Unable to hold back my curiosity, I peered into the kitchen, noting the empty counters. The fridge was bare—a few bottles of condiments and a couple of apples but nothing else.
I eyed the stairwell with trepidation.
“We can’t leave her here,” Cole said. “Not like this.”
Not without a strong lock on the door. Not without food in her fridge. Shit shit shit shit shit.
“I’ll grab her some clothes,” I said before I made my way up the stairs, noting the faded pictures in their frames, Eva’s expression in them turning from sad and tired to young and joyous as I moved backward through her life.
Her bedroom was equally plain—a worn coverlet over abed I doubted would hold my weight, a particle board desk that had seen better days, and an aging laptop.
I rifled through her closet, grabbing the first clothes I found, and then dug into her drawers, grinning at the scraps of lacy underwear interspersed with sensible cotton—sensible andworncotton. The pinch in my chest grew sharper until I rubbed at my heart, trying to ease the pain. If this was how I lived, I’d sell team secrets to the bratva too.
Shit.
I found her backpack, packed her laptop, then poked my head into the bathroom in the hallway, surprised by the array of medication in the cabinet but swiping it all into her bag anyway. She’d have to figure out what she needed tomorrow.
My heart heavier than I was comfortable with, I walked back down the stairs, wincing with every creak.
Eva waited in Cole’s arms, her face buried in his chest. His own face was blank, revealing nothing about what he thought about her circumstances.
“Ready?” Cole settled her in the backseat again then waited for me to cuddle her close, watching her intently.
“She’s breathing easier,” I murmured. Maybe she’d fallen asleep.
Eva shifted against me, and I slid my arm over her shoulders, holding her tight.
“This is a bad fucking idea,” Cole muttered.
“It was yours.”
“Yeah, I know.”
A soft bodysnuggled closer to me, and I moaned,wanting nothing more than to bury my cock in her hot, waiting pussy.
No.
Wait.
Eva sprawled between me and Cole, clad in one of his old t-shirts, the hem pushed up so I could see her luscious ass. He’d dragged her against him so her face was buried in his chest, and one of her legs draped over his. Cole was a cuddler—who knew?
Last night, he’d won the coin flip about whose room she’d sleep in. I snuck in a few hours later. No fucking way was I going to let him claim her for himself when he’d blackmailed her into fucking him while I had been trying to seduce her sweetly. She wasmine.
As much as I wanted to maintain my anger at her duplicity, and his, with her here, in our house, almost naked before me, it all faded when compared with my need to claim her as my own.
I scooted toward the bottom of the bed and yanked the sheet down so Eva was entirely bared to me. Fuck, she was gorgeous. That round ass, the curves of her hips, and the pretty pink pussy that glistened in the morning light—sweet and innocent—someone who deserved better than to be blackmailed, who deserved our help, not our approbation.
I slid my hands over her ass, and when she didn’t move, I crawled between her thighs, separating them so I could feast.
And fuck, she tasted like everything I’d ever dreamed of. I licked from her clit to her ass then back down again, and her tart-salty flavor exploded on my tongue.
She whined in her sleep, and I wrapped my arms around her plush thighs to hold her still. Then I dove right back in, reveling in the feel of her softness surrounding me.
Every taste of her sent electricity zinging through my veins, as if I were starving and she was the only meal that could satisfy me. I explored every fold with my tongue, devouring her juices, eating her like my life depended on it.Thisis what I had meant when I said I’d give her what she deserved, not forcing her to give me a blow job or inflicting pain and humiliation.
And yet.
I couldn’t deny the appeal of that either, not after last night.