Page 64 of Desperate Victory
“Don’t offer me too much, Buttercup. I will take everything.”
“I’ll offer you what I damn well please, Phillip. You can take anything you want from me. I’m yours.” Then lest he think I was being willful or blind, I added, “I know what I’m giving you. I know you’ll never hurt me. I trust you.”
Trust was a precious commodity in our world. It made for a lonely existence, and it had for me for a long time. Particularly when Adam and Ezra fought so hard to keep me in my bubble. But loving Em, protecting my family, looking after Andrea—they’d all been the gateways to freedom.
Out here, trust was even more valuable.
“I will never betray you,” Bodhi promised in a voice soaked with bloody oaths. “I will kill anyone who does.”
No wiggle room. Maybe the fact I had zero doubts about the truth in those statements said something terrible about me. I didn’t care. “You know, I will do the same for you, right?” Because he was mine to protect too.
The low, heated chuckle he released stroked through me like its own caress. He added a second finger to the first, scissoring against the swollen tissue of my cunt and he began to rub circles against my over-sensitized clit with his palm. One bite to my earlobe as he began to tease my orgasm to life. There was no way I could come again, but I was more than willing to try.
“Yes,” he whispered. “I do know, Buttercup.”
The ghostly reminders of his touch skated over me as I descended the short steps from the loft. Bodhi shirtless, a pair of gray sweatpants balanced on his hips and giving me a wonderful view of the muscles moving along his back. The look he sent me was molten when he turned to add toast to the plates he was building.
“That’s my shirt,” he murmured as I strolled right to the breakfast bar. I was very proud that my steps didn’t falter.
“If you want it or need it, you can always come and get it.” I slid onto one of the leather stools. The cold bracing against my ass. But I was enjoying the partial nudity and there was a relaxed air in this place, away from everything and everyone. We would be back in the thick of it soon, so I was in no hurry to push away the tender cocoon he’d weaved around us.
“True.” He turned back to the stove and bit by bit the burners were shut off and then he was adding eggs and crispy bacon to the plates before bringing over a magnificent bowl of fried potatoes with onions and peppers.
“You have many hidden talents,” I teased. “I’m not even sure Adam knows how to cook. Ezra barely knows where the kitchen is.”
He chuckled before bringing the French press over and pouring a cup for me before pouring his own. “He knows where it is, but I think he’s far better at starting the fires than putting them out.”
That was true. Cradling the coffee cup in my hands, I pushed up with one foot on the rail around the bottom of the breakfast bar. Bodhi met me halfway with a whisper of a kiss.
“It’s a good thing they have us,” I murmured.
“Very good thing. You are a boon to everyone.” He winked. “Now eat. I burned a lot of calories last night.”
“You dirty dog,” I teased, sitting back down with care. Yes, my ass and my cunt were still more than a bit tender but in all the best ways. “You just want to see me walking funny.”
“Oh, I know you’re going to be walking funny.” The pure, smug, masculine pride in his smile and his words made me grin. “The rest of the world is going to be there for us very soon. I wanted a little more time with you.”
The perfect echo to my earlier thoughts had me saluting him with my coffee mug. “Mr. Cavendish, I am at your disposal for whenever and wherever you would like to escape again.”
I needed this kind of time with each of them. It was easy to overlook with so many dangers threatening and even more secrets needing to be unraveled. We couldn’t afford to neglect each other, even if it wasn’t neglect. We had to be able to ask for what we needed. That Bodhi had?
Tears burned in my eyes as my heart expanded. Milo had, once or twice. Adam had precisely once when he’d finally stopped fighting what could be and embraced what we had. Ezra?
I took a long drink of the coffee. Ezra was a beautiful work in progress, a patchwork quilt of all our damaged parts and the warped tapestry woven by families with too much money at their disposal and far more blood on their hands.
“Thank you for last night,” I said and the surprise creasing his smile entertained me. “I needed it too.”
“Well, should you ever need or merely want it again…” The invitation dangled there.
“The same goes for you… If you want or need me or it, I’m here. Always.”
Our gazes locked and the wordless pulse seemed to bounce from his soul to mine. Poetry existed in these moments. Grinning, I reached for a crispy slice of bacon that I could wash down with my coffee. The world really was waiting for us just outside the door.
“Lainey B?”
“Hmm?” I glanced up.
“Will you go with me to meet my aunt and my grandmother?”