Chapter 19

Chapter

Nineteen

LAINEY

T he smell of coffee proved too tempting an allure to sleep through. Coupled with the sizzle of bacon from the kitchen area below, and my stomach was awake before the rest of me processed my eyes were open. The combination was a decadent tease for my senses. My body was one long, sensual ache and as I pushed myself up on my elbows, I got my first real look at the loft apartment.

The "bedroom" was upstairs. The absolute lack of walls seemed almost too exposed. Yet, the low railing overlooking the living area below with its warm wooden floors and rich colored furnishings promised a cozier welcome. Then that wall of windows gazing at the park was exquisite.

A king in his castle— No, not a king. Bodhi didn't want to rule over everything and everyone. He just wanted information to identify our enemies and then use his skills to end them before they were a real threat. In his blood, Bodhi was every bit the knight his mother used to weave into her stories.

I had no memories of Isla. I don't think I'd ever met her or if I had, it was when I was far too young to remember. Her influence on Bodhi made me think I would have liked her. Who was I kidding, I would have loved her.

Below, the scent of toast and eggs began to thread through the twin temptations of bacon and coffee. Savoring the ache, I rolled to the edge and slid out. My clothes from the night before were all hung neatly next to an open closet door. Bodhi's clothes were folded over each other in a semi-neat, if disheveled, stack. I claimed the button down shirt and slid it on.

The whole apartment smelled like Bodhi to me. So did the shirt. Leaving it open I rolled up the sleeves before slipping into the bathroom. Once I'd dealt with emptying my bladder and washing my face, I finger combed out my hair. The rough and tumble of bed head seemed to give me large, poofy hair.

The effort to groom it didn't do me any favors. But I was well and truly sated, I kind of liked the look, especially with my puffy lips and the hickeys drawing a heart around my left breast.

I wondered what it would take to mirror that with a tattoo. The desire to see Bodhi and have coffee hurried me along. I moved at a languid pace. My cunt was aching and stretched in all the right ways. My ass was a bit sore, not pained but definitely feeling his efforts. Glancing up, I grinned at the hook in the ceiling. It wasn't the only hook present. There were a few and I'd spent half my night suspended over that bed.

A shudder rolled through me. Trapped with my vision muffled and then when he closed off my ears, I'd only been able to savor his scent, his touch, and his taste.

"I want to take all but one away," he whispered against my ear, one hand cupping my cunt when we'd cuddled in bed in the earlier hours after he'd spent himself and purged whatever demons speaking to Hans had provoked. "Strip them all away until you know nothing but my touch. I want you to lose yourself to the only thing you can feel, experience, and know."

He'd traced my earlobe with his tongue as those words sank under the haze of pleasure I floated on.

"Anything you want," I whispered and he'd wrapped me up even tighter. The hand on my cunt flexed, one finger sliding into me like he needed to be a part of me. With his free hand, he spread it over one breast. Maybe I'd get his hand tattooed there instead of the hickeys… all of their hands.

That might take hours though.

"Don't offer me too much, Buttercup. I will take everything."

"I'll offer you what I damn well please, Phillip. You can take anything you want from me. I'm yours." Then lest he think I was being willful or blind, I added, "I know what I'm giving you. I know you'll never hurt me. I trust you."

Trust was a precious commodity in our world. It made for a lonely existence, and it had for me for a long time. Particularly when Adam and Ezra fought so hard to keep me in my bubble. But loving Em, protecting my family, looking after Andrea—they'd all been the gateways to freedom.

Out here, trust was even more valuable.

"I will never betray you," Bodhi promised in a voice soaked with bloody oaths. "I will kill anyone who does."

No wiggle room. Maybe the fact I had zero doubts about the truth in those statements said something terrible about me. I didn't care. "You know, I will do the same for you, right?" Because he was mine to protect too.

The low, heated chuckle he released stroked through me like its own caress. He added a second finger to the first, scissoring against the swollen tissue of my cunt and he began to rub circles against my over-sensitized clit with his palm. One bite to my earlobe as he began to tease my orgasm to life. There was no way I could come again, but I was more than willing to try.

"Yes," he whispered. "I do know, Buttercup."

The ghostly reminders of his touch skated over me as I descended the short steps from the loft. Bodhi shirtless, a pair of gray sweatpants balanced on his hips and giving me a wonderful view of the muscles moving along his back. The look he sent me was molten when he turned to add toast to the plates he was building.

"That's my shirt," he murmured as I strolled right to the breakfast bar. I was very proud that my steps didn't falter.

"If you want it or need it, you can always come and get it." I slid onto one of the leather stools. The cold bracing against my ass. But I was enjoying the partial nudity and there was a relaxed air in this place, away from everything and everyone. We would be back in the thick of it soon, so I was in no hurry to push away the tender cocoon he'd weaved around us.

"True." He turned back to the stove and bit by bit the burners were shut off and then he was adding eggs and crispy bacon to the plates before bringing over a magnificent bowl of fried potatoes with onions and peppers.

"You have many hidden talents," I teased. "I'm not even sure Adam knows how to cook. Ezra barely knows where the kitchen is."

