: Chapter 30

“You know this is just a way for him to feel like he’s got a bigger dick than us, right?” Zeke grumbles as we wait in Jensen Michaels’s office. “Like we couldn’t have signed these papers in our lawyer’s office.”

I stretch my neck, feeling the tension already growing. Xander squeezes my shoulder and winks at me, reminding me that this will all be over soon. After merging three giants into one supernova—Hellsgate Media—we will be the owners of the largest media organization in the western world.

“It’ll be fine, buddy.” Xander gives Zeke a reassuring pat on the back. “And this is the last time we have to see the slimy prick. This time next week, it will be done.”

Zeke rolls his eyes but nods.

“Besides, we all know our dicks are way bigger than his, right?” I add.

That gets a laugh out of him just as Jensen and his secretary walk into the room. The asshole’s face twists with contempt as he takes a seat behind his desk. I understand why he hates us. He’s wounded and acting out. Like a dying animal striking out one last time before being willing to accept defeat.

“Are you three out of your fucking minds?” Snarling, he tosses a stack of papers onto his desk. If I had to guess, I’d say they’re the new contract terms I drew up yesterday.

Zeke bristles beside me, but I shoot him a warning look. He doesn’t need to smash Jensen’s face into the desk, despite how much he wants to.

I narrow my eyes at Jensen. Thieving fucker. “It’s a fair deal given our recent discoveries.”

“It’s fifty-seven million less than we agreed.” Spittle collects in the corners of his mouth.

Leaning forward, I plant my hands on his desk. “You stole your employee’s pension funds, asshole. Funds that we are willing to replace so that no one will ever know what a lying, thieving piece of shit you really are.”

“That amounted to thirty-two million dollars. I was going to put it back as soon as the sale went through.”

“They’ll be our employees, not yours. We will be the ones to put it back.”

“And the extra twenty-five million?” He bangs his fist on the desk like an angry toddler.

“Call that our compensation.”

His face turns beet red, his mouth opening and closing like a fish on a line.

Xander chuckles and crosses his legs, resting his ankle on his thigh. “Careful, JM, you’ll give yourself another cardiac event if you keep foaming at the mouth like that.”

“Fuck you, you—you little bastard fuckers,” he sputters.

“Or we can just tell the Feds what you did,” I suggest.

“You greedy bastards. Don’t you have enough money without—”

“Without what? Legitimately earning more? We’ve worked for every single fucking cent we have. Never stolen anything from anyone.” With a humorless laugh, I add, “Unlike you.”

His scowl makes his eyes appear tiny, like pinpricks on his face. “You might be buying this company, but Grayson News Corp and Genevieve will always be mine. It was my name that started all this from nothing. My fucking name!” He stabs his pointer finger into his chest.

“But it won’t be Grayson News Corp for much longer.” I stand, ready to leave, and Zeke and Xander follow suit.

He sneers. “My employees will remain loyal to me long after I’m gone. You better watch your back, West. You’ll never be able to trust any of them, never know if they’re fucking you over just because I asked them to. I have people in every department of this building.”

“Yeah?” I lunge forward, and he flinches. With a vicious smile, I straighten his tie. He knows we won’t reveal his pension scam because the investigation will hold up our merger, but that doesn’t mean he has any power here. “You might own a few people in this building, fuck-knuckle, but we own people all over this city. So you should be the one watching your back.”

“You think Lily’s in the den?” Xander asks as we step out of the elevator leading to the penthouse.

Zeke rolls his eyes, but I don’t miss the flicker of a smile on his face. Xander’s like an excitable puppy where Lily’s concerned, but I get it. She’s hard not to be happy around. She brings something new to our dynamic and makes coming home even more enjoyable. It’s like she’s always been here, and the thought that one day she might not be, that she’ll decide to leave once our three months are up, fills me with a sensation of dread that I’ve never experienced over a woman.

She told me she loved me a few nights ago, right before she threw up all over me. Ever since, I’ve wanted to ask if she meant it or if it was the champagne talking. She gives her body to us completely, but I can tell how fiercely she guards her heart. I understand her need to do that. The three of us are a lot.

