Released: Highgate Preparatory Academy, Book 3
Released: Chapter 16

The next morning passes by in a blur, the guys cocooning me in their loving embrace that a week ago felt stifling, but now feels like a warm security blanket, protecting me from the harshness of life.

I’m snuggled on the sofa with Loki and Jax, the latter massaging my feet which feels like utter fucking bliss as he rubs the tension away, when a frantic knocking sounds at the door. My heart leaps, and I sit up, pulse pounding until I hear Willow’s voice on the other side.

“Stop fucking those hotties and open up! I know you’re back, Lilly!”

A small laugh barks out of me as Ash strides over to the door, opening it with a scowl. Willow, bloody awesome bitch that she is, just brushes past him without so much as a pause in her step and stops when she sees me, her eyes welling up.

“Hunter told me what happened, and–shit. I’m so glad you’re back, babe,” she hiccups before bursting into tears, and I rush to get up and get my arse over to her, wrapping her now sobbing, fairy form up in a tight hug.

“I missed your crazy, lovely,” I tell her, my own voice thick with tears.

We hold each other for a few beats, and it dawns on me how much I needed her these past few weeks, my new bestie. And also how much I might owe her and her brother. Pulling away, I look into her crystal eyes, the tears on her lashes making them shine like diamonds.

“Willow, your brother. I owe you all so fucking much,” I say, sincerity in my tone. I definitely would have gone mad without the twins and Mai. She scoffs at my words.

“You don’t owe anyone shit, babe,” she tells me, her blonde curls bouncing as she shakes her head. “You’re family, Lilly, and family helps each other, no questions asked or debts owed.”

It’s Ash’s turn to snort at that, and we both look over to him, a question in my expression, but Willow beats me to it.

“Something to say, Vanderbilt?” she sasses him, and I love her for it. I think even Ash approves as I see a hint of a smile on his gorgeous lips.

“We are clearly not family as the Knights owe the Shadows a favour, according to your brother,” he states, crossing his arms and levelling her with his stern, grey eyes. I can’t say that I’m all that surprised, isn’t this how gangs work after all?

“Please,” Willow says, rolling her eyes and turning back to me. “It won’t be something that you’re not willing to do. The Shadows aren’t those kinds of monsters.”

There’s a darkness in her eyes at the end, like clouds that sweep over the sun, leaving you shivering, and I’m reminded that Willow has her own past, her own tale of woe that she’s yet to share. I won’t push her though. She’ll tell me when she’s good and ready.

“How about a movie?” I suggest, grabbing her hand and leading her to the sofa, making scooting motions with my other hand at Loki and Jax so they give us some space.

“I’ll make some popcorn,” Kai offers, putting down his iPad and getting up to go over to the kitchen.

“Sweet and salty?” I ask, giving him pleading eyes, and he chuckles, placing a kiss on my lips as he passes.

“Of course, darling,” he replies softly, and I beam at him.

“Urgh, you’re all so in love it’s almost sickening,” Willow mock-scoffs, and I stick out my tongue, knowing that she doesn’t mean it.

“So, tell me all the gossip that I’ve missed out on,” I command her, and she wrinkles her nose as she thinks for a moment.

“Honestly? Not much happened,” she says, and then her eyebrows lift as she clearly thinks of something. “Oh! There was one thing now that I think about it.” She leans closer. “The ex-Governor’s daughter has gone missing, presumed kidnapped but no one knows for sure. Apparently, his son, R-something, used to go here but left shortly after Halloween last year, no one knows why.”

“Robert?” I ask, my heart beating fast at the mention of my would-be rapist.

“Yes! That’s the one! His sister went missing as it’s been all over the local news. She’s just vanished without a trace, kinda like you.” She winces as she says the last part. “Soz, babe.”

“It’s okay,” I reply absently, looking up at Ash whose jaw is clenched. “Did you know?”

“Of course,” he answers, arching one perfect brow in that way of his. “It wasn’t important, given the circumstances.”

Oh yeah, given my abduction he means. Fair point.

“Well, I hope that they replace her soon,” I say to the room.

“I hope that they don’t,” Kai murmurs as he walks back, carrying drinks while the popcorn begins to ping in the pan. I look at him.

“Why?”

“The shit that we planted on the Governor’s laptop was nothing compared to the rumours of what he’d planned to do to his daughter. Word was that he’d put her virginity up for sale to the highest bidder, so long as they had good connections,” he sneers, and suddenly I feel sick, taking my iced tea from him but not wanting to take a sip after that.

