As I brush the puff over her breasts, her breath catches, and I fight like hell not to let it affect me. I drop lower, not wanting her to think that I have any intentions other than to look after her right now.
I finish over her belly before encouraging her to sit up so I can wash her hair.
She moans as I massage her head, her muscles relaxing under my touch. It’s intoxicating to watch.
Once she’s clear of bubbles, I drop my lips to her shoulder. Her body shudders, and I can’t help but smile.
“Turn around, Kas.”
She startles at my words, but after a second, she does as instructed. She lifts her legs over mine and scoots close, too close. My teeth grind as the heat of her pussy brushes against my quickly hardening cock.
“Tiny,” I warn.
She looks up at me through her lashes, and my mouth waters.
Swallowing down my need, I focus on her. Reaching over, I swipe her washcloth from the basin and her bottle of makeup remover and set to work.
As gently as I can, I wipe at her eyes, clearing the mixture of dark makeup and blood away.
“There she is,” I say softly when her face is clear. Her skin is pale but flawless, and her lips naturally full and red.
“Hey,” she whispers, placing her hands on my chest.
“How are you doing?”
“I’ll be—”
“Don’t say okay, Kas. Tell me the truth.”
She lets out a sigh, averting her eyes from mine. “My head really hurts. I think I might have hit the desk on the way down… I don’t remember,” she says quietly. “My ribs hurt, the cut on my hip stings. Every time I shut my eyes all I can see are the evil intentions within his, and I can’t get his scent out of my nose.”
Cupping her cheeks in my palms, I swipe away the tears that drop with my thumbs.
“It’s over now. He’s gone.”
“W-what happened? One minute he was about to…” she trails off, but I don’t think either of us need her to say the next words to know what his intentions were. The state of her clothing tells me everything I need to know. “And then there were gunshots and he fell on me. And then there you were.”
I know Zach and D don’t want everyone knowing about what happened tonight, but something tells me that Kas is about as trustworthy as they come.
“D is connected to an MC. Turns out they were after Jet as well. So, when D mentioned him to his brother, they used it to set him up.”
“Wow.” She falls silent for a moment. “So it was them who came in, all guns blazing?”
“Yep.”
“That explains a lot,” she says, a small smile twitching at her lips. The sight makes my chest tighten.
“Why’s that?”
“I just couldn’t picture you, Zach and Titch taking down all the baddies.” She chuckles, and I can’t help but smile.
“What are you trying to say? I’m hard.”
“Sure you are,” she muses, tapping my chest patronisingly and making my eyes narrow in mock annoyance.
“Hey, I carried you out of there looking like the hero, didn’t I?”
“My hero,” she whispers, dropping down onto my chest and once again snuggling against me.
I wrap my arms around her and hold her until the water starts to cool around us and I begin to wonder if she’s drifted off to sleep.
19
Kas
The safety and contentment of being surrounded by Spike is more than welcome after the events of tonight.
I know the water is cold and that we really need to get out, but I can’t bring myself to push away from him.
His support right now means everything.
I’ve lived almost all my life looking after myself. I was always the one Mum leaned on if she needed someone, but until I connected with Jodie, I never had a go-to person. As I lie here, soaking up everything he’s offering me, I wonder how I ever coped without someone.
“We need to get out, you’re shivering,” he whispers above me, his deep, husky voice causing a shudder to run down my spine.
“Just a few more minutes.”
“Come on, Tiny. Getting pneumonia won’t help anyone.”
He stands, lifting me with him as if I weigh no more than a feather. My legs automatically wrap around his waist, his cock once again teasing my entrance.
I’m sure I should be numb after everything that’s happened tonight, but I can’t help just that little bit of contact sending a thrill through me.
Our night together is still at the forefront of my mind, or more so his ability to be able to make me forget everything.
I want that now. I need that now.
“You need to let go,” he chuckles, and after another two seconds, I reluctantly allow my legs to drop. The second he releases me, he wraps a huge fluffy towel around me before grabbing another and tucking it around his waist.
After gently squeezing out the excess water from my hair, he guides me from the bathroom but comes to a stop outside both of our bedrooms, not knowing which way to turn.
Making the decision for him, I turn toward his room and walk through the door. My need to be surrounded by his scent, to feel safe, gets the better of me.
Stopping at his chest of drawers, I riffle through until I find his t-shirts. When I do, I drag one out, drop the towel around me and pull it over my head. I can feel his stare burning into my skin, and when I turn, I find I’m right.
“My clothes look better on you,” he says after clearing his throat.
I smile weakly at him before heading for his bed. After pulling the sheets back, I climb in. I have no idea what time it is; all I know is that I want to be in a bed, preferably with him beside me, and I’m hoping that by choosing his, I’ve left him little choice.
“Are you hungry?” he asks, still hovering in the doorway, wearing only his towel that’s wrapped deliciously low on his waist. It shows off the deep V that disappears beneath the fabric and the top of the colourful dragon tattoo that wraps around his hip and left thigh.
My fingers twitch to reach out and pull the towel from his body. If only I were a little closer.
