52 #2
“I sincerely apologise if I gave you the impression you could speak to me that way. Your growing confidence is wildly irksome.” His nostrils flare as the sharpened energy from Ezla’s armoury stick purposely nicks his skin as she angles the tip towards his chin.
She continues, “I like how you pleasure me. That is all.”
Teeth grinding, he grits out through them, “That’s not all. Stop denying the truth. You always fucking—”
“Don’t speak to my Havoc like that,” I snarl, advancing on him at once, and Scotty’s arm snaps out to bar across my chest, dragging my glare to him next.
“Okaaayyyy!” Tiger interjects before I can pummel his brother with my balled fists, raising both his palms up, then lowering them again slowly in some sort of .
. . meditation technique? I don’t know what the fuck he’s doing, but then, that’s not uncommon.
“Everyone calm down! Ezzy just needs time to realise she’s madly in love with us—”
“I am not. I cannot love. I do not feel anyth—”
“Now that’s a lie. We’ve felt you through the bond.” Cooper clearly won’t mind having his head removed from his body in the next few seconds since he’s being so bold still.
He winces as a drop of blood rolls onto Havoc’s Avri dagger, the energy zapping it away almost instantly—one of those freaky things it can do due to the commands Avri weapon’s and vehicle’s pixels are given during their original coding. “You do not know what you felt. And do not interrupt me.”
“I—”
“Please stop fighting . . .” Alby whispers before Cooper can escalate things even more, and I glance over at him to see him stood there with his head dipped down and his arms wrapped around himself.
“We are not fighting. Cooper would be in far more pieces than he currently is if we were,” Ezla informs him, and I adjust my dick at her delicious viciousness with a low sound of pleasure.
Alby’s hazel eyes bug out of the head that pops up, and he splutters.
“In any case, we are wasting time. We are not debating my feelings any longer.” Havoc demanifests her Avri and slips her armoury stick back into the slot on her shoulder blade with a click! before crossing her arms over her breasts.
“Feelings, huh? That an admission?” Cooper taunts, still not knowing when to quit it, his fingers twitching as though he’s fighting the urge to yank her back to him.
I can respect that. If he and the other three guys who rudely crippled my plans to chain Ezla to me and only me weren’t at least half as obsessed with her as I am, I would never let them stay around. Havoc deserves only worshipful devotion—no less.
“You are all pissing me off,” Ezla seethes abruptly. “You are irritating me.”
“So we affect you—”
“Yes!”
A stunned silence follows, Cooper’s lips parting. I hear Tiger’s dreamy sigh from my left, while my heart skips a handful of beats, and Scotty and Alby both gape.
“Now, shut. Up.” Body vibrating with tension, she continues in a more controlled voice, “If you store that information anywhere within you or repeat it at all, I will gut you like fish.”
“Of course, Love,” Scotty says sagely after he recovers from his shock, poorly hiding the smile on his face.
I only smirk, because Havoc’s affected by me. She definitely likes me, and that’s a step away from love . . . if she isn’t already secretly pining after us.
Us. Not just me. Not like it should’ve been. How I planned it to be.
Tsunamis of jealousy roar up within me without warning.
I tamp them down quickly, but those crashing waves are always there, simply lessened, I think, the waters gradually losing momentum as the days go by.
And I can tell Havoc prefers when we’re all together, even if she doesn’t yet know it herself.
And if she’s not happy, I’m not happy. Therefore, this is a sacrifice I’m reluctantly willing to make. Plus, the guys aren’t horrendous.
Cooper could definitely use some work, though.
“Grab your ties,” Havoc barks then, before whipping towards the range of gold cufflinks.
We hurry to obey, me snatching up a regular tie and dumping it in my bag along the way.
“Do you think these are all real gold?” Tiger asks, eyelids stretched wide as he moves to the stand by the wide range of cufflinks in glass cases. Shoving his hand into one of the open boxes stuffed full of arrow-shaped ones, he snatches up a pair of them to inspect.
“They are,” Ezla answers shortly.
“Really?!” Tiger slides a sly look his brother’s way. “We’re gonna be wearing real gold . . . Gold brother.” He tips his head back and evil laughs. “Mwah-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa!”
Cooper scratches at the back of his head.
“That was the worst joke I’ve ever heard in my life,” I expose what everyone is thinking.
“It wasn’t that bad . . .” Alby defends weakly, then grimaces at how little help that was.
“It’s okay, Alby. Some people just don’t get me!” Tiger places a hand on his shoulder—then pretends to sob loudly. Thank fuck this place is empty of the general public, because otherwise I think there would be crowds rushing over, believing there’d been a murder.
“Choose your cufflinks.”
“Of course, Love.” Scotty has a look at what each case contains, and I lean closer to do the same along with Cooper, Tiger, and Alby.
There’s crossed swords, daggers, the arrows Tiger now returns to their case, snakes, bears, tigers . . . Is that a cupcake . . . ? There’s tiny boats, clouds, simpler shapes like triangles and stars, all different kinds of flowers, and quite a few more. They’re definitely not short on options.
Tiger snatches up two tigers.
“Of course,” Cooper mutters.
“What? It’s iconic.” He whips his blond head around and shakes his hair out, then does goo-goo eyes at our Bonded.
Brows scrunching, I decide to keep my thoughts on the matter to myself in favour of pleasing an impatient Havoc, shoving my hand into the nearest case and bringing out a couple of the little swords that my thick fingers gobble up.
I catch Alby’s small smile as he chooses an arrow cufflink for himself before slipping his hand into the case beside those ones to grab a mini golden bow.
Huh. Smart guy—I didn’t think to mix and match.
Cooper grabs a couple leaf-shaped ones, and Scotty chooses snakes.
“Good. Let’s go.” Giving us no chance to change our minds if we didn’t like the cufflinks we’d chosen, Havoc spins on her heel and strides out of the sizable golden section of accessories and clothing and leads us to the back of the store, where a desk I hadn’t noticed earlier sits with a man behind it.
A man who’s looking far too eagerly at my girl.
“Collins,” Ezla greets in her usual tone.
But it does nothing to tame the cataclysmic flames of jealousy that roar up inside me.
“Collins?” I hiss. “Fucker, don’t look at her.” Not wasting a second, I shove myself in front of Havoc.
Only to have my legs kicked out from under me.
I land with a thud and lose any oxygen in my lungs.
Arousal redesigns that previously green fire.
“Do not. Ever. Do that again,” my Bonded seethes, her helmet drilling the sharpest of knives into my skull. “Do not stand in front of me like that.”
I falter.
I don’t like that. The emotion that just slipped down the bond from her.
I’m not the best with feelings, but I understand hers; I understand the way I stood in front of her like that made her feel undermined, as though another man other than her disgusting fucking sperm donor was reducing her in size.
My chest caves.
Sorry, my Havoc. Forgive me?
Please tell me she heard that. Heard the sincerity in my words, too.
Velvet silk swirls through my mind: I see your intentions were not aligned with the result.
I shiver along with the huff of relief I let out as I hoist myself up to my feet with the bag that had come down with me, moving back to my Bonded’s side and taking care to ensure I’m not one inch in front of her.
Then everyone looks back at Collins.
The dickface.