Page 41 of Taken By the Convicts
There had never been any question in her mind or Reece’s—or Zev’s for that matter—that she belonged to Reece.
Sunlight and cold air filled the stairwell. Zev’s head lifted, and Reece’s arm wrapped around her middle, locking her to him, his cock still inside of her.
“Thank you for the stimulating. . . eh, conversation, Mel,” Zev said with a slight tilt of his head before he headed down the stairs and into the kitchen.
“Fucking whore’s willing to do everyone but me,” Jayce said as he sailed by, heading down to his room. Moments later, his door slammed.
“Reece?” Melina asked. His right arm reached around her breasts, his huge muscles covering her from Ivan’s eyes.
Ivan glared at Reece, but he continued down the stairs without a single word.
Reece kept her locked to him until they were once again completely alone. With both hands on her hips, he lifted her off of him. She felt the loss of his cock sliding out of her as keenly as she’d felt Ivan’s extreme displeasure as he’d walked by. While Reece seemed content to let Ivan lead this unit, he most definitely was sending Ivan a message when it came to her.
That was going to be a problem. She had feelings for Ivan, though she wasn’t sure she fully understood them yet. She hoped it was more than a sense of guilt for what she’d done. There was a strength and vulnerability to him she wanted to understand better.
Melina gathered up her clothing. It wasn’t the first time she’d had sex in public, or the first time more than one man had been involved. It was the first time she walked away knowing she could shape her future because despite how much Reece and Ivan appeared to be at odds right now, neither had forced her to do anything. For the first time in her life, she was free to choose, and damn it, she wasn’t sure she could.
Chapter Ten
IVAN
Even with the latest bag of provisions weighing him down, killing his back, Ivan stopped at the top of the stairs. The door clicked shut behind him, cutting out the cold and wind, but not the memory of when he’d entered yesterday. Seeing Melina naked on Crusher’s lap with Zev standing nearby, tucking his cock into his pants had shocked him, and truth been told, made him jealous.
While he’d been searching for Jayce, the men had been screwing her. Ivan knew it was bound to happen, but that didn’t make it easy to accept. And given how he’d treated her, he might never have her. She trusted Crusher and Zev for some fucking reason Ivan didn’t understand. Crusher, fine, the man had saved her in the med-center, but Zev was a nobody. Worse, he remained a mystery after six months on Veenith. No one knew anything about the man, other than he always had Reece’s back. He claimed to have killed a man for insulting him, but that story didn’t ring true to Ivan. He’d seen men insult Zev, and Zev barely flinched.
The smirk on Zev’s face and the way Crusher had covered Melina and held her to him said enough. She was Crusher’s. Or maybe Crusher and Zev’s together. Either way, Melina wasn’t Ivan’s and likely never would be. Especially not with Jayce complicating matters.
Ivan had promised Jayce the woman, but that was because he’d wanted to punish her. Ivan had been wrong about her, but even if he hadn’t been, he never should have made such a promise.
Jayce still intended to fuck her, with or without Ivan’s—or Melina’s—consent.
“Did you have trouble finding where I stashed the sack?” Jayce asked from the bottom of the stairs.
“No, but I had to take an alternate route. Hawke has a lot of men looking for us. It’s taking me longer to return from my shifts too. Are the others back from third shift?
“Just Crusher.”
Damn. Zev had some fighting skills, like Jayce, but Hawke could recruit as many men as he needed to tail or ambush Zev. Then again, maybe losing Zev from the unit would be a stroke of luck. Ivan could deal with Jayce having secrets because he knew the man, what drove him. Ivan didn’t know what drove Zev, and he couldn’t help but think Zev targeted Crusher by design. The man was built like a rock, and he certainly couldn’t spill anything he might learn about Zev. Mute and unable to read or write. What a fucking disastrous combination that was.
“I’m not sure how long we can stay here. We need a backup location.” Ivan carried the sack to the kitchen and dropped it on the table next to the other two sacks he’d carried in earlier. He strained to listen to the sounds in the bunker. Noise carried in the structure, and he was glad he didn’t hear the sound of sex. He wasn’t sure he could handle that right now.
“We can give them the woman and be done with it.”
“No,” Ivan said, dropping a ration tin on the table for emphasis. “She’s part of our unit.”
“So, now we’re a unit and she’s part of it,” Jayce said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“What the fuck’s gotten into you? First, you disappear for a day, making me worried as fuck. I thought Matthews had gotten his hands on you. And then I find you sitting in a cave, staring at the walls.”
“I got the damned provisions. What else do you want from me?”
Ivan wanted to throttle Jayce for his attitude, but especially for all of his secrets. Secrets got people killed.
“You’ve changed, Jayce. I don’t know why, but you’ve changed.”
“We all change.”
“What happened to you?”