“Something like that,” I mutter, my eyes tracking back up to his face. His chin is covered with almost a week’s worth of fuzz, his hair is damp and sticking up in all directions, and he’s got rivulets of water running over his tanned skin. You’d have to be blind not to notice how hot he looks right now.
“I can order whatever you fancy.”
I make a show of licking my lips as I focus on him, it’s so much better than thinking I’m still back in that room like my brain keeps trying to tell me. I need him to make it all go away.
“Kas, you need to eat something. Did you even have any dinner before you went out earlier.”
I shake my head. I was too nervous to eat.
I want to tell him to forget it, that I’m fine, but I know from the hard set of his jaw that he’s not going to let this go.
“Chinese, and a bottle of Jack.”
“You got it.” He spins on his heels, and in a blink he’s gone, leaving me alone for the first time since he went to run the bath. I begin to panic.
I hate that I feel so weak, so unsure of myself and my surroundings, but the second I can no longer see him, my heart starts to race, and the walls begin closing in on me. The images of his face that I’m trying to banish assault me immediately, and I squeeze my eyelids closed in an attempt to force him out of my head.
In a matter of seconds, his footsteps sound out over the blood racing past my ears, and his large frame fills the doorway once again.
I smile when his eyes land on me once more, but there’s no way he misses my anxiety.
“I… uh…” He holds his phone out, clearly not knowing what to say about my obvious panic. “I thought you might like to choose.” He drops onto the bed beside me and hands his phone over.
I stare at the menu before me, but the words just spin. I’m unable to focus on anything. My head pounds, rem
inding me once more that I clearly hit something hard when that motherfucker fell on me earlier.
“It’s okay, you choose. There’s not much I don’t like.” I hand it back, but he doesn’t take it for a few seconds. Instead, he just studies me.
“Okay. Do you need some painkillers or anything?”
“Yeah, that would be great.”
“I need to redress your cut, too.”
I nod, knowing he’s right. I can feel water trickling down from where the bandage has soaked up a load of bath water.
He makes quick work of ordering some food before placing his phone on the bedside table and standing.
He swaps his towel for a pair of boxer briefs—all too quickly, I might add—before disappearing from the room.
I focus on the noises he makes in the hope it keeps the panic and memories at bay, and thankfully when he reappears once more, I’m in a much better state than last time.
“Here, take these.” He passes over a couple of tablets and a glass of water.
“Thank you.”
“Throw the covers off, let’s get a look at this cut.”
I do as I’m told and happily lift the hem of his shirt. Sadly, he’s too concerned about the blood that’s dripping from the bandage to notice that I’m bare before him.
“Ouch,” I complain when he starts pulling at the tape.
He glances up at me briefly, but he soon continues.
“You’d never make it as a nurse, you know. You’re not exactly gentle.”
“Hey, I’ll have you know that these hands can do all kinds of gentle things.”
“Oh yeah, want to start proving it?”
I breathe a sigh of relief when he finally pulls the last bit of tape from my skin.
“This might need stitches,” he says, cleaning it up.
“It’ll be fine. We can get some of those sticky things if need be.”
“Kas,” he warns.
“Spike,” I counter.
“It’ll leave a nasty scar.”
Not as bad as the ones on the inside. I just about manage to stop that thought from spilling from my lips. He knows tonight was bad. He’s already seen me at my lowest; he doesn’t need to hear things like that when he’s trying so hard to put me back together.
“I’ve already got a plan for that.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, it might even involve your gentle fingers.”
His eyes fly to mine. “You going to let me ink you, Tiny?”
“Damn right I am. I’m hoping you might let me return the favour, too.”
“Err… I don’t let just anybody at this work of art,” he says seriously, gesturing to his half-naked body.
“You let my brother. That’s all I need to know.”
“Hey, it’s not like that, Tiny. He’s got skills.”
“Of course he does.” I wiggle my eyebrows and laugh, and fuck, it feels so good.
“I’ll have you know that Rebel Ink is an upstanding studio. There’s no dodgy dealings or extras going on under that roof.”
“Of course there isn’t.” I wink, enjoying winding him up too much to stop. “So, would you let me? I am going to be mentored by the best, after all.”
“Yeah, I might. I mean, you’re not a terrible artist.”
“How do you know?”
“I… uh… might have looked through your notebook the other day.”
“You might?”
“Okay, so I did.”
“I see.”
“That last sketch you did. It was… graphic.” His darkening eyes look up to mine from where he was focusing on cleaning me up.
“Like that one, did you?”
“Hmmm,” he mumbles before going back to patching me up, his warm fingers brushing against my skin and causing goosebumps to erupt.
“You know, I can always use some more inspiration.” Moving the leg he’s not resting on, I bend it at the knee, giving him a taste of what I’m hiding.
He clears his throat, his lips parting and about to say something when the buzzer goes off.
“Ah, saved by the bell,” I joke.
“Perfect timing, I’m all done here. We’ll check it again in the morning and see if it does need stitches.”
As quick as he can, he climbs from the bed and goes to get our dinner.
I’ve pulled his shirt down and am sitting myself up against his headboard when he reappears with a bag, a bottle of Jack, knives and forks.