“What?! But he went to prison, didn’t he?” I ask him, a coldness spreading across my limbs.

“Twelve-month suspended sentence provided he undertook psychiatric treatment,” Kai practically spits out, his nostrils flared. “He argued that he wasn’t well and needed help.”

“Plus, the Benjamins helped,” Loki adds, his upper lip curled in a sneer.

“Why is it always the rich ones? Why does their money make them untouchable?” I ask, my eyes stinging as I think about the things that I—and my mother—have had to suffer at the hands of these corrupt, despicable men.

No one can give me an answer, and we sit in silence for a few moments, each lost in our own morbid thoughts.

“So, how’s the baby?” Willow finally asks, and I give her a grateful smile.

We spend the rest of the afternoon catching up a little—though Willow is careful not to ask about my time in England and mostly regales me with all the latest Highgate gossip—and watching terrible rom coms on the massive TV. It’s so normal that my skin begins to itch, and I fake exhaustion to go upstairs to Loki’s room, well, my room too, as I don’t want Luc’s old room now even though Ash did offer it to me. I need some time alone, still not used to so much contact with different people. I get jittery seeing the tightness in Willow’s and the guys’ eyes as they glance at me. We all know something is up, I’m not the same girl as I was before, and I hate that they might think it’s them that’s the issue. It’s not, it’s me. I’m…broken.

And that pisses me off. The fact that that cuntbag, Adrian, has made me feel uncomfortable with the people that I love. Has changed me irrevocably that I feel like I no longer know myself.

Isn’t the princess meant to live happily ever after once the bad guy has been slain by her knights?

Yet, he isn’t—wasn’t—the only villain of my story, was he? I only have to think of Julian cuntish Vanderbilt’s wicked smile and lingering touch, Rafe Griffith’s lecherous gaze, and John Matthews’—fucking paedo prick—cruel words.

No, Adrian Ramsey was not the only evil that needed to be eradicated. There are still yet more waiting for their karma.

Sunday night rolls around and I can’t sleep, slipping out from between Ash and Kai who did their best to exhaust my body with so many orgasms I lost count. But my mind won’t settle, the sticky dread of what tomorrow morning will bring occupying my jumbled thoughts. It’s the first day back in class, and I don’t know how I’m meant to function, how I’m meant to be after all this time of being away.

I quietly pad downstairs and hook my phone up to the speakers, turning the volume down but needing the noise after the silence of my confinement. I pause as I realise with a start that I am now more like the guys than I was before. We can’t stand the silence, needing music to drown out the demons that threaten to take over and pull us under. How fucked up is it that it’s our trauma that binds us? That the people who were meant to take care of us scarred us instead so badly that we had to take refuge in each other, our broken pieces fitting together far better than our whole selves ever could.

Far From Home by Sam Tinnesz begins to play, the song expressing how I felt for all those weeks, trapped and unable to escape my beautiful prison.

“Can’t sleep?” I hear from behind me, and I turn to see Kai standing there limned in the silvery moonlight that’s filtering in from the window. I asked them not to draw the curtains, needing to see the glittering night sky of Colorado to remind myself that I wasn’t in Wiltshire at my, I mean, Adrian’s house.

“No, my mind is racing,” I confess in a whisper, wrapping my arms around myself even though the air is warm. I’ve a feeling that this isn’t the kind of cold that a warm jumper will be able to fix.

“A wise and beautiful, young woman once convinced me that keeping things bottled up would only allow them to fester,” Kai says, his lips tipped up in a soft smile, and he steps towards me until his fresh woods after the rain scent caresses my nostrils. “Talk to me, darling.” The end of his words lilts up so that it’s almost a question, as if he doesn’t want to push me but knows that I need to spill out my troubles. I sigh, closing my eyes briefly. It makes the words easier to say somehow.

“I’m so fucking angry, Kai,” I grit out, my jaw tight and fists curled. I feel the flood of rage flow through my blood, making my heart pound like the sound of war drums. My eyes snap open, looking up into his eyes. “I’m spitting mad that all these men think that they can just do as they damn well please, taking and taking and never thinking about their own fucking evil. That what they are doing is wrong on so many bloody levels it’s obscene.”

My chest heaves, the frustration at everything and feeling so fucking powerless spilling over, sitting like oil on water coating everything in its path and suffocating all that is pure and good.

