Page 11

EMBER

“Time to wake up, baby,” Cerberus says in my ear just before pressing a kiss to my temple.

Just as he did yesterday morning, a morning after he moved me into his room, he woke me with a whisper in my ear and a kiss to my temple. I couldn’t believe all that happened.

It all seems so surreal. Between him popping the lock on my door to him kissing me, telling me to call him Jase, not Cerberus . . . I don’t know what I should be thinking right now.

Cerberus didn’t mind my scars. Claimed that he shouldn’t have let me get away from him back then.

He wants me.

I don’t know how I should handle that thought. Other than the first time with him, the only person I’ve had sex with is Dex and . . . that wasn’t sex, that was me being defiled . . . violated.

“I want to sleep,” I mumble and snuggle deeper into the pillow. It’s my day off. Today and tomorrow. I just want to sleep and be left alone. If I were at my apartment, I would be. I could even binge my shows if I wanted. That’s not happening, though it seems.

“Gotta get up, we’ve got plans today,” Cerberus remarks gently, sliding a hand up my bare arm.

“I don’t have any plans but to sleep today,” I grumble, squeezing my eyes tighter.

“Then I guess you don’t mind me staying right here and sleeping next to you, do you?

” Cerberus’s lips brush the shell of my ear, downward ‘til he’s at the crease of my neck, meeting my shoulder.

“I could just keep doing this all morning instead of taking you to do something fun, though I’ll admit this would be a whole lot more fun. ”

“We’re on lockdown, there’s nothing that would be fun to do in the clubhouse.” At least for me, that is. For Cerberus, I’m sure there’s something for him.

“Trust me, what I’ve got planned will be fun.” Cerberus chuckles.

“What do you have planned?” I ask, cracking one of my eyes open, somewhat curious about what he’s planned .

“You’ll just have to get up to find out,” he answers, curling his fingers along the side of my face. “But first.” He dips his head down until his lips are on mine.

Just like the other night and yesterday, his kiss makes my toes curl. It’s hot. Sexy. Causes something warm in my belly.

My lips open on their own, allowing Cerberus to slide his tongue in to duel with mine. I wouldn’t even say it was a duel. More like him claiming. Dominating. I love him kissing me. No matter how nervous it makes me.

All of this has me feeling a certain way, which I don’t understand.

Cerberus keeps the kiss from heating up further and pulls away, his eyes meet mine, and they are smoldering. Dark brown, nearly black, heated with lust. The look in his gaze tells me that he hadn’t wanted to pull away. I don’t know if I wanted him to pull away either.

“Time to get up now, baby,” he states, pulling away and climbing out of the bed. He bends and tags my arm. “We’re spending the day together and I’m not tellin’ you what we’re doing, so get ready.”

“Fine,” I huff.

“Just point and shoot, Ember. You know how to do this.” Cerberus nods toward the target he just finished setting up again for me.

I’ve shot guns before, but it’s been a long time, and I guess you can say I’m more than a little rusty. I barely hit the targets the first two times, and nicked it the third.

“Easy for you to say,” I gripe and glare up at him. He’s not the one embarrassing himself by not shooting the targets right.

Cerberus comes in behind me, his arms glide along mine, and curl around my wrists, lifting them. He dips down enough to whisper in my ear. “Relax. Breathe. Shoot.”

His voice, deep and smooth, sends tingling sensations straight between my legs like it used to. Like it did this morning when he woke me up.

Taking a breath, I relax my stance and pull the trigger, watching where I’m aiming. The bullet hits. Not center, but it was closer than what it had been.

“Good girl,” Cerberus murmurs against the shell of my ear. “Now, try it again. Aim slightly to the right.” He guides my wrists just the barest amount and lets me go. “Shoot, baby.”

I do as I’m told, aim, pull the trigger, and watch where the bullet hits. Bam! Right on target .

“Holy shit,” I utter to myself. I can’t believe I hit it where I did. Right in the center.

“See, you did it,” Cerberus murmurs, coming back in, wrapping his arm around my waist. The heat of his body presses against my back. “Now, do it again.”

A chill goes down my spine. Not in a bad way.

“Why are you doing this?” I ask rather than following his orders. Lowering the gun, I put the safety on and tilt my head back to meet Cerberus’s gaze. “Why are you making sure I know how to shoot?”

“I want to make sure you can handle a gun. You need to be carrying with you. Never depend on someone to protect you all the time. You gotta be able to protect yourself as well. One way to do that is knowing how to handle a gun properly and where to aim. You need to be able to aim to wound and kill.”

Kill?

I didn’t want to kill anyone. I don’t think I could.

“I don’t think I could kill anyone,” I whisper.

“None of us want you to have to do that, baby, but it doesn’t mean there won’t come a time when you need to know how to do just that.”

“But—”

“No buts, Em.” He interrupts me before I can say another word.

“With all the bullshit this club’s gone through in the past several years, the danger that has surrounded the women of the club, I’m not taking chances.

I want you to be able to protect yourself as well as be protected. You never know what shit will go down.”

What he says makes sense, and I like the fact that he wants me to be able to protect myself.

“Okay,” I find myself saying without thinking of anything else to add to it.

“Now, let’s do it again,” he states, his fingers coming to stroke my bottom lip briefly. “I want you to get three more hits, then we’ll move on to something else.”

“Something else?”

“Yeah.” Stepping back, he smirks and jerks his chin toward the target. “Safety off.”

Why do I feel like those two words have more meaning behind them than they should?

“Are you serious right now?” I look over at Cerberus like he’s grown two heads. “I can’t do that.”

“Yeah, you can, baby.” His lips tilt upward, the panty-melting grin of his sliding into place. “No, I can’t. Never, not even when I was younger, did I ever play paintball. I don’t know how. ”

“It’s a simple concept. Like hide and seek, but when you see the other person, you shoot them.”

Oh God. He’s nuts. Totally out of his mind.

“I can’t play in what I’m wearing.”

“That’s why we’ve got gear,” he says and opens the duffel bag he pulled out of the back of his truck.

Though we’re still on club property, we weren’t anywhere near the clubhouse. We were on the other side entirely.

Cerberus digs through the duffel, pulls out several articles of clothing, and hands them to me. “Put these on, then I’ll help you with the rest.”

“You want me to change into those?” I stare at his outstretched hand like it might strike me at any given moment. Though it’s stupid, considering the said hand is filled with stuff.

“No, you put them on over them,” Cerberus explains and steps closer. “But feel free to strip naked in front of me any time you want, though, now wouldn’t be a good time since we’re about to have company.”

“Company?” What’s he talking about?

“Company.” Cerberus nods and tosses the clothing articles for me to catch. “Paintball, isn’t fun without a little bit of competition, so . . .”

I could hear ATVs and dirt bikes starting to approach and glare at Cerberus. “I thought you said we’re gonna do something fun.”

“We are,” he states.

“This isn’t fun,” I mutter and change.

“That’s ‘cause you haven’t given it a shot yet. Just wait until after.”

We’ll see about that. There’s no way paintball could be fun. Not to me anyway.

By the time I dress in what Cerberus handed me, I look like I’m going to war, and I guess I kinda was. Cerberus adds a few more bits to my get-up, including goggles that take up half my face.

“Teams are gonna be divided into twos. Each of us will have a color bandana on our arms, this is ours,” he says, holding up a green one. “You don’t shoot me. We go for the others. Okay?”

“Yeah,” I answer, a bit disgruntledly. I did not want to be doing this, but since I am, I might as well go for the win.