The Brink by Shayla Black

Silence filled her head. Raine felt the press of lips to her forehead, a caress of her shoulder. She drifted on a cloud of warmth, surrounded by an odd peace. Nothing cluttered her mind. It was a nice change. She breathed, feeling too lethargic to do more.

“Are you with me, precious?”

Hammer.She recognized his voice, his term of endearment. He trailed kisses down her neck. Raine was aware of him, but sensation didn’t quite penetrate her haze. She should probably answer him, but when she tried, she only managed the softest moan.

“Come back to me now,” he coaxed. “Open your eyes. Look at me.”

Raine didn’t want to. She enjoyed the peaceful void. Almost nothing penetrated her quiet except his affection. But under that cajoling note, insistence laced his voice. Something inside Raine didn’t want to disappoint him.

Slowly, she became more aware of her surroundings: soft sheets on her tender backside, a warm quilt tucked all around her, Hammer’s bare torso pressed against hers as he leaned over her.

“Raine… You looked beautiful submitting to me. Everyone in the club now knows you belong to Liam and me, and you did us so proud. Let me know you can hear me.”

It took a lot of effort, but she managed to nod.

“Good girl. Open your mouth.” Hammer brushed her lower lip with his thumb, and she slowly complied.

Gently, he pushed something thin past her lips and placed it on her tongue. Instinctively, Raine closed her mouth around the little square. She smelled the chocolate mint candy before she tasted it. Rich, sweet, with a hint of bite… She moaned.

“You were amazing. Everyone saw you in a beautifully submissive light, especially me. I couldn’t have asked you to surrender more perfectly. I’m humbled by your trust.”

You made me feel like I was flying. I loved giving you my control. Let’s do that again. “Macen…” was all she managed.

The chocolate melted and the flavor coated her tongue. Her head began to rise to the surface after what felt like a long submersion under her blanket of peace. The heater blew warm air over her face. The whiskers on Hammer’s cheeks abraded her jawline as he nipped gently at her neck, her lobe. His hot breath feathered across her skin.

“I’ve imagined you giving yourself so openly to me a million times. You were better than all my fantasies,” he praised, leaving little love bites on her neck.

“So good for me, too,” she whispered.

By will alone, she lifted her heavy lids to see Hammer hovering above her, his hazel eyes looking so green, the beginnings of a dark beard fanning over his face.

A knock sounded at the door. Raine frowned.

“Come in,” Hammer called as if he knew exactly who was intruding.

Seth opened the door and hustled in, holding a cold can of soda and their scattered clothes from the dungeon. He set the garments on the nightstand and handed the can to Hammer.

“Thanks, man.”

Seth nodded. “You’re welcome. Have fun.”

With a wink, Seth was gone. She liked the guy. He seemed kind, straightforward, easygoing. Liam had good friends.

“Drink some of this.” Hammer helped her sit up and popped the top of the can.

Raine’s head was still swimming a bit as she braced herself upright and surveyed her surroundings. Hammer’s room. Before today, the only other time she’d been in this bed, he’d been fucking her into oblivion, like a primal animal in heat over and over… She’d spent most of her time lately in Liam’s room. In Liam’s bed. In Liam’s arms.

Now everything had changed.

Hammer helped her sip the drink. The bite of the cold and the effervescence hit her tongue, tickled her nose. Caffeine jolted her within moments. Or was that just her brain kicking in again?

She stared at the can. Seth had brought it, not Liam, who hadn’t been there for the scene because he’d gone to the hospital with Gwyneth and the sick baby. So Hammer had done his best to shut off her head and tune out her worry.

“Has he called you?” Raine blurted.

Regret tightened his face. “No. But Liam is fine. He’s coming back. Don’t worry.”

She really wanted to believe him. Their relationship was worth nothing if she didn’t have faith. Hammer had never been one to mince words or pull punches. If he thought Liam could be lured away, he wouldn’t say otherwise. And her gorgeous Irishman would have never bought them a house in which to build their future if he planned to leave.

“I know you’re right. I just don’t like it,” she murmured.

“Liam would be touched by your concern, but he wouldn’t want you to worry.”

