Page 16 of Mates & Mercenaries

“I need to talk to you.”

“I know I shouldn’t have left, but I needed to run, and—”

“No, I was being too much. Too overly protective. I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”

She turns without a word and stalks off towards her room. I can’t help but stare at her long legs and the curve of the bottom of her ass sticking out of the t-shirt. Her curvy, perfect ass.

I follow her up the stairs and to her room, where she’s lying face down on to the bed. I swallow hard and try to focus on what I came in here for.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” I say as I perch on the edge of her bed. “You know how I have been trying to research who might have sent those men after you?”

She turns onto her side and props herself up onto an elbow. “Yeah.”

“Well, we have a lead. Rex and I need to check it out.”

Horror takes over her features. “You’re leaving me?”

“Not for a long time.” I reach out and hold her hand in mine. It’s nice to hold her again, even if the connection feels a little shaky. “Just for a little while. There’s a wolf pack in New York who possibly know too much.”

“Right…”

“It’s better for us to check them out sooner rather than later,” I try to assure her. “I want to know if they are a part of anything. If luck is on our side, we might be able to find out who sent those attackers your way.”

“Sounds dangerous,” Skylar rasps. “I don’t like the sound of it at all.”

She tugs me towards her and I fall into in her arms. I know Rex will be outside waiting for me, but I’m not going to leave until I know that Skylar is feeling okay. She’s trembling, and I’m pretty sure that’s because she’s freaking the hell out about everything.

“I wish you didn’t have to be the one to fight this fight,” she murmurs in my ear. “I’m so sorry you have to be involved with all this mob stuff you didn’t ask to be a part of. It just isn’t fair. You took a job and ended up doing something completely different.”

Guilt floods through me. She has no idea I took this job to impress her father, because I do actually want to be involved in the crime world. I’ve seen it as glamorous and exciting, and thought it would be a good way for me to make some money. For all of us to get some respect from the world.

But now, with Skylar’s arms wrapped around me, I don’t know if that is the best way to move forward. She’s making me question everything, because I can’t have both, can I? I can’t be involved in the crime world and date Evan’s daughter. He will kill me, and she will hate me. It’s obvious that she wants to be miles away from what her father does.

She’s pushing me to make a choice and she doesn’t even know it. What the hell am I going to do?

“I’m sorry, Skylar. I need to get going. I don’t want to keep Rex waiting.”

“Wait.” She hooks her arms around my neck and drags me towards her for a kiss. I crash my lips to hers and just embrace her for a moment. “Don’t go yet.”

I rest my forehead against hers, staring lovingly into her eyes before I kiss her again. I taste her lips, her tongue, all of her. I don’t know if she’s kissing me this way to give me something to hold on to, something to come back to, or if she’s worried that she’s never going to see me again.

There’s no way I’m not coming back. I will not let these fuckers to take me down. I’m not going to get killed before I figure out which way I’m going to take my life.

“It’s going to be okay,” I whisper as we pull apart once more. “It will.”

“Did you say that you were going with Rex?” she asks. “Because I want to thank him for everything as well. I know he’s putting himself on the line for me.”

Again, I don’t feel a spark of jealousy because this doesn’t feel like a threat. I know she has a good bond with Rex, a friendship I don’t want to get in the way of. So I back away and nod. We share a lingering look as I leave her room, which definitely gives me something to fight for.

It seems like Skylar believes she’s a burden on us because we’re going out to fight for her, but, for me, she doesn’t feel that way at all. I would fight to the ends of the earth for her. I would do whatever it takes to make her happy and to keep her safe.

Fuck, I really am in a terrible situation. What am I going to do?

I step over the sleeping form of Sam as he snores away on the floor. I guess he must have switched places with Clay while I was out looking for Skylar.

“Rex, Skylar wants to see you before we take off.”

“She does?” His eyes pop wide. “Do you know why?”

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