Page 92 of Ramshackle
I haven’t been blackout drunk, where complete chunks of time are missing, in a long time.
Or…maybe I wasn’t? Didn’t we all just go to sleep?
The thought of Aiden springs to mind. I reach for it, trying not to panic on the reason why, but the only thing that comes back to me is Dane trying to convince me to talk to Aiden about something.
The blanket is pulled away from my face, and the strong smell of coffee fills my nose.
My eyes pop open.
Kellan grins at me while wafting the steam from the coffee mug at my face. “Morning. I’d planned to wake you in other ways, but food just got delivered.”
I groan and push myself upright. “Why did you order food so early?” I grumble, reaching for the coffee, then gasp when he moves it out of reach.
The man formerly known as Kellan breathing his last seconds of oxygendrinks my coffee. To my face. With a roguish grin and dancing blue-green eyes that says he knows exactly what he’s doing.
“It’s almost afternoon. And we didn’t order it,” Dane says from somewhere in the room. But I don’t take my eyes off the dead man.
I lunge at him like a lioness going in for the kill. He has one second of wide-eyed surprise-turned-laughter before I tackle him to the ground. My hands go for his throat, but he grabs my hips and flips us around.
Doesn’t matter.
I try to strangle him with my bare hands even while his massive body engulfs mine, and he could squish me without trying.
The bastard’s still grinning at me, and it makes me wild.
“How dare you, you motherfucking prick! You. Don’t. Tease. Me. With. Coffee!”
Kellan laughs and takes my wrists, tugging them from his throat and slamming them back on the floor above me. He leans down, his facial hair teasing up my neck to my face. “I think I still have some on my lips if you want it,” he mocks, and I snarl at him.
He licks his lips.
“You asshole! Get off me! You’ll be lucky if I ever kiss your lips again,” I rage, twisting and struggling in his hold.
Kell rolls away, and I rush to my feet. I jump onto the bed and then leap at him to land on his back. My arm wraps around his neck, the other arm holding it tight as I fight to get some advantage over him.
He grabs my arm and stalks to the bed, then jerks forward and throws me over his head so I thump onto the mattress.
And then the motherfucker steals an upside-down kiss from me while I’m too stunned to stop him.
“I love it when you’re all riled up.” He points a finger to my chest and the sprinting heart beneath it. “Now save this for training later, and you can try to kick my ass all you want there.” Kellan gives me another kiss and then squeezes a breast just to drive another nail in his coffin.
Oh, I’m going todestroyhim during training.
He sits at the portable table that’s set up in the middle of the room and gives me a knowing smirk.
Dane’s sitting next to him, his fork shaking in his grip as he stares at his plate.
All the anger pops like a balloon and leaves me in a rush.
He catches me looking and loosens his hold on the fork before giving me a small smile of reassurance. Which only makes me feel twice as shitty.
The coffee mug—thecoffee mug—appears in my peripheral vision. I sit up. I thought Kellan had dropped it when I attacked him, but there it is. Uncracked and still full. Looking around, I spot Jackson by the door. He sends the coffee to me now that I’ve noticed it and then strolls over.
I take the coffee floating before me and bring it to my lips, swallowing the bitter warmth and trying to contain my addict groan of satisfaction.
Jackson bends so we’re eye level and kisses me. I kiss him back, because I did miss him last night and I’m glad he’s back safe and without any blood this time—from what I can see. But I do cut it shorter than I normally would because I don’t want to upset Dane any more than I already have.
Jack smiles in that perceptive way of his that tells me he knows every little thing I’m thinking and then asks, “Did you have fun last night?”
