Page 15 of Reaper
Chapter Five
Reaper
“You are such a flirt.”Ara pushed Axel back into his chair, laughing as she enjoyed their interaction.
Jealousy surged inside him again, but he managed to take a breath and not overreact.Reaper had wanted Ara to get to know the people he was closest to, and because of her earlier panic attack, he thought that would have been impossible.He’d thought about taking her home right after, but she insisted that she wanted to get to know his friends.As the hours passed, the tension had receded enough for him to sit back and enjoy the byplay between Ara and everyone at the table.
Ara had been worried that she wouldn’t be able to remember everyone’s name, much less relax around a group of people when being around anyone was alien to her, but he could see that she had been truly enjoying herself.Her sharp laugh echoed in the room when Ax wiggled his eyebrows at her, and when she reached for a roll to throw at him, he pretended to be remorseful.
“I’m sorry, gorgeous, but teasing you is easy,” Ax said.
Ara put her hand over her heart and blinked.“Why Axel, are you saying that you weren’t flirting with me?”
He sobered when Reaper’s low growl rumbled across the room.
“No, I mean yes…hell.”Ax rubbed his forehead.
They had never seen Ax so flummoxed by a woman before, and when Ax looked sheepish, a ripple of laughter traveled through the room.
Ara threw the roll, which Xander snagged out of the air before he smiled at her.Xander’s shy smile was returned, and Reaper could see the quiet man was as taken with Ara as much as everyone else in the room.
“Don’t worry about it, Ax.I wouldn’t even know if you were flirting with me or not, but you are an easy target.”
Murmurs erupted at her statement, and Reaper reached for her hand.He didn’t want her to know that Ax was outright flirting with her despite Reaper’s repeated threats to separate his head from his body.Before he could say anything, the others beat him to the punch.
“You’re beautiful, which I’m sure Reaper has told you many times,” Gunnar said.
“I agree,” Hunter said.
Ghost, Kane, Xander and Seth murmured their agreement.It looked as if they were holding their breaths as they waited for her response, but she remained quiet.She glanced around the room before she smiled and commented.
“Coming from a group of assassins who probably moonlight as underwear models, I’m going to take your opinions with a grain of salt.”She paused for a moment and looked around again.“Are you underwear models?”
Reaper, Kai, Liv, and Jade laughed the loudest.He knew that she had been teasing, but the horrified look on his fellow assassins’ faces made him laugh harder.Ara turned to him and when he spotted the sparkle in her eye, he smiled at her and squeezed her hand.
“Okay, okay, you got us.But I’m curious, how old are you, Ara?” Hunter asked.
Reaper sobered and shot a glare at the panther, but Hunter’s gaze hadn’t moved from Ara’s face.Reaper knew that the innocent question would lead to more probing questions, and over the last few days, Ara balked anytime he’d asked about her past.He wanted to know everything about her and he was curious to know why she held back, but he knew better than to press.Nothing in her past would change his mind about her, but he had a feeling that she would pull away from him when her past became known and that, to him, was unacceptable.He decided to let the questions be asked, but if she refused to answer them, he would warn the others off.
Ara didn’t sense anything off about the question, and while still smiling, answered, “Twenty-six.”
“Where do your parents live?”
He could see an almost imperceptible tic in her jaw.She took a deep breath and opened her mouth to speak, but she glanced at him with worry etched on her face.His mouth tipped up in a smile before he reached for her and settled her on his lap.
“Nothing will change if you tell us, beautiful.We won’t judge you.”Although he wanted to claim her and declare to everyone in the room that Ara was his, he knew that she wasn’t ready to hear the truth of the situation between them.Yet.
Everyone agreed.Ara still hesitated.A sense of dread washed through him and he tightened his arms around her waist in reassurance.Liv reached for Ara’s hand and gave her a reassuring squeeze, giving Ara the courage to speak about her past.
“My parents were killed when I was fifteen.”
That’s not what he expected to hear.Apparently not what any of them expected to hear.They sat in silence and stared at Ara with shocked expressions.
He’d known that she had been reluctant to tell him anything about her childhood, but he never suspected something so tragic.
He glanced at her expression, and although he expected sadness or some similar emotion, he found that her lips were pressed in a thin line and anger flashed in her eyes.There was much more to the story, but he wasn’t sure he was ready to hear it.
“My parents married when they were sixteen, forced to marry by their parents when my mother became pregnant with me.Unable to handle the responsibilities of a child, they decided that meth was a great option to solve all of their problems, so by the time I was eight, they were heavy users.”
