Taking Turns (Turning #1)(60)

He doesn’t want me out. That defeats the whole purpose of what we’re doing. So he’s added this little interesting element to push thing along quicker.

Is that what he’s doing? Or is he serious? Does he want her to cut me out?

I don’t know why it hits me so hard, but it does. I have never thought of these girls we play with as something to own. But suddenly things feel… different.

Does he want her? For himself?

I shake my head at that. It makes no sense. I mean, I want her for myself, but I’m me. I’m a selfish *. I want everything for myself. It’s in my blood. It’s part of my charm.

Even I have to chuckle at that last one.

I’m pretty sure no one calls me charming. That’s Quin, if it’s any of us.

But f*ck Bric for telling her to cut me out even if it was part of his game. Has he done this before? He didn’t have to do it with Rochelle. I was Number Two. I had her whenever I wanted her. Which was often in the beginning. But she got old fast. We had nothing in common.

But Chella is the exact opposite of Rochelle. I can’t think of a single commonality about them. Except us, of course.

Did Bric play this game with Quin, when he was Number One with Rochelle? I suddenly have the need to ask him. I head down the hallway, leaving to go downstairs and have this out with Bric and Quin, when Chella says, “What do they do down there?”

“Huh?” I ask, my hand reaching for the doorknob. I turn and look over my shoulder. She’s sitting in a chair in front of the window. My chair in front of the window. The one I should be sitting in as I watch her. And she’s got her legs open, flashing that wet, pink * at me. “What the f*ck are you doing?”

She smiles. Shrugs. “What?” she asks innocently. “I thought you liked to watch.”

I do.

“Downstairs. When they go downstairs in the basement. Rochelle said she’d never been down there.”

An evil idea is percolating in my head. “And you never will either. It’s not a place for you. You’re not even a member.”

“So what’s the big secret?”

“The secret?” I laugh. “It’s not a secret. We f*ck people down there. In groups. A husband-wife team chooses others to join them, and we all f*ck until we’re spent. Does that satisfy your curiosity?”

“Is Bric down there now? And Quin?”

Yes, evil little idea, come to Daddy. I’ll take care of you. Nurture you. Keep you alive and healthy. “What do you think?” I ask her.

She lets out a long exhale. “I want to think no. Because I should be enough.”

“Oh.” I laugh the word out. “Enough, you say? That’s so f*cking interesting coming from a woman who needs three men to satisfy her.”

“Who said I do?” she snaps, anger all over her red-flushed face. “I never said that. You guys offered this to me.”

“You invited yourself in knowing full well what it was. So hey”—I laugh—“If you’re gonna get jealous about Bric and Quin f*cking other women, then you better keep that to yourself. We don’t put up with it.”

“But you put up with Bric telling me to cut you out?”

Yes, evil idea, I will take you home and keep you forever. “Would you like to go downstairs, Chella? Would you like to see what Bric and Quin are doing right now?”

“Is that a joke? Or a real offer?”

I shrug. “Take it any way you want. But if you say yes, and you don’t like what you see, don’t come crying to me when your filthy deviant heart gets broken. Because I’ll tell you something right now, Chella, you can’t ever compare to the sluts we have down there when it comes to sex. Bric will never give that up. Quin, maybe. But Bric is in for the duration.”

“And you?”

I laugh again. “I don’t go down there. That night Quin found you in Rochelle’s bed was the first time all year for me.”

“Then why go that night?”

“Because you made me.”

“I made you?” She laughs.

“You and your wet * in that closet. You with your innocent eyes and dirty mouth. You with your big idea to come rock our world and join our game. I went down because of you, Chella. And when Bric f*cked his four—yes, four—sluts that night, I painted your face on each one of them as I jerked off and watched.”

We stare at each other. It seems like years go by in silence. “Take me down,” she finally says. “I want to see.”

“See?” I shake my head. “Everyone who goes down participates, Chella. It’s not a spectator sport.”

“But you just said you only watched. That you jerked off. So why can’t I watch with you?”

Because I won’t be able to control myself. Because I’ll end up pushing you into a corner and f*cking you from behind. Because I’ll beat the shit out of anyone who comes near you, looks at you wrong—

“Smith?” she says, drawing me out of my thoughts. “Please take me down. I’ll do whatever you say. If you want to go dark, then don’t take a light, right?”

I smile. “Marcella Walcott wants to leave her light behind?”

“I’m yours tonight, Smith Baldwin,” she says back.

My evil idea is bigger now. Blossoming into something beautiful. “Take off your nightie. All the women have to enter naked.”