Page 92 of Marked
Horan nods. “What were you thinking?”
Caine stares at me, dark hair low over his eyes. “The Captain and I have an understanding,” he says plainly. “And that is all you need to know.”
Chapter 40
Ruin
When Lilah and Caine fill the door behind Tanner’s gesturing arms, I know what they are going to say before they say it.
My eyes lock in Lilah’s. “No,” I say, and T shuts up long enough to turn around too.
Her arms fly in frustration. “You’re being unreasonable.”
I just look at her.
She glances from Tanner to Caine and back with a glitter in her eyes. “Guys, is there any way you can give me a minute with him?”
Caine smiles, salutes me, bows to Lilah, and walks out. I’m not stupid enough to think T doesn’t see it. But the motherfucker is smart enough not to say anything as he walks from the room.
Lilah waits until their steps have truly faded before closing the door and locking it.
I peer at her. She just takes a step and her hands fist in the hem of her shirt. When she tugs it up and off, leaving her full breasts straining her black bra, I stand up straighter. “What are you doing?”
Her lips curve and there is a fierce resolution in her eyes that wasn’t there before. But it’s harder than the innocence I cherish so much. Jaded.
“You won’t argue with me if I’m naked.”
I snort, arms folding over my chest. “That’s what you think.” But my eyes remain locked on the blushed skin of her chest and face.
Her agile arms go around her back and the bra pillows against her. She slides it down over her hands, presenting me with rosy nipples that I want to suck into my mouth. “I bet you won’t.”
My length swells in my jeans, tenting the fabric. “Then you don’t know just how stubborn I can be.”
She unclips the button on her shorts and pushes them over the thick swell of her legs. Her scent hits me in the face. Heated, aroused, angry.
“You need to go, Ruin. The team needs you.”
I grab my sex and rub through my jeans. She licks her lips. “No. What I need to do is take you against the wall until you forget this little plan of yours.”
Her smile grows sad but no less determined. She slips her fingers under the band of her panties. I growl. “You want me?” I nod; my eyes casting her skin and the dim room in gold light. Her back arches as she rubs her apex beneath the silk. “Then help your team and come back to me.”
“Lilah–”
She stops teasing her body and her hands push into my chest, forcing me back against the wall. My spine jars into the stone. “No buts, Ruin. Your team needs you. The colony ... Hell, Lock Lake needs you. You need to do this. You need to stop Draven because I can’t. Because I couldn’t stop Vic.”
Her sapphire eyes flash with more of that resolve. “I need you to do this. I need you to be the monster I can’t.” Her expression falls, and my arms want to wind around her on an instinct I don’t understand. But it’s the same one that hasn’t stopped battering at me since the first night I met her. “I need you to be a hero.”
I push back against her hold, angry now. “I’m no hero. I’m too selfish for that shit. If I’m not here, I can’t protect you, Lilah. Just like I couldn’t protect my wife.” It bursts from me before I can stop it.
Shit.
She lifts her head to look at me and starts to back away, her expression aching. Hollow. “I don’t understand.”
“Oh, baby girl.” I try to pull her to me. She struggles. My thumb brushes her cheek, but she swats it away. “Don’t be angry.”
“You’re married! Of course, I’m angry.”
“Have you seen anyone with me, beautiful?”
