VAULT: A Madison Kate Novella Page 3

  So I shrugged and decked him myself.

  4

  Madison Kate

  I could barely restrain my eye roll at the glare Archer gave me when I entered the bedroom. He was such a dramatic bitch sometimes, I swear, he gave Seph a run for her money.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” I snapped, tossing the bottle of vodka over. He caught it effortlessly, and I went into the bathroom to grab a washcloth for my blood-streaked arm. Holy shitballs, it hurt.

  He said nothing, but I’d barely even wet the washcloth before he was right there snatching it out of my hand and leading me back into the bedroom.

  “Sit,” he ordered, giving me a gentle push.

  I scowled as my butt hit the mattress. “What’d I say about not being a fucking dog?”

  His brow dipped in anger. “Then don’t act like a bitch.”

  My jaw dropped. “You did not just say that.”

  Archer was pissed enough that he wasn’t backing down, though. “What? You are. Clearly, we’re just worried as fuck, and you’re getting your claws out like—“

  His rant cut off abruptly when I punched him straight in the nuts—his own damn fault for putting me right at groin height, and really it was barely more than a love tap since my dominant arm had a big old knife slice in it.

  Still, he crumpled, clutching his crown jewels, and I hissed as my arm throbbed.

  “Yep,” he groaned, “I deserved that.”

  “Damn fucking right, you did,” I growled. “Call me a bitch again, and I’ll remove a testicle. Now, patch me up so I can stop whatever is going down out there.” I nodded to the door and the fact that it seemed all too quiet. Had Kody already killed Steele?

  Archer gave a pained laugh but shifted to his knees to open the medical kit beside me on the bed. “Yes, ma’am,” he teased.

  His touch was gentle as he cleaned up my arm and inspected the wound. It wasn’t huge—the knife had stuck in, not sliced down—maybe only an inch or so wide, but deep. Ultimately, he decided it needed a couple of stitches, so he threaded up a needle while I gulped vodka.

  “I could just give you painkillers, Princess,” he commented as I cringed with the vodka burn.

  I wrinkled my nose. “I’ll take those too. But I’m guessing we need to haul ass to a new safe location soon, and I don’t want to be completely out of it.”

  Archer shot me a lopsided smile as he held up the needle. “Oh, but drunk is okay?”

  I shrugged. “I’m not drinking that much.” But the first pierce of the needle through my skin made me groan and gulp down another huge mouthful of vodka in a desperate effort to numb the pain. Stupid fucking throwing knife. Luckily, I’d been training with the boys in the gym so much I actually had enough muscle in my bicep for the knife to stick into and not hit anything vital.

  Archer murmured soft words of encouragement as he deftly stitched my wound closed, then swiped it with antiseptic and patched it up with a sticky gauze dressing.

  “All done,” he told me, packing away the supplies and gathering up a pile of bloody wipes to throw in the trash. “Unless you’re hiding any other injuries I need to look at?”

  The mood shifted in a breath, and a wicked smile curved my lips. The vodka in my belly might be partly to blame, but... okay, sure, I didn’t need an excuse. We were married, after all.

  “No injuries,” I replied, “but I could use some help taking this dress off.” I nodded to the mess of sticky, half-dried blood coating the side of my sundress. It was destined to go straight in the trash, unquestionably.

  Archer gave me a knowing look and moved the box of medical supplies off the bed and out of the way. “I could probably help you with that,” he commented. Rising to his feet, he offered me a hand up from the bed, then ever so carefully slid the straps of my dress over my injured shoulder.

  The fabric clung to my side where the blood had started drying, but if anything, Archer only seemed more turned on rather than less as he peeled it free and dropped the dress to the floor.

  “I think I can guess why Steele was distracted,” he muttered, his hands cupping my breasts and his thumbs finding my hard nipples. “I fucking love that you don’t wear a bra with those dresses, Princess. So fucking hot.”

  I gave a small moan, pushing my chest harder into his grip as my good arm looped around his neck. My fingers threaded into the back of his dark hair, and I tilted my chin up until our eyes met.

