Page 21 of Escape From Me

“I got you. Be right back.”

She was already disappearing into her and Cas’s room. This place wasn’t well stocked. A few things here and there just in case, but for me? I didn’t have just-in-case female clothes because I didn’t have a woman. Until now.

“Here you go, Zeiden. They’re leggings. Sort of one size fits all.” Rylee tried to look over my shoulder but I blocked the door. “Whatever. Just tell her if she needs anything else, I am happy to share.”

I took the leggings and closed the door in Rylee’s smiling face. Fuck, this was going to be hard. I’d never once, and I mean never, had a girl in my place. If I had allowed myself so much as a slip, it was where I could get away and leave things mess free. No attachments. I’d watched too many women be used or use others.

I’d watched what Rylee’s presence had done to Cas over the years.

My first girl? Fuck. How long had it taken me to get over her? You couldn’t be double-crossed if you didn’t let someone in. So what the hell was I doing with Daisy?

I turned around and took in her small frame drowning in my hoodie on the bed.

I had no fucking idea. That’s what I was doing.

TEN

daisy

Nothing I wore was mine,not really a giant leap from my normal life. The comfort of it though? I took the hand Zeid offered me and followed him out into the main room of the penthouse. What did it say about me that I’d barely taken in the place last night?

It might have been that I was a little too blinded by Zeid, but the other side of the coin was that nice things didn’t even register anymore. I know if it all went away tomorrow I’d struggle, but I also had no idea how to appreciate any of it.

Zeid was pulling me along like there was a missing piece he’d forgotten to fill me in on. All eyes were on us when we stopped, and I peeked around my mountain of a man. Then I tried to hide even more.

“Hey, I’m Cali.”

A hand reached around Zeid regardless of how much he tried to hide me and I tried to hide. I took the hand with bright yellow nail polish, having zero idea what a real handshake was until she yanked me out of Zeid’s shadow.

“Welcome to the family, short stuff. What’s your name? That’s Rylee. These two thugs are Cas and X. There, intros areover. Now spill the beans on where the hell you came from and how you got this guy to agree to whatever this is.”

The guy she’d pointed to as X grabbed her by the back of her sweatshirt, and she let my hand go.

“Down, sparky. The little thing looks terrified. Give her a second before the guard dog locks them back in that room,” X said with a little too much humor in his eyes.

The thing was, it all was too funny. This wasn’t formal at all, and I couldn’t stop my answering smile like it was infectious.

“Zeid and I shared the same dark corner last night, and one thing led to another, and here we are.”

My eyes bounced from one face to another.

“I… is that okay?” I asked when no one answered.

Zeid’s hand wrapped around my waist and pulled me back into his body. Nerves had me sucking on my bottom lip. The women looked nice enough, but the guys? I didn’t want to stare, but it was hard not to take in the tattoos on them. Now that I was in the light and Zeid was no longer in a hoodie, I looked down and noticed tattoos on his arms, something well hidden by his suite yesterday.

I looked back up when X’s voice broke the silence.

“Uh. Sure. Shared a dark corner. But let me get this straight. Zeiden. Our little Zeid here, invited you to share his corner and then brought you back here?” X’s expression was a mix of shock in his widened eyes and humor in the way he fought a smirk.

“I mean, it was my corner first. I wanted to hide from my dad and his business arrangement of a marriage for me. Zeiden made a really nice door though and kept me hidden when they came looking. But yes, I guess that sort of sums it up. He was bored. I was bored.”

The other girl, Rylee, stepped around the counter and handed me a plate. Absentmindedly, I took it. I don’t know why, but I thought she looked pretty normal, not that tattoos weren’tnormal. I’d just never seen so many of them. One on X’s neck caught my attention when he leaned down to kiss Cali, and when Cas stood up and stretched, I got a glimpse of the same one on him.

Plate in hand, I turned in Zeid’s arms, trying to see if he had the same one, but from my angle, it was impossible to confirm.

“Okay. Well, looks like we have all morning for catching up. Let’s all eat before the food gets cold,” Rylee said and turned back to the island.

My stomach growled again, but so did Zeid’s, I grabbed his hand from around my waist and tried to put it on the plate.

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