Page 15 of Scorched King

I expected him to let go. I waited for it.

But he didn’t.

Instead, his thumb brushed the side of my face. Soft. Like he was trying to fix something. Or like he wanted to soothe me.

My pulse beat erratically, making it difficult to breathe. His brows were pulled tight, his mouth a hard line, but his touch said something else.

And I ached for him to just call mehis.

But he didn’t.

“Fuck. I’m sorry,” he said, pressing his forehead to mine and doing the one thing I couldn’t handle. If he was about to tell me again that he didn’t want me, I might scream. Especially since the length of his hard cock pressing against my stomach would make him the world’s worst liar.

“Don’t say anything,” I whispered, hoping to stop him before he made things worse. I could feel the denial and rejection coming again a mile away, and I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to deal with it.

“I still shouldn’t have done that.” The hunger he’d looked down on me with still simmered in his eyes, but now it mingled with regret.

I scrambled to sit up, thankful that the worst of my panic at being back on the compound had dissipated. Too bad it came on the back of JD’s pity kiss. As was typical with him, he didn’t resist my attempts to get away. Instead, he helped me up and steadied me with a firm grip on my elbow.

With a brand-new ache in my chest, I turned and pinned him with a glare a moment before I yanked out of his grip. His lips turned up in a small smile, and I half wanted to scratch his eyes out to show him there was nothing funny about any of this. How dare he?

That wasn’t going to happen. The best I could do at the moment was get as far away from him as I could. Fortunately, the compound was huge and once I got re-settled in the apartment I was assigned to, it wouldn’t be that difficult to keep my distance. As long as I stayed away from the clubhouse, all would be good.

Halfway out the door, I glanced up and found we were not parked at the employee housing like I’d expected. We were in front of JD’s cabin.

“What’s going on?” I looked back and forth between the house and JD, wondering where Axel and Bear had disappeared to. Bear didn’t need to be exerting himself day one any more than I did. “Why am I here? And where is Bear?”

A deep frown crossed JD’s face, and he made a noise that sounded a little like a snarl. Rolling my eyes, I stepped forward.

“I’m tired, JD. I don’t want to fight. Just take me to housing and let me get settled.”

“No.” He shook his head sharply. “You’re staying with me. Like I said. I need you safe and the safest place is here.”

My stomach fluttered with equal parts nerves and fear. “But?—"

“No buts. This is my compound and I have the final say. You stay here.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

JD

I braced for a fight I knew wouldn’t come. She had the fire in her eyes, but I knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t really argue. Despite the world she’d come from and the trouble she’d gotten into, Sasha Marie Brown was a rule follower at heart. If I laid down the law, she’d accept it.

“Is this really necessary?” she asked. “You don’t need me underfoot.”

“Yes and you won’t be. I’ll be at the clubhouse a lot though, so I’ll have someone here to keep an eye out.”

“That isn’t?—“

I gave her a look that immediately silenced her. If I thought she was intimidated by me it was laughable. However, like I thought—rule follower.

“The guest room has been set up for you. There’s even one of those devices that you talk to that can send a message to me if you need anything. And the club recently contracted with amedical professional who’s more than qualified to help you with anything you need. She said she’d be by soon to check on you and your set up and make sure everything looks good.”

I could see she wanted to argue, but we both knew there would be no point. When it came to her safety and well-being, I would get my way.

The look on her face could only be described as adorable. Frustration flushed her cheeks pink, making the cluster of pale freckles across her nose stand out.

The fact I wanted to lick each and every one of them wasn’t lost on me. Nor was the fact that I had no business thinking like that.

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