  “Here’s the thing,” I whispered, leaning into his body, “the knife throwing waiter interrupted us before he could finish me off. So now, not only do I have fresh stitches in my arm, but I’m also dying a slow death of blue lady-balls.”

  His lips curled. “That sounds painful, Princess.”

  I groaned as he played with my nipples, my hand coming to the front of his shirt to unbutton it. “Excruciating,” I replied, tugging his shirt off. “You wouldn’t leave your wife in pain, would you?”

  Archer stilled, his eyes flashing dark and dangerous. His hands left my breasts and smoothed down my sides to rest on my hips, his fingers hooked under the elastic of my panties.

  “Say that again,” he ordered, his voice thick with desire and underscored by dominance.

  I wet my lips, knowing what had just flipped his switch. “Your wife, Archer D’Ath.”

  Yup, that did it. I gave a small, surprised scream as he ripped my panties clean off, then picked me up and dropped me into the middle of the bed. My arm throbbed, but it sure as shit wasn’t bad enough to hold my attention when my husband was throwing his own clothes across the room like they were made of acid.

  “Fuck,” he muttered as he knelt between my legs, his fingers plunging straight into my depths. “You’re drenched, Kate.”

  I moaned, spreading my legs wider as he pumped a second finger into me. “I told you. I was right about to come when that fucker attacked.”

  His lush lips curved as he stared down at me with raw hunger. “How badly does your arm hurt?”

  “Um, what arm?” I asked, bucking my hips against his hand.

  Chuckling softly, he pulled his fingers free of my desperate cunt and sucked them, then gently placed my arms above my head where we’d left a pair of leather cuffs yesterday.

  “This okay?” he asked. Not because he was a sensitive petal concerned about my comfort—we were way past that—but because of my injury. Any other day, he’d have probably flipped me over and cuffed my wrists to my ankles without so much as a whisper of warning.

  My arm hurt, no doubt, but it was going to hurt no matter what we were doing. So I nodded eagerly and waited impatiently as he buckled the cuffs to my wrists.

  Once I was securely going nowhere, he leaned down and kissed me until I forgot how to breathe. Then he slammed his hard cock inside me with one brutal thrust. I cried out against his kiss, but he didn’t let up, pulling out and thrusting in again just as hard. My teeth latched onto his lower lip, sinking in hard enough that I tasted the copper of his blood, and it just drove him wilder.

  His hands hitched under my thighs, pushing my knees up toward my chest and spreading me wide. I groaned, squirming under his weight, and he sat up onto his knees to peer down at where we were joined.

  “Lift your hips,” he ordered, licking his lips and chasing the faint smear of blood there.

  I did as I was told, and he shoved a pillow under my ass to support that angle. Then he gripped my thighs and went to fucking work. My wrists tugged and jerked in the cuffs as Archer fucked me hard, his gaze darting between my face, my bouncing tits, and the wet slide of his dick in and out of my pussy.

  “Arch...” I said his name on a moan drenched in need.

  He gave a husky chuckle. “I’ve got you, Kate. Try and keep it quiet.” His wink said he didn’t expect me to do anything of the sort. When his fingers found my clit, rubbing at me while he continued fucking me hard, I detonated with a scream.

  Archer grinned and quickly muffled my cries with his other hand over my mouth, but it was probably too little too late. Fucking whatever, I’d taken a knife today; I deserved to get my rocks off. Again. But in all seriousness, the orgasm was taking my mind off how much my arm hurt.

  “Dammit, Princess,” he chuckled when he peeled his hand away, kissing me instead, “so much for keeping you all to myself for a minute.”

  I was beyond words, though, moaning and panting, my hips bucking as I begged for more. Our tongues entwined as he kissed me deeply, his hands moving back to my breasts to toy with my nipples as his thrusts slowed to a less frenzied pace.

  “Kate,” he whispered in a hoarse voice as his kisses moved down my throat. His beard tickled my skin, making shivers of arousal zap across my flesh, and he found a nipple with his lips.

  “Mmm?” I replied, my chest heaving as I fought to regain my breath.

  He looked up at me, his ice-blue eyes holding my gaze as he licked a teasing circle around my nipple. “I love you, Princess.”

  A stupidly lovesick feeling swamped my chest, and my smile spread wide. “I love you, too, Sunshine.”

