Page 74 of Ours to Keep

“Good girl,” I whisper against the shell of her ear, earning myself a full-body shiver from her that vibrates against my dick.

“Okay, take the handle,” I say before covering her hands with mine, and then I show her the motion once.

“Ready, and flip.” I coax the movement with my hands overthe top of hers as the pancake flies into the air before landing back in the pan.

She squeals, her excitement palpable, and glances over her shoulder, her lips close to mine.

“Want to do it again,” I say, moving the pancake to the warm plate beside the hob.

“Yes.”

Her focus returns to the batter mixture, and we repeat this a few times. On the fifth flip, I remove my hands from on top of hers, and she does it all by herself.

“See, what did I tell you?” My lips graze her ear, and her breath catches. “You’re practically a pro already.”

She turns her face towards mine, and I lower my gaze to her lips.

So tempting. I reach out and grip her jaw softly as I tilt her head, and I lower my mouth to hers, teasing her lips with my tongue. She responds in kind and opens up to me. I’m met with the bright, fruity aftertaste of the wine still fresh on her tongue.

Everything about her is addictive, and for the briefest moment, I can lose myself to Lily in a searing kiss, connecting us on a deeper level. But the smell of burning has us pulling apart. I quickly spin her around to lean over, remove the pan from the hob, and turn off the stove. The moment’s broken—just like me.

Chapter Thirty-Five

ELLIOT

Mason was waiting for us in arrivals when we landed in Nice. He wasn’t hard to miss. I swear he’s even bulkier than the last time we saw him.

After greeting us, he leads us to his SUV, waiting until we’re in the confines of the vehicle before updating us on anything we missed while we were in the air.

“There’s been little to no movement, neither coming nor going from the Yacht in the past twenty-four hours. But we’ve had eyes on others who appear to be doing covert surveillance.”

“Do you know who they are?”

He shakes his head. “No, not yet. I’m looking into it and called in a couple of favours.”

“We appreciate it, man, thank you.”

His eyes flick to Jax. “After what you guys did to help Jess, it’s the least I could do. But I won’t lie, it’d be nice to catch up over a beer like normal people as opposed to needing to put another arsehole in his place.”

“You can say that again,” River says from beside me in the back, his thigh brushing against mine. “I don’t know about you, but I can think of better reasons to visit Monaco.”

He reaches into his bag between his feet, pulls out one of his knives, and slips it into the inside of his boot. Thank goodness for the private jet Caleb helped Jax procure.

River glances over and winks, but it does fuck all to put me at ease, knowing how close the darkness is to breaking the surface. I’ll do anything to protect him. If that means protecting him from himself, then so be it.

We arrive at the house Mason procured to get everything ready. He introduces us to two guys he called to help, Louis and Gabriel. We all shake hands in greeting, but I don’t miss the way River looks at them suspiciously. But if Mason trusts them, I do too. Under any other circumstances, I know River wouldn’t even question it, but I get it. This is unlike anything we’ve ever had to do before.

While we eat, Mason goes over everything in more detail, and then we all change, and I grab my duffel bag full of equipment. We all check the weapons we’re all carrying today. I glance around and see everyone’s faces set with determination. This is it, we’re getting our girl’s sister back, and we’re taking the cunt down.

“Let’s do this,” Jax says, his voice hard. “This ends today.”

With everything in place, we move out. Mason and his guys take one SUV while we take the other. The drive to the marina is tense, and the weight of what’s at stake is heavy on our shoulders.

Our need for vengeance is a palpable presence, one I can almost taste.

As we approach the marina, I hack into the security system, disabling alarms and the cameras. There are often issues with the live streaming, so I’ll make it seem like a temporary downtime and an issue with the port camera. I’ll keep my minitablet in hand in case someone tries to reboot it, but it’s doubtful.

At least this way it will give us the clearest path possible, and one that leaves no trail of us.

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