Page 140 of Breaker

The corner of my mouth tugs into a smirk. “Careful Reaper, I’m starting to think you want your cum in my mouth.”

Reaper unfolds himself from the chair, standing to his full height before me, our bodies just inches apart. He’s still wearing his all black training uniform and I wish he’d relax some. Put his regular clothes on. Get out of this mode he’s in. Mission. Training. Planning.

I miss seeing him calmer. Relaxed some. His eyes not so haunted. His jaw not so tense. He’s so stupidly handsome, it makes my chest ache. Especially when I see how tired he is. He needs sleep.

He’s giving himself away.

“I’m glad you two have worked your shit out,” Reaper says, throat moving as he swallows. Like he’s tasting the lie as he swallows it with the truth he’s refusing to speak. “Watching you pine for him has been painful.”

I quirk a brow. Right when I’m about to ask him why me with Viper upsets him now, and not before, he says, “Do not come into her room again tonight.”

Reaper shoves me aside and stalks to the door. My heart jumps. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe he wasn’t upset at me withViper, and the reality that I want to share my body with another man isn’t what’s giving him that dark, haunted look. Maybe it’s something to do with her. Maybe he’s not jealous of Viper. It could be he’s envious she trusts me so much.

“Don’t hurt her in your need to own her,” I tell him.

He pauses and slowly turns to face me. “The fact you felt the need to say that, shows what little faith you have in me.”

“She asked for you Reap,” I say. “You know what that means.”

He says nothing because he knows it. We got what we wanted. Her body, her trust, and we’re well on our way, if not already, to possessing more.

“She’s fragile right now,” I say. “Bendable, breakable even. Her heart even more so.”

He steps forward, leaning closer to me, like he’s putting emphasis on his next words. “You don’t think I don’t know that?We’redoing that to her.“ He taps his chest. “I’mdoing that to her.”

Take her. Train her. Do with her as you please.

Just get her prepared and willing.

We did that. More too. We could have treated her horribly, broken her down far worse than we did. But as the days went on we couldn’t do as Fallon wanted. Not after years of being her shadow. Of learning everything there is to know about a person, and now we’re in her head and carving away at her heart.

Maybe what we’ve done is far worse.

She’s ours because she chose to be, and she doesn’t know yet what we want.

“At least you’re aware you’re an asshole,” I say. “Why she likes you, I’ll never understand.”

“No?” Reaper asks, cocking one of his perfect brows. “You like Viper.” His face turns cold. “And you like me.”

“You know why I do.”

I didn’t think it was possible to get under Reaper’s skin, but I just did. And I used a scalpel to do it. His jaw grinds, eyes flaring with an odd combination of anger and disappointment.

The statement was cruel, so I add, “You’re my favorite brother.”

He relaxes some and turns toward the door. “Striker you’ve never been my brother.”

I flop back in the chair, his words making my stomach dip.

When he’s halfway out the door he stops, looking over his shoulder. “Do not come into the room,” Reaper says again. “No matter how loudly she screams, no matter how much you hear her beg, do not open the door.”

As he walks from the room, I think I understand for the first time in my life how much we deceive ourselves on a daily basis. Reaper lies to himself constantly, hiding desires and his heart, but I lie too. I lied to myself for years about my want for Viper. For Breaker. And I lied to myself about Hunter. I loved him but refused to explore what it meant.

I won’t do that anymore.

Just like I won’t lie to myself and let my brain recreate memories to suit what I think I should remember.

It wasn’t Hunter who found me that day.

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