Page 10 of Risk (Gods #3)

“ B un-Bun’s not here!” Thea wails, staring teary-eyed at her bed.

I came up with Elle to help bathe the girls and put them to bed, leaving Zeus and Cam to have a little time together at the party.

Elle is Cam’s aunt, but she raised her after Cam’s mom died, so she’s more like a mother to her, and the girls think of Elle as their grandmother.

Aaron said he was fine with me leaving him for a while. He was happy, sitting there with my brothers, so I didn’t feel too bad. And I’m never going to miss an opportunity to put my favorite girls to bed.

But it looks like we have a DEFCON situation here. Bun-Bun is Thea’s favorite stuffed animal. She can’t sleep without it. Weirdly, our dad bought it for her first birthday, and she’s been attached to it ever since.

Seems he makes a better granddad than he did a dad.

Elle comes to stand in the doorway. I can hear the bath water running and Gigi singing along to a song in her room.

“We have a situation,” I tell Elle.

“I heard.”

“Bun-Bun’s missing, Granny Elle! You have to use your police badge and find her!”

Elle comes and crouches down in front of Thea. “Okay, baby doll. Can you tell me when you last remember seeing Bun-Bun?”

Thea’s cute little face scrunches up. “Me and Gigi was playing out back, and Bun-Bun was with me then.”

Elle looks up at me.

“On it,” I tell her.

I cup Thea’s face. “I’ll go get Bun-Bun from outside, and she’ll be back here with you before you get out of your bath.”

“You promise?” Her little lips are in a pout, and her eyes are glistening with tears. It’s heartbreaking.

“I promise.” I press a kiss to her hair and then make my way downstairs and outside.

I do a sweep of the garden, and my damn heels keep sinking in the grass. No sign of Bun-Bun out here, so there’s only one place left to look. The tree house, which is in the wooded part of their garden. Zeus put it up last year, and the girls love it. I’ve had many tea parties in there.

Lifting my skirt so the hem doesn’t catch on any fallen twigs and leaves, I’m just about to step through the trees when a voice calling my name stops me.

Kaden.

I turn to face him, ignoring the shivers that skitter down my back.

“What?” There’s no warmth in my tone.

I’m done playing nice with him after what happened earlier this evening. Sure, I’ve been cordial at the party when forced to be around him, but when it’s just me and him, I’m done.

He takes a few steps toward me. The moonlight casts a shadow on his face, but he still looks like the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. I hate that. And him.

Well, I don’t actually hate him, but whatever.

“What are you doing out here?” His voice is quiet, but I still hear it over the sounds of the party going on in the tent.

“Thea lost her favorite soft toy.”

“Bun-Bun?”

“Yeah. She can’t sleep without it. I went to help Elle get them ready for bed, and Thea freaked when she saw it wasn’t on her bed. She said she had it out here earlier when she and Gigi were playing. So, I said I’d come and look for it while Elle bathes them.”

“Want some help looking?” he offers.

The offer sounds casual, but it feels far from it.

Part of me wants to say no. The other part of me, which wants to spend time around him, speaks for me. “Sure.” I turn and walk into the wooded area, knowing he’s gonna follow me.

“You think it’s gonna be in there?” he asks, falling into step beside me.

“I’ve already checked around the garden, so I figure the only other place it could be is in the tree house.” My heel sticks in the soft dirt, and I grumble to myself. My shoes are gonna be done for after this.

“You okay?” he asks.

“Yeah, just heels and dirt don’t go well.”

His eyes meet mine in the dark, and I know he’s thinking the same thing that I am. Me taking my heels off in the elevator, which led to the kiss, which led to him fucking me in my hotel room, which led to him disappearing the next morning.

I look away. He clears his throat.

“We’re gonna need some light,” he says, taking his cell out. He puts the flashlight on, lighting the way for us.

We walk in uncomfortable silence in the direction of the tree house. It’s not too far past the tree line, so it takes no time to reach it—thank God, because I’m dying inside.

“You want me to go up?” he asks me, pointing the light at the stairs that lead up into the tree house.

“No. I’ll go.” My tone is firm, brooking no argument. The last thing I need is his help.

I bend over and unfasten the buckles on my heeled sandals, this time using the steps to the tree house as support and not him. Made that mistake once, not planning on making it again.

I leave my sandals at the steps and turn to Kaden. “Light the way,” I tell him.

He directs the flashlight at the steps for me.

I climb up, and once I’m up there, I take my cell from my pocket and put the flashlight on. I find Bun-Bun sitting in one of the little chairs they have up here.

I grab the soft toy that will help my niece sleep, turn off the tech on my cell, and pocket my phone.

