I sprang into the air, forcing him to catch me as I wrapped my whole body around him and I grinned from ear to ear. The cold, wetness of his hard body surrounded me as he crushed me against him and he looked deep, deep down into the depths of my eyes.
“You can come in now. I won the dance off, AJ. I won you back,” I said proudly and his grip on me tightened as this delicious kind of victory danced in his gaze.
I bounced in his arms as his eyes widened in surprise. “In?”
“Yes!” I cried, hugging him tight. He smelled like rainy goodness and beneath it was something so masculine it made my toes turn into curly fries.
“Rook?” Jack asked and I looked up at him as I interlaced my fingers behind his neck.
“What’s up?” I asked. “Oh, is it because you’re wet and windyloo? I can dry you off with a towel when you come inside. I’ll need a big towel though, a big, big one. As big as a horse, or a van, or ten herons stitched together-”
“Rook,” he growled, peering down at me with water droplets rolling down the sharp lines of his cheeks.
“Yes, Jack?” I asked a little breathlessly. Despite how long he’d stood out here in the cold, his body was as warm as a burning beehive and I snuggled into it as rain dripped down the back of my neck.
“Stay,” he said and I wasn’t sure if it was a question or if he was commanding me to do so.
“I’ll stay with you always if that’s what you want, but I can be very annoying long term. People say I’m odd, do you think I’m odd Jack?”
His penetrating gaze roamed all over my face like he was drinking me up drop by drop and my skin tingled under the intensity of that look. He was staring at me like I was someone. Like I was worth something. Something so much more than anyone had ever thought I was worth before I came to this place which seemed to draw these wild men to live in it.
“No.”
“What do you think I am?” I whispered, my fingers itching to explore more of him. There was so much of him to explore too. I was a shipwrecked pirate on his island, and I had a feeling there was buried treasure right where his heart lived.
“Here,” he said, wrapping his arms tighter around me and I bit down on my lower lip as he tucked me tight against him, his lips brushing against the side of my neck and against the shell of my ear while I inhaled the rich scent of him drenched in the taste of the rain.
“Did you miss me when I left the asylum?” I asked, rubbing my face against the prickly stubble on his jaw as we inhaled each other. “We spent lots and lots of time together in there, didn’t we? I forgot about that a bit. The drugs made my mind woozy and swooshy, but I remember it better now. You were always there, Angry Jack. With your angries. Watching me while I fought to hold onto the me parts. I always liked your angries. Let’s go inside.”
He nodded, carrying me back to the house and shoving the door open, ducking his head to make it through and making my heart fall into beat with the solid thump of his stride.
Niall stood there with his arms folded and he lunged toward me, ripping me from Jack’s arms and pushing me behind him as I stumbled to regain my balance.
“She’s my little psycho, you get that big man?” he demanded, violent energy crackling from every inch of him and making my breath catch as he rolled his broad shoulders and faced off against certain death like it was nothing but a cat in a tulip patch. “Now I owe ya somethin’ for losing that dance off.” He strode forward, leaning up with his lips puckered and I giggled as Jack’s eyes slid over his head to look at me in confusion.
Niall didn’t give him a moment to avoid the kiss and their mouths collided in this dominant, masculine kind of way that got my Glenda all of a flutter as my teeth sank into my lower lip and I took a mental snapshot for the forever bank. But the moment Niall kissed him, he also slid something from his pocket and rammed it into Jack’s side, using his luscious lips as a distraction the way I’d always dreamed of doing as a honey trap.
The taser sparked and flashed and I gasped as Jack hit the floor under the assault of it and Niall jerked back to avoid shocking himself as well.
Niall left him kicking and twitching as the electricity poured into AJ and I beamed, hoping he was enjoying Niall’s gift, though I was tempted to drop down and steal some of the crackles for myself.
When Jack fell still, Niall grabbed hold of him beneath the arms and dragged him down the hall and through the kitchen towards the basement, shoving him inside and throwing the door shut. He locked it tight just as I ran into him, scratching his arms as Niall laughed.
“Not in your boring murder lair,” I begged.
“I said he could come back in, not that he’s a free fuckin’ man, Spider.” Niall caught hold of me by the throat, squeezing just enough to hold me still as he smirked in my face and I pouted up at him. “And I’m gonna be out all day tomorrow, so do you think I’m gonna leave that big beastie loose in my house?”
“It’s my house,” Mateo snarled from behind him, making me look his way as he stood in the corridor, as close as he could get to us without setting off his collar.
“Not anymore, el burro,” Niall said, drawing me closer and my pulse started to skip wildly.
“Where are you going tomorrow? Can I come?” I asked, my voice tight against the grip he still held on my throat while my body tingled from the tightness of his hold. I had to admit, Hellfire got me seriously worked up when he went monstrous on me like this, even if I was mad about Jack being locked in the basement.
“No,” he said simply. “I’m going to see my fiancée.”
A lump lodged in my throat that was full of pins and sharp pieces of glass. Something shuttered within his crocodile green eyes like he had seen the way his words cut me and wasn’t going to let himself regret a single one of them. “Oh,” I breathed.
“Yeah. Oh,” he said, eyeing my face closely. “That a problem?”
“Problem?” I scoffed, laughing a little too loudly. “Problems are for squirrels in the middle of winter with no nuts and no one around to peep on while they poop. I don’t have a problem. Why would I have a problem with you going to see your busty bride? You should bring her a big bra for her big tits.”
“Maybe I will,” he taunted, his fingers flexing against my throat like there were more words getting knotted up inside of him, but he didn’t give them to me if there were.
“Good,” I said lightly, but inside my heart was screaming. “I hope you have a wonderful time bagging up her milk monsters in her new bra, just be careful you don’t gouge an eye out on one of her pokey nipples.” I shoved him in the chest, forcing him to release his hold on me, his jaw gritting as his hand fell back to his side.
I ran away towards Mateo, shoving past him into the lounge and picking up Niall’s coat on the way, hurling it ahead of me. It landed on the stairs and I trampled it, jumping up and down on it a few times with a huff then sprinting upstairs into his room and throwing the door shut so hard the house rattled.
I didn’t care one bit about his uddery fiancée. Not one tit of a bit.
I pulled my crop top off, looking in the mirror on the wall and staring at my little boobs, gritting my teeth as I willed them to grow bigger. But they just remained there, staring back at me like two disappointing dandelions caught on a wayward breeze.