Page 197 of Quinlan

Damien understands the underlying message in my words. He’s already hooking his fingers in the waistline of Quinlan’s leggings, shoving them down her legs. Her white panties go down with them.

“What?” Quinlan doesn’t resist, lifting her arms for me to whip her shirt off her body. “What are you doing?”

Her shirt flies to the floor. Damien’s palms trail up her waist, the sides of her breasts. Cupping her neck. Mine are on her ass, hauling her front to my aching cock.

“This isn’t the time for this,” she whispers, out of breath.

“It is.” Liam leans toward the counter, picking up the knife.

We turn her toward him. His free hand slips between Quinlan’s body and the fabric connecting her bra’s cups. Onesnap, and Quinlan’s matching white bra is torn out of the way.

“Your nipples are hard.” He skims the dull part of the blade on each one. “Are you that turned on? Killing Rome’s parents does that to you, little flame?”

I hate the fact that anyone would call them my parents, but I put that aside. Truth is, I hardly hear it. I hear her soft breaths. Her heart.

Quinlan, flushed and wide eyed, keeps staring at Liam as she reaches blindly for Damien and me. Her fingers clutch at our T-shirts, going lower to our zippers.

She doesn’t even have to ask. We take out our cocks for her. We wait for her.

“I wish I could kill every person who hurt you.” My fucking God. She arches her back when she says those dirty words come out of her mouth. Desperate for the knife Liam’s holding. The tip he’s tracing over the valley between her breasts. “Helping you get your revenge. It would be right. It would be justice. And hot.”

“Filthy girl.” In a flash, Liam lowers his arm and slaps Quinlan’s pussy with the blade.

Quinlan’s scream is swallowed in my mouth, because fuck, I can’t take another second without kissing her. I yank her hand to my throbbing cock and I don’t. Stop. Kissing her.

“So filthy,” Damien hisses. In the corner of my eye, I see him sliding her hand along his length.

“Defiling you is such a pleasure, little flame.”

Quinlan half-moans, half-screams into my mouth. Her teeth clamp on my bottom lip, and her hand gives me the most delicious pleasure with the way she’s squeezing me. Stroking me.

My friends are doing something to her, and I need to see that. I break our kiss to look at her. At them.

“More pressure. That’s it.” Damien’s lips are on her neck, his fingers in her hair. He rocks his hips into her hand, sliding the wet tip onto her naked body. “Fuck my hand, darling. Let Liam hurt you. You’re doing so well.”

“She is.” Liam’s fingers are inside Quinlan’s pussy, moving in and out of her. Three of them, glistening with her arousal.

He glares at her, his gaze dark and somewhat unhinged as he presses the tip of the blade into the soft area right over her navel.

“Hold still for me.”

Damien slows his thrusts to a halt. I don’t dare move.

Liam’s intentions are clear. The angle he holds the knife leaves no room for doubt.

It doesn’t look like he’ll be able to stop, but he does, staring at Damien. Liam would never be dismissive when it comes to Dame’s and my traumas.

Damien nods, and Liam continues.

Any other man—any other person—who’d nick Quinlan’s skin would be long dead by now. Anyone who’d make her bleed would’ve had his head served on a motherfucking platter.

Liam isn’t any other man. He isn’t doing this to hurt her.

I check on Damien anyway. Sapphire eyes glint the moment our stares lock, and he offers me the subtlest nod. He’s fine. Better than fine, when he turns to the knife on Quinlan’s skin.

He’s mesmerized by the movement. By the first drops of blood as Liam breaks her skin. One stripe, two inches long.

She’s ours. Our bond is one that’ll last forever, with or without marking her. It doesn’t stop us from going after our most depraved needs to brand her as ours.

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