Page 24 of Chill

Kieran rolls his eyes but stops when he’s right in front of me, settling back to sit cross-legged on the bed. He looks…tired. There are dark circles under his eyes, and I can read the stress in the set of his mouth. I want to reach out, to comb my fingers through his hair and soak in his warmth, but right now all I can really do is give him a half glaring, half nervous look.

“Before you yell at me or banish me or whatever—” Though my tone is light, fear jolts to life in my chest. What if he reallydoes tell me to get lost? What if he decides he can’t trust me? That I’m a liability. What if?—?

He reaches out to cup my chin, thumb stroking over my lip. “Stop that,” Kieran admonishes. “No one’s getting rid of you, darling girl. Don’t go nuclear on me. I’m just…” He takes a breath, then lets it out slowly. “You scared me.”

“Oh.” That’s not what I expected. Not at all. I lean into his hand, fidgeting a little to see how much movement I can get away with. “Can I ask what happened? How did he get up to the second floor?”

Val shifts behind me, tension in his body that he tries to hide. “Here.” He reaches away from me and comes back with a small bottle of water that he cracks open in front of me. “Pretty sure you’re a little dehydrated, princess. If you want story time, you’re going to drink during it.”

I take the bottle from him and roll my eyes, wishing he could see. The water is cold against my lips, and I realize I’m a lot thirstier than I realized. In about thirty seconds, I’ve drained the small plastic water, only for Val to take it and give me another full one.

“He saw Val and realized exactly what was going on,” Kieran admits flatly. “We didn’t expect him to catch on so fast. We had him locked into the motel, obviously, but he managed to block the door to the room we were waiting for him in. Stupid of us,” he adds, obviously frustrated with his own actions. “After that we heard him trying to get out, and then he ended up going up the stairs. Guess that’s where he found you, yeah?” Kieran’s gaze finds mine, and I bristle, shoulders rising defensively.

“All I did was walk down the hall,” I tell them quickly. “I was listening for you guys. I heard someone coming up the stairs and thought it was you. He demanded my phone, and I wouldn’t give it to him. Obviously, since he was going to call the cops. So he got…mad,” I trail off, reaching up to brush my fingersover my aching cheekbone. When I do, I get a good look at the bandages covering my palms where I scraped them, and I can’t help wondering how many splinters Val plucked out of my skin while I was out of it.

“You shouldn’t have left the room. Didn’t I tell you?—”

“Yeah, Kieran, you told me,” I agree. “I was wrong, you’re right. I fucked up, and I suffered the consequences. You think I don’t hurt enough?” I glare at him, feeling a bit bratty with the headache I have going.

His eyes narrow, and they seem to darken. “You’re mouthy,” he informs me. “A mouthy littlebrat.”

“What are you going to do? Punish me? I feel like I’m already suffering enough.”

“Well, he could make you suffer more. In a very pretty way.” Val chuckles, face pressed to my shoulder as he peeks up at Kieran. “Still, you need to be gentle with her. No throwing her around. No unnecessary roughness. Or necessary roughness. I bet she has a killer headache, and you can see those bruises too, Kier.” There’s a bit of a warning in his tone that has Kieran sighing and sitting back on his hands.

“I’m not going to punish her. Not right now, anyway. I don’t need to feel like a bully when she already looks like a victim. Butfuck, Noa.” He shakes his head. “You really need to learn to listen better. You could’vediedif Val hadn’t become a human battering ram to break the door down.”

That makes a smile curl over my lips, though I wince when it reopens the cut there. Kieran sighs, leaning forward to grip my chin once more. “Look at you,” he murmurs. “You’re a mess.”

Before I can reply with something sneaky or sly or at the very least, witty, he gently seals his lips to mine. His tongue laps at my lower lip, licking up the blood as he gets closer to both of us on the bed.

“You’ve been out for a while,” Val is quick to pick up the explanation, nosing the side of my face while Kieran kisses me. “I checked you over at the motel and we called Sam to get his ass out there and help clean up. Kieran flashed his fancy credit card at the front desk here, which got us a very nice room, and we got some medical supplies to clean you up. You’re lucky your favorite boyfriend was an EMT,” he teases.

Kieran makes a sound of disagreement at that, and his hands move to smooth down my arms. “She’s lucky that I’m too relieved to be as mad as I want to be,” he mutters, pulling away.

“So I’m fine, though?” I ask. “Like, no broken bones. No permanent maiming wounds or whatever?” I don’tfeellike there’s any permanent damage done to me, but I’m also pretty sure Val managed to get pain meds into me since I should probably be hurting more than I do.

“Well, let’s check.” Kieran pulls away, sitting up just to reach out and pull my legs away from my chest. “You’re moving okay,” he says, a teasing glint in his eye that has my stomach twisting in anticipation. “You can bend your legs.” His hands move up and he easily tugs down the waistband of my leggings, pulling them and my underwear off of my body.

Apart from my bruised knees, I look pretty okay. “Still perfect,” he tells me slyly. “Still our princess.” He runs his hands up my calves, encircling them with his fingers before moving back down to grip my ankles.

“I’ll help you check.” Val’s voice is wicked as he murmurs the words against my ear, and just as I register what he’s saying, he’s tugging my t-shirt off over my head. My bra follows, and Val moves to cup my breasts in his hands while I’m still leaning against him. “Just a few bruises and cuts. I bet you have a nasty headache, though, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” I agree, my voice a soft whisper. “You should, uh, load me up on the Tylenol. I’ll eat it like candy if you give me the chance.”

“I think I have a better idea.” As I watch, Kieran leans forward, settling between my thighs on the bed. He gazes up at me as Val gently teases me, his fingers kneading my breasts and brushing over my nipples so softly I worry he thinks I’m made of glass.

But I’m not complaining about this new, gentle side of them.

“Don’t get used to this,” Kieran warns. “Being sweet when I’m pissed isn’t usually in my nature. But I’m not done checking you over, and I want to get rid of that headache.” He grins, kissing up the inside of my thigh as I try to remember to breathe.

“Maybe you won’t remember to be mad at me later,” I murmur.

“Oh, don’t worry, princess”—Val chuckles, leaning in to nip at the side of my throat—“I’ll remind him.”

I want to reply. I want to argue, to tell them I definitely don’t deserve that. But then Kieran’s tongue finds my slit and I gasp, head tilting back to rest against Val’s shoulder. My hand gently finds Kieran’s hair, and I tangle my fingers in the strands softly, not pulling or pushing. Just…holding.

His teasing quickly becomes more. His tongue delves into me, tasting as much of me as he can before his fingers join his mouth. Then Val kisses my throat, and as heat rushes up my spine, I find myself arching my hips into Kieran’s mouth and hoping for more.

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