Chapter 10

Ten

Magnolia

I tug on the ropes, but they don’t give. Danika strips out of his pants and the other two do the same. All three come to stand in front of me, their beautiful lengths hard and thick with need.

They never intended to untie me.

Rune comes to my left and Oliver takes up the right. Both bend down, release my legs. Not much good that does me.

“You promised to untie my hands.”

“I guess we lied,” Oliver murmurs around a hard tip. He sucks hard and I pull on the ropes desperate to touch him.

Danika pushes my legs wider, and his mouth comes over my sex. His tongue flicks against my abused clit, and I arch into his mouth, ready to come all over his face the second he does that again.

Oliver comes up behind me and glides his cock between my legs. I look down in time to see Danika’s tongue stroke over both of us.

Oh, God. That is beyond sexy.

My body shudders.

Danika stands, and as he comes up, he takes my legs with him.

I wrap them around his middle and there is nothing slow and gentle about the way his cock sinks into me. It’s raw, demanding, and powerful. He wants me to know I belong to them.

Behind me, Oliver teases my back entrance. The pressure is gentle at first and then he breaks barriers. “You’re not leaving Room Six until you know who you belong to, Lia,” He grits out possessively. My core tightens and my pussy grips Danika. He grunts and thrusts deeper.

“She knows,” he says in a deep, rough voice made from pain and love in equal portions. I wrap my arms around his neck. Or I try. Ropes bring me up short and I yank on them in frustration.

None of them seem to care.

“Oliver!” One by one I wrap my fingers around the thick rope holding me as their captive. I pull, yank, and whimper to no avail.

“Oliver, what?” he rumbles like he doesn’t know the torture he is putting me through.

“Breathe out for me, beautiful, and relax.” I do as he instructs, and the pleasure is instant. He sinks an inch deeper into my back entrance and another inch until he’s fully seated inside my virgin ass. My body quakes and quivers. I suck in a gasping breath at the shockwaves shooting outward from my core. Danika’s grip on my hips is punishing. He pulls out as Oliver does the same.

They work me in tandem—one giving while the other takes away.

Pleasure explodes through my body.

Rune laves and sucks my hard tips like a man possessed. He takes his time, his grip unforgiving. Possessive.

Fire and embers swirl inside me. I could reach between my legs right now. One stroke against my clit, and I would find my release.

Danika’s cock swells. He thrusts faster, harder and stretches me to the point of pain. He wraps an arm around me. I pant uncontrollably. A sheer layer of sweat breaks out over our bodies.

“Brother,” Oliver’s voice is strained. They are both going to meet their end. Danika goes first. He strokes my clit and takes us both over the edge. Hot ropes of seed spill into my velvety channel. Pulse after pulse he comes inside me.

His forehead rests on mine. Our breaths mix. “Please forgive us. We never meant to hurt you. We will tell you everything.”

Rune pulls me into his arms and takes Danika’s place. He fills me, feeding me every spilled drop of Danika’s release.

My gray-eyed lover takes my face in his hands and kisses my lips. His blood brothers work me. Heat becomes uncontrollable firestorms.

My core tightens with another impending release. Oliver fucks me harder and faster.

“Magnolia, please, my beautiful flower. Take us. Please take us back.” His words fill my soul, and his length fills my ass with his seed. His arms come around me and he holds me to him like I am his world.

From my front, Rune is deliciously swollen inside of me. His hands hold me firmly, gripping me to him. My blood burns like fire.

“You are the only reason we live.” Rune slows his pace and takes my lips in a soul-burning kiss. “The only reason we walked away was to protect you. There were men who wanted everyone we loved dead. We couldn’t let them know about you. Putting you in harm’s way went against every promise we ever made to protect you. Please believe us.”

Danika cups the back of my head and draws my attention to him. “We had to hurt you to protect you. But we never meant for it to take so long.”

I look at the scars. Blood seeps through the bandages over their rib cages, shoulders, and sides. The rattlesnake in a bed of flowers curving around Rune’s waist is ruined. But the man is alive.

“Forgive us,” they husk in unison, and it’s nearly impossible to form words.

“What happens when the next threat comes along?”

I want to cry at the idea of being shoved away again.

“There will not be a next time. We’ve signed a contract with all the families. Peace is in our future now. Our family and any children we have will know peace, love, and dedication.” Danika caresses small circles over my pulse point.

“If you will have us.” Oliver’s lips are hot against my shoulder and up the slope of my neck. “Please take us back,” he whispers in my ear. “Please give us another chance at having a family with the woman we love.”

Rune moves his hips, swaying inside me with gentle strokes. The fire in me is still burning strong. Oliver does the same and without another word they take us over the edge.

My orgasm hits. Fireworks go off inside me and the trembling aftereffect rocks me to my core.

Both men’s cocks spill inside me. The strong pulses of their seed filling my ass and my womb give me a sense of belonging when an hour ago I never wanted to see them again.

“You said you love me.” Until tonight I never thought I would see them again, much less hear confessions of true love.

“With our dying breath.” Oliver slowly slips from my body and takes a cloth from Danika. Rune takes all my weight and clutches me to him. Our hearts sync.

Danika unties me and slowly rubs my wrists. “Can you find it in your heart to give us another chance at loving you?” For the first time since knowing the man, he has actual fear in his eyes. Candlelight flickers and the flames seem to grow brighter around us.

