understand the yours is your brothers’ part either?”
“It means that if one of us likes the other’s girlfriend, wife, fiancée, whatever bitch we have warming our cock at that time, then by EKC law, she is still free game.”
“You mean, she can sleep with you both?” I ask, cocking my head.
His eyes narrow. “Yes.”
“But, not many girls would want that, right?”
He doesn’t answer, and when I chew on my bottom lip in an attempt to calm my nerves, he reaches forward and catches it with his thumb. Electricity buzzes through me, followed closely by warm liquid that turns my bones to mush. “You would be surprised how easy it is for some girls.”
“Have you?” I don’t know why I’m asking. I’m not so sure I want to know. “Shared, I mean.” Seems like I’m still asking…
He releases my lip and reaches forward for another beer out of the cooler, flicking off the cap and tossing it in the trash. “Not interested in having a girlfriend. Ever. But yeah, it happens often.”
“Who was your last?” Seriously, Saint.
He pauses, his bottle to his lips. “Tillie.”
My head whips around to him, my eyes wide. “Tillie and Nate? That Tillie?”
Brantley shrugs. “Never went the whole way because Nate’s a fucking pussy, but yeah.”
“Humph,” I wonder out loud.
“What?” Brantley asks, resting the bottle on his knee.
I tuck my hair behind my ear. “I don’t know, I was just thinking…”
“What?” he snaps, his tone edgy. Syllables spill from his lips and slip into my veins like a shot of fluid through an IV. “What the fuck are you thinking?”
“Well, I don’t know. I mean.” I clear my throat and lower my voice. I’ve always been comfortable around Brantley, even when he’s turning my insides into puree. I’m relaxed around him. “I’ve never had anyone, you know…”
He tosses the now empty bottle into the trash, smashing the ones that are already inside of it. It wasn’t an angry throw, but it was clearly forceful. “Won’t happen.”
“Well, yeah, I figured. But I’m just saying.” I wave my hand in the air.
His eyes connect with mine and I’m paralyzed from the neck down. His dark orbs slide over my neck as my pulse thickens. His tongue flicks out and runs across his teeth. “And if you did, would you let another guy fuck you?”
I shrug, because I truthfully don’t know the answer to that. “I read in a book once that your sexual appetite isn’t awoken until you’ve had sex. So I don’t know.”
His mouth slams closed. “Anyway. We have six commandments. Hayes is always the alpha of the pack, or as Bishop likes to say, god of the pack. Nate, his elected right-hand man, and I’m third in line. There are only ever three at the top. The rest that fall after, drop in ranking, but the loyalty is the same.”
“Okay.” I nod my head. “So, Hayes, Malum, and Vitiosis are the main lines in The Elite Kings Club? And what do you all do, what is your duty?”
Brantley’s full lips curl in the corner. “And that’s something that never leaves our circle, but in short—” He pauses, his eyes locked on the burning embers in the pit. “We own this fucking city.”
“Brantley?” He doesn’t answer me, so I reach forward until my fingers are on his ring. It’s black and silver and heavy. “How come I don’t remember all of my memories when I was younger?”
He stands from his chair. “That’s normal, and in your case, it’s probably better you don’t. Come on, that’s all the explaining I’m doing tonight.” And although he says the words, I know what he has told me is not even scratching the surface of what this world entails.
We both walk up the staircase, then split into our rooms. I shut my bedroom door behind me with a gentle click, closing my eyes and resting my head against the wood. I felt too many things tonight, and all of them began and ended with Brantley.
The breeze from the open doors of the patio brushes against my skin, as I finally push off and make my way farther into my room, turning my bedside lamp on.
Turning around with makeup wipes in my hand, I jolt in shock when I see Bishop snoring on top of the covers of my bed. Well, that’s not fair, he’s not snoring, but his mouth is parted, an arm covering his eyes and he has one leg hanging off the bed. His chest rises and falls slowly. I