Page 136 of Serpentine
I nod. “As soon as I worked it out, I thought that was the answer. Then, I got home and discovered that her disappearance was completely unrelated. It seems we stumbled on this drug operation amid the other investigation into our mom.”
She takes a deep, steadying breath. “I thought that eventually we could come together. You’d have your mom, and I could get onto better terms with my dad…eventually. But, this?”
“We know,” Brax says.
“What do we do? What are the next steps?” she asks.
“That’s what we need to figure out,” Brax says, giving me a look that says no Cobra is making a fucking move until their leader is back on his feet.
Because we strike as a quiver.
FORTY-THREE
AELLA
Weeks pass, and snow builds surrounding the shop as we nurse Miles back to health. His stitches have come out, and he’s getting around better now. The only thing we’re working on is keeping him in the house. As soon as he could stand, he wanted to beat the shit out of the world because of how angry he was. That won’t do.
“You’re not supposed to do that alone! You still need to move slowly, Miles! You’ve been in bed for weeks. Your body needs to get used to being back in motion. You never listen to the doctors!”
Miles grumbles something incoherent under his breath while stripping his clothes off and stepping into the shower. “Well, come on then, if you’re going to micro-manage my shower, stick in the mud!”
Half of me wonders how I went from princess to stick in the mud in such a short period, but I guess that’s the cost of caring for such a headstrong man.
I strip out of my clothes and enter the massive shower, shutting the glass door behind me. Miles looks up at me from beneath the shower spray, droplets plummeting off his long lashes. His grin says he thinks he’s won.
“Don’t gloat; it doesn’t become you,” I tell him, setting my lips into a hard line as I grab the shampoo to help him wash. He’s supposed to be resting. His back is still healing, and he has been having trouble straightening his body the last few days. Today, though, he looks excellent, which is probably why he’s acting so spitefully.
Once I have the shampoo, Miles reaches over and knocks it out of my hands, and it skitters across the shower floor.
“Hey! What’s the matter with you?!” I move to bend over to grab the bottle.
Miles comes behind me, gripping my hair and straightening it back up. My back hits his chest, the water pouring down on both our heads. His lips skim my ear. “What’s the matter with me is that I’ve watched you go from free spirit to stickler for the rules. You’re wound too tight, princess. I don’t like it.”
“I had to take care of you.” I swallow through the lust building in my body.
“I appreciate you, I do. But I need my Aella back. The one who lets my brother fuck her on the roof of a car beneath the sparkling stars above.”
His hand skims over my stomach, and I lean into him, unable to help myself.
“I need her back, too. But I don’t know if I’ll be the same after everything, Miles.”
My admittance hangs between us, floating amongst the steam glossing over the shower’s glass doors.
He turns me, his hands winding around me, fingers skipping the flesh of my back.
I’m wetter than the shower floor, just from the small touches he’s placing all over me. I’ve kept my distance since I last was in the bedroom. I wanted them to process what happened. We’ve become closer in the previous few weeks, all while developing a plan to meet with our respective parents. Brax has been investigating Jackal’s involvement with my father and how deeply entangled they are. So we don’t go into a meeting blind.
Kylo has been on the trail of a string of overdoses they think linked to dirty drugs circulating through Portland, trying to determine if either my father or the Jackals are involved.
All while the three of us have been building bonds so deep, I’m honestly afraid of how attached I’ve become to the two of them. If I thought this news would change us, I was right. But it wasn’t for the worse.
“Get out of your head,” Miles says, cupping my face in his hands and looking deep into them, unwavering.
“It’s hard. There’s so much to think about…” He cuts me off with his mouth on mine, and I let the shampoo bottle hit the tile again.
He growls as he backs me into the tiled wall behind us, lifting one of my legs to rest my foot on the built-in seat to the right of us.
“You’ve been holding out on us. Keeping this body to yourself,” he says, his fingers skimming up my inner thigh to my sex, and I can’t hold still as he nears it.