Page 97 of Sweet Torment

“Yes. It’s been a long evening.” And I have plans.

28

BIANCA

It’s 8 a.m., and we’re running behind. A sleek black car has been idling outside for twenty minutes, the driver probably checking his watch while the alphas invent increasingly ridiculous reasons for how we could postpone my appointment with Dr. Montgomery.

“Maybe you’re coming down with something,” Freddie suggests, pressing the back of his hand to my forehead with exaggerated concern. “You feel a little warm.”

“I’m always warm,” I say dryly. “It’s a side effect of being surrounded by four alpha furnaces.”

I know they’re just trying to protect me, to delay the inevitable. But I might as well get it over with. The longer I wait, the more my imagination goes wild with the unknown.

I’m allowed to bring one of them with me to wait in the lobby, and the drama that ensued when I chose Tristan was slightly comical. Owen’s jaw actually dropped, his offense clear as day. Freddie clutched his chest like I’d stabbed him. Weller’s eyebrow twitched uncontrollably… which, for him, is practically a tantrum.

But Tristan’s the least emotional of all of them. He’s a fortress of logic and sarcasm, and right now, that’s the kind of armor I need. Unless his father talks shit about me, I guess. Then he becomes a feral beast with bloody knuckles and wild eyes.

I kiss the others goodbye, allowing them to get their fill. Owen turns a simple kiss into a hot make-out session that leaves me flustered, Freddie’s soft peck turns into ten, and Weller buries his face in my neck, pressing kiss after kiss there, accompanied by a whispered, “Be careful.”

I can taste their worry on my lips, feel it prickling through the bonds. I promise to come home soon.

I’m wearing a light pink dress with a cardigan I packed when I went to dinner at my parents’. It’s strategic. Maybe if I look less like the girl who isn’t afraid to get her hands bloody and more like the vulnerable, idiotic girl I used to be, I can get some information out of Dr. Montgomery.

It feels like I’m wearing a lie.

“You look very sweet and innocent today.” Tristan’s eyes travel from my face down to my sensible flats and back up again, lingering on the modest neckline of my dress. The way he looks at me, as if I’m something delicious to eat, never gets old. His pupils dilate slightly, and I feel a tingle between my legs. “You could almost have me fooled. The bow is a nice touch.”

He takes my hand and walks me to the car, helping me into the backseat before sliding in beside me, his thigh pressing against mine. I’m glad he will be there with me, even though he won’t be in the exam room.

“You okay?” I whisper, though there’s no need to be quiet behind the privacy glass.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”

“You seem a little tense.”

“I don’t like the idea of him touching you.” His face is annoyed. “I don’t like that I can’t be in the room with you.”

“It’s just a checkup,” I say, though we both know it’s never just anything with Dr. Montgomery.

The drive is short, and we’re at Dr. Montgomery’s gigantic office that touches the sky in downtown Westmont in about fifteen minutes. Tristan has been running his thumb over my knuckles the entire way, and I’m not sure if he’s trying to soothe me or himself. Maybe both.

He winces when we get out of the car, the bruising all over his body looking worse today. His father’s handiwork. I’d love nothing more than to shoot the bastard between the eyes with an arrow. He’s the fucking worst.

I’m sore from whatever Weller was up to last night. I wasn’t sure at first if he would take me up on my offer, but I wake up every morning slippery between my thighs and covered in various new marks that make it seem like he feasts on me in the night.

Four alphas are a lot to contend with, especially these ones whose touch deprivation has transformed into utter obsession. I’m not complaining. There’s something about the way they need me that makes me feel like I’m helping them by giving them unfettered access to my body. It’s a pleasurable distraction for me too and maybe the only thing that’s keeping me sane.

I feel horny constantly. Every brush of their fingers against my skin feels like a spark to dry tinder. Ezra and I had a lot of fun together, but it wasn’t like this. Ezra loves me. I know that. But it’s as a friend—a soul-deep friendship with a side of sexual benefits I enjoyed greatly. But it’s nothing like it is with the alphas who need to touch me every second or else they might die.

A girl could get spoiled.

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Tristan asks as we approach the building’s entrance, his hand resting at the small of my back. “You’re blushing.”

“Just thinking about how insatiable you all are.”

“And here I was thinking that we’ve been taking it easy on you.” His lips brush my ear, and my body reacts, even as I scoff.

We make our way inside, and the woman at the front desk is pretty, blonde, and chipper. She doesn’t look like she works for the world’s most evil doctor. Her smile is too genuine, her eyes too bright. She must know some of the horrible things he does. Right? How could she not sense the wrongness that oozes from every pore of that man?