Page 36 of Find Me

“Shh, it’s alright. I’m giving in. I can’t take that look of longing you’ve been giving me any longer.” He stepped even closer, molding the front of his body with mine. “I’m going to give us what we both want.” Then he rubbed his erection in his pants against my stomach and I felt the urge to vomit.

I didn’t know what he was talking about. I’d never given him a look. “No,” I said firmly as I tried to shove him back.

He grabbed me by my wrists with a chuckle and forced me to turn around. “Now, Shiloh, if you’re going to be naughty and play hard to get, I might have to punish you.” He held my hands together behind my back tightly and forced me to bend forward over his desk. His foot kicked my feet apart.

I cried out as he lifted my skirt over my hips. “Please stop!”

Please, someone save me!

* * *

Feeling defeated, I took a seat on the curb along the street in front of my house. I was tired and my hip was still sore. The bruise I had was large and ugly. As much as I wanted to run, my body was protesting. I itched to have a cigarette. It’d been weeks since I’d last had one and I was determined never to smoke one again. I had school in a few hours. So drinking was out of the question. My nightmares were only getting worse. Maybe it was time to go back to therapy. I quickly shoved that idea away. Therapy was the last thing I wanted to do.

My nightmare hadn’t woken me up too early this morning. The sun was already peeking over the mountains. I supposed I could go back inside and watch some TV.

“No marathon today?” someone said.

I glanced over my shoulder and found Knox standing behind me. He was holding a coffee mug. With his disheveled hair and sleepy eyes, he appeared to have just rolled out of bed. He was wearing black basketball shorts that hung low on his hips and a white tank that showed off his bulky muscles. The Stone brothers had the uncanny ability of looking gorgeous after just waking up. I hadn’t seen Keelan yet, but I was sure he was just as blessed. It was kind of unfair.

I looked away. “My hip is still sore.” Silence fell between us and I slipped into a daydream while staring out into the street.

“Want some breakfast?” he asked.

I peered back over my shoulder, a little skeptical I’d heard him right.

“The twins don’t normally like to get out of bed for another hour or so, but when it comes to you, they make an exception.” He was referring to the times the twins had come over for breakfast after I had woken Creed with my nightmares. “You can have the privilege of waking them.”

“Are you afraid of waking your little brothers?” I taunted with a smirk.

His eyes narrowed slightly. “No.”

“Hmm, sounds to me that you want to have a family breakfast and you need me to be the sacrificial lamb that has to wake the two sleeping demons,” I teased. I knew it probably wasn’t a good idea to poke the bear, but I was feeling testy this morning.

“Is that a yes?” he asked, trying to sound bored.

“Yes,” I said and bit my lip in an attempt not to smile. I stood stiffly from the curb and brushed the back of my purple leggings. My top was a matching sports bra I’d covered with a dark gray athletic jacket. I followed Knox inside and into the kitchen.

“There’s coffee, if you want some. Mugs are in the cabinet above the coffee maker and there’s creamer in the fridge,” Knox said while pointing to where things were before opening the fridge to pull out eggs, milk, and bacon, then headed over to the pantry and grabbed pancake mix.

Coffee sounded wonderful. I busied myself by fixing myself a cup. They had vanilla creamer in the fridge. I grabbed that. I was stirring a little bit of creamer into my coffee when Keelan zombied into the kitchen, rubbing his eye.

I had to fight to keep my face blank. There was nothing I could do about the blush that was working its way up the back of my neck. He was in red shorts, but he was shirtless. I tried not to stare at all his golden skin, chiseled muscles, andoh my,he had a lot of ink. There were tattoos sprinkled on his chest, ribs, hips, and his one arm that I already had seen. Only the upper portion of his other arm had a few tats.

Once he finished rubbing his eye, he noticed me. His brows shot up with surprise as he took me in, standing there trying not to gawk, before he looked at his brother. A Cheshire grin pulled at the corners of his mouth. “Good morning, Shiloh.”

“Good morning,” I said before taking a sip of my coffee. I sighed softly as the liquid caffeine went down. I hoped it kicked in soon. My body needed the boost. I took one more sip, then set my mug down on the counter and turned toward Knox, who was opening the bacon. “Would you like some help?”

His intense brown eyes met mine for a moment. “I just need you to be my sacrificial lamb.”

Knox was an intimidating creature. He was obviously a “take me or leave me” type of individual like Creed. Even though he had shown me repeatedly how much of a jerk he could be, I had a feeling it was a shield. Like Creed, Knox had a worthiness test. I wouldn’t be worthy in Knox’s eyes based on my character, which was how Creed decided. Knox challenged and pushed at people with his jerkish behavior. It was only a guess, but I believed that by not backing down, I might eventually get past Knox’s shields to see his good side. I refused to believe that someone who had taken on the responsibility of raising his brothers after their parents had died and helped raise them to be kind and wonderful was a bad person.

“Point me in the right direction and I’ll go wake up the Sleeping Beauties,” I said.

Keelan chuckled. “Good idea, sending her to wake them. She has a better chance of making it back alive.”

Knox pointed toward the hallway that was off the left side of the living room. I should have guessed because it was the side of their house that was closest to mine. I took off in that direction. Down the hall, I found three doors. One led into the bathroom and I assumed the other two would take me to each of the twins’ rooms. I tapped lightly on the first closed door before poking my head in, then walking in fully.So this is what a boy’s room looks like.It smelled masculine and it was tidier than I’d imagined it would be. Apart from the very full laundry basket of dirty clothes, the room was spotless. The room had a desk with a laptop, a dresser, and a queen bed pushed up against one side of the room. Creed was lying on his stomach, face pointed at the wall. He was shirtless and his faux hawk was smushed in different directions. I walked over to the bed and lightly touched his bare shoulder. “Creed, it’s time to wake up,” I said softly.

Creed groaned. “Fuck off,” he grumbled, making me laugh.