Knuckles (Dragon Riders MC #4) - Savannah Rylan Page 0,10

needed. Once I got in way over my head, I knew the only person that could help me was JayJay.

But as worry pooled behind his own eyes, I knew I had just opened my soul’s floodgates for him to read.

So, I pulled my wrist away and stepped off to the side. “Let me know when the pizza’s here. A hot shower is calling my name.”

“And then we talk about what’s going on?”

His voice sounded behind me as his question stopped me in my tracks.

“If I’m feeling up to it, sure,” I said.

JayJay really was an interesting person. On the one hand, he was great in a crisis. Always calm. Always level-headed, no matter what was happening around him. But when there wasn’t a crisis to be had? He could be a very intense individual. Always reading people around him. Always studying the landscapes around him. He was always on alert, ever since we were kids, and it pained me to see that hadn’t changed. In some respects, it felt like JayJay never let his guard down. He never let himself relax. And that hurt me, deep down in my gut.

Out of all the men I’d ever encountered, JayJay deserved rest. He deserved relaxation. He deserved a moment to himself.

And it worried me that he’d never gotten that in all the years we’d been apart.

I took a long, hot shower and let my problems fade away. The smell of pizza swiftly lingered into the shower room and it made me turn the water off. And after folding up the three outfits I stripped off and hanging them on a metal rack in the shower room to steam, I wrapped a towel around my body.

Before venturing out to get some pizza.

I heard the front door close. “Went and got us some ice and tracked down some cups. Figured we both wouldn't want to be chugging after… one… Simone?”

I stared at him. “You left while I was in the shower?”

“I was just around the corner.”

“Please, don’t do that again unless you tell me you’re leaving.”

He paused, then nodded. “I can do that.”

“Thank you.”

My eyes looked over at the bed to the two large pizzas sitting there. Along with some miniature cinnamon rolls.

“Had them on special,” JayJay said.

I smiled. “My favorite, again.”

He set the ice and cups down. “You… want to put on some clothes?”

“Actually, I kind of wanted to ask you about that.”

“Yours too dirty?”

“Well, I had on three outfits at once. So, they’re kind of hanging up in the bathroom right now to steam.”

He blinked. “You had on three outfits?”

“I did, yes.”

“Why?”

I sighed. “Eat first. Talk later.”

“The second I eat, I’ll be out. Full stomach, and all.”

“Then, we eat first, sleep second, talk in the morning over coffee.”

“I’ve got recon in the mor—”

I clicked my tongue. “We’ll find some time to talk that isn’t now, okay!?”

The room fell silent at my outburst before JayJay nodded.

“Okay,” he said softly.

I sighed. “I was hoping you had an extra shirt I could borrow to sleep in tonight.”

“Yeah. You can have one of my black ones.”

“Thank you.”

He turned his back to me. “Pizza’s ready when you are.”

And as I watched him crack open the two-liter of Dr. Pepper, I wondered if sleeping in the same bed with him meant he’d make some kind of move on me.

He thinks of you as a little sister. That’ll never happen.

Still, a girl could dream.

5

Knuckles

I couldn’t sleep. Even after a full stomach and watching Simone fall asleep, I didn’t feel settled enough to fall asleep on my own. Then again, that wasn’t uncommon. It seemed that the older I got, the less sleep I got every night. And nights where I stayed up? Well, they weren’t as few and far between as they used to be when I was younger, either. I watched as Simone’s shoulder rose and fell with her even breaths. I checked out every sound and creak I heard all throughout the night, wondering if a threat was upon us. Not only was I chasing down Skeleton, but I also had some sort of unknown entity to protect Simone from.

I wanted to shake the woman until she talked.

But I knew better than to push her into something she wasn’t ready for.

Nevertheless, not once did she turn toward me to cuddle up. When we were children, it was almost an automatic thing. She’d slip off into a deep sleep, and if we were sharing a bed, she’d be right next to me. With her arm wrapped around my