“My whole life has been dominated by men controlling it, and I’m just a fucking pawn being placed where they want me to be. Shit, even before I was born, I was running from a man!”

I move away, pacing as my hands run through my hair, but I can’t stop the flow of words that blurt out of me.

“M–my mum was killed because of a man. A man forced me to marry Ash. A man fucking kidnapped me. All because of what, Kai? Why do they think they can just take and take, never bothering to let me make my own choices?” I know I’m practically shouting now, tears streaming down my cheeks as I throw my hands wide, then drop them down at my sides, defeated. “I just want to be able to make my own decisions, choose my own destiny. Is that too much to ask?”

I turn to him, my shoulders slumped as I sob quietly, feeling so beaten.

“And the worst part?” I ask, looking up at him through blurry eyes. He just stands there, jaw working as if it’s taking a gargantuan effort not to rush over and hold me as I break. “It’s not over. They’re still out there. What fresh hell will be next, Kai?”

“Lilly—” he starts, losing the battle within himself and striding over to me, wrapping me up in his embrace and pulling me so close I can feel his pounding heart matching the rhythm of my own. “We are all fucking pawns to them, my darling,” he tells me, his own voice growling with frustration. He pulls back a little, placing a finger under my chin and raising it to meet his gaze. “But I swear to you on everything that I am, you will get your pound of flesh. You will be free, we all will.”

I stare up into his face, his eyes a savage amber flame with his vow.

“I liked hurting him, Kai,” I confess in a whisper, saying aloud what I’ve barely even admitted to myself. “I liked taking that gun and making him bleed.”

I watch his reaction intently, my heart racing for an entirely different reason now. What if, after all this time, this admission is too much? I’m not the same Lilly who walked into this dormitory less than a year ago, hurting but with clean hands. Yet if anyone can understand this craving for violence, it’s my dark Knights.

His beautiful mouth curves up into a smile that may give some men nightmares, but I relish in its depravity.

“That’s because you are a warrior queen, made to shed the blood of our enemies,” he tells me, a fierce pride in his tone as one hand comes up to stroke down the side of my face. “And you are perfect, Lilly Vanderbilt. Just right for us.”

A shiver runs down my spine at his words, my inner demon preening at his praise and acceptance.

After all, what better way to defeat the monsters that plague us than by becoming monstrous ourselves?

“Wait here,” Kai orders, placing a soft kiss on my cheek, his fingers trailing down my arm and leaving goosebumps in their wake. Anticipation swirls in my lower stomach as I watch him walk across the room and up the spiral staircase.

I hear quiet murmurs from upstairs, my breath speeding up when multiple footsteps start to descend the stairs. All four of my Knights alight at the bottom, Jax, Ash, and Loki looking deliciously sleep rumpled as they surround me in a wide circle.

It’s A Man’s World by Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Black Canary begins to play over the speakers, and I take in a deep inhale as one by one they all sink to their knees.

“Use us, Princess,” Ash says, his voice deep and husky, his tattooed chest bathed in moonlight.

“Take back control, Pretty Girl,” Loki adds, his eyes twinkling in the dark.

I swallow hard, my breath leaving my lungs in a shudder as I fill with love for these men, men who are all naturally alpha but are willing to set that aside to give me what I need right now. Reaching down, I pull my tank over my head, my nipples hardening underneath their heated gazes. Next, I shimmy out of my panties, and I relish in the sharp inhales that sound around me as I stand naked before them.

“She’s going to kill us,” Loki rasps under his breath, and a bark of delighted laughter leaves my lips.

“Nah, I like your cocks too much for that, Pretty Boy,” I sass him, and his lips tip up into a grin that turns salacious as I step towards him, running my fingers through his hair before grabbing a fistful and tugging his head back. “Lie back,”

Releasing my grip, he obeys, lying on his back with his head in the centre of the circle the others have created.

“Good boy,” I praise.

“Sexiest fucking thing ever,” he groans, adjusting his tented sweatpants.

“Glad that you think so,” I reply, arching a brow at him and loving the sense of power I feel at bossing Loki around. I can only imagine what it’ll be like to boss all of them. “Now, you’re going to lick me out like you’re starving, and the rest of you will watch but no touching yourselves.” A thrill runs through me as I look at each of them.

“Yes, ma’am.” Loki salutes, and I can’t stop the grin that tugs my lips upwards.

“Anything you say, Princess,” Ash drawls in a low voice, and my eyes dart down to see his sweats straining at the crotch.

