Brain(41)

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Brain



She shocked me by turning towards me and snuggling into me. My arms went around her, gentle at first, worried she’d freak out again if I held her tight, but as my arms went firm around her, she relaxed into me even more.

God, she trusted me.

Someone had hurt her, likely tortured her for days or possibly weeks, and then I’d captured her and held her captive… and she still trusted me.

If Duke had been in the room, I’d have punched him in the face again. My wolf wholeheartedly agreed. We wanted to find everyone who’d ever hurt her and rend them into a million pieces.

I was awake long after her breathing told me she was asleep. This called for a new game plan, another way to bring her to me, to make her mine.





Chapter Twenty-Three




Ice



I awoke in Brain’s arms, snuggled in as if I belonged there. I’d fallen asleep with my face towards his chest, but now my back was to his front, his arms around me. I should’ve felt trapped, but I felt safe. As if I was finally where I belonged.

But I didn’t belong in anyone’s arms, and never would.

If I could find someone of Brain’s caliber to hire as a bodyguard, to take care of me for the paycheck, but somehow instill enough loyalty so I knew they could be trusted… but that was a pipe dream.

I’d taken care of myself for years, and I would continue to do so. Perhaps it would work to give myself a few days of having Brain around, but he’d soon find out how fucked up I am, and I’d be on my own again.

My IQ puts me in the top one percent of the planet, and I’d venture to say Brain is in the same league. I’d dated a few people nearly as smart as me in college, but Brain was just as smart, and possibly even smarter in some areas. I couldn’t lie to him, and couldn’t divert his attention when he asked questions I’d rather not answer, which made having him around impossible if I intended to keep my secrets.

I needed men around me I could control, men who’d do as they were told… No. I needed men who wanted me to tell them what to do.

But fuck, it felt so good to let Brain hold me and take care of me.

Goose bumps erupted on my entire body as his lips brushed the spot where my shoulder and neck join. He kissed up to my ear, back down my neck. Lazy, slow, as if he intended to do this all day, and nothing else.

I tensed at first, but then relaxed into it and let him work my body. As always, painful memories surfaced when blood surged into my clit, but I brushed them to the side, intent on relishing my time with Brain.

He caressed my arm, then skated his hand to the top of my hip, over my shorts. I took a breath and concentrated on his mouth at my throat, and everything was fine until his other hand went through my hair, and my body froze as my heart beat against my rib cage and adrenaline flooded my system. I still had my wits about me, though barely, and I tried to make light of it as I rolled forward and away from him.

“I’m just growing my hair out so I’ll look more like Harmony, trying to become her. Might not work out, though.”

“I need to know everything they did to you, so I know what to avoid.”

I shook my head and rolled out of bed. “No, you don’t.”

When I came out of the bathroom he was on the phone, ordering waffles, eggs, bacon, biscuits, gravy, fresh fruit, and a few other things.

“I’m starved, you can eat what you want of it, and I’ll finish off the rest. You slept good?”

Thankful he wasn’t pushing the other conversation, I nodded, but instead of asking how he slept, I told him, “I’m meeting Harmony at one today. I can stay here another hour, but then I need to go. I’ll need to sneak into the other hotel, put fingernail polish on and girlify my hair, change into different clothes.”

“Where are you meeting her?”

“I’m picking her up from a doctor’s appointment and taking her out to eat. She’s leaving for her bucket list trip in four days. Tomorrow, she’ll oversee the movers packing her things and taking them to her new, secluded house on the outskirts of Marietta. Since I’ll be taking over her car and driver’s license, staying in the same county makes it simpler in the short run. She’ll get the utilities and such turned on at the house before she goes, and there are no neighbors close enough to see either of us. The day after she leaves, I go in for surgery, and then I’ll have a nurse staying with me at the house while I recover.”

I shrugged. “For all intents and purposes, I become her in a few days, though I can’t move anywhere that’ll involve a picture ID for a few months — enough time for me to have lost weight since I was last seen. Her car is listed as blue on the title, and while I’m in surgery, the dings will be fixed, and the bright-assed blue will be painted over with powder blue, so people won’t recognize her car. I’ll use cash for groceries and stuff, so I don’t chance using one of her credit cards and having someone know I’m not her. But, since she shopped a lot on her cards, I’ll use them to keep buying stuff online, and at gas stations, so the activity doesn’t drastically change.”