Sitting up in Rune’s arms, I look between Danika and Rune. I find Oliver digging clothes out of the same duffle bag they pulled the rope from. “I need to hear you all promise to never keep me on the outside again. I’m stronger than I look. You pushed me away when I could have been there for you.”

“You’re a goddess of love and war, as far as I’m concerned. In my defense I never wanted to keep you on the outside. It was those two idiots.”

Danika pops the back of Rune’s head but there is no malice in the interaction.

“It’s true. He wanted to go to you that night. Don’t be angry at him. Oliver and I deserve all your wrath.”

“I second that.” Oliver comes back and takes me from Rune. “But I’m a selfish bastard. We all are. We want you in our lives. Every single day we have left on this planet. Please find it in your heart to let us back in.”

Danika holds up a box and then pulls back the black velvet top. Candlelight reveals three gold rings inside and on each of them are two words: Until death.

“You will love me forever?”

Raja’s words of protection filter through my mind. I grip the pendant around my neck and wish for my happiness to be real. For our love to last until the end of days.

Please. Please. Please.

Oliver lowers my feet to the warm floor. Standing in front of them, dripping with their release, my mafia men drop to a knee and press their foreheads against any part of me they can reach.

“And after.”

That is Rune.

“This life.”

Danika.

“And the next.”

Oliver places a kiss on the center of my belly. “If you will have us.”

Each of them takes a ring and holds it up. Black onyx edged in gleaming gold. Candlelight catches on the shiny metal and my tears in equal parts as I hold my hand up and they slip on the rings. Together they form an invisible shield around my heart.

Their hands shake a little but not as much as my knees.

That is when I notice Danika has filled in the Roman Numeral on his ring finger, completing the series across all his fingers. I once asked him what each date meant and why the one on his left ring finger was missing. He told me they were important dates and the one missing was for the day he married the love of his life.

“You put the date you met me.” I trace the Roman numeral for six.

“I picked the room number we spent our first night in.”

“Room six?”

He nods.

“I never had a chance to see.”

“I did and I think fate has a sense of humor putting us in the same room number again.”

My smile is genuine.

“How fucking disgusting. How could you let them touch you, you whore? You were Daddy’s special girl. No one was supposed to touch you. You belong to me.”

All three turn to see a set of black eyes glaring at us and a gun pointed at me.

“Einar.” I knew this was too good to be true. I was so close to being happy and now it’s being ripped out of my hands once again.

Einar cocks the hammer, rage pulling his face into a mask of horror. Tears roll down his eyes and his hand shakes.

An arm comes out in front of me, and I am shoved behind a wall of muscle.

“You must be the asshole who likes to abuse little girls.”

Oliver’s voice drips with murder. Blood will run tonight. I grip the pendant and hold it so tight the pain keeps my brain focused.

Danika shoves clothes into my hands but I’m not worried about our state of undress. I’m worried about Oliver taking a bullet for me.

I reach back into the bag and hit the first contact on my phone. Hiding behind Oliver isn’t about being scared but about letting him distract the fucker long enough for him not to notice me sending off an SOS message.

Done, I power off and drop the phone in the bag and then step in front of Oliver who almost has a heart attack.

“Magnolia! No!”

Arms come around me, but I do not budge from the spot in the center of the room. Gripping the pendant allows me to focus on the pain and not the fear coursing through my veins.

“Filthy whore. You have no shame.” Venom drips from the monster’s teeth.

“You can’t hurt me anymore. Shoot me. That is fine. You can kill me and you will still not take me from them. It’s not how love works.”

Tears burn the back of my eyes. The longer I talk the brighter the inside of the shed becomes. Wind whips through the open door behind Einar. The storm rages like it’s entered the shed, too.

Flames grow tall. “Love is what you can never take away from me. I have found where I belong, and you will be in hell where you belong. I love my men. You took nothing from me.” Power grows inside me. It swirls and funnels inside me like the wrath of a tornado. “You will never touch me, have me, or own me, Einar Weston. You are dead to me. DEAD!”

Wind barrels through the shed. Flames flicker out and it’s suddenly dark.

I feel the rush of energy. Fists connect with bones. The smell of blood hits my nostrils.

And then the flash of a muzzle causes my heart to stop. I reach for my phone and turn on the flashlight to find my men standing over a body.

Danika rushes to me. Sirens go off in the distance.

“It’s over. He’s finally dead.” Relief instead of sadness fills me.

Danika takes my face in his hands, and then he checks me over from head to toe. “Are you okay?” He pries the pendant from my clutches, and I look down to see the sharp edges cut into my flesh. “Easy, Magnolia. Let me see.”

“Yes, I’m okay,” I say calmly, not feeling an ounce of remorse. “It’s over.”

“It’s over,” Danika repeats softly.

Oliver and Rune grab dry clothes and get dressed, handing a fresh shirt and pants to Danika.

I do the same—jeans, a sweater, and boots. They were my clothes for running, but I’m done fleeing in fear.

I’m staying with the power of love.

I’m in Danika’s arms first and then surrounded. My hands bury in shirts, and I grip them to me. They each kiss the top of my head, my cheeks, and hands. I nestle closer feeling our love grow. In our circle of warmth, the glow of the pendant radiates as if feeding off our love for one another.

That’s a curiosity for another day. Right now I’m taking comfort in knowing I never have to live in fear again and I will never be alone. My love for them is a constant that will never know an ending.