Through the Ether (Force of Nature Book 5) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,20
want to hear it because this isn’t your fault. Not everything shitty that happens around you is because of you.”
Funny…it kinda felt like the opposite.
“You’re not in the city because of me?”
He frowned and scooched out from under me to lean against the headboard, putting a little distance between us. It might as well have been miles, given how cold it made me feel.
“I made the choice to come here. We’ve been over this before. And I made the choice to kill Mack—”
“Because we were kinda fucked if someone didn’t—”
“And I chose for that someone to be me,” he said, his tone sharper than I’d heard it in some time—and never aimed at me. I recoiled slightly, and he realized how his frustration had affected me. His features softened, and he reached for me. Tentative hands wrapped around my waist, as if asking permission to pull me into his lap, to close the gap widening between us. “It’s hardly the outcome I wanted, but if you think I didn’t go into that club knowing that it was a possibility, then I’m dragging you down to the infirmary and having Doc check your head.”
I choked on a laugh. “I think she’d be a little too enthusiastic about that for my liking. She’s been wanting to see what makes me tick since the night Merc carried me in there, half-dead and immune to any medication she had to use on me.”
Knox drew me closer and tucked me into his side. “I’m glad he was there to help you,” he said softly, stroking my hair. “Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather it had been me, but…” I looked up to find him smiling down at me, a portrait of the Knox I’d met in Alaska; the confident, playful, fearsome alpha that had saved my hide when I’d needed it most.
“But what?”
He exhaled hard. “But I’m glad it was him because he handled things. That’s what Merc does best.”
I feigned shock. “Trevor Knoxville, are you…complimenting the vampire king?”
He chuckled lightly and wrapped his arms around me as he whispered in my ear. “Do me a favor: don’t tell him.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I replied with a laugh.
“I’ll deny it if you do. And he doesn’t have a fancy lie detector like I do.”
“Oh, don’t worry. There’s no way he’d believe me if I did.”
The two of us laughed as he nestled back down into the bed, arms dragging me along for the ride. And it was in that embrace that I realized how at ease he was now. How different he felt from when I’d first entered his room.
And that made me wonder…
“So,” he said, pulling me from my musings, “how long do you think it’ll be before Kat kills Brunton?”
My lips flapped with my exhale. “I mean…I’m not sure what the over/under is on that, but I’m guessing it won’t be long. And I’m not sure she’ll kill him…”
Knox pulled away to pin his curious expression on me. “Oh really?”
I shrugged and cozied up closer to him. “Only time will tell.”
I left the ‘if we have it’ off that statement. It seemed pointless to mention the obvious, especially right after Knox’s mood had improved.
“Well, that would be an interesting combo for sure. Volatile, but interesting…”
“Yeah. You never had the privilege of hearing her and Jensen go at it,” I said, remembering the times Jase, Dean, and I had tried to find a refuge from their sexcapades in the mansion, which should have been much easier in a building that size.
“That bad?”
I shuddered. “Let’s just say that no horizontal surface was safe from them—vertical, either, for that matter.”
Knox’s laughter reverberated into me, and I nestled into the feel. I wanted to absorb that sensation forever.
“I’ll warn the boys if and when the time comes.”
Silence settled around us, and my musings returned; thoughts about my calming effect on him and the torment he’d faced in the past as the alpha of New York. I’d told Merc it would be different this time because he had me now. At the time, they’d just been words to convince myself that he’d be all right, but maybe they’d been more than that.
Maybe they’d been right.
“Knox?” I said with hesitation.
His lips grazed my forehead. “What?”
I opened my mouth to answer, then closed it. It seemed cruel to dangle that carrot until I knew I could deliver. Better to try it first without him knowing.