Page 15 of While He Breathes

“Hey, now. I never said that.” He scans the room, and I know the moment he spots Orion, whose eyes are burning a hole in my back. “Speaking of insatiable…”

I don’t get a chance to respond before I find myself tugged against a hard body. Panic slams into me for a moment, but I quickly school my features. It’s Orion. I may want him dead, but I know in my heart that he would rather cut off his own arm than hurt me.

Max’s smile widens, as if someone hasn’t just torn me out of his arms, and I roll my eyes at him.

I shove at Orion’s iron grip, but he has both arms banded around me so tight I have no hope of escaping unless he lets me go.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I hiss.

“No one touches you but me,” he growls against the shell of my ear.

“Get your hands off me, asshole.” I shove at his hands once more, and he relents, alas, hesitantly.

I step away from him immediately, refusing to acknowledge the smug look on Max’s face. The asshole is Team Ember through and through, but he has a soft spot for Orion and has been the person who has encouraged me to speak to him rather than set up a revenge plot. To the point I’m not even one hundred percent sure this job is real and not just a plot to get me in the same room with the man I’m planning to kill.

I look up just in time to see Orion step toward Max, and I quickly step between them, shoving at his chest. “Do not cause a scene here.”

“Then he needs to keep his hands to himself.”

Max’s laugh filters around me, and suddenly, Orion isn’t the only person in the room I want to hit. Remind me again why I let Max talk me into this job?

“Bro, you havenothingto worry about where that’s concerned.” He reaches a hand past me to shake Orion’s. “I’m Max Kelly, and my husband is at the hotel waiting for me.”

Orion’s entire body relaxes at the word husband, and I can’t help but roll my eyes. Stupid, possessive asshole.

“You’re the one who’s been hiding her from me.” It’s not a question, because he knows without asking that it’s the case. Max and Darius met me when I was at my lowest. I was recovering from the hospital, still triggered by moving vehicles, and had a broken heart to boot. They set me up in one of their apartments as payment for the first job I did for Max, a simple information grab from a competitor, and they haven’t stopped helping me since.

Max nods. “I have.”

Orion steps forward, but I block his path.

“Move, Ember,” he growls.

“No.”

“Little Flame.”

“I said no. You won’t hurt him. You’ve already taken my brother from me. I won’t let you take anyone else.”

His dark eyes flick down to me, and he considers me for long seconds, as if trying to decide if he’ll be able to weasel his way back into my good graces if he has two people I care about on his body count. He must decide that would never happen because he steps back half a foot, giving me room to breathe.

Max’s mask hides only the top of his face, and the rest is still tugged into the smuggest smile I’ve ever seen. I guess I can only be grateful Darius isn’t here as well, because I’d never be able to live it down otherwise.

“Most people would be scared if I came at them like that,” Orion points out.

Max nods. “Most people aren’t best friends with the woman you love.”

Orion’s eyes widen ever so slightly, only enough that someone who knows him as well as I do would notice.

It’s obvious neither of his identities is used to being challenged, and I can’t help but laugh at his reaction.

Max grins at me before tucking me under his arm. His familiar scent calms me in a way I can’t explain, because the only other person who has had that effect on me is standing in front of us.

“Now, if you’ll excuse us, Ember and I have some work to do.” He spins us and guides me forward quickly, as if he knows that if he slows down, Orion will steal me right back.

“You know he’s a literal murderer, right?” I ask, but the amusement in my voice is clear.

“Oh, I know.” He chuckles. “But like I said, he’s trying to get back in your good books, and he won’t be able to do that if he kills me.”