Page 36 of Bound By Pain
I briefly meet Shiloh’s eyes and notice the furrow between his brows. He turns away when Orion slides back across the seats, lips pressed in a thin line.
I don’t have the energy to care about his dismissal. All I want is to air out my apartment and curl up in my nest with my Alpha. Sleep still beckons me despite my earlier nap.
“Alright, sunshine! Omen hid a spare key for you.” He digs around in the flower bed for several seconds before returning, a glint of metal wrapped between his fingers.
The gust of dusty air I expect never comes. In fact, the apartment seems infinitely cleaner than it was before I left. My coffee cup is no longer on the counter, and the half-full trash can is now empty. Omen must have cleaned up after she stopped by to help Orion grab things from my nest. I’ll have to text her and thank her later.
Ridley has all the scent containers sitting by my nest door waiting for me when I enter my room. I hobble over to my closet and pull out clean pajamas. The silky ones that slide like butter against my skin.
“Do you want another shower?” He watches me from the end of my bed, digging through his bag for clean clothes.
Orion helped me shower before we left the hospital in Alabama, but after two airports, a plane ride, and the drive home, I feel like there is a layer of grime coating my skin. “Fates, yes!”
His boyish grin threatens to knock me off my feet. So sweet and bright. He may call me sunshine, but sometimes it feels like he is the burning orb of plasma lighting up my world.
He sweeps me against him, lips fused to mine in a kiss that has my ovaries weeping. I wrap my arms around his neck and lift my legs to settle around his waist, clinging to him so he can carry us to the bathroom.
My ass hits the counter, sliding across the top while he settles between my thighs. We’re both breathless, foreheads pressed together and breath mingling. I flutter my eyes open, meeting his stunning blue-green gaze.
The regret, pain, and fear I see reflected at me have a lump clogging my throat. I swallow thickly as one of his hands trails up to wrap around the front of my throat, fingertips tapping along the edge of the tape holding the bandage beneath my ear.
“I’m so fucking sorry,” he whispers. Tears well in his eyes, and one slips free, sliding down his cheek. “I fucked up by letting everyone talk me into accepting the mission to track Harrison down. Not a single minute of that assignment was worth being away from you.
“Then, feeling your pain? Learning you had been kidnapped while I was thousands of miles away chasing ghosts? It destroyed me. If we hadn’t found you…” He stops, his head shaking from side to side, and his eyes squeezing shut. “I won’t think about that. I just want you to know how sorry I am for failing you. If I had been here, if your neck bore my mark, maybe I could have spared you all the awful things you went through.”
Staring into his eyes, I press a soft kiss first to his lips, then to his cheek, where tears still stream down his skin. “What-ifs can haunt our nightmares, Alpha, but there is no way to know what would have happened if we had made different choices. I could have stayed at the nightclub with everyone, or gotten one of the security staff to escort me back to the hotel. But I didn’t.”
The dark strands of his hair slip through my fingers as I drag my nails across his scalp. A soft, barely audible purr rumbles to life in my chest, growing louder in response to his sour scent.
“I won’t deny that your leaving for work was difficult. Not at first, but the longer you were away, the harder it was to believe you meant what you said before you left. But Idon’tblame you. The only people at fault for my kidnapping, and all the… other stuff, are the ones involved in and funding the breeding ring.”
He leans into my hands, letting me continue to play with his hair, but looks up at me from beneath thick lashes. His voice gets raspy, filled with a dark promise that sends shivers from my toes to the top of my skull. “Oh, I meant what I said.”
My eyes flutter shut when he dips down and presses his lips to my shoulder, trailing slow, wet kisses up the side of my throat. He stops at my ear, whispering against the outer shell. “You aremine, Omega, and as soon as you are ready, I’ll sink my teeth into your throat to prove it.”
Every muscle in my lower body clenches as a shockwave of arousal pounds its way down my spine. The small pinch of pain from the stitches in my thighs goes unnoticed. All of my attention riveted to the Alpha before me.
Ridley smirks, leaning back to pull his shirt over his head. One-handed, because he knows exactly how fucking hot that move is. My tongue darts out to lick across my bottom lip as he leans back and turns the water on, stretching his ridged abs. I want to lick them.
I can lick them, I remember, lips twitching in a devilish grin. But as soon as I try to hop down off the counter, he stops me. “Your ankle.”
Groaning, I glare down at the brace still wrapped around it. “Stupid fucking injuries.”
A faint knocking sound interrupts my rant. Ridley leaves the bathroom, making me promise I won’t move from my spot onthe counter. I hear Orion’s voice a few moments later, and the scent of freshly made pizza fills the air.
“Come on, sunshine. Let’s get you washed off so we can eat. Don’t want to leave your other Alpha waiting,” Ridley teases, kneeling to tape the plastic cover in place around my ankle.
We hurry through our shower, stomachs growling in tandem as we dry off. With a laugh, Ridley slips a cut-off shirt over his head, taunting me with the open view of his abs every time he turns. He pulls one of his shirts down over my head, filling my nose with his key lime pie scent. A cheerful hum escapes my throat, content for the moment.
“Let’s go eat. I’m fucking starving!”
Orion settled onto the couch with a small stack of pizzas, and he has drinks waiting for us. He even grabbed some of my blankets and built a tiny cocoon in the middle, so I am wedged between them.
Ridley sits me down, wrapping the blankets over my shoulders and gently placing my ankle on a pillow to elevate it. He takes the spot next to me and grabs his pizza. “So, what are we watching?”
I accept the remote and the plate Orion hands me. A gasp parts my lips when I turn the TV on and see the newest season of Performer’s Anonymous on the streaming service.
Ridley groans dramatically, throwing his head back against the couch. “Well, Orion, I hope you enjoy trash reality shows, because that’s what we’re in for.” He squeezes my thigh, silently letting me know he is joking.
