Page 135 of Princes of Carnage

Killian lifts me into his arms, and I go easily, curling against his broad chest almost instinctively.

I’m starting to shiver as I come down from the adrenaline and lust. Even though the rain doesn’t feel cold anymore, I guess it still is, and the chill of the weather is soaking into me. But Killian keeps me held tightly against his warmth as he carries me back to the house, taking unlit pathways so that no one will see us.

Nico and Atlas flank us on either side, the three of them an unbreakable unit as always.

No one speaks on the walk back to the house, but I can’t help but feel like something has shifted deeply between all four of us.

41

NICO

A couple of days later, I stop by the Carnage clubhouse. It’s empty when I get there, everyone else off doing their own thing. That means it’s quiet as I make my way through the familiar space, a sort of silent pride filling me as I do.

My friends and I built this gang from nothing, with just the three of us and the ambition and loyalty that we’ve always had. It means everything to me, having this.

Quinn gets it. I know from our conversations that she understands what it means to be a leader. How you have to become someone that people can follow, even if that wasn’t who you were before. There’s no choice if you want to have a gang that listens, that trusts you. That will go to bat for you and understand that you’ll do the same for them.

I can tell from the way she handles her own gang that she puts as much of herself into the running of it as I do, and that’s one of the reasons why I trusted her for this alliance. Enough to humor it, at least.

Thinking about her makes a sudden image flash through my mind as I picture Quinn here. As a part of the club and a part of this life. Not in the marriage of convenience way she’s a part of it now, but something deeper. Something more real.

I could see it, honestly. Her handling business here, talking to the members of the gang. Some of them would be resistant, in the way they always are when shit changes, but Quinn would win them over with her diligence and patient way of leading.

We could handle business together and then leave, going back home to—

I shake myself before that fantasy can spin out of control. And it wasn’t even really a fantasy. More like idle thoughts strung together before I could get a hold on them.

There’s no point in playing pretend about things that probably won’t happen. Quinn is under my skin, there’s no denying that, but I have to be realistic about this shit.

At the same time, the handle I thought I had on everything clearly isn’t as secure as I thought it was. Finding out that Killian had been stalking her for longer than the alliance between us has even existed was enough to throw me for a loop.

It’s definitely not like him to go off and do something like that on his own. Usually, if Killian is doing some solo shit, it’s because he thinks it’ll be for the good of all of us. Or because he knows there’s a threat that needs to be eliminated.

But stalking Quinn and lying about it was pure selfishness. Purely because he fucking wanted to. And that’s definitely something new for Killian.

If it was anything else, I’d have been a hell of a lot more pissed that he went rogue, but in this case… I kinda get it.

Quinn has this way about her. This presence that draws you in. Even Killian isn’t immune to it. Hell, he fell into it long before Atlas and I did.

But we did fall into it, and everything that happened the other night is proof of that.

The three of us have never shared a woman before. There have been times when we’ve fucked the same woman, but that happened on separate occasions, unrelated. It’s never been like this before. Never until Quinn. There was just no one that all three of us had a thing for before her. Something about her seems to speak to each of us in a different way, which is something I never expected.

And fuck. Watching her with Atlas after their trip to Eros, and then with both Killian and Atlas the other night? Seeing how each of them was able to get her off, and how responsive she was to everything they did? She fucking loved being chased. Loved being fucked like that. Loved being shared.

My dick starts to swell in my pants just from thinking about it.

Even though this thing between us started out as a business arrangement, something purely for the benefit of my gang, I could feel things shifting as soon as I inked my ring on her. After she snuck into my room on our wedding night, I knew I was playing with fire, indulging in something that could easily become addictive. Letting myself start to feel things for her that I was never supposed to feel.

And now everything has shifted again.

I thought I’d be possessive when it came to anyone else touching my wife, but I should have known it would be different with the two men I trust most in the world. Especially since she seems to fit so well with both of them too.

We share everything else, so why not this?

It’s easy to follow that train of thought, to think about everything it could mean if this thing between the four of us continues. It would definitely throw all of my carefully crafted plans for a loop… but I’m not sure I care about that so much anymore.

I run both hands through my hair, refocusing on what I came here for.

---