The Never List

by Jade Presley

To the readers who always struggle to pick a favorite book boyfriend. Don’t worry—here, you’ll never have to choose. It’s okay to love them all.

Someone who could take on all of us and beg for more, someone who wouldn’t cower in fear beneath us… Again, a fantasy.

I can’t stop my grin at the rush, the knowledge that this tiny gold contraption now holds our lives. One break and we’ll all plummet to our deaths.

It’s easy to laugh at death when you’ve got nothing to lose.

“Touch her like that one more time, and you’ll lose more than that arm,” the man says, and the enforcer bows quickly before practically sprinting off the dais.

The rubies, that’s Kal Erhart. Sapphires is Axl Dawson. Emeralds is Pierce Bertrand. And the black diamonds…that’s Jax Lavine.

If they wanted an easy win, they picked the wrong fucking girl.

“I’m honored to be your first ride,”

“In my hands?” he asks. “You’re always safe.”

“When I fuck you, Rylee Gray,” I say, kissing the top of the lace undergarment that still covers her, “it will be in a place where you can scream my name.”

“Now,” I say, glancing up at her while I hook my fingers into the lace and rake it down her legs, too. “Watch yourself in the mirror while I make you come on my tongue.”

“Even a night away from you will feel like a lifetime,” he cuts me off, nothing but sincerity in his eyes.

“I’ve never been this starved for anyone.” He tears the lace free of my hips with barely a tug. “Do you understand that?” he asks. “Do you understand what you’ve done to me?”

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he says. “Riding me. I love you like this.”

“If I win, you’ll let me and Kal take you right here on this beach.” I cock a brow at Kal behind me before turning back to her.

Better to keep your cards close to the chest than air out your intentions for everyone to hear.

I want her in a way I’ve never wanted anyone before. It goes beyond the fundamental need for it… I love this woman, even though it’s way too early to say as much.

“I’ll never hide when something I love is in danger,”

“I have every intention of making you a delicious breakfast while you change into some comfortable sleep clothes, and then after we eat, I say a good long nap is in order.” His smile deepens. “How is that for foreplay, my darling?”

“I’d rather be in danger with them than be safe somewhere without them.”

After months of being unable to crack through her unknown mental walls, she’s let me in willingly, and it’s…everything.

“You appear to enjoy being taken by multiple men, darling,” I say. “Wait until I take you.”

And Nightmares don’t fall in love and live happily ever after.

“I want to punish you for lying. I want to cut the truth out of you. I want to fuck you so hard and so long, you won’t be able to think about anyone outside the Legends,” he says. “I want to take turns with them, lighting you up in ways you’ve never even dared to imagine.”

His grip tightens in my hair. “Not because of what you’re hiding from me, butterfly,” he chides, and my eyes flare. “But because what I’ll do for you if you’re really mine.”

“You should know better than to touch anyone in the way you were,” Jax says. “Especially what’s mine.”

“You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met, and my mother is a fucking goddess,” I cut her off. “What do you mean you couldn’t stop it?”

“That’s what you’re afraid of?” I ask through my laughter. “Where you come from? I don’t give a shit where you were born,” I say. “None of us would. What I care about is your lack of self-preservation when it comes to me.”

“Or I’ll do worse. If you’re mine and something happens to you, someone threatens you…” I drop my head. Can’t believe I’m admitting this to her as I meet her gaze again. “I’ll burn the whole fucking world down and laugh the ash out of my lungs.”

“The minute I heard your voice, the minute I sensed your emotions, you felt like mine.”

Fates above, this woman was truly made for me.

“I gave this to you because of your heart. Because of the way you were with my people and your hopes for the future of Lumathyst. I gave this to you because you made me laugh while challenging everything I’ve ever believed and made me desperate for you even while I’m right beside you. That’s love. It has nothing to do with where you’re from or what power runs through your veins.”

“You know I love to watch,” he says when I whimper at his lack of contact. “Show me how good you can fuck my friends.”

“Eyes on me, love,” Kal demands, and I obey.

“I don’t like being attached to you,” she admits, shaking me off. “I’ve always been so careful to never get attached, but you… Goddess, you’re impossible.”

“You can stay. All of you. Try again another time if I don’t succeed. But Rylee is my mate. I know it. There is no one else for me. Either I get her back or I die.”