“Furore can take care of himself. I came because I fear foryou.” Tears sprung to my eyes. “I hate to see you hurt in any way. Haven’t I proven this over and over already?”
A grimace contorted his beautiful face. “Furore and I won’t kill each other, Jo. It’s the only thing you can rest assured we will honor. Ever since we agreed to share you. Ever since you put a gun to your head to save us both.” He started away again.
“What about the demons, Ty?” That stopped him midway. “You’re not fooling anyone with your lies about how therapy is working. It’s been months, but I still see them in your eyes.”
“What the fuck do you want, Jo?”
“To silence them. Isn’t that what you always say to me? I silence your demons?”
He turned and held my gaze with his intense eyes. “Not when you swallow them whole and become their queen.”
CHAPTER 5
Jo
I played with my food like a brat all lunch. I couldn’t bring myself to push down a single bite. Tirone’s words accompanied me all afternoon, turning my stomach into a string of knots.
It broke my heart to see him hurt and shattered, especially when I was the cause of his pain. I should have been the balm to the aches of his soul, not the fire that ate it up.
Was I mistaken to agree to our arrangement? Was I too selfish? Too happy to see the damage I was causing for wanting two men? A father and his only son?
I dragged myself back to the teachers’ room. The silence and the reluctant stares that followed me whenever I entered didn’t bother me anymore. My reputation as the Night Skulls’ Prez’s ol’lady—aka the biker’s bitch—had been stuck on me from day one. Furore had made sure to mark his territory in the school from the day he got me the job interview.
In fact, it never really bothered me to be associated with the club or Laius. If anything, I was proud. It felt amazing to be married to a powerful man everyone was scared of enough never to mess with. It made me feel safe. That was what I loved the most about living with Laius. Feeling safe. It was funny how I’d never felt that way except in the arms of an ex-con, and outlaw.
However, after the arrangement and Tirone came to live with us, rumors started to fly. At the club, in the school, on the streets. No one dared speak in my face, but I heard the whispers behind my back. It annoyed me at first, especially when I decided never to say a word about them to either Furore or Tirone. I didn’t want any more trouble in my name. Now, after months of living with my husband and my boyfriend under one roof, I’d gotten used to it and learned to ignore it. The whispers behind my back and the awkward silence and stares in my face were a trivial price to pay to live the life I had, in peace with the two men I loved to death.
I didn’t want anything to disturb that peace I thought we had. I didn’t know I was the reason behind an ongoing war inside Ty.
I sighed with a frown as I sat at my desk. I should busy myself with work. Sulking wouldn’t change or solve anything.
Final exams were close, and I’d been giving a lot of practice quizzes and mock exams lately. Those tended to pile up fast. I grabbed the first pile of sheets to start grading them when a dark rose note peeked out from it.
My heart raced. This was one of Ty’s notes he always left me in secret. Some were poems or love notes. Others were times to meet and fuck. I didn’t know how he did it. Students didn’t have access to this room, but knowing Ty, I wouldn’t even ask.
After our argument, though, I didn’t think I was getting a note from him today. Was it the regular or something else entirely? Something morbid and alarming as how I felt holding this note?Please be something nice. He wouldn’t use a dark rose note to write on with blood, right?
Carefully, I made sure no one was looking my way before I unfolded the piece of paper. I evened my breath when I only saw ink in Ty’s handwriting.In the depth of Hell, do not demons love one another?
I smiled to myself.Yes.
At the footnote, there was more.Fifth period. Where only the two of us exist.
That was our code for the library, and he kept up with my schedule, knowing I had the fifth free today. Smiling again, feeling like a teenage girl, I quickly hid the note in my bag and went back to work.
As soon as I finished the fourth, I practically ran to the library. But once I reached the hallway that led to it, I steadied and paced myself, plastering my serious teacher face on, so I wouldn’t draw any more unwanted attention.
I walked down the aisles, passing by the tables that were mostly empty, breathing in the smell of the books. I did miss reading. I’d never been in a rut before. I was so excited for MMM. I hadn’t been to an author signing in years. Seeing all these authors with all their beautiful books in one place was enough to get me out of the rut that I didn’t know what caused in the first place.
Or did I?
I shook my head as if shaking the thought off my mind. It wasn’t the time to bring that up, not even in my own head.
I arrived at our usual make out spot. It was vacant, but I could smell him near. That unique musk of everything he was made of, not just the leather or manly scent. It was the same smell that had my heart dancing almost two years ago at the old school when we secretly met, just like now.
Walking down the narrow aisle, I could feel him closer. Until he appeared at the end of it. Tall, dark and brooding, leaning against the bookshelf like one of James Dean’s movies.
He didn’t move toward me. He waited, his gaze dragging me toward him with his dark, masculine confidence, until I was in front of him. Then he played the triple threat move every romance book antihero put the heroine under their spell with. The one arm lean against me, then tucking my hair softly behind my ear followed by cupping my chin possessively before he consumed me in a kiss. “I’m sorry.”
