Chapter Five

The Lingering Horrors of Frank and Beans

Vince

“I want to burn all of it,” Dan muttered to me with a shudder.

A small group of us were sifting through the pile of stuff Frank and Beans had stolen from our dressing rooms over the years. Mads found several pairs of sunglasses. Heidi found an old tin of hoof polish that had teeth marks in it. Susan, horrifyingly enough, found a big lock of her long, dark hair. None of us could figure out how they’d managed to get it, and she got a little freaked out and disappeared to call Asmo.

There were also empty bottles of tequila stolen from the bar. One of Val’s sports bras. A pair of tiny lace panties that Gabe snatched up and stuffed in his pocket, shooting Biff a smirk. Kenneth found a collection of his knitting needles that had gone missing over the years, which was beyond worrying.

Thank fuck those two thieving assholes were never coming back.

“I still keep wondering about that fucking sand pit, man,” I muttered back to Dan, making sure to keep my voice low so none of the others would overhear and ask what we were talking about.

I didn’t particularly want to recount our experience in that house of horrors. Getting lassoed. And shot in the nuts with a paintball. Losing my pants.

I missed those pants.

“Just try not to think about it.” Dan shivered. “I had a nightmare last night about that head collection in their living room. Woke Rafe up. He said I was just mumbling, ‘The heads. The heads.’”

“Shit, bro.” I squeezed his shoulder in sympathy.

That experience had brought us even closer together. He was like my brother now. We’d forged a bond that could never be broken.

“So then I gave him a different kind of head to make myself feel better,” Dan continued, smirking as I laughed and shoved his arm.

“It’s going good then? I know it hasn’t been long since you became all official and stuff, but you’re still happy with the decision to be in a proper relationship?”

Dan sighed, looking a little dreamy, which was not an expression I’d ever seen on his face before. “Yeah, it’s going great. He’s just… I don’t even know. It’s just everything about him. Being with him is like being wrapped in a big, warm blanket, but the blanket also makes your dick really fucking hard. It’s like a sex blanket. He’s like a sex blanket.”

“You had sex with a blanket?” Kit asked as they looked up from the pile of Frank and Beans’ contraband. “What was that like?”

Dan huffed. “No, I’m saying Rafe is like a sex blanket.”

“What’s a sex blanket?” Gabe wandered over, his eyes bright with interest. “Where did you get it?”

Dan groaned in frustration. “It’s not a real thing.” Then he looked at me questioningly. “I mean, I don’t think it is. It might be, though.”

“Just searched for it.” Gabe shook his head with a disappointed sigh, gazing down at his phone. “It’s not a thing. You can get a sheet with a dick hole in it, though.”

“What’s that for?” I asked with a smirk. “A travel glory hole?”

“Only a chump would buy that.” Kit snorted, shaking their head as they sifted through the pile. “Just cut a hole in a sheet you already own. Amateurs.”

“But these have, like, decorative edges around the hole and stuff.” Gabe was glued to his phone, scrolling with his thumb. “Ooh, this one has a little lacy pattern made up of dicks. See?”

He held out his phone to Kit, who peered at it and nodded approvingly.

“That is nice. Kinda fancy. Like your dick is wearing a little ruff. A dick ruff made up of smaller dicks.”

“Biff, I’m ordering us two,” Gabe declared, thumbs tapping over his phone screen.

“Anyway,” I said dryly, turning back to Dan. “Glad you’re happy, bro.”

“Thanks.” He grinned at me, then it grew a little wider and dirtier. “In fact, all this talk about sex blankets is making me want to go stop by his office, so I might just do that.”

“Did you want me to order you one of the dick hole sheets, Dan?” Gabe asked eagerly. “If I buy three, I get a fourth for free. That’s a good deal.”

“Is it though?” Val asked in a flat voice.

“Nah, I’m good. Thanks, man.” Dan chuckled and slapped me on the back as he started walking down the corridor in the direction of the offices. Then he paused and glanced back at Gabe. “Actually, fuck it. Why not.”

“Sweet.” Gabe grinned enthusiastically.

“How’s Rafe going to feel about a dick hole sheet, bro?” I called after Dan with a laugh.

He glanced over his shoulder to grin at me. “Guess we’ll find out soon.”

“Who else wants a dick hole sheet?” Gabe asked cheerfully, just as Crossbody rounded the corner and Dan almost crashed into him.

“Uh, sorry,” Dan muttered, skirting around him quickly and shooting him a tiny glare behind his back. He was protective of his buddies, and I knew he didn’t like the way Crossbody had spoken about me during court yesterday.

I, however, wasn’t thinking about that. My gut tightened and I quickly looked away, trying to push back the memories of last night as they rushed through my brain. They’d been doing that all goddamn morning.

His hot mouth around my cock, sucking me hard. His desperate moans as he choked on it. The way he’d shuddered with pleasure when I called him a cockslut. The way he’d begged for my cum.

I still had no fucking idea how it had ended up happening. I mean, I knew I’d told him to suck my dick, but I hadn’t meant it literally .

And I wished, with every fibre of my being, that he hadn’t sucked it so fucking good.

Because I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

I also couldn’t stop thinking about the way he’d responded to all the degrading things I’d said. It had made him both frantic and submissive. He’d loved it.

I’d loved it.

Seemed there was one thing in the universe we could agree on. It just happened to be the most inappropriate thing we could do. Had done.

I was so fucking confused.

“What are you doing?” Crossbody asked in his haughty drawl as he approached, being careful not to look at me.

