Page 71 of Recurve Ridge

The simplicity of his words surprised me. I might have thought he would snark at my ineptitude at being caught or express glee at catching me yet again and proving his point, though I did feel his raw hatred directed at my back.

One large hand rose from my waist to cover my shoulder blades, forcing my attention forward. “Well, you’re here now. How much did you overhear?” Robe’s dry humor didn’t alleviate the hard look in his eyes. I had a lot of making up to do, if he allowed it. He tightened his arm around me, and that possessive look that lanced straight through me became my everything. “How many more times are you going to put yourself in danger, Mari Merripen?”

Tremors ripped through me, my shudders the opposite of his long, calm breaths. Robe squeezed my waist a little tighter, drawing me flush into his body. The material at my waist twisted in his grip, his roughened fingers scoring the skin beneath with heat and need. I grabbed his shirt the same way, like I did that day in the forest. The memory of his palms pressed to my bare flesh left me trembling in his arms. Bonus: at least I was wearing clothes now.

Robe’s lips rose in a sinful smile, telling me he remembered the exact moment that sat heavy on my shoulders, a weight that wasn’t mine to bear alone.

“I won’t do it again. I’m sorry.” The lie tore from my lips unbidden, and the moment the words were out of my mouth, I wished like hell I could retract them.

Because Robe saw right through my bullshit, and he wasn’t the only one in the house who could strip away my fibs to expose my broken little self to the room. A dark laugh filled the space at my back, and I pressed tighter to Robe’s chest, ignoring the amusement in his eyes as I tried to use him as my barrier, though he had more right than any to throw me from his home, leaving me to fend for myself.

“Hell, you wouldn’t last three days.”

The threat kicked my pulse up a few notches. All he needed to do to make that piece of prophecy come true was eject me from his protection.

“Girl needs a damn good spanking,” Miller snarled as he strode away.

That seemed to be his usual attitude whenever I walked into the room. He’d tear into me, watching with those dangerous, cloaked eyes, throw down his barb like a tarnished gauntlet, and then get the hell away from me.

Coward.

Miller didn’t approve of me being anywhere near the man he devoted his loyalty and love to, his fury clear in every purposeful stride. That wasn’t what made him an asshole or a coward. It did leave me out of place. I fell under a temporary category in their lives.

Rather like a discarded toy, I twisted from the waist to face the aggressive soldier, though I was unwilling to dislodge Robe’s grip despite what punishment he might have in mind for a second infraction.

“Nobody asked you.”

But Miller’s silent response to my words shattered under Robe’s hard laugh.

“Damn, but you’re trouble, Mari.”

I turned back, letting my mouth curve in a hopeful smile. “Sorry?”

“No, you’re not,” Robe murmured, leaning down to rest his forehead against mine. “But Miller’s right. You do need a good spanking.”

I blinked, looking for the laughter in his face—or the threat, but for the first time, no danger presented itself there. A single bald, blatant truth I couldn’t escape, however, did.

A promise.

I swallowed hard, trying to suppress the tidal wave of arousal that flushed me between the two points of contact where Robe held me.

Somewhere else in the room, Alan swore. Something clattered in the bar sink before he tore at the silence permeating the room. “Why don’t you tell her everything? Like I’ve been saying all along.” His voice strained at the end, a plea written there I didn’t quite understand.

“Because it’s a fucking stupid idea. We’re trained for interrogation. She’s not. Do you remember what’s already happened to her? Fuck, just batter her up and lay her out on Gi—the table for whichever predator happens by.” Jon detached himself from the doorway and stormed forward, as wild and bruised as I’d imagined from my hiding place behind the door.

If Robe encompassed a hard, passionate intelligence, Jon was everything… else. Savage.Untamed.This man would burn down forests and ransack houses for the people he loved.

Tilting my head back, I turned my defiance on him, letting out the anger and frustration at not understanding my position in this place, how Robe let me fluctuate day-to-day based around his moods, the lack of control over my own existence.

“I want to know what threats there are to me here,” I murmured, glancing over my shoulder. “And what threat I pose toyou.”

All of you.

Jon stared back, his righteous anger cooling as he surveyed me with the same sense of appeal in his liquid brown eyes. I wanted to fall into him the way I did with Robe, but it wasn’t either of the mountain men who dragged my gaze to the room’s shadows.

Will leaned into the darkness just inside the doorway I’d been pulled through, looking for all the world as if standing at the edge of the light was the most comfortable place for him. Where his easy smile so often offered me reassurance, a deep frown now decorated his gentle face.

Among the excess of testosterone, he still claimed pride of place as one of the hottest men in the room, and holy mountain men, was the cloistered space filled with an abundance of hormones.

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