Page 51 of Rise By Sin

“Yeah,” I sighed. “You just fullyHulk-ed me.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, I think.”

“You totally should,” I laughed as I opened my eyes and looked up at him. I felt a little spacey, but in the most amazing way. “Do you want to…” I nodded down to where his huge erection was straining against the front of his boxers. I had seen him naked when we did some scenes in private rooms at the club, but we’d never had sex, not outside of my dreams anyway.

“Not now. That took a lot out of you. I can see you look tired,” he said affectionately as he stroked a hand through my almost dry hair. “I want you to try and rest. It’s still early.”

“Why were you dressed then? Do you always get up that early?” I questioned.

“I was going to head over to my gym, then I heard you moving around. I only meant to check on you.”

“Well I’m definitely all good now, so if you still want to go to the gym, you should.”

“I don’t want to go anywhere right now. I’m right where I want to be,” he told me as he held me even closer and flicked the edge of the comforter over me so I was covered. “Rest now. I’ll wake you in a couple of hours.”

“I love you Jack,” I admitted as I moved my head up to see his face above me. “I think I loved you since the first time you held me after our first session together. I’m sorry I ran from you.”

“You’re here now, and That’ all that matters. I’m never letting you run again,” he promised as he laid a kiss on the top of my head. I snuggled into him and hoped like hell I never felt the need to run again, because right there, I felt like I was right where I was supposed to be too.

CHAPTER 16

AVA

The distant murmur of voices talking awoke me and I pushed up to sitting, no memory of even falling back to sleep. If it weren’t for the fact the bed was badly rumpled and I lay in nothing but my bra under the comforter, I would have worried my whole experience with Jack had been some amazing, elaborate dream.

I grabbed my phone from the nightstand to check the time, then cursed up a storm when I saw it was after midday. I was instantly angry with myself for wasting so much time when I should have been working to find Colt.

“Selfish asshole,” I uttered to myself angrily as I threw back the comforter and swung out of bed. My pain was still at minimal kevels, but there was some numbness down my right leg, which wasn’t unusual. Because the signals from my brain were all messed up, and my nerves were affected I often got numbness in all of my limbs, and in my hands and feet too. It was a symptom of my injury I had learned to handle.

I slammed my feet to the cold wood floor and shot up, determined to throw something on and get the hell out there to speak with Mason and see what he had for us to work with. Colt was running out of time with every second that passed and I’d just wasted a whole morning fooling around with Jack andsleeping. I couldn’t have hated myself any more in that moment. It wasn’t possible.

I pulled on some clean underwear, then a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt I wasn’t even sure was mine. It had just been folded up on the chair in the corner of the room, but it was clearly too big for me.

“Mason, tell me you have the surveillance footage,” I called before I even hobbled into the living area of Jack’s apartment.

By the time I walked in he, Jack and Deacon were all o their feet and moving towards me. Jack gave me a bright smile and a wink, which only made me feel worse. I knew if the situation were reversed and Colt were searching for me, he would barely have even slept, let alone stopped to take some time for an orgasm.

“Good morning to you too, sweetheart,” Deak said sarcastically and I glared at him instantly.

“It’s not morning though, is it? It’s after-fucking-noon and I haven’t done a damned thing to find Colt so far. Why the hell didn’t one of you get me the fuck up?” I barked.

“You needed to catch up on some sleep, Ave, and you know it. We already talked about this,” Jack sighed exhaustedly.

“I decide when I do and do not need sleep, not you!”

“Okay, timeout!” Mace called as he stepped closer to me. “You’re up now and I have all of the surveillance footage lined up for the relevant dates, all ready for you to view. How about we skip the attitude and you can get to work?” He kept his tone gentle, but I knew from the way he was looking at me that his words weren’t a request.

“Fine,” I agreed as I avoided looking up at any of them. I knew I was being a bitch. I wasn’t even truly pissed with any of them. I was just irate with myself and needing to vent. I knew I needed to rein it in, but I was so used to being pissy to hide my true emotions. It wasn’t going to be easy to stop.

Mason set me up in a large armchair close to the fancy electric fire that looked like it was crackling away way too realistically. I had the laptop on my lap and Mason had very helpfully lined up the hours of footage I would need to scroll through from various clubs across the city. While I didn’t know the face of the monster who took me, I would never forget the shape of his frame as he circled my hanging body, screaming at me to atone over and over again between tearing me to pieces. I was sure I would recognize him if he were on any of the footage.

The guys obviously sensed my need for space because they all retreated after Deacon brought me a sandwich he had made for me and a huge mug of coffee, black – just the way I liked it.

I distantly heard Mason leave to head into work, a new case demanding his attention. Jack was working at the kitchen counter, I presumed dealing with the running ofTemple. Deacon seemed to be working too where he sat opposite me with his own laptop open, but he regularly stopped and offered me drinks and snacks through out the afternoon, giving me the distinct sense he was really just keeping a wary eye on me, likely at the behest of the other two.

It was starting to get dark by the time I finally found something. My eyes were scratchy and dry and it had been a struggle just to keep them open for the last hour, the repetitive footage lulling me into sleep.

“Here!” I cried as I looked up, shocked to find Mason was back, and Jack was in the kitchen cooking. I had zoned out so much for the last few hours I hadn’t even been aware of any of them.

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