Chapter 16

SIXTEEN

brAXTON

W hen I wake up, the feel of something warm on my hard cock is the first thing I register. Stretching and sliding it forward, a groan sounds.

I shoot up, pulling away from whoever I'd let sleep in my room, and click the light on.

Aella shifts, mumbling about whiskey and beer not mixing well, and then snorts before falling asleep. I don't remember her coming in, but I smile at her state. She had stayed too late at the party and looked worse for the wear.

My dick reminds me of its insistence to snuggle back up to her, and I shut the light back off. It's as dark as night in the basement with no lights on, but I slide toward Aella and snuggle up.

"Brax," she moans, her body writhing, and I back up, thinking I'm crowding her.

"I'm sorry, Bambi. I didn't realize you were awake. I would've?—"

"Don't stop," she breathes.

I'm tempted to turn the light back on to see what the fuck is going on.

She turns on her back, arching off the bed, and I'm astounded by what I'm privy to in the shadows.

"Aella," I warn, but she's not awake. She dreams, and it seems her hand has dreamed with her because when I follow her arm down under the covers, her hand is twirling circles over her pussy. She works herself over well enough to make another moan crack out of her throat.

"Aella!" I shout, and I'm close enough that she comes to and screams bloody murder.

She realizes what's happening and pulls her hand away. But she's too close. It brushes across my face, the scent of her arousal coaxing a growl from me.

"Oh, my God, I was… I am so sorry. I don't know what came over me…"

She's embarrassed. I smirk.

"I know what came over you because it was my name you were screaming, Bambi. You need me to finish what you started?" My hand slides over her stomach, and she moves away. I don't miss the little gasp of excitement from her mouth.

"No. I'm fine. I'm embarrassed, but I'll be alright." She moves to get out of bed, and I grab the back of her shirt.

Only a shirt.

She's a minx. One I want to fucking skin at the moment.

"Bambi, I think you should lie back down," I tell her gruffly, throwing the blanket off the bed. It softly thumps to the floor in a pile of discarded fabric.

"I—" she protests, but I silence her, sliding my fingers through her folds.

"I said," I twirl them over her engorged clit, "I think you should lie back down."

"Oh, hell!" she whimpers, and something feral in me cracks its neck back and forth, getting ready for the moment she gives into us. Into me.

I've never encountered someone like her. Someone I've wanted to spank and care for and wanted to give my wrath and my problems. I've let her care for me. Even if she doesn't know it, last night, her telling me she'd handle Miles so that I could dig in was something I'd have never listened to before. I would've stayed to prove her wrong.

But that was before.

Before her.

I've let her see me. I never let people see me.

She's the one with all the power. She doesn't even know it.

I slide my fingers toward her entrance, rimming it at a languid pace. She bucks off the bed, trying to get me to slip them inside her.

I pull them back. "You dirty little girl, you," I scold, and she whines through the dark.

"Please," she begs, and the desperation in her voice makes me want to pull my dick out and fill her tight cunt with it. To give her what she needs to sate the ache.

"Bambi, it won't be with fingers when I fill this hole. "

"Then do it. Please, for the love of everything, do it!" She's writhing on my hand that's found her clit again.

She's wanton and likely hungover, a terrible combination.

"It's not time for that yet, sweet deer," I tell her.

"I need more. Brax, will you—" Her head thumps on the pillow as she stifles a growl with her arm.

I hold back a laugh. "Will I do what? Say it, Aella. Tell me what you want."

"Will you…lick it?"

I know she's blushing. I can see it in my mind's eye, and it's a beautiful crimson rouge staining her creamy cheeks, and I know her heart is rattling away in her chest at the shame her veiled words caused.

But that's an easy fix.

"Of course, Bambi. All you had to do was ask."

Her groan of frustration with me is cut off when my tongue collides with her core—teasing, tempting, taking.

"Brax!" she cries, and I know she's fully awake this time.

Her hands sink into my hair, gripping tightly, and I groan over her clit, nipping it with my teeth before I suck it.

"Fuck!" She grinds across my mouth like a woman lost in pleasure she's never felt before. But she has it with me.

Maybe not to this extent. But she has. She will again.

Everything in me screams she's fucking mine. She's ours.

No matter what's coming, I'll never let her go .

Nothing will ever be like this because there's no one else like her.

