“Gather the troops. Strategy session here at noon,” he decreed, then zoom. I was in his arms and my hair was flying out behind me as he took off like a bat out of hell. Then we were suddenly behind the closed steel door in his room downstairs.
My hair (and body) whooshed the other way as he stopped us, put me on my feet, and let me go.
I opened my mouth, probably to yell.
He got there before me.
“Your father is pissing me off.”
I closed my mouth in order not to yell, because if I did, I’d probably say things I’d regret.
I took a deep breath.
“Fuck,” Abel growled, dragging his hand through his hair. “He’s like a biker guru.”
Oh.
Well then.
Abel focused on me. “It’s irritating as fuck when you’re pissed to an extreme for someone to fight fire with logic.”
I suddenly wanted to laugh.
Instead, with years of experience with my dad, I replied, “I feel your pain.”
Abel stared at me. He did this a while.
Then, quietly, he said, “I did what I had to do.”
All of a sudden not angry at all, I moved toward him, lifting a hand to touch him, starting, “Honey—”
“Apparently, it’s beyond instinct. It’s why I exist, Lilah. Yesterday was great. Fuckin’ loved it, havin’ time with you, gettin’ to know you. But it’s not in me to stay in bed fuckin’ my woman while my brothers, her father, and his boys keep us safe. It just isn’t.” He shook his head and finished, “I did what I had to do.”
I laid my hand on his chest and got close, murmuring, “Okay, baby.”
The tightness of his chest relaxed (well, not all of it; it was safe to say my man was built so muscle like that stayed hard, thank God) and I got closer.
“You need to apologize to Jian-Li,” I said gently.
His hands spanned my hips and he muttered, “Yeah.”
Yeah.
I liked it that he agreed and did it so quickly.
Hell, I just liked my werewolf vampire.
I got up on tiptoe and touched my mouth to the skin under his chin.
When I rolled back, he dipped his chin deep and looked down at me.
The brown was seeping into his blue eye.
God, I loved that.
“You scared me,” I blurted.
“I’m sorry, pussycat,” he said softly.
“You gotta do what you gotta do, honey. I won’t stop you. I promise. But I want you to tell me so I know where you are.” I pressed into his chest. “I need to know where you are, like…need. It doesn’t feel good not to, and when I say that, I mean physically.”
He slid his arms around so he was holding me, his face getting soft with remorse, showing me he knew exactly what I was saying, as he replied, “You got it.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
He bent his head and I rolled up on my toes to get his kiss. I thought he’d brush his mouth against mine. He didn’t. He gave me a sweet, soft, wet kiss that was also long.
When he broke it, one of his hands slid up to cup the back of my head and he tucked my cheek to his chest.
“Gotta go talk with Jian-Li,” he told me.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“You good down here by yourself, or you wanna come up with me?” he asked.
“I still gotta shower and do my hair and makeup so I’ll stay down here.” I put pressure on his hand and he let me tilt my head back to catch his eyes. “Give you both a little privacy.”
“Thanks, bao bei.”
I smiled.
He bent again but only to give me a lip brush this time.
When he lifted his head, he whispered, “Be back.”
“’Kay,” I replied.
Then, whoosh, he was gone.
* * * * *
“Rode Serpentine Bay north to south. No scent,” Abel said to the men congregated around the round table in the war room.
I was sitting in his lap.
This was weird, seeing as there were a couple of chairs vacant (one for me, one for Jian-Li, who, after she’d forgiven Abel for being a horse’s ass, had chosen to manage her restaurant and be briefed later about the session).
But when Abel and I walked in five minutes ago to a table filled with food, pitchers of water, and a variety of canned soft drinks and bottles of beer sticking out of a bucket filled with ice (Jian-Li knew how to throw a war party), Abel just kept dragging me to the far end of the table and then he pulled me right into his lap.
I didn’t mind sitting in his lap, say, should we be having a quiet moment or he wanted a cuddle. In fact, I’d love it.
But this…
Weird.
I didn’t protest, mostly because of the way he did it. Like it was natural. Like we’d done it a million times before.
It was not lost on me he’d had other women. But during a strategy session, I didn’t need to get miffed and jealous, thinking about how he’d had practice yanking women in his lap and conversing like they were seated beside him, not on him.
We’d discuss that later.
Now, we had more important matters at hand.
“So none except the ones at that hotel,” Dad replied.
“None except them,” Abel confirmed.
“You think it’s pertinent we move?” Dad asked.
“I think we should consider it,” Abel answered. “They know where we are and we’re an unmoving target.”
Oh man.
“That said, we know the lay of the land here, we got a network, and they might expect us to move, gettin’ us to a place where we lose that upper hand,” Abel went on.
“Where are you leaning?” Dad pushed.