20. ~Brianna~

20

~Brianna~

A repetitive buzzing forced me awake.

Groaning, I turned toward the sound, only to smush myself into a wall of warm, hard muscle. I jolted and looked to see Levi still here and wrapped tightly around me, his arm around my back and one of his big, muscular legs thrown over both of mine that were slightly curled.

Levi Knight was in my bed.

Warming my sheets. Warming me.

That masculine sandalwood scent that had become synonymous with him for me infused my senses.

Even in his sleep, his hold around me was unyielding and possessive. Protective and needy. And it made me feel… cherished.

As fucked up as it was and with the twisted way it had come about, not to mention how things had started when he'd come at me in his maniacal way, he made me feel safe and free at the same time. Being with him made me feel alive for the first time ever.

I didn't have to pretend with him either.

I didn't have to pretend that I wasn't damaged.

Because he was too.

But when we were together, in each other's company, it became something else.

It soothed it, all that pain we carried around with us.

It was solace.

As the buzzing thankfully stopped, I eased away a little to take Levi in.

He was on his side over on my side of the bed—well what I considered my side considering the whole bed was really mine, although I only kept to the left side and slept in a cocoon-like way, something that helped to ease my anxiety a little bit so I could fall asleep. Some nights. Others, I wasn't so lucky, and I couldn't do it on my own.

But last night I'd been able to.

I'd slept really hard, really deeply.

Because of him.

He was shirtless, the covers down to the waistband of his crimson boxers. His curls were all sexy and wild, a few strands flopping down over his eye. With the way he was sleeping, I couldn't see either of the two things that had drawn us together—his all-seeing eye tattoo and the scar along the left side of his throat.

But the other scar I'd seen last night during the whirlwind that had been the two of us was visible.

I found myself reaching out and tracing my fingers carefully over the small cross-like shape. Unfortunately, I knew my wounds. It was definitely a gunshot wound.

"Mmm, already back for more, baby?" his sleep infused voice sounded, making me jerk my hand away and choke out a gasp of surprise.

"Crap."

A smile tugged at his lips as he opened his eyes and fixed them on me. "Thought I wore you out last night?"

"Never," I said, smiling back at him.

He arched an eyebrow, not buying it.

"Maybe a little," I actually found myself admitting, my tough front melting a little.

He wrapped his arm tighter around me and pulled me into him, until his big biceps were engulfing me with my looking up at him from his hard torso. "Morning."

"Morning," I returned, grinning up at him. "Last night was…"

"Incredible? Earth shattering? The best night of my fucking life?"

"Wow, that's high praise."

"And?"

I took in the light blazing in his pale-blue eyes that were most often dancing with a heady combination of determination, ruthlessness and malice. This time, it was wholly different. There was a light there so freaking bright it hit me right in the gut. Light and excitement. He looked so happy, so content and at ease.

It had me stroking his chest and confessing, "All of the above. It was amazing."

"I'm glad," he said, nuzzling my hair and breathing me in.

We'd only just sank into the intimacy of it when his phone buzzed yet again.

He grunted.

"It keeps doing that."

"It can wait."

"The persistence suggests it could be urgent."

He groaned, then very reluctantly released me to reach over to the nightstand.

I watched him swipe open the screen and I saw there were four missed calls from Colton. There were some text message notifications too.

"Christ," Levi muttered. He eyed me over his shoulder. "One second."

In the next, he was dialing Colton, and putting it on speakerphone mode.

"Lev, finally, what the—"

"Can't talk right now. I know I said I'd be home last night, but something came up. Be back in a couple of hours."

"But it can't—"

"I'm at Brianna's, cupcake."

There was a long pause.

"Well, damn. That's… I don't know what to say."

"Good. That concludes our conversation then. Gotta go, brother. See you soon enough."

With that, Levi hung up without another word.

He put his phone down, then blew out a breath and rolled back to face me on his side. "Sorry about that."

"That was rude, cutting him off like that."

"Rude? Rude was interrupting our first morning together with his relentless calls and texts."

"Well, did you even check the texts, because you didn't give him a chance to tell you why he was being so persistent."

He lifted a shoulder. "It's not a big deal."

"How do you know?"

"Because, shortly after we fell asleep, I was woken up by my phone ringing. It was my guys telling me that your car was gassed up and in your apartment complex lot, and that they'd slid your car key under your apartment door for you. At the same time, I saw a couple of texts from Colt with him thinking I hadn't come home because I was mad at him."

"Thank you for doing that for my car," I said, stroking his arm.

