Beautiful Bargain Read online

  “Hold on, baby,” Jackson murmured.

  He withdrew his fingers but then I felt something else, something bigger. Oh hell, I didn’t know if I could do this. I wanted to. I wanted to have both Ben and Alex inside me at the same time, but wasn’t sure I could.

  Alex took a long, deep pull, and fingers found my soaking pussy, flicking my engorged clit as Ben slowly pushed inside my ass.

  Oh, oh, ooooh.

  It didn’t hurt, not with Alex drinking from me and flooding me with feel-good magic, but it was overwhelming.

  It only got more so once Ben was seated fully inside, and Alex pushed up into me. His thick cock speared me as his mouth took from me.

  For a moment, we all stayed still, and then both men began to move.

  And Alex was right.

  I began to fly.

  Alex drank from me as he fucked me, and his hips moved in a fast rhythm. Ben provided a slower, more careful counterpoint.

  Together they filled me completely, and because Alex drank, I already felt myself winding my way toward another shattering climax. I wasn’t sure if I’d survive. Not only physically, but emotionally too. I was falling hard and fast for all these men, and it wasn’t funny. I’d gone from hating them to being all in with them in a matter of weeks.

  “Come for us, beautiful, I can’t hold off. You’re tight and fucking perfect.” Ben’s hand smoothed down my back as if soothing me.

  It wouldn’t take long before I did as he said, but I wanted more. Doc hadn’t been touched by me yet. I was riding Alex and could use my mouth as I wished, and I beckoned Doc toward me. He was already hard again, and he came to me with an almost shy smile on his face.

  “I want to taste you,” I said, shy myself in that moment. It was stupid feeling that way with what we were all doing, but I still found putting it into words hard.

  Doc didn’t need asking twice, and he jerked his cock a couple of times before feeding it to me.

  Now I was well and truly filled. Every part of me taking one of my men. Jackson came and stood next to me and wrapped my hand around his dick, covering it with his and guiding my movements, as I had no coordination to do so myself.

  It was messy, and somewhat uncoordinated all of us together, but the idea of it, me taking four men, these men, tipped me over the edge. I came with a shocked cry, no longer sucking Doc as wave after wave of pleasure hit me. I lost track of reality and what was happening in the room. It was too intense to focus on anything else.

  “Hey, baby. Come here. Lie down.”

  Jackson had me in his arms, and someone was pulling the comforter back. Shit, did I pass out? Did the guys come or had I ruined it?

  “Did you… was it good for you?” I asked stupidly.

  Jackson grinned wide. “Baby, it was fucking beautiful. But you kind of spaced out there at the end.”

  “I didn’t take too much blood, slowed the pulls right down, so it must have been too many sensations all at once,” Alex said.

  Jackson curled around me and pulled me into him, so close we were like one. “Love you, baby girl,” he whispered against my hair.

  “I love you too.” I closed my eyes, a smile playing over my lips as my languid body relaxed into the most gorgeous post-coital haze.

  ***

  “She isn’t anyone we know, only that she has the same skills as Milly, and Sienna still has her. The other psychics have been moved, or so the intel we’re being fed, says.”

  The voice woke me, the deep rumble under my head telling me Jackson was the one who spoke. I didn’t open my eyes or change my breathing for a moment, wanting to hear what was said next.

  “We should go raid the fucking place and shut it down completely,” Doc muttered.

  Their voices were low, and they had probably been talking while I slept.

  “First order of the day is to go kill Slim.” Jackson tensed as he said the words, the muscles of his belly hardening under me as if he fought to contain the violence within.

  “She doesn’t want you to.”

  That was Alex.

  “Yeah, but he’ll hate her now that she overpowered him and got away. You think he’s going to forget that? A psycho like him?”

  “I saw into his head once when we went to the compound one night, and he’s not all bad.” Alex’s voice deepened a tad, a tell he was serious. “I told you that at the time.”

