Page 131 of Broken Bonds

There goes what little bit of chill I’d regained following the call with Carson. “What’s wrong?”

He doesn’t answer at first, but when he speaks, I can’t interpret his tone. “This is a conversation that needs to happen in person.”

Crap. “I’m about fifteen minutes out. See you there.”

“Thanks.”

I end the call and seriously consider turning the damned thing off.

Great muppety Goddess, what fresh hell is this?

Chapter Fifty-Six

Todd

Facing the Music

Mal hasn’t emerged from his apartment when I walk over and knock on his door.

“Come in!”

Fortunately for me, he’s dressed, except for his work boots, his hair damp from his shower. He flashes me a wide smile. “Sorry I’m already dressed and less molestable.” But his smile quickly fades. “Okay, just tell me what happened, please?”

“I called Jax. He’ll be here soon. Do me a favor and hang back here, please? Don’t go to the barn yet.”

He walks over and as my cock thickens in my jeans, it takes every ounce of will I have not to scoop him up, dump him on his bed, and rip this shirt—along with the rest of his clothes—off him.

Again.

“What’s going on?” he asks.

“I’m going to tell Jax about us and, in case he wants to talk to you, it’s better if you stay here so I don’t need to call you back from the barn in front of the guys.”

His brow furrows. “You’re worried.”

I take a deep breath. “I’m worried about a lot of things.” I risk catching his hands and bringing them to my lips to kiss them, because if I capture his lips the way I want, we will both be very naked and very busy when Jax arrives.

He studies me for a long moment before nodding. “Okay.” Then he bounces up on his toes to brush a quick kiss across my lips. “And yeah, good call on not grabbing me, because I can’t exactly say no to you ripping my shirts off.”

I chuckle. “Yeah, maybe we should do some tests to see how far we can hear each other.”

He nods, squeezing my hands. “Do you think this’ll be okay?”

“I hope to the Goddess yes, because there’s no way in fucking hell I’m letting you go anywhere without me.”

We stand there for a long moment, staring into each other’s eyes.

This feels so…right.

This has to be a mate bond.

“I love you, too,” he thinks to me, those gorgeous lips of his quirked in a playful smile.

“Brat. You’re going to keep me on my toes.” This time, I do lean in and kiss him, but I don’t release his hands because maybe that’ll give him enough leverage to push me off if I can’t control myself.

Finally, he squeezes my hands again, and I take a deep breath and release him so he can step back. “Go ahead and wait for him,” he says. “I’ll stay here. I need to put my boots on anyway.”

I nod, turning before I can succumb to my instinctive need to make love to him again right now.