Chapter 31 #4
“We’re so close.” I turn from Bohnes to look at Ash and Alexei on my other side. On the TV screen, we can see Valeria stripping down to get in the shower. Nobody is paying attention to her. She doesn’t matter. “You boys trust me, don’t you?”
“I’ve made the fatal mistake of doubting your conviction once.
” Alexei reaches up out of habit and takes Ash’s wrist, forcing his hand away from his hair so that he can’t yank on it in agitation.
“I’ll not do it again. That isn’t to say I’ll never offer advice or opinion, only that I’ll think with logic instead of emotion.
You have my full and complete trust in your integrity and in your honor. ”
“I…” Ash is stuttering a little, thrown off by what he just witnessed, no doubt.
His eyes are large and questing, searching mine for something that he’s seemingly able to find in short order.
He turns and puts his face in the crook of my neck, melting against me and pressing those expertly-molded lips of his to my throat.
“The happier you make me, the more afraid I become. I rarely ever was in the past, because what I had to lose was worth so little. Now that I have everything—”
“Ash.” I curl my right arm around his head from behind, holding him tightly against me. “You are my everything. If you think of it like that, you understand, don’t you? There’s nothing we won’t do to defend you.”
He pulls away from me, forcefully enough that my arm falls from his shoulder, and Widow actually sits up again to stare at him.
“It’s not about you defending me.” Ash looks back at the TV screen, watching as Valeria calmly wraps a towel around herself and steps over Trish’s body on her way into the bedroom.
That just about sums up how these people behave.
“It’s about me defending all of you.” Ash reaches back, feeling around for the sword where it rests on top of the headboard.
He doesn’t take it down, just touches it for reassurance and then drops his hand back into his lap.
“You are my everything, too. All of you. I…don’t ever want things to change.
I’d be happy like this, the way we are, forever. ”
“Do you trust me?” I repeat, grabbing Widow’s hand without looking at him.
He was clenching it too tight, stretching out that spiderweb tattoo.
“The five of us, together, that’s how we’re going to get through it.
People like Jonas, the one thing they don’t understand is loyalty. That’s our trump card.”
“I trust you.” Ash has tears on his face that he swipes away with the back of his inked left hand. “And I love you. All of you. Not just Scarlett.”
“You love me?” Widow repeats, sounding…pleased? Aw, fuck. Between that Bohnes/Widow hug and Alexei cleaning Ash’s ice cream off his hands, I’ll be dead from bromance overload before this thing is over. “I love you, too, man.”
“What am I, chopped liver?” Bohnes asks dramatically, smiling wickedly before he grabs Widow from behind in another impromptu hug and squeezes him in a way that totally discombobulates Adrian’s brain.
“I love you, Kellin.” Alexei’s voice is smooth and relaxed. It’s not difficult for him to say that, not at all. “Does that make it better?”
“Do you need a hug, too?” Bohnes asks, possibly expecting Widow to fight back.
He doesn’t. He just stares at me from big, gold eyes like he doesn’t know what to do.
I can tell he likes it though. If he didn’t, he’d say ‘parking space’ or something.
Now Bohnes is confused, too, and they’re just sitting there, a pair of vexed Prescott studs.
“I suppose I wouldn’t mind one, seeing as you’ve freshly showered.” Alexei studies Ash beside him like he’s making up his mind to do something terrifying and brave. With a firm, determined set to his lips, he reaches out and gives Ash a hug instead.
“Whoa, whoa.” I hold up both palms, trying and failing to keep a big, stupid grin off my face.
“Y’all are shacked up now, but what about me?
I’m a jealous bitch. You got sucked by Ash and now you’re snuggling him, Marie?
Never forget who the Daddy is in this house, and who wears the motherfuckin’ pants. ”
“As if you’d ever let that subject drop” Widow replies saucily, putting his hand on Bohnes’ interlaced fingers like he might push him off. He doesn’t. He gives him a pat before Kellin finally retreats, slumping back against the headboard with a bedazzled expression that’s too precious for words.
Ash is pleased enough with the hug that his face colors with a slight flush, and I realize that something as simple as this, as ice cream with friends and a snuggle, that’s something he’s never had in all his life. Alexei doesn’t even change his gloves or shower or anything after.
We all sort of end up squashed together in the middle of the bed, skin to skin and heart to heart. A fuckboy cuddle pile.
It’s dark and quiet in our bedroom as we all watch Valeria successfully locate and then stare into one of Hype’s tiny cameras.
“Jonas is never going to—” she begins, and I cut her off by using the remote to turn off the TV.
I’d rather have an orgy than listen to the ramblings of a woman that’s already dead, but just doesn’t know it yet.