CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

"Pretty, pretty ladies," I greet the black dahlias in my shop, removing a shriveled petal carefully.

I'm happy. Excited as I'm helping Opal rearrange Luna's bouquet for tomorrow's wedding.

Her denim overalls and a striped, black and white T-shirt were far less rumpled a few hours ago, as in this morning. Before she decided she had to trim and fix Luna's flower arrangements one last time.

I don't know what possessed her to leave me in charge of the bouquet, but she did.

So here I am.

"They really are." Opal smiles at me from her place on the floor, then returns to arrange the perfectly arranged flowers.

"Thanks to you."

She doesn't respond, just makes a snip, snip, snip sound in the small shop with her scissors.

So I return to daydreaming about my men.

About the two weeks we've been together. How they removed any shred of my anxiety over losing the shop and replaced it with their dark brand of love and endless devotion.

Fourteen days have passed. I've been sleeping with them in the same bed every night. Have been waking up to their scent, hands, and warm bodies every morning.

This morning was no different.

Killian's mouth on my pussy stirred me out of a dream.

I recognized his mouth with my eyes closed.

Carter's lips were harsh, his teeth always so aggressive. I'd usually wake up screaming when he'd go down on me in my sleep. Either that, or I'd open my eyes to his thick cock choking me.

Killian's lips were as demanding. His mouth sucked my clit hard. The way the man used his tongue, though, was more reverent. Like he was worshipping me.

He fingered me differently, too. Killian would demand my pussy yield to him. Curled his fingers inside me, rubbed me until I screamed.

Carter's fingers would plunge into me, threaten me to finish or else…

I loved both. They were two pieces of the same puzzle. Two parts of a whole.

My eyes fluttered open to Killian's brown ones. Their color reminded me of dark chocolate this morning. Rich. Delicious. Dark and tempting. Growing darker when I moaned his name.

"There she is." Carter's hoarse voice came from my right. "Our Amara."

Reflexively, my head spun toward him.

Gray eyes gazed at me. Probed inside my brain. Reached deep into my soul and latched onto my heart. The beating organ in my chest that belonged to these two men thudded and hopped.

"You were dripping in your sleep." Killian hooked my leg over his shoulder. "I'm ravenous for you."

His hot words on my wet clit flipped a switch on in me. I became an animal. My back arched. My fingernails sunk into the covers. Moaning was my only intelligible response.

He shot me one of his rare smirks. The twinkle in his eyes was the one he'd saved just for us. Then he dove back in, his tongue assaulting my clit.

"You taste like fucking heaven," Carter said between painful bites on my nipple.

I cursed and groaned in pain when he tugged on my nipple ring with his teeth.

"Watching him eat you out? I need you, pet." Carter's hand slipped to his heavy cock. "Goddamn famished."

He jerked himself while Killian feasted on my pussy.

Killian wasn't taken care of. Carter only had his hand to pleasure him.

That wasn't right.

We were together. Coming together. Me touching them, them bringing each other to an orgasm. All of us as one. Even if they loved spoiling me, I wanted more.

"Come up here." My lust was as thick as molasses. But I managed to talk. Somehow. "Your cocks, I need them here."

"What's that?" Killian sat up on his knees, his tongue wiping my arousal off his bottom lip. "Are you ordering us?"

The tattoos on his toned arms hypnotized me. Roses and skulls traced along his muscles. Brought to life by his flexing muscles. Sexy. So incredibly sexy. My brain turned into mush at the sight.

"Bad girl, A." Carter slapped my pussy as punishment for staying silent and ogling both of them. His smirk told me how much he enjoyed my scream. "You do what you're told."

"Damn right."

I shrieked when they manhandled me to my side, giggles bursting from my throat.

My laugh was short-lived, though, cut off by Carter's cock shoved into my open mouth. He was facing my feet, feeding me his cock one thrust at a time. Killian returned to eating me out, lying so the three of us created a triangular shape.

Meaning his cock was in Carter's face. So Carter sucked on Killian, making Killian groan into my pussy.

They were brutal with each other, but more so with me. Carter pounded into my mouth. Killian gripped my flesh and bit my clit.

I thrived on the pain. Always had. But in the past two weeks, I craved it. Had been a starved woman, and they fed me one torture after the other.

Where there was pain, no threats were hanging over my head. No broken dreams. No looking for a new place for my precious flowers. No parents telling me they wish I'd never been born.

We created a perfect world together.

Our bodies writhed together. Hips bucking. Mouths sucking, tongues licking.

A triangle of unapologetic, blinding lust and…love. Yes, love.

Lots of cum too.

"Earth to Amara." Opal waved her hand in my face.

Heat flushed from my neck to my cheeks. Both Carter and Killian mentioned I'd been talking in my sleep. Things would get really, terribly awkward if that's why Opal is looking at me with her head cocked.

