Come Out Swinging (Reach for the Moon Book 2) Read online

  “I need a shower,” I said, not able to articulate the big thoughts right now, the feeling of being dirty and encrusted with blood making my skin itch.

  “Upstairs?” Declan asked, frowning slightly.

  They didn’t like that idea, would cluster around my shower cubicle, watching like the hungry wolves they were. Hungry for me.

  “Is there a shower big enough to fit everyone in the enforcer’s quarters?” There was some shifting at that. “So you can watch over me as I wash this fucking blood off me.”

  “I’ll clear the guys out, make sure it’s clean,” Declan said, moving towards the door.

  Back when I was a horny teenager, getting into the men’s shower block would have been like manna from heaven. Bridget and some of my other cousins engaged in some fairly saucy speculation about what it would be like, being a fly on the wall in here, so just seeing a whole lot of white subway tile and a series of showerheads was a little bit of a let-down, considering the guy on guy orgies we’d speculated about. But a hand went to my shoulder as another undid the hospital gown I’d walked out in, the cool air welcome on my skin. Then they began to strip too.

  What I saw emerge from their uniforms of sweatpants and jeans, T-shirts and flannel shirts, well surpassed anything seventeen-year-old me could’ve imagined. If I could have gone back in time and told younger me to hold on, awesome was coming, maybe it would’ve helped, because I was struck dumb now. I was weak, gross, bloodied, and my head hurt, but I couldn’t feel any of that as they walked over to the showerheads and turned the water on. I hissed at the resulting steam, depriving me of even one detail of each of those naked bodies.

  “You’re needing.” I turned to see Micah standing by my side, his gaze sliding slowly over my body to return to meet mine. “You need us.”

  I nodded slightly, my lips feeling glued together right now.

  He moved in closer to the sound of the water, the slap of it hitting the tiles as the men washed themselves down. A hand came up, a thumb brushed my bottom lip, my mouth following it as he drew away. Micah just stared as his other hand landed on my hip and pulled me close so I could feel him—the tension in his body, the hard unrelenting muscle, the tight ache of his cock, ignored right now but pressing into me.

  “C’mon.”

  He grabbed my hand, pulling me closer to the showerheads, and Declan turned as he did so, lathering soap in his hands. Micah backed up until the water hit my skin, making me jump for a minute, and then I relaxed into it. The water was pulsing, loosening all the evidence of what had been done to me, sluicing it from my skin, only for it to swirl down the drain.

  “Be careful. She’s still not one hundred percent”

  I opened my eyes to see Zack, Lorcan, and Mase standing before me, hair dripping in points as they watched the other two men move closer. Declan slicked soap over my shoulder, down my arm, working in long strokes.

  “She’s also not gonna rest until we’ve seen to her,” Micah said with a low growl. “No bag work for her this time.” A kiss burned on the skin of my neck, sizzling with all that foreign touch. “Need to exhaust her in a less strenuous way, so she can rest until she’s healed enough to take down whoever did this.”

  Declan’s fingers worked their way around mine, cleaning off strangers’ touches and leaving just his.

  “You’re gonna make her come?” Lorcan’s eyebrow jerked up, but his eyes grew heated as his hand went to his cock. He smiled when my eyes followed his hand, watching that long, slow swivel. “Gotta be careful. Gotta be good, hard, make her let go of all of that shit, but have to watch out. She’s hurting.”

  “She’s also right here,” I said dryly.

  “I know. I can feel it inside me now, your need, maybe louder and clearer than you can.” His eyes flicked to Zack. “Couldn’t work out how he just seemed to know what you needed, but I do now. It came to me when you bit me, made me yours…” He paused for a moment, his hand slowing, his face going almost blank as he remembered it. “This isn’t for you,” he told Micah sternly.

  “It is,” Declan said, rubbing soap across my belly and then sweeping his hand up. “She doesn’t have to lay a finger on me, but I get this.” He drew my arm up, placed it around his shoulder as his hand skimmed over my sternum, his nose nuzzling into my neck. “I get to smell her need, feel her skin, press the body that I’ve spent years aching for against mine.”

