and the words come out with a laugh of relief. “It could be anything.”
The hands on my shoulders tighten. Cass begins stroking the side of my neck with his pinkie finger.
Zachary takes my chin, but almost gently this time, tipping my head up. “We don’t have to know what it says to know it’s what we want. What we’ve been looking for.”
I grab his wrist and slowly, carefully, pull his hand away from my face. “Gabriel’s not perfect.” I nod a little, glancing at each of them, even the two standing behind me. “But neither are any of us. We’re all sinners, right?” I face Zachary again. “What if it’s all in your head? Maybe it’s time you stopped looking for ghosts in the shadows.”
The moment the words leave my mouth, I know it was the wrong thing to say.
Zachary twists his hand, grabbing my wrist and tugging it down.
Before I can pull away, he’s forcing me to grab his hard cock right through his jeans, his fingers folding over mine. He makes me squeeze him, and that only makes him harden even more.
“Does that feel real to you?” he says.
I try to pull away, but he just grips me tighter. I can feel him pulsing beneath my hand.
“Stop,” I whisper.
“Never,” he says, his lips peeling back in a snarl. “We’ll never stop. Not for you, not for Gabriel. No one can stop us, Trinity.”
He presses against me, sandwiching me between him and the men behind me. Apollo stalks closer, for once not looking like he finds anything about this situation remotely humorous.
“Not even your father.”
I can’t fight one of them. Definitely not four. Begging has proved useless. So, instead, I scream.
But that just makes them laugh.
And then everything goes to shit.
Reuben’s hand slips around the front of my throat. The other, around my waist. He drags me over the floor and sits on the couch, pulling me onto his lap.
When I try and kick his shins, he wraps his legs around mine, pinning them to the couch.
And then drags them apart.
My skirt dips into that space, thankfully retaining some of my modesty, but that doesn’t give me a shred of relief.
Not when I’m faced with three men who look ready to rip every last stitch of fabric off me with their fucking teeth.
When Apollo darts forward, I let out another useless scream. A scream he silences with a kiss as he climbs onto his knees beside Reuben
Now I can barely breathe, never mind fill my lungs for another scream. I tear my lips away from Apollo, but Zachary steps forward and grabs my jaw in his strong, unrelenting grip.
“That’s not how it works, little girl. If he wants to kiss you, then you’ll let him fucking kiss you.”
I only realize he’s holding a belt in his hands when he slaps it against his thigh. I jerk at the sound, and squirm on Reuben’s lap in an effort to escape.
Again, futile, but there’s no way I’m just going to sit here and take this.
Zachary said he’ll never stop?
Neither will I.
But you wanted this, Trinity, a sinister voice croons inside my head. You said you wanted to know what it feels like…? Well, you’re about to find out.
No, not like this! I wanted—
Flowers and romance and dinner dates?
Normal.
I wanted normal.
Zachary turns my face back to Apollo and releases me. Apollo’s lips capture mine, his kiss going from tentative to violent in a matter of seconds.
My dress, full sleeves and a bodice that reaches my collarbones, opens with a zip in the back. So when Apollo tries to slide a hand behind the fabric, it’s too tight for him to gain access. He makes a grumpy sound and shoves a hand between Reuben and me, hunting.
I feel every inch of that zipper coming down. And when I slap my arms over my chest to keep my dress in place, Cass grabs my wrists and wrenches me open again.
So I bite Apollo’s lip. Not hard, I mean, I don’t even taste blood, but—
“Fuck!” He jumps back, pressing the back of his hand to his mouth. “She bit me!”
I feel as much as hear Reuben chuckling.
“I don’t think we’ve made ourselves clear,” Zachary says.
My eyes are drawn reluctantly to him when he drags his chair in front of me. He uses his boot to urge Reuben’s legs wider, in turn spreading me open even further. Then he sits down, his legs between mine and Reuben’s, and leans in close.
“No one dragged you down here,