I was finally seeing what wasreallybothering her about this whole thing. “No, Leona dear. Obi is just doing what he does best: being a Type A control freak.”
She huffed.
“He’s just trying to keep you safe.” I dragged my hand across my face. Obi had always been like that: making the plans because he couldn’t trust anyone else to take the burden of risk. But he meant well. “To keep us all safe. He believes in you, maybe more than the rest of us.”
“What the hell doesthatmean?”
“Obi is brilliant,” I said. He had plans for days.Years. He never spoke of them, but he never stopped thinking. Whatever he did, he did for a reason. “But he also is not used to compromising. He’s been our leader for ten years, and his word is the last. At the same time, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t think you can become the leader you’re destined to be.”
I’d told her she could be a queen if she just learned how, and I meant it.
She sighed. “Feels like I’m letting everyone down. Like he’s taking over.”
I didn’t see why that made her so upset. Wasn’t it easier to relinquish the stress to someone else? She could sit back and let us handle the heavy lifting. “And? What would be so bad about that?”
“Because!” she started, voice raised before she stopped and collected herself. “Because. I have to be strong enough. I can’t fail.” She knocked her head against the doorframe. “Never mind. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
I studied her as she fiddled with the hem of her shirt. If she didn’t want to talk about it, I wouldn’t force her, but I knew plenty of things that could take her mind off it. Maybethatwould get that traitor organ in my chest to calm down. These feelings weren’t anything but lust, anyway.
“May I offer a suggestion, then, of how we may spend our time?”
Her shoulders shook with a laugh. “Sure.”
I grinned and prowled my way to her, eyes tracing their way from her face to the column of her neck to the barest peek of cleavage through the neckline of her shirt. She shivered as I got close, eyes turning dark and cheeks flushing.
“How about…” I hovered only an inch away from her mouth. Her eyes flicked to mine, and that heat between us sparked into a flame. I didn’t finish my sentence, and she didn’t lean away, so I closed the distance and pressed my mouth against hers.
In an instant, my hands were cupping her cheeks, cradling her head, and tilting her head back to deepen the kiss. God, she tasted so fucking good. Her tongue darted against mine as a moan formed in the back of her throat.
I broke the kiss to stare down at her sparkling brown eyes. “Well? What do you think?”
She smiled. “Yeah, good suggestion.”
Her palms flattened on my chest. I crashed my lips against hers, sliding my hands down her thighs. My fingers clamped around one of her legs and hitched it up, pressing her into the door. I groaned into her mouth as her pussy rolled against my already rock-hard cock.
Her phone chimed with an incoming message. She pulled away.
“Really?” I huffed. “One of the guys couldn’t have just come find you here?”
The five of us were the only people with her burner number. I shook my head in disbelief. Lazy assholes, interrupting the best part of my day. She slid down my body and pulled the cursed device from her back pocket.
Was it favor time? Did I really need to cash it in so soon just to settle myself between her sweet legs and finally make good on my promise? Was Ithatdesperate for her?
She frowned down at the screen.
“Who is it?” Whoever interrupted deserved to get their ass kicked.
“I don’t—” Her thumb trembled as it hovered over the screen.
“Vixen?” I tilted my head to try to see what she was staring at. “What’s wrong?”
She swallowed and held the phone up for me to see. A number that wasn’t saved under any contact had texted her.
“‘Leona?’”I read the short message aloud. It was my turn to frown. “Who the fuck got your burner phone number, and how?”
She shook her head. “I have no idea how, but I recognize that number.”
My hands itched to hold one of my knives, but I’d left them on the bathroom counter with my shirt. “Who?”
