Chapter Nine
KHALIL
Ever since the sheriff came for us, things between Aurelia and me have been slightly off-kilter. Thanks to Thorin’s constant fuckups, I’ve learned vicariously that Aurelia’s way of dealing with her hurt feelings is to ice us out.
In this case, just me it seems.
Except she wasn’t avoiding me, giving me the silent treatment, or picking a fight. Quite the opposite, actually. While she’s had no trouble fucking me, any real sort of intimacy has been nonexistent.
She doesn’t sleep in my bed.
She won’t let me hold her.
She’ll barely let me kiss her but will deepthroat my dick with an eagerness that makes my toes curl just thinking about it.
And we don’t talk about everything and nothing like we used to.
She’s taken away all the little things I didn’t realize I craved until they were off the table.
I am starting to feel like a human vibrator, a toy, which is fucking rich because it’s exactly what we tried to make her when she first arrived.
The thought that I’ve fucked up in some irreparable way has made me restless.
Especially when it became obvious that nothing had changed between her and Thorin.
I assumed Aurelia would get over whatever the hell was eating at her after a while, but after the first week passed, she was still rolling her fucking eyes at me whenever she thought I wouldn’t notice.
I was even desperate enough to confide in Thorin and Zeke, who only snickered and cracked jokes over seeing me like this—chasing and pining for a girl.
Since my brothers were no fucking help, eventually, I caved and finally asked Aurelia what her fucking problem was, but she just smiled and said nothing before fucking me. After the best nut of my life—and two for her—she went right back to icing me out like it never happened.
It left me scratching my head until that confusion turned to dread when I was left to come up with my own conclusion.
Things between us only seemed to worsen after that because now we aren’t even fucking, except this time it is my choice. I pretend to be asleep whenever she slips into my bed at night, and I leave the room anytime her gaze lingers in my direction.
Me.
Khalil Poverly.
Turning down sex.
I loved to fuck almost as much as I loved to fight. But with Aurelia, access to her body means nothing if I can’t have her heart to go with it. I am a lover and a fighter, and Aurelia is about to find out exactly what that means.
Today, I decided to put an end to her silent warfare once and for all.
I asked Thorin to find a reason to take him away from the cabin this morning and to take Zeke with him.
I didn’t tell him my plan, but he seemed to know anyway and wished me luck before dragging Zeke out of bed.
From the swollen cheek Thorin was sporting before he left the cabin, I’m guessing Zeke wasn’t too happy about being forced out of bed so early.
Once I have everything ready, I search for Aurelia and find her outside in our glade.
She’s kneeling over her garden, grumbling to herself as she shoves a trowel into the ground inside the newly constructed raised bed.
Oh, she tried to make them on her own but gave up after struggling for two hours to make one.
I’d gotten up early the next day and spent half the morning making several of different sizes since I didn’t know what she needed them for, but did I get a thank-you?
Fuck no.
She grunted when I showed them to her, which I guess was better than ignoring me entirely, and then proceeded to do exactly that as she consulted her gardening book to figure out which size to use.
I’d returned that excited, eager glint in her eyes, though, and I told myself it was enough.
I even caught her humming when I stuck my head out of the cabin to check on her after.
Aurelia’s back was to me now, so she didn’t see or hear me coming as I silently approached, only to realize she was talking to herself.
“Fucking asshole,” she grumbles. “Who the fuck does he think he is? My pussy not good enough now? Un-fucking-believable. I’m the one who’s supposed to be mad.” She shoves the trowel into the ground again with a growl. “Bitch ass. Stingy dick ass. Who needs you? I don’t.”
An unexpected grin splits the lower half of my face when I realize she’s talking about me and the fact that I wouldn’t fuck her last night. On the heels of my amusement is relief because at least now I know it isn’t the end of us.
She still cares.
Aurelia’s still talking shit when my shadow falls over her and she pauses mid-insult. A moment later, she goes right back to work and talking more shit even though she knows it’s me and I can hear everything.
“How are you going to pretend to be asleep, knowing I want to make love, but forget that you snore like a bear in the woods? Who does that? Oh, I know. Bitch ass bitches. What’s the matter, Khalil? Are you scared of my pussy now?”
“Got something you want to say to me, Goldilocks?”
“Fuck you,” she immediately barks like I haven’t spoken. She then huffs in frustration and throws down the trowel before sitting back on her heels.
My gaze passes over the garden bed that looks more like a dog dug a ton of holes after being let loose in the yard, and I realize belatedly what she was trying to do. “If you want to loosen the soil, that’s not the tool you want to use. You need the hoe.”
“Yes, I know,” she snaps as she snatches off the gardening gloves and stands. “I couldn’t find it.”
Because I hid it, but I don’t tell her that.
Last night, I overheard her tell Thorin that she was going to try planting the potatoes after their hunt today, so I snuck out to the shed and hid the hoe, hoping it would make her talk to me, but I overestimated her stubbornness.
Apparently, she’d rather make her job three times harder than ask for my help.
Whatever I’d done to piss her off, it must have been worse than I thought.
