AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll make an appointment and go tomorrow instead. I’m fine, honestly.”
Silas glances behind me, and I fight the urge to grind my teeth together. Bane is not my keeper, and I’m not sure how I feel about both Silas and Nova looking to him when it comes to something about me. If it were any other day, I’m sure it would annoy me, but it probably wouldn’t irritate me as much as it is right now.
I expel a breath and square my shoulders. I look at Nova first, hoping that I’ll be able to convince him the easiest since I just had my tongue in his mouth less than five minutes ago.
“I want to go home, Nova.”
Nova nods, his lips pressed into a straight line. “You heard her. She wants to go home, yeah? So let’s take our girl home.”
Nova stands up and extends his hand toward me, palm up. I hesitantly slide my hand into his, my brows low over my eyes. His fingers curl around my hand, giving me a gentle squeeze and he tugging me to my feet. “You’re with me in the back.”
My shoulder grazes Silas’s chest, and I hear him inhale at the contact. I glance up at him from underneath my lashes, wearing longing on my face like my favorite blush.
His hands shoot out of his pockets, reaching for me in an instant. I blink and his palms curl around my shoulders as he turns me toward him. I exhale and his hands are on either side of my neck, tilting my face toward him.
My lips part, a question on the tip of my tongue. But Silas bends down and steals the words right out of my mouth. A hard, brutal sort of pairing of lips. It’s intense and packed with more emotion than I think Silas knows what to do with. It’s over before it really starts. He pulls back, resting his forehead against mine, his warm breath fanning against my lips.
We stay like that for a precious few seconds, my heart pounding so hard against my chest, like even that part of me wants to be close to this man. I’m conflicted when it comes to him, and I wish he would get out of his own way sometimes. But if this is how he greets me, then maybe there’s hope for us yet.
As quickly as he was in my space, he’s out of it. He kisses the corner of my mouth, his eyes closed with reverence, before he steps back. His fingers are slow to leave my neck, and when my eyes slowly open, the pained, tortured look on his face sends an echoing pulse inside my chest.
He doesn’t say a word as he stalks toward the SUV.
It’s not until he’s out of sight do I realize that I never let go of Nova’s hand.
21
EVANGELINE
“Time to wake up, sweetheart,” Nova murmurs, smoothing a lock of hair off my face.
“Mm?” My eyelids feel heavy and it takes considerable effort to open them.
“We’re home, sugar.” Bane’s low voice floats from the driver’s seat and wraps around me like a soft caress.
I sit up, belatedly realizing that I was sprawled all over Nova’s lap. My cheeks warm at the realization and I quickly straighten up, trying to shake off the drowsiness that still clung to my mind. “Oh, sorry about that.”
“You can lay in my lap anytime, sweetheart,” Nova muses, trailing his fingertips down my arm.
Looking out the window, I recognize the street right away. We’re almost to Magnolia Lane. I turn toward Nova, nerves and something darker swirling inside of me. “What’s going on? Am I . . . am I not welcome at your house anymore?”
“Of course you are, sweetheart. It’s just—” He pauses and blows out a breath of air, his gaze sliding out the window for a moment. “We’ve all been staying here.”
My brows leap toward my hairline. “You have? Why?” I roll my lips inward, wishing I could shove those words back inside my mouth. “It’s not that you’re not welcome, I’m just surprised.”
Nova nods a few times, his smile lazy and effortless as he looks at me. “Our houses, they need some serious renovation and cleaning before we can stay there again.”
Bane grunts from the front seat, pulling into my driveway. “If we stay there again.”
I lean forward and scoot to the end of the seat in alarm. “What do you mean? Are you leaving?”
Bane meets my gaze in the rearview mirror. “It’s just a house, sugar. One that I’m not especially attached to.”
“So, you’re not leaving then,” I say with an exhale, relief flooding me.
“Nah, I’m not leaving you.” There’s a teasing tone in his voice, but his face remains serious, like he knows I had a quick spike of panic.
“Good. So you’re going to just, what, tear it down then?” My brows arch high over my eyes.
