Page 64 of Ramshackle
“I need you to get back to your training.”
Kellan rolls away from me. “I’m not sure how that helps you to sleep, but who am I to question what you want,” he teases with a chuckle.
The door clicks shut, and I’m once again surrounded by Kellan’s warmth.
“Time to get up, beautiful,” he murmurs. “I know you’re awake.”
Oops. Caught me.
I turn on my back with my arms raised over my head, stretching from my arms down to my toes. Kellan straddles me on all fours while I’m occupied, burying his face in my neck. “I know exactly what I’m having for breakfast,” he rumbles, and the sound vibrates from my skin to between my thighs.
“Nngh,” I groan, finishing my stretch and shivering from the kisses he’s peppering me with. “Kell, no. Ahh—” A moan slips out unbidden. “Stop!” I smack his side, but it’s like hitting a wall. “Jackson could wake up.”
My shadow is sleeping on the air mattress in the corner, but I have no idea how long he’ll stay that way. I didn’t have much to heal, but both he and Aiden had a significant number of injuries that Cassandra fixed before prescribing them sleep.
“And?”
“Andwe’re not doing this again while he’s asleep in the room.”
“Then, go wake him up. He can finish sleeping in the other room, or he can join us.”
My hands push at his chest. “Join us?! You’d…do that?”
Kellan grips my wrists in one hand and pins them above me. “Don’t get me wrong, beautiful. I’ll pummel the life out of any other man who dares touch you. I told you you’re mine, and I meant it.” His free hand seeks down my front, his rough, calloused hand slipping beneath my shirt and grasping my waist.
“But I’m not blind, and I know how you feel about the others. I know I’d lose you if I forced you to choose me. So, I won’t. Whether the others agree or not is on them. But don’t worry or stress over trying to hide what you do with the others around me. Sharing you with them is the price I’m willing to pay for not protecting you when you needed it most.”
When I needed it most? “Kellan, what—”
He cuts me off with his lips on mine, his tongue sinking in deep as he claims my mouth in hot demand. I wriggle in his grip,desperate to touch him, but he doesn’t let go. His kiss melts me down to my core, filling my limbs with warm molasses until I’m putty beneath him. It’s long and slow, like he’s taking his time to devour me.
Kellan chuckles when he withdraws, and my body instinctively chases after him. “Now, now, beautiful. What were you saying about not doing this again while Jack’s sleeping?”
I groan. Prick.
His grin sharpens as if he can read my mind. “Dress in something comfortable. You’re coming with me for training.”
My face falls while his back is turned to gather clothes from his bag. I try not to let the thought oftrainingtrigger memories with Gordon.
It’s just Kellan. I’ll be fine.
After a light breakfast, Kellan leads me through the bunker to a set of double doors. He doesn’t hesitate—why would he?—and shoves them both open to waltz inside.
Me? I falter at the threshold.
The training room is eerily similar to the one on the island.
“…you’re going to prove to me that you can follow orders…”
It’s a massive space with solid black walls and a lacquered wood floor.
“…kill the three of them simply because I am telling you to…”
A pile of mats is stacked against a wall with other training equipment lined up beside it.
I can picture the three chairs in the center of the room as clearly as I had that day. The three people I killed at his command. For Mallory. For…nothing.
My knee throbs at the memory, and I clutch the doorframe.
