Page 8 of Ruthless Rebel

The three of us all watch them leave into the dining room,and I catch a glimpse of both Marcus and Jace following after them, no doubt smelling the girls’ signature pancakes, but I am left behind with Lincoln and Logan.

Silence lingers between us as I glance at the two of them and find Lincoln still watching me closely, while Logan watches him. I focus back on my coffee and try to ignore the tension that for some reason now builds around us. I need to leave, I need to get to the office, I have work to do and clients to meet with, but my feet stay rooted to the spot like they have a mind of their own. And when it comes to these two, I guess they do.

After the silence stretches on for what feels like forever, Logan finally relents with an amused sigh, “Well, as always, I’ll leave you two to whatever kind of foreplay this is, because I need to head back to the city. I have stuff going on most of the day.” His words have what I can presume are their desired effect, because Lincoln instantly breaks his stare and turns to look at him, but he doesn’t say anything. “Call me tonight?” Logan adds in a slight question, closing some of the distance between them.

“Sure, I’ll call you,” Lincoln finally replies with a smirk, and then to both our surprises, Logan leans up and presses his lips to his.

A frown instantly takes over my face, because despite having to endure their extracurricular activities with one another on multiple occasions, I have never had to see it. Well, except for that one time in the gym, but I don’t ever think about that. Yes, everyone knows they are fucking regularly, we aren’t blind, Logan is now here every weekend, but as far as we are all concerned that’s all it is. Or was, I guess, because right now there is nothing casual about the way Logan claims Lincoln right in front of me.

The kiss is soft at first, startling Lincoln by the looks of things, but once their lips collide it’s like they are in their own little world with one another. One I am being forced intobecause still my feet refuse to cooperate and leave, so I am left here, a witness to their kiss, as something like sickness churns inside of me.

Logan might have started the kiss, but he isn’t the one in control, no. From the second their lips touch, Lincoln's entire demeanor changes as if he becomes someone different. It’s fascinating. I shouldn’t be watching them, I know that, but like that night in the gym, I can’t seem to turn away, and once again just like that night, my eyes collide with Lincoln Blackwell’s.

He’s staring at me, watching me while he kisses him, and despite his lips being covered by Logan’s, I can tell he is smirking. I’m not sure what kind of game he is trying to play with me, but I want no part of it. I thought he would have realized that by now, so instead of backing down like I know he wants and expects me to, I smirk right back. Yet he isn’t deterred, if anything it looks like it only spurs him on into deepening the kiss, until Logan breaks away completely breathless and no doubt aroused. And when he notices where Lincoln’s attention lies, he follows his stare straight to me.

“What’s the matter, my little psycho,” Logan purrs, a charming and inviting grin on his face. “See something you like?”

My smirk only grows, typical Logan, the one I have come to know well in the last six years, but apparently he doesn’t know me in the same way. “If I saw something I liked, Royton, I’d take it,” I calmly reply, despite my rapidly beating heart thundering inside my chest.

“Now we both know that’s a lie, Daddy Donovan,” he quips back with a lick of his lips, and my eyes track the movement. I feel Lincoln watching us with anticipation, but thankfully Logan’s future career as a surgeon is more pressing than his need to flirt with me, apparently. “Anyway, like I said, I must begoing.” He presses one more swift kiss against Lincoln’s lips, which he anticipates this time and returns it with ease.

“I’ll talk to you later,” Lincoln confirms once more, and I have to refrain from rolling my eyes.

Logan nods, flicking his stare between the two of us before turning to leave, but not before he calls out, “Have a good day at work, Darling.”

Lincoln shakes his head with a laugh. “Thanks,” he sighs, watching him leave, but Logan pauses at the threshold of the door.

“I was talking to Ash,” he confirms with a wink, before he disappears completely, leaving me alone with Lincoln.

His presence is something I have had to learn to endure, like Logan’s, I mean he is part of my life now, my family, hell, we work in the same office five days a week thanks to our loyalties to Zack and Royton Tech. Yet for some reason, just being around him unnerves me. I wish I could say it’s because I don’t trust him, but deep down I know I do. He has protected Elle at every turn, risked his life to save my daughter’s, and is always there for Marcus and Jace, so I know it isn’t that, but I can’t quite put my finger on whatever it is.

My face must show my displeasure because Lincoln smirks as he moves to where I am still leaning against the counter, depositing his mug into the sink, as he asks, “Did you enjoy the show?”

My eyes snap towards him at his audacity, still finding that smirk in place, and I swear the need to carve it off him pulses through me, with something else I don’t recognize. “Trust me, Blackwell, it doesn’t even make the top ten.” My answer only makes him smile wider, as he leans on the counter beside me, bringing that cedarwood of his with him, and I have to swallow down thickly.

“Yeah, I guess it’s hard to beat our night in the gym, huh?” Heall but whispers, and I have to turn my head to look at him in contempt. I’m sure he can see the goosebumps on my skin, the thrumming of the vein in my neck, he’s just as observant as I am, and I see his eyes tracking me, yet he doesn’t comment on it.

Silence stretches out in the barely there space between us, and I swear I can still feel the heat of his skin from the shower. That or I’m burning up and there is something wrong with me. That’s the only thing that can explain this tingling feeling in my stomach, the pounding of my heart, the sweat on my back, I must be sick. I keep my gaze on Lincoln’s and his flicks between my own and my lips, and I must be seeing things, because I swear he moves closer, and I have to fight the urge to reach up and loosen my tie.

“Wanna ride?” He adds, moving swiftly past what he just insinuated, and his proximity feels toxic as his question flows into my mind.

“Excuse me?” I ask, horrified at the thought that Logan might be rubbing off on him in more ways than one.

“To work,” he confirms with an almost innocent smile, as if he could ever be such a thing. “Do you want a ride to work?”

“No, I will drive myself like always,” I snap back, moving to discard my own coffee, washing both of our mugs as he watches me silently, before leaving them on the rack to dry.

“Of course, god forbid, Asher Donovan ever let someone else take control of him,” he quips back, and I find myself captivated by the changes in him.

Gone is the quiet and stoic Rebel I became used to, and in his place is someone who invades every aspect of my life, taking up space no matter where I look. He wasn’t like this before, but I have seen him become more and more comfortable every day, and I don’t know how he does it, not when I know some of the things he went through as a child. I thought we were the same, both stained by our father’s sins, but it seems the work he isdoing at night is helping him through his, or maybe it’s who he is doing at night.

Either way, he is trying to break through a wall that is impenetrable and he needs to remember that. So I don’t bother hiding the devil that lurks within me as I reply, “The last time I let someone take control, my best friend was raped in front of me, so forgive me if I don’t see the appeal in it.”

If I didn’t know him as well as I do, I would miss the slight flinch at my words, but I don’t, others would, but when it comes to Lincoln Blackwell, I see everything. Yet he pushes it down and steps towards me until I am almost suffocating on his closeness. “I know what it’s like to feel helpless, I’ve been there, just like you, and trust me when I say, sometimes not being in control is the most fun you will ever have, you should try it sometime.”

His words cause a visceral reaction inside of me, blood rushing south in my body, as I mock a laugh in a desperate attempt to hide his effect on me, “Oh yeah, is that an offer, help?” I ask, taking a measured step back from him, but not dropping his stare.

He, on the other hand, lets his eyes drop the full length of me before they come back to meet mine, as he purrs, “Only if you want it to be, Dark Prince.” That nickname he favors lingers in the air between us, before he turns and leaves, but like Logan he can’t resist calling out once more. “Let me know when you want me to break that top ten record, I’ll be ready.”

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