Not hearing anything, I glance down the hallway. She always has the radio on when she’s in the kitchen, so she’s not in there. “Let’s go check,” I say, heading in the direction of the den.

We’re home earlier than expected. Maybe she’s working on her article, the one she’s been so secretive about. Sure enough, Lily’s sitting on the sofa, head bent over her laptop as she types furiously.

“Hey, shorty,” Xander says, seemingly unable to resist running over to her and jumping onto the sofa beside her.

She lets out a yelp of surprise and slams her laptop shut. “Jesus, Fitch!” Her cheeks turn a bright shade of pink, and she places her hand over her heart. “You scared the hell outta me.”

With a giant smile on his face, he takes her hand and laces his fingers through hers. “Sorry.”

“What were you working on?” Zeke sits in the armchair and eyes her with curiosity.

Her throat thickens as she swallows. She brushes a strand of hair from her face and narrows her eyes at him. “My article.”

Xander shifts onto his knees and bounces. “You gonna tell us what it’s about?”

Lily shakes her head. “I’ve already told you, it’s a secret project. I haven’t told anyone about it except my editor.”

I perch on the arm of the chair beside Zeke, watching her intently now too.

“You can tell us though, right?” Xander trails his fingers along her collarbone.

She hugs her laptop to her chest and grins at him. “You can read it when it’s published, like everybody else.”

Xander’s fingers drift down to her ribs, and she squirms beneath his touch. “But I already told you, we’re not like everybody else, are we, shorty?”

She clamps her lips shut, but a giggle escapes when Xander begins to tickle her.

“Are we?” he asks again, still tickling her.

Squawking with laughter, Lily squirms to get away, but he straddles her, keeping her in place on the sofa as he continues his onslaught. Her squeals and giggles fill the small room and make both Zeke and me smile.

Her arms go slack around the laptop, and Xander wrenches it from her grasp with a cry of victory. “West,” he calls over his shoulder, holding out his prize. I jump up and snatch it from him, but the screensaver is already in place when I open it.

“Password, princess?”

“N-no,” she stammers between laughs.

“Tell him and I’ll stop.” Xander’s words are muffled by her neck.

“Never,” she squeals as he pins her arms above her head with one hand and goes on tickling and kissing her. Her back bows as tears of laughter run down her face. “Fitch!”

I step closer to them, and she looks up. “Give me your password, Lily.”

Xander eases up a little, but my temptress merely grins and shakes her head at me.

“You know I could just crack it if I really wanted to?” I remind her. It would take me a few days, but I could do it.

“Yes,” she says with a soft purr that bypasses my brain and goes straight to my dick. Then she arches one perfect eyebrow at me. “But that would be a gross invasion of my privacy, and you wouldn’t do that, right?”

Grumbling, I drop the laptop onto the empty armchair beside me.

Her smile turns triumphant. “Thought so.”

“You know you’re about to pay for your disobedience though, right?” She sinks her teeth into her lush bottom lip, and my cock throbs. I’m going to enjoy sinking my own teeth into every fucking part of her body very soon. The perfect way to relieve any tension.

Her green eyes sparkle. “Oh, I sure hope so.”

I rock my head from side to side. “Let her up, Fitch.”

Fitch throws me a grin over his shoulder and stands, holding out his hand to her. She takes it and allows him to pull her up.

Zeke stands now too, and the sexual tension in the room is elevated about two thousand notches. He steps up beside me. “How long you think we should give them?”

Fitch arches an eyebrow. “Them?”

Zeke runs a hand over his jaw. “Seems only fair to even the odds, don’t you think? Three against one would be no sport at all.”

“Sport?” Lily’s beautiful face pulls into a frown.

Xander licks his lips and tightens his grip on Lily’s hand. Wide-eyed and innocent, she looks between the three of us.

Zeke curls a strand of her hair between his thumb and forefinger. “You’re going to run, buttercup, and we’re going to hunt you down.”

