Page 47 of The Devil's Daughter

When I just stare at him, struggling to decide, he reaches out and squeezes my arm. “You don’t have to answer that now.”

“I just don’t know what I’m supposed to say. If I decide that yes, I’m Elle Flores, am I disrespecting my family? I would no longer share a name with Mom, or my brothers. I don’t want them to think they don’t matter to me.”

“I doubt they’d think that,” Drake says. “And the last time I checked, the Santos family was pretty tangled up with the Flores family. Two of your brothers are involved with your half-sisters. I didn’t get the sense that either of those relationships were casual, either.”

“They aren’t,” I say, shaking my head. “I’ve never seen Sam or Maddox so happy and in love before, and Sam even dated a girl all through high school. He’s been in love with Toni his whole life, and I think Maddy has felt the same way about Celeste. It’s like…fatewants our families to be entwined this way.”

“Is there any reason you can’t be both?” he asks. “No one said you had to choose one identity over the other. You can forge your own. If anyone is strong enough to claim that, you are. I mean, look at us…” He makes a sweeping motion encompassing the twins, who are somewhere else on the boat right now. “The twins and I were merely civil to each other last week. Our relationship was no more than professional. We’d do anything to be with you now. To make this work.”

I cock my head. “So you and Ben… that’sonlyfor my benefit?”

He lowers his lashes and smirks. “Well, there are obvious bonuses for the two of us. Getting to have youandhim has been a surprising coup on my part. Getting toshareyou with him would be even more fun.” He glances at the plug in my hand and lifts an eyebrow.

My cheeks heat, but I hold his gaze, marveling at how different things between us are now than they were mere days ago. “I would love that.”

“Then I don’t think you’ll have any trouble figuring out how to bridge the gap in your identity dilemma.”

An involuntary laugh bubbles up from inside me. “Did you seriously just draw a parallel between mynameissue and having sex with you and Ben?”

“Did it help ease your mind? If so, that’s all that matters. My point is that you can be whoever you want. You can have whoever you want. If you only wanted one of us, I think we’d be disappointed, but we’d deal. But you don’t have to choose, Elle. There are no rules here but the ones we decide to set.”

My stomach flutters at how earnest and considerate he’s been all along. Even the sex toy is evidence of his need to ensure my comfort, my pleasure. And not just his, but the twins’ too.

I lean up and whisper, “Thank you,” before pressing my lips to his. He eases close, pulling me in tight as we deepen the kiss and I twine my arms around his neck, the heavy weight in the satin bag clutched in my hand.

Then he releases me, and I’m about to head out the door back to my room to dress when he grabs my wrist and pulls me back.

“It isn’t just about prepping you for us,” he says into my ear. “I hope it’s okay if I think about you using that plug in your ass. It’ll help me get through the day until I can fuck you again.”

“I like knowing you’ll be thinking about me,” I tell him. “I’ll be thinking about you too.”

In the privacy of my own bathroom, I strip and take my time, testing my limits a little with the plug. It’s big, but not as big as any of the guys when they’re fully hard. It’s also perfectly smooth, but doesn’t immediately glide in when I try to use it without lube.

There’s a small tube of it in the bag, so I coat it first, then for good measure coat my fingers and insert two into my ass to make sure everything’s well-lubricated. The sensation of my own fingers in there is almost as galvanizing as it was to have Drake’s in me. It feels so good I’m wet within seconds, my clit throbbing enough that I regret not taking him up on his offer to take care of me earlier. But it’ll be even better if I wait, so I restrain myself.

When I place the tapered tip of the plug to my tight ring, it doesn’t want to go in at first. It isn’t until I bear down and relax that it pops in easily—so easily I let out an involuntary “oh!” once it’s seated, the heavy, thick weight of it filling me in a not-unpleasant way. The outer part fits snugly between my cheeks, and I’m hyperaware of it as I dress, putting on panties and a bra, followed by denim shorts and a tank top.

It’s a struggle not to walk funny, so I practice by pacing the room a few times to get used to it. The pleasure is distracting, but by the time I make it up to breakfast, I’m starting to get used to it, forgetting it’s there except when I move just right.

After breakfast, I join Baz and try to concentrate on finishing the research while Duffy flies Ben back down to Balboa Park where the gala is set to take place tomorrow at one of the museums. Even after keeping this thing inside me for a day, I don’t think I’ll be ready for anal with any of the guys tonight, but maybe tomorrow after the gala. I hope Drake doesn’t mind waiting.

I redouble my efforts on the deep-dive into the guest list, following the leads we landed on yesterday. We need to find something concrete soon so we can protect Drake, and the urgency of my task manages to distract me from the intermittent zings of pleasure and the wetness in my panties.

24

Elle

Unable to finda solid link between Curt and Miles, we switch gears again. We’ve been cross-referencing the names on the guest list with the faces from Drake’s videos that we managed to identify. Unfortunately, the money trail of clients to his dad’sestablishmentis too murky to trace, since he took payments in cryptocurrency rather than cash. Baz is still trying to track down those links to see if they lead anywhere new.

“It’s probably not even a client,” I say.

Baz shakes his head. “No, it’s about money, which is why Ihaveto get these changes to the algorithm finalized so we can find a link to someone real. Chances are they weren’t even a customer. They just facilitated the transfer of goods.”

“That’s a rather detached way of thinking about it. The victims werepeople.”

He gives me an agonized look. “I know that,” he snaps, “but I can’t focus if I’m too angry to see straight.”

“Okay, I get it. Is there anything I can do?”

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