Page 67 of Recurve Ridge

“Talk.”

“About?”

My gaze narrowed. I dropped my hands to her waist and gave myself a single, opulent moment to sear the impression of her violent curves that hollowed between hip and rib in a slope I could fit my hands around before pulling her body hard against mine. The soft swells of her breasts contacted my chest. My heart raced in tandem with hers.

She sucked in rapid, shallow breaths, her thick lashes flared wide. Still, she didn’t pull away. All those nights sleeping with her tucked to my chest must have twigged something inside that busy brain of hers.

“Don’t you brat out on me, girl.”

“Who said anything about bratting out?” She smiled, a coy little thing that curved her soft lips into a wanton smile.

A smile that went straight to my cock. Flipping her around and fucking her against the nearest tree might be wrong, but it didn’t make the fantasy any less appealing.

“Don’t test me, Mari,” I growled into her face, tightening my hands on her hips, waiting for her to freak out and back away from me.

She did neither.

The single reaction that’s held true about you, pretty girl.

She never ran from me or flinched in true fear, and I loved that about her.

She pushed up on her toes, her slim arms curled around my neck, putting that luscious-as-fuck mouth inches from my own. “What’s there to test?”

Visions of Alan ravaging her mouth, his hand sunk deep between the vee of her legs, colored my vision red. A feral growl broke in my chest. I held her gaze, then dropped mine to her lips. My own tingled in response as I dipped my head.

The hell are you doing? She’s been abused, asshole.

She’d also been living in my house for the better part of four months, during which my entire household fell head over heels and giddy as fuck for her.

Though Alan had proved me wrong for all the right reasons, I still couldn’t bring myself to tear through that barrier for fear of hurting her. Their dynamic was special, and Mari and I… we didn’t share that connection. I suspected that every man in the house had similarly taken the opportunity to test their strength of will during the hours I gave her to them for training.

I sucked in a short, fortifying breath and moved her backward, untangling her arms from my neck with a methodical efficiency designed to retain my sanity and preserve her honor at the same time.

“Go inside, Mari. Stay safe.”

“From whom?” Her liquid eyes shimmered. She wound her arms around herself, highlighting how thin she’d become despite Jon gently pushing her to eat like a mother hen. Her bones still protruded at sharp angles from beneath the pale pink knitted thing Alan had acquired for her.

From the monsters who roam the woods. From me.

I raked a hand through my hair, spinning on my heel. The lure she dangled was a hell of a lot easier to ignore if I couldn’t see her, though the fresh scent of lilies lingered where she’d wrapped her body around mine.

Long after she left me to torture myself with a fantasy I should have made a reality, I realized she hadn’t asked which monsters I wanted to protect her from.

She askedwho.

17

MARI

Once again,I found myself listening at doors.

Robe’s voice cracked through a tense room, his mood penetrating beyond the thick oak door I hid behind. Last time, Miller had caught me doing exactly the same thing. Perhaps I should have learned from that mistake. The quote about the insanity of doing the same thing over again and expecting different results came to mind.

Yet here I stood, hunched over, hands pressed to the cool wooden panel, eyes glued to the thin gap that let me see into the room’s interior while five men stood in an irregular crescent, talking about things they thought I shouldn’t know.

Their lives. My future.

Not knowing what they did bloody well pissed me off more than anything else. Yes, I brought my natural Brit right to the forefront of this steep hill I would inevitably die on.

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