Page 61 of Reckless Covenant

I swallow my worries and rush down the steps, struggling to contain the elation the prospect of freedom brings. I can fucking taste it as my feet hit the marble floor and the front door is so goddamn clear in my sight, even when all the lights are off.

Suddenly, a doorknob clicks again and my head snaps toward the noise, but I only get to see a shadow, before something slaps over my mouth and an arm encircles both of mine, trapping them against my body. He slams me against his front, and just as I’m about to kick and scream, he pulls me under the staircase, against the back wall, covered by its shadow.

Fight-or-flight clouds my logic as I struggle against the man, but he presses his hand harder on my face, gripping my jaw, and holding me tight. The moment I feel his breath on the top of my ear, followed by the brush of his lips, something visceral erupts deep inside. That gesture throws me back in time, to a dingy bar at the edge of the city. Drunk, careless, surrounded by questionable people with bad intentions, dressed in ripped shorts that barely covered my ass and a flimsy t-shirt knotted under my breasts.

And when the wrong people noticed me, he came out of nowhere, wrapped his arm around my waist, pulled me against his front, and brushed his lips on the top of my ear, whispering…

“Reckless little Morri…”

I knew that voice, I knew that smell, but that touch… that was new. I never felt it in that intimate way before. Because I belonged to someone else. But not anymore. He left me a broken mess, made me into a killer, and my recklessness turned dangerous. And that same recklessness brought me here… all alone… for his friend to find me.

Maddox.

Another soft blow of air brushes against my ear, down the side of my throat. My body relaxes, coming off that flight response, but the man doesn’t let me go. His grip only loosens, enough that it allows my arms to bend, and I wrap my hands on his bare forearm that he holds against my chest. My breathing doesn’t steady though, memories of that night… the dirty dancing… the sexual tension… they run rampant through my nerves. We didn’t even kiss, yet even now I wish we would have. I wish we fucked. I wish I got my revenge. And I wish I got this angst out of my system. I wonder what he’s thinking of as he holds me to him. How did he know I would recognize him?

Steps on the hard floor remind me of where I am and from within the shadows, I watch one of the guards passing through the foyer, toward the other side of the house. He’s out of sight, but Maddox doesn’t move, and I hear another set of steps coming from that direction, entering the foyer—the second guard.

Fuck.

I’m holding my breath, wary that he could hear even that, but the noises coming from upstairs rip through the house. My assholefuture husbandfucking Raven into oblivion. I can’t help but feel for his mother. She’s hearing all this shit, the disrespect. Music suddenly mixes with that bile-rising noise pollution and I can see the guard looking up to the second floor.

“Jesus Christ…” He shakes his head and disappears somewhere in front of the staircase, where we can’t see him.

All we can do is wait calmly.

Only that calmness breaks, shattering into a crippling stillness the moment something in the darkness opposite us… moves. My feet dig into the floor, my body pushing against Maddox, as that darkness flows like smoke in our direction. But I seem to be the only panicked one.

Notes of bergamot and rich decadence slither through my senses when I take another slow breath, and as that shadow nears, and that scent becomes denser, cedar mixing in the fragrance, my heart stops.

Vincent-motherfucking-Sinclair.

The whole house is dipped in darkness, yet somehow his black eyes shine, thriving in the shadows he belongs in. The shadows he controls…

Another step and he’s right in front of me, his body so close, yet not touching mine. I release one hand from Maddox’s forearms and reach for him, fingers gripping the edge of a smooth, dense material. He doesn’t move though, doesn’t let himself be pulled in, shoulders straight, locked firm in an imposing stance.

Maddox slowly drops his hand from my mouth, brushing it over my shoulder, grazing my waist, pausing for a moment before it rests on my hip. Those memories rip through me once more, and even after all this time, that Bluesy dirty song we slow danced to that night floods my mind, and I squeeze his forearm involuntarily.

The Serpent reaches for me, placing his palm over my chest, right at the base of my throat, as the steps of the guard are heard yet again. Only they don’t leave the room, they pace through it, filling me with adrenaline, with fear, desire, and a need for destruction. Of me, of him, of them… after the days I’ve had… I want to fucking burn this place to the ground! Only as the man continues to pace, my pulse rising with every step, The Serpent grips the base of my throat in his fingers, dragging them up until he holds me in his hand, and I realize I would like to burn first.

In a completely different way…

His grip is firm, possessive, and so goddamn satisfying that my head drops against the body of the man holding me from behind. He tenses. I can feel the flex of his muscles, the soft hitch in his breath, the flinch in his bones. But he doesn’t move.

As The Serpent grips my jaw, then slides that hand against my cheek, dragging his thumb over my lower lip, Maddox’s fingers dig harder into my hip and goosebumps burst over my skin.

The guard’s steps are closer, my nipples hardening against Maddox’s forearm, and when his grip tightens on me, my gaze drifts into his. And right in that moment, when he looks down at me, The Serpent’s thumb dips into my mouth, pressing on my tongue. Against the top of my ass, I feel a distinctive twitch, just as the man before me presses his body onto mine, trapping me. His darkness dips slowly over me, his breath touching my lips as his thumb slides out gently. Closer… I swallow the heaviness that sits in my chest, almost tasting the softness of his lips on mine, just as Maddox’s hand slides slowly from my hip toward my lower belly, then movement in the corner of my eyes pulls my attention away.

Brief, silent chaos erupts.

The Serpent aims his free hand at the movement and a muffledpopstartles me. He shifts in a split second, catching the man in his arms before he falls to the floor, pulling him in the shadow, just as the second guard steps back into the foyer, looking around for the disturbance. The Serpent moves out of the shadow, with a strange fluid elegance in his movements, one that has no business being there as he aims his gun at the man, trigger pulled before he can even open his mouth. He dips in just as the man threatens to hit the ground, lowering him slowly.

This is our moment.

Maddox releases me, but I linger a moment longer against him, my eyes on The Serpent that’s turned to us. Only a moment… Just as tense. Just as suffocating. Only this suffocation is welcome. Craved. Needed.

They came for me.

The moment is broken when Vincent turns and moves away down the same corridor the last guard came from, and we follow.

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