Page 55 of Into the Woods

I want to stay right here, maybe roll her to her back and wake her up with my tongue between her legs. Her moans, the way she gasps my name, are the sweetest sound. I’m sure she’s sore, so a kiss would certainly be more welcome than my dick. For now.

No matter how hard I try to shut out the intrusion, the argument drifting up to my suite is growing louder, more demanding. If whoever the fuck is down there with Teague ends up waking my honeybee, there will be hell to pay.

I ease myself out of the bed, careful not to wake Winnie, and pull on a pair of navy-blue joggers before taking the stairs down to the main level.

It’s fucking mayhem.

“What the fuck happened to not disturbing us? You couldn’t make a full night,” I spit out as my feet hit the cold marble of theentryway. “Who’s going to step up and take care of shit when I steal Winnie for our honeymoon? This better be big.”

Teague’s eyes widen as he blinks back his misplaced surprise. He’s a fool if he thinks I’m not going to make that woman my wife and an even bigger fool if he doesn’t think I’m going to take her away, show her the world that exists outside the hundreds of acres of woods.

She’s never left and it’s time she experiences all that there is in the world.

I will absolutely tie her to me, but I’ll make sure she never wants for anything.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Robicheaux. This is my fault, but I…you said if I ever needed your help… Sir, it’s my mom.” Anguish paints the kid’s face—teen, really. He’s got to be close to sixteen now and his shit show of a mother has been nothing but a drain on him dragging him down with her. Making his life harder than any parent has a right to. Until now, I’ve been too busy to consider the possibility that she might be even worse than Winnie’s parents were.

Feels like a theme. It seems like I’m collecting orphans. But my favorite one is upstairs naked in my bed. All I want is to crawl back between the sheets, wake her up with my tongue, and hear my name on her lips again.

“Where is she, Roux? What’d she do this time?” I ask.

Roux’s shoulders shake as he sucks a deep breath into his lungs. His words rush out on the exhale. “She’s…she’s home now, but it’s bad. Her skin is clammy, it’s gray. She’s fuckin’ gray, Mr. R, gray. Her eyes kept rollin’ back in her head and I-I-I wasn’t sure if she was breathin’. It’s bad, sir. Really fuckin’ bad. I don’t know what to do.”

“You call an ambulance?” Teague questions.

Roux whips his head around, eyes wide and trembling from his head to the beat-to-shit soles of his shoes. “I… But… Last time?—”

Christ, last time Kanga overdosed, the kid did call 9-1-1 and when the ambulance took his mother away, he was thrown into the system. Nothing like a half wild teenage boy getting slapped into foster care. He was placed with the worst of the worst. I could only imagine the shit that happened to him there.

“Relax. Stay right there,” I tell him. “Teague, a word.” I tilt my head toward my office.

The minute I’m through the door, I go straight to my auxiliary closet and pull out a crisp white shirt and black suit. I talk as I dress.

“We need to go get her. Call Hibou and let him know we’re bringing Kanga in for detox. Have a room prepared for the kid and tell someone to fucking feed him, he looks like he’s half starved. His mother obviously hasn’t been worried about making sure he’s got what he needs.” More similarities layer on top of my orphan collection theme.

How many times did I step in for Winnie when she needed something?

When she was hungry and her parents were nowhere to be found.

When her shoes were falling apart, clothes were far too small or threadbare.

I was the one to step in, make shit happen for her. But the motivation there was purely selfish. I wanted to save her from the first time I met her in the woods and as I watched her grow into a woman, I wanted to keep her for my own.

“Will do. And then?”

I shrug my jacket on and turn. “Then we go get the crazy bitch. I’m going to check on Winnie and when we get back, nothing. Not a fucking thing, no interruptions, hear me?”

Maybe he responds, maybe I just don’t give a fuck to listen because I push past him and take the stairs two at a time, eager to get to Winnie even if I just have to walk right back out of the room.

It took no time at all for me to get addicted. To her sounds. To her sexiness. To her sweet, sweet honey.

She makes me lose my mind.

On silent feet, I step into my suite. The last thing I want to do is wake her unnecessarily. She needs her sleep to rest up for all the ways I want to take her, love her. Show her that she owns me. I want to mark this girl so the entire fucking world knows she’s mine.

Hair stands on the back of my neck as I approach the bed. An icy chill skates down my spine pooling in my gut as dread spreads through me.

She’s gone.

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