He beamed out at me. "No worries."

I shifted my weight. "So, are you mad at Colton?"

"Nah. He kept apologizing for kissing you. He thought I somehow already knew about it."

"You didn't?"

"Nope."

"And now that you do?"

His lips quirked. "How did you like that tongue piercing of his?"

"I… what?"

"Adds another level of stimulation, hmm?"

"It does," I admitted. And then I was frowning. "How do you know? Spend a lot of time kissing Colton, do you?"

"Twice. After he got that piercing, he was all worried about it impacting his game and he wanted to test it out, so I helped him out."

"Wow, that was very generous of you."

He grinned. "I thought so."

With his free hand, he trailed his fingers up and down my thigh. "Forget a kiss, imagine how it would feel teasing that sweet cunt of yours."

He stared at me in that challenging way of his.

I rose to it, telling him, "It's certainly something worth thinking about."

"Yeah?" he murmured, sliding his fingers higher, toward my inner thigh and making me tremble in his arms.

"Mmm, yeah. And where would you be while that's going on?"

"While Colt's spreading your thighs wide and tonguing your pretty little clit, you mean?"

God. "Yes."

"I'll be straddling your face and feeding my cock down your throat, baby."

My core clenched at his words, the picture he'd painted heating my blood.

"You like that, hmm?" he said, noticing my reaction.

"In your wildest dreams."

He chuckled and stroked my hair, playing with the strands. "You're so adorable when you try to kid yourself into resisting me."

"And you're so full of yourself."

"Nah, I just know that this thing between us fits." He took my hand gently and kissed my palm, startling me at the sweet tenderness of it. "It feels right. So fucking right."

"As twisted as it is, it actually does," I admitted. I shifted in his hold, angling myself closer to his teasing fingers wandering up my thigh beneath the sheets. A gasp escaped me as it had them touching my bare pussy.

His eyes darkened as he felt it. "Mmm, I love how wet you get for me from just a tease."

"Show me just how right it really is," I said, rolling my hips against his fingers so they slid through my folds, the stimulation sending sparks of bliss through me that had me moaning out.

I reached up and grasped his nape, but he resisted when I tried to urge his mouth to mine.

Off my look, concern spread over his rugged features as he asked, "Aren't you sore after last night? I'm well aware that I didn't take it easy on you." He smirked. "As much as I tried, you just weren't having it."

"You did show superhuman restraint. At first."

"And I'm going to again."

"Levi."

"As much as I want to fuck you until you shriek my name, I don't want you hurt."

"You know, there is another place you haven't fucked me yet. That no one has."

His eyes went utterly black. "Fuck."

"That's the idea."

I squealed as he suddenly pounced and rolled on top of me.

Caging me in, he leaned down and growled at my ear, "The idea of sinking into that tight little ass has me rock fucking hard." I turned my head and licked the shell of his ear as I rolled my hips at the same time, and a sexy groan emanated from him, sending a delicious tremble through me, making my need climb to new heights. "But," he breathed at my ear. "I don't have any lube."

"Neither do I. It'll be fine without."

"Not for the first time. Absolutely not." He planted a chaste kiss on my lips, then eased back to his haunches, the struggle all over his face to manage it blatantly obvious. "Give yourself some time."

"Okay," I reluctantly agreed.

He stroked my calf. "There's my good girl."

I slapped his hand. "I'm not your good girl."

He smirked. "Oh, really? You sure as fuck were last night."

"Does that make you my good boy then?" I challenged. "After all, that makes more sense, I'm three years older than you."

"I've never been called good before. But if it pleases you, feel free to call me that. Although, Hell Spawn is my favorite, for the record. Actually, nothing can beat the breathy and needy sound of the way you utter ‘Levi' when you're turned the fuck on."

I kicked at him from underneath the covers. "Stop!"

He laughed and rolled out of the way, and the movement turned into some sort of partial somersault as he somehow landed on his feet in front of the bed.

Off my incredulous look, he told me, "A few gymnastics classes gave me an edge in the fight arena. It opened up a bunch of moves for me that I wouldn't have been able to pull off as easily otherwise." He waggled his eyebrows at me. "Helps out in the fucking arena too. Last night was our first time, but down the road I'll show you some things, baby."

A tremble of excitement rolled through me. "I can't wait."

He tutted. "You'll have to. I'm gonna make you a bath, then I'll see to your laptop for you."

"Oh, so you're headed home?" I asked, pushing out of bed.

"Is that what I need to do?"

