Page 6 of Honor and Claim (A New Reign #2)

Chapter Six

Z

N o clue why when I landed I didn’t go straight to my place in the city. Instead I’d gone back to the farm, without much thought to what I was doing. I knew Cosima wasn’t there, and she was the only reason I ever stayed at the family estate anymore. If she was there, then I would be too.

Nope, her little ass actually did what I’d told her and went back to Europe. The one fucking time she listened. It doesn’t matter what Cosima is doing; even when she is doing what she’s supposed to, she still has a way to get under my skin deeper and deeper.

Cosima is so deep now I swear she’s in my bones. She’s part of me. Even when she wants nothing to do with me. She’s made that all the more clear as of recently since she made the decision not to respond to any of my messages or calls.

I can’t say I blame her, considering how everything went down the last time we were together. I’m guessing the note I left wasn’t enough of an apology for her. It wasn’t, and I know that. I just needed a second to get my mind right.

I pull my helmet off and throw it as hard as I can against the garage wall, making a dent.

Doesn’t solve shit, but it felt good. I swing my leg off and over my bike.

I need sleep, and then I need a plan. What the plan is, I’m not sure.

I know what I want it to be, but I’m trying not to piss her off more.

I miss her sweetness, and I want that now more than ever.

It’s the only thing that will calm me, and I’m quickly realizing it.

Checking my phone I see Cosima is still tucked away in the small villa she rented or she thinks she rented and found on her own.

My girl is trying to be independent. That will never happen.

As long as I’m alive, I’ll never be able to take my finger off the pulse of Cosima.

That is a reality we’re both going to have to face soon.

She should be in for the night. I have an alert that goes off when she comes and goes, along with two guards that keep a close eye on her. Cosima is never out of my sight or without a guard close.

I’m not sure if she has spotted them or not, but so far at least it’s working out for the time being. I’ve been trying to give her the illusion of freedom. I’d been so close to ripping it all away from her.

If she thought she and Marks got away with their sneaky plan, then she really had no clue about all the things I’ve done and do when it comes to how close I keep my eyes on her. She’d lose her shit. I smile thinking about her throwing a fit.

I was tempted to go after her and drag her back, but I let her land in Italy.

We have a lot of contacts there. Keeping track of her there isn’t an issue, and as soon as the plane was wheels down, I already had one person en route to watch over her.

She had Marks with her, too, which I found extremely interesting.

Marks is clever, and I knew she too would have eyes on everything when it came to their security. I am also confident that if things did go to shit, she’d let us all know. She’d given us a head start the last time things had gone sideways.

I gave Cosima a week to calm down and then tried to message her. When she didn’t respond, I tried calling, but I got the same cold shoulder. I’d even watched her little ass send me to voicemail or roll her eyes from random surveillance I would hack into when I’d text her.

I enter the house through the back, not wanting to run into anyone, but of course War is standing right there when I walk in. I’m sure he got an alert when I pulled up. Should have turned it off, but my mind was on Cosima.

“Waiting for me?” I ask. He’s leaning up against the wall on the staircase landing.

“Just checking to make sure you’re okay.” I keep heading up the stairs. War falls into step next to me. I knew this discussion was coming based on the last interaction I had with him, barging into his room.

“I’m good,” I tell him.

“You weren't good the last time I saw you.”

“I am sorry about that.” I’d sent him a message saying as much. “It was an accident.”

War shrugs it off. A fucking lucky accident, if you ask me. I’d been on a drunken search for Cosima. Who knows how that would have played out. She was already pissed at me.

“I’m also sorry I took off so quickly after everything.” There was a mess that had been made, and I wasn’t here to help clean it up. Though it appears everything is fine; in fact, it’s going to end up making an assload of cash when all’s said and done.

"I knew something big must have been going on, and if I had needed you to handle anything, you would have done it from wherever you were. You tracked down our sister before I knew she'd snuck out."

"Not my sister," I mutter before I can catch myself.

"That is the second time you've said that to me." War follows me all the way to my bedroom. I pause at my door.

"What's up? You need something?"

"I can't talk to my brother? Or am I not your brother anymore?"

"Warren—"

"That's what I thought. Now go." War nods and gestures for me to enter my room, then follows me inside. Everything is as I left it. I don't want people in my bedroom, even staff, unless I'm here. Not with my computer system. "How are you and Cosima?" he asks as I turn on all my shit.

"She's not talking to me, so I suppose we’re normal." I turn back around to face him. "Is she talking to you?"

"Not at the moment. She and I had an argument." I can guess over what. I also might have heard the call for myself. I don’t give a shit that it was between her and War. She’s mine before she’s his.

"Marks, in herself, is harmless." For now, anyway. Marks is damn smart, and I'm sure her knowledge will only grow.

"What do you mean, ‘in herself is harmless’?" War asks, folding his arms over his chest.

"She is curious, and that curiosity is what has gotten her to where she is today, but you know what they say about curiosity."

"She'll bring trouble to her own door," War fills in.

"And she hasn't surrounded herself in favors when it comes to the government."

"You found more information on her?" Marks is good at hiding her past. Too good, in fact, which leads me to believe wherever she came from, it was mostly off the grid. Where that is, I have no fucking clue. She keeps that part of her life squeaky clean.

