Page 72 of Burn Like An Angel

“Me too. How’s her pulse?”

I watch his fingers tighten on her wrist.

“Thready but strong. She’s exhausted and lost a lot of blood. I think it’s normal for her to dip in and out. You need to keep her warm, though.”

“Yeah, I’m on it.”

His thumb circles her skin in a loving, affectionate caress. We’re facing life and death, but I can’t stop my mind from flashing back to the moments before we ran for our lives. It’s seared into my memory.

The powerful look on her face as she drove my friend to ecstasy with her filthy mouth. The way Raine flexed beneath her, so perfectly in tune to her body. Ripley swallowing his load before proudly licking her damn lips.

I’ve never considered the possibility of sharing a woman before—no matter how much I love the family I found in the shittiest of times. Fuck, I never considered touching Ripley until recently. At least not consciously.

But in that moment, it took all my self-control not to bend her over Raine, strip her tight ass bare and sink into her cunt while he fucks her smart mouth. I wanted to take that powerful look she wore and obliterate it.

Needing to earn Ripley’s forgiveness is one thing—I can chalk it up to a guilty conscience—but this possessive need to protect her, to love and to hold her… That’s something I never anticipated. Not even when we kissed in the padded cell.

I thought if I kept my distance, used cruelty to hide these strange new impulses… they would go away. My secret would be safe. But the longer we’re trapped in this together, the harder it’s becoming to battle my desires.

I want her.

Us.

Any tiny fucking scrap she’ll give me.

“Nox!” Xander snaps me back to reality. “We’re moving.”

“Right. Coming.”

Shifting Ripley higher against my chest, I push off from the wall. Raine may own her heart right now, but I have something he doesn’t. Something he’ll never have. And that feels so fucking good.

Their love will never compare to the addictive intoxication of our hatred for each other. I have the real power here. Namely, the sole ability to fix what I once broke. Only someone intimately familiar with her pain can ever hope to ease it.

I’ll happily be her enemy.

Her own personal monster.

As long as I can also be the one to keep her safe. Perhaps even hold her the way that Raine does. Touch her. Comfort her. Fuckingmatterto her.

“This way.” Xander leads us outside.

The late afternoon sunshine has broken through the thick cloud coverage. We plough on in a loose formation, Raine walking independently behind Xander with his stick swinging.

My leg muscles protest as the miles trickle by. I fall into a rhythm, my attention focused on the skies above and the path ahead. I almost startle when I feel ice-cold fingers pressing into my face.

“You don’t suit the white knight stereotype, Nox.”

A pulse of adrenaline shoots through me when I find Ripley’s semi-open eyes. “You’re awake.”

“Is that what this feeling is?” she groans in pain. “Feels a lot like hell to me.”

Her hand lowers, fastening on my shirt collar instead. She fists the bloodstained fabric, tiny whimpers slipping past her lips with each step.

“Sorry for ruining your t-shirt.”

“You owe me a new one.”

“Add it to my bill,” she gasps.

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