Chapter 24 In Between Fire
Elsie
My towel had gone cold around my shoulders, and my reflection in the mirror barely looked human, eyes too wide, hair tangled, dress clinging in dark patches where it hadn’t yet dried.
Jacob hadn’t moved since he said it: Because I can’t seem to stop.
The words hung between us like smoke, dangerous, impossible to ignore.
I looked up at him. “You shouldn’t have hit him.”
“I know.” His voice was rough, quieter now. “But if I saw it again, I’d do it again.”
He stepped closer, slow enough for me to see the tremor in his hands. There was so much anger still in him, but something else too, something softer, almost like regret.
I should’ve stepped back. Instead, I stayed still.
“You can’t keep doing this,” I whispered. “Throwing punches. Dragging me away like—like I belong to you.”
He exhaled, a short, tired sound. “I don’t want to own you, Elsie. I just—” He stopped, jaw tightening, words lost somewhere behind his eyes. “You get under my skin.”
His fingers brushed a strand of wet hair from my face. The touch was careful this time, not possessive. Just human.
I felt the heat rising between us again, the kind that has nothing to do with temperature. My pulse thudded in my ears. The silence was heavy enough to hear every breath.
“Jacob,” I said, but it came out smaller than I meant it to.
He didn’t answer. He only studied me, like he was memorizing something.
Then a sound cut through the quiet—a knock, firm but hesitant.
The door opened before I could move.
Aiden stood there.
He was still in his soaked white shirt, sleeves rolled to his elbows, collar undone. There was a bruise starting to bloom on his jaw, maybe from when he’d pulled me out of the pool. His eyes darted between us—Jacob’s hand still at my shoulder, my face tilted up toward him.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Aiden was the first to break the silence. “Lena’s gone home. The guests too. It’s over.” His voice was calm, but his gaze lingered on Jacob’s hand before finding mine again. “Are you all right?”
I nodded, though the word fine would’ve been a lie.
Jacob stepped back finally, running a hand through his wet hair. “She’s fine,” he said gruffly.
Aiden’s jaw twitched. “I’ll let her answer for herself.”
That quiet challenge between them wasn’t angry. It was… familiar, practiced. Like two people used to stepping into the same storm.
“I’m fine,” I said again, trying to steady my voice. “Just—tired.”
Aiden crossed the room and crouched beside me, his movements gentler than his brother’s. “You shouldn’t stay in wet clothes,” he said softly. “You’ll get sick.”
Jacob let out a low breath, leaning against the wall, watching. I could feel both of them without looking—their heat, their focus, the way neither seemed able to walk away.
“I’ll call for a car,” Jacob muttered finally, though his tone made it sound like a lie.
I stood between them, towel clutched tight around me, trying to make sense of what was happening. These two men, brothers, are both strong in such opposite ways. Jacob burned like fire; Aiden was all control and calm, but the spark was there, hidden beneath the surface.
My attraction to these men is a problem. One that I don’t entirely know what to do with. I’ve never wanted anyone like I want them. No one has ever made me feel these kinds of things before, and it’s difficult and startling all at once.
I hated them and wanted them at the same time.
“I don’t need anyone to look after me. I’ll be on my way home,” I said quietly.
Jacob’s mouth curved. “You say that like you believe it.”
Aiden gave him a sharp look, but I caught the faint trace of a smile before he turned back to me. “He’s right about one thing, you shouldn’t be alone tonight. Not after that.”
Their concern pressed in on me, suffocating and comforting all at once.
Jacob stepped closer again. “You should change,” he said, voice low. “There’s a robe in the cabinet.”
I hesitated, then nodded, turning slightly away to dry my face. When I looked up again, Jacob had taken a half-step back, but his eyes hadn’t left me.
And then Aiden reached out, brushing a hand across my arm, just once, light as air. “You did nothing wrong tonight, Elsie,” he said softly. “Remember that.”
It shouldn’t have meant so much. But it did.
Something flickered between them—an understanding I couldn’t read. No rivalry, no anger. Just two people bound by something old and complicated, both looking at me like they didn’t know what to do next.
When Aiden’s lips came down on mine, it was not harsh or punishing. It felt good, his mouth warm and full. I didn’t push him away this time. I kissed him back, pushing my tongue into his mouth.
I couldn’t resist him. I tried. He is my sister’s murderer for fucking sake. I should be thinking of a way to kill him and get away with it, not fucking him.
All my thoughts seemed to switch off, my mind acutely aware of the soft warmth of his lips and his hand resting on my hip.
I gasped as another pair of hands slid along my stomach. Jacob was pressed up against my back, his lips gently trailing kisses along the side of my neck.
The towel around my shoulder dropped. My nipple was painfully hard from the cold and it poked through my wet dress.
My body was slowly turned around. Before I could recover from Aiden’s kiss, Jacob captured my lips.
They took turns kissing me.
Fire sang in my veins. Heat pooled in my belly. A deep thrumming erupted further down, right between my legs.
A distant voice in my mind reminded me of my position between the two brothers but I couldn’t do a thing to stop them.
I just let them kiss me. My body is trapped between their hard muscles as they warm me up.
Jacob’s mouth lifted from mine as he lowered his head and licked one of the hard, pink tips of my nipple before sucking it into his mouth, and the throaty sound that left him was satisfying.
Aiden was kissing me, deep and needy and Jacob was sucking my nipples, moving from one to the other.
“Fuck!” I squirmed and whimpered against Aiden’s lips, gasping softly.
“You like that?” Aiden said softly, never breaking the kisses. “You like how we make you feel.”
“Yes..” I whimpered
fondling my breasts, “fucking hell, Elsie.” Jacob growled.
My mind was a haze of heat and desire.
I’d stolen plenty of kisses with my ex-boyfriend in high school but none of them made me lose myself like this.
Aiden’s teeth suddenly sank into my bottom lip. The sharp sting jerked me from the haze blinding me to everything else.
Jacob’s eyes glittered in the dimly lit room. He swiped a thumb over his luscious lips and grinned. “Sweet.”
I placed my hands over Aiden, stopping him just as he was about to cup my wet pussy.
“Hey, you okay?” Jacob asked, reaching for me.
I stepped away from him, colliding with Aiden who was still standing behind me.
“Breathe, Elsie. “ Jacob said. “We will not take you until you are ready, and when you are, you will surrender to us in every way we demand.”
But I want this, I want them.