“It’s okay, Dove. They can never hurt you again,” he soothes, Jude rubbing calming circles on my back as Aeron strokes my hair. “You’re safe.”
“W–when will I be free?” I sob, looking up at him with tears in my lashes, my voice thick. “When will they stop haunting me?”
His brows dip, his jaw tight as he looks down at me, the darkness in the room telling me it’s still the middle of the night. I’ve insisted we sleep with the curtains open ever since we got back a week ago, so only the city lights below us illuminate the space. I just couldn’t stand the idea of being shut in the dark. “I don’t know, Dove. You’ve been through so much. Maybe it’s time that you spoke to someone about it all?”
I’m shaking my head before he’s even finished. “I don’t want to tell some random stranger all of my dark past,” I rush out, my tone stronger. The idea of admitting my abuse to someone else makes bile rise to my throat, I can barely face the memoriesmyself. Aeron sighs, leaning down to place a kiss on my forehead.
“Okay, love, but you’ll have to face it eventually. You can’t keep it bottled up forever.”
“I’ll go make you some hot chocolate,” Jude offers, bending over and kissing me lightly on my cheek. “Then we can both let Aeron fuck the crazy out of us.”
“Fuck’s sake, Jude,” Aeron groans, his tone exasperated but I can hear the smile regardless. It tugs my lips upwards too, the world not feeling so terrible now. Jude has that effect, and I’m beyond grateful for it. “I’m not fucking you, we’re related.”
“Sure, big bro. You keep telling yourself that,” Jude answers with a wink, getting out of bed and striding out of the room completely bollock-ass naked. I giggle and Aeron settles us back down in the bed, pulling me into him.
“You’re good for him, Dove,” he tells me, drawing patterns on my back with his fingers. “You’re good for all of us, but I’m not sure we’re good for you.” My breath catches and I try to jerk upright, but he holds me in place. My ribs are still sore so I can’t fight against his stupid man strength either. “Calm down, Dove. We aren’t letting you go anywhere, we’re all too selfish for that.”
“Then why say something like that?” I question him, my fingers tracing his lark tattoo. He lets out a deep sigh and my body moves with the rise and fall of his chest.
“Because I worry that we’re not what you need.” His voice is so soft that I would have missed his words if I wasn’t listening so carefully. This time I manage to push up, only enough so that I can see his face lined in the soft light of the city at night.
“All of you are exactly what I need,” I tell him, my hand stroking the side of his face, and his eyes close briefly at the touch. “It took me until I thought I’d lost you, after I set you guys up and we were in those horrible cages, to realize that what I needed wasn’t to run away from this place. What I truly needed,craved, was to find a family, somewhere that I truly belong, and that’s with you guys. You are my family.Weare a family, Devil man. We belong together.”
I wish I could see his eyes clearer, the shadows are a little too deep for me to discern what’s going on in those blue orbs that remind me of the ocean so much. His own hands come up to frame my face, and he draws me close, his lips a hairbreadth away from mine.
“You are exactly what we all need too, my love, and what we didn’t realize we were missing for so fucking long,” he breathes against my lips, kissing me softly and then pulling away. “But don’t let Knox hear you talk about family. He’s got a hard-on for putting a baby in your belly.” He strokes the slightly raised bump under my arm where my implant is, and my brows dip as I consider his words.
“Would that be such a bad idea?” I ask, and his hand stills, his head snapping up to look at me. “I mean, maybe not right this second, but perhaps, someday?”
“Are you saying that you want to have our babies, Nightingale?” Jude’s voice is an uncharacteristic whisper, and I glance over my shoulder to see him holding a tray with three mugs of what smells like hot chocolate.
I swallow, taking a second to think about it. I said the words to Aeron impulsively, but now that I really think about them, I see the truth. “Yes.”
Jude whoops, dropping the tray, hot chocolate spilling everywhere as he rushes over to the bed and launches himself onto it.
“What the fuck, Jude?!” Aeron yells, trying to sit up, but Jude is already wrapped around both of us and talking a mile a minute as he kisses every inch of me. My ribs twinge but I ignore the pain as Jude’s happiness infects every atom of my being.
“We’ll take them to Disneyland and Disney World, and Tarl can teach them how to throw knives, and I’ll show them where the best places are to kill a man in less than sixty seconds?—”
“Jude!” I admonish him, laughing as he pushes me to my back and then settles between my legs, already hard and ready to go. “We cannot teach our future children how to kill and torture people!”
He pauses, his brows dipping as if I’m the crazy one for thinking that murder is not a suitable subject of education. “Why not? It’s a really useful skill set.”
“Well, regardless, it’s not happening now,” I tell him, my voice firm, although it’s fucking difficult to concentrate with his dick poking my rapidly dampening folds. The tearing wasn’t too bad, and I’m all healed up now according to Doc, though we haven’t taken things that far yet, the guys giving me time to fully heal, inside and out.
“No, you’re right,” Jude answers, leaping off me and strutting over to the door, his jaw set and his chin held high.
“Where are you going?” I sit up on my elbows, staring at his delicious fucking ass as he walks away, dick bobbing with every step he takes.
“We need to decorate a nursery,” he informs me matter-of-factly as if it’s obvious, not even pausing to look at me as he strides away. “We have a couple of spare rooms, so I’ll just start clearing one and get ordering. I think yellow is a good nursery color, don’t you?” He turns then and does look back at me, his gaze alert and unwavering, as if my answer is the difference between life and death.
“Um, yeah, I love yellow,” I haltingly reply, my head spinning with how we’ve gone from one of my nightmares to picking colors out for our future, nonexistent children’s nursery.
Jude just nods, sauntering out of the room, and stepping over the mess of hot chocolate as he goes. Aeron huffs a laugh,falling back on the bed and dragging me down with him. “You’ve started something now, Dove. I hope you were serious; Jude will join forces with Knox, and they’ll have you pregnant quicker than you can blink.”
“I’m not sure what just happened…” I blink rapidly, and he just laughs again, pulling me closer and pressing a kiss on the top of my head.
“Best get some sleep, my love. I’ve a feeling you’re going to be busy real soon.” His tone is full of amusement, and I give him a half-hearted whack on his hard pec, which hurts my hand more than him, the fucker.