“Got Bun-Bun,” I call out, stepping into the doorway.

His phone is still on me, lighting my way down, but I can’t see his face.

“Catch Bun-Bun so I don’t have to carry her down, okay?” I say to him.

“Okay.”

I toss Bun-Bun, and he catches her with the hand not holding his cell.

I carefully make my way back down the steps, not wanting to fall and make an ass out of myself. When I reach the bottom rung, I jump off, walk over to Kaden, and take Bun-Bun from his hand. I make sure not to touch him in the exchange.

“Thanks,” I tell him.

“I didn’t really do anything.” He turns off the light on his phone, putting us back in the moonlit darkness.

“I guess.” I shrug my shoulders.

I watch as his eyes are drawn to my movement and to my shoulder, which is bare. His eyes move over me, and it feels like it’s his finger tracing my skin in the darkness.

His eyes meet mine. And that damn electric pull that had me kissing him last time is back, but stronger this time, more insistent, because I now know what this man looks liked naked. I know what it’s like to have this man kiss me. Have him inside me.

He takes a step and erases the distance between us.

I don’t back away—because I can’t.

Because I don’t want to.

Apparently, he can fuck me, leave me in a hotel room with only a shitty note, not see me for weeks, and then act like a jealous ass when he does. Because my body has no intention of moving away, and my brain? Well, clearly, she’s stopped working.

His hand lifts, and he trails his fingertip over my collarbone.

My breath hitches. “What are you doing?” My quiet voice trembles, giving me away like the traitor she is.

“Are you with that guy?” That damn finger runs over my shoulder, leaving fire in its wake.

“No,” I whisper. “He’s just a friend.”

He presses his face into my neck and inhales. “Fuck, you smell good.”

Then, I feel the wet touch of his tongue, and I whimper.

“Taste good too.”

His hand moves around my waist, and he pulls me flush against him.

My hand falls to his chest, and I can feel against my stomach how hard he is.

God, I want him again.

He presses soft open-mouthed kisses up my neck. “I’m sorry,” he says, his lips against my ear. “I shouldn’t have left the way I did that night. I just…” He trails off.

He what? Got what he wanted and then was done?

But then I came here, and he got jealous, thinking that someone else was playing with the toy he’d put aside, but now wants because it’s not available.

I’m like Bun-Bun. Forgotten about and left in the tree house. Except, unlike my little Thea, Kaden wasn’t crying over losing me.

Fuck, why am I so stupid?

My body goes rigid, and he must realize because he lifts his head and looks into my eyes.

“Beautiful…”

I step back, out of his embrace. “I told you not to call me that.”

“You’re angry?”

Is he being serious right now?

“I’m…” I let out a frustrated-sounding laugh, shaking my head, my eyes going to the sky. “Confused.” I look back at him. “Pissed off and confused.”

“About?”

My eyes widen. Is he actually dumb to this stuff, or is he being for real?

“Are you being fucking serious right now?” I exclaim.

“You had sex with me and left me to wake up alone in that hotel room with just a shitty fucking note! I haven’t seen or heard from you since!

Then, you came over to me at the party, acting all alpha and ridiculous, sounding offended that I’d brought a date—”

“I didn’t—” he starts, but I lift a hand, silencing him.

“Don’t bullshit me. You didn’t like that I’d brought Aaron with me because it hurt your male pride that I wasn’t still pining over you weeks after we spent one night together!

Get over yourself! And then you followed me out here because that dumb pride of yours couldn’t handle the thought of me being with someone else, even though you don’t want me. ”

His lips part, but I cut him off again because I don’t want to hear his bullshit.

“Don’t you fucking say that it wasn’t that because we’re both smart enough to know that it was.

You thought someone was playing with your toy, and you didn’t like it.

Well, guess what, Kaden.” I lift Bun-Bun in example.

“I’m not some fucking toy you can pick up and play with, then put back down when it suits you. ”

I step up close to him and poke him in the chest with my finger, ignoring how beautiful he looks and how amazing he smells. Instead, I grab a firm hold of my anger and disappointment and lean into it.

“I’m worth more than that. I deserve better than how you treated me.

So, now, I’m going to tell you that I don’t accept your half-assed apology.

I know you’re my brother’s best friend, so I’m going to be cordial and pleasant to you when I see you at family functions, but aside from that, I want you to leave me alone.

And now, I’ve given you the gift of the ending you didn’t give me that night, and I’m going to do one better and give you the gift of you actually getting to see me walk away. Something you didn’t give me.”

I turn, pick up my shoes, then brush past him, and walk away.

And he doesn’t follow.

Just like I knew he wouldn’t.