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My mouth dropped open. That was a bit over the top.
He leaned in and placed a kiss on my cheek. Was it my imagination or did he linger there longer than he needed to?
“Stay here, Roach. I mean it. For her, if not for yourself. We can’t focus on her if we’re worrying about you.”
It pissed me off, but he was right. “Fine.”
Fang was last. He just tilted my head up and pressed his mouth down on mine.
Instantly, all of the cold parts inside me melted.
“I love you,” he whispered over my lips before he pulled away.
“I love you too,” I whispered back.
I caught the look that passed between Bliss and War and if I hadn’t been sending my guys off to murder a man, then I might have cared we’d just pretty publicly announced we were a thing.
Bliss said goodbye to her guys, and they all filed out into the darkness of the early morning, with the first rays of the sun barely nudging the horizon.
I closed the door behind them, and half a second later, Fang growled from outside. “Lock it, Pix.”
I rolled my eyes at Bliss and made a show of flicking the locks.
All while knowing that wouldn’t keep Caleb out if he really wanted to get in here.
But Fang had already thought of that. “War called up Aloha, Ice, and few of the other guys from the MC. They’re all stationed up on the road and in the woods around us.”
I huffed out an irritated sigh. That explained why they were all happily heading out and leaving me behind. “I hate feeling this helpless,” I complained to my best friend. “We’re just princesses locked in a tower while the men go out and do all the knightly bullshit. Feminism died a thousand deaths in this house tonight.”
Bliss put her arm around my shoulder. “Or it’s alive and well, and you’re just letting someone else take care of you for once.”
“That makes me uncomfortable,” I grumbled.
She towed me into the living room. I hadn’t spent much time in here, because it was on the formal side. I wasn’t used to couches that were hard and uncomfortable because they were meant more for decoration or perhaps a polite tea and scones, rather than kicking your shoes off and flopping onto one with a beer and a football game. All the little breakable trinkets stressed me out. Intrusive thoughts really made me want to pick one up and hurl it onto the floor.
I had no idea what that was about.
She perched on the edge of an overstuffed, floral couch and pulled me down next to her. She twisted to face me. “I hate you didn’t tell me it was Caleb who hurt you.”
“I didn’t want you putting any blame on yourself when nothing he did is your fault.”
“It is, though! I should have let Scythe take care of it ages ago.”
I picked up her hand and squeezed her fingers. “I know you would have if you’d known what he was going to do to me.”
“He hurt me too,” she said softly. “Raped me, I mean.”
I put my arms around her again, and this time, my tears joined hers. “I didn’t say anything either. It’s my fault he has another woman.”
Bliss shook her head forcefully. “It’s not either of us. It’s him.”
I nodded in agreement. “Can we talk about something else?”
She wriggled back against the couch, trying to get comfortable. “You can tell me why Fang…” She cocked her head to one side. “Does Fang even have a last name, or is he like Cher? And Beyoncé?”
I giggled. “I don’t even know.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You just told the man you love him and you don’t even know his last name?”