Page 76 of The Reckoning
My heart kicks inside my chest. Hard. She’s out here. Alone. Vulnerable. My mind spirals out of control with all the possible what-ifs.What if she’s hurt? What if she ran into an animal? What if someone else found her before we did?The panic builds into something jagged and hungry. It twists with urgency and obsession.
Once I have her in my arms, it’ll stop.
I inhale sharply, and beneath the petrichor and damp earth, I catch the lingering scent of her shampoo. It’s faint. “She’s close by,” I say, voice dropping to a growl that scrapes my throat raw. Deep inside my chest, something dark unfurls.
It’s possessive and brutal, this need to protect. It’s not just desire I feel for Lilian but an instinct to claim her. To take and never let her fucking go.
“I don’t know if you feel the same, but I want you to know that I love her,” I say aloud, the words hanging in the damp air between us.
Arson’s eyes meet mine, understanding passing between us. “So do I.”
I wait for the jealousy to sink in, but it never comes. There’s nothing but truth hanging between us. We both love her—differently yet the same.
“She’s all that matters,” I whisper, and he gives me a nod.
“You can come out of your hiding spot, Lilian,” I call out, my voice echoing through the trees.
“We’ve stopped fighting,” Arson adds from a short distance away. “And we’ll always find you.”
It’s not a threat, but a promise.
We both spot her at the same time. She’s sitting on a fallen log, her face in her hands. So she wasn’t running. She was waiting. We step into the clearing, and I approach first. But when I reach out, she flinches away.
“Don’t touch me right now.” Then her eyes snap up to mine, then catalog the cuts, bruises, all the harm we did to each other. “What the fuck?”
I shrug. “We’re brothers. We’re going to fight.”
“You both could have killed each other. What the hell are you thinking?” Then she shakes her head hard. “No, what the hell am I thinking that you two could get over your issues for me? That somehow I could be more important than your hate? Hubris, I think they call it?” She stands and adjusts her pants. “I’m not doing this anymore. I warned you both if you couldn’t at least be civil to each other that I would walk away, so that’s what I’m doing.”
I slip in front of her, and almost as if he can read my mind, Arson boxes in her backward retreat. “You’re not going anywhere. Please listen.”
Anger sparks in her blue eyes, and she shoves at my chest. I wince from the bruises already forming from Arson. “You do not get to tell me what to do after the shit you just pulled. I warned you...” A tear slips free as her voice breaks. “I warned both of you.”
I cup her cheek and pull her in tight. “Sweetheart. I’m sorry. We both are. We had to get that out of our systems, or we’d never be able to move forward. I promise we’re going to do better, for you, for us.”
She scoffs and swipes hard at her cheeks, leaving smears of dirt. “Right. Until the next time you get into a disagreement. Then I’ll be stuck in the middle all over again.”
Arson tugs her against his front, dropping a kiss to the side of her neck. “No. We won’t. We will fight, that’s a given. We have a lot of shit to sort through, and we’re brothers. I can’t promise you that we won’t have problems, but I can tell you that we’re done fighting against this, against what we both want. I love you. He loves you. On that we can agree.”
She lets out a long exhale, searching my face. “I want to believe you.”
I step into her, our bodies creating a cage we never want her to escape. “Let us prove it to you. Believe in us. Give us one more chance.”
She gulps hard, then lets her long lashes rest against her cheeks for a moment. When she finally opens her eyes again, her blue eyes shine, meeting mine. “Fine, but I’m not lying. I won’t be a doormat for either of you.”
I meet Arson’s eyes over her shoulder. “We don’t want you to be a doormat. In fact, we prefer you fierce and sassy.”
A soft snort leaves her pert lips. “I don’t know about that.”
“I do, and I have an idea. Arson probably knows this, but you don’t.”
“What’s that?”
“The Mill holds a traditional hunt every year. It’s like a glorified game of hide-and-seek. You get a small head start and get to use the woods to whatever advantage you can. Most of the time, a monetary value can be won, but you won’t be winning anything but an orgasm.”
“Or five,” Arson interjects.
Her eyes go wide, her pupils dilating until the blue is almost all gone. “So if you catch me then…”