  “What the fuck? Not all bad? You’re as soft as her.” Jackson’s voice rose with annoyance.

  “He’s trying to save someone,” Alex pressed on, ignoring Jackson’s annoyance, and my ears pricked because of what I’d seen in Slim’s head.

  “Who?” Ben asked.

  “His sister. She got bit, she’s infected. But before that, she was a sweet kid, and he loved her to bits. She bore the brunt of their mother’s hatred, and Slim would often get into trouble on purpose to protect her. He joined the Ravens because they let him keep her in a barn, when anyone else would have killed her immediately. He goes along with what they do mostly because he’s trying to get enough money to get the cure on the black market.”

  Alex sighed. “I don’t know how his sister got bit. I only saw the things he was thinking about in the short time I was digging around inside his head. When we went over that night it was to discuss arms shipments, and he only cared about the money because he could put it toward trying to get enough for the cure. He’s not a good guy, salt of the earth, holier than thou—don’t get me wrong. But in some ways, you could say he’s no better or worse than any of us.”

  “He. Whipped. Her.” Jackson hissed.

  “Yeah and we bag and tag girls and boys and send them on their way to God knows where.” Doc’s impatience bled out in his words.

  I blinked open one eye, yawned and stretched, sensing an argument was about to break out.

  “I’m ravenous,” I said with a smile and another stretch, letting the comforter slide off me and show my warm skin.

  “Hmm, not sure I want to let you out of this bed.” Jackson squeezed me to him, distracted as I had hoped.

  “I need sustenance,” I replied, another yawn overtaking me.

  “I’ll make us something to eat. We’re running low on meat,” Ben said. “I think the Ferals have been setting traps around the perimeter in the woods.”

  “Really?” Jackson said. “Do we need to make an example?”

  “I think we do.” Ben walked to the window and looked out. “Tomorrow? It’s dark now, too many Foamers about.”

  “Yep, tomorrow.”

  “What will you do?” I asked.

  “We set traps of our own.” Jackson smirked. “They can’t see them and walk right into them. Then we string them up from the trees and leave them for their brethren to find.”

  “You kill them?” I was horrified.

  “Nah,” Jackson said. “But they probably wish we did with the pain they’ll be in, with the fact the wound might get infected, and they’ll have to beg, steal, or barter for antibiotics.”

  “Don’t do it.” I sat up and turned to look at him. “It’s barbaric.”

  “Babe.” Jackson gave me a pointed stare. “They are stealing our food.”

  Ugh, again with the babe. Baby when all was going well, babe when I irritated him. “Not technically your food though, is it? They are in the woods outside your grounds and taking what they can. You’d do the same.”

  “Yes,” he said, with feigned patience as if explaining a math conundrum for the tenth time to a child. “And that’s this world now. Dog eat dog. Or rather, we don’t want to have to eat the dogs, so we put the Feral settlements right off ever coming and taking game from our woods.”

  I gasped at his mention of the dogs. He grinned. “Of course, we wouldn’t eat the dogs. But we are going to set traps. On certain issues, Milly, you are going to have to trust me. We can’t afford to look weak or lose any food.”

  I took a breath in to say more, but he held up his hand. “End of discussion; I’m not going to give on thi
s.”

  Knowing when to give in with these guys, I gave a nod. I still hated the idea of people being strung up as a warning. Hungry people, simply doing the best they could to survive.

  “I suppose,” Ben said, and I looked at him with hopeful eyes. “We could simply shoot them and leave their bodies for their friends to find. Certainly a quicker death.”

  “Oh, God, you’re all terrible.”

  “Maybe, but we’re only terrible to people who fuck with us, and we’ll keep you and your family safe.” Jackson gave me a kiss on the cheek and got out of bed.

  I watched him go. Powerful. Stubborn. Protective. He would keep us safe. He’d die for us. I knew that for certain. I might hate the idea of them catching Ferals like wild rabbits in their traps, but I had to let it go. On some things, I had to defer to these guys because they knew more about this world than me. Until the last few weeks, I had lived a closeted life far from the stark reality.

