She faltered. “Sure.”
I laughed again, then my laughter died out. “Shit might get ugly tomorrow, Mads.” I turned to face her. The beam from the moonlight hitting every angle of her features. Her swollen lips, sunken in cheekbones, slightly pointed chin and thick eyelashes. I always noticed that she had two prominent points on her forehead too. She was by far the most beautiful girl I had ever laid eyes on. There wasn’t a speck of imperfection on her, but the thing that I loved most about her, was that she was oblivious to how beautiful she was. She never flaunted it like Tate did, and never tried to hide it like Tillie did. She was just… Madison. Herself, constantly. It was intimidating and inspiring how secure she was in her own skin.
She looked straight ahead, grabbing the strands of hair off her face that had swept up with the wind. “Doesn’t it always?” She smiled briefly, then turned serious, her eyes coming to mine. “I can’t have anything bad happen to you or Daemon, or Tate, or Nate, or—” she laughed, shaking her head. “Or any of the Kings. God, Bishop.” She brought her attention back to me. “My list of people who I give a shit about has extended extremely.”
That brought a smile to my face because these boys were my brothers, so to hear that she cared about them took a load off my shoulders. I never doubted her anyway, that’s just who she was, but we had done fucked up shit to her in the past. I wasn’t sure whether that had done some permanent psychological damage to her. Guess time would tell how deep the scars were, especially the ones that were signed with my initials.
I squeezed her to me. “I know.”
She rested her head on my chest and snuggled into me more. She wasn’t short, but she was tiny up against me. “Tell me your favorite color.” She yawned, lacing her fingers with mine.
“Black. Yours?”
She giggled. “Mine’s blue. Well, more like a teal color. A mix of green and blue, but more of a green. It’s like that pastel color.”
“You couldn’t just say red or something simple,” I snorted. That was part of her charm.
She shook her head against my chest. “No, I’m not simple, so you should probably run away now.”
“Sorry, baby, running shoes don’t go with my outfit.”
She giggled, the high pitch notes of it hitting the lifeless rides. Her laugh itself could breathe life back into the dead, let alone this abandoned amusement park.
Her laughter died out, then she tilted her head up to look at me from under my arm. Our eyes stayed locked together until my chest fucking tightened. “What?” I whispered, my eyes falling to her lips.
“Is this real?”
“If it’s not, I’ll kill the mother fucker who created it.”
“I can’t live without you, Bishop.”
“Shhh.” I pulled her head back under my arm. I wasn’t going to tell her that she wouldn’t have to worry about that. At least not until we had come back from Perdita.
We were driving back out to the cabin. The rest of the cars following behind me. Tate had jumped in with Nate, and Hunter tried to jump in with us, but I kicked everyone out. The more time I spent with Madison, where it was just her and I, I started craving more of it. The pups will have to learn to give us some space.
“I love this song.” Madison bobbed her head, turning the music up.
“What’s it called?” I asked. Usually, this kind of music wasn’t really my thing, but the voice, lyrics, and beat was catchy.
“It’s Nikyee Heaton ‘I’m Ready’…” she smiled at me looking out of the corner of her eye. “Most of her songs are about love and sex, mostly sex.”
“Fitting lyrics.”
“Yup!” She popped the P. “Which is mainly why I love this song.”
She turned it up louder and then hit repeat when it ended. By the time we were pulling down the private driveway to the cabin, I was pretty sure I knew every lyric to the song.
We both got out and shut the doors as the rest of the cars pulled up. It was hitting close to midnight, so I threw up deuces to the guys and led Madison inside and up to the master bedroom. The cabin had been in our family for generations. The main level had a full wrap porch, the whole house built from tarnished logs. Then there was the second level that had around five bedrooms, and then the master bedroom took up the entire third level with a wraparound glass wall so you have a full view of the grounds. My dad created this extension, him and his paranoia, but the cabin itself had been in our family for generations. I swore the ghosts of my ancestors still walked these halls, and proof would have it that that wasn’t a very reassuring thing to feel.
“Wow.” Madison ran her hand down the old four-post wooden bed. The engravings in the wood filled with intricate designs and patterns. “I swear nothing should surprise me anymore.” She yawned and stretched her arms above but flinched.
I removed Nate’s clothes and tossed them into the corner before pulling the covers back. “You alright?”
She flushed. “Fine.” Then tossed her clothes off and onto the floor. I stilled when I saw the blue and black bruising around her thighs, arms, and even slightly around her neck.
“Fuck.” I shot off the bed toward her.
“What?” She panicked, then her eyes dropped down to her thighs. She relaxed. “Oh,” she pulled the covers back and slid into the sheets.
“No, Mads, not ‘oh.’”
“What’s the big deal?” She yawned again. She was tired, so I didn’t want to annoy her.
I sunk into the bed and pulled her into me. “I’ll try to go softer, but I can’t guarantee it.”
She shot off the bed as if she wasn’t just yawning like someone who hadn’t slept in weeks. “No. Don’t. I love it.”
I paused, trying to pick up any dishonesty, then sighed. “Thank fuck, because I honestly can’t help myself. Now get back here. I won’t fuck you tonight, but in the morning, your ass is mine.”
“This sort of feels like our last feast…” Tate mumbled around her pancake.
I rolled my eyes.
Nate sneered at her with his lip curled—as if he didn’t have his tongue down her throat last night.
Bishop laughed. “It could be…” Eyes fell on him, but he brushed them off. I so desperately wanted to ask what was about to happen, but the other side of me would rather not know until I got there.
“Girl can cook!” Hunter was onto his fourth pancake. I must’ve made over one hundred pancakes this morning, and match that with pounds of greasy bacon, about twenty-four eggs (scrambled), and an ungodly amount of bread, and you have a casual breakfast for the Kings. It took Tate and I hours this morning, but I was adamant to do it. These guys had turned into family, closer than some of my blood family. When I looked around the table at all their faces, I now understood the saying blood means nothing, loyalty means everything. Because time and time again, it had been these boys who had shown their loyalty to me. Yeah, so they’ve also put me in harm’s way, almost run me over, chased me through a forest in the dark night, fucked with my head, and I’m probably missing a few other things, but above all, they’re my family.
“You ok?” Bishop’s arm snaked around the back of my neck, pulling me into his chest. He was wearing a dark hoodie, relaxed jeans, white high-top sneakers and I knew for a fact that he had his white Armani briefs on underneath. Images flashed through my head of our four a.m. sexfest and suddenly, my thighs were clenching, my cheeks were flushed, and my bottom lip was being pulled between my teeth. His fingers tightened on my shoulder. “Kitty…” he warned through a growl, but it was too late, I was already back there…