He presses a kiss to my brow, and we settle into comfortable silence. A moment of peace and recovery that lasts us a while until we eventually get up to shower and clean up after ourselves.
My mood’s lighter than it’s been in so long, I can’t remember the last time I felt like this (if ever).
But even as we twist on the shower dial and bicker about who goes first and I find myself laughing again, the guilt is still there.
It’s still buried deep. So is the dread.
The depressing awareness that, however wonderful these moments between us are, they’ll only ever be temporary…
SEVENTEEN
Killian
The sun’sbarely up when I wake, and Jhene’s still asleep beside me.
She’s curled into my side with her face pressed against my chest, one hand resting over my heart like she’s keeping track of the beat. My arm’s gone numb from where she’s been lying on it, but I don’t give a fuck. I’d let the whole damn thing fall off before I’d move her.
Last night was… I don’t have the words for it.
Unexpected. Charged. A moment of release.
I went from beating the shit out of The Tank to full blown panic the moment Jhene went missing. I showed up in Sunset Park at the old meatpacking warehouse ready to do whatever I had to in order to get her back.
Then once we made it to the apartment, I couldn’t fight the temptation. I’d spent the whole night doing a different kind of fighting, so I finally said fuck it.
I decided I’d take Jhene up on her offer to celebrate.
Hours later, in the early break of dawn, I wouldn’t change a damn thing.
My phone buzzes on the nightstand, and I grunt in annoyance.It’s too early for this shit. The sun’s barely cracked the horizon and already somebody wants something from me.
Probably Dez.
The greedy bastard’s been blowing up my phone since last night, no doubt pissed that I skipped out on the post-fight media obligations. I was supposed to do interviews, talk to sponsors, flaunt my win for the cameras like a trained monkey.
Instead I tore out of the Barclays Center the second I realized Jhene was missing and haven’t looked back since.
Dez can wait. Whatever sponsorship deal or press opportunity I fucked up isn’t important. None of it matters compared to the woman sleeping in my arms.
The phone buzzes again.And again.
“Mmmm,” Jhene hums. She’s pressed her face even deeper into the crook between my arm and chest like she’s a woodland creature nestling into her den. “Ignore it.”
“Planning on it,” I murmur, dropping a kiss to the top of her curly head.
But the buzzing doesn’t stop. It keeps going, one vibration after another, ’til I realize this isn’t Dez being a pest.
The only other possibility is that it’s clan related.
I reach over to grab the phone from the nightstand without jostling Jhene too much. The screen’s lit up with a string of notifications that makes my stomach clench tighter.
Four missed calls from Ronan. Two from Sean. A dozen texts, all variations of the same message:
Call me back now.
There’s been an emergency.
“Shit,” I mutter, sitting up so fast Jhene rolls off my arm with a startled yelp.
