Page 45 of Buried Secret 295

He smiles at me, and butterflies fill my stomach. “I can’t tempt you with a quick fuck followed up by pillow talk?”

“You mean while I slip into a weird, sleepy state while we wait for your cock to deflate?” I laugh and shake my head. “Talk first, sex after, then nap. Tell me about your family.”

“You know, you quite enjoy being stuck on my cock.” I shoot him a look, and he rolls over and faces me. “Hands to yourself, mate.”

“Can we try to meet your family when your cock isn’t inside of me?” I giggle and reach out to touch him, but I don’t because of the no-touching rule. “I think we scarred my dad. Probably for life.”

“Yeah, I think that would be for the best.” His hand reaches out and grabs my hands, which hover there. Knox pulls them up to his mouth and kisses both of them. “I changed my mind on the touching rule. No sexy touches.”

Fuck, he is sexy. I smile and touch his cheek before resuming, running my hand through his hair. “My family is what most consider wild. My mother came from wolf shifters. Her father tainted their bloodline with being of demon fae. Mother didn’t exactly fit in when she discovered she was a skin-walker. She can morph into anyone’s human form, along with her wolf. This scared the pack with the ability to shift into someone else for nefarious purposes. My mom isn’t like that, but I suppose if she wanted to, she could. Passing off as anyone is a dangerous gift. It’s a secret that we don’t like to share with others because it could make people panic. People are quick to fear, and my grandparents had to protect her the best they could, which led to them leaving the pack life for her not being accepted. She met my father, a siren, and they never looked back. They ended up creating a new sort of business. They operate underground fights and take bets. Business boomed, and it became quite an operation. Think of it as a speakeasy type of business, with theirlegitimate businesses on top and illegal sides below. It is a hotel and casino up top, but it also has special keycards and a code to take visitors below.?

“They had me and my sister Gabby before adopting Atticus.” He chuckles and shakes his head. “Gabby says she wants nothing to do with the business, but you can always find her at the casino. She makes a killing at cards and doesn’t seem interested in anything else. Gabby is great, loves to talk shit, and will for sure talk shit about your choices of men.”

I lean forward and kiss the mark on his neck. His lips find my ear as he whispers in his deep, growly voice. “It sends a weird pulse of pleasure throughout my body when you do that.” He pulls me up and kisses me before wrapping his arms around me. “My family will love you.”

I frown, wishing I had a family that would love him, though I have Ember and Constantine. “My siblings will not welcome you or me into their lives, so they already sound way better than mine.” I shiver, thinking about what will happen when my sister finds out I have a mate. “You might not want to be seen with me on campus. They will try to make your life hell.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening. You’re mine, and I will take on the world with you.” He practically growls at the last part; I feel how passionately he means it through the bond. “We will make our little family unit. You, me, and Gage are just the start.”

“Do you think I will feel the pull to the other three? I think 203 might be one of them.” I pause and consider Simon, but I don’t feel he fits neatly with Gage and Knox. I suppose only time will tell. Maybe I am overthinking this? I think about the wave of lust I felt the last time I was with Simon. I would be foolish to ignore it. I don’t voice things about Simon yet. Let him be my internal torment of questions. I’ve already voiced more than I ever have.

“I think we work on things between us first. Let us hole up. You know, there is a loophole for freshly mated students. Itdoesn’t happen often but buys us a couple of days. Let’s hole up here, and then we will have Gage over to discuss things.” He nips my neck. “I need you for at least one more day before I have to share you.”

I wrap my legs around his and thrust my hips upwards. “Good. I want to be greedy for at least one more day. Then, maybe we can deal with reality tomorrow, but one more day.”

I want to stay here for days and not come out. Just ignore everything else because the world gets complicated once we leave. “Enough talking.” I lean into him and kiss his lips, and we forget about the world.

Chapter thirty-five

Ringing? Why is ringinghappening? Salem has exhausted me in the best possible way. I am now in a state of awake yet still asleep. My hand blindly searches for the phone. Salem is sleeping on my other arm, using it as her personal pillow. The woman snuggles deeper into my chest as I struggle to find the phone. “Knox?” She mummers with her voice heavy with sleep. “Find the noise and kill it, please?”

I stifle a laugh but don’t respond, thinking I found it on the nightstand. However, the movement makes it slide onto the floor. I roll my sleepy mate onto her stomach, and she arches her back like a cat. It actually feels hard to pull away from her. Being bonded to someone is strange. It’s something that is going to take some getting used to. Feeling her emotions as if they were my own and not wanting to be an inch away from her is a complex feeling combination. I know it will take time beforebeing away from each other isn’t physically painful. At least we have time before we have to test that out. I shake my head and lean down, grabbing the phone that has begun to ring once again as I grabbed it.Atticus.

“Yeah?” I say groggily, still trying to make sense of everything.

“Thank fuck! I need you. I wouldn’t ask unless it wasn’t dire. We have a situation, and I am out of ideas.”

That comment has me sitting up in bed quickly. I turn on the lamp to try to locate clothes. “What’s going on? Damn, I don’t have clothes.”

“Oh, I set some outside for you.” He says quickly.

My eyebrows raise at that. “How do you know–” I shake my head. “Nevermind. What’s going on?” I walk to the door, and when I open it, jeans and a shirt sit there. I know better than to question Atticus. The man seems to know everything. He probably stashed these out there a few hours ago.

Salem sits up, her hair hardly out of place, and rubs the sleep out of her eyes. “It’s Gage! Fuck! Leo, man, we are here to help.” You can hear voices in the background. Atticus lowers his voice into a whisper. “Please get here. Salem can teleport you. I can’t leave. I think Leo might kill Gage and not mean to. It’s like Leo isn’t Leo anymore.”

Salem’s hearing must be great because she quickly grabs clothes and throws them on. “Where are you at?”

“It’s like a block from your parents’ casino. I think Leo was going there, maybe to look for you. He keeps saying he needs help and that we don’t understand. We are at the park, and I am trying to keep the emotions down, but I’m losing steam fast.” Atticus is amazing at absorbing emotions into himself, but his tone has an edge. That makes me feel as if the situation has gotten worse than what he is describing. Atticus is powerful, so I can only imagine what kind of situation we will arrive in.

“We will be there as soon as we can.” I hang up the phone, sliding my jeans up and pulling the t-shirt that Atticus left me on.

She throws on the shirt, not bothering with a bra, and pulls on some yoga pants. Once she’s dressed, she says, “I need you to pull up the address and maybe a picture of the area so I can focus.” She bites her lip while waiting for me to pull the location up on my phone. I hand her the phone to show her where we are going. She looks up at me with a slight fear in her eyes.

“You can do this, babe.” So many questions and thoughts are running through my brain, but I don’t voice them.

“I hope so. I’ve been improving, but this is pretty far, and I don’t want to screw this up.” My hands cup her face, and I look into her beautiful eyes.

I pull her lips to mine and kiss her hard. “You can do this. I believe in you enough for both of us. If it takes two or three tries, that’s okay.” I hold the satellite image of the park up. She holds it between her hands, focusing on the details of the picture.

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