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All I’d been able to see in that moment was a frail thing I’d almost thrown into the line of fire. But it really had been just a moment, with so much strength on either side of it. How could I call her weak over that?Isure as hell wasn’t totally invincible. Gideon could be done in by a puff of smoke.
How often would a phobia of being buried alive actually get in the way of doing what she’d need to? No one knew about it except us, and I could ensure it stayed that way.
As long as I kept a little distance, I wouldn’t draw attention to her the way I had Laurel anyway.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll have a chat with her.”
Anthea beamed at me and ruffled my hair like I was a kid again, laughing at my scowl. She headed off to take care of whatever business she had on her plate, and I walked down the hall toward the guest bedroom that’d become Mercy’s. After yesterday’s horrors, I hadn’t been about to toss her back into the groupie room.
I knocked on the door. “Anyone home, Kitty Cat?”
She opened the door with a jerk and eyed me as if she wasn’t sure she’d actually wanted to find me on the other side. Ignoring her expression, I nudged past her to stroll into the room over to the window where the bloody present she’d been left had thankfully been cleaned up. “Huh. I didn’t realize this room had such a beautiful view.”
Mercy sighed in resignation. “What do you want? I was about to scrounge up some breakfast.”
“Oh, nothing much. I just thought I should thank you for saving my aunt’s life.”
“Am I hallucinating, or did you just say thank you to me?”
I turned to face her. “Don’t be so surprised. Anthea is important to me. She’s family, and you saved her by putting your life on the line. That couldn’t have made it clearer how far you’ll go for the Nobles, so it’s only fair if we extend a hand in return.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked cautiously.
“I already promised you that you’d have my support against the Steel Knights if you found Titus’s real murderer. That’s a done deal. But if you want to go at him right alongside us—and if you want to stick around after and see what other trouble we can get up to—there’s a place for you here.”
Her lips parted—those plump, succulent lips I’d imagined wrapping around my dick far too many times. I couldn’t help taking a step closer to her, feeling the mood between us shift into something tinged with anticipation.
Mercy folded her arms in front of her, her elbows grazing my chest. From the glint in her eyes, I got the impression she was trying to provoke me on purpose. “This isn’t yet another test? I’ve finally convinced the great Wylder Noble of my incredible prowess?”
I chuckled and let my voice drop low. “Keep calling me great, and I could be convinced of a whole lot more.”
I let my hands rise to her waist, and she swayed toward me just slightly. If I leaned in to kiss her now, I was pretty sure she’d kiss me right back. Instead I held myself still, watching her.
“So you’re a man of your word after all,” she said, the playful lilt to her voice going straight to my cock.
“I bled for you,” I reminded her, wanting nothing more than to throw her down on the bed and fuck her until she scored my skin with her claws and screamed my name in ecstasy. Only a tiny thread of self-control and the name Anthea had invoked held me back.
Mercy tilted her head to the side. “And what happens next?”
I grinned. “Now it’s time to make Colt Bryant and all the assholes propping him up bleed way more than I ever did.”
She matched my smile with a smirk of her own. “I’m looking forward to it.”
I left Mercy’s room feeling far more satisfied than any man should with a raging hard-on straining his pants. As I willed it down, the slam of a car door filtered up through the foyer. I walked toward the staircase, peering down through the windows over the front door.
A familiar gold Porsche was parked outside. A man in an impeccable slate-gray suit stood beside it, the sun catching on the silver strands that were starting to overtake the auburn in his hair.
Dad was home.
Axel had already come over to greet him. As the other man spoke, Dad’s hawkish eyes roved over the mansion, darkening at whatever Axel had told him. My spine stiffened.
I needed to talk to him about Mercy before he heard too much from anyone else. The subject was going to require a certain amount of care.
Even with Anthea on her side, even with the self-control I’d managed to demonstrate so far, having the Claws princess here at all was still walking a line that was awfully dangerous—and not in a way I liked.