Aurelia turns around, but she doesn’t meet my gaze as she walks past me.
“Aurelia.” Of course, she ignores me and enters the cabin. I’m on her heels the entire time, so I easily catch her hand before she can get far, and I spin her around. “We need to talk.”
“No thanks.” She tries to walk away again, but my hands quickly snag her waist, and I lift her off the ground until she’s eye level with me, and then I keep her suspended like this with her feet hovering off the ground. She wrinkles her nose at me. “Khalil, put me down.”
“Not until we talk.”
“So that’s your plan? You really think you can hold me up that long?”
“Try me.”
Her lips part with a smart retort, but then she eyes my arms and the huge muscles bulging beneath my skin and sighs. “Fine. I’ll talk. Just… Put me down. I feel ridiculous, and you’re pissing me off.”
I gently set her down, and the moment I let her go, her lashes flutter in a telling way.
Before she can roll her fucking eyes again, I grab her neck in a firm grip and trap her against the railing.
“Roll your fucking eyes at me, and I swear to God, I’ll pluck every last one of your eyelashes out. Do not test me, Aurelia.”
I can tell she’s getting ready to do just that when she suddenly switches tactics and lets her eyes roam over my bare chest and eight-pack.
“What’s wrong, Khalil?” I feel my grip on her neck weaken at the sudden switch in her tone.
Every syllable is wrapped in sex now as she takes advantage of my loosened hold and pushes forward to cup my dick.
“I think I know,” she coos as she pets me.
“You miss dipping this big stick in my hot honey, don’t you? ”
I know she’s being crass to fuck with me, but my dick doesn’t care.
It twitches eagerly in my shorts under her palm, and Aurelia smiles knowingly as she rubs me.
She molds the front of her body against mine, and I can’t bring myself to care that she’s finessing me.
The fog of lust that demands I tear off her athletic shorts, throw her leg over my shoulder, and force my way inside swells along with my dick.
The promise of pounding her warm, sweet pussy until she weeps for me threatens to derail my careful plans.
But then I feel it.
The pulsing vein in her neck that matches the rhythm of her heart. It reminds me of what I’m fighting for, and it’s not her pussy. That part of her is clearly still mine even when she doesn’t want to be anymore.
I have to know why.
“Stop.” I swat her hand away before she can get it inside my shorts.
My hand is still around her neck, and I tighten my hold before driving her back against the rail again.
She makes a noise caught between a choke and a moan.
“When I want your pussy, you’ll know, and you’ll give it up like a good girl.
Now stop throwing it at me and talk to me. Tell me what’s wrong. What did I do?”
She rolls her eyes despite my warning. “Big talk for a man who was willing to fold at the slightest wind two weeks ago.”
So that’s it.
I drop my hand to keep from strangling her and tuck my hand into my pocket. “Explain. And don’t give me some smart-ass answer. I’m not with this cold-shoulder shit. Tell me what’s up.”
Her lips quiver as if everything she’s been feeling these past couple of weeks is suddenly hammering against the dam she’d built. When Aurelia finally allows herself to meet my gaze, the levees crumble away and the tidal wave of her anger and hurt hits me like a jab to the gut.
“You were going to give me up.”
“Goldilocks…” I shake my head in disappointment.
Never did I think Aurelia would actually believe I wanted to let her go.
I thought she knew I wouldn’t walk away from this for any reason other than to keep her safe.
“The sheriff knew who you were,” I remind gently.
“He knew he’d been played. What was I supposed to do, Goldilocks? Let you go down with us?”
“Yes!”
“No.”
Aurelia shoves at my chest, but I don’t budge an inch. “It wasn’t your decision.”
“You’re my girl. I’ll protect you however the fuck I see fit.”
“I don’t need you to decide what’s best for me. Other people have been deciding things for me for far too fucking long. It’s my turn. I told you I wanted this. How many times do I have to prove I want to stay? How deep do I have to cut myself open before you accept that I want to bleed?”
“And when are you going to see that we don’t doubt that?
” I shake my head. “Not anymore. You are owned, but we belong to you too.” Aurelia doesn’t quite meet my gaze as her own glazes over, and I can tell she’s overwhelmed.
“The real issue,” I say low and with a narrowed gaze, “is that you still don’t know what that means. ”
She throws out her arms in exasperation. “Tell me.”
“It means any one of us will fall on our sword for you without hesitation. And without apology.”
“You’re such a fucking asshole,” she grumbles without any real conviction.
“Yours,” I correct. Her eyes fly up to meet mine when I pinch and lift her chin. “I’m your asshole. I’m your very loyal asshole, Aurelia. You’ll always come first.”
“I don’t want you sacrificing yourself for me, Khalil. I want us to work as a team.”
“I’ll try to keep that in mind,” I say as I run my hands down her sides. “Now come on. We gotta go.”
Aurelia looks curious when I take her hand and start walking toward the front door. “Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“Wait.” She tugs on my hand, and I glance over my shoulder when she stops walking. “I just need a few minutes. There’s something I have to do.” Before I can ask what, since she’s already dressed for the occasion, Aurelia turns and rushes downstairs to the basement.