For once, I wasn’t ready to go with a sarcastic quip back. I felt wildly unsettled by his presence. He, on the other hand, appeared as calm and unaffected as ever. Like he hadn’t, just a handful of hours ago, been on his knees in front of me with a hard dick, greedily sucking my cum off his fingers.

Seriously, how the fuck had that happened? I almost couldn’t believe it.

“Looking through the stuff Frank and Beans stole from all of us,” Val answered him, standing up and frowning. She was holding a pair of socks with tiny gold wings stitched onto them. “Those fuckers. My grandma made me these. I had to tell her I’d lost them and she was devastated.”

“Is there anything of mine?” Crossbody asked curiously, coming to a stop beside the pile and looking down at it with his hands on his narrow hips.

“Don’t think so, actually,” Kit said, snatching up several loose sheets of paper with drawings of big-titted mothpeople on them. “Haven’t spotted anything.”

“Oh.” For some unfathomable reason, Crossbody looked almost… disappointed?

God, he was so fucking weird. I didn’t understand him at all.

He had no reason to stay, so after a pause, he carried on walking toward his dressing room, which meant he had to brush past me. We both tensed at the light contact of his arm against mine.

I clenched my jaw and made sure my eyes didn’t follow him as he walked away. When I noticed that Biff was watching me with a brow raised, heat rushed to my cheeks.

“So you’re both actually following Corey’s ruling?” he asked. “Not interacting?”

“What?” I blurted it too quickly, suddenly wondering if he or any of the others somehow knew what had happened last night. “Yes. Of course we are. We haven’t spoken. At all.”

“Don’t tell Corey this, but I don’t think that’s the best way to resolve this—” Gabe waved in my general direction. “—whatever the issue is between you two.”

I stiffened. “You know what the issue is. We all do. He’s a condescending prick.”

“I think that’s just the way he talks,” Kit said as they straightened, clutching their stolen smutty mothpeople drawings.

“Why does that mean it’s okay?” I shot back immediately. “Just because he’s up his own ass, we all have to accept it and act like it’s fine?”

“No, I mean I don’t think he even realises how some of the stuff he says sounds,” Kit said. “Like, I don’t think he’s always trying to talk down to us or whatever.”

“He is,” I gritted out, those confusing feelings fading as my anger spiked. “He knows exactly what he’s doing.”

“Maybe,” Kit said doubtfully, then shrugged. “Well, whatever, man. That’s just the way he is. Just don’t let it get to you.”

That was far, far easier said than done. Maybe it was easy for Kit and some of the others, but it wasn’t for me.

He just got to me. The way he talked, the way he acted, the way he held himself. Something about him just… fucking got to me. Pushed all my buttons.

He made me feel inferior. And I refused to let anyone make me feel inferior.

Last night, though… last night, I’d been the one making him feel inferior. I’d been the one shoving my cock into his throat, making him choke on it, seeing how desperate and needy he got on his knees for me.

And I’d fucking loved it. I’d loved seeing him like that. I’d loved being the one in control of him like that. Making him realise that he wasn’t better than me. I’d made him desperate for me.

I was a little concerned about just how much I’d loved it.

I was always that way during sex—rough, aggressive, firmly in control—but that didn’t mean I wanted to love doing it with him . I couldn’t stand him. And I’d never even thought about doing it with him. Before last night, I would’ve laughed myself silly if anyone had suggested having sex with Crossbody.

But now I had. I’d had sex with Crossbody. When the realisation thudded into the pit of my stomach, I quickly backed away from the others, worried they’d somehow be able to tell.

Gabe was an incubus. Maybe he had some secret incubus sense that let him look at a person and see who they’d had sex with.

Fuck. I didn’t want anyone finding out. I couldn’t think of anything more embarrassing.

Turning, I quickly walked away and slipped into my dressing room, my heart beating a little faster than normal.

What if Crossbody told someone?

I tried to calm my racing mind as I paced my room. No, he wouldn’t tell anyone. Definitely not. He wouldn’t want anyone to know that he’d sucked the cock of the ghoul he despised. Someone he clearly thought was beneath him.

He was probably more embarrassed than I was.

That made me feel a little better. Made a tendril of vicious satisfaction curl through my belly.

He’d sucked my cock like he was dying for my cum. He’d pleaded for it. He’d gotten unbelievably turned on from me calling him a cockslut. A hole. A pathetic, desperate mess.

Honestly, I was still in total disbelief over that. All of it. The entire… encounter. How he’d reacted, how eager he’d been, how quickly I’d slipped into that domineering and frankly stupidly horny mindset with him. With him. Crossbody.

Despite how fucking shocking it had been, I’d made sure to stay hyper aware of his reactions throughout the entire thing, just in case he didn’t really seem into it. To be honest, the rational part of my brain—the non-horny part that knew Crossbody and I hated each other—had spent the whole blowjob half assuming he was going to stop at any moment and sneer at me, or tell me he was going to leave me on the edge, or realise what he was doing and pull back and maybe literally throw up or something. It wasn’t like I would’ve had any kind of comeback to that. He would’ve scored a hell of a lot of points in our constant hate-battle.

But no. I was pretty sure that… well, that he’d been far more into it than I had. At least initially.

I’d definitely been into it by the end. And that was fucking with my head really, really bad.

My dick twitched, so I forced the memories back. I had to just forget it had ever happened. That was probably what he’d done. Chalk it up to a wild lapse in judgement on both our parts. We’d been heated and angry. It had just… happened.

It wasn’t like it was going to happen again. No fucking way.

I’d rather quit.