Page 71 of Caged Bird

Behind me, Fawn took a breath so deep it sounded like the first one she’d properly drawn in the past fifteen or so minutes Eddie and Audrina had been in here. She slumped back against the wall, and I wriggled around to join her, so we were sitting shoulder to shoulder.

“We’re locked in,” she said quietly.

I glanced at her. “I just had to watch my brother call himself Daddy in a sexual way.”

A small smile lifted the corner of her mouth. “You’re right. That was worse.”

I sniggered, trying to mentally erase the image from my brain. “You want Daddy’s fat cock,” I imitated, overexaggerating Eddie’s gruffness. “Come on, sugar tits. Daddy’s gonna fill you with white Christmas like Santa Claus.”

Fawn burst into laughter, and she clapped a hand over her mouth, but it did nothing to hide the amusement in her eyes. She laughed so hard they watered, catching the light from outside with a glint that was super pretty.

Her laughter did things to my insides I couldn’t explain. But I wanted more of it all. That feeling. That sound. I wasn’t a funny guy, but I suddenly wanted to be. For her.

I peeled her fingers away from her mouth and replaced them with my lips. Kissing her softly, loving every second because I could feel her smile.

“You really just ruined Santa for me,” she whispered.

My lips barely left hers. “Sorry about that.”

“Eh. Halloween can be my new favorite holiday.” She kissed me back, her fingers finding my shirt and twisting in it to pull me closer. “How are we going to get out of here?”

I glanced around. “You’re small enough to get out of one of the windows.”

“They both face the party though. Someone will notice. Eddie can’t know we heard whatever that was with Audrina Guerra.” Her expression sobered.

I had no idea if all of that talk had been for real, or if Eddie was just running his mouth to get his dick wet. The thing was, he was capable of both, and I didn’t know Audrina from a bar of soap. I doubted most women would plot to kill their husbands and take over their fortunes, but then most women didn’t run in this world.

Eddie hadn’t even blinked at the suggestion.

That was the core difference between him and me.

I didn’t want to think about knowing he planned to kill a man in cold blood. My moral compass would demand I do something to stop it. But my moral compass needed to get over itself, because we had bigger problems right now than my brother’s business dealings.

“So no jumping out the window right now,” I agreed, kneeling up to peep out of the dirt-smeared glass, then ducking back down because there were indeed a crowd of guys not too far away.

“These parties go all night,” Fawn said quietly. “We could be here for hours.”

“Let’s hope Eddie is so preoccupied with Audrina that he doesn’t come looking for us then.”

She chewed her bottom lip, giving away how worried she was. So I pulled her onto my lap, wrapping my arms around her from behind.

She rested her head back on my shoulder and drew in a slow, deep breath. “We fix the wagon tomorrow. I’ll crush the tablets up for Eddie’s evening drink, and we hope like hell they knock him out. Then we leave.”

“It might be better if we waited until the next day—”

She shook her head hard. “It has to be tomorrow. He’ll be distracted by whatever the hell is going on between him and Audrina. It’ll be the best time.” She swallowed hard. “And it’ll be our last chance before I lose my nerve. I’m not brave, Zane.”

That was the biggest lie. Her still living and breathing was the bravest thing she could have done. No weak person would try to run from a man who would surely kill them if he caught them. This wasn’t a normal situation, and anyone who said they weren’t scared, if it had been them in her shoes, was lying.

She was the most courageous woman I knew. And the most beautiful.

I twisted her face and kissed her mouth again.

She was the one who deepened it. She licked her tongue against the seam of my mouth, and I opened for her like she was the password. I touched my tongue to hers, both of us exploring each other with slow, sensual kisses that spun my head and made me forget where I was, and the danger we were in.

She kissed me back with the same fervor. Like she wanted to drown in my kisses, sink beneath the surface and get lost in them so everything that had to happen tomorrow didn’t come too soon.

My dick got hard beneath her, reacting to the sensual glide of her tongue and the delicious weight of her on my lap.

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