Page 62 of Oakheart

“Cash.” Aleks nodded at me, but his eyes were caught. Stuck on me.

Heat flooded my face and I looked at the floor, crossing my arms. I wasn’t nervous, exactly, but I wasn’t sure I’d like anaudience for whatever he wanted to say to me. Jax would take it personally if Aleks was mad, and Aleks... he deserved to feel however he felt, and I wanted to hear it.

“Do you want to—” I stammered. My throat was dry and my tongue was clumsy.

I wanted to rush across the room and know that Aleks would open his arms for me and tell me that everything was fine.Would he? If he just didn’t hate me, I’d explain. He’d understand, and we’d be?—

Whatever we were, we’d be it.

“We could talk,” I tried again. I glanced at Aleks, but it was too quick to glean any real understanding of his state of mind.

With a step back, I opened the way down the hall toward the guest room where I’d been staying. “In private. If you want...”

“Cash, you don’t have to—” Jax said.

At the same time, Aleks said, “I want.”

Jax hissed. He didn’t like this, and I couldn’t blame him, but I—I just needed to talk to Aleks, and I’d go outside if I had to, but that felt... okay, I was scared to go out there. It felt vulnerable. I didn’t like it.

“It’s okay,” I said, offering a smile. “I’d like to talk to him.”

When I looked at Aleks again, I thought he brightened a little at that. I didn’t dare let myself hope yet.

“Come on,” I said, leading the way back to the guest room. The tiny hairs at the nape of my neck stood on end with Aleks behind me, and I didn’t know if it was a good feeling or a bad one.

It was like I could sense every shift of his weight, feel his eyes on me, and it was the only thing I ever wanted to feel.

But I’d upset him. There was no way I hadn’t, and the nervous bubbling that went along with that made me so anxious.

When we got back to the guest room and I shut the door, Aleks was on me the next second. His hands ran down my arms, up my sides, patting and touching everywhere.

“Evie?” I said.

“Safe. With Leo. Far away from here.”

I took my first full breath since I’d sent her shimmying through the motel bathroom window. “Good.”

He touched me everywhere, until, finding me whole, he held my face in both his hands and let out a shaky exhale.

Then he leaned in. The bridge of his nose pressed against my temple.

The sound he made was a low rumble, but not like a growl. It was comforting, and with how close he was, I only had to tip my head to the side a little to catch his lips. He groaned into mine. His tongue slid inside easily, like we’d never been apart.

Sparks danced across my skin, and that low rumble of his worked its way down from my chest straight to my cock. As exhausting and painful as the past weeks had been, I couldn’t help responding to him.

He clutched me tight, and I pressed closer. When his warm hands slid beneath my shirt, it was all I could do to get it off as fast as I wanted to. I wanted him everywhere, as close as he could get.

Nothing mattered more than having him, and he wasn’t kissing me like he hated me. I meant to enjoy it. Iwantedto lose myself in him the way I always had.

But the second I shrugged out of my shirt, I remembered, and my arm shot around my middle, hugging over the fresh pink scar Grant had left.

Aleks went still when he felt me flinch. He pulled back, and his brows puckered. “Cash?”

My eyes started to sting, and I shook my head, squeezing them shut tight. Every fear I’d been holding onto bubbled upfrom my gut and spewed forth like I’d been sick with worry and had to regurgitate all of it.

“I’m sorry,” I rasped. “I shouldn’t have left like that. I thought—I thought if we got away, you wouldn’t have to fight. I didn’t want you or your family to get hurt for—for us. I thought I could manage, but I was stupid, and I swear, it’s not that I don’t believe in you. It’s just?—”

Aleks shushed me, gently pulling me in. I sniffled against his shirt while he rubbed my back. “You did not do wrong. You were in danger and you got away. You’re safe now. It’s fine,” he promised.