Page 158 of Shattered Souls
“What time is it?” she mumbles sleepily, burying into me as I carry her out of the room.
“Early, still.”
“Is everything…”
“Everything’s perfect, Shortcake.”
“It’s over.”
At the foot of the stairs leading to Grayson’s room, I look down at her, finding both eyes open and intently fixed on mine.
“It’s over. He’s dead. Your mom is dead. You and Aurora are both safe. No one will get to either of you again. Not without going through all three of us first.”
“Aurora?” she enquires when I begin ascending the stairs.
“She’s sleeping still. We have a couple of hours until she wakes us.”
It felt like it took forever for us to get back home. Dax offered to take care of the body, and we agreed since, like, what the fuck were we going to do with a dead body?! Then we had to strip out of all our clothes and hose ourselves down with ice-cold water before donning some shitty garb Dax managed to find last minute.
Frozen to the bone, we all went to shower as soon as we got home. Royce, the fucker, called dibs first on using our sharedone, so I had to wait for his slow ass to finish before I could get in, thenfinallygo see my Shortcake.
There’s no way any of us would agree to be parted from her tonight, and since Grayson has the biggest room and, hence, the biggest bed, it made sense for us all to congregate in his room.
Which is exactly where the other two are when I walk in carrying Riley.
Her face lights up when she sees them before her lips part on a gasp. She’s scrambling out of my arms before I’ve even fully set her on the bed.
“Grayson,” she gasps, crawling between his legs to the head of the bed, where he’s sitting with his back against the headboard.
“It looks worse than it is, Tempest. I’m fine,” he assures her. Not that she listens as she lifts his hand, inspecting the bruises already beginning to bloom, and nicks along his knuckles with a frown tugging on her lips.
She gives his other hand the same thorough going-over before she lifts her face to his. A silent moment passes between them—a conversation without words.
Royce and I can be angry at what both of them had to endure. We can want vengeance for them, but Riley and Grayson are the only two who fully understand what it was like to be at Bertram’s mercy—albeit in different ways.
His hands come up to cup her face, his thumbs brushing reverently over the apple of her cheeks. “I swear,” he murmurs, seemingly in answer to something she silently asked. “This is our new beginning. A new life. Together. All of us.”
One of his hands slides down to gently caress her neck, the other threading through her loose strands of hair. “Now kiss me, ‘cause, after tonight, the only thing I want is to feel your body against mine while we show you howsweetthis new life of ours will be.”
He doesn’t give her the chance to move of her own volition as he uses his hold on her to drag her lips to his in a possessive yet hot-as-hell kiss. She moans into his mouth as she crawls into his lap, straddling him.
I suddenly understood why watching us that day in the treatment room was so painful. Riley’s still fully dressed in the ridiculous outfit that looks as though it’s a piece of clothing belonging to each of us, and my dick is already tenting my sweats. Another minute and there will be a wet patch for everyone to see just how fucking gone I am for this girl.
Not that I give two fucks if these guys see that. Hell, I don’t give a shit if the rest of the world does. I’ll gladly scream from the fucking rooftop for the entire universe to hear that I am head-over-heels, maddeningly, deeply, irrevocably in love with Riley James.
Unable to withstand another moment of not touching her, I stalk over to the bed and climb onto it behind her.
Breaking her kiss with Grayson, she looks at me over her shoulder. Those delectable swollen lips stretch into a smile. Needing to taste her, I duck my face to nip at her lower lip before sucking it into my mouth.
Her arm wraps around my neck, pulling me closer as she arches her back. Her ass grinds against my throbbing cock, and I nearly lose it right there and then.
I can’t get enough of this girl.She’s fucking everything.
“Riley,” I groan.
“Need you,” she moans, one hand draped over Grayson’s shoulder while he lavishes her neck and collarbone with open-mouthed kisses.
Her gaze flicks to the side, and I realize Royce has moved to kneel beside me on the bed. “All of you.”
