Page 52 of Nest Of Lies

“When there aren’t a thousand yummy food dishes between us, I’m going to kiss you back.”

She glances up between her lashes. “Okay.”

Okay? Good.

I watch her eat, but it’s more than that. I watch her the way I always have, like she’s important. Like she’s mine.

“Did you know Zaden and I grew up in this club?”

She pauses and looks at me.

“My mother dumped me with my father when I was a baby, so the club raised me.”

“You were raised in the club?”

I lean back, absently stirring the potato salad on my plate. “It’s a hard place to grow up. I didn’t have it as bad as Zaden. He was the prez’s son, so he was expected to follow in their footsteps.”

“That must have been hard.”

“You know, I think that, but I’ve watched you, Lia. You spend every day in that mansion alone, all the time, day in and day out.”

She flinches. “It's fine. It’s safe.”

“Is it? I don’t like to be alone with my thoughts, I like to be around all these people.”

She twitches her shoulders.

“Zaden grew up with pressure to be responsible. They moulded me to be a killer.”

She sucks in a breath.

“I am a killer. I have killed, and I will again. You need to know who you’re going to sleep with.”

She chokes.

I smirk at her.

“We are hard men, dangerous men, and you are the very best of good girls, Lia. You don’t step out of line, you don’t do anything bad.”

She looks up, glaring at me, temper putting fire in her eyes. “I did all those pranks.”

I laugh. “That was true. You did. You got my attention. And you held it. Four long years of fucking my pack, thinking about how good you’d look in between us.”

She shivers. It’s so delicate I almost miss it.

“Valen-”

“Just saying. You can take some time to get used to it. But understand that we are who we are because of where we came from. Our world is going to be hard on you.”

She snorts. “And you think mine hasn’t been?”

My smile grows. I think she’s going to be just fine. I have faith in her.

I point at her with a wing. “Then remember that when Zaden says things that make you want to bash him in the head with a brick.”

She snorts a laugh. “Zaden? Nevah!”

Ianto walks into the room and sits on the bed. He fixes himself a plate of food and then sits comfortably beside Lia like it’s his place.

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