18
Tywin
She made me smile without effort, think of her without calling, and need her without coercion. Patrena was special, designed to tame every sexual craving I’d ever had. She kept my interest beyond sex, an endeavor I had never envisioned with any woman. I wanted her. I wanted her to be the lady of this house, the lady in my life, and for good.
I studied her while she slept, tempted to wake her to push our bodies into another round of the best sex I’d ever had. Her eyes fluttered faster, like she sensed my eyes on her. When those big pretty eyes flipped open, a smile immediately followed.
“Stalking me in my sleep? That’s not a good look for you,” she teased, lifting her head off my chest.
“How could a woman so beautiful, so sweet, one whose pussy tastes like sweet blackberry juice, one whose nipples I’m convinced secretes chocolate. How could a woman that has all that going for her snore so damn loud?”
She burst into a fit of laugher, hitting my arm playfully. “I don’t snore.”
“The hell you don’t. I pinched your nose closed twice to see what would happen and it only acted as a crank to turn you up higher,” I chuckled.
“I just breathe hard when I’m sleeping,” she insisted, grinning.
I flashed a quick side eye at her. She did just breathe hard, but I enjoyed teasing her and hearing her laughter. The sound of it fed an untapped part of my soul.
“So, tell me, Patrena, was I right about your keepers teaching you more than how to keep yourself hidden?”
The question caused her body to tense against mine, but she took a moment and settled, letting her hand rest against my lower abs. She tilted her head until she was glancing up at the ceiling.
“They taught me self-defense, how to use weapons, and how to kill. I’m not talking mercenary type of training, but the kind of training that will help you in a life-or-death situation and keep you alive longer than the average person. I made my first kill at twelve.”
That bit of news had me tensing and drawing her in a little bit tighter, sensing that it hadn’t been an easy task for her.
“They said being able to take a life was the only way I’d be able to keep myself alive if it came to it. There were three others over a four-year period.”
“Were they members of the syndicate?” I asked and managed to keep my voice calm.
“Yes,” she answered straightforward, and I didn’t know how to feel about the news. “I believe you would have killed them too. They were vicious murderers, rapists, and child molesters. My keepers made sure I was able to reconcile the killings before they tested to see if I had the guts to follow through.”
Who were these women, her keepers?
“Like I mentioned to you earlier, we moved from state to state, and they never stopped training me. I earned my high school diploma a few weeks before my sixteenth birthday, and they didn’t waste time enrolling me in online college courses. All I did was train, complete course work, and learn how to take care of myself.”
“That’s why you were able to survive on your own at sixteen?”
She nodded, but the distant expression on her face had more embedded there than she was letting on.
“Whenever I’d ask about my mother, their already tight lips would seal up tighter. The only piece of information they would give me was that she was a hardworking and loving mother who would have done anything for her daughter. They revealed that my father was killed a few weeks after he’d murdered my mother, but they wouldn’t give me any details. Until this day, I don’t know if they killed him or if he’s even dead. Asking about my tattoo was a waste of breath. My keepers died too. At least, I think they did. And they took the answers I needed with them.”
“When did you meet Mecca and Desiree?”
Her smile grew wide and she turned into my embrace more. “I met them when I was twenty and had gotten comfortable enough to start building a life for myself. We were all in a bank heist together.”
“What?” I choked out.
“We weren’t the ones robbing the place, but we ended up huddled together for twelve hours and protected each other when the robbers became agitated that the negotiators weren’t giving them what they needed. The criminals had been sloppy and hadn’t planned their heist well. All five ended up getting killed, and we learned a valuable lesson that day about planning and being discreet. We survived the situation and have been friends since.”
“Wow. That’s an astonishing way to form a friendship,” I stated, glancing down at her before placing a light kiss on her forehead. I couldn’t stop kissing her, any more than I could stop my feelings from growing stronger. Historically, I had no idea who Patrena was, but I loved who she was now. I was afraid I’d reach a point where I wasn’t going to be able to let her walk away from me.
“Did you all form your own group? Rhi is sure that the group that helped Mecca at Overtown was made up of women.”
The part about Rhi was a lie. I was fishing, but I sensed she knew it because she made no attempt to answer my question.
“Did you see the way Arjen was looking at Mecca at their wedding?” I questioned when she didn’t take the bait and answer my first question.