My tongue laps at her, dancing in dangerous waves in waters already too hot to calm. She's a hurricane, and I'm feeding her, giving her new life to decimate land with.

With one finger, I tease her virgin hole in circles, taking her higher and higher.

"Oh, God, Brax! Don't stop!" Her hips are no longer in a rhythm as she takes what she needs. My face is covered in her arousal, and I'll wear it as a badge of fucking honor.

Because everything she gives me is just that.

"Brax!" Even though my finger isn't inside her, I feel the moment she comes. The tight hole convulses in tiny quivers, and I let my thumb sit over the entrance and feel just what I've done to her.

When the last shudder leaves her body, I lick her once more for good measure, eating her whimper for breakfast.

"Holy hell!" she breathes as I reach over and click the light on.

"Mmm, I think I like you in my bed at night, Bambi. If that's how the mornings will play out."

She smirks, wiping at my face.

I turn away. "That's mine. I'm going to smell you all fucking day long," I snarl.

She laughs. "You have to wash your face, Brax. You can't walk around with my pussy scenting your skin all day!"

"The hell I can't. "

"What will Miles think?" She gasps, realization clouding her eyes. "Miles! Have you checked on him? When I got him to bed, he was fucked up."

"I'm going to check on him now. Go back to sleep. It's only six."

"In the morning?" she groans. "Why am I awake?"

I lean down, kissing her gingerly. "You're awake, sweet Bambi, because I couldn't lie here and listen to you scream for me unless I was the one doing the torturing."

She bites her lip as I pull back. The blush I'd missed in the dark, finding her cheeks again.

"You taste like me," she breathes.

I nod, licking my lips. "I fucking love how you taste."

She pats my chest. "Go. Check on him. He was in rough shape. And hey, don't be so hard on him, okay? He's going through change, too. Having me around and the things we've done, he didn't mean for that to happen the other day. It's got him in a weird place, alright?"

Did she just defend my brother?

Something in my chest pulls taut, and I don't know if I like it.

I nod and adjust my softening dick in my sweats before trekking up the basement steps to find my leech of a brother.

When I find him, he's in the bathroom, vomiting his brains out. Once he's done, he meanders back to bed and falls into it, moving past me without acknowledgment.

I chuckle. "Had a good night, huh?"

He lifts his head, registers me, and then drops it back down. "What do you want? You came to gloat?"

"Gloat? No. Aella wanted me to check on you. She said you were pretty wrecked last night."

He eyes me with one lid open. "I didn't fuck up, did I?"

I shrug. "She didn't say. That's between you and her. I'm just here as an interested third party on behalf of the mistress of the house."

He lifts, moving to sit up against the headboard. "Is that what she is? The mistress of the house? I thought she was a means to an end. Thought we agreed."

"You must reevaluate based on what we both feel brewing with her. It might be quick, but something's there."

"And what, we're going to share her?"

I shrug again. "I don't know. But we have a slight problem, though."

His brows lift as I watch a wave of nausea roll over his face. "What's the issue now?"

"Well, I took her to Summer Fest, and while we were in line, I spotted someone looking at her image on their phone. Someone reported her missing. From what I found last night, it's a national fucking story. This isn't good for us understanding what her father had to do with our mother's disappearance."

He looks worried as he nods. "So, what do you suggest? Give her back? She'll tell the first chance she gets. And then what? We're fucked?"

I scoff. "You know nothing. She wouldn't tell."

"You're blinded by what your dick wants. I want her too, you know? I'm not an idiot. We fucking kidnapped her. Even though she's going along with things because she's in the middle of some existential crisis, it doesn't mean she won't wake up one day and decide she's done playing nice, Brax."

Anger coils in my stomach, but I try to keep a lid on it so my brain spews nothing I shouldn't.

"Listen," I start.

He sits up and opens his mouth, and I lift my hand.

"I'm sorry I blamed you for what happened. Aella worries that you're spiraling, and I don't want you to. When Dad got locked up, you got really bad, Miles. I can't go down that road with you again, alright? I was upset, let anger cloud my logic, and I'm sorry. For now, she needs to remain here," I finish. "For her protection and ours. She's all over every website and social media page. She needs to be locked down. Everyone in the club must be told to keep their mouths shut."

He rolls his eyes. "Like any of them would say shit."