"Need to do?"

"Yeah, I mean, is that how this morning-after thing works?"

Oh my God. He looked unsure, almost… vulnerable.

"I don't think so. Well, I don't have anything to gauge it by."

"What do you mean? You've dated before. One person… that slimy shit, Tommy."

"He's not slimy."

"Not from your perspective, because of the hero worship you had going on."

"What?"

"He was the first person you saw after those two weeks in that hellscape, storming in as part of the rescue crew. After that, your dad ordered him to teach you how to fight as a reaction to it all, and you developed a relationship on that highly unstable ground. He took advantage of you."

"That's not… can we not talk about that… about him, while we're standing in my bedroom both half-naked?" I winced. "Or at all, actually?"

He held up his hands. "Fine by me. Just one more thing… so you didn't wake up beside him, hence you saying you're not familiar with this morning-after thing either?"

"Correct. It was a secret relationship. From my father, from his club. Any time we… came together… it had to be… brief."

"No stamina, huh?" he said, grinning.

"Stop," I said, grabbing a pillow and tossing it at him.

He snatched it out of the air and hugged it to him.

"You're lucky I'm too nice to snap a picture of you cuddling a fluffy pink pillow."

"Your social media is weak. It would do nothing."

"I'll send it through to Colton."

"Oh shit, you got me." He tossed the pillow back on the bed. As I walked to him, he lowered himself to one knee and bowed his head, all so dramatically. "I yield, milady."

I burst out laughing. "Oh my God, you're something else."

Grinning, he held out his hand to me. "Join me for a soothing bubble bath, Wildflower?"

"You want to—I thought you were going to work on my laptop?"

"The thing I need is being retrieved as we speak. We have about thirty minutes before it makes it here."

"Isn't it in your mansion?"

"Sure is. One of my connections is covertly accessing it. Then it will be delivered to me here."

"Wouldn't it have been easier just to go home and grab it?"

"No. Then I'd have to leave you."

My heart melted at his words, the blunt way he'd just stated that outright, like it was a given, like it couldn't be any other way.

I took his hand and smiled down at him. "Do you want to stay for breakfast after?"

He rose to his feet still holding my hand. "Sounds really nice. I'll teach you some things while we eat." Off my look, he said, "No, not those kinds of things, dirty girl." He stroked my fingers in his and drew closer. "Although, when you're no longer sore, we'll get right back to that, believe me. I meant I'll teach you how to up your hacking game. And, more importantly, your network security defense protocols."

"So I can keep you out of my phone?"

"I'm actually already out. I have been for a few days."

"Wow, that's a big step in the right direction for you."

"Well, I was giving you space in every sense."

"And now?"

"And now, I'll back off. Well, in the intrusive sense anyway."

"The intrusive sense . Such a mild way of putting it."

"I'm sorry."

I gave him a withering look. "You don't mean that."

The corner of his mouth turned up. "You're right, I don't. It succeeded."

I shook my head. "Toning it down is a work in progress, I see."

He reached out and stroked some strands of my hair, the way he seemed to like doing a whole lot. "For the record, I don't usually compromise. So, believe me, it's more than just a work in progress."

"All for me, huh?"

"Abso-fucking-lutely." He beamed down at me. "Let's take that bath."

I looked over at Levi typing away rapidly.

I'd never met anyone who could type faster than me, at least not when I was in the zone, but here he was doing just that.

And as strange as it probably sounded to someone not in our similar fields of study, it was hot as all fuck watching him. The rapid-fire clack of the keys, the determined look on his face like he was waging war and decimating his enemies with absolutely no respite, how he was so confident like some kind of coding God working his will.

Every now and then, he'd reach out with one hand and take a bite of the fried egg sandwich I'd made for breakfast, while not breaking his rhythm with his other hand still flying across the keyboard. Then he'd return to using two like one had never left.

He'd kept to his promise of not touching me so I could have time to recover, which had been an impressive feat seeing as though we'd taken a bath together in my tiny bathtub. Wet, naked, and wherein I'd spent the majority of it on his lap. He'd wanted to be close to me, not wanting the physical separation. And, honestly, I'd been right there with him on that. Although neither of us were virgins, it had felt different and incredibly intense when we'd come together last night. It hadn't just been physical by any means. God, it had been all-consuming being with him, letting go with him.

Another impressive feat—on my end—was the fact that I was actually able to remain in my seat at the kitchen table and eat while he was sitting there shirtless, all that hard and defined muscle of his hot-as-sin chest on display.

