Page 27 of Jace
She gasps, realizing she let it slip again. She needed to confess, but the image is clear.
“You were with someoneelsewhile he was filming you?”
Quickly, she looks away, her lips trembling. “I didn’t know he was filming me. He didn’t have my consent, and…” She gulps back a sob, her body shaking. “And god, I want to die. I don’t know any way out of this, and now you’ll judge me and think less of me, and?—”
“Hey.” Gently, I cup her chin. Her tears pool in my palm as I lift her gaze back to mine. Fuck, when she cries, I want to murder people. “It’s okay. I could never think less of you.” I want to make her smile. “Honestly, I think you’re so goddamn perfect and amazing it’s kinda nice knowing you’re human.”
“Human?” Her brows drop like her voice. “Jace, I had group?—”
She cuts herself off again.
“Group sex? You had group sex?”
Shame silences her, and it breaks my fucking heart.
There’s so much I could tell her, reveal to her, but I can’t. Not now. Vivian’s already at risk because of this video, and if I tell her about my forbidden world, she’d only be in more danger.
While I’ll never judge her—Vivian’s not wrong—the hypocrites in this town will. I could kill a dozen, hell, a hundred men for her, but an online video can be immortal. It practically takes magic to destroy it.
Lucky for Vivian, I practice magic: Mafia magic.
Lucky for me, I think I’ve fallen even more in love with her and need to protect her.
“Would it help if I told youI’vehad group sex?” The way her teeth tenderly grab her trembling bottom lip, looking suddenly relieved, is the sexiest damn thing, so I keep confessing. “I think when it’s safe and consensual, it can be erotic, beautiful even.”
“Was it…” She leans closer as if she finally feels safe. “Was it with Vale and Nash?”
Holy fuck.
Now, I hide my gasp. Shocked that she’s clocked so much about me this past year.
But why am I surprised?
Like me, Vivian watches. She’s a photographer. She silently observes people, reading their emotions, and I guess the intimate bonds between the secret kings and queens around her are too powerful to deny. They’re palpable when we’re together.
“Vale and Nash are happily married.”
Finally, she laughs. “Yeah, and the pope is Catholic. But in our world at Delta’s, some marriages are open, and?—”
“Their marriage isn’t open. It’s… It’s…”
It’s complicated. It’s a ritual that’s kept my family alive. It dates way back in our hidden culture, and it’s how we escaped our evil father.
But my brothers and I have changed the ritual; we adapted it into a consensual secret society built on love and loyalty.
Each brother, a king, marries his first queen; heloveshis first queen. We live for them.
But he also makes a vow to another queen, promising to keep her and her children safe should her first king die.
It binds us and protects us. We all care for each other. We all kill for each other.
A year ago, weeks after the sex swing drama at Delta’s, Vale was initiated as one of our queens. Nash claimed her. He’s always loved her and became Vale’s first king, her love, and I became her second king, her loyal guard.
Was I ready for Nash to kill me during Vale’s initiation when we took her together? He didn’t want to share her, but in order to make her his queen, he had to. Yeah, he could’ve tried, but I’m too strong.
But were we ready for what actually happened?
I’mnotNash’s blood brother. He joined our family when he was a teenager. We’re not related, but we’re close. So close that we weren’t expecting the erotic connection, the powerful bonds we built that night.
