Traded (Blood Ties Book 5)

“Carven!” I yelled and winced at the blinding headlights from the four-wheel drive.

Still, I stared into the glare as I prayed that somehow, he’d stop running…and he’d come back to me. But he didn’t. Sparks danced in my eyes as the darkness gave way and left me standing in the middle of the driveway, shivering.

The scuff of a boot sounded and I jerked my gaze toward the two guards who’d been patrolling the grounds. One of them turned away the moment I faced them. But the other one didn’t. I suddenly became very aware of how little I wore, and how, in that moment, I was vulnerable.

Vulnerable in ways I never wanted to be again. I forced myself to breathe and hold his stare. “What the fuck are you looking at?”

I wasn’t scared, not really.

But I didn’t like the shiver of fear that worked its way along my spine. The guard didn’t answer as his gaze took in every curve of my body, until I crossed my arms over my chest. Movement came from the corner of my eye and a low, familiar, protective growl came.

“Vivienne,” Guild called as he stepped out of the back door and held it open.

I turned to him, thankful for his presence. The guards turned toward him as I headed for the door. He gave the asshole guard a slow nod and kept his stare as I slipped under his arm and back inside. I didn’t stop, just headed back along the endless hallways. The soles of my feet stung from the cold as I pushed into a run.

By the time I hit the east wing, I was panting. I tore past the open door of my bedroom and raced to his. Colt was still standing there, staring at a spot in the middle of the queen-sized bed.

“Colt,” I murmured as I crept closer. “Baby?”

He didn’t answer, gave no sign he heard me at all. I stared at the blood splatter on his shirt and lifted my hand gently to skim the graze on his cheek with my thumb. “Talk to me. Grunt at me. Hell, push me away for all I care. Just please come back to me.”

His brow creased. There was a flicker in the depths of those blue eyes. Still, he didn’t answer. I moved closer and ran my hands along his arms. What should I do? What the hell should I do?

Carven would know…

But he wasn’t here.

I licked my lip, still feeling the warmth of Carven’s kiss.

Warmth. I flicked my focus back to Colt and saw his body shiver. That’s what he needed. A reminder I was here. I took his hand. “Come on, big guy,” I murmured and pulled him forward.

His gaze met mine, but he didn’t fight me, just let me lead him toward the bed.

“Let’s get you warm.” I pulled him down to the bed and dropped to my knees, tugged the zipper of his boots, and pulled them free.

His muscles trembled, his nipples were tight peaks. I dropped his boots and nuzzled his shoulder until he lay back against the pillows. I tugged the comforter up, hating that the sheets were cold under his body.

“I’m right here.” I moved against him, molded myself against him, and slid my arm across his middle. “You’ll be warm soon.”

This reminded me of the first night we were together, with the storm raging outside and his wrists shackled to the bed to stop him from hurting himself or me. I gently slid his hands around my waist. I couldn’t shackle him, but I’d give him something to hold on to.

That I could do.

He shifted closer, his big body caging me in. My pulse sped at the contact as he felt the power of my touch. I was fascinated by the movement of my hands as I dragged my fingers along his powerful arms. He wasn’t talking, but I knew he was here. Goosebumps raced along his arms under my touch. His breathing eased and became deeper.

He was so tired.

So spent.

Within minutes, his breaths deepened even more. Now it was my turn to watch over him. “Sleep, baby,” I whispered, mirroring his echo in my head. “I’ll watch over you.”

I was the one who couldn’t sleep now. I wanted to close my eyes and give into that oblivion, but I couldn’t. My thoughts tethered me to the waking world as I relived the feel of Carven’s mouth against mine. I’d almost had him…almost felt the terrifying son yield.

Are you afraid of me?

My pulse sped now, just as it had then. I lost myself as I drifted into the fantasy, then I glanced at Colt and found his breathing steady. He was still asleep…while I fantasized about his brother. I grazed my teeth across my lip.

No.

My own voice echoed in response.

No? Your body is telling me something different.

My core clenched and my thighs tightened. I glanced at Colt once more, then inched my hand lower to between my thighs. Christ, I was wet. I closed my eyes and relived the moment. His hard lips, the way he’d refused to touch me. He was so…fucking cruel.

His hands.

His words.