He chuckled before bringing the French press over and pouring a cup for me before pouring his own. "He knows where it is, but I think he's far better at starting the fires than putting them out."

That was true. Cradling the coffee cup in my hands, I pushed up with one foot on the rail around the bottom of the breakfast bar. Bodhi met me halfway with a whisper of a kiss.

"It's a good thing they have us," I murmured.

"Very good thing. You are a boon to everyone." He winked. "Now eat. I burned a lot of calories last night."

"You dirty dog," I teased, sitting back down with care. Yes, my ass and my cunt were still more than a bit tender but in all the best ways. "You just want to see me walking funny."

"Oh, I know you're going to be walking funny." The pure, smug, masculine pride in his smile and his words made me grin. "The rest of the world is going to be there for us very soon. I wanted a little more time with you."

The perfect echo to my earlier thoughts had me saluting him with my coffee mug. "Mr. Cavendish, I am at your disposal for whenever and wherever you would like to escape again."

I needed this kind of time with each of them. It was easy to overlook with so many dangers threatening and even more secrets needing to be unraveled. We couldn't afford to neglect each other, even if it wasn't neglect. We had to be able to ask for what we needed. That Bodhi had?

Tears burned in my eyes as my heart expanded. Milo had, once or twice. Adam had precisely once when he'd finally stopped fighting what could be and embraced what we had. Ezra?

I took a long drink of the coffee. Ezra was a beautiful work in progress, a patchwork quilt of all our damaged parts and the warped tapestry woven by families with too much money at their disposal and far more blood on their hands.

"Thank you for last night," I said and the surprise creasing his smile entertained me. "I needed it too."

"Well, should you ever need or merely want it again…" The invitation dangled there.

"The same goes for you… If you want or need me or it, I'm here. Always."

Our gazes locked and the wordless pulse seemed to bounce from his soul to mine. Poetry existed in these moments. Grinning, I reached for a crispy slice of bacon that I could wash down with my coffee. The world really was waiting for us just outside the door.

"Lainey B?"

"Hmm?" I glanced up.

"Will you go with me to meet my aunt and my grandmother?"

His grandmother. My heart fisted tight.

"It would be my pleasure. Just one request?"

"Name it."

I grinned. "Give me time to change into something that isn't last night's dress or just your shirt?"

His long sigh held amusement and teasing. "If you insist."

"I do."

We were already chuckling.

Breakfast passed almost too swiftly, but I savored the moments. Then it was time to shower and change. The fact Bodhi had clothes for me here—perfectly sized and in my style—told me all I needed to know about how he'd already begun to plan ahead. I checked in with the boys while he took a call.

We'd be back at the penthouse after this meeting. Then it would be time to make our next move. Our meeting with his family kept us in the city and only a couple of blocks over at a lovely little pied - à - terre that reminded me a bit of Bodhi's loft that we'd just spent the night in. Having a secure little private getaway in the city was just smart thinking if you didn't live here regularly.

Having it for us to escape to when we shared our living space? Also smart. I was going to have to look into doing that as well. But that was a later problem…

The elevator carried us swiftly up from the garage to the apartment itself. "It's a locked building," Bodhi assured me. "Without the proper code or the invitation, the elevator will lock people out of any residential floor."

That was smart.

Waiting for us were a pair of older women, dressed casually, yet I didn't mistake their easy smiles or assessing looks as anything other than what they were. They wanted my measure and they were both protective of Bodhi. Even more, Bodhi clearly respected them, as well as held them in great affection.

That made me like them even more.

"Sophia, Aunt Eliza, this is Elaine Benedict, but you can call her Lainey if she permits." The introduction carried just a note of warning. One that Sophia seemed to notice immediately even as the wattage of her smile increased.

"Oh, my darling boy," she said, laughing even as she extended her hands to me. "It is a pure delight to meet you, Miss Benedict."

"Lainey," I insisted, accepting her grip and smiling at her. There was just something so classically beautiful about her. Like she wore the air of another time and age settled on her like a crown rather than a weight. "Please. I am very glad to meet you as well."

"Very nice, I know your grandfather," Eliza said as she accepted my handshake. "Leopold always enthuses about you."

I grinned. "Grandfather is proud, but he's also a little biased."

Sophia wrapped an arm around me. "He's very biased," she said with a laugh. "But we should always be about the ones we love. Now, you must come and sit with me and let me ply you with some cakes and tea, then ask you all manner of inappropriate questions."

Bodhi cleared his throat.

Chuckling, Sophia gave him the most impudent of looks. "Only if she agrees. Don't tut at me, Bodhi. It's impolite."

"Yes, ma'am." Affection and amusement vied for supremacy in his tone and my heart just squished like I'd been squeezed into the biggest hug. These women were not his mother, but they seemed to love him like they were. I loved that for him.

"You may ask me anything you wish," I offered as we reached the table the women had already set. "But I reserve the right to keep some secrets."

"Oh," Eliza said slowly. "I like her, Bodhi. I like her very much."

"Me too," he said, grinning at me and I winked. It wasn't the pleasurable haze we'd woken up in, but it was warm and wonderful.