I eye him narrowly. "Miles, it needs to be reiterated."

He sighs, nodding. "I'll handle it. But I need you to do something for me."

I cross my arms over my chest, leaning back in his desk chair. There's nothing at his desk. I don't know why he has one. Likely, so he feels more significant than he is.

"Go ahead."

"I need you to figure out who the fuck the bartender at The Dirty Pour is and why Vito is so fucking mad I fucked her."

I nod. "I can handle that. Surveillance, or intervene in any way?"

"Relay what you find to me, and I'll decide from there."

I nod curtly and stand. "We good?" I ask.

A lot has happened between us in the last couple of weeks, and I hate that I feel a disconnect with him—even after we talked.

"We're good. I swear. And, Brax?"

I move closer to the bed.

"I'm good. I got too drunk, but it won't become… I won't get like I was before."

"I'll take your word for it, Brother."

"Now, get out. I have to puke again, and I don't need a fucking audience."

I chuckle as I make my way out of the room and back to the basement.

My smile is broad as I barrel down the stairs. "He's fine. A little worse for the fucking wear, I'll give you that, but he's alr—" My words die as I reach the bedroom.

Aella turns in my swivel chair, face red, eyes lit with fear.

My screens are on and loaded, and she's gotten past my password encryption and been snooping.

While I was speaking with Miles, she was going through my fucking life. My entire life is on that hard drive, and she'd just strolled right into it like it was hers to rifle through .

"It's not what… Okay, that's what it looks like. Please, let me explain."

I cross my arms over my chest, instantly letting a wall come back down around my heart and soul because she'd been fucking playing me the entire time.

I don't know how she'd done it, got past my defenses, bodily and otherwise, but she's fucking good. I'll give her that.

"Looks like to me there's nothing to explain. You've been working us over well, Bambi. It was almost as if you meant it all, too, as if you wanted us both. But you've been working for Daddy this entire time, right?"

"What?" she squeaks, standing. My rolling chair slides back and hits the desk. "How can you say that? You know I'd never…"

I shake my head. "I don't know you at all, Aella."

Hurt ripples across her face, and I roll my eyes at it.

Man, she's good.

"You almost had me fooled. I thought… You know what? It doesn't matter what I thought. You played me, and I was a fucking moron. I'm thankful I caught you before you could do too much damage."

I move for her, but she tries to run for the stairs.

I turn just in time to catch her by the back of her head, tightly gripping her hair. I yank her backward, my lips finding her ear.

"It's too bad, you know? You fucked with the wrong brother. The one who turns lethal on a dime. Had Miles caught you, you might've escaped unscathed…"

"I wasn't stealing anything," she cries, tears falling down her cheeks. I remind myself they're not real. "I just wanted answers," she adds.

"Mm, and do you think you deserve them? Because I damn sure don't."

"Please, don't hurt me," she begs, and it reminds me of the night I first met her.

A dark monster in my head thrashes against the locked cage, but I think it's time to open it.

To let him feel the breeze on his face as he feeds.

"Now, I think I deserve some answers. You might even enjoy how I extract them. Too bad I have something to do right now for Miles."

I move her toward the spanking bench, forcing her over it. Grabbing the gun I keep on the table next to the bench, I slam it on the surface. "Don't get any ideas, or you'll see how quick of a shot I am."

She nods, tears staining her beautiful cheeks.

"Now, I'm just going to leave you here to simmer and think about what you've done while I go find a whore's name. When I get back, though. You and I are going to have a little fun."

I force her into the straps that bind her to the table on all fours. Using two small padlocks, I secure her there and survey my work.

"So pretty, yet so lethal," I say absently as she sobs into the leather of the bench.

"Please, don't leave me like this," she cries.

I turn on my heels and grab my clothes and boots, taking the gun with me.

"You know," I turn back, "I had your name all wrong. I thought you to be Bambi, the innocent and unprotected. The beauty of innocence. But you're the horror of that story, aren't you? Man himself is selfish and vile. Destructive, even at your expense. I've never been more wrong about someone before."

I leave her with my words as punishment as I storm up the stairs and slam the door behind me.

I've never felt betrayal on this level, and it's overstimulating me. But I'll fixate on the task Miles gave me and worry about coming down later.

I'll even have a snack already prepared.