I sucked in a breath, trying to push down the primal memories of last night, trying to focus.

"Still picturing it, hmm?"

I blinked to see Levi looking up from my laptop with that devious smirk I'd become so well acquainted with.

"What's that?"

"You know very well. Or were you feeling it as well as picturing it? Vividly?"

"Stop," I said, shoving my sandwich into my mouth and taking a big bite to avoid answering.

"Saved by that delicious sandwich. Nicely done." He gestured at my laptop. "Just waiting for my program to run all the way through your system. A couple more minutes and everything will be recovered and back to normal."

I nodded and smiled as I continued to chew the ridiculously big bite I'd taken.

He stared at me as I ate, his hot gaze wandering over me in just my pink zebra-print robe, my hair mussed in its still damp state from the bath we'd taken just a little while earlier.

I finished eating, then asked, "So, who did you lose to?"

He arched an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"Last night you said that you've lost one fight in your life."

"Ah, that." He shifted his weight. "Talk about a jarring change of subject. Fighting temptation, hmm?" He thumbed his chest. "Want me to put my shirt back on?"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm fine. And I really want to know."

"My dad. It was to my dad."

A shudder went through me. "Your dad... beat you?" It didn't compute. Of course, I knew Roman Knight was a ruthless man when he needed to be. Anyone who'd been in my dad's business circles back then had needed to be. But there'd also been a respectful gentleness to him whenever he'd encountered me, anyone who held less power than him—so long as they weren't a threat, anyway. "The times I met him, he seemed so—"

"No. It wasn't like that. He thought it was for my own good—the fight we had, I mean."

"How the hell could that possibly be?" I demanded, unable to check my vehemence.

"Aww, look at you getting all riled up for me."

I rolled my eyes. "Levi."

He certainly had a fondness for changing the subject when he was uncomfortable, or didn't want to reveal specific pieces of information.

"Remember me telling you it took me a couple of years to stabilize after what happened in that hellscape?"

"Of course."

"Well, a few months afterward, once I was physically healed, I was determined to find mental and emotional healing as well. For me, I believed that to be through dealing out damage to those who'd wronged us."

"Shit, you tried to go after them?"

"Stupid at my young and rather na?ve age. Something my dad demonstrated to me the only way I would listen to at the time—through action."

"A man challenging a boy to combat, though? That's—"

"It was exactly his point. I wasn't a man. I stood no chance of being able to go up against them back then. He saved my life that day." He looked at me with a bittersweet smile. "Twice that year I had my life spared."

"Is that gunshot wound connected to that fight with your dad?"

"In a sense. It wasn't inflicted by him, though, nor actually during our round of combat."

I frowned. "Then, what—"

My laptop chirped, cutting me off.

Levi blinked, then took in the screen. "Done. Now to ensure the data that was taken is secure."

"Take a break. You don't have to do it all at once."

He looked out at me. "I appreciate that, but I need to get it done."

"It's hard for you to stop, isn't it?"

"What's that?"

"It's difficult for you to stand still, to relax, or just to do nothing, isn't it?"

He averted his eyes and I thought he was going to blow off my question or, more likely with him, redirect and possibly make a joke in the process.

But then he sucked in a breath and sank back against the kitchen chair. "I need to keep my mind busy, yeah."

"Because of them?"

"Yes."

We didn't need to utter it aloud, he knew what I meant. The demons.

"Even in the bath, you kept fussing with it, adding more hot water, then cold, putting in more bubble bath, then moving the actual bubbles around."

"I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be. I get it." I gestured at the three new origami butterflies in front of my plate that I'd made this morning since he'd started working on my laptop. "Do you think it'll ever stop?"

"I do."

"You sound so certain."

"They're still with us because we never had closure."

"They were punished."

"It's not enough, though, is it?"

"I don't know."

" We didn't get the opportunity to deal with them."

"Even if I do acknowledge that disturbing claim to have some truth to it on my end too, the fact is that the… ringleader… he's dead."

Something flitted across his features that I couldn't quite discern because it was so quick.

"Levi, what—"

A sudden pounding on the front door brought me up short and had Levi instantly shooting to his feet on high alert.

No, it was more than that.

I recognized it as the same thing in myself—a trauma response. A symptom of PTSD that the two of us obviously shared.

It had taken everything in me not to react by lunging for the knife block and drawing a blade in the next split-second.

As it was, I managed to rise to my feet somewhat calmly, even though the sudden shock of the aggressive noise had made my pulse spike and adrenaline spark.

