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My hands dropped, closing over the toned lengths of her thighs, the muscle she’d formed training each day with me. Sweatbecame strength under my tutelage as she worked her ass off to earn it, and I couldn’t be more proud.
Nor, because I’d given up that right, could I tell her.
“No,” she replied in a soft voice. “I can’t.” Lux patted my hands, the universal sign forlet me the fuck up,and rose as I released her, standing over me while I lay prostrate on the mats. “You told me not to top from the bottom. So I think I’ll do it right here, Roo.” She held out a hand, palm down.
Cute.
I didn’t bother to fight the need that rose in me, or think it through.
Pushing up withmy remaining strength despite protesting muscles, I stepped straight into her space, halting her retreat with an arm locked behind her waist.
“You don’t top me by your choice, Little Bird,” I grated, pressing her body to mine. “Only by mine.”
“Pity. HereI thought you might relinquish some measure of control.”
“Never going to happen.” A lightbulb lit the dim hall of my mind, and I ran with it. “Maybe you should go back to playing with your little switch.”
“How dare you—” she started.
I closed my arm harder at her waist, reducing her breathing space. “I beg your pardon?”
“You’re an asshole,” she fired back, breaking away with the same move as before.
I let her. It might not be smart, but it was what she needed. “Never said I wasn’t. Shower here or at the club?”
“Your office.” She smirked. “I’d much rather sully that than Rafe’s.”
“When you’re finished.” Josiah Daniels stood in the doorway. The tall, built man folded his arms over a heavy-set chest.
The tips of a barrage of feathers flicked along his neck where an angel wing curled there. I knew a devil’s tail hung over his left shoulder, and due to his nature, the gym owner and ex-soldier could run hot or cold, depending on his mood.
“We’re done.” I shot Lux a warning glance when she opened her pretty pink little mouth to object, and by some blessed miracle, she shut it. “Fine. Use my office.”
“See? That wasn’t so hard.” She shot me a coy look over her shoulder and sauntered toward the doorway Josiah vacated, bending to grab her things without breaking stride. “I knew you’d come around and be my bitch.”
I bared my teeth at her back and raised an eyebrow Josiah’s way.
The stoic bastard never even smiled.
Flashing him a fastthank you, I caught up with Lux on the sidewalk, matching her pace.
My head stung after her barrage, but a few bottles of electrolytes would fix that, for both of us. I’d always assumed Lux had her own life away from the club, but when I spent a little more time in Rafe’s office, I’d discovered the pretty little sub asleep on the sofa that lined one wall.
He offered me a one-shouldered shrug that told me he included her in his family unit, much like a sister, I suspected, and covered her with a pink-and-gray knit blanket that matched herfeathers.
Fray had alwaysbeen a place of refuge. I hadn’t realized how much until I saw her let down all the walls and give her surrender to exhaustion and fear.
I wished she’d offered that to me.
Which, of course, she had. I’d been a fucking idiot and rejected her. Not once, but twice.
No wonder she was shitty at me.
“Lux.” I bumped her shoulder with mine. “You know I’ll never be your bitch. But there’s a place under me open with your name on it.”
She shot me a look nothing shy of feral, and fuck me did I want us both to capitulate on it.
Mymouth opened when a fist smashed onto it. At first, I thought it was hers. But when Lux went down beside me, I knew I had the wrong target in mind.