  “And I love both of you,” Steele muttered, entering the bedroom and closing the door behind him. He was already tugging his clothes off as he crossed the room to us. “But goddamn, you’re loud when you come, Hellcat.”

  He kicked his pants aside and gave my cuffed wrists a hard look, then glared at Archer, who was still balls deep inside my pussy. “Really? She just got stabbed in that arm.”

  Archer gave an unapologetic shrug and sucked my nipple before replying. “She loves it, don’t you, wifey?”

  I just grinned. They both knew the answer to that.

  Steele just rolled his eyes and unbuckled my wrists with easy, practiced motions as he sat against the headboard. “Come here, Hellcat,” he purred, patting his lap, “we have unfinished business, remember?”

  “Hey, what the shit, bro?” Archer protested but didn’t stop me when I laughed and wiggled out from under him to straddle Steele instead. “Pretty sure my business was unfinished too.”

  Scoffing a laugh, Steele lifted me with his hands on my waist and impaled me on his long, pierced cock. I cried out again, way too freaking loud, and Archer reached out to gag me with his hand again.

  Moaning, I leaned back against Archer’s chest as I rode Steele’s dick, in total bliss being sandwiched between their hot, hard bodies.

  Archer kept his hand over my mouth for another moment, then whispered a curse and reached for the lube on the bedside table. “Sorry, Princess, this is gonna be a quick one.”

  He wasn’t fucking kidding, either; within seconds he had me all lubed up and ready to go. This time Steele muffled my noises with his hand over my mouth as Archer pushed his thick cock into my ass.

  “Is now a good time to tell you that Kody and Demi are in a pretty heated argument out there?” Steele asked with a smirk, addressing Archer over my shoulder.

  Archer made a frustrated growl, giving a couple of shallow thrusts to warm me up a bit more. I was physically shaking with the overwhelming need to come again, though; I needed no warm-ups.

  “So you thought this would be a great time to come blow your load?” he snarled, pumping into me a bit harder as his hands gripped my hips. “Don’t get me started on—"

  “Stop it,” I snapped, yanking Steele’s hand away from my mouth. “I don’t want to hear another word out of either of you unless it’s I’m gonna come. We clear?” I was panting, breathless, and couldn’t stay still between them. I was so damn full of cock, but it was taking all my effort not to yell for Kody to join us.

  They both muttered their acceptance, then I turned my head to lock lips with Archer as he found a rhythm in my ass while Steele fucked me from below. It was utter heaven. I swapped back and forth, kissing each of them as they tandem fucked me, making me come again twice before Archer unloaded inside me.

  He muttered curses, but cleaned up and dressed. Steele and I continued, the two of us kissing and panting as I rode his pierced dick, chasing down my fourth climax. I looked back on my days where I’d struggled to come even once during sex and laughed. I’d just needed the right partners. Plural.

  “I’ll go sort things out with Demi,” Archer told us. “But I won’t stop Kody from crashing your party if you don’t finish soon.”

  Sounded like a good time, if anyone asked me.

  “Understood,” Steele replied, then flipped us over so my back hit the mattress, and he sank back into my pussy from a position of dominance. “Holy shit, you feel good, Hellcat. I’m so fucking sorry I got you hurt today.”

  I moaned, arching into his touch. “Apologize in orgasms, Max. Make me come again, and all is forgiven.” Because there was nothing to forgive.

  “Done,” he replied with a wolfish grin.

  5

  Archer

  As much as it pained me to leave the room while Kate was still writhing all over Steele’s cock, I had a burning need to speak with Demi myself about this whole fucking situation we were in. She was Seph’s aunt, it made perfect sense for her to want to protect her niece. But she needed to do it without us. I wasn’t risking my girl's life again, no way in hell.

  “Where’s Stacey?” I asked, frowning when I saw only Demi and Kody in the kitchen.

  She shot me an irritated look, seeing as I’d just interrupted whatever she was saying to Kody. “Still cleaning up that mess in town,” she snapped. “Because as crazy as it seems, that kind of shit isn’t all that common around here. It’s not as easy as it is in Shadow Grove to just make people look the other way when a man is dead in a restaurant.”

