Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 95046 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95046 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
I touch my temple again, steadying myself.
"We were experimenting. Trying to figure out what the fuck we were. What control meant. What power felt like." I pause. "She was into rough sex. Breath play. Being dominated by two men at once."
Emmaleen's face goes very still.
"One night in winter, she met us at the church. There was a prie-dieu in front of the altar. We bent her over the prayer desk."
I try not to remember the details, but I can't help myself. They pour into me. Explicit, and awful, and necessary.
"I stood in front of her with my cock in her mouth. It was down her throat. Deep."
I don't look at Emmaleen. Can't look at her.
"Lorcan was fucking her from behind with his hand wrapped around her throat."
I meet Jino's judgemental stare. "I choked her with my cock while Lorcan choked her with his hand." I pause. "It… obviously, wasn't on purpose."
Emmaleen makes a small sound.
"Her body went limp."
I meet Lorcan's eyes across the room.
"We pulled away immediately. Tried to revive her. But she was already dead."
Complete silence in this room now.
"We stole a pick ax from the groundskeeper's shed to dig through frozen soil in the woods. Far enough from campus that the body wouldn't be discovered accidentally."
My voice doesn't shake.
"We wrapped her in nothing. No blanket. No ceremony. Just dirt and frozen earth." I pause. "We buried her without prayers. Without reporting what happened. Without telling anyone at all."
I look at Jino.
"We spoke a blood oath over her grave. Made promises. And we kept this promise, didn't we?"
Lorcan nods. "We did, G. We did."
"It's over now," I say quietly. "You're free and I'm in the pocket of Luca LaRiccia." Now I look at Jino. "And this is exactly where I want to be. So Jino, you do what you gotta do, man. I won't hold it against you. You've got my secret now too. Ruin me, if you want. I don't care. This is what I need. Plain and simple."
Jino paces Lorcan's great room. "This changes everything." He stops to look at me. Then Lorcan. "The two of you are… fucking dangerous! How?" He points to Emmaleen. "How will she ever feel safe with you?"
I scoff. "Isn't it obvious, Jino? You. You're how she feels safe with me."
He runs his fingers through his hair, thoroughly conflicted.
I watch Emmaleen's face change.
It's subtle at first—a slight widening of her eyes, a quick glance between Lorcan and me. Then understanding floods her expression like cold water. She's re-contextualizing everything.
Every touch.
Every command.
Every denial, in my case. I've never put my cock in her mouth. Ever.
Every moment either of us wrapped our hands around her throat.
We're not just dominants who crossed lines.
She's standing in a room with two men who accidentally murdered a woman while fucking her.
And she's wearing my collar.
I meet her eyes.
"Do you still want to do this?"
The question hangs in the air. Heavy. Absolute. Final.
Because if she says no—if this revelation breaks whatever insane trust she's built with us—I'll let her go. I'll hand her the key to the Aventador outside, the cash, the passport. I'll watch her walk out that door and never contact her again.
I won't chase.
I won't threaten.
I won't manipulate.
She deserves the choice. A real one. With full information.
Emmaleen looks at me for a long moment.
Then she smiles. "Three hearts that found you in the deepest dark,
Where monsters wait with ink-stained hands to hold—
I pressed through cracks to reach this sacred mark.
My choice was made before your sins were told:
To slip through spaces only beaks can breach,
And love the parts of you that can't be sold.
So teach me now what darkness has to teach."
Terza rima.
Perfect meter.
Octopus metaphor deployed like a fucking weapon.
Jino and Lorcan stare at Emmaleen like she just recited the Fibonacci sequence backward while juggling knives.
I stare at her too.
My little word collector.
Because this woman—this brilliant, damaged, impossible woman—just looked at my worst sin, my deepest shame, my most unforgivable secret...
And gave me… art.
I brace for Jino's exit. For the moment he tells me this is too much, that he can't be part of whatever fucked-up triad just formed in Lorcan's great room.
Instead, Jino runs both hands through his hair and laughs—sharp, bitter, slightly unhinged.
"My job just doubled."
I blink.
"I was managing one monster." He points at me. "Now I'm managing two." He swings his finger to Lorcan.
Lorcan opens his mouth, but Jino cuts him off with a raised hand.
"New protocol. Effective immediately." Jino's voice shifts into full training mode—clinical, precise, unyielding. "I must be present for any edge play involving breath restriction, choking, or positional asphyxiation with either of you."
He looks between us.
"This is non-negotiable."
I start to object, but Jino steps closer.
"I cannot keep Emmaleen alive without visibility into both relationships. You want her? Fine. You want to share her between Boston and Riverview? Great. You want to fuck her while wrapping your hands around her throat?" His jaw tightens. "Then I'm in the room. Every. Single. Time."