Laurann Dohner - Slade

154

Slade

Trisha finished all of her soup, ate both slices of toast, and finished off her milk.

Moon took her dishes.

“I’ll bring you cookies and some more milk but I’m going to take a jog first. I enjoy a good run at night. Can you wait for your snack?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

He smiled at her and disappeared downstairs.

“I know,” Harley chuckled. “You could marry me and we could go live with your parents. I hear that humans living with their in-laws always have a successful marriage.”

Brass smacked his forehead with his palm. “Where do you hear this backward bullshit? That’s a surefire way to kill a marriage.”

Trisha laughed. “You’d run for the hills or worse if you ever met my parents and would probably buy a gun and shoot them. I don’t want to be married to a guy who’s doing twenty-to-life in prison.”

“Yeah.” Brass nodded seriously. “Then she’d have to divorce you for cheating on her inside the state pen.”

“Cheating on her?” Harley looked confused for a second and grimaced.

“That’s…just wrong! I am attracted to females.”

“It depends on who you ask. I heard once that some men find true love behind bars.” Brass winked at Harley. “You do have a nice ass. I’m sure I’m not the only man who will see it that way.”

“I’m never bending over in front you again.” Harley flipped Brass off. “And that’s not an offer. I have way higher standards.”

“Enough,” Trisha laughed. “You guys are starting to make my stomach hurt. Why don’t we give my tummy a break and pick up our card game? I was kicking some serious ass.”

“You were not.” Harley stood. “I’ll get the cards.” He strode to the stairs. “We were letting you win.”

“He’s a sore loser,” Brass whispered.

“I heard that!”

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Laurann Dohner

Chapter Sixteen

Slade turned when Moon crept up next to him. The wind picked up. Slade hooked his thumbs inside his jeans pockets, having gone home and changed before he’d returned.

Moon took a deep breath. “Are you enjoying standing out here listening to us cheer her up?”

Slade said nothing.

“You really upset her when you made nasty accusations. She treats us as though we are brothers and I can promise you there is nothing between her and Justice. I’ve been on her security detail for weeks and she just hangs out with us when she’s not working.

I knew she was sad but I didn’t know why until today.” He paused. “You shouldn’t have left her the way you did. Why would you do it? She’s amazing.”

Minutes passed. “I was afraid that being with me would endanger her. It made sense at the time but it was all for nothing. I feared for her safety above my desire to be with her. I’ve put her in much more danger now that she’s carrying my child. She’ll be a target for the hate groups and I unknowingly put her in more danger by not being there when she needed me.” Slade’s voice softened. “I also wanted to give her time to make certain how she felt about me but I really needed it myself too. Does she know I’m out here?”

“No. We told her we scented a storm coming. It is hard to want something very much when we have learned anything we value gets taken from us.”

Slade silently agreed.

“She thinks you used her for sex and you don’t care about her. She is carrying your child and hurting. Do you realize she is a miracle?”

Slade turned his head to glare at the other male. “Of course I know, damn it.”

“But you left her alone.” Moon shook his head in disgust. “I wouldn’t allow anything to stand in my way to be with her if I were lucky enough to find a woman similar to her who cared for me, especially not my own fear. I know all about loss with our shared past. I know how terrifying it is to feel anything because it opens us up to the possibility of deep pain.” He took a breath. “I would risk anything for a woman I loved.”

“She was attacked for her association with us. I believed being with me would only increase the danger. It wasn’t just all about my fear of growing attached to her.”

“She knew the risks when she took the job. She is smart, Slade. Homeland had been attacked before she arrived and it can happen again. She watches the news, sees the protestors spew their hatred of us to anyone who will listen when they make their 156

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threats, yet she still came to us. She allowed you to touch her knowing what Ellie and Fury faced and still do. She was present when Fury took the bullets meant for his mate.

You may have believed you were being honorable but you were wrong. She’s already in danger and the degree doesn’t matter. What does matter is having a strong male at her side to protect her if someone tries to harm her. You failed in that.”

Pain lanced through Slade at the truth of the words. “She won’t forgive me.”

Moon glanced at the house. “You need to make her understand how much you care and that you’ve learned how much she means to you.”

Slade glanced at the cabin. “Any ideas on how to do that?”

“Actually, yes. I’ll go inside and talk to the guys. I’m sure they will do what I say.

They care about Trisha and want her to be happy. I believe you can make her understand if you love her as much as I suspect. It might not sit well with Brass though because he is very close to her as a friend. Stop growling. There is nothing between them.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“I am going to talk to them and we will camp outside tonight after she goes to sleep. You are going to go in there to get your female back when she is alone.”

* * * * *

Trisha turned over on the bed and came up against a warm body. Her hands touched hot, bare skin. She gasped as her eyes flew open but it was too dark to see anything. She’d fallen sleep at some point and the men had gone downstairs. She scooted back.

“I guess the floor was too hard for you? You better be dressed from the waist down,” she warned the guy sharing her bed. She wished she had their keen sense of smell or sight to determine which of the three she spoke to.

“Mmmm,” the voice murmured softly. The body adjusted closer and an arm slid over her waist.

“Hey,” Trisha protested and shoved at his chest. “Roll to the other side of the bed. I don’t mind sharing but I’m not a body pillow you can curl around.”

He didn’t put space between them. “I’m trying to get some sleep, sweet thing.

You’re making it impossible to do with you pushing on me.”

Trisha gasped and tried to sit up, her hand fumbling for the lamp on the nightstand.

The arm moved from around her waist and she twisted away. Her fingers brushed the base of the lamp and almost knocked it over in her haste. She blindly reached for the switch and pressed. Light blinded her for a few seconds.

She turned and gaped at a bare-chested Slade. Tan, muscular skin was revealed to his waist where the sheet pooled and covered the rest of him. She wasn’t sure if he wore pants and didn’t want to know. The fact that he was in her bed shocked her.

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“What are you doing?” She couldn’t believe he was sprawled on her bed. “How did you get in here?”

“I strolled inside the front door I helped fix after you fell asleep.” Slade rested on his side. He propped his head on the palm of his bent arm and smiled at her. “Turn off the light. It’s the middle of the night and I want to hold you.”

Trisha gawked at him. “You leave me high and dry and now you want to hold me?

You dare climb into bed with me? Are you for real?”