Page 91 of Double Shot
“Sorry, Shady,” he murmured.
“No, I deserve it,” I said swallowing hard.
He stopped and cupped my chin and I looked up into his deep, night dark eyes.
“Now what makes you say that?” he asked.
“You guys have been through what you’ve been through and I’m being such a demanding bitch,” I said. He laughed then, outright. “Just like her,” I finished.
“Indeed, you’re all fired up, no doubt… but no you’re nothing like that bitch. It’s nowhere near the same thing.”
“Isn’t it?” I asked.
He shook his head, gaze steady, and I waited him out. He took his hand from my shoulder and took that accursed stinging gauze with it and reloaded a fresh piece.
I swallowed hard, and he said, “She’s not demanding, sheiscruel and evil, Shady. You? You’re all fire and passion, full of spirit and soul. You have needs, just like the rest of us and there is nothing wrong with having those needs met. You see yourself as demanding, and yes, to a degree – but you would set those demands aside were it required. She would not.”
His fingertips were gentle under my chin where he brought my gaze back up to meet his.
“Talk to me, Shady… what is it you want? What do you need from me, right now?” I hadn’t realized I’d begun to shake until I let out my pent-up breath and it came out in a shudder. I gripped the edges of the stone counter and sniffed.
“I feel like I’m out of control,” I confessed. “I feel like I’m going crazy and I’m wild and all over the place. Like I’m spilling out all over,” I crossed my arms over my chest and hugged myself, “and I just want one of you to put me back… I don’t know, like back in my place.”
“Ah, perhaps your comedown and mine complement each other then,” he said and smoothed his hands over my skin, his hands warm against my shoulders and upper arms where he touched me. “I’ve been repeatedly told about my need to dominate whereas it sounds like you’ve a need for the other end of that.”
I closed my eyes. “Why is this so hard to talk about?” I asked and cleared my throat which felt tight. My cheeks burned with something like embarrassment, and Kyle smiled, stroking lightly over my cheek with his palm.
“You’ve got trust issues, Shady, and rightfully so,” he murmured. “It’s always hard talking about our deepest and darkest desires in the best of times, which you and I don’t have a lot of…”
I swallowed hard and nodded, and we lapsed into silence, while he carefully doctored the bite in the side of my neck, where it met my shoulder.
“Will it scar?” I asked.
“I’m not a doctor, but yes,” he said with a sigh. “How bad is anyone’s guess.”
I felt that wellspring of eternal rage refresh itself anew. She said she was going to leave a mark that I wouldn’t forget and fuck her for actually doing it.
“There may be surgical options, in a year or so, when we know how bad the damage is, yeah?”
“Yeah,” I said, steel in my voice.
Roan cleared his throat, and we both turned. He stood now, facing us beside one of the saferoom’s terminals, “Are you okay?”
“I’m good, areyouokay?” I asked him. He halted and stared at my shoulder for a heartbeat too long.
I lifted my good shoulder in a shrug as if to say it was nothing, which honestly the damage was done. It would get better eventually, right?
“She’ll be right as rain after a shot of antibiotics and a good dirty fuck,” Kyle said, winking at me.
I felt myself color.
“Right,” Conan nodded. “We should go.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Roan…
The home-invasion-cum-rescue-operation went many times better than expected. The house itself only had minimal security. The defenders were in most cases poorly armed, completely unarmored, and had very low morale in holding their ground. Sadie had been by every measure a female Rambo going in solo. While there were many dead and wounded, the majority of the personnel picked caution over valor, stole cars, and fled.
