Page 76 of What About Us

“Fuck, Red. Fuck, look at you, blushing all over.” He pushes inside me and rocks through his own climax. He kisses my chest, my neck, and my lips and then grins down at me. “I’m taking you to the shower to wash you up so I can eat your pussy. I need breakfast.”

I bark out a laugh and then squeal when he hauls me up into his arms.

“So much for keeping my distance from you.”

He stops short and scowls down at me. “Why the fuck would you do that?”

“Professionalism?”

“Fuck that, and fuck distance. In case you missed it, I can’t keep my hands to myself, and you’re exactly where I want you to be. No more of that. Got it?”

“Got it.”

He kisses me, slow and deep, and then continues on to the stairs.

This is the best day of my life.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

IVY

My knee bounces with anxiety as Xander drives us into town. It’s the next day, we’ve already worked out this morning, and it’s time for me to go back to the house and get Brenda out of there.

“You don’t need to be nervous,” Xander says as he lays his forearm on the center console and turns his hand up, offering it to me, and I immediately line my palm up to his and link our fingers. “I’m right here with you. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

I nod, unable to form words through the ball of anxiety in my throat.

Because I’m already so damn embarrassed about what we’re going to find. I know it’s not going to be good. I know. I saw how she lived above the bar, how little respect she has for anything, including herself, and she’s already so damn angry at me.

“Take a breath,” he says calmly, and I breathe in with him, then let it out slowly. “Good girl.”

Normally, that would make me bite my lip, but right now, I want to throw up.

“I hate her,” I whisper and turn to stare out the window. “And I hate that I hate her.”

“You’re safe, Ivy.” He kisses my hand. “Hey, look at me.”

I turn my gaze to him, and he takes his eyes off the road long enough to look into my eyes. God, he’s handsome.

He’s in a black T-shirt with a black flannel thrown on over it and the sleeves rolled on his forearms, and denim that molds over his thighs and ass. His hair is a little messy from my fingers earlier, and he has some stubble on his face because he hasn’t shaved in a few days.

And I now know firsthand what that stubble feels like between my thighs, and it’s holy shit.

But more than all that, he looks so sure of himself. So positive that he can protect me against my own mother.

And that’s the saddest part of all. That I need protection from her.

“I promise, baby, we’ll be okay.”

I nod and offer him a half smile. “Okay. Thank you for coming with me.”

“Nowhere else I’d rather be.”

He pulls up to the curb in front of my house, right behind a Silver Springs police car, and Easton steps out of the driver’s seat and meets us on the sidewalk.

“I need to apologize,” I say to both men. “For what we’re about to walk in on. I don’t know for sure what it’ll look like, but I know it won’t be good.”

Xander scowls and wraps his arm around my shoulders, and Easton narrows his eyes on the movement but then shakes his head.