Kings of Anarchy (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #3) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,47

could."

"I know," she replied, her voice husky as she kept her palms pressed to the door behind her, like she was fighting the urge to touch me. "But even if you did want that, I'm not sure if..."

I pulled back and looked down at her with a slight frown, tilting my head as I looked into her big blue eyes and found guilt waiting there for me.

"Say it, princess, I'm a big boy, I can handle it."

"You know how much I want you," she said, biting her bottom lip as her gaze trailed down my body. "But, I swore to belong to all of the Night Keepers and I kinda...don't hate the idea of that so much recently."

I stilled as I considered that. I mean, it wasn't exactly a surprise that she had something going with Blake and Kyan, but I guessed I'd just thought that if I'd asked her for all of her, then she would have said yes. But maybe that just made me a fucking fool.

"Oh."

"Nash," she breathed, catching my hand to stop me as I started to draw back. "What difference does it make? You're not asking me to be exclusive and what I have with them doesn't have any bearing on how strongly I feel about you." She reached out to press a hand to my heart which leapt at her touch before she skimmed her fingertips down my body. "And you still want me, don't you?"

"Yeah, I want you princess. I want you like I've never wanted anyone before."

"So, take me. The rest of it doesn't make a difference to what we have."

I nodded, because in theory, her words made total sense. It was just a little hard for me to fully comprehend, because there was no chance in hell that I wanted to be seeing anyone other than her. She was it for me. The only girl I thought of or fantasised about. But maybe that didn't matter. So what if she was hooking up with them too? It didn't really make her any less mine, did it? And as a teacher who'd fucked his student, it wasn't like I could really try taking the moral high ground.

"Come on," I said, pulling her over to the corner where our gloves were waiting and reaching out to wrap her knuckles for her. I'd already done mine and I was itching to get in the ring with her.

Tatum watched me as I worked and we both tugged our gloves on in silence before stepping into the ring.

"No holding back," I said, the hint of a smile tugging at the corner of my lips.

"I need this today," she admitted as she rolled her shoulders, her gaze assessing me as I lifted my fists, waiting for her to get ready.

"Then hit me with your best shot, princess. I wanna feel all of that rage in you."

"You might regret that offer," she said, moving to my left and forcing me to match her as we circled each other. "Because I have more rage in me than I think could even be put into words at this point."

"And grief," I pointed out. "I know you're trying not to think about your dad all the time. But I know that grief, that pain. Don't forget I've lived it too. And I know that trying to ignore it won't work in the long term. You really need to-"

Tatum lunged at me so suddenly that I couldn't block it in time, her fist slamming into my chin before she followed up with the other to my gut. Her blue eyes were wild with a reckless kind of savagery and a piece of me knew that she shouldn't really be fighting in this emotional state. But I also knew she needed it. So if she wanted to throw all of that pain my way then I was willing to take it.

I ducked back and took a half assed shot at sweeping her legs out from under her which she managed to jump before leaping at me again.

"Don't go easy on me, Nash. If you won't fight properly then I'll get Kyan down here. He's not afraid to go hard on me."

I gritted my teeth at that insinuation. I'd seen the bruises on her skin after she'd come back from her trip to see Kyan's family at Christmas and I'd also been thoroughly chewed out for trying to insinuate he'd hurt her. Because apparently she’d been begging for every one of them – Kyan’s