I look at Kai, who gives me a disarming smile. “As you wish, darling.”

“Yes, my Queen.” Finally, I look at Jax as he answers, and a full-body shiver cascades over my skin at the term. I like that coming from his lips, a lot if the wetness seeping down my thighs is any indication.

“Good,” I state, turning my attention back to Loki, lying there patiently waiting for me. I walk over to him, placing my feet just under his armpits and making my way to my knees, facing the others. It’s not as graceful as it used to be, but with the noise of manly desire that he makes low in his throat, I don’t care. He wants me, regardless if I’m becoming more whale-like with each day.

“Jesus, Pretty Girl, you smell fucking divine,” he moans, his hands grasping the globes of my arsecheeks and pulling me closer to his waiting mouth.

I gasp as his tongue makes a slow pass from my opening to my clit and back again, delving inside my channel and swirling around.

“I can taste them inside you, baby,” he rasps, his voice muffled.

“It’s rude to talk with your mouth full,” I say back, my voice low and husky with the pleasure that he’s already giving me.

His chuckle vibrates across my core and a deep moan leaves my lips at the feel of him between my thighs. Without saying anything else, he dives in so to speak, licking and sucking like I really am his last meal on earth, and it’s all I can do to hold on, my head thrown back in ecstasy. My knees dig into the rug beneath us, but I hardly feel the ache as I hurtle towards a climax that I know will shake my very being.

“Loki…” I whine, my eyelids fluttering closed as I lose myself to the please that his naughty tongue is giving me.

More quickly than I’d like to admit, he builds me up until I’m shaking above him, my hands curled into fists and stars begin to burst behind my closed lids. He doubles his efforts, and soon I’m hurtling down the rabbit hole, crying out and soaking his face with the force of my orgasm.

He stills underneath me whilst I pant and sweat drips down my spine. Moving back a little to give him some breathing space, I glance down to see his mouth and chin glistening in the moonlight.

“Good boy,” I breathe out again, and he chuckles deeply once more, his hands flexing on my arse.

“I aim to please, my Queen.”

His smile grows wider as he feels my thighs clench. I really do like that term.

I tear my gaze away from him, my eyes replaceing Jax’s, his stare intense and making my already hard nipples tighten. An idea springs into my head, and suddenly I’m desperate to feel him inside me whilst I ride that monster cock.

“Your turn to watch, Pretty Boy,” I tell Loki, crawling off him and over to Jax. “Lose the pants,” I order, kneeling in front of him. One of his blond eyebrows raises at my command.

Without a word spoken, he does as I request, his huge dick springing free and my mouth waters at the sight of the bead of precum glistening at the tip. Unable to resist, I lean down and lick it off, the hiss of breath that leaves his lips making my insides flutter. Straightening up, I look him in the eye, the desire in his stare almost burning me with its intensity.

“Your turn to lie down, big boy. Same position as Loki so the others can see my face.”

The song changes to Right Here by Chase Atlantic as Jax does my bidding, again remaining silent as he gets into position. I wet my lips as I watch him, marvelling that this powerful man, these powerful men, are so quick to obey me. It’s a heady aphrodisiac.

On my hands and knees again, I crawl over his body, my knees settling on either side of his hips, my legs spread wide to accommodate his size. Taking his shaft in my hand, I give it a few pumps just because I can and I love the way his hips jerk when I do. Then I place him at my opening, using touch to feel my way as my stomach now prevents me from seeing what I’m doing.

His hands come up to rest on my thighs, his fingers digging in as I slowly sink down, a deep, keening moan leaving my lips as I take him all the way to the hilt.

“Fuck, baby,” he hisses out, his eyes leaving the place that we’re joined and rolling to the back of his head.

“I intend to,” I quip, wasting no time and moving my hips in a way that has him massaging my inner walls.

“You look so fucking beautiful like that, Queen,” Ash tells me, and I look up to catch his scorching stare as he watches us, his hand drifting to his clearly rigid member. My core tightens around Jax at the nickname, making him groan deeply.

“Same rules as before Vanderbilt, no touching,” I tell him and I pick up the pace, Jax helping me to move up and down more on him.

Turning my attention back down to the big man beneath me, I catch his gaze, my lips tilting up in what I know is an evil smirk.

“No coming for you yet, big guy,” I tell him, and he arches a brow at me again, but then just gives me a nod to let me know that he’s agreeing to my request.

