Page 49 of The Gift
I hear what he is saying. The way he cuts to the chase and says what Henley was kind of saying is clarifying. I have to use both hands on the steering wheel as keeps talking.
“I can taste your want from here,” he continues, his voice dropping octaves lower.
“Koda.” I sigh. “Honestly, I sort of freaked out at Henley because he didn’t know what to say, and now I can’t even tell you what I want.”
He chuckles, and I can visualise him pacing far away from everyone else.
“I’ll tell you what Iwant, how about that? Iwantyou to let me fuck you on your bed before I hold you in my arms. And then in the morning we sit down with my pack and talk this through some more. Give everyone the opportunity of spelling out what they want and how they see us working.”
My response gets drowned out by a motorbike’s engine roaring to life. And even though he doesn’t hang up, I don’t either. Admittedly, I don’t know if he can still hear me either but it adds to the feeling. And then I’m back to the night we had recently, the game of cat and mouse was thrilling.
It’s good the roads are relatively clear because my car is as responsive as I am. I wait until I see him on the horizon in my rear vision mirror before I floor it. My car rockets forward, and I slam aggressively through the gears as the miles climb higher. And with that, a sense of freedom washes over me. I’ve been so caught up in covering my ass for so long, now being faced with not needing to hide with the people who know my secret is liberating. Scary as shit but so very freeing too. Maybe.
I drive like an asshole. Too fast, weaving in and out of the tightest spaces, but every move I make, he matches. By the time we arrive at my place, my heart is jumping out of my chest, and other parts of me throb in messy anticipation. The cocky shit is off his bike before I’m even out of my car, his helmet dropping to the side, before he’s holding my ass in his hands and running up the stairs to my place with my legs wrapped around his waist.
We’re a clash of touches: hands, mouths, teeth, and tongue. He’s not quiet, but he’s not talking either. Admittedly, I won’t let him. His hands wrap under my ass, his thick fingers purposely hitting my pussy with each step he takes.
My nails are scratching down his chest, when he pushes away from me like he’s been stung by a wasp. Koda goes from nearly fucking me against my front door to physically vibrating with rage. He drops me, one hand on my back, as he moves me behind him.
“Someone’s been here, Bails.” His chin juts out, showing me what he means, and the front door of my apartment is slightly ajar.
“No,” I whine. “Can this day get any worse?”
He pulls me to his chest as he calls someone. I barely hear what is said—the panic beating through my ears drowns it out except for Ashton’s name.
Koda guides me back to my car. His eyes glaring around us as he watches like a hawk.
The double locks I had installed would and should have made it near impossible for my house to be broken into and there’s no way I left the door open. Even distracted by the past few days, I’m security focused. Always have been. It’s the nature of the secretive beast, quite literally.
He opens my car door, guiding me to sit in the passenger seat, passing a bottle of water for me to drink. He doesn’t speak, but his care doesn’t need volume. He squats next to me, his hand rubbing over the top of my shoulder.
“What happens next?” I say, breaking the awful, stilted silence.
“Once Ashton gets here, how would you feel about going back to my place while I see what is going on. It might be a false alarm, Bails, but it’s got me on edge. There’s no such thing as coincidence.”
“Is it related?”
“I’d say that the timing suggests it is. What do you think?”
“Koda.” I shake my head and stupid tears fill my eyes until he rubs them away, with his hands wrapped around my face.
“You’re safe,” he scents, reinforcing the fact, “That’s all that matters. We can replace whatever is taken or touched. We’ll repaint every room in your house and each of us will sleep in a different room until you can sleep a whole night by yourself.”
“If someone has been through my house, they’re going to see things I don’t want people to see. If you go in there, you will too.”
“I’ll always respect your privacy, darling. But if I think someone has been in there, I have to see, probably Hen too. Tell me where you don’t want me to go. If it doesn’t look like anything is touched, I’ll wait for you to have a look.”
“They’ll know, Koda,” I insist on a soft whine, tears pricking at my eyes again.
“Then we’ll make sure the world sees and knows different. Your way. I told you that.”
He leans in to kiss my forehead, and I sink into the touch and start to talk.
“In my closet, there’s a hidden part. Don’t look too closely, you’ll think I’m the biggest softy in the world,” I offer through a strange pout, but he lets me be softer than I’ve been for a long time.
I keep my eyes closed as I confess quietly what he needs to not look for, and each time I direct him to another place or secret spot, he kisses my forehead lightly.
And then we wait. He doesn’t say much, but he’s with me all the same.