"Uh…" My eyes dart away from hers, doing a quick scan of the shop. No customers. Phew. I'm cautious when I slide my gaze back to Opal. "Sorry, I guess I was daydreaming."

"Daydreaming about destroying these pricey black dahlias?" She pushes her glasses up her nose, eyeing the bouquet in my hands. "The special delivery we made for Luna's wedding? That didn't need much fixing other than plucking a few crumpled petals?"

My head shakes slowly. I refuse to look down. "Tell me you didn't kill them."

Ruining Luna's bouquet is far worse than mumbling things in my sleep like Let me see you two rubbing each other's dicks together.

Far worse.

This wedding is a huge deal for me. First, I love Luna. She's always kind to me.

Second, it's a huge opportunity for my shop to reach more clients. Voltage's members are filthy rich.

So what if some of them were shady? I wasn't going to marry them. I needed their business. More events equaled more money, more cash flow to give Opal the raise she deserves for the love she puts into our arrangements.

Finding a new location for my shop wouldn't be as daunting if my budget wasn't as limited as it is today.

All those weekends off I took recently come back to haunt me, and I sigh. Never mind. I'll worry about that later.

What matters now is assessing the damage to the bouquet.

Then to ask Carter and Killian to park my plants in the penthouse for a little while.

"Opal?" I pull my lips in, consumed by dread. "Please tell me I didn't fuck up her special day and this order. Please."

"Well." Opal pries my fingers off the bouquet and inspects it. "A little less petals than I would've liked—"

Opal flinches at my scream. I can't look anywhere but her scrunched mouth, still unable to peek at the damage I've caused. On the flower-slaughter I committed.

Luna's bridal bouquet is ruined.

There's no time to fix it or order new flowers for tomorrow. No time. No time. No time.

"I—What—Fuck!"

"—on this one particular dahlia," Opal finishes her sentence in a whisper.

One flower. Just one.

At the slowest speed known to mankind, I slide my gaze to Luna's bouquet.

"It's okay, Amara," she adds while I check out the flower she was talking about.

Poor thing. But it's fixable.

"Little baldie." My fingers skirt along its remaining petals and down the stem. "You barely survived my assault. Say thank you to Auntie Opal for saving your life."

I grab the bouquet from the bottom, tilting it toward her as if the flower could actually thank her. She raises an eyebrow at me and that's it. Doesn't call me a freak.

We both are. We both accept one another, which is so rare for me.

So wonderful.

"I know what to do." Opal sidesteps me and moves to stand at my side behind the counter. She shoots me the shortest wink known to mankind before placing the bouquet in a vase. "Auntie Opal will patch you right up."

A giggle escapes me and I blow her a kiss she doesn't catch. She's too busy working her magic. Moving the flowers from here to there, blending the wounded dahlia into her healthier sisters.

"There it is," Opal announces. "Perfectly imperfect."

"Thank you, Opal." I gesture to the rest of tomorrow's order that covers every available square inch of the floor. "For this. And the rest of the arrangements."

"Just doing my job." At the last word, creases appear on her forehead. She shifts her gaze to the bouquet. "Speaking of… Any news from your parents?"

The million-dollar question.

They haven't spoken to me for the past two weeks. No note of eviction has been taped to the front door. I haven't received a call from their lawyer telling me to pack the fuck up. When I searched for the sale listing a week ago—the one I saw a day after their announcement—it wasn't there.

They haven't listed it on any other site, either.

I can ask them what's going on. If not for myself, I owe that to Opal. And yet, I haven't picked up the phone and called them.

I'm too busy working and scouring other available places in the area like crazy. I choose to focus on the positive. I have to.

Something has to turn up.

Until then…

"I haven't found another place. But we're not being evicted in the meanwhile." My lips twist, a million emotions swirling in my heart. "I know it's unfair to ask you to stay while all I have to offer is hope. I won't." Carter and his possessiveness come to mind, and I repeat one of the things he said to me. "I wish I could handcuff you behind the counter. Keep you with me. Except it's illegal."

Her nose scrunches. Then she smiles. "That's a bit extreme."

"Yup." I shrug. I am extreme. Denying it is futile. "I'll go to prison, and I like my freedom. So I won't do that."

"I'll be kinda pissed off, too." Trust a weirdo like Opal to be okay with my crazy shit.

"Yeah, you probably would," I concede. "So, to answer your question, I don't know."

"Hope is fine. No need to chain me here." She runs her fingers along the counter, collecting an errant, shriveled petal, and throws it into the trash. "I'm staying. I have my savings. I won't starve between the time your parents kick us out and when we settle into the new place. Whenever it might be."

Tears well in my eyes. "I like you."

"And I…like working here."

She's uncomfortable, but she likes me right back.

I don't press her on it. I do send her home early, though. She's been fretting over these flower arrangements for a week now, staying late nights to make sure they're exactly what she envisioned them to be.

I'm more than happy to be the one closing up.