Raine pondered that. “I know that, too.”

Hammer brushed the hair from her cheek. “How do you feel?”

“Relaxed. Good.” In heaven.

He cupped her nape, and his lips climbed up her neck. “Not too tender anywhere?”

Experimentally, she flexed and wriggled. Heat flared over her ass, upper thighs, and the small of her back. But a comforting warmth spread all through her body.

She snuggled down in the bed a bit more, barely resisting the urge to close her eyes again and find that alluring peace. “Sensitive. But it’s…” She sighed, sent him a little smile. “Nice.”

A wicked grin curved his lips before he dragged the blankets down, baring her to the waist. He cupped her breast and latched on to her nipple, giving it a deep, hard suckle. An unexpected electricity zinged through her body, zipping through her veins, zapping her clit. Her eyes flew open wide. She sucked in a breath. Hammer’s touch always felt insanely good, but Raine had never experienced this hypersensitivity. Ten seconds ago, she hadn’t been thinking of sex at all. Now?

As he pulled his lips away, she arched up and wrapped her arms around his neck with an imploring groan. “Macen…”

“How about now?” he taunted, pinching her nipple and filling her with another burst of sensation. “I can make you feel a whole lot better than nice, precious.”

* * *

“Please…”

Raine’s whispered plea went straight to his cock.

Oh, hell…Hammer hadn’t expected to give her anything except aftercare, but the instant she’d melted into him and he’d tasted her skin, he had fixated on one thing—and one thing only. In fact, he’d make it far more than nice. He’d fuck her until she clawed his back, screamed her throat raw, and fell to the mattress in exhaustion.

He kicked the covers aside altogether and tore into his zipper, shoving it down with a hiss of breath. “You enjoying that endorphin high?”

She blinked, wide-eyed as she watched him undress with a lick of her lips. “Is that what I’m feeling?”

So fucking innocent in some ways, and he shouldn’t enjoy corrupting her this much. “You bet it is. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure you don’t come down anytime soon.”

Hammer rolled out of bed long enough to shove his pants to the floor. The sight of Raine in his bed, on his sheets, wearing the marks of his teeth on her breast, her thigh, her pussy… Fuck if that didn’t drive him out of his mind. He craved putting more of his brands on her pretty skin.

“Is that what you want, too? Yes or no?” he asked.

Every cell in his body wanted to merge with her, make it clear in no uncertain terms that he owned her.

She blinked up at him, blue eyes clinging, berry nipples hard, breathing shallow.

“You know what I’m asking, Raine. How much I’m asking. Yes or no?” He enunciated each word clearly.

Because he didn’t know how much longer he could hold back. If she was too tired, sore, or scared, he’d have to take himself in hand and hope like hell that would sate him enough to leave her alone. But no way could he unchain this side of him without her consent.

Somewhere in the back of his head, reason screamed at him. This wasn’t a fabulous idea. Liam wasn’t here to pull him back if he got out of hand, and he’d sworn to keep himself in check. Hammer cursed, raking a hand through his hair.

He was strong, damn it. In control. He didn’t need a fucking babysitter. Raine was precious to him, and he’d never break her. He could enjoy himself a little, then pull back. No harm, no foul. No problem. Right?

Raine bit her lower lip, watching him shyly, almost the way she had before he’d ever touched her…just like she had when she’d harbored a mad case of hero worship that had driven him to the brink of sanity because he’d been unable to sate his desire for her.

He could sure as fuck do something about it now.

“Raine? Answer me.”

A coy little smile creased her face as she lifted her hands from the bed. They fluttered around her, brushing aside her hair, spreading the dark mass over his white pillow, before she set her palms on the upper swells of her breasts.

And began to feel her way down.

Hammer nearly grabbed her wrists to stop her. No one was going to put out the fire he’d kindled except him. But Raine merely cupped her breasts, barely thumbed her nipples before gliding her hands down her stomach. Goose bumps broke out all over her skin. Her nipples drew up tighter and harder. She gave a little gasp and looked at him helplessly. Then she bent her legs and grazed her fingertips inside her thighs until she cupped her knees. Slowly, she nudged her thighs apart, easing them wide just for him.

