than most people’s bedrooms. Most of the stuff that’s hung up looks to be suits and shirts, so I slide open the drawers beneath the rails and find what I’m looking for. I pick a black hoodie with a gold star on the left side of the chest. It’s nothing fancy, although I’m not even going to think about how much this thing might have cost. For tonight, it’s just what I need.
Slipping it over my head, I chuckle when it reaches to just above my knee. I could wear this thing as a dress and nobody would bat an eye. I take a deep breath, comforted by the smell of laundry detergent and the faint hit of sandalwood.
Nothing smells better than clean clothes, I don’t care what they look like. Some days, when things were at their worst, I smelled as bad as I looked, and I hated it.
Figuring a nap may be in my best interest since I have no idea what tonight might have in store, I make my way over to the bed but pause before turning back to the closet.
“Fuck it.” I don’t care how stupid it makes me, but sleeping out here makes me feel vulnerable, and I’m already struggling without Wyatt and Megan by my side.
Snagging the pillows and the large thick comforter from the bed, I drag them into the closet and close the door. I make a little nest in the far corner and climb in, pulling the blanket tightly around me. Closing my eyes, I pull the collar of the hoodie over my mouth and nose and breath deep, letting the comforting smell relax me until I drift off into a deep sleep.
Chapter Eleven
A thumping noise penetrates my sleep, but it isn’t enough to pull me out of the dream I’m having involving a certain sexy dark-haired dickhead.
It isn’t until there is a massive crash that I’m startled awake and alert just as the door to the closet flies open.
Reid freezes, seeing me, his chest heaving before he stalks toward me.
“What’s wrong?” I quickly scramble to my feet, imagining there’s a fire or something when he picks me up, stomps into the bedroom, and tosses me unceremoniously on to the bed.
Before I have time to react, he’s over me, pinning my hands, like he did earlier against the bathroom door, as he glares down at me, making every survival instinct I have scream.
“What’s wrong is that I couldn’t fucking find you,” he barks.
“I’m exactly where you left me! Now get the fuck off me,” I grunt, trying to buck him off, but he just presses me harder into the mattress, his face serious.
“Stop squirming for a fucking minute and listen to me or I’ll forget all about the initiation and fuck you until you can’t breathe, let alone move.”
I freeze solid beneath him. The only thing moving is the rapid rise and fall of my chest as my heart tries to beat its way out from inside me. My mind starts to glitch, one minute I’m here and the next I’m back in that damned house I escaped from.
“Touch me and I’ll kill you,” I snap, but there’s no heat behind my words. All the heat has drifted far lower, coiling like a snake in my stomach. I can’t figure out what I’m supposed to be feeling. Loathing, lust, and shame war within me while the only thing stopping me from spiraling is the knowledge that I’m not that little girl anymore. I’m stronger now and I know how to fight back.
“Oh, Cherry,” he purrs, leaning in and nipping my ear with his teeth, “I’m not afraid of something as trivial as death.”
His words are spoken with a casualness that only the devil would use, but before I can say anything, his smirk slips, and that seriousness replaces it once more.
“I have enemies, as I’m sure you do. When I couldn’t find you…”
I’m torn between the warmth of knowing he would care if something happened to me and the coldness of knowing he left me here unprotected, regardless of the dangers.
“Well, I’m here, safe and sound, at least for now. So how about you get off me and tell me what to expect tonight?”
He doesn’t climb off me, though, because the ass seems to continually need to do the opposite of what I want him to.
Instead, he releases my hands and cups my face with his large ones, his eyes filled with warning and a hint of regret.