  “I’m going to make food.” Ben had pulled on jeans and headed out of the room, Jackson following him.

  Doc got dressed himself and went too. Leaving only Alex and me. Alex grabbed my hand. “I know you’re upset, and I get it. Honestly. It’s harsh and vile and bloody awful out there. But Jackson is good at keeping us safe, and he’ll be good at keeping you safe too. You and I, we need to know when to let him do his thing, and when to try and stop him.”

  I frowned, not expecting Alex to be saying stuff about stopping Jackson.

  “When would we try to stop him?” I asked cautiously.

  “If he tries to kill Slim,” Alex replied. “I mean, I don’t like the guy for what he did to you, and could happily throttle him with my bare hands, but I sense he is important somehow. I think he could be a lot of help in the coming months.”

  “Why?” I didn’t want Slim dead, but I’d seen nothing but a frightened boy and a hateful man.

  “Before the collapse, Slim was in the Special Forces. He still could be a monumental dick, but he wasn’t the bitter, jaded person of today. Did a few rather heroic things.”

  “Jackson is determined to kill him from what I can tell.” I didn’t think we would change his mind easily.

  “Yep. I told him at the time about Slim, but now he won’t care. None of that matters to Jack because Slim hurt you, but we can talk to him together. I think Slim could be useful because he’s got information on the Ravens, and the Ravens have information on the people in London. Slim can also be easily manipulated as he has something he cares about far more than himself.”

  “His sister,” I said.

  “Yes, his sister. He’d die for her ten times over. When you care about something more than yourself, more than life, you’re vulnerable.”

  Alex was talking about Slim, but the words caused a shiver to run down my spine. The same logic could be applied to these guys, Jackson in particular, because now he had something he cared about more than life itself.

  Me.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Milly: An Angel Comes to Call

  I sat in a warm bath, luxuriating in having so much available water. Part of me felt guilty; the world out there continued to go to hell, but in here, it was safe and frankly abundant in all the things that made life good. Last night, we’d had hot chocolate for God’s sake. Real hot chocolate. It had been out of date, but it was powdered, and it seemed to have lasted. It tasted fine.

  Jackson and Doc had been spending a lot of time talking on their phones when they could get enough of a signal, as well as looking into things on the computer. They now had access codes to parts of what remained of the net. Areas of the dark net had been taken up by the resistance when the collapse happened, and now Jackson, Doc, and Ben were searching it for information. They also had access to areas they hadn’t before. Places where there were conversations between people in different nations. Limited and patchy, it was nothing like the worldwide web of before, but they were working with other cells, and they were getting more and more information.

  Later, we were going back out there. To the center where Sienna and her thugs held another girl like me. One who could also read minds, and who had been trained in her skills well. Our thinking was, she could train me. We’d help the others if they were there too, but Jackson and Ben seemed to think they’d already been moved.

  I climbed out of the tub and dried myself, enjoying the deep ache from the monumental sex yesterday. I flushed at the memory, and my insides clenched. I couldn’t wait to do it all over again but needed a few days to recover.

  “Milly?”

  It was Ben.

  “One second.” I opened the door of Jackson’s bathroom, where I’d had the soak because my bath was cracked and useless, to see Ben waiting by the door looking uncomfortable.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “The guys have gone to the center,” he said.

  “What?” I automatically rushed to the window, but the car was already gone. How hadn’t I heard?

  “They promised that we’d all go, and Alex is asleep so it’s only the two of them.” My voice rose on a surge of panic.

  “Jackson got word that Sienna and her gang were heading to the Ravens for a meeting. It seems Jackson might not have to deal with Slim. She’s gunning for Slim for some reason. The guys made a last-minute decision to try to get the girl like you and any others still there. We don’t think Sienna is still using the center, but she definitely won’t be there if she’s at the Ravens.”

  “Those bastards! They’ll get themselves killed going off alone. Why didn’t you go with them?”