Once her pussy lay totally open and wet, she dropped her hands to her sides. Hammer stared at her plump mound and swallowed a growing knot of lust.

“Always,” she whispered, soft and inviting.

A wave of primal possession swept up his body, a tsunami of thick, visceral demand. It sizzled across his skin, seared his veins, shook his heart, and slammed down his cock.

Before sanity vanished, Hammer managed to grab a condom from the nightstand and rip it open with shaking hands. As he rolled it down his aching length, he wondered why the hell he couldn’t harness this fucking urge to conquer her in every possible way. The force wasn’t totally new—he’d felt stirrings of it with Juliet—but the need had never been as overpowering and instinctive as it was with Raine.

“Oh, precious.” Hunger roughened his voice. “You have no idea what I’m going to do to you.”

Raine’s eyes widened. “I can take everything you want to give me, Sir.”

Hammer prowled onto the bed, homing in on her splayed thighs. “We’ll see.”

He didn’t give her time to respond before he dipped his head low and bit into the supple flesh of her thigh, leaving his mark opposite the one he’d welted at the house.

She tensed beneath his lips, her body rippling with a gasp—a breathy sigh of passion and pain. Raine arched off the sheets.

If she meant to entice him, she fucking succeeded.

The musky scent wafting from her cunt made his mouth water, but the urge to press her flesh between his teeth drove a need even more potent than his desire to taste her. Hammer wanted to consume her, lick her welts, and listen to her unbridled cries.

Dragging his tongue over the swell of her hips, he circled her hipbone like a shark. Then with a carnal growl, he gnashed her tender skin between his teeth. Raine jolted, shrieked, then held her breath for a long moment before releasing a throaty wail.

“Yes, precious. Let my burn sink deep,” Hammer lauded as he dragged his tongue over the marred flesh in soothing swipes.

Power, sizzling and savage, flared through him, tearing at his self-imposed restraint. As he gripped Raine in a brutal grasp, white halos appeared around each of his fingers. She’d have five bruises on each hip tomorrow. Hammer made a mental note to strip her down then and inspect them, kiss them…add more.

Narrowing his eyes, he inched his way up her body with a predatory stare. As he settled his hips between her thighs, a flicker of a smile curled at the corners of her mouth. Raine froze, watching, waiting, breathless.

With a thunderous roar, Hammer drove past her wet folds and deep inside her, all the way to the hilt, in one rough stroke.

He pumped into her, once, twice, again and again as the angry red welt he’d left on Raine’s breast earlier snared his gaze. She needed a matched set. In fact, she should always wear his symbols on her pale skin. Even the thought charged his veins with white-hot lust.

His need to mark her warred with his need to fuck her. He shoved into her again, gnashing his teeth, then pulled out of Raine’s soft pussy with a roar. She whimpered at his loss, moaning in protest when he released her hips as well.

“I’m not done with you yet,” Hammer taunted as he stretched his body over hers. “Fuck, I haven’t even begun.”

Slanting his mouth over her lush breast, he kissed her unmarred skin, then sank his teeth into her flesh just above her nipple with a low groan of bliss.

“Macen…” Raine panted. “Yes. Oh, god. Yes.”

Lifting his head slightly, Hammer watched the ruddy mark darken on her snow-white skin. Strumming his thumb over the impression, he inched higher, then claimed her soft, parted lips in a harsh kiss.

Raine opened farther for him. Hammer nipped her bottom lip, giving a sharp tug, before releasing her mouth. He settled his lips against her slender neck and fastened his teeth over her skin inch by inch, leaving behind a trail of crimson brands. She whimpered, moaned. The sounds only fed his boiling demand.

He eased down, looking for smooth flesh that needed his possession. Her collarbones. Sweet. Delicate. His…

As he bit down against the thin bone, Raine’s screams echoed off the walls, reverberating in his ears. The faint taste of copper slithered over Hammer’s tongue. He pulled away, studying his handiwork. A droplet or two of crimson dotted against her milky flesh.

Her breathing came faster. Her nipples turned harder. She looked at him like he was a fucking god who could give her the world.

Oh, yeah. Fuck yeah.She’d look at that wound for days and remember it. He would, too.

