Page 35 of Sloane

"Are you fucking serious right now?" Jovi grips my hip tighter, his palm flattening against my chest as he holds me to him. "You haven't marked her, so there's nothing to cover. Calm down."

Alik looks down at me, the cold darkness in his eyes chilling me to the bones yet igniting a burning deep in my belly. It spreads lower and causes my core to clench. This is what I've wanted to happen for so many days, for him to look at me like this again, like he wants nothing else in the universe but me.

So why, then, am I staying put in Jovi's hold like I'm scared of what Alik wants to do to me now? His lips twitch as he looks at Jovi's hand pressed against my collarbone.

"The only necklace she needs is one of our hands, isn't that right, little mate?" Alik pierces me with his gaze as he reaches out and wraps a hand over Jovi's and drags it back around my throat. "Answer me."

"Yes," I gasp, not able to breathe with so many butterflies going wild inside me.

"Good girl," Alik growls before looking at Jovi. "Hold her."

Jovi's fingers twitch against my neck, the movement making Alik's smile widen. I gasp, feeling a slight pressure, but not enough to keep me from breathing. Alik lowers himself until his face is right in front of mine. His head cocking to the side, almost like he's trying to decide what to do with us.

"Do you want to come, Sloane?" Alik's fingers trace my lips, his tongue licking at his own as he watches my mouth part. I nod, and he praises me again. "Such an eager female. Change your pendant to green."

My fingers work the pendant quickly to green and then to orange. Alik clicks his tongue softly in admonishment, shaking his head in mock disapproval. I fumble with the pendant again, trying to change it back to green since that's what he's disappointed in. Before I can, though, he grabs my hands and places them at my side.

"You need to be better at following instructions, Sloane." Alik runs his hands from my wrists to my waist and then slips them under the hem of my shirt to play with the waistband of my shorts. "If I say to change your pendant to green, what color should it be until I give you more instructions?"

I swallow deep, wanting to know what he'll do to me if I'm good and follow his instructions. "Green."

"Alik," Jovi's voice wavers, and when I look up at him, I can see the coldness in his eyes flickering back and forth like he's trying desperately to regain control instead of letting himself fall to his lust like Alik has allowed. I whimper at the thought of our fun ending so soon. "Not now. We can't do this right now."

Alik's eyes flicker up to Jovi's, and a snarl pulls at his lips. I see it, though, the small glimmer of reasoning seeping back into his vision, causing him to rise to his full height and then stumble away from us as he regains complete control of himself. He grabs at the ends of his hair with his upper hands, his lower ones on his hips as he chastises himself while pacing the kitchen.

I want to go over and soothe him, tell him I want to see what a desperate Alik will have Jovi and me doing. I know it'll only end with me having a great time. They seem opposed to it, though, even though they both lost themselves to their lust the first time we had sex. It was amazing, then. I don't know why they won't let it be amazing now.

"You need to stay in one room and not leave until we know where and when the smugglers will be here," Alik says, his frustration in himself noticeable in the way he refuses to face us. "Our room would be the best choice, so one of us can keep you safe, but we can't both watch you the whole time. It's just asking for there to be issues like this."

"Okay, I can just move some clothes into your room," I say easily enough. I thought they were going to say I needed to stay in a cage or some shit, and I was not looking forward to that. Especially when they said it could be weeks. "Which one of you will be with me?"

"Alik," Jovi says his name, and Alik turns around, thinking Jovi is just trying to get his attention. It's what we both think, but Jovi doesn't says anything else.

It isn't until the silence stretches that we realize Jovi's saying Alik needs to be the one trapped with me. I'm fine with it, but you'd think we were signing Alik up for a death sentence with the lack of excitement he seems to have about the whole thing.

Alik opens his mouth to object, but Jovi is faster than him. "You lose your shit too easily. The longer you keep pushing that part of you down, the quicker it's able to get you to snap at us. If they show up and it's been more than a couple hours since you've had her, there's a good chance you blow the whole thing."

My face flushes at the new information. Alik's been making himself scarce the last few days unless I turn the pendant to green. I know he's scared of losing himself, so I thought that waswhy he didn't want to be around me often. What I didn't know was how often he's been needing me this whole time.

Alik's chest is a dark violet that he tries to hide with his arms crossing over it, but it's clear he didn't want Jovi telling me all of that. He doesn't refute any of it, and I realize he's actually thinking about agreeing to be the one I spend all of my time with.

My stomach flutters, and my core clenches again. If we spend all our time together, I'm going to get plenty of that growly demanding side of him that makes me feel so good. Ideas are already forming in my head of how to make it happen.

"Okay." Alik rubs his face, nodding in agreement with Jovi. "You're right. You know why I'm worried, though."

"Yeah." Jovi doesn't elaborate, even though I would love to know why they're worried about Alik spending all his time with me. It's probably because he's going to get all commanding and freaky in bed, but that really isn't anything to be worried about. "I trust you to make the right decisions."

"The right decisions?" Alik narrows his eyes, his jaw ticking. "Is there anything you want to warn me not to do?"

"Not that I can think of." Jovi shrugs.

The two of them stare at each other for another moment, having some sort of silent conversation with just their eyes. Just as it's getting awkward, Jovi breaks eye contact, and then Alik is back in front of me, hands cupping my cheeks and tilting my face to look at him.

"This will be difficult for me, but nothing bad will happen to you, Sloane. Nothing. Get your things and move them into our room. You can have Jovi's bed, and he'll take yours."

I agree with what he's saying, but in my head, I'm already planning on sharing a bed with him. There's no way we're trapped in the same room, and I'm not sharing his bed. He looks up at Jovi, gives him one final nod, and then places a kiss on my forehead.

"I need to go do something real quick, but I'll be in the room when you get there."

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