Page 3 of The Hard Way

My mouth dropped open. He was like an unreasonable dictator. This group had two alphas, I suppose you could say—Zeus and Odin. And right now Odin was stepping up.

Again he turned to Thor. “I want her all up on the alley wall. Make her ready for Zeus and me.”

I felt torn between excitement and fear. It seemed risky; that was the fear part. But…an alley. Sex in a dark, lonely alley…rough walls…role-play possibilities…

Zeus drunkenly poured himself more champagne, almost missing the glass, but not actually missing it. I’d come to understand that as one of those ex-operative talents. Even your drunk moves were awesome.

“Hmm,” Thor said, deciding to be the voice of reason. “Not sure that’s a good idea.”

Odin snorted. “You will strip her, and you will make her feel the wall with her entire body. If you don’t, I will, and it won’t be nice the way I do it.”

I sat up, really wanting to feel that wall in a not-nice way. Odin and I were on a wavelength suddenly that Thor and Zeus were missing. I was glad. He’d been so distant and troubled lately.

“What if it’s dirty and gritty?” I asked hopefully.

Odin raised his eyebrows at my hesitation. “Is that a Mississippi?”

“Mississippi” was my safe word. “No,” I said. Meaning,GOD, NO.

Odin’s eyes sparkled as he found my thigh under the table, as he pushed up my dress. “You will push yourself right up against that wall and feel it all on your naked body. Do you know why?”

A thrill of heat went through me. “No.”

“Because your body is a thing to be used for our pleasure. Ours to be used in whatever way we see fit.”

Between Thor’s bawdy foot explorations, Odin’s deliciously dangerous mood, and now his hand on my thigh, I wasn’t sure I could make it to the alley.

“We’ve earned the respect of this fine establishment,” Odin continued. “It would be wrong to abuse it by fucking you here on the table, and my preference really is toward that alley. A little bit dirty. A little bit degraded. Just like you will be once we’re donefucking-gyou in whatever way we please…” He squeezed my thigh, sending waves of heat through me, all the way up to my face. “But if you refuse to go…”

My sex felt slick. I looked over at Zeus. He seemed to be following along, but he apparently wasn’t in the mood to put the brakes on Odin getting a little crazy.

“Don’t look at Zeus. He’s in vacation mode. In fact, I think that’s a lot of the problem here.” Odin lowered his voice to a whisper. “You’ve gotten soft, haven’t you, goddess? We’ve been treating you like a queen, but sometimes you’re not a queen at all, are you?”

My blood raced. Theyhadbeen treating me like royalty…not that I was complaining, but I’d forgotten how much I loved this old feeling, like being at the top of a rollercoaster—that momentary pause before the screaming descent starts.

“Sometimes you’re a whore—a dirty, dirty whore who waits naked in alleys for men to come and shamelessly use her body, aren’t you?”

I stared into the middle distance, eyes widened, which could be loosely translated into,um, yes please!

“I want to find you up against that wall. Quivering.”

I imagined myself up against a rough wall, naked, vulnerable to strangers in the night. Aka my guys.

Odin moved his hand to my sex. My panties were thoroughly soaked thanks to all that talk of his. And yes, they had been treating me like a queen. So gentle and sweet. We’d been recovering from a lot of hell.

“But don’t think you can press your mound against the wall and get off that way or even get any little bit of pleasure, becausethis—” He squeezed my pussy. The bolt of pleasure that went through me rocked me. “—this is for us. Only for us. You understand? It’s for the use of our cocks however we see fit.”

“Okay.” What else do you say to a statement like that? Oh, Odin was in a wild mood. I couldn’t wait to see what he’d do next, say next.

He kept his eyes on mine and his possessive hand on my pussy.It would feel amazing if he massaged it right about now.I moved against his hand.

Odin widened his eyes. “What do you think you’re doing?”

I moved again, and Odin tightened his hand, stopping me right in my pussy-grinding tracks. “Is that appropriate? When a husband gives you a command?”

“Guh,” I squeaked.

He let me go and leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs, gazing at me imperiously from under chocolatey eyelashes. A scar bisected his cheekbone—more deep than dainty. Odin had a lot of scars elsewhere on his body, too—deep, horrible scars he never wanted to talk about. To some they might have been ugly, but to me they operated like flaws in diamonds, the way flaws can make diamonds unique, priceless, wildly beautiful.

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