Page 12 of Serendipity

Cain sent me a half hearted fuck you, but his eyes were on the girl.

Judas growled for everyone to go back to bed. Her impossibly long eyelashes fluttered, and then she looked directly into my eyes and screamed bloody murder.

I fucking scrambled back on my ass, half from surprise at the noise, and half to make myself as non-threatening as possible.

“Sorry, sorry! You were having a nightmare,” I say quickly, my hands still raised. She shot up in bed, and her eyes took in the sheets, Judas in the doorway and Cain hovering near her ensuite. Thank fuck Goliath wasn’t still here. There would have been no way to convince her that he wasn’t a threat if she’d woken up with him standing over her with a knife like a psycho.

I could spot the moment everything came back to her, because although her shoulders didn’t relax, the terror receded from her eyes. “Sorry. He, uh, he used to tie me up and let rats-” she let out a full body shudder, and I edged closer.

“Hey, it’s okay. You don’t have to apologize.”

To contradict my words, Judas slammed his fist into the doorjamb with enough force to break bones, then left. Cain looked similarly pissed, but I gave him a look. The look said “It’s the middle of the fucking night and we are two fucking bikers in her room, calm the fuck down before you spook the shit out of her.” Or at least I hope it said that. It could have just said “Shut the fuck up” and that would have worked too. These guys had no idea how to act around women. Since Laura, they’d pulled into themselves, having little to do with women outside of fucking them. And in Cain’s case, saving them from a shit life. But he never got attached. He fed them and then fucked them off. Rehabilitate and release.

I had a feeling he wanted to keep this beauty for his very own though.

I put my hand on the bed, leaving it there, not making a move to reach for her. She looked like she was still fighting off the effects of the dreams, somewhere between asleep and awake, the demons of her nightmares still lingering at the edges of the darkness. Her sleep shirt had slid up her body, gathering under her breasts, and in the soft light of the ensuite, I could see the round globe of her stomach. Also, a good stretch of her smooth long legs. I was a perv; at least I owned it.

I didn’t stare though, looking back into those haunted purple eyes that seemed to shine even in the darkness. “Is there something we can get for you? A drink? A bath?”

She frowned toward her ensuite. “Is there a bath?”

I grinned at her. “Well, not in this room. Mine does. You are welcome to use it any time.” I didn’t even offer to wash her back for her. Seriously, I should get a gold star or something for good behaviour.

Cain snorted at me from where he stood, and I glared. She shook her head. “Not tonight. But maybe one day?” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m okay now.”

Because I was unable to stop myself, I reached over and covered her hand with mine. “Okay. I’m just down the stairs, we all are. If you need anything, just knock on any of the doors and someone will help you. You’re safe here, Dippy.”

She snorted out a laugh, her eyebrows raised. It was so much better than the look of sheer terror.

“Dippy?”

I nodded sagely. “I like it. It suits you. Besides, it brought you out of your nightmare so subconsciously, you must like it too.” It was basically science.

She shook her head, grabbing the blankets and pulling them up her legs. “I don’t mind being Dippy. It’ll be nice not to be Sera for awhile.”

She plumped her pillow and I took it as my cue to leave, even though I kind of wanted to crawl beneath the blanket with her.

And sleep. Me. Just sleep in bed with a woman? Where the fuck had that urge came from? I kept my shock locked down tight, and strode toward the door.

“Solomon?” I paused, a small part of me hoping she was about to call me back, ask me to stay with her. “Can you leave the light on? I… I don’t like the dark.”

I smiled softly at her, and switched on the overhead light. “No worries.”

Guess that explained why the light to her ensuite was on. I strolled down the now quiet hallways with Cain.

“She’s…” he started, but seemed to lose the words. Didn’t matter. I had enough words for both of us.

“Fucked up? Beautiful?”

He nodded, and cocked his head toward the sound of Judas and Goliath in the bar. We turned,

heading back toward our apartments at the rear of the Clubhouse. “I screwed up with Goliath though. I just saw him there with a knife and I fucking reacted, you know?”

I didn’t say anything. He had fucked up, and he’d have to make it right. But I wasn’t so sure I wouldn’t have thought the very same thing if I’d been the first through the door. Goliath was unpredictable, and although I trusted him with the safety of the Club, I wasn’t sure I trusted him with Dippy.

But there was still a little bit of the man I used to know, the man who lived before Laura, deep down in there. That man I trusted above all else. That man was still hard and brutal, but he had a heart so big that when it broke, it shattered like crystal. Now nothing was left of it but dust that threatened to shred the hands of all those who reached for it.

It didn’t help that he was Conquest. Violence was his duty now, and he reveled in the darkness of it all.

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