His hunger.

My body shuddered and warmed under my touch, until a faint thud sounded somewhere in the wing. I froze, and my fingers slipped from inside me as an icy shiver raced through my body. Somewhere underneath the heavy thudding of my heart, panic rose and I raised my head.

Colt’s eyes snapped open and fixed on mine. But he didn’t reach for his gun, not even when those heavy thuds grew louder…and closer. No, he stared, transfixed on me as though he were under some kind of spell. I shoved upwards as a shadow filled the doorway.

Carven wore a mask of menace. His eyes blazed and his lips were curled, to bare his teeth. Panicked, I looked at Colt’s gun sitting on the nightstand beside the bed. Carven took a step inside, but his gaze didn’t once move to his brother.

He moved closer, soundless, just like the night. “You just won’t quit, will you, daughter?”

I shook my head and kicked the comforter free. Cold air swept all around me as I stood, stealing the warmth in an instant. “I—I didn’t mean…”

“You didn’t mean,” he growled and kept coming, rounding the foot of the bed.

My heart was in my throat as I stepped backwards.

“You think this is what…love?”

He spat the word as he advanced. I hadn’t ever seen him so…unhinged. Colt watched this all play out, but didn’t lift a finger. My body both trembled with fear and thrummed with desire. “No.”

“No?” He stepped closer and pushed me against the wall. “Then what the fuck do you think this is?”

I shook my head. “I—”

Words left me. I lost the ability to speak or move. But it wasn’t terror which gripped me. It was him. This…son whose voice hadn’t ever left me in my darkest moments. Was that love? I didn’t know…I didn’t know what that felt like.

But I knew what my heart screamed for…and it was him.

“Whatever you want it to be,” I whispered.

He froze, and his forehead creased. He hadn’t expected that. I saw it now. I didn’t know what he thought I wanted, but it sure as hell wasn’t words of devotion.

He narrowed his gaze and reached up to close his hand around my throat. “What did you say?”

“I…I said, whatever you want it to be.” I gasped at the pressure of his grip.

But it wasn’t cruel, just enough for me to know who was in charge here. Panic flared in his eyes. He was reeling, unable to put whatever this was between us into a neat box complete with a perfect bow tie.

“You want to hate me, then hate me,” I whispered and slowly licked my lips. “You want to fuck me, then we can do that too.”

His grip eased, then fell. He took a step backwards and shook his head. “You don’t want that, daughter.”

Daughter.

There was that word again.

Like he didn’t want to see me for me.

I was just a thing, right? Just a problem. A target. A pain in his ass.

“Vivienne.”

He scowled. “What?”

This time, I was the one who stepped closer. “My name is Vivienne.”

His lips curled. “I know what your goddamn name is.”

“Then use it,” I demanded. “Use me.” I reached out, slowly took his hand, and lifted it. “You want to wrap your hands around my throat, then consider this my explicit consent. You want to push my head into the pillow so you don’t have to look at me while you fuck me, then we can do that too. As long as you don’t hurt me, as long as there is a level of pain we never reach.”

He paled in front of me. Anguish collided with disgust as he jerked his hand from me as though I’d burned him. “No.” He stepped backwards. “No.”

But I wasn’t losing this moment. I wasn’t losing him. “I’m here to stay, Carven.” I moved forward. “I’m not going anywhere. You can either watch your brother and London fuck me or you can take what you need from my body…and my heart. This is me offering all I have to offer.”

“And what if what I need you can’t give me?” he snapped. “What if—” He raked his fingers through his peroxide-blond hair. “What if I don’t want you to?”

“Then what do you want?” I whispered as I slid the thin strap of my nightie off my shoulder. “All you have to do is tell me. You want me on my knees? You want me splayed out on the table in front of you? You want to control the machine?” I moved to the other strap and let my nightie fall to the floor. “All I ask is that you use me…and only me. When you want release, come to me. When you want other things, too, then I’m your girl.”

He shook his head. “You don’t want that.”

“Don’t I?” I moved closer and took his hand, only this time I closed it over my breast and clenched tight. “Let me show you what I can handle.”

It wasn’t me who looked to his brother for salvation this time, it was him…

My tortured, broken…son.

“I’m a daughter. You are a son. I was made for you. I was made only for you.”