“Tell me what you want, Raine,” Hammer demanded before sucking at the tiny puncture.

“You, Macen. All of you,” Raine groaned as she writhed, rolling her hips under him, taunting him. “Fuck me. Hard. Please.”

Rocking back on his knees, he settled his cock against her rosy pussy, nestling the crest right against her glistening folds. And he waited. She thrashed, but he stilled her with an unyielding grip on her thighs. He watched her opening flutter around him as if she tried to suck him in and pull him deep.

Hammer smiled as he drove inside her in a single, merciless thrust.

Raine gasped and groaned. “Harder, Macen. Deeper… Yes!”

As he slammed into her again, Raine sank her teeth into her bottom lip. Christ, she was amazing, his fucking dream come true.

The first time he’d ravaged her now seemed like a distant memory. Of course, the amount of alcohol he’d consumed at the time had numbed most of the brilliance stunning him now. Just as he had in the dungeon, Hammer focused on every movement of Raine’s body: the wrinkle of her brow, the gasps that expanded her lungs and raised her breasts toward the heavens before they shook and bounced as he slammed into her small, soft body.

The blood on her collarbone beaded again. As he slid on top of her once more, Hammer shoved his arms under her and curled his hands back toward him, over her shoulders. He pounded her pussy and fixated on her unblemished clavicle. He leaned in, opened his mouth, hungry for another taste.

Something in the back of Hammer’s brain kicked him. He wasn’t a goddamn vampire. He’d never gotten off on blood. Why was he so obsessed now? It didn’t matter. He had to pull back, cage this vicious need riding him so hard.

Stilling inside her, Hammer sucked in a deep breath. Shame. Remorse. Guilt. They all flattened him like a freight train. “Christ. I’m sorry, Raine. I didn’t mean to—”

“No,” she gasped as she gripped his arms and dug her nails into his flesh. “Don’t stop. Please. Please. I need this…need you to do this to me.”

He more than liked the idea of her craving the hard edge of his touch. But he couldn’t use her this roughly—not given how small she was, not with the day she’d had.

“No, precious. What you need is to be pampered and loved.”

“If you do that right now, I’ll kill you,” Raine cried. “When you let yourself go, I feel needed. You and Liam give me purpose, make me feel adored. Something in me would die if I couldn’t give you what you craved. Give me all of you. Let me serve your needs, Macen.”

Submissive to the core. Raine had shown the vulnerable side she desperately hid from everyone…except him and Liam.

“Use me,” she urged. “Do whatever you need. I’m yours.”

Her beseeching tone clawed at his precarious restraint. She needed him to fill all the dark recesses inside her, just as much as he needed her to fill his.

“You want it all?” He surged deep into her again.

“Yes.” She rolled her hips up to him.

“Every last bit?”

“I do. Please…I’m begging.”

Yes, she was, and it sounded so sweet.

“Fuck!” He roared as he jerked from inside her, then grabbed her waist and flipped her to her stomach. “Get on your hands and knees. Now.”

Raine rose on all fours, presenting her narrow back and fiery red ass to him. She looked so defenseless, pale and small, head bowed and wordless. Hammer felt the snap of all rationale.

Smoothing his palms over her warm backside, he landed a feral slap across her ass and watched the rosy flesh turn flaming red instantly. Raine howled out. Her screams burrowed into his soul, pouring life into the jaded, dormant crevices inside him.

Still not satisfied, Hammer bent to lick the handprint. As his tongue abraded her skin, Raine writhed and moaned, riding the high of the burn he’d inflicted.

Clutching at her hips and stilling her sway, he bent and sank his teeth into the heated flesh of her ass. And again he felt their shared perfection descend deep inside him.

Hammer slapped at her thighs. “Open. Wide. Take me, Raine. Take all of me.”

She spread for him immediately as Hammer ruthlessly dug his fingers deeper into her sides. He plunged into her cunt and drew her burning cheeks flush against him for a long heartbeat. She clutched at his cock with her aching softness and a sensual cry. His eyes rolled back in his head.

Pure, intoxicating heaven.

