Page 56 of Their Dark Rose

“Unless your holes aren’t sore enough.” Finn comes inside, and now I’m officially surrounded. “In that case…”

He doesn’t finish the sentence when Mason and Falk’s harsh glances land on him.

I giggle, let them wash me up, and the second we hit the bed, the four of us, I’m out.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I’m alone in bed.

For the first time ever, waking up alone in my room doesn’t feel right. It feels all sorts of wrong. Fucking empty.

Without them.

My men. They’d been here with me throughout the night. I woke up more than once, even after the rain ceased pelting on my window, so I knew I wasn’t dreaming them.

Toned arms, tattooed hands, and warm bodies were wrapped up around me at any given moment.

The walls had sheltered us against the weather. But they weren’t my home.

My godfathers had been that. Virile, rough, harsh, and home.

And their absence is a void.

I sit up in my bedroom, naked and alone.

Well, not really gone. I hear Mason’s angry voice from the first floor. Finn has to be somewhere around the house since he’s the one taking me to the lawyer’s office today.

Falk… He’s also here. Because Mason is. Because they drive to work together. Although a teeny tiny part of me dares to hope he wanted to stay for me. To see me.

That after last night and his confession, we’ll start over.

He’ll always be a harsh bastard. He’ll always put me in my place, I have no doubt about it. Just like I know he gets off on our back and forth.

I don’t want him to change. I want him to always be a little sick in the head. To stay argumentative, impulsive, and growling.

There’s no denying I’ve been turned on by my teacher pulling my metaphorical pigtails over the years. But I’ve been fighting back, needing him to soften some. Aching for his fire. Desperate for our banter to be a sexy one instead of hateful.

I walk into my bathroom, wishing I’ll see exactly that when I face him today. When I face all of them. I have to believe it, that they just left the bed because they had shit to do.

That this isn’t anything like the time I thought they’d leave me all those years ago when I was just thirteen years old.

“Finn, no one cares if you have fucking morning breath right now.” Falk’s shout woke me up right into panic mode. “Leave the gum alone and let’s go.”

I scurried to the landing, my hands clutching onto the railway.

Mason, Falk, and Finn were wearing the clothes they slept in, putting their shoes on in a hurry. Their hair was mussed from sleep, and when Mason tilted his head up, I saw worry written all across his face.

I’d grown used to Mason’s stern looks. Worry, though, that was a new one. And the sight terrified me.

“Go back to bed, Briar,” he ordered. I could tell he was trying to control his tone, but he sounded breathless nonetheless.

I didn’t understand that either.

The only thing I could think of was my mom running off without so much as a goodbye. She didn’t even stick it out for Dad’s trial. The second the court dropped the charges against her, she was gone.

Vanished into thin air.

Poof.

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