  He turned me to face him, my arms going around his neck as a matter of course, my mouth searching for his. Declan smiled, bright and pure, and then he kissed me, that bristly beard soft against my skin as I tasted him. I felt his hands rub soap all over me, his fingers too slick to give me the friction I needed but making me aware of how good it would feel when they did.

  “God, I never thought I’d get another taste of you.”

  Declan’s voice was low, hushed, and even though the others could hear it, it was just for me and him. I nipped at his mouth, wanting the feel of his lips dimpling under my fangs, wanting him, when a single soapy finger slid up my spine. I looked over my shoulder, saw Micah watching his hand move as if transfixed, but not for long. Declan tugged my mouth back to his, and I got lost in his lips, right as Micah did a very thorough inspection of my entire back.

  “Fuuuck,” the other man groaned as he got to my arse, thumbs circling, Declan pulling away with a chuckle.

  “I think we’ve answered the perennial question of whether Micah’s a tits, arse, or leg man.”

  “It’s like two perfectly formed globes—”

  “And what are you?” I asked Declan.

  “You. I’m your man.”

  For a moment, I just stared as I felt Micah’s exploratory kisses up the backs of my legs, his hands holding my ankles wide. Dec’s eyes barely blinked as he stared back, only softening as he smiled.

  “I just want you, Paige, all of you.”

  “So have her. The warm water’s running out, and she needs to be in bed,” Zack grumbled.

  Declan just chuckled in response and spun me around, grabbing the soap and rubbing it into my pubic hair as Micah just watched, unblinking. He caught my every movement with those glowing predator eyes—the jump when Declan’s hand slid lower, the groan when his fingers parted my folds, scrubbing me clean in slower and slower movements. The soap acted like a lubricant as he rolled my clit between his fingers, making me squirm.

  “You will,” Micah said, crouching at my feet, watching Declan work me up. “You’ll sleep curled around us, won’t take a step without us. We’re your shadows now, but your pleasure is ours too.” His hand slid up my thighs, thumbs pressing firmly on the weakened muscles, as if it were his grip that kept them strong. “We’ll keep you tied to that bed and string your bliss out over and over, if that’s what it takes. Keep you on your back and gasping until…”

  He got to his feet, moving closer, his eyes trained entirely on my lips. “Until you’re ready to step on over us, ready to meet those fucks head-on with those fists.” His hands closed over mine, forming the requisite shape. “That chin tilted up, eyes flashing your challenge.”

  His fingers pressed under my jaw, and Micah stared into my eyes for several heartbeats.

  “Rinse her off, Dec. I need a taste of that pussy more than I need my next breath.”

  I just watched him drop down again, each of us observing the other as Declan’s beard bristled against my neck, kisses running down it. He detached the mobile showerhead from the wall and then directed the spray at my body. Micah didn’t wait until the soap slide free, until he was sure I was clean. He just moved in, holding my gaze the whole time and placing a kiss on my hip before his attention shifted.

  “Gonna make you feel good,” Declan rumbled, keeping my body leaned against his as his hands roamed. “Take the pain away, only pleasure.” Then they moved as one and did just that, Declan’s fingers tormenting my nipples, scoring over my torso, Micah shifting between my parted thighs and then licking up.

  This, this was me, where I needed
to be. The doc had been reluctant, really reluctant to let me go, but I knew I’d be better here. Just as conventionally mated couples felt less pain when touching, they bled mine away, leaving only them. The body I arched against as Micah’s fingers dug into my hips, pulling me close. Declan’s mouth on mine, swallowing my initial pants. His lifting of one of my legs so it was slung over Micah’s shoulder, opening me up for him. Micah’s groan at what he saw.

  “Fuck…” he growled, running a finger along my seam. Micah’s eyes flicked up to meet mine, then a grin spread across his face, something that darkened as my lips fell open. He watched every response as he pushed a finger inside me, hooking it up, then when I started to squirm, added another. He pumped them into me, listening to my moans, and then jerked his gaze down and buried his face in me.

