Don't Be Scared

“I know you have a name for me. It doesn’t have to be Ava,” he continues. “I wonder how hard I have to kiss you to taste the name on your tongue, Bailey.”

“When you figure it out, don’t ruin the fun,” Rory chuckles. “I want to find out, too.” He raises my hoodie again, and I shiver when the night air finds my skin.

“Don’t,” I protest. “It’s too fucking cold to take it off.”

“You don’t trust me to keep you warm?” the brunet behind me teases. “I bet when I make you come, you’ll be begging for me to take this off.” I don’t know if that’s a promise or a threat, but it sends a shiver down my spine, straight to the heat pooling between my legs, either way.

“You know he’s right,” Phoenix states, some of the cool aloofness back in his voice. “The longer you let us play with you, the more you seem to have wanted it all along.” He grabs my thighs, fingers digging into my leggings. “I’llkeep you warm, Bailey.”

I don’t realize what he means until his handsjerkmy leggings down. He doesn’t even bother with my shoes, only jerks them off over one of my sneakers through sheer willpower alone, leaving the other alone.

“Shit!” I squeak, barely able to do more than twist in Rory’s grip. Just as I knew it would be, it’scoldwithout my fleece-lined leggings covering my skin. “What are you doing?”

“Exactly what Rory told you I’ve wanted to do since we came back to this town,” hegrowlsagainst my thigh. “I want to taste your fucking cunt, Bailey.”

His words do more for me than any porn I’ve ever watched. It does more than it has a right to, and I can feel my thighs tremble when he pushes them upward, hitching them over Rory’s knees so I’m spread wide between them, with only my underwear left as a barrier between us.

“I can’t…” I trail off, barely knowing what to do with my hands. Phoenix sits up, pressing against me to kiss me sweetly once more.

“You don’t want my mouth on you?” he asks, and there’s a serious note in his otherwise playful tone that surprises me. “You’d better tell me now, then. It’ll be a lot harder for me to pull myself away from you later.”

The silence that follows as both of them wait for an answer is the longest andshortestsilence of my life. I fidget, knowing they can feel all of it.

The worst part about it? I do want this. And they know it. They know it because everynerve, everycellin my body, knows with certainty that I want them. Even though I didn’t until about five minutes ago. I may be able to make my mouth say the wordstop, but all three of us will know I don’t mean it.

So instead, with my lips close enough to his that I feel them with every brush of every word, I say, “I’m not giving you a name, Phoenix Hawthorne. No matter what either of you do.”

Instantly I feel his smile, the way it curves upward. I feel the lack of softness in it, and somehow the greed as well, before he shoves my knees wider and presses his ungloved fingers against my inner thigh, skimming them up toward my center.

“Then we’ll just have to make you, won’t we?”

“Fuck,those are the best words I’ve heard all night,” Rory groans, his hands back on my hips, bunching up my hoodie until he finds skin. “Next time, I’m going to chase you to our hotel. I’ll kidnap you,” he rambles, his gloves gone as well as his fingers explore my stomach, and finally trace the line of my bra. “I want to rip your clothes and take my time playing with you.”

“You sound like a serial killer,” I inform him dryly, but Phoenix only chuckles.

“He is,” my childhood babysitter informs me, his fingers finally hooking in my underwear teasingly.

“He’s killed Evan and…” I think back, mathing out my nights. “Jack, right? I don’t think two murders makes you a serial killer.”

“Oh, Bailey…” Rory’s sigh in my ear is accompanied by the feel of something sharp and metallic on my thigh.

“Who in the world told you that I’ve only killedtwice?” In an instant one of them cuts through my underwear, yanking the scraps off of my legs as Phoenix’s fingers find me again, this time with nothing between us.

“B-but—” the new information makes me stammer, and I reel. “But Phoenix—”

“Phoenixhas only killed twice,” Rory agrees, one hand leaving my stomach to trail down my body. He finds Phoenix’s fingers and his own replace them, spreading me wide as I feel Phoenix’s hair brush my thigh, then his lips. “He killed Emily. I was so proud of him. He did so fucking good without me. That’s why you saw me walking around in the woods with your dead crow at the fairgrounds. I was worried about him.”

He, honest to God,gigglesagainst my ear. “I told him that night we could just kidnap you. He wanted you sobadly.”

“Fuck, Rory, you’re going to scare her off,” Phoenix murmurs, and I jump at how close his face is to where Rory holds me open.

“No, I’m not,” Rory argues. “I won’t scare her off. I know how much you want to keep her.”

“You can’t…you can’tkeepme,” I protest, hyper aware of Phoenix’s breath against my slit. I can’t stop the whimper that escapes my lips when he licks a line up to my clit, and my thighs tense where they’re hooked over Rory’s legs. “I’m a person. That’s not how it works.”

"We can’t?” It’s Phoenix who answers, and some of that darkness that’s laced Rory’s tone all night has found its way to him. “Not even if we promise to take such good care of you?”

I swear I have something good to say. Some valid argument waits at the tip of my tongue, but instead Iyelpwhen his mouth finds my slit. His tongue licks at me teasingly, both of his hands on my thighs, and seconds later I feel his tongue press into me, licking every part of me he can.