“Picnic on the bed?”
“Sounds perfect.”
The second the scent of the Chinese hits me, my stomach rumbles, reminding me that I haven’t eaten for hours. I cast my mind back to my day before things got dramatic, and I can’t actually remember the last thing I ate.
By the time my stomach is full and I’ve had one too many shots of Jack, it’s all I can do to keep my eyes open.
“What time is it?” I ask, scooting down into Spike’s bed and sucking in a deep breath that smells purely of him.
“Almost midnight.”
“Hmmm.”
“Just relax, Tiny. You’re safe now.”
The bed dips as he climbs off to discard what’s left of our dinner in the kitchen and then use the toilet.
I have no idea if I drift off, but it seems like only seconds later he’s crawling into bed behind me and pulling my body back into his. I sigh with contentment and almost instantly fall asleep. It’s the most relaxed I’ve felt in months. Tonight might have been all kinds of fucked-up, but it’s over. The weight of Mum’s debt, of Jet catching up with me again, it’s all gone.
I have no idea how, but the next thing I know, I’m waking after a peaceful night’s sleep. Moving into this flat has changed my life in more ways than one—feeling safe enough not to have to keep one eye open at night is an even bigger relief than I thought possible.
Stretching out my legs, my entire body aches, and memories from why hit me like a fucking truck.
Jet forcing me against the desk, ripping my clothes from me, his knife, and then the dead weight of his body as he crashed back against me, pinning me to the floor.
I shudder as I think about the fact I had a dead, bleeding body crushing me.
Then my mind wanders to the slightly more positive parts of the night. The feeling of being in Spike’s arms as he carried me away, the way he looked after me, how gentle and kind he was.
A light snore comes from beside me, and when I look up, I find him sleeping peacefully. His dark eyelashes are resting down on his cheeks, his full lips slightly parted. My eyes travel down onto his chest and abs that are exposed.
Unable to stop myself, I prop myself up on my elbow and reach out. My fingertip traces over the lines of the dragon tattoo that wraps around his hip and disappears under the sheets. It’s bright, colourful, and so unbelievably intricate.
He doesn’t react to my touch, so I continue my secret exploration, pushing the sheets lower so I can see more.
I’m totally lost to the lines of the artwork, and possibly the fact that I’m about an inch away from exposing a part of him that’s equally as exciting, when he speaks, scaring the crap out of me.
“Careful, Tiny. You might get more than you bargained for in a minute.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I totally bargained for it. Studying your tat was just an excuse.”
He chuckles, and I glance up at him. He looks incredibly sexy with his sleep-mussed hair and soft, just awake eyes.
With my eyes holding his, I continue moving the sheet.
“Kas,” he warns.
“You really should have worn something if you didn’t want me looking.”
“It’s uncomfortable.”
“Sure it is.”
Just before I expose him, his fingers wrap around my wrist.
“How are you feeling?” he asks, concern filling his eyes as they bounce between mine.
“Hot,” I say, biting down on my bottom lip.
He stares at it, his tongue sneaking out t
o lick across his own. His chest heaves, and it’s impossible to miss the tenting of the sheet beside me.
Sitting up, I take matters into my own hands and wrap my fingers around the hem of his shirt and pull it up over my head, knowing that I’m bare beneath. I throw my leg over his waist and pin him in place.
His eyes lock on my breasts as I slowly grind down on him.
“Get out of your head, Spike. I need you.”
Taking one of his arms lying limply at his side, I lift it, guiding his hand toward my chest, but just before he makes contact his phone starts ringing beside him.
Faster than I thought possible, I’m thrown off of him and he’s standing from the bed.
“It’s your brother,” he states, keeping his back to me as he swipes the screen and puts it to his ear.
I watch the muscles of his back ripple and his round arse as he walks from the room. “She’s okay, Zach. Yeah, she slept all night and seems fine this morning.” He continues talking, but I zone him out as I slide back down where he just was, his heat surrounding me as if he’s still here.
My core aches for more of what I started, and I just about resist the urge to give myself what I need. I already know it won’t be enough.
The coffee machine comes on, drowning out the deep timbre of his voice. After a few seconds, my need for caffeine gets the better of me and I climb out of bed, making a quick pit stop in the bathroom to freshen up.
The bandage on my hip is a harsh reminder of everything that happened the night before, but I force the images from my head. I’ve got other, more fulfilling intentions to think about right now.
I make quick work of brushing my teeth and running my fingers through my sleep-dried hair and make my way out to join Spike.
“Yeah, I know…” His words trail off as he looks over to find me walking in as naked as he is. “Just leave it for now,” he growls while shaking his head at me in warning.
Walking over to him, I don’t stop until I’m right in his space, my eyes locked on his, both reading and ignoring the warning written in his.
The sound of Zach talking on the other end hits my ears, but I don’t let it stop me.
Ripping my eyes from his, I briefly run them down his body, taking in his already hard length that’s standing to attention.
Defy You: A Brother's Best Friend/Age Gap Romance (Rebel Ink Book 3) Page 16