Page 38 of Sweet Violence
"Trauma can suck my dick," I growled, strangely hoarse, and blinked until the memory receded into the black vault in my head where it belonged.
Taj exhaled a strong breath and let go of me like he'd been burned. "You asshole," he growled at me.
I snorted, rubbing my face and looking past him at Arkan, Joseph, and X. They alternated between deep worry for me and looking at Taj like he'd grown a crown of rainbow-coloured feathers around his head.
"So…" X said, on the verge of laughter at Taj, his murderous rage nowhere in sight.
"Don't," Taj barked, shoving away from me and around the marble island. "I'm going to see my dogs."
I narrowed my eyes at the back of his head, seeing too much of myself in him. When I'd been locked in the memory, the voice I heard had beenhis. Soft, tentative, and panicked as hell. His words rang in my head, and I folded my arms across myself to guard against them.
Aveline. Look at me, pretty killer. Lina, say something. You went so cold.
"Bastard," I muttered under my breath, and jumped when X slid his arm across my back, leaning into me.
"So," he drawled, his eyes warm. "Last night…"
"Yes," I sighed. "Don't make a big deal of it."
"That's the second time," he pointed out. "You've upgraded from a one night stand to a fling."
"I'll fling him out a ten-storey window," I muttered, making Joseph burst out laughing.
His chest still rumbling with amusement, my reaper arranged fat chocolate pancakes on a plate and smothered them in cream, berries, and syrup.
"Here, sweetness," he offered, sliding the plate across the counter closest to me. "There's caramel and chocolate syrup here if you want them, too."
"Yes, gimmeallthe sweetness," I replied, pushing aside my shaky fear and my intense reaction to Taj, and hopping onto the vacant stool. It was still warm. Gods fucking dammit, now we were sharing body heat.
I aggressively cut into a small pancake, shoved it in my mouth—and groaned obscenely. I'd forgotten they were filled with berries.
"Holy fuck, Joejoe," I said with my mouth full, not giving a shit that it was unladylike.
Joseph puffed up his chest and stood straighter, watching with clear adoration as I squeezed an ungodly amount of syrup over my next bite.
Wait, why was I overcomplicating this? I chewed fast and swallowed, loaded my mouth with more pancake, berries, and cream, and tipped my head back, squeezing chocolate syrup directly into my mouth.
Arkan snorted as I chewed happily. "You're one of a kind, princess."
I made a sound of agreement, stuffing my face once more.
"So beautiful," Joseph sighed, leaning against the worktop and watching me with sparkly heart-eyes.
I was pretty sure I had syrup on the tip of my nose, and there was cream on my bottom lip, but if he thought I was beautiful, I'd take it.
"You've got a little something…" X murmured, turning me on the stool and making me jump when he licked the syrup off my nose.4
I swallowed my mouthful and gave X a look. "You just licked my nose."
"It's delicious." He grinned. "So sweet."
Okay, we needed to ban that word immediately. My body flashed hot again despite the weirdness of the whole nose thing. I rubbed his saliva off my skin, grossed the fuck out. Butstillannoyingly charmed by the man himself as he draped his elegant body across the kitchen island in front of me.
Despite the flashback and Taj's dramatic storming out, the morning had been almost comfortable. Domestic. Sweet.
Ugh, I was getting attached.
"Wait, did Taj saydogs?" I asked when I finished eating and Joseph started making food for everyone else—with less whipped cream and syrup, the cop-outs.