  “Someone needed to stay here with you and to help protect your parents. You and me, we can go gather weaponry. Make sure we aren’t attacked while they are gone. Jackson isn’t happy doing it this way, but his source is trustworthy. Sienna still thinks Jakob and his men are working for her, but they aren’t. They’re on our side and think she’s lost the plot. Jackson thought this way was safer than us all going there at night. He and Doc know the facility like the back of their hand. With only a few guards and medics there, they can be in and out before anyone even knows.”

  I wasn’t happy. I hated the idea of them being in such danger, and of Jackson making big decisions without even bothering to tell me or Alex after everything that had happened before, and the conversations we’d had.

  Ben watched me and smiled. “You know, leopards don’t change their spots, Milly. Jackson will always be a take charge kind of a guy, and sometimes he’ll make decisions without having a democratic vote. It’s who he is.”

  I blew out a long breath and tried to let my anger go because Ben was right. Jackson wouldn’t change. Probably couldn’t. Oh, he’d try, already did, but when push came to shove those alpha qualities of his would take over and he’d take control.

  “Alex is going to be pissed off,” I observed.

  “Yep.” Ben nodded. “You want to do something to take your mind off worrying?” he asked, and for a moment I thought he was referring to sex, but then he surprised me. “There’s a chess set in the library. We could go pour ourselves drinks, play a game. If you know how to play.”

  “I’m not brilliant at it, but I’ve played a few games with Dad,” I told him. “Where are my parents?”

  “Your mother is reading in the library and your father is writing, not sure what.”

  Dad would probably be doing research, reading about recent political and economic issues, taking notes and still trying to make sense of the collapse. The more time I spent with these men, the less I thought the why mattered. It had happened, and the world had gone to hell. We could look at the why of it once we’d got things back on even keel.

  I headed to the library with Ben, where both my parents gave us a warm greeting. Ben fixed drinks for everyone. Gin and tonics for me and Mum, brandy for him, and a whisky for my father. Then Ben and I settled into a game of chess, as Mum read and Dad poured over books and wrote out notes.

  The grandfather clock on one wall ticked soothingly, marking the
passage of time that still occurred despite everything else. The world might be burning, but the seconds and minutes still ticked away.

  I hadn’t thought I would be able to stop worrying, but I did. A magical sense of calm and a moment out of time developed for me as we sat, sipping our drinks and moving wooden figures around a glass board.

  Time seemed to become irrelevant, marked by the ticking of the clock, but not by us taking any notice of how many hours had passed.

  “Ben, need your help.” The front door banged open, and Doc’s urgent voice slammed into the somnolent mood of the room.

  “One second.” Ben turned to me and my parents. “Wait in here with Tils.”

  I did as he said, but I listened by the door. Voices. The male ones I recognized, and then an unfamiliar female one.

  “Keep Tils in here with you.” I turned to my parents, and Dad smiled and dipped his head to Tils as I went out the door, closing it behind me.

  A young, utterly gorgeous woman stood in the hallway. Long, deep red hair, pale, flawless skin, and curves in all the right places. I would have hated her on sight if not for the fear I saw in her eyes.

  “Where are the guys?” I gestured to the door, and she focused on me.

  “Fetching the other person they rescued.”

  Holy hell. Her voice was like sultry, sexy smoke. A pang of jealousy filled me. I might have been considered attractive in the compound, but this woman was the real deal. A genuine femme fatale as I lived and breathed, and she was in our home, mixing with my men.

  Approaching footsteps had me looking beyond her to see the three guys carrying a huge box, at least six foot long. It looked like… it looked like a coffin.

  “What the hell?”

  “It’s Ivan,” the redhead said.

  “Ivan?”

  “He’s been at the center for a long time. Used for experiments. When your men came for me and the other psychics, I told them the other psychics were gone, but that Ivan was there. Jackson took him too.”

  It was already Jackson? On first name terms. The green-eyed monster burned bright in me.