Shit, chill out. Get a hold of yourself, girl. It's just a knock at the freaking door.

"It's okay," I told Levi, managing to dart in front of him as he went to storm toward the door like a war machine of some sort.

I pressed my hand to his chest and his now dark gaze snapped to mine.

His heart was thumping rapidly.

"I get it, but it's just the door."

He stared down at my hand on his bare chest, then back up to my face. "Yeah," he murmured.

I smiled, then headed on out of the kitchen the very short distance to the apartment door, hearing Levi's footsteps right behind me, so close I could feel the heat from him at my back.

"That door needs a peephole," Levi groused. "Scratch that, you need a security camera and better locks. The building itself needs heavy security too."

I looked over my shoulder at him and grinned.

"What?" he asked.

"Just understanding how much you care about my wellbeing. Who knew with the way you came across at first, huh?"

He rolled his eyes. "Brianna."

I chuckled, then unlocked the door and opened it carefully.

The careful part fell to the wayside almost instantly when I took in Colton on the other side.

"Hey, cutie," he greeted with a smile.

But it wasn't his usual big and bright one. No, it was restrained, and there was worry there in his smoky eyes. He looked on edge, his black and gold zig-zagging printed shirt was haphazardly done up only halfway with one side tucked into his ripped gray jeans, and his mohawk was mussed.

Levi was right beside me then, his arm brushing against mine. "Colt? What are you doing here?"

"I'm here because you told me you were here," he answered, matter of fact. The corner of his mouth turned up as he took in Levi shirtless and barefoot and me in only my robe. "So, it was what I thought." He stepped across the threshold and fingered the scratch marks on Levi's neck and down the length of his chest. "And it was also how I imagined it would be between the two of you."

"You imagined the two of us having sex?" I asked.

"As soon as I saw Lev taking an interest in you. I imagined him fucking you, you fucking yourself, him fucking himself. Then as I started spending time with you too, it evolved to imagining me fucking you, then me and Lev fucking you, and then Mason and Lev devouring you while I—"

"Well fucking received, Colt," Levi cut in, batting his hand off him.

Colton blinked out of the haze of lust he'd clearly just been caught up in, and then that anxiousness was back as he shut the door behind him. "Good thing you two are late for classes. In fact, it's gonna be best if you get the material remotely for the next little while until things die down." He eyed Levi. "You, because of how you'll react to this attack. You know, with a destructive display of violence and payback?"

"Payback for what ?" Levi demanded, getting agitated.

I was too, but from a rapidly rising worried standpoint.

What the hell had happened?

Colton shook his head at Levi. "This sort of thing is exactly why you need to be more active on social media. If that had been the case, you'd already know about this."

"Like I need that hassle," Levi muttered. "Now, what's going on, Colt?"

Colton looked between us. "You're gonna want to sit down."

"Sit down? Come on, brother. Just spill it."

Colton grimaced, then pulled his phone from his pants, scrolled for a moment, then handed it to Levi.

I watched Levi's expression morph from disbelief, to something a whole lot more dangerous as he swiped rapidly through whatever Colton had brought up, his free hand clenching into a white-knuckle fist.

And then his eyes went black with unadulterated fury.

"How?" he rumbled. "I had this protected."

"I heard Mason talking on the phone earlier tonight as I was passing by with my acoustic guitar to song write out in nature like I do every now and then, and he spoke the name, Rina."

"He had her crack my system," Levi grunted, handing the phone back to Colton.

"One of the very few people we know who actually could. The only one we know, really, outside of your dad."

"Motherfucker!" Levi roared, and I could see the strain on him not to start punching or pounding on anything in his immediate vicinity.

"What's happened?" I asked, walking to Colton.

He handed his phone to me. "I'm sorry, cutie."

Sorry? What was going on?

Fortunately—or perhaps, unfortunately—I got the answer to my question all too quickly.

There, on Colton's screen were photos and posts of me. Me and Tommy. Me and Tommy getting it on. Even stills of us making out and doing more than even that.

My own private photos and videos that I'd kept out of… I don't know… maybe a connection to the person I used to be before I'd cut it all off and turned my back on that part of my life to spare myself the pain.

"Oh my God," I breathed, continuing through and noting how many likes and interactions the things had.

So many.

"It's gone viral. Not just there on IG, but all over the place," Colton told me, wincing.

"That's why you were trying to reach me?" Levi asked.

