Leaning forward, I rise to the tippity tops of my tippy toes and place my hands on his chest while I place a tentative kiss on his perfect pout. I’m testing the waters while I try to ease my worried mind. Could they really be okay with all of this? Despite the words they’ve said, there’s always a chance that this ends badly. But isn’t that the way of life? No risk, no reward or whatever. These guys are worth the risk. My reward comes quickly as my gentle approach fast becomes enveloped in a passionate all-consuming kiss that genuinely makes me feel like I’m floating on air.
Music floods my soul as guitar riffs and piano ballads drift through me. My heart is singing and it’s the purest song I’ve ever heard. This is our love language—our love song—and it’s all consuming.
I barely hear the click of a lock and the next thing I know, I’m surrounded by the five men that stole my heart long before I knew what that meant. My shirt gets pulled over my head and my shorts are unbuttoned and being pulled down my legs by Phoenix, who’s using it as an excuse to run his hands over my legs and up to the apex of my thighs. It’s Dexter, though that reaches down and swirls a finger around my clit with a featherlight touch. He’s not doing it to pleasure me by any means, he’s teasing me, making me ache so fiercely it hurts.
Having all the guys’ attention on me amplifies the intensity of my feelings of lust tenfold and I swear I could die from it. There’s a livewire running through my veins and every touch between each of them and me has my knees ready to buckle at the thrill of their skin on mine.
Five sets of hands tease, caress, and tantalize my body. Lips meet my legs, my belly, my shoulder, my neck, and my breasts. I’m so lost to the sensations coursing through me that I don’t even care anymore about how fast or far I should be running, I’m just desperate for more, more, more…
“Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmy-fucking-god.” I scream into the small room when Phoenix moves my panties to the side and his lips and tongue move from my thighs to my now highly sensitive clit. My hips buck forward involuntarily and he laughs against me, the heat of his breath making me throb with desire like I’ve never known, then he enters two long fingers into my wet heat, curling just right and causing my legs to give out beneath me. Rebel wraps his muscular arms around my waist from behind, still kissing and sucking on my neck. Dexter moves in to kiss me once more, swallowing my cries of ecstasy. Ezra wraps his lips around one lace covered nipple, while Cyan bites at the other one, and they prolong my orgasm, making my body flush with heat as I come down from the sheer force of it. No one has made me come like that. Not that hard. Not ever.
I’m pulled from the sextastic haze when I see a shadow in the small tinted window in the door. No one can see in here, but someone was definitely listening. Silently I curse the production rooms for not being soundproof like that of the music rooms.
No. No, no, no, no. This can’t be happening. How freaking embarrassing. My regret is instant and all consuming. I knew these guys would drive me to distraction. I knew I’d get too lost in them. And this is only the beginning. It’ll only get worse if I don’t put a stop to things. My heart shatters at the thought of walking away but it’s the only thing that’ll keep me from hurting everyone around me. My mom needs me. My job needs me. The nonprofit needs me. And worst of all, men don’t stick around. Especially men like this, who live and breathe their music. If I don’t remind myself of that, I’ll end up just like my mom. I have to walk away.
Pushing past the guys, I rush to get my clothes and I know I look crazy as I hop around trying to shimmy my shorts back into place. I can only thank god for small miracles that my underwear and bra never left my body.
“What the fuck are you—” Ezra gets cut off as I swing the door open forcefully to run away.
“You can run little Princess, but you can’t hide.” Rebel yells after me. None of them chase me, but as they’ve already proven, they don’t really have to. They clearly have no plans to leave me alone and give less than zero fucks how it’s messing with my head.
The last thing I hear before I reach the doors that lead outside the building is Dexter’s harmonic voice echoing down the hall. “We’ll be seeing you soon, Ainsley. Don’t forget who you belong to.”
Fresh air greets me as I push through the door, only I’m struggling to pull in a breath. I barely make it down the stairs and to a patch of grass before my anxiety overpowers me and I crumple to the ground as a sob breaks free. Everything hurts. I feel their loss all over again because I know, I freaking know, that I can’t let them back in. I love them too much. It’s unhealthy and not normal. I have to push them away. I just hope they’ll take the hint eventually and I don’t completely break in the meantime.
My phone pings loudly, breaking me free from this bout of self-induced misery. My stomach sinks though when I see what it says through the streams of tears.
Unknown:I hope you had your fun with your long lost friends because that’s the last time you’ll be with them. You belong to me and now I’m coming for you…
Chapter Eight
Ainsley James Dylan
“AJ?Ohmygod,AJ! Are you all right?” Rangers' terrified voice reaches my ears and I look up with just enough time to see him come barreling towards me, a look of pure agony and panic written across his face. I must look like a total mess broken down and weeping on the ground here.
“Ranger? What—” My voice comes out a strangled creak before I get cut off, while Ranger tries to reign in the frantic worry that’s consumed him.
“Please tell me you’re okay!” he urges, checking me over from head to toe. I can see his manic fear dissipating, though an underlying current of concern still lines his features.
“I’m fine. I just…” I trail off looking back toward the Tressell Music Hall that I just ran from. I hadn’t made it far past the stairwell, and I can now see five large shadows watching from under the portico overhanging the doorway at the top of the short walk of stairs. Trying not to draw attention their way, I turn back to Ranger and pull his face back to meet mine then quickly drop my hand. “It’s been a… difficult day, Range. I’m sorry if I scared you.” I tell him, guilt gnawing at my gut, now for multiple reasons.
“You’re not hurt?” he asks, softly reaching out for my legs to check them over. I need to put some distance between us so as not to give him the wrong impression after everything that went down yesterday.
“Nope, just clumsy I guess. I wasn’t really paying much attention and must have tripped.” He reaches out a hand and I let him help me pull myself up, but quickly realize that it’s a mistake and pull my hand back.
“You’re crying,” he points out, reaching up to swipe my tears but I step back before he can actually touch me. A look of hurt crosses his face and the ache in my gut grows. Why does he have to feel so much more than I do? Why can’t I love someone like him? Sweet and thoughtful, this man who’d do anything for me and I can’t bring myself to love him the way he needs me to, the way he loves me.
Dropping my eyes, I give him a small shake of my head to let him know that nothing’s changed. I don’t know how many times or how many other ways I can tell him that it’s not in the cards for us. When he heaves a heavy sigh, I know he understands what I mean. When I look back up at him, he’s hardened his gaze a touch but he still looks worried about me. He’s never seen me cry in the few years we’ve been friends so I understand it, I just don’t want to deal with it.
“What are you doing on campus on a Saturday? I thought you avoided campus on your weekends?” I laugh meekly, trying to deflect from the obvious issue at hand.
“I actually came here to find you. I remembered you saying you needed to work on your track for your Music Production class after tutoring,” he says.
“I said that?” I implore, my brows scrunching together as I try to think back, not remembering having had that conversation with him. Instead of coming up with anything, I just feel a migraine coming on. Who knows, honestly, my mind’s been a jumbled mess the last few days between my dad messaging me, my mom’s suicide survival anniversary, fighting with him, and the guys showing up. There’s also these weird messages…
“Maybe you didn’t now that I think of it. I’m sure we’ve talked about it before though, otherwise why would I have thought to come here?” He peers at me through his long dark lashes looking so defeated. It breaks my heart to know that I’ve hurt my friend so deeply.
“Yeah probably. Regardless, you don’t owe me an apology. If anything, I probably owe you one. I’ve been nothing short of a mess lately and I don’t mean to drag you down with my sinking ship.”