“Head down, my sweet sub,” Hammer ordered, his tone unbending. “Keep that beautiful ass poised high in the air.”

As Raine obeyed, Hammer’s chest expanded. He slid his hands up her back and wrapped his fingers around her shoulders, digging them into the wells of her collarbones. Raine’s heartbeat pulsed beneath his fingertips.

Everything about the siren had haunted his fantasies for what seemed a lifetime. And now he knew exactly why.

She was built to take him. He’d convinced himself the first time he’d fucked her that she couldn’t handle him. Now…Raine was fucking all he’d ever sought.

With her head down, she pressed her cheek against the mattress. Her ebony hair fanned out in silken skeins over his sheets. The long line of her rippling spine covered in pale, soft skin shredded the last of his control.

“Scream for me, precious. Fill me with your submission. Your love.”

As Hammer slammed into her like a man possessed, he bit at her back, sucked at her flesh. Raine’s cries of rapture echoed through his head, urging him faster, harder, higher.

God, he fucked her in one of the most submissive positions he could think of…and it still wasn’t enough. More. He needed it. Now.

Macen pulled her arms behind her back, capturing her wrists in one hand at the small of her back before gripping her hair in his fist. An arc of pure power sizzled through him.

With each new thrust, Hammer ground his hips upward, trying to fight his way deeper.

“Macen!” Raine cried. “Please. I need—”

“I know exactly what you need,” he said between heavy breaths as sweat poured down his face. “And I can’t wait to feel you shatter around me. Clutch my cock tight and suck me in more.”

“Yes,” she screamed. “I can’t…hold—”

“No!” he thundered. “Not yet.”

Releasing her hair, he leaned back and slapped her ass. The sound of the crisp crack resonated through his head, made his balls draw up.

Everything about her set him on fire. The flames licked down his spine, racing through him in a sizzling rush. Reaching around the swell of her hips, Hammer wedged two fingers around her clit. As he rubbed the hard nub, she bucked against the friction and slammed back against him with an incoherent moan. Her cunt rippled and quivered around him.

The rush of release tore through him.

“Now,” he commanded. “Come for me now, Raine. Hard! I want it all.”

Hammer held her wrists in a vise-like grip as he circled the sensitive nub with his thumb again and again.

Raine sucked in a powerful gulp. Her entire body tensed. Then she bowed, lifting her head off the bed, arching and keening and swelling around him.

The muscles of her fiery pussy contracted in hard spasms. Raine screamed his name. Hammer slammed into her shuddering body and released a savage roar, coming into the latex barrier with a spine-bending force that blew him away.

Though he was her Dominant, she stripped him raw. Never had he imagined a woman could utterly decimate him the way Raine did because she was the missing half of his heart. She completed his soul.

As she rippled and clenched around him with aftershocks, his cock jerked. Panting, sweating, Hammer wrapped his arm around her waist and tumbled to his side, toppling her over with him, onto the bed.

Still coupled together, he held her as their breathing slowly evened out. Brushing the hair back from her nape, he pressed his lips against her sweat-soaked skin. Sliding his tongue over her flesh, he tasted salt and breathed in Raine’s musky-lily scent.

“I love you, precious, with every cell in my body.”

“Mmm,” she moaned, then turned her head to kiss him.

He leaned into her soft, warm body, sliding his tongue into her mouth. As he swept deep inside her, she utterly surrounded him, and he groaned.

“I love you, too,” she murmured, her stare tangled up in his.

Replete and totally satisfied, he pulled her in and held her tight. Peace settled over him. With a sigh, he closed his eyes.

* * *

One a.m. had come and gone by the time Kyle had consumed the barium bottle Beck had warned him about. Then the little guy had X-rays taken and more tests administered. Liam had been at the hospital for nearly five hours when the pediatrician on duty finally declared that Kyle wasn’t suffering from a life-threatening illness but merely a virus. Thank God.

Liam exchanged few words with Gwyneth when he finally dropped her and Kyle off at Beck’s condo. After escorting her up and helping her settle Kyle, he ignored the fact that his ex-wife looked as if she had something to say and all but ran out the door.

