Page 37 of Swerve (Boosted Hearts 1)

I wanted to take her home, with me, where she belonged.

Lulu handed her a mug of coffee and some ibuprofen and they sat on the couch together. Josh squeezed in between them waving his book around, trying to get one of them to read it.

A delicate fairy who’d had the ever-loving fuck beaten out of her. When I looked at Ruby, I didn’t just see the woman she was now, I saw the little girl she’d been, the one clinging to me after her mother had finished cutting her down. It used to take me hours to build her back up, to make her believe she was worth ten of that fucking bitch. Jesus, this whole situation with her was a mind fuck on every level.

But bottom line, Ruby was mine, and seeing her like this set off every one of my already over the top possessive instincts. I’d gone into her room last night, intending to check on her and leave. I couldn’t. I’d taken one look at her bruised face, hands curled under her chin, knees drawn up, and I’d tugged off my shirt and climbed in with her before I knew what the fuck I was doing. I’d needed her beside me. I’d barely slept, had done what I had to to appease the protective monster inside me, roaring to take her home, chain her there where I could keep her safe, keep her to myself. So I’d know exactly where she was while I hunted down the fucker who hurt her and made him scream the same way I’d heard Ruby scream on that goddamn message she’d left me.

My gaze slid over her petite, curvy little body and I had to resist the urge to reach down and adjust my dick. It was probably wrong to want her as bad as I did at a time like this, but there was no denying it. I wanted her in a way that was driving me half mad. I’d resisted for so long that now I’d decided to stop fighting it, there was no reining it in. It didn’t help that Ruby made these little noises when she slept, always had. I’d thought they were cute when she was a kid, but now they were kind of different. Breathy, lower. Honestly, they sounded like someone was playing with her pussy, sucking her sweet little nipples, getting her all worked up. And just to make matters worse, I’d realized when I slid in beside her and felt her silky thigh under my hand that she’d taken her pants off. Which meant I spent most of the night worked up as well, my jeans strangling my dick.

Then she’d woken up, all sleepy and cute and sexy as fuck, blinking up at me with those big, doll-like baby blues, and I’d nearly blown in my boxers. My hand had ended up on her hip, all on its own, right over the Superman symbol ink there, and it had taken everything in me not to shove down the side of her panties and press my lips to it. But she wasn’t ready for what I wanted from her—shit, I didn’t know if I was. But it was going to happen. Everything was going to be different from here on out.

Instead of sharing this with her, I’d kept it light, kept that leash tight, doing my damnedest to build back the trust between us that I’d decimated.

“You keep looking at her like that, you’ll freak her out,” Hunter said, coming to stand beside me.

“Like what?” Shit, my voice sounded as tight as my jeans felt right then.

“Like you just stamped Property of Neco across her forehead,” Hunter said low, so only I could hear him.

I grunted. Not looking at her wasn’t an option. And he wasn’t wrong, that’s exactly how I felt.

“You hear from Jude this morning?” he asked.

I shook my head. Jude was using his contacts in the force to keep me updated on Ruby’s case. If they had a lead on Scott, I wanted to know about it. I planned to get to him first. “Not yet, but I’ve put out a few lines of my own as well.”

“I called Raul. He’ll keep his ear to the ground.”

“Thanks.”

Hunter frowned. “You don’t need to thank me. Ruby’s one of us, she’s family.” He moved, blocking my view of her. “Man, I have to ask . . . what exactly do you think you’re doing with her?”

I held my best friend’s stare, letting him see how serious I was, because Hunter meant what he said. He considered Ruby family, which meant I had to give him something, whether I felt I needed to or not. “What I should have done a long time ago.”

One of his brows lifted. “She know about this?”

“She will.” I crossed my arms.

Hunter glanced over at his woman then back. “And what if she doesn’t want the same thing?”

Then God help us both. I didn’t say that, though. Instead, I said simply, “She’s mine.” If anyone understood where I was coming from, it was Hunter.

My friend crossed his arms. “I get that, but Ruby isn’t someone to try this relationship thing out on to see if it sticks, Nec. You fuck her around, even unintentionally, and the end result is you hurting her? You will lose her forever.”

That’s why I had every intention of keeping the part of myself, the part capable of just that, away from her. “I won’t let that happen.”

“Emotions are high, brother. Why don’t you let shit die down before you make a decision like this?”

“Remember when I told you the same thing? When I told you to cool down before you went after Lulu?” I shook my head. “Did you listen to me?”

His nostrils flared. “No, but then I abducted her and fucked up so bad she was taken by her stepfather and almost raped and killed.”

Shit. “I know what I’m doing.”

“Just think before you act. Once you get her in your bed, you can never go back,” Hunter growled. “You don’t know this, because you’ve never been a real relationship, but once you take that step with her, nothing will ever be the same between you again.”

I knew it, which is exactly why I wanted it so bad. Once I had her under me, once she’d taken me inside her, and I’d heard her scream in pleasure instead of pain, she’d know exactly who she belonged to. There’d be no more of her reckless shit. I’d know exactly where she was, who she was with. I could keep her safe. I’d come home to her, have her in my bed every night, wake up beside her every morning.

Sounded perfect to me.