Page 130 of Their Reckless Thief
I moved against Dorian as Vincenzo thrust so achingly slow. Dorian rolled my nipples between his fingers while Vincenzo reached around and massaged my clit in a circular motion. Every nerve in my body stood on end. A fire I’d never felt before took hold in my lower abdomen. With each thrust, each squeeze, each pressured motion, I could feel myself coming undone.
“Are you going to come for us, Celeste?” Vincenzo asked. “Show us who’s a good girl. I want to hear you scream. Come for me,dolcezza.”
He thrust hard into my ass, and the world tilted on its axis. Every muscle in my body clenched around them. My vision went black as my orgasm took hold. I screamed just as I heard Luca behind me, releasing with a guttural grunt.
“Fuck!”
Vincenzo and Dorian weren’t far behind. They grabbed onto me, held on as if I was their lifeline as they pounded into me and spilled into me.
39
CELESTE
The airin the training room the next morning was oppressive, nearly suffocating me. I took in Luca’s impassive face. His shoulders were rigid, and he avoided looking at me as he set up the weights. It was as if last night hadn’t happened.
The mask of indifference was securely back in place, his gaze steely and cold. I knew better than to take that façade at face value now. Last night, I had caught a glimpse of something deeper and unsettled beneath his controlled exterior.
We worked in silence, me lifting weights while he kept his distance, hands in his pockets, watching my form with an intensity that was almost clinical. I focused on the repetition, counting each press and lift, but my mind wouldn’t stop churning. I couldn’t shake the memory of him watching me the night before.
Had he liked it? Had some twisted part of him enjoyed watching me submit to Vincenzo and Dorian at once? And that thought… oh, that thought clawed at me, burrowing deeper with every passing second. I wanted to know what else he liked.
I caught his eye before he looked away. I wasn’t sure if a smirk had played on his lips for a fraction of a second, or if I’d imagined it.
“Are we going to be silent all day, or are we actually training?” I asked, hoping to break the tension. My voice came out more brittle than I’d intended, but I didn’t care. I wanted a reaction. Any fucking reaction.
He met my gaze, unfazed. “Silence helps you focus. You don’t need distractions.”
“Silence also means I don’t learn anything,” I shot back. I adjusted the weights, focusing on my movements and my form. Every word I threw at him was a way to keep the thoughts at bay, to avoid what my mind kept dragging me back to: the look in his eyes as he got off on Dorian and Vincenzo fucking me.
After what felt like an eternity of his stoic detachment, he moved toward me. Shadows gathered around him like a cloak, darkening the space around him. The familiar buzz of his magic tingled over my skin, and I swallowed, setting down the weights as he approached.
“Defend yourself,” he commanded, his shadows slipping from his hands, unfurling like dark smoke with a life of their own.
I tensed, gaze fixed on the shadows twisting toward me, ghostly fingers reaching out to ensnare. I dodged to the left, then the right, every movement a frantic dance to stay one step ahead. The shadows kept coming, relentless and unsettling, slipping around me to brush against my skin, each touch sending a shiver through my body.
He tracked my every move, his gaze sharp and scrutinizing. I caught his look of disapproval when I stumbled, a split-second hesitation that burned me from within, driving me to move faster, harder. Weakness wasn’t an option, not with Luca as my trainer.
His shadows pressed closer, persistent and punishing, demanding more of me than I thought I could give. I swung, countered, and adjusted my footing, struggling to match hisbrutal precision. Beneath the challenge, I sensed an intensity, a hint of encouragement woven into his unyielding approach, daring me to rise to his level.
The events of last night crept into my thoughts again. I’d promised myself I would never love them, that I would keep a firm grip on my own boundaries. And yet here I was, driven by an irrational urge to prove myself to him, to earn even a hint of approval from him.
I tried to shut it down, tried to remind myself of all the reasons why I should keep my heart guarded. It was mine, damn it. They could have my loyalty, my body, but never that. They were probably sleeping around anyway. Men like them didn’t settle, didn’t stay. They took what they wanted and moved on. I was nothing more than a temporary indulgence. Sure, Dorian had said he loved me, but who the hell knew if he meant it? Men tossed the word love around without a care to the hurt they caused when they left a woman high and dry.
But then, why did the thought hurt? Why, after last night, was there a nagging ache, a sliver of confusion I couldn’t shake?
I dodged another wave of shadows, and Luca’s expression shifted slightly, a barely there moment of approval before his mask snapped back into place. He stepped closer, and I could feel the heat of him, the energy of his shadows buzzing like static around us. My breaths left me in sharp, fast gusts, and I struggled to keep my mind from spiraling.
“You’re hesitating,” he said, his voice low, carrying a weight that caused my goosebumps to spread down my body. “In a real fight against my type of magic, that would be your end.”
I forced a smirk, pushing down the swirl of emotions clawing beneath my breast. “You’d miss me if I didn’t make it out alive from a fight,” I retorted, aiming for casualness, but it came out breathier than I’d intended.
He worked his jaw from side to side, a shadow darkening his gaze. “Don’t make assumptions.”
The words cut sharper than any blade, and I stumbled back a step, caught off guard by the intensity reflected on his face, the ice in his voice. He was good at hiding, at slipping into that mask of indifference, but I was starting to see through it, starting to recognize the flashes of emotion beneath the surface.
Shadows snared my wrist as he stepped in close, his face inches from mine. “If you want to survive, then stop letting your emotions cloud your judgment.”
The irony wasn’t lost on me. I was here, fighting to keep my heart my own, to stay untangled, yet he was the one standing so close, the one whose touch lingered, whose words bit deep.