I start to move faster, the tingling tell of a second orgasm starting up in my core. My breath pants out of my chest, my breasts swinging as I begin to slam my hips down, the bite of pain as he hits me deeply, sending me closer to that edge. But there’s something I want to try before jumping off.

Leaning down, I stretch my arms out until my hands can wrap around his thick throat. His eyes widen a fraction as he holds my stare, and a part of me can’t believe that the idea of choking Jax as I fuck him has a rush of liquid pooling between us.

“Oh shit.” I hear Loki whisper as I press tighter, feeling Jax’s pulse beat wildly underneath my fingertips.

Jax’s hands grab my waist, and he uses his grip to start pulling me up and down hard and fast so that I don’t lose the rhythm.

Fuck.

It feels so fucking good, his dick pounding into my dripping cunt, my hands around his throat, choking him. My inner walls start to tighten, and I’m gasping and whimpering as my orgasm threatens to overwhelm me. Just before I fall off the edge, Jax pulls me off him and fuck me, he hits something on the way out that has a literal fountain squirting out of me, coating his abs and lower stomach. I scream, my nails digging into the side of his neck as I convulse over him, wave after wave of pleasure crashing over me with the intensity of a stormy sea.

He lowers me down and I slump, panting and everything practically glowing as I tingle from one of the strongest orgasms I’ve ever had. His large palms smooth down my thighs, his deep whispers of how fucking beautiful I am settling deep into my soul and soothing the anger inside me that’s been present since my capture.

After a few moments, I lift my head to look around at the others and see the look of adoration and lust present on all of their faces. I feel sated, and I know exactly how I want this to end.

Pushing up to sitting, Jax’s hard length trapped under my swollen pussy lips, I look down at him and then back up at the others.

“I want to taste you,” I say to them. “All of you.”

Some people believe that being on your knees for a man, his dick in your mouth is a place of submission, but I don’t. It’s a place of power, a place where you can be in control of how much pleasure, or pain, you give him, and I want to watch as they all come undone on my tongue, coating my mouth and upper body with their seed.

“Are you sure, baby?” Jax asks as he curls upwards, his arms banding around me and pulling me flush to his body.

“Yes.”

Ash is suddenly there next to us, holding out a hand to help me up on shaky legs. He, too, pulls me close, placing a kiss on my lips. He steps back, keeping hold of my hand and leading me to the centre of the space, where Kai has placed a large throw pillow to cushion my knees.

Still holding Ash’s hand, I lower once more to my knees, my head level with his bulging crotch. Letting go of his grasp, I pull his sweats down, freeing his rigid shaft, and watching as it bounces slightly then, begging to be touched. I grab the base, rolling my eyes upwards and watching as I open my mouth and take in his head, playing with his magic cross piercing before pushing forward until he’s hitting the back of my throat.

“Fucking hell—” he groans, his hands coming to tangle in my hair and hold me as I sink deeper, breathing through my gag reflex until my lips meet the base of him. I pull back, my eyes on his almost pained expression as I bob my head up and down, coating him in my saliva and tasting the precum that’s leaking from his tip.

Pulling back with a gasp, I turn to replace Kai’s cock ready and weeping precum. I take him in my slick hand, pumping slowly as I take him in my mouth but only playing with the tip, swirling it around my tongue, sucking and grazing it with my teeth until I feel him shake.

“Jesus…Lilly…” He gasps as I’m relentless in my pursuit of his pleasure, my other hand stroking Ash.

I let go of both of them, taking their hands and wrapping them around their own shafts, with a silent instruction to keep pumping. Shuffling around, I replace Jax’s cock in front of me next, glistening with my release and I waste no time in taking him into my mouth, my lips stretching wide to accommodate his girth.

“That’s it, Baby Girl,” he murmurs, his hand coming up to the back of my head and gripping my hair. “Right. Fucking. There.”

His hand pushes down, forcing me to swallow more of him, my throat working around his shaft as I breathe through my gag reflex. Tears stream from my eyes as I gaze up at him, my hand fondling his balls and massaging the space behind them.

Someone takes my free hand, wrapping it around a hard member and guiding the stroking. My thumb replaces the tip and I realise from the piercing that it’s Loki, my hand working him in a steady massaging motion that I know makes his knees weak.

I keep fucking Jax’s dick with my mouth and throat, his thighs beginning to tremble and his shaft goes rock-hard moments before a roar escapes his lips and hot, salty cum fills my mouth. I swallow some down, pulling away as he’s still squirting so that the rest dribbles down my chin and breasts.

