“That’s so sweet,” I whisper, voice wobbly. They stare. Flynn rolls his eyes.
“Autumn,” he mutters, while Kaden smirks around the melting ice.
“Any clue who it was?” Kaden asks. Flynn nods once.
“You—” I cut him off with a swipe of my hand. “Need to rest. Eat. Heal. So you can go back to… breaking necks and cutting off horse heads—”
“We don’t cut horse heads,” they say in perfect unison.
Kaden’s laugh turns into a grunt as pain rips through his chest.
“Oh, sorry!” I pop up from the bed as the nurse walks in. She’s gorgeous, with natural red hair, freckles, green eyes, and when she leans in to clean Kaden’s face, he just… stares. Full awe.
I latch onto Flynn’s arm immediately. “Let’s—” I gesture toward them. “Eat.”
Flynn frowns. “Eat? We literally just—” I point again, and his mouth shapes an ‘Oh.’ He follows me out.
“Oh my God, do you think they…?” I wiggle my fingers in a crude little gesture.
Flynn catches them mid-wiggle. “You can say the words, Autumn.” He leans in, pulling me closer. “Fuck.”
“No—make love!” I squeal as he lifts me into his arms.
He laughs against my ear. “Lovemaking is boring. I’d rather fuck, trouble.”
He carries me down the hall, and the movement makes all the worry I’ve been bottling up slam back into my chest.
“Tomorrow…” My voice breaks. I don’t want to say more. I don’t want to imagine blood and danger and bullets again.
“You know the plan. You need to trust me.” He sounds confident. He isn’t. I can hear the tightness under it, the same fear curling in my own bones. Flanaghan is planning something. Flynn told me part of what he intends to do. Still… everything feels like it could shatter.
We reach his bedroom, and he sets me gently on the bed. “Tonight,” he says, eyes locked on mine, “we forget everything. Okay?”
His green eyes catch the low light and pull me in. “Okay,” I whisper, sinking back into thepillows.
“Autumn.” He slips off his suit jacket, slow and controlled. Then he unbuttons his shirt. The tattoos across his chest and arms are dark, violent, beautiful. His abs, the deep cut of his V-line—it all steals the air from my lungs. He stands at the foot of the bed like he owns the world, like he owns me. His eyes burn with that feral glint he never tries to hide from me.
“Yes?” My voice trembles. My teeth sink into my bottom lip because I can’t hold still.
“You know I love you, right?”
My breath stops. “You… do?”
“Yes.” His voice is low, intimate. His hands slide to his belt. “But…”
He pulls the belt free, slow enough to make my pulse throb.
“But?” My fingers go cold. My breathing turns messy, ragged. Anticipation. Fear. Want.
“But tonight,” he says in a voice meant to curl around my spine, “I’m going to fuck you like a beast. I’m going to treat you like my own private slut.”
My heart launches into my throat. Everything inside me goes tight and hot.
“Oh…” The sound barely escapes. Excitement and fear crash together in my veins.
He smiles slow, and wickedly. “I’m taking that beautiful ass.”
Oh.
