Jax is still without a shirt because I’m wearing it.
She is such a shit-stirrer. I give her a glare and get a very happy Cheshire smile in return.
“I’ll be right back,” I tell the room, grabbing Jax by the arm.
With the strength only absolute embarrassment at being caught by your new dad after having sex on his coffee table can give, I drag Jax with me to my room, snatching the shirt Liam brought for me from the couch as we go.
As soon as we step into my room, I close the door and lean back against it.
“Are you okay?” I ask Jax.
Just like the other night we spent together, when he came to me and later confessed the gruesome way he had just killed a man, I sense the darkness in him taking over once again. I can see it in his eyes. I felt it in the way he claimed me in front of Keane and Liam.
“I am now.” There’s relief in his voice.
My heart softens at his words. “Come here.”
I reach my hand out for his and pull him to me so I can wrap my arms around him and lay my cheek flat against his chest, needing to hear the solid thump of his beating heart. Jax molds me to him, his face dipping down and burying into my hair.
There are times in life when we just need someone to hold us, to give us comfort and solace, and make us believe that everything is going to be all right.
After a minute, I pull away so I can strip out of his shirt and pull it over his head. I smooth the soft cotton flat with my hands and rise up on tiptoe to kiss him lightly on the lips. My breasts caress against him, a slight shiver rolling through me at the contact. Jax touches a finger to the area on my neck where Rafe pricked me with the syringe. I cover his hand with mine.
“Promise me you won’t hurt him.”
“I can’t promise that,” Jax replies.
I can’t imagine what he and Keane are feeling. My only comparison is how violated I felt when I recently discovered the secrets Kellan had kept from me. The lies he told. The betrayal Jax and Keane must feel now regarding Rafe, a blood brother who had been their best friend since childhood—it has to be ten times worse. However much I understand it, and however much I know the three of them will eventually need to sort their shit out, I’ll still protect Rafe from them. I owe him that much. A pound of flesh for the torture he endured from Max in punishment for being found in my bed. For loving me.
I take a quick three-minute shower to wash off the dried cum on my chest. When I exit the bathroom, Jax is still there. He hands me the shirt from before and a pair of jeans he must’ve found in the clothes on the rack. I make a show for his benefit of placing his knife in my back pocket, and I’m rewarded with an upward twist of his delectable mouth.
We stand a few feet apart, but the pull I feel toward him is relentless. I have to physically stop myself from walking over to him and wrapping my arms around him, wanting to take all his demons away. Wanting to see a full smile grace his lips. Wanting to see something other than that lost, haunted look he carries on his face every day.
Eventually, I can no longer resist the pull. Stepping forward, I draw my thumb across his brow, smoothing the worry lines away.
“My Reaper.”
With forest-green eyes holding me captive, he snags my wrist and holds it to his chest, right above his beating heart. He may have lost his soul to darkness long ago, but his heart belongs to me, and I will protect it until my dying breath.
Chapter 15
Exhaustion is quickly creeping up on me as I sit and listen to Declan and Keane negotiate terms on how to deal with Julio and Alejandro. I’m still stuck on the fact that the two of them are willing to work together. I expected Keane to be all guns blazing after the shit Declan pulled to get me away from the man I thought to be my father. Keane shouldn’t even be speaking with Declan without the consent of the other families. That’s how things work. There’s a hierarchy to adhere to in our tangled web of mafia syndicates and alliances.
“Go easy on him.”
“Oh, now you show up,” I mentally chide Kellan whose voice has decided to pop into my head. “Keane is being his typical pigheaded self. Always wants to do things his way.”
“He wouldn’t be Keane if he didn’t.”
True. As much as it annoys me.
“Things are so messed up, Kel. You’re not even my brother.”
“We have the same mother, Andie. Even if we didn’t, I will always be your big brother. I will always love you.”
“You don’t lie to people you love,” I accuse.
“Sometimes you do, to keep them safe. I’m sorry, Tinker Bell. For everything.”
