Chapter 23
Chapter
Twenty-Three
“Do you plan on ever letting me out of this bed?” Maya asked, dotting kisses to his chest between each word.
“Nope,” he agreed cheerfully. As far as Thunder was concerned, being buried inside Maya’s sweet heat was a place he could happily spend the rest of his life and not feel like he was missing out on anything.
“You're crazy,” she said with a giggle that gave him a glimpse of the woman she would have been if life hadn't been so cruel to her.
The woman she was now free to be.
Even if there was a possible threat still out there, Dr. Gardner had been way off in where he thought they lived, so there was no way his mother could know.
So long as they stayed there they were safe.
Of course, he and his team would keep hunting down the woman until they found her, but Maya wasn't going to be involved. She’d done her part, and he wasn't going to risk her life again.
“Crazy for you,” he corrected.
“Aww, that’s sweet.” Her gaze softened, and the smile she gave him was everything, it dulled the haunted look that was permanently in her eyes.
A look he hoped would fade over time as she became more secure in the knowledge that she was safe.
She had all the time in the world to heal, and there was always a chance that Mrs. Gardner wasn't interested in coming after any of them.
Even if she was, she had no vested interest in Maya.
In Cassandra either. Although Rose, Whitney, and Indigo were likely still in danger from her if she decided to come after them.
“Only sweet for you, babydoll.”
No one else had ever given him the urge to be soft and sweet.
Of course, his team had become his family, his brothers in every way that mattered, but they weren't sweet with one another.
Rose, Cassandra, Whitney, and Indigo had become part of that family, and he was softer with them than with his teammates, but he wasn't sweet with them. The only other person with whom he’d been kind of sweet was Beth Lindon.
“I have someone I was thinking of inviting over to visit,” he started carefully. If Maya wasn't ready for another new person yet, he’d introduce them over text, and they could chat that way for a while first.
“Who?”
“Her name is Beth, and she went through something similar to what you did. Her family … they were evil, no other way to describe them. They sold her when she was about your age, and she spent years being kept in a cage. She was rescued by Bravo Team before they became Bravo Team, by a man named Axe. He knew from the moment he first laid eyes on her that she was his, but he never pushed her for more than she was willing to give, and it took them a few years to get together as a couple. In that time, he was whatever she needed him to be. He never gave up on her, never rushed her healing, and made sure she always knew he was there for her no matter what.”
Those big gray eyes of Maya’s studied him for a long moment. “Is that how you feel about me?”
“Yes.”
“Uh … which part?”
“All of it,” he answered honestly. “When I walked into that room and saw you, I felt this pull toward you that I couldn’t understand.
Now I understand it. You're mine just like Beth is Axe’s.
But I will never make you give me more than you want to.
Ever. You are the most important thing in my life, but you are in control of your life.
Whatever you want goes, and whatever you want goes at your pace.
I'm here for you. Anything you need, I will always put you first.”
Her gaze turned thoughtful, but it didn't lose the softness, so he knew she wasn't going to tell him that she wanted to head home to her family and not remain in touch with him.
If that was what she wanted, then he would of course go along with it and ensure from a distance that she was protected and looked after.
“I do want you, Thunder, but … I don’t know what pace I want to go at. I know I want to stay here, I know I like sharing your bed, I know that you make me feel safe, and more than that, you make me feel like one day I can be normal. But I don’t know more than that.”
“You don’t have to, babydoll.” Honestly, that was more than he knew he could hope for anyway.
“Everything else will grow naturally.” Capturing her chin between his thumb and forefinger, he pressed his mouth to hers, humming in appreciation when her lips parted for him, allowing him to sweep his tongue inside her mouth.
Definitely could spend the rest of his life right here.
What would he really be missing out on?
Eventually, they pulled apart, and he couldn’t resist pressing another kiss to her forehead.
“I think I'd like to meet your friend Beth. If she’s happy to come visit,” Maya added.
“She will be,” he assured her, and because he knew they couldn’t really stay in bed all day, no matter how much he might like to, he began to shift. “How about we get dressed, go downstairs, and see if everyone else is up for a visitor.”
Just because Beth might be able to help Maya as she adjusted to being free, safe, and able to live her life however she chose, Maya wasn't the only one who had been through hell these past few months.
If the others weren't up for visitors, they’d wait until everyone was on board.
They were a family, and they had to make decisions about their home together.
Maya gave a small sigh but lifted her hips and let him slide out of her. Then he helped her off the bed and guided her into the bathroom, where he carefully washed the welts on her backside before smoothing antibiotic cream over them, making her give another sigh, a content one this time.
Covering her up felt like a waste of all her petal-soft skin, but no one else was looking at her naked body again without her permission. Once they were both dressed, he took her hand in his, because he felt a prodding need to be touching her at all times, one he felt no desire to fight against.
“I don’t know how to feel about it,” Rose was saying as they joined the others in the kitchen, where everyone was sitting around the table.
“You can feel however you want, little ladybug,” Steel told her.
Beside him, Maya stiffened. “I wish I'd told you earlier, it might have softened the shock a little if I hadn't said it right when Dr. Gardner was dying.”
“Not your fault at all,” Rose assured her.
“I could have mentioned it when we were telling you about the guys and what happened to them.
I just … can't stop thinking about the day of the explosion.
Someone pushed me under the table before the explosion went off.
I'm sure they did. What if it was her? What if she saved me for some reason?”
Reaching for Rose, Steel tugged her onto his lap.
“I don’t know if she saved you that day or not, but I do know that she left you behind with your brother, likely knowing exactly what he was doing to you.
And she knew that he had Maya locked up against her will, even if she didn't have all the details about how he bought her. According to your brother, your mom was also the one who was behind the experimental drug program.”
“We don’t know that’s true, though,” Rose protested, then sighed and wrapped herself around Steel. “I just hate knowing everyone else in my family is even more twisted and evil than I already thought they were.”
“You're nothing like them,” Steel assured her.
“Well, you are a little crazy like them,” Thunder teased, making Rose laugh.
“I can't argue with that,” Rose said. “But without my crazy, things wouldn't have turned out this way. Ridge might not be dead right now, and we might not be here altogether.”
That was true, and Thunder hauled Maya into his lap as he took a seat at the table.
He wasn't the only one thinking that he might not have his girl without Rose turning out to be nothing like they were expecting, because Dragon picked up Cassandra and set her on his lap, Blade reached for Whitney, and Voodoo for Indigo, until the five couples were wrapped around one another.
Leaving only Lion all alone.
Thunder was about to suggest that the man bite the bullet and contact the woman from his past that they all knew he’d never gotten over, when all of their phones suddenly blared out an alarm.
“What's that?” Maya asked, sensing the sudden tension in the room.
“An alert telling us that someone is at the front gate,” he replied. “No one should be here. The only other person who knows this address is Eagle, and he would never turn up unannounced.”
“Do you think it could be my mom?” Rose asked.
“Only one way to find out,” Steel replied, their team leader snapping into his role. “Rose, Cassandra, Whitney, Indigo, and Maya, go to the saferoom and lock yourselves in. The rest of us are going to go and give a special Delta Team welcome to whoever just showed up here unannounced.”
Lion has to fight for a future he didn’t even know existed in the sixth and final book in the action packed and emotionally charged Prey Security: Delta Team series!
Flawed Revenge (Prey Security: Delta Team #6)