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I grasped the side of the house to keep myself upright, just the sight of her stealing all the energy from my body.Fuck,I felt like a girl about to faint.
It made me realize just how much I needed her, how integral she’d become to my entire life. What if she hadn’t come back? What if something had happened and I’d never gotten the chance to see her again?
Would my revenge even matter in that case?
Only to avenge her…
Hayden pulled her against his chest, hugging her tight before checking her for injuries. Tor and Char stood off to the sides, watching over, and at least Kenz had the decency to look regretful.
I swallowed hard but stayed in place as they all walked up to the porch, where Kenz offered me a look that implied she knew damn well she was in trouble.
“Vance,” she said, her voice enough to break what little restraint I had. Suddenly, that sound strengthened my legs enough for me to let go of the wall and grab her by the arm. If I’d been thinking straight, I didn’t think I’deverhave touched her so roughly.
I wasn’t, by nature, a rough man. I much preferred teasing women, making them melt from gentle caresses and my eager tongue, but Kenz had shattered that. I pulled her to me and took her mouth in a kiss so demanding I had no doubts it would feel like an attack.
However, it was the only way I could express the depths of what I felt—the fear, the bottomless worry, and how damned relieved I felt at having her back.
Kenz didn’t fight it—in fact, she responded in kind, giving back the same passion, the same desire.
A throat cleared, waking me up. “Let’s take this inside,” Hayden said. “I think we have some things to talk about.”
Kenz broke the kiss, her cheeks blazing, her gaze darting away from mine.
Right. We have to talk about what happened.
We managed to get inside, to all sit down in the kitchen, at the table. Hayden—ever the family dad—brought bottles of water and set them on the table for each of us.
Kenz took hers, opened it, then drank some all while not speaking.
And we gave her that time to sort through her thoughts. Pushing her wouldn’t make this any easier, wouldn’t get her to open up any faster. I’d learned that Kenz did things at her own speed, and fighting her on that only made it all the more difficult.
Finally, she put the lid back on and took a deep breath. I prepared myself for bad news.
“She agreed.”
Thatwasn’t what I’d expected. Sure, her coming back meant that Pauline at least hadn’t trapped her, hadn’t given her over to Lorien, but never in my wildest dreams did I expect her to actually succeed.
“What does that mean exactly?” Char asked.
“She’s agreed to withdraw all official support for Lorien. Her contacts, her people, none of them will help him. He’s got his own talents, of course, but he won’t have her backing. She’ll send out official word this morning and by noon, any support or help he got from her or her family will be gone. He’ll be on his own.”
I blinked slowly, stunned to silence as I tried to make sense of that. This whole time, Lorien had been a risk partly due to his family. It had given him reach and backing, like having a snarling wolf pack standing behind him. It meant all our steps had to contend with that danger.
Now, however, that was gone. Kenz had single-handedly stood against those wolves and come out the winner.
“Fuck,” Hayden whispered, the word taking everyone by surprise since we all turned to look toward him. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I just really didn’t think she’d budge, not after talking to her. I can’t believe you got her to do that…”
Kenz sighed softly, her expression not showing much pleasure. Then again, he didn’t say he was proud. He basically said he was shocked, and given Kenz’s general lack of self-confidence, that was probably not the best way to phrase it.
At least Hayden caught on, because he did that stammering thing that meant he figured out he’d said something wrong even if he wasn’t sure what. Sadly, he often had no idea still how to fix it. “I just mean I didn’t thinkanyonecould make her change her mind. I was so damned worried about you going off like that without us, that hearing you managed it, it’s surprising.”
She offered up a half-smile, the sort of look meant to reassure him. “Like I said—I lived with people like her. You all know my real life, how I grew up, but I feel like you really don’t understand what it means. Pauline is not a big deal to me. In fact, if my mother had survived, I’m pretty sure they would have been best friends. I understand that world, know how to navigate it, how to negotiate with people in it. You really should stop seeing me as some poor lost kitten who hasn’t experienced anything. I know I was sheltered in a lot of ways growing up, that the Quad always tried to keep me from anything terrible, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t see it. You should trust that I can handle this, that I can help.”
As much as I wanted to argue with her over that, it was hard to do so after she’d done what we couldn’t. She’d risked herself, her freedom, her very life to walk up to Pauline and confront her. Even alone, without us, without knowing how it would go, Kenz had stood there and convinced Pauline to do what we had not.
It was impossible not to be impressed by her, not see her in a different light. Instead of a lost kitten, instead of someone who needed protection and shelter, I caught a glimpse of the fully grown woman she really was.
And my blood heated at that. Sure, she excited me when I saw her as innocent and sweet, but watching her in all her power was one hell of a turn-on as well.
