Page 83 of Serpentine

He chuckles. “You can’t kill him,” he adds.

“I know that, too.”

He smiles, standing and nodding to me. “Sully said she’s been organizing things all day today. He thinks she starts at the factory tomorrow.”

“Alright, thanks.”

Brax opens the door and then thinks better of leaving. He turns back. “Why didn’t you answer her call?”

I sigh, pressing back into my massive leather chair that has seen better days. “Because talking to her right then, when it was all fresh… I’d have gone to her, Brax. It’s not a wise move.”

Braxton shrugs. “Probably not, but I bet it would put her mind at ease, Miles. She can’t go into that factory with her mind all jumbled. She needs to be clear-headed.”

His words linger long after he’s gone, and it has me pulling the burner from my pocket and sending hers a text.

Remember the boutique?

I stare at it awhile, wondering if she’ll answer me. It doesn’t take long until I get a notification, and I glare at it with a smug smile on my face when she replies:

How could I forget about the boutique?

Meet me there at ten tonight. In the alleyway. Blaze will accompany you.

Yes, sir.

I shake my head as I pocket the phone again, smirking. She knows just how to boil my fucking blood. Half of the heat in my veins has nothing to do with seeing her tonight or what she said. It’s the authentic imagery of her and Braxton together, the two people I hold the closest to me, that haunts my fucking brain.

Standing in the dark alley, I shift as I hear footsteps approaching. When Blaze stops at the end of the alley, Aella looks towards me. She can’t see me.

She looks at Blaze for confirmation before he nudges her with his hand.

When he’s sure she’s alright and sees me step from the shadows towards her, he turns his back. The alley only has one exit, and he guards it, hand on his hip, where I know his gun is holstered.

“You’re alright,” she breathes as I envelop her.

“I’m alright, princess.” Her scent washes over me as I drop my face into her hair.

“Are you alright?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “I miss you. I miss Brax. I was always fine alone. The life I’ve been living for the last few days is one I’ve always known, but now it seems foreign, and I don’t like it.”

My heart breaks for her because I can’t imagine what she’s going through. She’s doing it for us.

“So, come home. We’ll figure out another way to do this,” I tell her, lifting her chin upward and not giving her a chance to answer.

My lips connect with hers hungrily. Passion moves between us as I back her to the brick wall behind her. I capture her gasp as her back hits the building.

“We need to do this,” she breathes before I kiss her again.

Her tongue presses against mine, and one of her legs hooks around me. I want nothing more than to take from her, even though I know I shouldn’t. Even though I know this isn’t the time or the place.

“Aella,” I breathe, pulling back from her mouth so I can think.

“Mm,” she murmurs, hand cupping my cheek.

“We have to be sensible. This isn’t the place I want to sink into that beautiful body for the first time,” I admit.

She smiles. “What’s it matter?”

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