said. He was sitting on the edge of the couch, wiping his bloody hands off a towel. He’d helped me with Lincoln, and now I was almost done. I only had to seal the wounds. “We took care of each and every one of them.”
“G-good. A tall man with dark hair and brown eyes. Was he one of them?” Of course he was. But I had to know for sure. I had to hear it from them.
“He thought he could take me,” Brooks huffed. “It wasn’t easy to overpower him, so I’ll give him that?”
I gulped. “He was my husband. I mean, my ex-husband.”
“Was. Right use of the tense there. Don’t worry about him. He’s gone for good. He can’t hurt you anymore. I hope you didn’t… want to say goodbye?”
“No! God, no!” I let out a breath of relief. “I just wanted to know. He was my husband for five years, but he doesn’t mean anything to me. I hadn’t felt anything for him in a long time. I should’ve run away sooner.”
I was done with Lincoln, and it was Colt’s turn. He leaned against the counter, his back on it, but the lighting was off. I could barely see what I was doing.
“I think I am going to need you to lie down,” I whispered.
Grunting and cursing, he obeyed, and I straddled his waist, knowing that the spot I was going to mess with would hurt way more than my insignificant weight on him.
“Try not to buckle,” I said in a hushed tone. I needed him to be very serious and stay very still.
“First time I have a woman on me and she’s not riding my cock,” he joked, then hissed when the wet blade touched his wound. I made a bigger cut, my eyes on the red mark, while my ass could feel the pressing hardness.
“How can you still be thinking about sex?” I joked. “You’re half dead and in pain.”
“The important half is still working,” he laughed.
Yes it was, and I had every intention to feel it inside me again. I needed Colt to live for that to happen. I felt Lincoln sit on the floor next to me. He helped me hold Colt down, as he was struggling too much.
“You’re doing great,” he said.
“Thank you.”
His eyes were glued to my face. I stole a glance at him from the corner of my eye, but I was too busy and stressed about what I was doing to give him the attention he probably wanted.
“I need to tell you something.”
“Can’t it wait?”
“Maybe, but… I don’t know if I’ll still have the courage later. I’m going to be honest with you. I’ve never been so honest in my life. With anyone.”
“Okay…”
“I’m sorry for what I did to you. I’m sorry that I tied you up to that tree and left you there. That was wrong in so many ways. I… I’m a horrible person sometimes. I know that. You just… You’re the only woman I’ve met who was willing to explore those things with me. I have these fantasies, these fetishes… I never dared to confess them to any of the females I dated before. They were all bears, anyway. They wouldn’t have agreed. And you came along, and… you were so vulnerable, so dependent on us… I couldn’t help myself. I’m sorry that I hurt you. I will never do anything like that again. Not unless… you ask me to.”
He looked at me with hope in his eyes, and I could tell that if I suggested he tied me up and suspended me from a tree after all this was over, he’d gladly do it.
“I understand,” I said.
“You do?” He let out a huge breath of relief. He ran his hands through his hair, then pulled at his beard, wincing when he realized it needed a wash and a trim. “Rosalie, I…”
Finally, I caught the slippery bastard of a bullet and rushed to pour some whiskey on the wound. Colt hissed in pain. He’d been silent while Lincoln had opened his soul to me, which meant that the whole thing had helped distract him.
“Rosalie, I… I love you,” Lincoln said.
I turned to him, and he cupped my cheek with his big hand. He leaned in, I closed my eyes, and our lips met. It was a deep, passionate kiss. I almost cursed Colt when he interrupted us, but then I realized that I still needed to pull a few more bullets out of him. Lincoln moved away,