Page 76 of Lies like Rubies, Part Two (Savage Jewels)

“This kid’s a trooper,” Nick murmured as he picked Lizzie up. She nuzzled into his neck, still asleep.

I frowned, not sure where he was going with this.

“We’ve fucked up her routine well and good …” He trailed off with a sigh, rubbing Lizzie’s back with a sad expression on his face. “We’re no good for her.”

We weren’t. Sofia might talk a big game about eradicating trafficking after she took out Sergio, but she’d wanted out since the moment she’d called her sister asking for help when she discovered she was pregnant. We had to find a way to give her that.

Nick took the sleeping child to her room, knowing she’d wake up hungry.

We let Sofia sleep until Dante walked in the door. She sat up with a gasp as the door slammed shut. “Shit, Dante, you scared me.”

His eyes were dark and cruel. “Shit, sir, you mean.”

Sofia blinked up at him, searching his expression, her brow furrowed in confusion. “Welcome home, sir,” she said, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

He held out his hand to her. “My room. Now.”

Fury washed through me at his expectation that she kneel before him after the day she’d endured.

She shook her head before I could intervene. “I don’t—Miss Carolina left an hour ago, and I need—Dammit, Dante.” She blinked up at him with those gorgeous doe eyes and then smiled slyly. “Dammit, sir, I mean.”

He smiled down at her indulgently before his expression hardened. “I need you, slut, and I’m not accustomed to waiting.”

When she didn’t respond right away, he cupped her cheek. “And you need this too.”

“I’ve got Lizzie,” Nick said quietly.

Sofia frowned, her eyes sweeping between the three of us, then she slid down to her knees. “Could we please stay here? Sir?”

Dante hummed. “That’ll cost you, slut.”

Sofia’s lips tilted up into a lopsided smile. “It always does with you.”

He sat in an armchair, his legs splayed wide, watching her with hooded eyes as she crawled over to him. Hard already, I scrubbed my face, not sure what my role would be in this drama, but certain it would push my boundaries.

Nick wrapped his arms around me from behind, nuzzling my neck before trailing his fingers down my stomach and tracing over the hard line of my cock. “I’ll flip you for fucking her while she blows Dante.”

“Crude,” I muttered, but still called heads when he flipped the coin. Heads it was. Pushing me toward them, Nick finished making a snack plate for Lizzie and quietly closed the door to the stairwell upstairs.

By the time I approached them, Sofia had her lips wrapped around Dante’s cock as he murmured quiet words of denigration to her, reminding her that she was nothing more than a slut for his pleasure. He ran his fingers through her blonde hair, mussing it out of the elegant twist, scratching her scalp, but allowing her to set the pace.

This was unhealthy as shit. I knew she was using sex to avoid working through what happened to her and to avoid having the conversations about the future we all need to have. I knew she was using Dante’s degradation to avoid a real relationship with him. And yet, here I was, ready and willing to participate, because even though I knew how badthis was for her, the alternative of watching her suffer alone was even worse.

When I ran my hands over the curves of her hips and up her back, she arched, pressing her ass into my pelvis as I knelt behind her.

As she bobbed up and down on Dante’s cock, I unbuttoned her jeans, pulling them down to her knees and revealing the sweet roundness of her ass, the beautiful pink of her pussy, already wet with need, and the soft curves of her hips. Sofia whined softly as I squeezed the creamy globes of her ass.

“Spank her,” Dante grunted, throwing his head back as she lowered her face onto him and sucked. I hesitated, still not entirely comfortable with causing Sofia pain. “She needs the pain so she can zone out and focus on us instead of everything going on around her, don’t you, slut?”

Sofia nodded as she swirled her lips around him. “Yes,” she breathed. “So much.”

“Do you even care who it is, kitten?” Amusement dripped out of Dante as he stroked his fingers over her cheeks, through her hair, and across her shoulders.

Sofia drew back, sitting up on her haunches and laughed quietly.

“It’s Lorenzo. Nick would have tanned my hide by this point.”

I couldn’t hide my soft laughter and kissed her shoulder. “That’s right, sunshine.”

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