She shivers. “Hunt us down?”

“I think two minutes should be enough,” Zeke says, ignoring Lily’s puzzled expression.

“Wait, what happens when you catch us?” Her tits heave under her tight tank top, and all I can think about is tearing it from her body and sucking on her nipples. My cock is harder than an iron bar.

Zeke laughs darkly. “What do you think?”

The blue of Xander’s eyes is barely visible around his blown pupils. “They’ll fuck us until we can’t walk,” he answers for us.

Lily sucks in a stuttered breath. “Oh.”

I start unbuttoning my shirt. I get hot when I hunt. “You’re going to need a safe word, princess. You know what a safe word is for?”

She blinks at me, her bright green eyes growing dark. “I do. But why will I need one?”

“It’s the adrenaline,” Xander says with a dark chuckle.

Her mouth opens, but it takes a few beats for her to speak. “The adrenaline?”

“When you’re running from us, your adrenaline will spike even though, logically, you know you’re not in any danger.” I unfasten the last button and work on my cufflinks. “Maybe you’ll even want to be caught.” Xander nods. The little brat always wants to be caught. I tilt my head and watch Lily, but other than showing curiosity, she doesn’t react. “But your body will still respond the way it’s programmed to.”

“Fight or flight,” Zeke adds.

She nods her understanding, and something tells me she knows exactly what he’s referring to, as though she’s had direct experience with it. “So, even if you want what’s happening, you may struggle. You might fight us …”

“Scratch. Bite,” Zeke offers with a wicked glint in his eyes.

I rake my eyes down her perfect body. This is going to be so much fucking fun. “And I won’t lie, we both love it when our prey doesn’t make it easy.”

“So I need a safe word. I get it.” Without showing a flicker of uneasiness about what we just said, she turns to Xander. “What’s yours?”

He smirks. “Abercrombie.”

Lily rolls her eyes. “Figures.”

I discard my cufflinks and shrug off my shirt. “So, what’s it to be, princess?”

“Marshmallow,” she replies without hesitation.

I want to ask her the significance of that word, but not as much as I want to hunt. “You both have two minutes to run and hide.”

Lily gasps. “Hold up a second. What about—”

“One minute fifty-eight seconds.” Zeke’s dark tone makes me shudder, and I’m not the one who needs to be afraid.

Xander tugs her hand. “C’mon.”

Lily resists. “But what—”

Zeke’s deep voice cuts her off once more. “One minute fifty-three seconds.”

“We need to go, shorty.” Xander pulls harder, and she stumbles after him.

She gives us one final glance, confusion and excitement in her eyes, then jogs out of the room with Xander by her side.

“You timing this?” I ask Zeke.

He looks at his watch and grins. “Kinda.”

“You want Fitch or Lily?”

He gives me his full attention. “Fitch. You know how much I love chasing his hot ass down.” I nod. Primal play is my thing. I’ve done it countless times with countless women, but I’ve never enjoyed hunting anyone as much as Fitch. However, something about chasing Lily down and fucking her senseless when I find her makes me hard as fucking iron. I lick my lips. That look on her face—the perfect mix of fear and lust—was incredible. She’s gonna taste so fucking good when I get my mouth on her.

“Besides, it’s probably best if Lily’s first time is with you. You’ll ease her in gently and she feels safer with you.”

Placing my palm on the back of his neck, I press my forehead against his. I hate that he keeps questioning himself where she’s concerned. “She feels safe with you too, Zeke.”

He swallows hard. “I know that. I just don’t want to scare her too much on her first time with this.”

“You won’t.”

His soft sigh brushes my lips. “Just go after Lily and leave Fitch to me, yeah?”

“Okay.” Pressing my lips to his, I give him a brief kiss. “One of these days, I’m gonna hunt you down. And when I catch you …”

A grin tugs at the corners of his mouth. “You’d never catch me, old man.”

I slide my hand down his muscular back. “One day, Zeke.”

He dusts his lips over mine again. “One day, West.”