Page 167 of Speechless
Giving me a warning look, he tucked himself back into his pants and pulled mine up, making me presentable. Another wave of arousal hit me. That was a part of it too. Taking what they wanted didn’t always mean I would come.
I still struggled with the fact that I enjoyed being used like an object, but I did. Ocean’s words hovered in my brain, and I clung to them.If it makes you happy, then it’s no one else’s business.
Aiden paced back and forth in the living room. The twins had wet hair from showering. Bastian’s fight was tomorrow, so they were at the gym all day like they’d been since I met them. Logan seemed the most relaxed, but he still watched me carefully.
“Do you remember not even two days ago when you agreed to be careful while working on this story and to minimize your digital footprint?” Aiden asked. “Because I do.”
I looked at him. “Iwascareful. No one saw me except the gate guard and the guy who thinks I was a clueless blonde who was lost.”
“And what about this?”
He picked up his phone from the coffee table and turned it to face me. It was a frozen image of me, clearly from a security camera, pointing my phone and taking pictures. My face was clearly visible.
I pressed my lips together. “I perhaps… may not have thought about that. But you can delete the footage, right?”
Aiden took a slow breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s already done. But you can’t do things like this. I’m not saying it to be an asshole or to exercise my power as your dominant. It is dangerous.”
I slowly sat down on the floor. All my adrenaline had drained out of me on the drive home. Between that and getting fucked just now, I was tired. “I honestly hadn’t even planned on going. At least not alone. I was just sofucking mad.”
A little chirp came from behind me as Cinder sped into the room and leaped onto the coffee table and back off again so she could come to me. She meowed in greeting. “Hi. Did you miss me?”
“She did,” Logan said. “Pretty sure she was looking for you all day. And when she couldn’t find you, she found Aiden. Fell asleep on his desk.”
I looked at my Alpha who was still glaring at me. He softened the tiniest bit. “She’s cute, and she wasn’t hurting anything, so I let her stay. But the minute she starts chewing on wires, that’s it.”
“Why were you mad?” Brooks asked. The energy in the air was still tense.
The whole thing came out, and I finally told the rest of them about the story. I’d meant to tell them before, but we’d all been busy or occupied. “I pitched the story to my boss today. I already wrote most of the thing and he completely shut me down. He wouldn’t evenconsiderit. And he had the audacity to say that one of the ‘heavy hitters’ would pick the story up, as if I’m somehow not good enough to find the truth and write about it.
“The schedule said they were doing a load of cars today, so I didn’t think about it, I just went. Because this is my story, and I’m going to find a way to fucking publish it, with or without Edgar’s cranky ass.” Theychuckled at that. “Besides. Tracy did a lot of really good work on it. It would be a shame if no one gets to see it.”
Silence took over the room, except for Cinder pouncing after Logan’s fingers as he dragged them over the carpet.
“I promise I wasn’t trying to do anything dangerous. I just wanted to get what I needed for the story.”
“I’m still looking into everything,” Aiden said. “A certain Omega has been occupying my time.”
I smirked. “Guilty as charged.”
Aiden came to where I sat on the floor and knelt in front of me. I enjoyed the sight, because I imagined Aiden Fletcher on his knees was rare. “Promise me you won’t do this again. Going by yourself. I’m not telling you not to go, but this was reckless, violet.” His voice was so quiet at the end I barely heard it.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “I understand. I’m sorry.”
He slid a hand behind my neck and kissed me. I ended up fully stretched out on the floor while he consumed me with kisses that felt like fire. He jerked away, hissing in pain, and a second later Cinder peered down at me from over his shoulder while everyone else laughed.
Still, Aiden kept his eyes on mine. “I still don’t believe in coincidences,” he said. “So please keep this promise.”
“I will.”
CHAPTER FIFTY
_____________
BASTIAN
Ididn’t want to sleep, but I needed to. The fight was tomorrow. The nerves from finding out Trinity might have put herself in danger still zipped through my limbs. But going down to the building’s gym and beating the hell out of a punching bag wouldn’t help. Not when I needed to reserve the rest of my strength for tomorrow.
Water, then I would try to sleep.
