Cataclysm (Four Horsemen #4)(98)

Lastly, Francis picked up the box of said rings and had me place them on their ring fingers. West was the one who slid the ring onto mine, giving me a devious smile as he did it. It felt fitting for it to be him. We had fallen in love with each other when we were kids. He was the one I’d envisioned spending my entire life with. I just had four men now instead of one. And it was everything to me. They were my life, my loves and my home.

“May these rings symbolise our commitment to each other and guarantee no one else will hit on our woman because we will gut them if they do.”

I snorted and shook my head.

“That’s not very romantic, Frankie.”

“It’s what we do,” West said with a shrug. “You’re ours.”

Prescott took my hand and rubbed the ring.

“No one gets to touch or take what’s ours, little lamb. Never again.”

I gave him a look.

“So you’ll just kill anyone who does? I thought we were done with that after tonight.”

“Drake will. He’s our executioner.”

I rolled my eyes and glanced at Drake, who merely shrugged and rubbed his face.

“If I have to kill again to keep you safe, I will.”

Why on earth was I not surprised our commitment ceremony had included talking about murder?

“Can we please get back to this rather than talking about killing?” I waved between us. “I know it isn’t a wedding, but I think kissing the bride should totally be a thing.”

The words had barely left my lips when I was gathered up in Prescott’s arms and his mouth was on mine, tasting me like a man starved. I melted against him, letting him have his fill of me until he pulled away and smiled.

“My sweet little lamb can have whatever she wants whenever she wants.”

He set me down and pushed me towards West, who kissed me next. It was hot and heavy. His bloody hand wrapped around my throat to remind me who I belonged to.

“Mine,” he murmured against my lips. “Forever, little Scar.”

When he released me, my knees were a little weak. Francis was there to catch me as I stumbled. I found myself bent over his arm as he kissed me, his fingertips in my hair, stroking my scalp. His scent surrounded me, making me feel at home in his arms. He smiled when he pulled away to look at me.

“My little whore, so beautiful,” he whispered.

He set me upright and pushed me towards Drake, who stared down at me for a long moment without moving. He lifted his hand and curled a lock of my hair around his finger. Then he was tugging me towards him and bending down to capture my mouth in one of his searing kisses. I was a puddle of goo by the time he let me go.

Francis made me sit down so we could all bandage up our hands where he’d cut them and clean away all the blood. I smiled at him before I picked up my bottle of cider.

“Can I make a toast?”

They all grabbed their beer bottles and held them, giving me an expectant look.

“I just want to say thank you for giving me tonight. We’ve been through so much shit in our lives, and today we can put it all behind us.” I looked at them each in turn. “Also, it just occurred to me it’s technically our birthday, so happy birthday.” I raised my bottle. “To us.”

“To us,” the boys said in unison, raising their bottles before we all took a drink.

“Did you deliberately choose last night to be the day we did everything so we could do the whole commitment thing on our birthday?”

Francis smiled.

“Maybe.”

I pointed at him.

“You, mister, are a sneaky, deviant little shit.”

He came closer and stroked my cheek.

“You love that about me.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I suppose I do.”

The next thing I knew, I was yawning, as if everything had finally hit me all at once. Exhaustion washed over me, making me feel like I’d aged a hundred years. We were only twenty-seven today, so I suppose that might be a slight exaggeration.

“I think someone needs to be put to bed.”

I set my bottle down and took Francis’ hand.

“Mmm, and so do all of you.”

An idea formed in my mind. One I was pretty sure certain people wouldn’t like, but I didn’t care. They could deal.

“We’re all going to go down to the playroom and sleep together. That’s the only bed big enough for the five of us.”

“Excuse me?” Drake said, his eyes widening.

I tugged Francis towards the door to the roof, expecting them to follow suit.

“You heard me, and I will have no objections raised by any of you. We’ve fucked together. We can sleep in the same bed together.”

I heard Drake grumbling behind us, but he didn’t say anything else.

“You need to teach me how you do that,” Francis murmured in my ear.

“Do what?”

“Get him to agree to anything you want.”

I smiled.

“You’d have to make him fall in love with you.”

Francis made a face. I laughed, the sound of it echoing around the stairwell as we entered it.

“Look, he’s my best friend and all, but I’m not sure I want him being that devoted to me. He’s kind of a lot to deal with.”

“Lucky for you, I know how to handle him.”