"I asked my handler about her. She was supposed to work on the same project I was, but she bailed.

" That had pissed her own handler off. I'm pretty sure we have the same one, only I have a closer relationship with Bruce.

He gives me more information than others, but I do have a higher security clearance than most.

"But she was off with our—" War cuts himself off, and I swear he fucking smirks. Which is not normal for War, but he's changed a lot since he got married. Tova brings out a more human side to him. Cosima makes me less human. Fuck me. “Off with Cosima," he corrects, not calling her our sister.

"You two fought over Marks and her getting her off the continent before you knew what was happening."

"I fought with the three of them when everything went down on the shopping trip." Wars' brows furrow together. "Those three together are…" He shakes his head.

"Chaos." They're all young and na?ve in their own right. War nods his head, still appearing annoyed. I am too. I would rather Cosima be here, but I had gone and run my fucking mouth.

"What is your plan now?"

"Plan?" I lean up against my desk, kicking my legs out. Where is he going with this?

"Are you sure you're all right?" He doesn't answer my question, instead asking one of his own.

"I'm good."

"You're off. Stiff." He shrugs. "Not yourself. Is it whatever you were working on or Cosima that has you in this state?"

"I'm good," I repeat, not in the mood to get into it. I haven’t even figured out what the hell I’m going to do about Cosima and all of these emotions she makes me feel. I sure as hell am not ready to tell War that she’s the reason for me being off.

That I obsessively stalk his sister and want to fuck the hell out of her.

It’s all I can think about suddenly. Sex isn’t something I let rule my life, but there is this force gnawing at me to take her, claim her. The hell is wrong with me? It’s not only about sex when it comes to my Cosima, but now it’s dominating my thoughts even when I sleep.

There is no escaping it, and it is only growing worse. Time away didn’t help at all, and it's only made me more on edge. And more than that, I'm missing something. I'm not sure what it is, but it's there on the fringe of my mind, just out of reach.

“You know if you need anything that I’m always here.” I give him a head nod. “I’ll leave you be then,” he says before exiting my room and leaving me alone with my thoughts.

I turn back to my computer and bring up the feeds I have on Cosima.

She’s asleep. I’ve slept like shit since I left.

When I do manage to get a few hours, I dream of her, and it’s always the same dream over and over.

I reach out and touch the screen, stroking her cheek.

She makes my chest ache in a way only she can.

I walk over to where I left the half-empty bottle of whiskey and debate taking a swig. I almost do but stop myself, going into the bathroom to pour it down the drain before I strip my clothes off and take a shower.

My hand goes to my cock, and I close my eyes as the warm water runs down my body. I start to stroke myself, letting that fantasy dream play back through my mind. I swear I can still recall the way her pussy tasted and how sweet she smelled. Those little sounds she made as she came for me.

It doesn’t take long before my balls are drawn up tight and I’m coming. I open my eyes and watch it go down the drain. The orgasm is doing nothing for me. That ache that’s been inside of me for weeks is only growing worse. I flip off the water, drying off.

I have to go to her. This not speaking to her is driving me slowly insane. I need to be there in person, not only because I know that’s the only way I can get her to speak to me but because I need to see her too. To touch her.

I grab my phone and fire off a few messages and see about getting my ass over to Italy. I get a message back about having a flight lined up. I should try and get a few hours of sleep in the meantime.

When I pull the blankets back on the bed to try to straighten it before I face-plant into it, I notice a red stain.

I lean over the bed to get a better look.

It’s no doubt blood. I might do my best work behind a computer screen, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get my hands dirty.

I’ve spent many nights out in the barn with Ronan and War when times called for it.

“What the fuck is that?” If I’d cut myself I would have noticed the next morning, even with a hangover and in a rush to get out of here.

I march back over to my computer to see who the hell was in my room while I was gone.

I keep a camera on my door, for security reasons.

There would have been an alert while I was gone if someone came into my room.

I start to backtrack through the footage but don’t see anything.

I go back further to the night I drank myself to sleep.

I watch myself stumble into my room. I fast forward to the next morning but stop when I catch sight of Cosima coming to my door. She knocks, tilting her head toward the door to listen. I had to have been out cold at that point.

Then she turns the knob, slipping into my room. I speed up the footage, watching the time keep going, ticking away, and her not exiting my room. What the hell? Finally, hours later, the next morning, in fact, Cosima slips from my bedroom.

I freeze the frame, zooming in on her. If this was anyone else leaving someone’s bedroom, I’d bet my life that person had just been thoroughly fucked. Cosima’s always perfect hair is a wild mess.

What the hell happened? I run my hand down my face before I keep watching the footage until I see myself leave with my bag and that note in my hand.

“Fuck me.” I glance back to the bed, a pit forming in my stomach. No, it was a dream. The best dream of my life. I go to rewind the footage to watch her enter and exit my room again, but before I can, I see her heading back toward my bedroom with a tray in her hand.

She enters my room again, this time not bothering to knock. A few moments later she is coming back out with the tray, an irritated expression on her face. Then she disappears out of sight. My guess is to return to her room and find that note.

My mind starts to race. I rush back over to the bed. “No, no, no fucking way.” I grab the sheet, ripping it off the bed to inspect it closer.

What the fuck have I done?