Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“I know,” she agreed, voice soft, before she leaned in, pressing her lips to mine.
It wasn’t like she usually kissed me, though. Which was hard and fast and hungry. This was more like it had been in that alley. When she’d gotten soft and sweet with me for a while. Before pulling away.
But this time, there was no pulling away.
Her arms wrapped around my neck, holding me close, as her lips continued to set a soft, sweet pace that had a strange, warm sensation moving through my chest as her tongue teased the seam of my lips before moving inside, toying with mine.
There was desire, yeah. I mean, I was pretty sure it wasn’t possible to be close to Nyx without being almost painfully turned on by her. But it was buried under something else, something I didn’t recognize enough to put a name on it.
So I just enjoyed it.
“I knew it!” a voice called, making both of us jerk. “I knew you two were hooking up! Didn’t I tell you?” she asked, making the two of us reluctantly pull apart to find Dell excitedly looking over at Morgaine.
It was Morgaine who saw Nyx’s face first, her own face falling in response, making Dell’s brows pinch.
“What is… oh my God,” Delaney hissed, her hand pressing to her heart. “Oh, my God. What happened to you?” she asked, rushing forward.
“It’s a long story,” Nyx said as she slid off my lap to stand up.
“Okay,” Dell said, nodding. “But you need to tell me it,” she said, pulling Nyx with her toward the kitchen, leaving me with Morgaine in the living room.
“Who did it?” she asked, tone dark.
And, yeah, it would be.
Because that was Morgaine’s fun little side hobby. Poisoning bastards who put their hands on women. I could practically see her mixing herbs and flowers and shit in her head, trying to figure out the slowest, most painful way for someone to pay for what they’d done to her friend.
“We don’t know yet. But we’re going to figure it out.”
“I’ll go get Crow,” she said.
“Yeah. Can you get everyone else down here too?” I asked. “Might as well fill everyone in at once,” I said, catching Nyx’s gaze across the room, getting a nod from her.
Twenty minutes later, everyone was in the living room, listening to me recount Nyx’s story since she was busy getting fussed over by Morgaine who was putting compresses on her face and mumbling about salves to prevent scarring when the stitches were out.
“She’s staying here, right?” Riff asked. “I can give her my room if she needs it,” he added.
Yeah, I hadn’t exactly filled them in on that part yet.
“She’s going to be staying in my room,” I said.
“Knew it,” Judge mumbled, looking over at Dell who gave him a nod.
“Yeah, we’ve been involved for a while,” I said, shrugging. “But, because of reasons I just explained, haven’t been open about it. Now, there’s no reason to hide it. So we’re not.”
Was it a romantic declaration?
No.
But no one would ever accuse me of being a romantic sort of guy.
And judging by the way Nyx’s eyes warmed as I spoke, I figured it was enough for her.
We were never going to be a couple that other people looked toward and thought ‘That’s the perfect relationship.’
We were both too flawed, too unsure of ourselves. We were going to fuck shit up more often than not before we finally got things right.
Even so, though, I found myself excited about fucking up with Nyx. Of heated arguments and make-up sex.
Tripping our way to something meaningful.
Yeah, I was looking forward to that.
But we had to figure out who was fucking with her life first.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Nyx
It was just so… easy.
I had worked myself up into knots at the idea of telling anyone what had been happening to me. Least of all telling Slash, whose opinion I cared about more than seemed normal to me.
But he hadn’t judged.
He hadn’t said shit about my judgment or made me seem like a fool for not being more careful with the very expensive drugs.
Though I had noticed that his eyes and tone got a little colder whenever he mentioned Czar. It shouldn’t have given me the little thrill I got inside about it, but there was no denying its existence, either.
I never thought I would like jealousy or possessiveness. But maybe that was only because I never let anyone get close enough to me to display any.
When Slash did, though, yeah, it was kind of hot.
Though that desire was buried under something else that day. Something deeper. Sweeter. Somehow more intense.
I didn’t pretend to really understand it, but I went ahead and let myself enjoy it.
The next several hours were full of fussing from Delaney and Morgaine and the men discussing the issue, the ways to go about looking into it.