Page 35 of Viking

Jealous? Why would Viking be jealous of Nitro? I only just met him.

“You’re young enough to be my kid, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t noticed how fucking beautiful you are.”

A nervous smile twitches the corners of my mouth and I point to the television.

Viking shakes his head. “I can’t watch that shit with you, darlin’. That ain’t right.”

I reach for his leather vest again and bury myself against him. My tears of frustration stain his T-shirt, and a little of the ache in me subsides. Viking sighs and wraps his arms around my waist.

“Someday, you’re gonna look back at this moment, and you’re gonna be glad I’m the man I am.” His voice is low and gravelly in the shell of my ear as he says, “You’ve turned my whole goddamn life upside down, little siren.”

I laugh, but it’s heartache and tears, and rejection all rolled into one. I poke my finger at his chest to signify the same. He tightens his hold around me, squeezing my body so tight I feel everything in that one embrace. I just wish I knew what it meant.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Arie

One month later

“Hey,” Calamity leansagainst the doorjamb to Vikings room. I set my book in my lap because I’m getting a headache just trying to make out the words, anyway. “You get any reading done?”

I shake my head. “I could only understand a few of them.”

I’ve been talking more and more with Calamity and Viking, but only when the other brothers aren’t present. Calamity is on vacation from her work as a nurse, so she has a lot more time to read to me, and I’ve even begun writing lessons.

“You’ll get there. You wanna give your eyes a break and come help me with dinner?”

I bite my lip. “I’m not supposed to leave the room.”

“Honey, how long were you a prisoner on that island?”

“I was born there.”

“Exactly. You didn’t leave one prison just to live in another. Besides, I’m not sending you out into the clubhouse alone. I’ll be right by your side, and we can think of this as an education into making the perfect old lady.”

“But I’m not old.”