Page 17 of Chaos Luck Wrath

Gage was normally her source of comfort when things were stressful, but hearing him lash out at her made her second-guess all she wanted to say. She shook her head, deciding it wasn’t worth saying anything at all. Instead, she pushed past him on her way to leave the office.

After seeing the hurt he inflicted reflecting in her eyes, his face softened and a pang of guilt struck his heart. “Layne, baby…” He only needed to break into a light jog for his longer legs to catch up to her shorter strides. His hand gently took her elbow before she was able to get past the office door.

He gently pulled her up to him. “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”

She wiggled her elbow from his hand, doing what she did best and withdrew from uncomfortable conversations and feelings. “It’s fine. I’m going to bed like you told me to.” The attitude saturated her tone indicating all was not as fine as she wanted it to seem.

He picked up on it, seeing right through the veil she was trying to hide behind. “No, you’re not. You’re going to bed because you’re pissed.” Gage frowned at her, realizing that they were all dealing with short fuses around here and he was no exception.

Layne tried to laugh it off as a ridiculous notion, but it fell flat and unconvincing. She crossed her arms in front of her to help bolster her defenses that she was holding her shit together. “Whatever you say, Gage.”

God help him, he wanted to shake her by her shoulders when her stubbornness flared up like this. Instead, he opted for a different approach and smirked at her.

His hand slid up the front of her throat. “That’s right. When your Daddy tells you to do something, you do it.” Gage’s voice dropped into the low and gravelly tone that made her knees weak.

Her eyes lifted to meet his, struggling to maintain the heat of her anger. “I’m not in the mood.” Her voice was already betraying how much his touch was taming her temper.

Gage brought his mouth to her ear as his grasp on her tightened slowly, “Did I ask if you were in the mood? Be a good girl and meet me in the movie room in five minutes.” His lips nibbled at the bottom of her ear lobe before he pulled back and released his hand from her neck.

She felt him give her ass a nudge of encouragement to get moving. Still irritated with his outburst at her, she huffed but turned slowly and left the room. Despite the temptation to ignore his request, she opted to hit the bathroom before going to the room that housed the scaled-down movie theater.

He was there waiting for her, lounging back in one of the double-wide leather recliners with a remote in his hand.

“If you’re expecting to get laid, you’ve got another thing coming,” she warned him.

A goofy grin spread across his face. “If you’re expecting to get laid, you’ve got another thing coming,” he parroted back at her. His hand patted the vacant space next to him.

Tilting her head in confusion at his comments, she warily approached. Climbing into the seat to his right, she drew her legs up onto the recliner with her as she got comfortable.

Leaning over, Gage’s arm wrapped around her shoulders and drew her in close while his left hand grabbed a blanket and draped it over both their laps. Using the remote, he turned on the digital movie projector, illuminating the screen with the opening credits of Layne’s favorite movie.

Seeing that he finally gave in to watching her favorite cult classic from the eighties with her, a small piece of her attitude faded away.

Reclining the oversized seat back, he squeezed her against his side allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder. “Comfy?” He smiled lightly at her.

Layne nodded. It was hard not to be comfortable when he was securely holding her and the faint scent of his toasted vanilla cologne was wafting over her.

“I shouldn’t have yelled at you,” his apology was full of remorse for the hurt he inflicted on her. The only pain he ever wanted to bring her was the type that was paired with intensely gratifying pleasure. His hand rubbed over her arm soothingly.

Not hearing her jumping to forgive him, he realized he had a little more work to do.

Lightly sighing, he ran his hand down over her side. “The thought of ever watching you slip through my fingers would have me battling the darkest of demons. I may not deserve you, Layne, but I will never stop fiercely loving you.”

She tilted her head to look up at him as he made his heartwarming profession to her. His words were so full of raw honesty backed by his love that Layne couldn’t help but allow the rest of her anger to melt away.

Her hand reached up and pulled his face down to hers, accepting his apology with her lips connecting to his. Her tongue easily pushed into his mouth, exploring the addictive taste of him.

Falling into the sweet caress of her mouth against his, he knew all the bruises to his heart from years gone by were well on their way to fading for good, and it was all due to the woman currently in his arms.

Layne’s lips drifted from his after several tender moments, her hand stroking over the side of his scruffy cheek. Without the obstruction of her defenses, her eyes shimmered despite the only light coming off the movie screen. “If I ever slip through your fingers, it’s because I feel most at home in your heart.”

Relieved that there was still hope they could make it through the ongoing nightmare Liam pitched them into, Gage showered her with several more kisses to erase the invisible wounds his words had created after the rare moment of losing his temper.

Once they both settled back on the cozy dual recliner, it wasn’t any longer than ten minutes before Layne was lulled to sleep with the movie still playing on the big screen in front of them. Gage’s hold never fell away from her as she passed out listening to the sound of his heart beating in his chest.

Chapter Nine

GASOLINE

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