As soon as he’s finished, a hand tangles in my hair, and Loki pulls me to him, thrusting his dick inside my mouth, Jax’s release acting as lube as Loki face fucks me. I relax, letting him take his pleasure as both of my hands are wrapped around Kai and Ash who have stepped up close next to Loki. I look to the side as much as I’m able to, watching the pleasure on their faces and then Loki’s, and I feel my own body begin to react at the power that comes from bringing these men to the brink of insanity.

“Fuck!” Loki yells, pulling out and coating my lips, chin, and chest with his climax, hot spurts of cum hitting me and coating me.

I’m panting as he steps back, letting Ash and Kai close ranks. I smile up at them, my chest heaving as our hands continue to move on their hard lengths.

“You look so fucking beautiful like that, Queen,” Ash grits out between clenched teeth, his fingers coming under my chin and angling my head towards him. “Open up for me, tongue out.”

I decide to obey him this time as that’s exactly what I wanted to do, and so I hold his stare as I open my mouth, sticking my tongue out and waiting for him to finish on me.

It doesn’t take long, his jaw ticking as a deep groan escapes his lush lips seconds before his warm release hits my tongue, dripping down onto my chin and chest.

As soon as he’s finished, he pulls me off and turns my head to face Kai who weaves his fingers in my sweaty hair.

“I want to pour my release down that beautiful throat of yours,” Kai tells me, his hand wrapped over mine, our grip punishing. “May I, my Queen?”

My thighs clench at that name again, wetness seeping down them.

“Yes, please,” I whimper, gasping when I feel something wriggling between my slick thighs. I look away from Kai to see Jax with his face underneath me, his hands pulling me down until his hot breath fans over my lower lips.

Kai feeds me his dick, the piercing on the underside clacking against my teeth, at the same moment that Jax thrusts his tongue inside me. I cry out at the spark of lightning that shoots up from my inner channel, Kai taking the opportunity to push the rest of the way in until I’m choking on his dick.

A deep animalistic sound leaves his throat as he pulls out a little, only to snap his hips forwards and thrust back inside, my eyes streaming as I gag.

“So fucking precious,” he coos, and I whine deep in my throat when hands grasp my breasts, pinching my nipples and smearing the cum all over them.

“Such a beautiful Queen,” Ash praises, his hand coming up to the front of my throat and wrapping around it, making Kai hiss as Ash tightens his grip.

“And all ours,” Loki adds, his scalding tongue flicking my cum covered nipple in time to Jax tongue fucking my cunt.

Fucking hellballs.

I’m consumed by them all, another orgasm building in my core as they build me up to a raging inferno. I become a shaking, quivering mess, and my hands grasp Kai’s thighs, my nails digging in until I feel wetness seep from the wounds as I race towards the explosive finish that I know is waiting for me.

“Fuck! Lilly!” Kai shouts, thrusting deep as he does exactly what he asked and pours his hot seed down my throat.

It triggers my own climax, and I cry and tremble as electricity makes my limbs go rigid, more wetness shooting out of me as I come, and come, and come. I swear I black out for a while there, as the next thing I know I’m being lifted into strong arms, Jax’s, I realise as I crack my eyes open.

“Thank you,” I croak out, my voice raspy as only a good face fuck will leave it.

“You don’t need to thank us, Baby Girl,” Jax replies, walking us into the bathroom, the soft lighting around the mirror coming on.

“It’s what we’re here for, Pretty Girl,” Loki adds, placing a kiss on my cheek as he strolls past and opens the shower. The sound of water falling fills the room, alongside steam.

“We will never take your control, my love,” Ash tells me, his palm cupping my cheek as he presses our foreheads together, uncaring that I’m covered in his friend’s cum, and held in the arms of one of those friends.

“And we will always love you, no matter what,” Kai finishes from my other side, and I twist my head to see him standing next to us, his own fingers grazing my damp cheek.

“And I will always love you,” I reply, pressing a kiss to his fingers.

The tender moment is interrupted, as usual, by Loki singing I will Always Love You by Whitney Houston, using the shampoo bottle as a mic, and I turn to see his hair sticking up and covered in bubbles. He obviously changes the words so it’s not about leaving someone, and his terrible rendition, sung in key, has me laughing so hard I think I might pee myself.

Fucking bellend.