“Would you stop flitting about and get in this bed? I’m lonely,” I pout.
Qiang lets out a heavy sigh. “Heaven forbid I give you a little bit of aftercare,” they mutter under their breath before unclasping the chains holding their shirt on and crawling into the bed naked with me.
Their skin brushing against mine as they curl into me has all of my brain receptors radiating with happiness.
“We’re doing that again. Like, give me an hour to rest,” I tell them.
They laugh and run their fingers along my side.
“We are definitely doing that again, but not tonight. It’s been a long day. Your hole needs to rest and heal, and you need to get some sleep,” they tell me, before reaching into their nightstand and pulling out a black durag.
I raise a sleepy eyebrow at them when they hand it to me, and they shrug. “Figured you might eventually sleep in here, and that maybe it would be easier to have one handy instead of having to run to your room to grab one,” they say almost flippantly.
I’m sure the sleepy grin I give them in response to their thoughtfulness is ridiculous. “You’re pretty,” I blurt out with a yawn while tying up my locs, the sleep already winning.
Qiang simply laughs and drifts a few fleeting kisses along my temple before nestling in to sleep.
“By the way, that was like the best sex ever,” they add.
“And don’t you fucking forget it,” I mutter sleepily, repeating what Qiang said earlier, only I’m too tired to implement the right amount of sass they had. “Seriously, though, everything with you is simply the best.”
Qiang lifts their head with a sweet smile on their face. They lean up and brush their lips along my jaw before curling back on my shoulder. And yeah,nothingtops this.
CRUEL TO BE KIND
Qiang’s POV
The house is eerily quiet when Marcus and I make our way down the stairs and to the garage. The house is empty, but we are going to have alongday of housecleaning when we get back. Although after Marcus got off the phone with Cade this morning, I have more questions aboutthatthan worries about cleaning the house later.
Tristan and Qi are already waiting for us in the backseat of Marcus’s Mercedes when we get to the garage. Qi is curled against Tristan’s shoulder, while Tristan looks completely at ease, as if nothing is amiss, when the reality is quite the opposite.
“What did he say to you?” Marcus asks Tristan while we climb into the car.
Tristan shakes his head. “Not much, just that shit’s about to go down, and he has Kingston under control while it does. Said he’ll fill us in on the rest when we get there.”
“I wonder what he did to get Kingston under control?” Marcus muses aloud, knowing nobody in this car has the answer.
“I wonder if anyone in this car is planning on explaining what’s going on?” I sass out irritably, not liking being kept in the dark.
“Tristan, Marcus, and Cade have been working to get the Adairs out of our lives once and for all. Whatever they’ve been cooking up is coming to a head right now, and Cade wants to make sure all the key players are in the same place so he can make sure no one gets accidentally trapped in the fallout,” Qi huffs out in frustration.
Tristan grimaces at the amount of displeasure on Qi’s face, but I honestly don’t know why he’s so worried about it. If Qi were really that mad at him, he wouldn’t be actively laying his head on his shoulder.
Then again, Tristan is so attuned to Qi that, regardless of what role Tristan plays in his displeasure, Qi feeling displeasure on any level, for any reason, is fundamentally wrong, as far as Tristan is concerned.
Sounds as though Tristan hasn’t been giving Qi much more information than Marcus gave me last night when he said something about Sterling being taken care of, or this morning after Cade’s phone call.
He just keeps telling me to trust him and that we’ll all be on the same page soon, since it’s Cade who seems to have all the keys. Which means that whatever is happening is most likely highly illegal and something that could destroy us all if Sterling somehow manages to pull the rug out from under whatever cockamamie plan they’ve cooked up.
Tristan already has the GPS set to a location that’s about forty-five minutes away. It looks like it’s in the middle of nowhere, and I watch Marcus frown before looking up to meet Tristan’s eyes in the mirror.
“Final call. Do we trust this guy?” he asks.
“Oh my god! You went so far as to include him on whatever revenge plot you’ve got going against the Adairs, but you wait untilnowto fucking question it. Ridiculous!” I huff out, more than just a little tired, and a whole lot of scared.
Whatever they’ve got going on seems like it’s already in motion, and if it goes wrong, it could be catastrophic, and I’m absolutely terrified and more than just a little bit prickly. I want these fuckers out of my life, not somehow managing to have stakes on my most important people.
Marcus huffs and leans over towards me, his thumb brushing against my jaw.
