Page 44 of Stockholm (Angel of Mercy #1)

“Wanna try again?” Jesse says with a boyish grin, before he’s elbowed out of the way.

“Give me that,” Noah growls, snatching the joint from his hands and stalking around the table.

It feels like there’s a tiny delay between what’s happening and what I’m thinking, so it takes a moment before I realize Noah is dragging me from the kitchen and to the couch.

He sits down, tugging me until I fall into his lap, gasping at the dark look on his face. He reaches around and grabs the back of my thighs, pulling me closer so that I’m sitting snugly on his zipper. I shiver at the slight friction.

He notices and grips the small of my back with one hand, using the other to place the joint in his mouth and taking a drag, exhaling off to the side of us. “What are you doing, Emma?”

I peek over to the kitchen to see Bo sitting on the counter with Jesse between his legs, kissing. I look back at Noah. “What do you mean?”

He glares at me. “You know what I mean. Why are you doing this?”

I shrug. “I’m bored. You’ve barely talked to me at all, and I just wanted to do something fun.”

“Fun,” he repeats back to me, brows darting up. His grip on me tightens. “Shotgunning with Jesse isn’t ‘fun’, Emma, it’s flirting.”

“What? He’s already seen me…you know. What does it matter what I do now? We’re kind of past that.”

“I was there, though. I was involved. You just…I just need to be a part of it. Okay? ”

“Tough to do when you aren’t speaking to me.” There’s a sass in my voice I don’t recognize, but something about him just brings out a side of me that feels like it’s been buried beneath the surface.

“Oh,” he says, smirking at me and putting the joint back between his lips before narrowing his eyes at me. My thighs clench at his expression. “I get it. You’re doing this for my attention. Because I’ve been busy.”

I scowl. “Busy is not the issue. You’ve ignored me for two weeks. Ever since—” I peek at the others and back to him, lowering my voice. “Ever since we had…since we were together. I woke up the next morning and you were different. It’s like it was a game or something, and I’m the one who lost.”

This stuff is making me say more than I had wanted, and he studies my face, catching on the shine in my eyes.

His gaze softens. “Em, shit .” He drops his head for a moment, running his hand through his inky black hair.

When he looks back up at me he rubs his thumb along my jaw, causing a shiver to run through my spine.

“I didn’t do anything just to get with you.

We had some other stuff come up and I’ve been distracted,” he says. “Safety stuff.”

I listen, but don’t accept the non-apology. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing for you to worry your pretty little head about, okay? It was serious enough to get my attention, but nothing my family can’t handle.

I just heard back today and we’ve got it covered.

Now that I know you guys are safe I can stop feeling so crazy, yeah?

” His mouth tips up with a small smile and his hand runs up my spine, circling around the back of my neck and pulling me down to his lips, tasting the smoke on them.

“Now let’s discuss this brat behavior. It’s much more important to me. ”

I can’t hide the smile on my face. “I have no idea what you mean.”

His hands grip my ass, the joint dangling from his lips and I can’t stop staring at him. The rugged beauty in his face. The tousled hair that falls into his amber eyes in a way that makes my stomach clench. Those muscles in his arms that roll as they hold me to him.

“You thought letting Jesse kiss you would make me jealous. Admit it. ”

I moan as he flexes his hips slightly, rubbing his hardness against me. “That’s not true.”

“Liar,” he says, and the way he says the word makes me lock in on his mouth. “You did. But it won’t work, Emma. With anyone else, I’d snap their neck. But watching you try to make me jealous makes me so fucking hard.”

I’m locked on his every word, aware that the way he speaks to me seeps under my skin and plays with my heart. “Can I have another one?”

He points to the joint and I nod, so he takes another hit and passes the smoke to me. I cough again, his shotgun heavier than Jesse’s had been. He holds me tight while I recover, and when the feeling settles, there’s a sensitivity to my skin that has me feeling like a livewire.

“How do you feel?” Jesse asks, and I realize that he and Bo have joined us in the armchairs near the couch.

I nod, liking the way it makes me a little more open. Receptive. I tuck my head into Noah’s neck on impulse and give it a tiny lick.

A low rumble of a laugh deep in his chest rolls through me. “I think she likes it,” he answers Jesse. “But don’t forget that you’ve got a punishment coming, Em.”

I sit up, point at myself as I implore him. “Me?”

He nods. “I can’t have you putting that hot little mouth on someone else every time you want a little attention.”

I shouldn’t be so affected but I’m hooked and my breath gets a little heavier.

I look around, Bo watching me with a devious little smile, Jesse eyeing him. “Just me? Right now?”

“No,” Jesse says. “Bo, you too. You”—he looks around for something that he doesn’t find—“I know you took my Sleep Token shirt.”

Bo snickers. “You don’t know shit.”

Jesse bites his earlobe roughly. “I know enough to tell you you’re in trouble. Bo, Emma, go stand by the picture window. ”

I look at Noah, who’s smirking at Jesse, before turning to me and nodding at the large window facing us. “Go on. Time for your penance, angel.”

His words stir something dark inside me, and I crawl off his lap, the effects of the joint making me feel everything a little more exaggerated. Bo takes my hand and we walk to the window before turning to face them. His hand squeezes mine and he dips to whisper in my ear.

“You were perfect, Em. Look at how he’s watching you.”

“Enough talking,” Noah dictates, his eyes darkening. “On your knees.”

We do as he says, and I’m almost panting with need. I can’t look away from his expression, my need obvious .

“Now crawl, he says, and pats his knee with a devilish smile growing on his face.