“Sure you are.”
I reveled in how fast I could get him to come. He thought it was a bad thing. I saw it as how much the man who held my heart desired me. It never got old. I didn’t think he couldn’t last. It was just that I got him so good, he couldn’t hold on any longer.
Leaning forward, I pressed a soft kiss to the tip of his nose. “I love you.”
He gave me a lust-drunk smile. “I love you too, baby.”
I was going to spend the rest of my life with this man, showing him daily how loved he was. First, I had a motherfucker to kill. No more using myself as bait. I was going hunting.
28
FOREST
I debated scheduling my own appointment with Arden. At any moment, it felt like everything was going to shatter apart.
Sheldon had gone from sleeping in bed with me to pacing the halls. I’d gotten up every night to find him missing, only to locate him on one of the other floors. Luckily, all I had to do was call the security desk, and they’d tell me where he was.
I wasn’t the only one worried about him. Oleander had gone on countless hunting missions with him. That wasn’t a term I’d use, but one Sheldon did. He was literally trying to hunt down the person after us. They wouldn’t show themselves, so he was determined to flush them out.
With every outing, Sheldon became increasingly desperate. He’d be gone all day, and in the evening, he would draw on a map of the city on the wall all of the places he’d checked. I swore if he broke out tacks and string, I was staging an intervention.
Did it suck we were being targeted? Of course. At the risk of Sheldon’s sanity? No, I wanted this to end. Sheldon was slipping away more every day.
At night, we’d get into bed together. He’d either hold me so close I had my own personal weighted blanket, or he’d fuck meuntil I passed out in bliss. Regardless of what put me to sleep, I woke with him gone.
For two weeks, we’d been going round for round, bickering but not full-on arguing. His being on edge put me on edge too. Every emotion began rubbing off on me, to the point I couldn’t tell what originated from him and what did from me. I couldn’t continue going on like this. Poor Winnie didn’t know what to do with me.
“You’re pacing like him,” she observed from where she leaned against the door to the hallway.
“I don’t know what to do. I’m ready to rip out my hair. I can’t stand to see him like this. It’s not like he’s treating me horribly. He tells me how much he loves me. Mixed in with that is a man who’s a live wire. He’ll find the smallest thing to nitpick, and we start needling each other. It shouldn’t be this way. I’m not his enemy, but he doesn’t have anyone else to take his frustration out on.”
“Micah offered to go a few rounds with him in the gym. Even Jordan said it might be for the best, and he doesn’t like us sparring.” That said a lot. Jordan would rather they fight, potentially end up injured, than allow Sheldon to continue the way he was.
I dropped onto the couch and put my head in my hands. “Is he always going to be like this? What if every time there’s something he can’t solve, he reverts to his old ways, where he gets so trapped in his head, and no one can reach him?”
The couch dipped beside me. Winnie placed her hand on my back. “You can. I’ve seen you do it. Ollie too. You’re the only people in the building who can pull him from the brink. Probably Jordan too, but I have a feeling his way would be more violent than soothing words.”
“I have to help him.”
The door opened, and Sheldon entered. There was no way to tell when he’d be back on any given day. The last two weeks his schedule had been erratic. If Oleander couldn’t go with him, one of the other guards did. He didn’t leave alone; Jordan wouldn’t let him. I was grateful for that.
Sheldon’s gaze immediately went to Winnie’s hand on my back. She quickly dropped it and stood, stepping away from me while facing him.
“I was only comforting him,” she said.
“That’s my job,” he replied, low and deadly. It was the first time I’d heard that tone mixed with jealousy.
He walked to me until he separated me from Winnie, facing her. I stood to put my hand on his hip.
“I’m okay,” I told him. “Nothing happened.”
“You’re mine,” he bit out without taking his eyes off her.
“I am. I’ve told you as much almost every day.” I wrapped my arms around from behind, my chest to his back. “Sheldon, I don’t want her. It’s you I love. You, I want to spend my time with.” My gaze connected with Winnie’s as I held Sheldon tight. “Thank you for being here today, Winnie. Sheldon’s got me now.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. If this had been anyone else or any other situation, she might have thought I was being abused. But I wasn’t, not physically or mentally. I was as addicted to Sheldon as he was to me.
I nodded. “I’m good.”
