Chapter 31
RAFE
The moment Noelle’s lips left mine, a fire sparked deep in my chest.
Not anger.
Not entirely lust.
Hotter and more combustible than either.
She belonged to all of us.
She’d wrapped herself around our lives in ways I hadn’t thought possible.
A part of me wanted her all to myself, if only for a moment.
I wanted her in ways I hadn’t prepared for.
How did anyone prepare for love?
Lust was easy enough.
I appeased it frequently with Noelle.
There was no appeasing this clawing feeling that overwhelmed my good sense.
I’d dropped the clipboard at some point during our exchange.
“What about the toys?” Noelle blinked slowly.
Her lips were always red and lush, but now they were swollen with our shared kisses, and I wanted nothing more than to drop her to the floor and have her naked and trembling with desire.
I leaned in until the cold air seeped into my bones except where she touched me.
The warehouse’s shadows wrapped around us, and the world narrowed to the press of her breath, the tiny hitch in her chest when I grazed her jaw.
I wanted to hear every sound she made, catalog it, and memorize every sound when she became mine.
I tipped her chin up with a finger and kissed her slow and deep, waiting until I was forced to breathe before I ended the kiss. “They’ll keep. Unlike Saint Nick, we have more than enough time to check our inventory, and there’s such thing as a nice or naughty list.”
“I’d be on the naughty list.” Ash cupped Noelle’s ass and squeezed. “What do you say, Noelle? Time for another naughty ride?”
The suggestion in his tone brought a rosy color to Noelle’s cheeks.
Every damn wall I’d built to protect my heart, to protect her from me, crumbled at her scent.
Pieces sheared off when she pressed her fingertips to my chest.
The whole fucking thing came tumbling down at the warmth she carried.
I’d never known anything like this.
My heart squeezed and blood roared in my ears.
I’d never felt like this about anyone.
Ever.
I met Bishop’s gaze over her head.
His hands skimmed her shoulders and spine.
We all wanted the same thing.
Noelle smiled at him, at all of us.
Hell if she didn’t have a sparkle in her eyes that said she knew exactly what we wanted and was more than happy to give it to us.
She’d turned us soft in the best of ways.
I gathered her in my arms and drove the edge of authority and command into my voice. “Noelle.”
Her head snapped my way.
Curiosity and that same brilliant need I’d seen in my office flared to life. “Yes, Rafe?”
Her name on my tongue was supposed to be a warning, a promise.
It came out as a damned plea.
Ash and Bishop shifted behind her, giving me enough room to take control.
The heat of her body enveloped me, her breasts firm against my chest.
Her nipples hardened, and she let out a soft gasp when I flicked one with my thumb.
That fervent need to claim, to mark her as mine, obliterated everything else.
I lowered my hands to the hem of her shirt, already imagining all the wonderful, devious things I’d do to her body.
With a quick yank, I ripped the shirt in half and forced it off her shoulders. “You’re mine, Noelle.”
“Rafe?” Her soft, wary question on my name hit me like a slap.
My chest constricted. “What?”
She’d never resisted before.
Never.
She teased, and then she begged.
Even when she pulled away, it had been a playful invitation to chase her again.
This was different.
Cold fear danced in her eyes.
Her shirt fluttered to the floor, landing in a soft swish of fabric atop her coat.
I didn’t understand her expression.
She didn’t care that we stole toys and gave them away on Christmas Eve.
She wanted to help us.
She was the same as us, a sucker for helping others and desperate to spread love and joy.
So why…?
My gaze dipped from her eyes to her chest when she brought one hand between us in a swift move.
She stiffened in a way she’d never bothered to before, looking at me like I’d become a maniacal predator.
“What the hell?” It was Bishop’s voice that forced my head to move.
I dropped my hands from Noelle’s waist.
Something thin wrapped around my thumb, and I stared down at it, dumbfounded.
A thin black wire had coiled around my knuckle.
I tracked it to Noelle, followed the line of wire around her waist and up between her breasts.
Pale skin turned scarlet beneath my gaze, and she tried to stuff the device into her bra.
The world lost focus, then came snapping back with telescopic clarity.
Her hand.
My thumb.
That thin black line a betrayal stitched into my skin.
My mouth turned dry.
Every plan I’d made, every careful step to keep them safe.
It all threatened to unravel with that single, ugly truth stretched between us.
The wire glinted in the warehouse lights.
