Page 20 of The Devils of Saint City

My fingertips twitch with an aftershock of electricity. Maybe if I play along, they’ll hurt me less. The pain isn’t always so bad. Before I ended up here, I liked it rough — choking, slapping, spitting, pinching, biting. It got me off. It brought me to life. So this is just a different kind of pain, right? Electrical, and... emotional. Being torn down to less than human takes its toll.

When Manson tosses Asher the remote, I know he won’t be my hero here. Whatever they’re silently communicating should be enough to scare me, but I find it hard to feel anything at all.

“You want to see nice, pet?” Ash adjusts himself to face me better. “Crawl to me and I’ll show you how nice I can be.”

Yeah fucking right. After he just admitted he doesn’t want that?

Yet the burn scar on my hand reminds me just how far he’ll go to get what he wants, and at this point, I don’t think I canhandle another shock like that. It was way worse than I thought. Way stronger than the little zaps from my bracelet. This collar is meant to incapacitate, to harm.

So I crawl.

Eyes lowered, head bowed, dignity somewhere six feet below me, I crawl.

Settling between his legs, I find something I can’t place in his gaze when I look up, but it’s gone the second I blink. “Such a good pet. Do you remember anything about last night?”

He reaches out to move my hair behind my ear, making me want to bite him.

“Nope. Nothing. Did you fuck me again? I thought my morning breath was worse than normal.”

Ash huffs. “Must have been all that cum. Show me what you can do when you’re awake.”

He leans back to brace on his hands like there’s a single chance I’m going to touch him while I’m awake.

But... fuck. I hate it, but the gentle way he pushed my hair back is making me crave more. Is this how I get it? Lowering myself, pretending to want this? Do I even have to fucking pretend?

I don’t get to experience his changes in body language when I’m asleep. The power that comes with having someone’s favorite body part trapped between sharp canines. And if it’s going to happen anyway...

Yeah. There’s something wrong with me. But maybe, just maybe, if I show them what it can be like if they treat me well, they won’t hurt me.

I know where the guns are if this little plan fails.

“You want me to suck you, big brother?” I ask, shifting to sit on my knees as I run my fingertips up his leg. “Is that what you want?”

Raw desire flashes in his eyes, a kind you can’t fake or replicate, and I truly don’t know how to feel about it. “Yes.”

It’s so clipped and almost vulnerable compared to his usual responses, but it might be the first honest thing he’s ever said that didn’t cut me down.

Fine. I can play his little game, especially if it keeps me out of handcuffs.

I’ll play it better than he could’ve dreamed.

“I’m nervous,” I say quietly, reaching up with pouty lips as I slowly pull the tie on his sweats. “You’re so big. Do you think it will fit in my tight little throat?”

It doesn’t matter what men say, their cocks like to answer for them. He could deny what he wants until he’s blue in the face, but I see and feel the way it jerks in anticipation. “It’ll fit, pet. We’ll make it fit.”

Manson squirms from the corner of my eye, but I think I’m angrier with him right now than I am Asher. I expected this shit from my brother. I didn’t expect it from Manson.

“Promise?” I beg, sliding his sweats down and licking my lips when I see him spring free. I may hate him, and this might make me a little nauseous, but he has a pretty cock. There’s no denying that. “How do you like it, Ash? Slow, like I’m savoring every second, or fast like I’ll die without your cum?”

“Shit,” he breathes. “Both. Savor it first, Rhea. Lick it. Come on.”

There’s a hint of desperation in his tone I’ve never heard before, but the desire that pools in my gut from it is stopped short when I notice he’s still clenching around the remote.

That’s okay. I can still stop him from using it.

Meeting his eyes, I take a moment — as many breaths as I dare — to remember a time when he wasn’t my enemy. When I felt a possible connection there. A friend. A brother. A protector. It was an incredibly short-lived time, but it existed. And thetwisted parts of my soul that wanted comfort from him even after he tried to kill me are still alive and well, making it easier than I’ll ever admit out loud to lean in and kiss the head of his cock.

It makes my clit throb.

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