Page 60 of When We Fall: Part One

“Mm, you smell good,” I murmured into her ear. “I could just eat you up.”

In answer, she put some pancake onto my fork and fed it to me before planting a kiss on my cheek.

I glanced at Ass Hat, feeling pretty goddamn smug. He shot me a sour look before going back to his breakfast.

That’s right, fucker. She’s mine.

“What time do we need to go?” E called out. He’d spent the evening with our girl, and by the looks of it, it had brightened his mood significantly. I’d watched him fuck her on Enzo’s camera. He’d taken her several times last night, which I approved. I was going to high-five him the moment Ass Hat was gone.

In case I didn’t get a chance to, I’d left a celebratory cucumber in his underwear drawer. I’d even drawn a smiley face on it.

“Where are you going?” Rosalie asked, frowning.

Enzo shot an agitated look at E.

“Don’t worry about it, baby.” I kissed her throat, hoping to distract her. It was bad enough that E had protested this morning about the meeting. I knew if he hadn’t been in such a good mood, the entire endeavor would have gone south quickly.

He hated Celeste, but he wasn’t the only one. Unfortunately, her father was a big deal, and we needed shit from him, so if you needed shit, sometimes you had to eat shit.

“We’ll leave this evening. You have time to rest more if you need to,” Enzo said.

“If I have to do this, I want to get it over with now.” E rubbed his eyes.

“E, stop.” I shifted Rosalie on my lap. “We don’t talk about this shit in mixed company.”

Ass Hat scoffed. “What? You mean the fact that you’ve got to go meet with some asshole for shit that’s only going to drive you deeper into this world? A world that is going to take everything you love away from you?Thatsecret?” He tossed his fork down and glared at Enzo. “Did you even tell her?”

Rosalie looked from Ass Hat to Enzo and made to get up. He was making everything so much fucking worse. I tightened my hold on her to keep her in place. She didn’t need to say a word because I felt her small body tremble with her anger. Ass Hatwas putting shit out into the open, which would only make her think we were keeping more secrets from her. We planned on telling her we had a meeting with Vander Veer today after Ass Hat left.

“Enzo, what’s he talking?—”

I put my hand over her mouth to silence her. She fought against me, sending Ass Hat to his feet, his chest heaving as I restrained her against my body.

“Don’t fucking handle her like that,” Ass Hat barked at me, his face reddening with rage.

I tightened my hold on Rosalie, desperate for Ass Hat to make a move at me because once he did, all rules were off.

Rosalie whimpered against me from how hard I was holding her.

“Cole,” Fox shouted, getting to his feet. “You’re hurting her.”

“Then come take her from me, Foxy,” I snarled, knowing he knew if she weren’t between me and Ass Hat, we’d create a war right on the kitchen table.

“Anson, a word,” Enzo said in a calm voice I recognized as hisor elsevoice. Good. Maybe Enzo would finally shoot his ass.

“Did you tell her?” Ass Hat snarled again, his hands balled into tight fists. “If you tell her, I’ll have several words with you.”

Rosalie tried to elbow me, which only made me tighten my hold on her.

“Rosebud, baby, I love you to pieces, but if you don’t relax, something bad might happen to your friend,” I whispered into her ear.

She stopped her struggle and sagged against me, her chest heaving.

“That’s my good girl,” I cooed into her ear. “I’d like it more if you continued to struggle, though, because I really want to tear his head off.”

She brought her elbow back again at my words, making me huff out a gasp of air at the sharp pain.

I loved it when she was rough.