"This only happened an hour or so ago. I was trying to reach you because even though Mason knew you were back, he called a meeting with Hex earlier tonight. Meaning—"

"Meaning, he's cut me out." Levi's gaze strayed to mine briefly, before turning back to Colton. "Because Brianna is involved. Because he's had her marked."

"Yeah. I tried to stop him, Lev. I really did. But he's just… it's like he's power mad. I think you showing care for somebody, intense care, really freaked him out, and sent him reeling back to five years ago, and this is his response—and major overreaction."

Levi scrubbed his hand over his face, then started pacing, thinking.

Colton came to me and wrapped his arm around me, gently easing his phone from my grip with his free hand. "Don't look at it anymore. We'll fix it."

"You better fucking believe we will," Levi said, conviction and rage colliding into one hell of a vehement statement as he looked at me. "I'm sorry, Wildflower. I'll take care of it, I'll make it better." He addressed Colton, "I need you to head back to the mansion and retrieve my special laptop."

"Special?" I asked.

"Oh, it's the shit," Colton answered instead. "Military-grade and everything."

"It's… holy shit." I eyed Levi. "Wow, you really don't do things halfway, do you?"

"Fuck, no."

Colton kissed my cheek, then pulled away, telling us, "I'll head back and get it now. Mason's still out at this fucked-up meeting." He grasped Levi's hand. "Brother, this violation isn't gonna be the end of it."

"It fucking is, believe me. But first thing's first, get my laptop. If I step foot back home and Mason does walk in, all hell's gonna break loose on my end, and that will delay me being able to pull all the shit he's put out there in fucking cyberspace."

"I know. But after you take care of this, you and me will go to Mason together. All right? Let me be there to minimize the fallout."

Levi gave his hand a squeeze and smiled. "Of course. You've got it."

With that, Colton smiled back at him, then headed on out of the apartment.

As Levi locked the door after him and turned back to me, I spoke, "You're not going to wait for Colton to be there, are you?"

"No," he seethed. "I'm not. Mason deserves my worst for all of this. Colt being there won't allow that to be possible."

"Because he has a soothing effect on you?"

A half-smile graced his lips. "You picked up on that already?"

"Well, I've been observing you from a distance ever since I realized your interest in me wasn't going away."

He came to me and wrapped his arms around me, holding me to him. "I'm sorry," he breathed into my hair. "I'll make it better. Don't let him win. Don't leave Stonewell. You belong here with me, Wildflower."

I tightened my hold on him, feeling the vulnerability from him cutting at me. "I'm not going to let anyone force me from where I've chosen to be, where I want to be."

"Good," he said, nuzzling my neck. "Because I can't lose you. I can't go back to being in this alone. After all these years—"

"Shh," I said, reaching up and cupping his face. "I feel the same."

"You do?"

I nodded and stroked his skin that was hot to the touch, on account of him trying to reel in his anger with what had happened, what had been done to me, and the threat to driving us apart that he'd initially believed it to be. "Yes. We've both spent so much time drowning in what happened, having it eat at us. It was like poison, infecting us each and every day, in ways I wouldn't even let myself acknowledge. I just kept shoving it down with keeping busy, reinventing myself, and with my meds. But seeing you again, growing closer and taking the leap to allow you in, it… it's changed that… there's hope now. Because you're here with me, the only other person who knows what was done to us, who understands. Like you said, together we can find peace now."

He smiled and stroked my back up and down, soothingly. "I'll get Hex off your back." His eyes darkened. "Even if I have to tear my way through Mason's entire band of so-called soldiers to make it so."

"I already struck back and it's only made things escalate. Why don't you level with Mason, tell him why you were really pursuing me, tell him the truth about the kidnapping?"

"I've kept it to myself for years. So have you. To suddenly reveal it, especially under these circumstances, it doesn't sit right with me."

"I get it, but if it gets to the point where you can't reason with him without revealing the whole deal, you're going to have to. We can do it together if that will make it easier. I just don't want things spiraling out of control. More than they already have, anyway. Like I said, I already struck back myself and it clearly hasn't stopped anything."

"The fact you struck back is hot as fuck, by the way."

"Come on."

"I'm serious." He cocked his head to the side. "What did you do?"

As we stood there in each other's arms, I told him how I'd struck with the showers and the infestations, and his surprise gave way to a whole lot of admiration. Or, more like, adoration.

And as I spelled it out, recounting every little detail, and he hung onto my every word, I realized for the first time in years that I actually felt like myself.

More than that, I actually felt safe to be the real me.

The real me that had a much darker and harsher edge that meshed so well with the same in him.