  My fingers dug into the damp strands of his hair. I wasn’t sure if I was holding him in place or if it was the sexual equivalent of the ‘oh fuck’ handle, because oh fuck indeed. The pain in my body transmuted into the ache in my pelvis, low down and deep, only stoked higher by the rapid thrust of his fingers. I heard Declan chuckle as he saw my body sway and shift, seeking more, less, I didn’t really know, but he decided for me.

  “He’s hungry for you,” he mumbled in my ear, nipping the shell. “We all are. Does it feel good? That cunning tongue on your clit, making you come apart. You still make those cute little noises that you always used to make in my car.”

  “Declan…”

  “Yes, love?”

  “Shut up and kiss me.”

  So he did, the two of them twisting me around them, stringing me out taut until I couldn’t determine one from the other.

  There was only this.

  Declan swallowed several of my sobs of pleasure, then pulled away to watch me come apart.

  “Get her there,” he snapped at Micah. “Suck her clit, fill her, make her stretch for us.”

  “A facsimile of what’s to come?”

  Lorcan’s voice was a low purr as he edged in closer, but his hand was moving hard and fast over his cock. As were all of them. I felt them enclose me, my attention narrowing down to this tiny little bubble, Lorcan, Mase, and Zack’s bodies all brushing mine, their panted breaths on my skin. Their moans were mine, and we breathed in the sounds of each other’s pleasure until it all came to a head.

  Hands and fingers raked my body, scored my skin. Mouths kissed, sucked, bit. Cocks rubbed, thrust against my flanks. They marked me, owned me, took everything that the interloper had done, tossed it away, and replaced it with them. Their cum hit my skin as my fingers bit down cruelly on Micah’s scalp, but he just worked his face deeper in me, licking, sucking every reaction until finally I burst.

  “Yes…” someone, all of them hissed, I couldn’t tell. I went limp, falling back into their arms as the fire lit within.

  They held me as I squirmed, as I screamed, as my cunt snapped down hard on Micah’s fingers, half of my cries an alert that this wasn’t enough. I needed more, them, each one of their knots shoved in hard, my fangs in their flesh. Instead, I was carried about by Micah’s frantic tongue, pushing me for more, more, more, even as I felt I couldn’t.

  But I did, still shivering with those electrical pulses when Micah pulled back, eyes pure silver, a snarl on his face. He spun me around, my body limp, plastered against the tile as he poured shower gel into his hand then slapped it on his dick.

  “Need to mark you,” he growled in my ear, something that drew disgruntled sounds from my pack. “Want to bury myself in you. Make you mine!”

  His dick wedged itself against my arse, in no danger of sliding anywhere I didn’t want it, but that bit of friction seemed to drive him nuts.

  “Fuck… Tell me to stop, to fuck off. Tell me to jerk one off in my hand.”

  But I didn’t, did I? Because as he pushed me against the wall, the water running over us, his mouth on my skin, his teeth at my neck, his hands gripping me tight as he rubbed against me, my back arched and I felt something I hadn’t felt since before that night.

  Powerful.

  I loved his need and desperation. I loved the frantic rake of his nails, the messy, irregular thrust of his cock against me, slipping over my skin. I liked hearing him fall apart, his breath ragged, right up until he spilled across me, hot and scalding. For a moment, we just hung there, sucking in oxygen in long shudders.

  When I turned around, the water washed all trace of them away, but still, I had been anointed. With them, with what I was, what I had with them. What the interloper and this town had wanted to take away.

  “Was the attack on me motivated by Dad’s death?” I asked when I was washed clean. “Or was it this they tried to destroy?”

  Zack muscled forward, shaking his head before pressing his forehead to mine.

  “Good thoughts, baby, but they’re for later. You need rest, time to heal. Hold onto them, love, let them percolate inside. But rest first.”

  His words and their withdrawal made it all come crashing back in, the exhaustion, then pain. I nodded, wrapping an arm around his neck as he swept me up into his arms and then carried me out, back into the house and into our den.

  I fell into a cocoon of sorts for the next few days, sleeping, curling up between them, taking my medication like a good little bunny, but I knew when I was healed. When I’d woken up, their heads popped up to look down at me with eyes shining like the moon, and I met every single one of them.