Despite his weariness, Liam found the energy to smile. Gwyneth’s schemes were behind him. Kyle would be reunited with his parents in a few hours, and Liam hoped the boy wouldn’t actually require a real shrink because of his aunt’s scheme.

Best of all, he would never have to see his she-devil of an ex-wife again.

On the drive back to Shadows, exhaustion slammed him as if he’d run face first into a brick wall. He kept himself awake by blasting the air conditioning in the car, despite the December chill, and counting the moments until he could return to Raine and Hammer. Then he’d strip, shower, crawl into bed, and sleep for a week.

As soon as he shared the happy truth about Kyle.

Until then, Liam mulled over the past twenty-two hours. What was it about money that drove people to senseless acts of mayhem and maliciousness? Try as he might to understand, Gwyneth’s intrigues still boggled him. What had she imagined she’d do with him if she’d persuaded him to marry her again? Divorce him after he’d outlived his usefulness, Liam supposed. After she’d utterly ruined his life, of course.

Deciding he’d never understand the woman, Liam let go of the thought and concentrated on better things, like Raine and Hammer.

How lucky was he to have both his best friend and the woman he loved in his life? Their joining at the lodge had been incredible, but the pleasure they’d exchanged at the new house earlier had transcended any bodily experience and cemented the promise of their future. Of course, what they shared was far more than sex. Their ménage fed his mind, spirit, heart, and Dominant soul. They still had problems to face; Liam had no illusions. But the three of them were a team. They balanced one another. If they all remembered that, somehow they would always find their way together.

The house would be a foundation for their new life. Raine’s stunned reaction had both warmed and convinced Liam that he’d done right in buying the place. And nothing could have surprised—or thrilled—him more than when Hammer had offered to furnish and take care of any other renovations Raine wanted. Now it would be not simply the roof Liam had put over her head to help her feel secure but the home in which they’d all stake their futures.

Relief filled Liam when he pulled into the lot and saw Shadows’ ornate red door. Even in the wee hours, the place was still half full with members’ vehicles. He grabbed a spot and hurried inside.

Hammer and Raine didn’t appear to be working in the dungeon, but the thumping rhythmic beat of the music filled his ears. The primal screams and moans of both pleasure and pain surged a renewed vigor through his veins. The thick scent of heated bodies and sexual arousal swarmed his senses, so heady he could almost taste it.

Seth sat curled up on one of the oversized couches, giving aftercare to a pretty redheaded sub whom he’d wrapped in a blanket within the circle of his arms. The second he caught sight of Liam, he kissed the sub’s forehead and sent her on her way.

As Liam crossed the floor, he heard some of the chatter around the cavernous room. Only a few words filtered through. Members talked excitedly about how intense the scene earlier had been. But as he passed, those conversations ceased abruptly. Some Doms simply stared. Jesus, had the rumor mill found out about Gwyneth and his “son”?

When Liam reached Seth, he nodded to his buddy from New York. “I see you’re adapting to Los Angeles well.”

“I won’t lie. The girls are pretty, and the weather is damn nice.”

Liam half expected Seth to rib him about his entertaining, soap-opera life again, but the man didn’t. “Glad to hear it. You seen Raine and Hammer?”

Seth paused, and all of Liam’s instincts flared. “They scened earlier in the dungeon.”

Just the two of them. Liam heard Seth’s unspoken message. Something between anxiety and annoyance prickled at him. But Hammer was Raine’s Dom, too. He’d sometimes need or want her. At least that’s what his reasonable side told him.

The other side flamed hot with a blinding streak of jealousy.

“And?” he managed to ask.

Another pause, this one longer. “It was…intense.”

Liam didn’t particularly like the sound of that. “Meaning?”

“Raine flew hard and fast. I think she must have needed it.”

After the day she’d endured, likely so. The evasions and the lies, his ex-wife and the baby, their row… All of that would combine to set her off-balance. She would have wanted someone to take that away from her, even if only temporarily, and to center her.

But damn it, his day had been far fucking worse. Every bloody event had blindsided him. He’d managed to brace himself through one train wreck after another—none of them of his creation. Had either Hammer or Raine thought for a moment that he might need the opportunity to control something today?

