Page 150 of Entangled

I can’t see Jaykob anywhere, so I reluctantly make my way over, weaving through people as they carry on with their business.

“Stop!” Dom barks at Mary Beth, an apple-cheeked woman carrying an axe.

Behind him, I jump at the same time she freezes. Mary Beth looks at him with trepidatious eyes.

“Do you know how to use that?” Dom crosses his arms over his chest, looming like an unimpressed king.

I trail to a halt before they see me.

“Would you stop doing that?” Heather snaps at Dom, stepping in front of Mary Beth. “She’s on the felling team for a reason. This has already been organized—stop terrorizing my people.”

Dominic grimaces, looking surprisingly contrite, but Mary Beth takes one glance at his ominous presence and scurries away.

Aaron crosses his arms over his chest, mimicking Dom’s stance but managing none of the forceful presence. His red hair is a few shades closer to blond than Heather’s dark copper, and it blazes in the morning light.

He gives her a patronizing look. “Dominic is right, Madison. They could use some supervision. I’ll take charge of?—”

Heather rolls her eyes. “Aaron, you don’t know your head from your asshole, so can you please shut up and find something else to do?”

His face turns a mottled red, and he looks to Dom in outrage, but Dom just rolls his eyes.

My gaze flits between Dom and Heather as Aaron stalks off. Is this how they flirt? Bickering and bickering until they explode?

Heather catches sight of me and hurries over with a relieved expression, and I tuck my hands into my pockets so I don’t claw at her. We are friends, after all. Or close enough to friends, anyway. All of us.

Friendly, friendly friends.

“Thank God. Save me from men who think they know better.” She links arms with me, turning me back toward Dom, and I need to bite my lips together to stop a whimper as the plug presses deep inside my ass.

Taking a shivery breath, I search for a distraction and glance at Aaron’s disappearing back desperately. “That was a little bit harsh, don’t you think? He’s only very young.”

Heather snorts. “Yeah, trust me, babe. These men will walk all over you if you let them. Take it from someone who grew up with five brothers and was on the force for ten years—you need to be tough, or they’ll snatch any bit of control out of your hands they can.”

I glance at her sideways—at her low dark red ponytail, her striking, strong face. Her words hit me in an odd way. I wish I had half Heather’s fearlessness, her capability.Anyof that toughness.

But is that what I need to do to become strong? Push back like everything is a fight I need to win? It seems... exhausting.

Is it so wrong to lose some control to the right person?

Like a magnet, my gaze is drawn back to Dom, who looks like a war hero in front of his battle tent. He’s already watching me approach, standing like a dark pillar in the early sunlight, a beacon of strength and confidence.

And control.

Each step kisses the toy in and out of me, and it feels wrong, too sinful, to think of him, to talk to him, knowing that I’m being penetrated. That I’m full and my tender tissues are swollen and straining against the invasion.

We stop in front of Dom, and I adjust my weight as my uneasiness grows.

The ball in the metal plug rolls around inside my ass.

“You here to spar?” Dom asks as I bite back a squeak.

I shift again to get comfortable, and it rolls heavily again, internally spanking my nerve endings.

“Ah...hmm?” I say desperately.

Dom is talking.Focus, Eden.

He’s talking to me, and it needs to make sense. My eyes fall to his chest. His broad, muscular, perfect chest. I clench against the invading plug. It presses back, unyielding, shooting spine-tingling ripples through me.

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