Sweet Retribution (Ruthless Games, #2)

by Callie Rose

“He... things got intense really quickly. He bought me stuff and took me places I’d never been able to afford. He told me I was the most beautiful woman he’d ever—” “Skip the dick sucking.” Ryland crosses his arms over his chest, glaring down at her.

Fury explodes in my chest, flooding me with such pure rage that I literally see a wash of red in my vision for a second. “Hold her.”

“Look at me.” My voice is flat. Hissing a pained breath, Natalie tilts her head up to meet my gaze, her face battered and swollen. “Leave.” I flex my fingers, feeling the ache in my knuckles and the pain that travels all the way up my arm. “Go to whatever city you like. Fuck whatever men you like, and let them buy you whatever the fuck they think you’re worth. But if you ever come back to Halston, I’ll kill you.”

“Jesus, Rose,” he murmurs as he slips the cell back into his pocket. He glances down at me, and at the bloody knuckles on my hand. “I knew you were a badass, but I didn’t know you were that badass.”

“I’m not surprised Marcus offered to help you look. He’d do just about anything for you, Rose.” He glances back at the picture as I tuck it away, tugging his bottom lip between his teeth. “And he knows what it’s like to miss someone. Ry and I are both only children, but Marcus had a little sister. She died when he was a kid.”

A large hand settles over mine, and I jerk slightly, pulled out of my thoughts. When I look over at Ryland, his jaw is set so tightly that the muscles in the side of his face bulge. Tears track in a silent stream down his face, slipping off his chin to disappear into the black fabric of his suit.

“How do you not get it?” he rasps. “How the fuck do you not get it by now, Ayla? You didn’t just save Marcus’s life the night you took those bullets for him. You saved mine. You saved Theo’s.” I blink up at him, completely thrown off balance. “What do you mean? The gun was aimed at Marcus. The bullets—” “I’m not talking about the gun.” He shakes his head, his gaze never leaving mine. “I’m not talking about the bullets.”

Don’t you wish it’d been me who got shot instead of Marcus? Because I sure as fuck do.” Ryland’s face freezes, his expression turning to stone. “Don’t ask me that. You can’t fucking ask me that.” “Why not?” I blurt.

Ryland drags in a shuddering breath, his nostrils flickering. “Because you can’t ask me to choose between two things I love.”

It’s an immolating kiss. The kind that ruins you. The kind you don’t walk away from unchanged.

“Fuck, Ayla,” he mutters against my mouth. “I tried. Goddammit, I tried so hard not to want you. Not to fucking love you.”

“Don’t you see?” His hazel eyes burn into mine. “You’d be better off if I didn’t love you. If I didn’t need you. If we could let you go.”

Maybe he’s right. Maybe I would be better off. Maybe I would be safer. But that’s not the fucking point anymore. Because he doesn’t just need me. I need him too. We’re in way too fucking deep by now. Might as well drown together.

“I’ve wanted to do that for so fucking long,” he mutters, his pupils expanding as desire darkens his eyes. “That night, at the safe house. God, I wanted you.” He had me.

“I was too fucking scared I’d break you.”

“Do I look like I break easily?” His nostrils flare, a new kind of heat burning in his eyes. “No.”

“I’m not gonna be gentle,” he rasps.

“I’m gonna come. I’m gonna… fuck… please…” “Let me see you.”

Is this totally fucked up? Is it insane for me to have feelings for all three of the men who’ve basically stalked me for the past two and a half years? And did I just betray Marcus somehow? Ryland shakes his head. I’m sure I didn’t say any of that out loud, but he seems to have read my thoughts somehow. “Marcus knows.” His full lips, swollen and red from our bruising kisses, ghost over mine once more. “He knows how I feel about you. How Theo feels about you. He’s always known. And he meant what he said in the alley that night. I’m sure of it. We’ve never shared a woman before, but we all knew you were different from the very first moment you came into our lives.”

“I guess this means I won our fight.” I kiss him again, squeezing my inner walls around him and making him groan. “I’m helping you guys. Whether you like it or not.”

“All right,” I say after the silence drags out a beat too long. “Then I guess the next question is, what do each of them want? What do they need? Or even better, what are they afraid of?” Theo’s brows pull together a little, and he gives me an impressed look. “Vicious.” He shakes his head, a smile playing at the corners of his lips. “None of us wanted to drag you into this world, but you’re adapting to it fast.”

He takes me to an expensive as fuck boutique in downtown Halston, and intimidates the fuck out of the saleswoman as he waits for me with folded arms, his expression impassive. Or at least, it’s impassive until I step out of the dressing room. Then hunger infuses his features, the heat between us flaring so strongly that the saleswoman flushes and stammers some excuse before making herself scarce.

Desire still sparks in his eyes, but there’s something else there too now. Possessiveness. Pride. “A hundred other dresses wouldn’t fit you like this one,” he murmurs softly. “This is the one.”

I don’t see him on my first pass, so I start to scan the crowd again. But when my gaze drifts over the entrance to the ballroom, my entire body freezes. My heart freezes. My lungs freeze. My skin flushes hot and then goes ice cold. Earth and air. At least ten yards separate us, but I can still pick out the sky blue and rich brown color that complement each other so beautifully. The man’s gaze settles on mine, and my entire world shifts on its axis. Marcus.

“Maybe I didn’t make myself clear enough, angel,” he murmurs, his lips ghosting over my skin with each word. “When I said you were mine, I fucking meant it. And I’m yours.”

