Chapter Two
Amelie
Ugh. I give up after half an hour or so, and storm back to the house. I’m pissed, and it’s a damn shame Laura is out right now because she’s just who I need to relieve my anger.
I curse him all the way through Monty’s ridiculous house, until I hear a second set of footsteps. I look up and make eye contact with Slate.
My heart stops.
It was easy to avoid him while I was in Australia or in a room with his brothers, but as he moves closer I can’t pretend I didn’t see him.
I squeeze my eyes shut and hope he just passes by.
I’m not ready to deal with him. How is it fair on him that I couldn’t even look at him, I couldn’t comfort him, I couldn’t bear the thought that he was okay and Onyx wasn’t because I would have to look at his face and be reminded of what I had lost?
I know none of those feelings were rational but he didn’t deserve that.
I pushed him away to spare my own heart, not caring that I was hurting his.
And now I don’t know how to fix things. I don’t know if I’m ready to.
“Whoa, where’s the fire?” Slate asks, stepping in front of me in the hallway, arms out placatingly, but also blocking my way.
I don’t reply and try to sidestep him, but he grabs my wrist gently. “Amelie, please.”
I pause before I look back at him, avoiding his eyes. “I can’t Slate.”
“You can’t what, Amelie? Because from where I’m standing you're avoiding me and I don’t know what I’ve done.”
“You haven’t...it’s just…”
“This is bullshit.”
“It doesn’t matter what you think it is,” I snap, pulling my arm from his grip. Anger is better than guilt. Even if it’s forced. “Move out of my way.”
Instantly, Slate’s features darken and he looks more like his sullen twin than ever.
“What did Baxter do?” he growls.
“Nothing. He stood me up! Now move…” I take a deep breath and force myself to calm down. It’s not Slate’s fault that Baxter’s a jerk. “Please, I have a date with your brother.”
Slate gives me a wounded look, and even though it pains me, I tamp my regret down.
He steps aside, and I move around him without a word.
I know I need to put things right with him, to mend this rift I forced between us, but it’ll have to wait.
Onyx is my priority, and I’ve been away from him for far too long.
“Careful, Amelie,” Slate warns in a tone as dark as his brother’s. I pause and shiver. When he doesn’t say anything else, I continue on my way, but the air suddenly feels heavy with his threat.
I don’t stop walking until I get to Onyx’s room. I push the door open without knocking and it flies open, banging against the wall behind it.
Onyx is stretched out on his bed, arms behind his head like lord of the fucking manor when I storm in.
“Hey, you okay?”
I don’t bother to answer, or even close the door, I just stomp over to the bed and throw myself at him.
Our lips meet in a clash and I kiss him feverishly, trying to work out my frustration and annoyance with Baxter, Slate and myself. I swear all I do is fuck things up. I know they’d all be better off without me but I’m in too deep to pull away now.
“Hey,” Onyx pants pulling away. “What’s up? Do I have to kill someone? Not that I’m complaining…that kiss was…yeah… But I want you in the present with me.”
A sliver of guilt stabs at me but I ignore it and kiss him again.
“You have too many clothes on. I’m pretty sure I said to be naked by the time I got back.”
Onyx grins at me. “You’re so damn bossy. It won’t work with me, Amelie.” I huff in frustration and pout. He chuckles. “What’s got you all worked up?”
“Baxter.”
“I’ll kill him,” he growls, immediately seeing red and moving to a sitting position.
“Well, you’ll have a hard time because he’s not here. Stood me up and dodged my calls.”
“Okay? I can’t see that making you this mad.”
“I ran into Slate.” I mumble.
“I see.”
“What? What do you see?” I stare at Onyx and frown. “Aren’t you going to ask what he did or offer to kill him too?”
“First, he’s my twin. I couldn’t kill him for anyone. Not even you. And second, I suspect he didn’t do anything.”
I deflate. He’s right of course. “Amelie, I’m fine.”
I grit my teeth. I’m really starting to hate that word.
“You’re not—”
“I am,” he cuts me off. “And you have to stop punishing Slate and yourself for what happened.”
“I don’t blame Slate at all!” I protest.
“But you are allowing your guilt to push him away. You’ve hurt him, Amelie. And you need to put things right.”
“I know…I just don’t know how,” I whisper past the sudden lump in my throat.
“If I were a better human being, I’d send you away right now to go fix things with him, but I’m selfish as fuck and I’ve missed you. So I’m gonna be selfish some more and you can sort shit out tomorrow, but for today and tonight, you’re mine.”
“Shut the fuck up and kiss me then.”
“Not until you tell me you love me again.” He grins at me, and my insides squirm uncomfortably.