  “Time to hunt?” Lorcan asked, his grin baring his razor-sharp teeth, and I just nodded. We scrambled out of the bed, then I walked downstairs with them at my back. I opened the door of my father’s office, looking at the doorframe, the shelves of books, the massive desk. When I picked up the landline phone receiver, I heard the stutter of beeps that told me that voicemail had been left. I entered the pin number, my birthday, and listened to the first one.

  “Paige, I’m not sure when you’ll get this, but we’ve been refused entry to the hospital and the family estate! We were told you were hurt and needed to check that those bloody men were caring for you. Call me back as soon as you get this, please.”

  The last bit was tacked on, a sudden softening of tone after Nance’s strident demands. The next call and the next and the next were all the same. I deleted those two without listening through to the end, and then I erased all of them as I heard Nance’s increasingly desperate tones.

  “The first suspect was always Nance, wasn’t it?” I asked, feeling my gut fall through the floor.

  “She makes the most sense,” Mason said. “We didn’t get any foreign scents inside the house, but there were none specific to your family other than their usual residual ones.”

  “Give her what she wants,” I said, putting down the phone. “Bring her here, and only her.”

  “We can—” he said, stepping forward, hands going to fists.

  “No.” I shook my head. “I’ll do it.”

  Chapter 4

  “Nance is here like you asked.”

  Mason stood at the front of my father’s desk, and I had to search my mind for reasons not to drag him on top of it and have my damn way with him. Because we were still finding our way back to each other. Because I needed to know if he was all the way in this time. Because to be frank, I needed some assurances he wouldn’t have yet another change of heart, but he seemed to sense at least part of what I was thinking.

  I raked my eyes over those broad shoulders, the T-shirt, as always, stretched tight to make sure as much of his body was on display as possible, but he met my gaze with an equally smouldering look.

  “Let her cool her heels for a while,” I said, a time old tradition for showing dominance Dad used to employ with pushy people. “Bring her in later today. I want some time to search through Dad’s office. I think we all need to get on that. Many hands and all that.” I glanced around the room. “This is where they were when they hit me approximately, and it makes sense that whatever they were after would be here.”

  “You want everyone
to help?” An eyebrow shot up at that, his mouth twisting in a smile. “I’ll call the guys in…”

  I swallowed, realising just what that would be like in this room. It was relatively large for an office, often used as a space for meetings with his enforcers, but… I swallowed, fairly sure Dad wouldn’t have felt the thrill of excitement I felt at the idea of them all being in the same room. But that customary feeling, of guilt, of greed, of being the girl who had the most cake, came hot on its heels. I felt it when I nodded to Mason, when I told him to bring them in. I felt it when they all filed in, forming a loose ring around the desk. But I pushed past it when I got to my feet.

  “So it’ll be tempting to drop trou and do a bit of naked investigating,” I said, getting a chorus of growls for my trouble, “but we need to try and work out what they wanted.”

  “What if it was just you?” Zack said. “It could be one of your suitors trying to get to you.”

  “They were looking for something. I heard the rustling around from the kitchen.” I looked out the office door, across the living area to where I could see the fridge. “If they just wanted me, they would’ve come straight for me. I wasn’t being super quiet, and I opened the fridge door. The only other rooms downstairs are a couple of spare bedrooms that no one’s used for ages.”

  “And Adam’s office,” Declan said, crossing his arms. “What the hell could they be looking for?”

  “Evidence,” Micah said flatly. “Everyone knows the jig is up, that Adam was murdered.”

  “The police have gone through here?” I asked, seeing the usually neat piles of paper in disarray.

  Mason nodded. “They took some paperwork away, but I’ve got copies of everything. It was mainly financial records, in case money was a motivating factor.”

  “All right then…” I paused, looking at it, everything Dad had been working on before he died, and felt that familiar ache in my chest. But I pushed it to one side. I’d grieve when his murderer was in the ground, just like he was. “I guess we work out what’s here, put it in order, and then see if we can find anything someone would be willing to break into the house for.”