Page 50 of Lawless
"And if you get lonely, just knock on a wall." Gunner squeezed my waist, his lips nuzzling near my ear. "Preferably mine."
My resulting squirm from the contact pressed me right up against Jandro's shoulder. A giggle bubbled out of my chest before I could suppress it.
"You can knock on his wall if you like, but," the VP's fingertips grazed my lower back, "you know where to go for a nice spooning."
"Spooning?" I laughed, turning to look at him. "Is that what they're calling it now?"
Jandro shrugged, his expression innocent but the heat in his eyes anything but. "Cuddling. Canoodling. Cupcaking. Whatever you want to call it. I just want more of that sweetness from last night."
"Is thatall?" I lifted my eyebrows. "I'm surprised."
"I'm full of surprises," he returned.
The two of them touched me with abandon now, and the flirty banter only escalated with each passing day. As time went on, my resistance to it only grew weaker. My insides felt like hundreds of fluttering butterfly wings.
This felt like a luxury I couldn't afford. These men were to be feared, not flirted with. They could hold me down and take what they wanted at any moment. So why bother with all this, the teasing and flirting? I wondered as everyone started getting up, dispersing down the walkways to their rooms. Jandro and Gunner led me between them, of course.
"Reaper gets the nicest suite, naturally," Jandro said. "Which means Gun and I get the second nicest." He looked at me and grinned. "Last chance to pick a room with your favorite."
"I'll be fine in my own room, really." I squeezed the straps of my pack on my shoulders, eager for some privacy. These guys were affecting my ability to think too much.
"Suit yourself," Gunner shrugged, opening a door. "Knock on your right wall," he added with a wink before going in.
"I'll be at the pool if you'd like to join me," Jandro offered from his door on the other side of me.
"Maybe later. I think I'm going down for a nap," I yawned.
Try as I might, I couldn't shut my brain off, no matter how exhausted my body was. The room was comfortable and spacious, but I couldn't bring myself to relax.
Frustrated, I decided to get up and take a walk. I didn't even make it to the end of the hallway when my heart jumped into my throat.
Through the doors at the end of the corridor, leaning over the balcony in a cloud of cigar smoke, stood Reaper.
I almost turned around and headed back to my room. His cold-shouldering since Fight Night hurt more than any of those punches I took. Why subject myself to that again?
Then again, why bring me all this way if he was just going to treat me like mud on his boot? I was fucking tired of waiting around for him to talk to me again. And as I forced my steps to proceed onward through those doors, it scared me how much I missed him.
Hades' ears perked up when I opened the door, but he remained sitting at his master's feet. Sometimes the two of them acted like independent beings, but right then they seemed to share the same mind.
Reaper's shoulders didn't even stiffen as I walked up next to him, leaning my forearms on the railing in the same posture.
"How long is this going to go on for?"
He took a long drag on the cigar and exhaled as if I hadn't said a word.
"I don't know what you mean," came his gruff, eventual reply.
"Are you kidding me?" I couldn't bring myself to be patient. I'd been patient for five fucking days already. "This. The silent treatment. Making me part of your club but acting like I don't exist. You can't keep this up forever."
"Watch me."
"Reaper, I-I don't get it." My voice cracked and I could barely bring myself to say the next part. "One minute you're...kissing me." It felt like so long ago, I began to question if it really happened. "The next, you're acting like I'm this huge inconvenience in your life. If you don't want me around, that's fine." It wasn't fine, not anymore. But he didn't need to know that. "One of the guys can drop me off in any podunk town between here and Sheol.”
"That's not gonna happen." His teeth clenched on the cigar. "As much as I'd like to dump your ass in the middle of the desert, I need a medic."
Ow, fuck.
"Okay," I said cautiously. "So why—"