He moved instantly, surged forward, grabbed me around the waist, and drove me backwards. My hair flew into my face before I hit the middle of Colt’s bed hard.

I bounced, and my teeth gnashed with the impact. The blur in front of me sharpened as Colt yanked his shirt over his head. Colt slid from the bed to stand and watched us before he took a step backward.

“You. Stay.” Carven stopped him instantly.

The silence was deafening.

The slow slide of a zipper was followed by the thud of Carven’s boots. “Last chance to run, dau—Vivienne,” he corrected himself. “Last chance.”

I pushed up onto my elbows with my heart in my throat. Footsteps sounded out in the hallway. Heat flushed across my skin as London stopped at the doorway to Colt’s room, his gaze fixed on Carven before he shifted it to me, and watched this all play out.

Fear raced through me as Carven’s jeans hit the floor and he stepped closer. “Want to fight me, Wildcat?”

Mesmerized by him, I shook my head.

He stalked up from the foot of the bed and pushed me backward. “Want to kick and claw?”

“No.”

“No?”

“No,” I whispered, and lay down.

He lowered his gaze. I shivered under his focus, but he didn’t once touch me, not until his lips twitched. Only then did he grab me by my waist and flip me over on the bed. I landed facefirst, my heavy breaths swallowed by the soft bedding. He was on me in an instant as he yanked my hips up into the air and then back hard to slam me against him.

His hard cock pressed against my core. Terror swept through me. All I could feel were the hands of all those men pawing at me, desperate to hurt. All I could feel was Daniels. I closed my eyes and fisted the sheets, trying my best not to fight.

This was what I wanted, right?

This was the only way I’d have him…

This was the only way I’d have them all.

I braced myself for the intrusion, but it didn’t matter.

He rammed inside and filled me until I bucked and moaned.

“Not yet, Wildcat,” he grunted. “Not…fucking…yet.”

He pulled out, only to thrust back in harder. Pain flared between my legs. I bit down on the inside of my cheek to keep from crying out.

“You wanted me. You wanted this?” He pulled out quickly and left me panting and shaking.

He was shaking, too…I heard it in his tone.

“Say it,” he forced through clenched teeth. “Say it.”

“What?” I whispered, opening my eyes to stare at the crumpled sheets.

“Say no, say stop. Say stay the fuck away from me.”

My body was clenching and trembling. My teeth pinned my lip into place.

“Say it, Vivienne,” he demanded.

I slowly shook my head.

With a snarl, he lunged, his cruel hand gripping the back of my neck. “I said, say it!”

“No,” I groaned as agony flared from his fingers. “I won’t.”

His hard breaths were savage in the air. I knew the others were there. They wouldn’t let him hurt me. I also knew something they didn’t…I knew Carven was scared.

Not just scared. He was terrified.

This wasn’t just an act of dominance. This was him pushing me away, desperate for me to see him as the soulless bastard he considered himself. He was that bastard. I knew that better than anyone…but that wasn’t all he was. Deep down, there was a man in there. A man who’d rested his head on my shoulder as I fucked his brother, grateful I was loving Colt in ways he couldn’t. And a man who’d seen me risk my own life for those who mattered.

His grip eased from my neck to slide down my spine and stop in the middle of my back. I closed my eyes at the sensation, too terrified to move in case I scared him.

“You’re not going to say it, are you?” His words were quiet….

“No.”

“You’d let me…hurt you like that?’

“If that’s what it took to have you, then yes.”

I stiffened as he lowered his head to rest his forehead between my shoulder blades. Warmth from his breath was a blast against my back. “You would do that…for me?”

I swallowed. “I would do that for you.”

“Jesus fucking Christ.”

“He isn’t going to help us,” I whispered. “I don’t think I could handle another male, anyway.”

His breath caught before a low, quiet rumble of laughter spilled out. His hand moved and slowly slipped to the side to cup my waist. Only this time, the touch wasn’t cruel. It was gentle, his thumb brushing my skin.

I was drawn to the heat of his exhale, fixed on the rush, and that’s when it happened…

He kissed me.

Not just robotically yielding, like he had before. But he softly kissed the small of my back, then moved lower and ran a faint trail of his lips down the curve of my ass.