I shook it off my thumb with enough force to yank the small battery pack from her leggings.
It swung back and forth in an obscene manner.
I snapped a look at her guilty expression. “What the fuck, Noelle?”
“It isn’t what you think.” She shoved at the wire, her eyes glistening. Her voice trembled. “Rafe, I can explain.”
Her chest heaved, and she wiped away a steady stream of tears.
Yeah, fuck that.
She’d snowed us.
Every last fucking one of us.
“All those pretty words. All fucking lies.” I spat the word at her and felt a rush of pleasure when the color drained from her face.
“Do you have any idea what this means?” I spun and pointed toward Ash and Bishop. “Do you have any fucking idea what this does to them?”
To me?
I left myself out of it.
I’d dealt with worse, but Ash and Bishop were in this mess because of me.
I’d allowed Noelle into our home, into our trust.
Ash’s expression shifted from curiosity to betrayal.
He stood open-mouthed, his eyes locked onto Noelle’s tense back.
Bishop’s face folded.
He’d given himself a part of her when they sat by the fire and he revealed his painful past.
Had her cohorts heard his confession as well?
Bishop was almost as recalcitrant as me.
For her to betray him like that was unconscionable.
He stepped forward when she wavered on her feet, one hand out like he might steady her.
He froze, blinked, and dropped his arm to his side.
I’d been careful to protect them.
Careful not to let my walls slip.
Until Noelle.
Howling, I kicked the crate hard enough to crack the edge.
Wood splintered and sprayed in every direction.
My protective shell was gone.
I’d let her in, and she destroyed me.
The chill of panic grabbed my bones and shook them until I rattled.
Noelle stepped forward, hands raised.
Like that mattered. “Rafe, I’m not—”
“Not what?” I snarled at her, teeth bared and all the hurt she’d given me putting a cruel twist to my lips. “Not a cop? Not a spy? Not some sneaky piece of shit walking around in my life like you belong there?”
I ripped a handful of hair from my head, using the sting of physical pain to ease the rending feeling in my chest. “I trusted you.”
She flinched back like my words were physical blows. “I know you did.”
Another trembling breath slowed her tears. “I didn’t want to lose you before I knew I could trust you.”
“But you expected us to trust you.” Ash spoke from behind her.
He hadn’t moved an inch since he spotted the wire.
Like me, he seemed torn about the entire situation.
My pulse pounded so loud in my ears, it drowned out everything else.
Her mouth opened.
Closed.
Opened again.
She took a step back, and her hands fell to her sides.
She stopped fighting, and that hurt too.
I’d never hit her.
Not ever.
Not for any reason.
But for the first time since I met her, she looked at me with fear in her eyes.
Damned if I didn’t deserve it.
“Rafe.”
I still couldn’t hear her, but I was intimately familiar with the shape of her mouth when she said my name.
The wound opened further.
I shook my head and ran a hand down my face.
There were so many things wrong with this situation. “How long until they get here?”
My hearing returned in time to catch her cautious, “I don’t know.”
Every instinct I had begged me to get the hell out of the warehouse, but if the police showed up and took our stock, the kids wouldn’t have a Christmas.
Fuck that.
I’d break into the precinct and steal them back before I let that happen.
“You had the audacity to sleep with us, to tell us you were on our side, and the whole time, you were hiding this from us.”
Get the fuck out of the warehouse.
Why couldn’t I get my body to do that? “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to hurt you. I was going to tell you.” Her gaze dropped.
“Liar.” I stalked forward, picked up her ruined shirt, and shoved it in her direction. “Cover up.”
I could twist the knife by telling her that seeing her sickened me.
But there had been enough lies for one day.
Still, I caught the way her face crumpled.
She grabbed the shirt from me, shoved her arms through the holes, then snatched up her coat and bolted for the door.
None of us followed.
Not at first.
Bishop glared at me, then the open door. “What the actual fuck just happened?”
“Noelle has been spying on us. Probably from the beginning. We have to assume that the entire mission is compromised.” I gripped the edge of the crate hard and cursed until I ran out of breath.
Their silence pressed down on me.
I waited for one of them to speak, to curse and rail at her betrayal.
Bishop rested his palms on his hips but refused to look at me.
His gaze remained locked, his full focus on Noelle’s escape.
“I’m going after her.” Ash gave me a look. “She’s worth it.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, but I’d lost the heart to tell him we might be about to lose everything.