“I’m not sure what you just said,” Tori hisses at him, “but I’m not stupid.”
“The evidence of that is lacking,” Rory says dryly. “You needed a doctor. It may be after the fact, but you’re going to see one now.”
She opens her mouth to argue but gets leveled with a glare from Bastian. “You want our help,puttana, you go to the doctor.”
“Watch it, Bastian,” I growl.
“Spiacenti.”
“What doctor do you really expect me to go see? And what, exactly do you think he’ll be able to do about it?”
“Stephen,” we all three say at the same time. Her mouth drops that we just named a doctor off so quickly. “He may not be able to do anything, Baby. But he can help us better prepared.”
She stands there for a minute chewing on her cheek. She’s considering what we’re saying. “So, if I don’t go see this doctor, you won’t help me?”
Rory and Bastian exchange a look. I already know the answer to her question. We’ve all discussed the possibility and hope it doesn’t come to that. Our chances of getting Cara out of there unharmed are much better with Tori but the fact is, the plan for the takeover is already in motion. Matteo is ready. “If you don’t go to the doctor, we will do this without you,” Rory tells her in that icy, no questions tone he has.
Tori flinches a bit as her face turns red. The answer pisses her off, but she knows she doesn’t really have a choice. “Fine. I’ll go see your stupid doctor.”
Tori
“If you can’t protect yourself, I’m not letting you go to that fight,” Zane yells at me for probably the hundredth time.
“You can’t fucking stop me,” I yell back, also for the hundredth time.
“Fucking watch me,” he hisses, getting in my face.
Except every damn time we end up like this. In each other’s space. Anger and frustration palpable between us. We nearly rip each other’s clothes off.
And I can see the lust in his eyes now. I can see his chest heaving as the frustration and desire war within him.
My own arousal makes me want to squirm under his gaze. I can feel myself growing wetter by the second.
“All right,” Bastian bellows from the corner. “I’m not in the mood for porn today. Zane, go – take a cold shower.”
Neither of us move. We keep standing there, toe to toe. He’s looking down at me. I’m looking up at him. My teeth grind and his jaw clenches.
Then an arm wraps around me as I’m hauled to a corner and Bastian drags Zane off.
Jax sets me back to my feet in the corner. “He's not wrong. If you can’t protect yourself then you can’t fucking fight.”
“And I can’t let them hurt my sister,” I tell him defiantly. I’m getting more than a little tired of these four men thinking they can tell me what to do.
“You need to stop fightingagainstus,” he tells me. His hazel eyes grow darker as he speaks. He’s more than a little pissed himself. So is Bastian judging by the way his arms are flailing everywhere as he speaks to Zane. “Workwithus, Tori. This can’t work if you don’t.”
My acute instinct is to rebel and fight against the constant demands they keep throwing at me. I don’t like being told what to do. I don’t like when someone thinks they know better than me. Shoving it down hasn’t been easy. I’m stubborn beyond fault.
But I try. I try to resist the urge to push when they pull. To stop myself from making snide remarks. Easy it is not but I do it.
I do it because Iknowthey’re right.
“We good?” Jax asks with a bit of sympathy in his voice. Like maybe he understands how hard it is to relent control over to another person.
I take a couple of deep breaths to clear my head and gather my focus. With a nod I tell him I’m ready.
We move back to the center of the ring. Jax following this time. They’ve all taken turns working with me. Jax is definitely the most challenging with his eight-inch height different. I have to get well within his long reach to land a strike but it's helping me maneuver differently to get out of his reach since speed is not my friend right now.
Working with all of them actually has helped my defense quite a bit. Because I have to get so close to them to land a strike, I have to know how to get myself back out of there quickly.
