Page 77 of The Devils Melody
Kage’s hand strokes over my trembling thigh, slow and delicately. “She won’t be able to. Because we’re never letting her go.”
27
Kage
THE EXECUTIONER
Wren is sleeping heavily, her body sprawled across the sheets and her chocolate brown hair tangled around her delicate face. The soft rise and fall of her chest is the only sound in the room. My chest tightens knowing that she trusts us, but she’s completely oblivious to the monsters she’s wrapped herself up in.
I should be sleeping, but I can’t. My mind won’t shut off and my body feels fucking wired. I’m restless, worried that if I close my eyes for even a second, she might vanish. So I lay here instead, propped up on one elbow, staring at her while she sleeps peacefully. She looks so innocent like this. Too innocent for the filth we’ve done to her tonight, but she loved every second of it.
My chest aches with something I’m too afraid to name. Something I’ve never allowed myself to feel for anyone but Nox. I’m falling hard and fast, completely fucking reckless, and I know better than anyone how dangerous this could be. Not only for her, but our entire mission.
Lennox shifts beside her, murmuring somethingincoherent before settling again. His arm is draped possessively over her waist, pulling her in closer to his body. Typical. Even unconsciously the motherfucker has to stake his claim.
Scoffing, I smirk at the scene before me, but it dies quickly, because that same possessiveness burns in me just as viciously. Maybe even worse. And if she finds out the truth about us and what we do, all the things we’ve already done, would she still look at us with those same trusting eyes?
My mind begins to whirl with thoughts of what could happen if she ever does find out. Would she run away screaming, trying to turn us in? We both know what we’d have to do if that was the case, and the thought twists like barbed wire around my chest making it hard to breathe. That can’t fucking happen. I won’t let it.
“Stop staring at her like you’re planning to eat her,” Nox’s soft whispers rumble through the quiet.
I glance over at him, startled that he’s even awake. His eyes are half opened, hazy with sleep, but apparently sharp enough to catch me in the act. That motherfucker.
“She’s mine to look at,” I whisper growl, more defensive than I mean to sound.
Nox snorts, shifting onto his back and stretching. “Ours,” he corrects. “She’s ours.”
The room goes still for a moment as I take in his words. He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Like the very idea of her not belonging to the both of us is absolute blasphemy. Nox doesn’t do relationships. He never has, especially not with me.
“I didn’t think I’d ever hear you say that,” I murmur, a rough laugh catching in my throat.
His eyes slide shut, but you can see the tension in his face. “Not now, Kage.”
I lean back against the headboard watching him lay there with his hands behind his head, Wren curled up in the middle of us both. There’s so much I want to say about us and this thing we’re building with Wren. I want to talk to him about the way he’s been driving me fucking insane for years without even realizing it.
Instead, I reach out and lightly run my fingers through his hair. A small gesture that says everything that words can’t. His breathing stutters, but he doesn’t pull away.
“I’m trying, Kage,” he finally admits. “I’m more open to this than I thought I’d be, but my head is still a fucking mess. There’s expectations, rules…shit I can’t just turn off overnight.”
My hand cups his cheek, my thumb barely grazing across his skin in slow strokes. “I don’t need you to have it all figured out right now,” I tell him, meaning every word. “Just…don’t shut me out. Don’t shut her out.”
His throat bobs as he swallows hard, and I can see his pulse racing in his neck. “I won’t.”
I wish I knew what he was thinking.Fuck, Lennox. What is going through your head right now?Does he even realize how much of him I see? How much I feel? Every subtle twitch of his fingers, every time he squeezes his eyes shut like he’s trying to keep the demons at bay. It all screams that there’s so much more he’s holding back, and I want it all. I want him to let it all out and see him finally fucking drop his walls for me, letting me inside the part of him he doesn’t show anyone else.
I ache to reach over, press my hand to his chest, and feel his heart. To feel the way I know it beats for me. But also, the way it beats for Wren, too. I want to know if he thinksabout her the way I do. Does he crave her like I crave her? Or is he still fighting it, telling himself he can’t?
I wonder if he knows how often I replay every look and touch. Every time we have a moment together where he lets his walls down even for just a short time. I can’t stop imagining the way it would feel if he just let go and let himselfwant.
I just want him to admit that he wants this as much as I do.
But I can’t push. I can’t force him to open his eyes and see what I see. Feel what I feel. I’ll wait. I’ll fucking wait as long as it takes, because I know that one day he’s going to stop hiding, and he’s going to let me in.
“Take the time you need,” I murmur, brushing my thumb over his jaw. “I’ll wait. I’m not going anywhere.”
He lets out a soft, bitter laugh. “Since when are you patient?”
A smirk curves my lips as I look down at a peaceful Wren, snuggled up in the comforter like she’s never been more comfortable. “Since you and our little bird gave me something worth waiting for.”
