Page 70 of Their Cruel Love

“Bugs?” Marcus says.

“Well, there are those.” Razor lifts his palm toward the sea. The chirruping of crickets and other insects is almost as distant as the roar of the sea. “The other sort? The gazebo isn’t the best place.”

“I thought so but I guess we’ll risk it?” He sits on the bed and places his bag beside him then pulls out that fancy coiled wire.

The main wire is blue. It’s pink where little barbs pop up at regular intervals. Without bare steel, the colors lend it the look of a child’s toy. Staring, I remind myself I asked for this. Again with the frisson of excitement, the liquid feeling in my stomach. I’m becoming a Pavlov’s dog to whatever gestures he makes, if they warn me of incoming kink.

“So, Phoebe, back to the question.” He straightens the tines on a barb. “What did Bastion say?”

Leaving my head turned sideways so I can watch him work, I pretend to weigh up his question but really, I know what I’m going to do. If I can’t tell these men, who can I?

I roll onto my stomach, then bend my knees to tuck my feet in the air, ankles crossed. Testing the bed, I rock my hips. It’s super comfy. “He told me not to trust you. And he told me I could go to him for help if I needed it.”

That peacock-haired man, leaning over me while I was tied up and waiting for Razor and Marcus—I’d felt nauseous, exposed in a way that was very different to what I wanted.

“Ahhh.And what did you say? We didn’t gag you, unfortunately.”

“Oh, very funny.” I give him a mocking but flirtatious look. He raises one eyebrow then goes back to sorting out wire and stuff. “I chose not to believe that idiot. I said nothing to him.”

“Good.”

I wriggle around to face him and lever myself up on my elbows and forearms. My breasts are fully on display, and my nipples brush the bed fabric if I move and make them sway. Both men notice. Neither reacts much. Disappointing.

I’m sure I can make them react, but the game has barely begun. My swollen clit is pressed into the bed. Who’d think merely staring at the guys and fantasizing, wriggling a little to massage the poor neglected thing, would be enough for now? I may regret this—egging them on and asking for the wire—but I really doubt it.

“Who wants to go next? We should lay all our cards on the table. Has anything else happened? I told you about the USB.”

Razor circles the bed until he’s nearer my left ankle. He sits then seizes that ankle, pulls my leg wider using it. “At the dinner, the waiter who left that list also told me not to trust Marcus. I didn’t say anything about it because I don’t give a shit what BS they feed us.” The asshole runs a fingernail along my sole.

Jerking, I try to yank my leg from his grip, but he pins my leg to the bed. “Ticklish, are we?” Then he bends over and bites the side of my foot.

“No! Fuck. Let go!”

His muffled laugh makes me pout, and I consider kicking him but…bad idea.

“So.” He releases my foot though I’m sure I have dents from his teeth. “They’re trying to sow discord, as someone once said. I don’t believe any of it.”

“They don’t seem to like me, especially. Lie flat and extendyour arm.” Marcus says this in a salesman voice as if he’s unpacking a TV. He uncoils wire, making his intentions clear.

“Is this going to hurt?” But I give him my hand and rest on my front, feeling terribly comfortable and content as he begins to wind the wire up my wrist and forearm.

“Of course it will. That’s the whole reason for doing it.” He winks. “So, they are sowing, and we are not believing. But who is they? How many?”

“I’m beginning to think most of them?” Razor squeezes my ankle, kisses it, then begins a journey of kisses up my leg,higher, higher, to my knee. By then he, too, is on his stomach, and I have one man playing with my leg while the other…

“Ouch,” I mouth the word at Marcus. The barbs dig in as he tightens the coils, and he’s reached my shoulder. “Not the face?”

“No. Not there. Your tits though, yes. An absolute yes.”

Crap.Also yum.I swallow. They are sore but I’m willing.

“Oh. Should I stand up for this?” My pulse is thumping. Having slithered up the bed between my legs, Razor nibbles on my spread inner thighs, licks along the crease of leg and ass but slowly. A sloth could beat him if it were a race.

“No.”

Distracted, my internal fires being stirred but sluggishly, I lie unmoving, relishing the sensations as the wire is led over my back, the barbs walking sharply.

Have I disclosed all I know? “I told you about the eyeballs that aren’t eyeballs, but I also walked around the hill to the right.” Mesmerized by what they’re doing, I think over everything I’ve said so far. “It looks like not much is there, just a small beach. There is, however, a possible ledge with a metal railing below the hill and the ruins.”

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