thought I was going to have to compete with your men, as well as all the women in this prison, for your attention.”
My throat tightened. “You will never have to compete with anyone for my attention.” I kissed her gently and briefly, just a touch of my lips on hers.
She smiled, her green eyes glittering like emeralds. “Thank the Mother Wolf for that. I don’t want to have to start upping my body count.”
My body stirred and I dropped my hands to her hips holding her close to me. “You jealous of my brothers?”
“Not if I have no reason to be.”
I grinned. “You don’t. But I might have to give you some kind of reason to be jealous, just to see you fired up. Knowing you’re possessive of me is a huge turn on.”
She yanked her arm away and smacked my bicep. “That’s a ridiculously egotistical thing to say.”
I put my hands up in surrender. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it.”
“Yeah, you did.” She smirked, calling me out.
“You got me. I’d love to see you jealous, and then show you just how much you have no reason to be.” Her palm slid into mine. I curled my fingers around hers. It was nice to touch her in such an innocent way. I’d never held hands with anyone before, not even with Ava. Gods, if Ember knew how much power she had over my life, over me, I’d be totally screwed.
“Carry on telling me about the fight rings,” Ember prompted as our moment of levity passed.
“My brothers were all injected with tasers. Little internal devices that can't be removed without a code. If you try and cut through the flesh around them they activate at a high enough level to kill.”
Ember nodded, a frown marring her brow. “I’ve used similar devices before.”
“Really? Where?” I was getting more and more curious about her life.
She shrugged, but bit her top lip. “Let’s just say, I think we’ll be going to hell together.”
I smiled and bumped her shoulder gently with my own. “Hell couldn’t contain you. I’ll eventually get you to trust me enough to tell me what you’ve done that’s so bad. I’m a persistent bastard.”
She bumped me back harder, but avoided my stare. “I know you are.” She sighed. “It’s not about trusting you. It’s just… the guilt you have? Well, I have it too and…” She coughed. “Well, I don’t want you to think less of me…”
My stomach tightened. She thought I’d judge her, even after all she knew about me? “Sweetheart, whatever you have done won’t change the way I feel about you. We all do what we have to in order to survive.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and nodded, giving me a small smile. A moment of silence passed between us, and I held my breath. Please trust me…
She met my eyes, her teeth worrying her lush upper lip. That unconsciously sexy move made my cock twitch, but I pushed away my need to pull her into my body. This sign of trust was far more important.
Her voice was quiet when she started talking. “After my wolf died in that wood, I ran to a...an associate of mine. He is, or rather was, a fae drug dealer. I’ve known him since I was a little girl. He used to give me small mule jobs, you know? Deliveries where a child wouldn’t be suspected.”
“He used you, as a child?” My voice was a low pitched growl from thinking of at all that could mean.
“Yeah, I guess he did, but he also protected me from some of the low-lifes and dangers on the streets. He always paid me with food or money, it depended on what I needed most. When I got there that night, I had to negotiate a deal with him.”
I hissed. Faerie deals could be for a lifetime.
Her fingers rested lightly on my forearm. She squeezed gently. “It’s okay. Don’t forget I’ve been around the fae most of my life and not the nice ones. I was careful and my deal with him expired over a year ago but I err..well, I chose to stay.”
“Why, Em? Why stay with a lowlife like that? You know you can’t trust a fae. Especially after what Walker did.”
Her eyes met mine. “Where else would I go, Connor? I thought you and Rawson were dead. Som was definitely under the SBI’s radar. Besides, there was nowhere else to go, so I had no choice.” She took a breath and shook her a head