Her bare skin is so soft and warm, inviting me to slide my hand along it to see if she's like that all over.
Jesus. Who the hell am I? Wild Child?
Fucking timing.
“I just—you—I—” She blinks rapidly, clearing her vision, then looks around the room. Her eyes lock on King behind me, and then on me. Then they suddenly go wide as saucers. “Wait, you found me in the shower?”
I nod.
She lifts the sheets quickly to look beneath. “I'm wrapped in a towel.”
“Uh, yeah.” Fuck, am I blushing? My face is fucking warming. Seeing a woman naked is nothing new to me, but with her it’s strangely more personal. You'd think I was a damn virgin again. “I tried to give you as much modesty as I could.”
A little pause. “So you saw me… you know…”
“Yeah. Sorry. But I couldn't leave you there.”
She closes her eyes and sinks deeper under the sheet, like she wants to hide away. Her face glows red with embarrassment, straight up to the roots of her hair. “Thanks,” she says, really quietly.
“Are you hurt? What are those cuts on your neck? Do you have something we should know about? Are you missing medication or something?” asks King gruffly.
She gives him a strange look as she brings a hand to her neck to run her fingers against it. “Do you actually care?”
“Fuck no. But if we deliver you back damaged, we won't have held up our end of the deal.”
She nods as if she got the response she expected, but she doesn't know him like I do. There was worry in that voice. I've heard him use that about Wild Child every time he gets in trouble. Fuck, for a little rich girl, she seems to be getting to all of us, isn't she?
“I'm fine,” she whispers. “Just a head rush, I think. I probably stood up too fast. Cut myself when I fell.”
King frowns suspiciously like he doesn't quite believe her, but grunts his assent before he walks away. I don't believe her either, but if she refuses to tell us there isn't much I can do about it.
What the fuck is this?
Am I letting her get under my skin?
9
EMILY
I squeal in surprise when King kicks the door open, coming in like a storm cloud. I've got Wild Child's clothes on now, pointedly ignoring his comments about how good I look in them, and Hero's sitting at a reasonable distance so I don't have to think too hard about me kissing him after my shower.
I could've sworn I was back in my bedroom having my fantasy when I woke up, his face having rotated in after Wild Child had worked his magic with his tongue stud, and I'm never going to live that down. And to think it started with a panic attack. My brain is so all over the place in all this that I have no idea where it's going anymore.
It's been some awkward hours in here since then, that's for sure.
Never mind the fact that if Janey finds out, I’m going to get shanked.
Wild Child's leaning against the wall, playing with his knife again. It's bound to go wrong at some point, but I don't think he cares. He shoots King a curious look. “What's going on?”
“Hawthorne isn't budging.” King's fuming, his powerful shoulders bunching and his fists clenching and unclenching. “I don't think he's understood our message. News is that his task force is rolling out onto the streets. One of the guys in the Crimson Brigade swore he saw them patrolling downtown in a fucking armored vehicle. He's going to start a war in his own city, and we all know exactly which part of town is going to get bombed.”
Armored vehicles? What is Dad doing?
Hero glances quickly at me, before he says to King, “Not everyone understands family as well as you do.”
“Don't treat me like a fucking victim.” Something flickers across his expression. A moment of pain—or regret. “Save it for someone who needs it.” Hero and Wild Child exchange a quick glance, but don't say anything more.
I have no idea what's happened to King at some point, but there's obviously something going on there. Something useful to me? I have no idea. But after all the scaremongering that Dad did growing up, it's almost strange to realize that these guys aren't the cartoon villains he made them out to be. I thought they would do all sorts of horrible things to me, but so far, outside of the kidnapping itself, it's Janey I've had to watch out for.
And the occasional surprise kiss, apparently.
Not that I have any illusions about these guys not being dangerous, but finding out that there's more to them than that has been a bit of an eye-opener. Wild Child with his playful flirting, and Hero being downright honorable, and even King's dedication to the club and its members—there are a lot of shades of gray here, when Dad wanted to have it in black and white.