Page 49 of Kissed By Shadows

My stomach chooses that moment to give an almighty grumble, and Hunter sighs.

“Fucking fine, but don’t keep her too long,” he huffs, kissing me on my lips once more, forcing his tongue inside my mouth until I’m a panting mess, all thoughts of my nightmare fled before the very much living and breathing man before me. Evangeline may be sore after all the D last night, but she’s nothing if not an overachiever, so she’s raring to go, horny bitch!

Letting me go, he stalks from the room, the gun still gripped in his hand, and a shiver pebbles goosebumps all over my skin. I wonder how many times he’s had to use it? I thought guns were rare in England, but clearly, even though it’s illegal to own them—I very much doubt Hunter has a shotgun licence, and even if he does, he’s holding a handgun—they are still very much present.

“Come on, Little Lamb,” Rowan encourages, taking my hand and pulling me towards Hunt’s vast bathroom. “After breakfast, we can take you to the centre to see those rooms, yeah?”

A smile lifts my lips as warmth suffices my limbs. I’d forgotten about that, and the idea of getting out of the flat makes me giddy.

“BEAUTIFUL THINGS” BY BENSON BOONE

ROWAN

We keep the shower short, Roman and I making quick workof giving Iris an orgasm to chase away the last vestiges of her nightmare. She was so scared, and I hated seeing her terrified, even in sleep. With everything that’s happened over the past few days, it’s no wonder she had a bad dream, even if what she dreamed of is highly unlikely to happen given we have a truce of sorts with the Russian Bratva heir.

Giving her pleasure seemed to help bring her out of her fear, and shit, I’m not sure I’ll ever get tired of watching her fall into bliss, especially as she seems to love all of the depraved things we’ve tried so far. Soon, I’ll introduce her to my knives, marking that pretty, unblemished flesh of hers until my scars litter her skin for all to see.

Hunt glares at us as we finally emerge, but then she’s skipping over to him and pressing a kiss to his lips, thanking him for the breakfast feast that he never used to prepare but seems inclined to do now each morning we’re here since our pretty little houseguest arrived.

His mood brightens after that, and who can blame him? She’s like a ray of fucking sunshine, and we’re all desperate for her light and warmth. My lips twitch as she bounces in her seat, even as she moans about how good the loaded pancakes are, making all of us hard as rocks if the way my brother, Hunt, and I adjust ourselves is any sign.

The plan was originally for Roman to take her while Hunt and I attended to some Shadows business—some of our runners are being targeted at the moment and we want to discover who is behind it—but clearly, Hunt can’t quite let her out of his sight again so soon because shortly after we clean up, he declares that we’ll all go. We can spend some time at the gym, it’s always good to get a workout in and it helps that we show our faces regularly to our crew. They’re used to seeing us in the gym, something we’ve not done since Iris arrived.

I grab my gym stuff, throwing in some bits for Roman too, and then head to the front door to find my Little Lamb talking a mile a minute to my brother, who is fucking enraptured. I don’t even know what she’s saying, not sure he does either, as like me, he’s just staring at her with stars in his eyes. Fuck, we’ve got it bad.

“Ready to go?” Hunt asks, striding up to us, his own bag in his hand.

“Yes, boss!” Iris cries while saluting, and my lips twitch as Hunt’s nostrils flare, his beast scenting the air. He’s got it bad too.

“Jesus wept, Peaches,” he rasps, grabbing the back of her head before slamming his lips against hers. Her squeak of surprise turns into a moan that has my dick twitching, the sight of them so fucking hot I’m not sure it’s a good idea to leave after all.

Though just as suddenly, he releases her, his pupils blown and his chest heaving as much as hers is. Then without a word, he storms past them, flinging open the door, a blast of freezing air hitting us and making her hair lift as he strides out of it.

I bark a laugh, and Roman stares at me as if he’s never heard me laugh before. To be fair, it’s not often that I do. Well, not this sort of laugh anyway. I laugh plenty when someone is tied up and bleeding, my knives singing across their skin and parting their flesh, but that kind of laugh usually scares people.

“What’s so funny, bro?” he asks, staring at me, his brows raised.

“We’re all so fucked.” I chuckle before sauntering towards them, taking her hand and tugging her out the door. I shiver as the cold wraps around me, but the soft warmth of my scarf heats me more than any winter coat ever could. I noticed Hunt and Roman have theirs too, and saw the gleam of pride in Iris’s eyes when she saw we all had them on.

I glance behind me to find her cheeks pink, her thick winter coat pulled tightly around her as we make our way to the stairs.

“Urgh, I’d forgotten you guys are allergic to lifts,” she grumbles as we enter the stairwell. I chuckle again as we start to descend, enjoying the slight burn of my thighs as we keep going. It’s a good warmup for a workout, coming up them is even better, but by the way Iris puffs behind me, she’s not a fan.

“It’s good cardio,” Roman tells her from behind us, his voice laced with amusement.

“Fuck your cardio,” she wheezes, and I stop, turning to face her. Her cheeks are bright pink now, and her chest heaves, her forehead glistening.

“We’ll help you do lots of cardio, Little Lamb,” I tell her, brushing a sweaty strand of hair from her forehead behind her ear. “And then we won’t need to give you such a long head start.”

Her brows dip as her tongue comes out to trace her lower lip, and I have the urge to bite it until it’s bruised and bleeding. I want my marks on her so fucking bad. “Head start for what?”

“The chase, sweetness,” I purr, an image of her running away from me, blonde hair flying behind her, making my blood sing. “We will hunt you like the fox hunts the rabbit, and when we catch you, we’ll devour you.”

Her eyes widen, the pupils blown so wide that almost all of the stunning hazel is hidden.

“Fuck, bro. Did you have to go there right now? I’m going to meet the crew with a raging boner,” Roman groans, and smirking, I take a final look at our Little Lamb before spinning back around to carry on walking down the stairs.

Hunter is waiting at the bottom, and he surprises the shit out of me by taking hold of Iris’s hand and tugging her towards the centre which is at the heart of the estate.

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