AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her face is twisted with agony and terror. “Please, stop. Please,” she sobs.
I brush her damp hair back from her forehead. “Keres. You’re safe now. It’s just a nightmare.”
Her lower lip trembles. “Is that you?”
I have no idea who you is, but I shush her, uttering soothing words of comfort until she stops pleading and crying and shaking. Her eyes remain closed, and when she’s finally still again, I sit and watch her for a few moments longer than necessary. Her long dark lashes, weighed down with tears, fan out along her cheeks. Her full pink lips are open slightly as she breathes, and a memory of those lips on my skin makes my cock twitch. She’s so fucking beautiful. Is that why I’m so drawn to her? No. I’ve been with plenty of beautiful women and not a single one of them has gotten under my skin like this one. It’s something about the raw vulnerability beneath the thick suit of armor she wears that captivates me. The knowledge that I could help her with those demons she’s fighting if she’d ever let me.
I leave her and climb back into bed with Romeo. Propped up on his elbow, he studies her. “You think she’s okay now?” he whispers.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“That was rough. You think she was reliving something? Like she was one of those kids she spoke with Boone about.”
I murmur my agreement and glance back over at her, wondering what horrors torment her sleep.
Romeo puts his warm hand over my chest. “Do you remember my nightmares?”
“How could I forget?” The sound of him screaming for mercy still haunts me to this day. He was staying with me for a few weeks while he was between apartments, and he woke me with his screams on his second night there. I ran into his room expecting to find someone with their hands around his throat, but I found him alone, twisted in the covers, covered in sweat and shaking like a leaf. So I did what any red-blooded straight single man would do—I climbed into his bed and held him until he stopped shaking. The next morning, when it should have been awkward, it was anything but. And after we made out like a pair of horny teenage boys, I jerked him off and fucked him using his own cum for lube. That was four years ago, and I’ve fucked him every chance I could get since.
He rests his head on my chest. “I hardly ever have them anymore. Not since you and me… I can’t remember the last time. I think maybe you’re magic, Ace.”
I rest my lips on the top of his head and wrap one arm around him, my heart breaking for what he—and even the siren in the opposite bed—endured as kids. “I don’t know about that. I’m still not convinced it wasn’t just a ploy to get me into your bed.”
He laughs. “Yeah. I just couldn’t resist those bulging muscles of yours.” Romeo has been openly bisexual since he was a teenager, but he’s the first man I’ve ever had any interest in. The only one I ever will have any interest in. I also know it wasn’t a ploy. Romeo killed his own father when he was fifteen years old. Stabbed him in the neck with a carving knife. It was self-defense, and he fortunately never faced charges. The obvious fact that he was recently raped when the cops got there was proof enough of his innocence. Carlo Castelli was a piece of shit who abused his wife for years, and when she couldn’t take it any longer and killed herself to escape him, he started in on his stepson.
I kiss the top of his head. “I thought it was my bulging cock?”
He snickers. “That too.”
Chapter
Twenty-Three
KERES
Romeo steps inside and holds up a grease-stained paper bag and a tray of coffee like they’re trophies. “I got us coffee and donuts. Even got some for you, Fuck-up.” He flashes me a wicked grin, and I give him a faint smile in return. It smells delicious and my stomach growls appreciatively.
He puts everything on the small table, and he and Ace each pull up a chair. Reluctantly, I join them, taking a coffee and a powder-sugar-coated jelly donut from the box. The moment I bite into it, I can’t help but moan as the sweet sugar and soft doughy goodness hit my tongue.
“Sweet tooth, huh?” Romeo asks.
I lick the sugar from my lips before sticking my tongue out at him, and he stuffs an entire donut into his mouth, grinning while he chews.
Ace is looking at Google Maps on his phone, his brow furrowed with concentration.
“How long will it take us to get to New York?” I ask.
“A few hours,” he replies without looking up from his phone. “Nathan’s expecting us at one.”
“And he’ll have some information for us, right?”
“Wouldn’t be going there if he didn’t,” Ace mutters, and I resist the urge to roll my eyes. We have donuts and coffee, and we’re going to meet a guy who might be able to help us. Today is going to be a good day.
“You sleep okay?” Romeo asks me, his lips coated with sugar.
“Um, after I had to listen to you two fuck, yeah I slept well.”
Romeo cocks his head, those blue eyes twinkling. “Well, you could have joined us. You know, if you weren’t such a bitch.”
