AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I must have started bruising by now, and pure rage blazes from Dante’s eyes as he catalogs each hurt painted onto my skin.
“That bastard is going to pay for every one of these, I promise you.”
“Good,” I say, making his eyes snap back up to mine.
He smiles again, slow and so fucking sexy that it awakens a new set of feelings inside me. He knows about the darkness inside me. He knows it, and knows just what to do with it too.
“Princess…” he starts, his voice dropping into a low timbre that shoots straight to my core.
The rumble of additional vehicles pulling in sounds outside before he can finish that thought, and we both go tense for a minute before Dante relaxes with recognition. “That’s the SUV. Madd and Logan are back. Let’s go in.”
We do, and they both come in the front door a moment later, Logan pausing in the entry to arm the security system as Maddoc strides toward us, complicated emotions on his face.
“Logan beefed up security while you were gone,” Dante murmurs, his hand on my lower back. “He added some seriously hardcore shit to the system.”
I nod, but I don’t get a chance to respond before Maddoc is on me.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” he demands, the calm veneer he lives behind as leader of the Reapers nowhere to be seen as he grabs my shoulders and shakes me hard. “Don’teverput yourself in that man’s hands again. Jesusfuck, Riley.”
All the raw feelings I saw as he walked toward me during the exchange, along with that complicated expression he walked in here with, have been wiped out by unadulterated anger.
But instead of shrinking under his protective wrath, I straighten my spine and shoot back, “They were going to kill you!”
“You don’t fucking sacrifice yourself,” he growls, his fingers digging into my shoulders hard enough to gift me with a new set of bruises, a welcome set, once we’re done here. “That was beyond stupid. That was—”
“Necessary,” I say, cutting off his furious rant. I shove him in the chest. “It wasnecessary. Do you seriously think I could just stand there and let West Point take you guys and Chloe down? And you’re one to talk! You just risked yourself for me too.”
He grinds his teeth together, his grip loosening, becoming security instead of punishment as he glares down at me. “That’s different,” he finally mutters.
I flatten my hands on his chest and glare right back. “The fuck it is. If you can do it, so can I. Jesus, Maddoc, I—”
I snap my mouth closed, swallowing back the revealing confession I almost let slip out, and Maddoc’s eyes blaze hot. He still seems furious, and for a second, an answering heat flashes through my body with the visceral memory of the way he belted me the last time he was this pissed off at me.
And for the same reason, too—me jumping in to protect someone who matters to me.
That time, I didn’t think before risking myself at Austin McKenna’s club when we found Chloe dancing there, and he’s got to know me well enough by now to know that’s a character flaw I have no intention of fixing.
If someone I care about is at risk, I’ll do fuckinganythingto save them.
Anything.
And I’d be lying if I said the idea of him going for his belt again right now doesn’t send a shiver of anticipation through me. This shouting match feels good, but it’s not enough. I’ve got too many emotions I had to keep bottled up when it wasn’t safe to show them, and they need an outlet.
But instead of reaching for his belt, when he breaks, it’s to crush me against him.
“Fuck, Riley,” he mutters in a ragged whisper as he buries his face in my hair and tightens his arms around me. “I was fucking terrified. Two straight weeks of not knowing if we’d lost you or not.Jesus. Just… just don’t. Don’t do it again, butterfly. Please.”
I nod, and he pulls me even closer, breathing out. Then breathing in again. Then out, tension flowing from his body as my breath syncs with his, his chest rising and falling against my aching ribs.
“Good,” he says quietly, pressing a long kiss to my temple. “That’s good.”
I can feel Logan’s eyes on me, watching with the quiet intensity he brings to everything. I can’tnotbe aware of him, the connection between us thrumming in my blood and beating in my heart. Just like it does for each of them.
Dante is on my other side, his hand still resting low on my back, and when Logan’s hand comes to rest on my hip, all three of my men touching me now as they surround me, something deep inside my soul starts to truly relax for the first time since…
Well, since the night I had sex with all three of them.
They were all worried about me.