  Her tone was caustic and the resemblance to Hades was shockingly clear. It should have been enough to make me reconsider, but... fuck it. My girl was more important than the wrath of Hades.

  “We’re out,” I announced. “I’m happy to get you and Seph set up at a new safe house, somewhere totally remote and off the grid, but then we’re done. I’m not having Kate caught in the crossfire of Hades’s war again.”

  Demi’s brows shot right up, and Kody grimaced. He didn’t contradict me, though. The tension in his folded arms and the hardness in his face said he was in agreement, no matter how bad of a business decision it was.

  “Archer, that’s a very stupid move, and you damn well know it. Hades expects you to keep Seph safe until—“

  “Kate could have died today!” I roared, slamming my fist down on the table. “She could have fucking died, Demi, and for what? To protect a bratty teenager who doesn’t even want to be protected? Let me spell it out for you. We’re done. I won’t risk Kate’s safety for fucking anyone. Clear?”

  “And what about Seph?” she shouted back at me, not backing down even slightly. “What about that innocent child who has no idea what kind of world she’s really living in. What do you think would happen to her if Chase got his hands on her, huh? The shit that man would do just to control Hades—“

  “It’s not our fucking problem!” I bellowed. “It’s not our job to keep her safe, and it’s sure as shit not our problem that she’s as clueless as a fucking rock.”

  “Archer D’Ath—“ Demi snarled, her face hardening with fury, but Kody cut her short.

  “That’s enough,” he said firmly. “From both of you. We’re all tightly strung right now. Let’s just take a fucking breath and work on a new safe location. Okay?”

  My hands planted on the table, I sent him a dark glare, but he just met my gaze unflinchingly. Ballsy bastard was never scared of me, even when I was in a rage. Probably because he knew I’d never hurt him... not seriously.

  Demi scowled. “I’m going to call Stacey. I don’t like that she’s at the police station alone.” She stormed out of the kitchen, shooting me another scathing glare on her way.

  “Well. That went well,” Kody commented when we were alone. “Where the fuck is Steele?”

  I snorted. “Where do you think?”

  “Fuck,” he snarled. “Like he deserves that right now.”

  “Shut the fuck up, bro,” Steele replied, swaggering into the kitchen with a decidedly well-fucked look about him. “MK’s asleep, so maybe quit the shouting for a bit?”

  I scoffed and rolled my eyes. But, fair enough. Even if Steele hadn’t just turned our quickie into a threesome, she’d have been exhausted. Probably best that she was sleeping and not witnessing me and Demi on the verge of throwing plates at each other.

  “You both fucking suck,” Kody sulked, stalking out of the kitchen.

  “Don’t wake her up!” Steele shouted after him, but Kody’s only response was to flip him off.

  Steele turned his scowl on me. “Did I hear that argument right? You want to quit the protection job?”

  I shook my head, glaring back at him. “Don’t fucking give me that face, bro. You want to tell me you’re okay with this?”

  He gave me an exasperated look, throwing his hands in the air. “No, of course not. But I’m also not okay with leaving a naïve teenage girl to fend for herself when some dickhead wants to hurt her simply to hurt her sister. It’s not cool. And I guarantee MK won’t stand for it either. Seph’s her friend; she won’t turn her back on her, especially now.”

  A long sigh escaped my lungs, and I sank down into one of the dining room chairs. “I know.”

  Steele’s brows hitched. “Then what the fuck was that whole argument with Demi?”

  “Wishful thinking?” I huffed in irritation. “I needed to blow off steam.”

  “And fucking our wife until she passed out wasn’t good enough?” A teasing smile played over his lips, and I scowled harder to fight my own smile.

  “She was awake when I left the room,” I muttered back, swiping a hand over my short beard. “And she’s my wife.”

  Steele scoffed with laughter. “Semantics, bro.”

  He poured us both mugs of crappy coffee—nothing like the liquid gold Kate made for us—and we sat down at the table to discuss our next move. Where to go. Who could be trusted not to leak our location like the owner of this safe house clearly had. Okay, maybe not the house itself or we’d be in shit right now, but certainly the vague location.