hands, folding them with his. Behind my back. “These are mine now.”
Placing one kiss low on my stomach, Rowan consumed me. Lips and tongue, fucking deep into me before coming back to my clit to tease and touch and suck.
“He’s going to figure out what you like,” Hawk whispered. “Practice makes perfect, baby girl.”
“I like it all. It’s all great. Super great.”
Beside me, Joel laughed and turned my head to his for a kiss. “All you have to do is say yes or no, Isolde. If something’s bringing you closer, say yes. If it’s not, say no. Can you do that?”
I nodded once.
Rowan’s tongue curled under my clit, making my hips jerk towards him, trying to chase the sensation. “Yes. Fuck, yes.”
“Mmm.” He did it again. And again. And again. “You taste better than I imagined.”
Thinking about him imagining this drew heat straight into my body and made me wetter. Rowan just laughed. “Cade, her pussy just flooded. You need to try it.”
“Yes, I do.”
He traded places with Rowan, never looking away from my eyes as he drew his tongue up my center and sealed his mouth over me, sucking harder than I’d ever felt in my life. I said yes. I don’t know how many times I said it.
I said no too. But it all felt good. They took turns, each of their mouths trying different things to drive me crazy while Hawk held me open. I drowned in pleasure, skin slick with sweat, no breath in my lungs. But I still hadn’t come.
“I’m sorry,” I managed to say, though my voice was raw. “It’s amazing, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Rowan had taken his place between my legs again. He smiled, drawing small circles with his fingers. “If it doesn’t, I want you to know I won’t be disappointed. But I’d like to try again.”
I wanted an orgasm so fucking badly, and I couldn’t seem to get there. Maybe I was broken. I thought I might be better at letting go during my heat, but I’d never had a chance to find out. “If you’re sure.”
“I am sure, if you are.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
He kissed my clit. “Because if you say yes, I’m going to force an orgasm out of this gorgeous cunt, and I won’t hold back in order to do it.”
This was just a glimpse of what he told me on the beach. Total and complete surrender. We weren’t there yet, but he was asking me to trust him and give him this. Let him try. “Yes.”
Rowan slid one finger inside me slowly, and that was the only thing slow. His mouth came down on me and he used his tongue exactly the way he’d learned to, adding another finger, finding that spot that Beau had never managed to though he claimed he tried, and thrusting right. Fucking. There.
Mouths on breasts. Hands on my skin. Hawk’s purr beneath me and the hardness of his cock. So much. Too much. I sagged into them, sinking beneath their control and trust, and let everything go.
The shimmering beginnings of an orgasm sparkled to life, and I didn’t think about it. If I thought about it, I would wonder if Rowan’s arm was getting tired or if his jaw was sore from fucking me with his tongue, and I would lose it.
“Please,” I gasped. There was no other way to ask for the help I needed.
Cade’s voice was there, next to me. When did he get there? I loved the sound of his voice. No doubt and no hesitation. “Don’t open your eyes,” he commanded. “Keep them closed and listen.”
I did. His voice got closer.
“I can still taste you,” Cade said. “See?”
He kissed me, our flavors blending together in heady harmony. Oh god, I wanted to taste them.
Cade devoured my mouth, claiming me, making sure all of my focus was on him. Pleasure seeped through my bones, rising in a golden cloud to hover around me. So delicate and so close.
“Hold your breath,” Cade commanded. “Don’t take a breath until I tell you, understand?”
I sucked in a breath and held it. My own pulse pounded in my ears, Rowan’s fingers pounded into me, my hips now rising to meet him. My breath ran short. Cade hadn’t said anything. My eyes flew open to find him watching me. “Don’t you fucking breathe, Isolde.”
But…
His hand landed at my throat, pressing with the barest pressure. “Trust me, princess.”
I fought the instinct to haul in air, body desperate for more than I was giving it. No thoughts, only the need for air and rising pleasure—
“Breathe.”
Air and life flooded my lungs. Everything slammed into me at full brightness and volume despite the dimness of the room, body so relieved to breathe that it released everything.
The orgasm crashed over me like a tidal wave. All-consuming. Everywhere. Like drowning while I could breathe. My body writhed like it had a mind of its own, trying to find an outlet for all that euphoria to break through, and it found none.
I don’t know if I’d ever had an orgasm like this. It came in waves, leaving me spent and wrecked on the shore, sprawled out on top of them.
My whole body felt limp and shaky when Rowan took me from Hawk, spreading me out in the pillows and cradling me to him. I closed my eyes and tried to catch my breath while sinking into that perfect place of peace that so often followed pleasure.
One thing was sure. Resisting was pointless, and I wasn’t doing it anymore.