“Pah! I don’t love you,” I protest feebly.
“Not what you cried over my dead body.”
“First, you weren’t dead,” I snap, instantly getting riled up again. I'm still a little sensitive over the whole thing, and I’m definitely not ready to make jokes about it. “Second, you were practically dead, so how the hell would you know if I was crying or not?”
“Ouch, you wound me. What’s a guy gotta do to get a little love around here?”
“Look after my puppy, write me a song, have a monster cock…”
“Amelie—”
“You want my love?” I retort, grinning at him to show I’m teasing. Onyx has my love, he just doesn’t know it yet. “Earn it. Show me what you got.”
Before I can do anything more than wink at Onyx, he launches himself at me with surprising speed and pins me to the wall.
His arms on either side of my head cage me in and he towers over me, glaring down.
I have to tilt my head back to meet his gaze and when I do, I find lust there, not anger.
He feels so close his scent intoxicates me, but no part of us is actually touching.
I don’t want to be the prey in this scenario. Still, my breath catches even as I rise up onto my tiptoes, thread my arms around his neck and kiss him hard.
I dominate the kiss, something I’ve never really done with Onyx before, pouring all my anger and frustration into it.
But I also give him my sadness, my worry, my regret.
He takes everything I force on him and I don’t even notice that he’s been manoeuvring me across the room until I’m laid on the bed and he pulls away.
“Kiss me,” I demand. He shakes his head. “Kiss me, for fuck’s sake!”
He does. But he tries to slow it down, turning my angry, frantic tongue lashing into a deep sensual kiss. Every time I try to take over, he pulls away. I growl out my frustration.
“Onyx! For fuck’s sake! Give me what I want!”
“No.”
“Fine. Then let me go.” I try to get up off the bed in a huff, but he pushes me back.
“I’ll give you what you need,” he promises.
“But you just said—”
“What you want and what you need are not the same thing right now, Amelie. Trust me.”
He slowly starts to remove my clothes, so I begrudgingly let him because I’m pretty sure that once he gets me naked, his control will snap. It’s been even longer since he got any, so this ‘nice guy, take it slow’ act is sure to fail sooner or later.
When I’m naked and he drags me to the edge of the bed, sinking to his knees and spreading my legs apart, I lose it.
“Get fucking real, Onyx!” I snap, closing my legs together as tightly as I can. “You've just had major surgery, get up off the floor!”
“I had a bullet removed, it was hardly major surgery,” he scoffs, blowing it off as if it’s nothing.
“Life-saving surgery is major. You almost died.”
You did die, I think, remembering my dream from earlier.
No, it was just a nightmare. It was a close call but he never left me.
“I’m fi—”
“So help me god,” I growl like a wild breast. “If you say you’re ‘fine’ I will snap your dick off, get it pickled, and feed it to Kalen when he pisses me off!”
“Alright, alright! Jeez, anyone would think you cared the way you’re carrying on.”
“I just don’t want to be responsible for you busting your stitches open,” I retort. Though I’m pretty sure his stitches will have dissolved by now. I think? Whatever.
“Fine,” he sighs. I shoot him a warning glare, and he hastily protects his junk. “Let me lie on the bed. No chance of doing any damage that way.”
He has a point, so I begrudgingly get up to switch places with him, pausing to watch as he strips off his shirt in that flashy one handed way that guys do. He makes it look effortless, and I want to ask him to teach me to do it too, but I get distracted by his abs.
My fingers itch to touch him.
Despite being out of action for several weeks, Onyx’s physique has not suffered at all. I frown. Surely that’s not right?
“What’s wrong?” he asks, spotting my confusion.
“Have you been working out?”
“A little.” He shrugs like it’s no big thing, but I immediately see red.
“Onyx!”
He kisses me before I can lose my shit with him so I attack him right back, wound up once again.
We fall back to the bed, this time with me on top, and I grind against him.
I want to drive him as crazy as he makes me, but my anger quickly gives way to powerful lust and just like that, I’m desperately longing to show Onyx how I feel about him. With actions not words.
Eventually though, we have to come up for air, and panting hard, Onyx grins at me.
“Climb on my face.”
“What? No!”
“Yes. If you won’t let me go down on you the traditional way, we’ll do it like this so you don’t have to worry about my stitches – which are nearly all gone by the way – but at least you’ll relax and we can both enjoy it.”
I guess he has a point, but… It’s sure as hell tempting, but…
“Amelie,” Onyx groans. “You’re killing me here.”
“That’s what I’m worried about. What if I hurt you?”
“That’s an insult to my bench pressing record and you know it,” he points out. “Besides, what’s the worst that can happen?”