“I will always come back to you, angel. Do you understand that?” he murmurs, breathing hard as he gazes down at me. His eyes are almost entirely black, and he looks more like a devil than a man in this moment. My devil. My man.

hope he managed to suck out a piece of my soul. He already has my fucking heart.

“I meant what I said,” he murmurs finally, his breath warming my skin as he speaks. “I’ll find a way out of this. I won’t marry Victoria. Ever.” He pulls back then, his gaze serious, his jaw set. “I’ll kill her before I ever fucking marry her.”

I feel like I should tell him not to say that, but I can’t. The truth is, I think I’d kill her before I let him fucking marry her—and if that makes me as psychotic as Marcus, well, I guess we have more in common than I thought.

“Marcus?” My fingers slide through the hair at the nape of his neck, my nails gently scratching his scalp. “Yeah?” “I’m really fucking glad you didn’t die.”

“How could I?” He traces the line of my jaw with his fingertips, his eyes warming. “I still owe you a hundred million heartbeats.”

I nod, drawing in a deep breath. “How do I look?” Marcus smirks, not an ounce of shame on his face. “Like you got fucked on a washer.”

“That’s why I’m glad as fuck that you had Theo and Ry here with you when I couldn’t be.” His eyes burn with intensity. “There is no one else in the world I would trust you with besides the two of them. No one else I trust to take care of you.”

“Angel.” Marcus’s fingers release my hair, trailing down the side of my cheek as he watches my face carefully. “Do you care about them?” I can’t lie. No one would believe it anyway. Not even me. “Yes,” I whisper. “Do you want them?” My pussy clenches at his words, and I nod, swallowing hard. “Have you fucked them?”

“Show me.”

“Show me how you feel about my brothers,” he repeats quietly. “Because I already know how they feel about you.”

My fears were unfounded. Marcus isn’t pissed off at the idea of me being with his two closest friends, the two men who are his brothers in everything but blood. No. He’s turned on by it.

Marcus smiles as if he can tell what I’m thinking, but then he jerks his chin to indicate the other two men in the room. “Show me, angel. I want to see.”

My fingers trail up his thigh, and when I wrap my hand around the base of his cock, something glints in the light. A piercing. Oh, fuck, the head of his cock is pierced.

I rise unsteadily to my feet and am about to crawl back onto Theo’s lap when he stops me. When I blink down at him, he grins sinfully at me, then grasps my hips in his hands and turns me around. “Marcus wants to see, remember?” he murmurs, his hands running up and down the outsides of my thighs. “So does Ryland. Let them see.”

“I’m not gonna last long, Rose,” he murmurs into my ear, pressing a sloppy kiss to my hair and the side of my face. “I can’t. You feel too fucking good, and I’ve wanted this for too fucking long. I’ll fuck you slow next time, but right now, I just need to come inside you. I need to feel you take my cum. I need to make you mine.” You’ve taken my cock. You’ve taken my cum. You’re fucking mine.

“See what you did to them, Rose?” Theo chuckles again, a rough, warm sound. “It’s the same thing you do to me. We’re fucking gone for you, sweetheart. We’re wrecked.”

Theo laughs softly, his hands skimming down my back. “Rose, I don’t know how the hell the three of us got lucky enough to have you in our lives. But I think we’re all—finally—agreed on the fact that this is exactly where you fucking belong.”

Aut Viam Inveniam Aut Faciam. My brows pull together as I cock my head. “What does this mean?” His eyelids droop for a moment, as if he’s lost in the feeling of my touch. Then his expression hardens a little, and he answers. “It’s Latin. It means ‘I will either find a way or make one.’ I got it after our first game. After I realized what the fuck my mom had signed me up for.”

“I never wanted this, Rose,” Theo says softly. “To play this game. Fuck, I don’t even want the prize. When you’re at the top of the heap, everybody’s eyes are on you. Everybody wants what you have, and they’ll do whatever they can to tear you down.” He shakes his head. “But now I’ve got another reason to win. We all do. It’s our best chance at keeping you safe.”

“You better fucking keep yourselves safe too.” My low murmur is almost a growl, and I kiss him again, harder this time. “I’m not losing any of you.”

“The doc kept telling me how fucking lucky I was. That if I’d gotten shot on the other side, there’s a good chance the bullets would’ve hit my heart. The fact that I spun around at the last second? The fact that I had my arms around you? That saved me. I owe you twice as much now.” I scowl at him. “That doesn’t count. That’s just a coincidence. Good luck, like the doctor said.” His grin is fierce and feral. “It counts if I say it counts.” He pushes me onto my back, resting on an elbow to hover over me. “And you’re more than good luck, Ayla. You’re my fucking guardian angel, and you always will be.”

He curses under his breath. “Dammit. I swore to fuckin’ god I was done letting you step in front of bullets for me. And as far as I’m concerned, that’s what Victoria is. She’s a stray goddamn bullet.”

My lips curl, anger burning through me. “If you don’t want me to fuck your future husband in a laundry room, maybe try marrying someone who actually loves you.”

“Angel,” Marcus rasps, his fingers sliding through my messy dark hair. “I followed you since that night, even though I knew I fucking shouldn’t, because I had to know what was inside you. I had to know what made you do that, what made you do… anything. What made you tick. And everything I learned? Every little piece of you I discovered? Instead of satisfying me, it just made me want more. I still want more. I want every fucking piece of you that you’ll give me, and I don’t care if it makes me selfish. I’m never giving them back.”