Page 121 of Deceit

“Shut the fuck up, man,” Liam grumbles. “What can we do for you?” he asks as he faces me again.

“This. Can I just have more of this?” I ask, gesturing to the fact that they are all touching me.

They all nod as Ronan stands up, keeping me in his arms as he does before laying on my bed and setting me in the middle. Vincent takes up the other side while Liam crawls between my legs, resting his head on my upper thigh.,

“Thank you,” I whisper softly, allowing my body to relax into the feel of them all.

I look around the room to find that Maggie is gone. She probably wanted to make a quiet escape in the heat of everything, and I don’t blame her. I’m grateful she was here, because I don’t know how I would have been able to call the guys otherwise.

The only person still standing is Asher. The letter in his hand is clenched tightly by his side, his eyes flicking between the four of us before settling on me. There are so many emotions in his gaze and yet I struggle to name any of them. I feel like I’m crazy, like I’m seeing what I want to see, not what’s actually there.

I want to see desire deep in those melted chocolate eyes. I want to see envy and lust, wishing he was with us right now. I want to see pure desperation for me and only me.

How fucking selfish am I?

If any of those emotions were there, they are gone in a flash before he straightens up and nods.

“I’m gonna go try to lift some prints. Keep your eyes on her,” he says before turning and heading out the door, closing it behind him as he does.

Despite it being the middle of the day, I feel my eyes begin to flutter closed, the exhaustion of the panic attack taking full control of my body as I drift off to sleep surrounded by the three men who hold my heart, and I theirs.

Chapter Forty One

Asher

Imove through campus briskly, not paying attention to anyone or anything. I’m heading to my dorm building but only going one floor up to Andrew Hutchinson’s room. His dad owns the largest tech security company on the east coast and his son is his little protégé. I know how to lift fingerprints, we’re taught basic things like that in our training, but I don’t have the time, patience or energy for that. I’ll leave it to the geek.

My fist pounds on the door, some scrambling sounds coming from inside before Andrew peeks his head out. He seems to almost relax when he sees that it’s me, which is usually not the reaction that I get. Most people around here fear me just as much as they fear my father. He tells me it’s a good thing. I’ve just never really known any different.

“Hey, Asher. What’s up?”

“I need you to lift some prints for me and run them. No one has touched it but me with my glove on so whoever comes up, I want the name. Got it?”

“Sure. No problem,” he says as his eyes begin scanning over the paper.”

“I said lift it, don’t fucking read it,” I snap, causing himself to straighten up and push his door open.

“Come in, set it right there,” he says, pointing to a blank desk with a myriad of tools and tech gadgets. I won’t even begin to guess what they do.

Three expensive looking cameras sit on the shelf above as well as several photographs hung up on the walls. They are landscape photos like the forest, the beach and stuff like that. They are clearly amateur but not half bad.

“How long?” I ask as I turn to face him as he begins collecting his supplies.

“Uh, half an hour? Maybe more?” he says.

“Make it less,” I say as I move past him, shutting his door behind me as I turn towards the elevators.

I don’t feel like waiting around, hovering over his shoulder so I decide to head up to my room. It isn’t where I really want to be right now, but where I really want to be isn’t an option for me. Not now, not ever.

I don’t know when it happened. I’m not sure if it happened slowly or seemingly overnight. All I know is that for longer than I’d care to admit, things have been feeling…different. And I don’t know how to stop it. I don’t know how to shut my mind off, to not think about her, to not want her.

Sure, she’s always been a smoke show. I knew that from the moment my father handed me her file, with a ‘meet your future wife’ speech. I was so pissed off that my time as a bachelor was getting cut short. As the most powerful man on campus, I wasn’t even included in the decision of who would be my wife.

I was so furious and angry that this woman was getting thrust upon me, and I took it out on her. For weeks, I thought of idea after idea on how to make her life hell. How to force her to call this thing off herself. I knew there was no way it could come frommy side, but I had hoped maybe she had more say in this than me. I should have known better.

One moment spent with her and her father, and I knew that the man had more disdain for her than my father did for me, I really didn’t think that was possible. Two moments spent with her after she witnessed my father’s rage firsthand and treated me with kindness I didn’t deserve, and I knew that I had so wrongly misjudged her. Three moments of seeing her mostly naked and wanting, watching her beg and whine and moan around Liam’s cock while being desperate for my touch, and I knew I was fucking done for.

As I step inside my room, I kick the door shut, burying my fingers into my hair as I pull hard.

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