“You look pissed off,” Seth observed. “But you’ve always agreed that Raine’s needs come first. I’m sure she can’t wait to be with you again. Don’t be jealous.”

That felt like telling him not to breathe, and he battled with himself. If Hammer had been gone and Raine had needed Liam’s support, Dominance, or affection, Hammer would absolutely have insisted Liam give her whatever she required—no questions asked.

Why, then, Liam wondered, was he feeling betrayed? He turned to his friend. “I didn’t ask your opinion about what I should think.”

Seth held up his hands to ward off any argument. “Just telling you how I see it.”

He didn’t care. Instead, he fought for calm. “When did Hammer and Raine finish?”

“A little over an hour ago, I think.”

So plenty of time for Hammer to have taken complete advantage of Raine. No, given her aftercare. She’d probably needed that, too. “Where did they go?”

“To his room.” Seth looked reluctant to make that admission. He scooted to the edge of the sofa and looked Liam in the face. “I know you didn’t ask me, but seriously, you’ve got to deal with this. You’re trying to play cool, but I can see it’s eating you up. You two share her. Equal time, equal surrender.”

True, and if Liam felt as if he’d received the same affection and devotion from Raine that Hammer did, maybe he’d be all right with the fact that his best mate had done god knew what to his girl when his back had been turned.

Liam nodded, not trusting himself to say much more. “I’ll talk to you later.”

Seth grabbed his arm. “Don’t go in there half-cocked. You’re exhausted, and you’ve had a lot on your mind. Take a drink. Unwind. Remember what’s important.”

The man wasn’t wrong about his exhaustion, Liam mused. Maybe he needed to take a step back and clear his head. The last thing he wanted now was another drama, especially one he created.

With a hesitant nod, Liam allowed Seth to nudge him toward the bar.

“What’ll it be, mate? Single malt, right?” Nick, the bartender, stood before him with a cheery fucking smile Liam just couldn’t bring himself to match.

“Aye, straight up.”

“I’ll take a water,” Seth added.

The minute Nick placed the tumbler in front of him, Liam lifted it. His hands shook as he tossed the liquor back. The burn seared its way down his throat yet did nothing to thaw the ice freezing his chest.

“Another?” the bartender asked.

“Nah.” The booze would only make him wearier, and he still had to find Hammer and Raine, explain his night at the hospital with Gwyneth. But he had to tuck away this irrational anger first, remember that Raine was not his exclusively.

“You missed Raine and Hammer center stage earlier,” Nick said. “They scened for a good, long while. One of the most amazing connections between a Dom and a sub I’ve ever seen.”

A shockwave of anger jolted Liam where he stood as he tried to process Nick’s words. Liam resisted the urge to smack his pretty-boy Australian teeth down his throat.

Instead, he tapped the counter. “I’ve changed my mind. Another.”

“Sure thing.” The bartender poured again and frowned. “Hey, are you okay?”

He ignored Nick and tossed back the drink, then turned away.

“Did you see Hammer take Raine in the middle of the dungeon earlier?” he overheard one Dom ask another.

“No, but I heard about it the second I walked in the door,” the other answered. “About fucking time, if you ask me. They’ve been hot for each other for years.”

“Yeah, and it showed. That scene was an act of pure Dominance. She subbed out for him just like that.” The stranger snapped. “Like she’d been falling over for him for years.”

“In a way, she has. I wonder where Hammer’s Irish friend fits into all this.”

No shit.Liam wondered that himself. Or if he even did.

“Hammer declared that he and Liam own her,” the first Dom said. “But who knows?”

Who indeed?

Liam slammed his empty glass on the bar with a scowl. One of the Doms looked up and noticed him, then elbowed his peer. Both men quickly melted into the crowd.

Heart thudding in his chest, Liam couldn’t breathe. His jealousy returned in spades to bury him where he stood, somehow stunned—though he probably shouldn’t be.

“Don’t jump to conclusions,” Seth warned. “Those two are talking out of their asses.”

“Actually, I think they’re spot on, Seth. Now if you don’t mind, fuck off.” Liam pushed away from the bar and left the dungeon. It was high time he found the pair of them and confronted whatever was going on.