“I don’t know what to do here,” he murmured.

I was too scared to say a thing.

“Do what feels right…for the both of you,” London urged, his voice close.

“For the both of us,” Carven repeated, his hands moving to my waist.

He gripped me and moved to toss me over once more, but stopped. “Wait…do you like that? Like when I…manhandle you?”

“Yes,” I answered truthfully. “Although, seeing as how we’re getting used to each other, we might take it a little slower. If that’s okay with you?”

I didn’t wait for him to answer, just eased to the side and rolled over, sliding one leg around him. He looked down at me as though he was finally seeing me for the first time. Maybe he was. I glanced at Colt. I’d thought he was the broken one…but he was nothing compared to his brother.

Carven slid his hand along my waist, then dragged his gaze higher as he cupped my breast. “How’s this?”

That calloused thumb skimmed the hardening peak of my breast.

My body trembled.

He saw the shiver and ran his thumb across again. “That feel good, Wildcat?”

His voice was husky and raw, and my body heated with the sound. I nodded. “Yes, but I like your tone more.”

He leaned down. “Like this?”

I closed my eyes and nodded. “Yeah. Like that.”

“Then let me tell you what I plan on doing here,” he started, and I quaked at the sound. There was something about his voice, his tone, his tenderness in the face of the need to be cruel. “I’m going to move lower, spread those perfect thighs, and kiss what I hurt. How does that sound, Wildcat?”

Oh, Christ…I was going to come.

I could only nod.

That same chuckle came again. “At least I know now how to shut you the hell up.”

He didn’t just move down my body…he kissed his way there and took his time over the swell of my belly until he stopped and looked down. My senses were humming, desperation and fear choking me. What, I wanted to ask…why are you stopping?

Then he slid his finger down my slit and pushed in. My hips rolled and my back arched, just at the feel of him inside tenderly this time.

“I hurt you before.” He lifted his gaze to mine. “You’re different…drier.”

The muscles of his throat worked as he pushed my thighs apart and leaned down…then spat.

My pussy clenched at the splattering.

Saliva dribbled down his lips before he swiped it free with his finger, then pushed that finger inside.

“Hmm…almost,” he declared as he lowered his head again.

It was all I could do to hold on as I watched his white-blond hair between my thighs. He took his time licking. “My brother likes this…” He spread his fingers on either side of my clit. “I was always jealous of him for it.”

Colt flinched and jerked his gaze to his brother, but Carven didn’t say anything more. Delicious heat rolled through my body as he sucked my nub. I clenched my fists in the sheets, then lifted my head to watch as he moved down, licked my core, and moved his fingers there to splay my pussy wide.

“Still dry, Wildcat,” he clucked before spitting all the way inside me.

I unleashed a moan and dropped my head back. His fingers pushed inside me. I knew damn well I wasn’t dry, not anymore. Still, I croaked, “Again.”

“Such a needy fucking whore,” he growled.

My breath caught and my pussy trembled.

“You like that, don’t you? Like being my fucking whore. Christ, I’m gonna treat you like one, too. I’m gonna take out my frustration on this cunt.” He shoved his fingers in and fucked me before he leaned back.

I lifted my head and watched as he fisted his hard cock and guided it to me. One hard thrust and he was all the way inside. Those blue eyes connected with mine. No words were needed. He bucked his hips and thrust deep. I lifted my leg and hooked it around his waist.

I expected him to pull away. Instead, he reached around and captured my ankle. The diamonds London had given me pressed against my skin as Carven held me against him.

“No going back now, Wildcat.” Carven closed his eyes and groaned. “You’re mine.”

I drove down with the thrust. Stars collided behind my eyes. “About fucking time,” I gasped, and my body throbbed in response. “About time.”

He leaned forward and his cock slammed inside until he dropped his head, unleashed a moan, and filled me with warmth.

The air was filled with the harsh sounds of our breaths. My pulse was erratic and booming.

I couldn’t think…

Couldn’t move.

Still, I sensed movement as London stepped closer. Those dark eyes, filled with hunger, drifted over me. He slapped his hand gently on Carven’s shoulder. “You should’ve known it was a losing battle when it came to her. Easy, pet. This one will fuck you raw.”

Then he gave Colt a nod and left us.