We’ve quickly fallen into a routine with each other. It almost seems like the normalcy people get that lead regular lives, but that’s only here while we’re in our own little sanctuary.
“What’s wrong?” Liam asks, squeezing me around the middle slightly.
I snort. “Everything’s fine.”
He hums and grabs my hands, spinning me around, then picking me up by my thighs and setting me down on the counter. He steps between my legs and raises a knowing eyebrow.
I roll my eyes. “Fuck, fine,” I groan, still not comfortable with this whole sharing thing we have going on. “I don’t want you to regret what has happened once all of this is over, and we go back to D.C., then everything goes back to normal.”
Liam searches my face for a moment then cracks an amused smirk which makes me smack his shoulder. He chuckles.
“This,” he says, dragging my body closer to the edge. “Is our new normal, okay? Together, Malia, so long as you stay honest with me.”
“Together,” I mumble.
Liam hands me my cellphone that we’ve been sharing. Communication to the outside has been slim to none, however we do check-ins every once in a while since the security system here is outdated.
“Your prickly brother called a couple of times,” he says trying to hold back the sneer. He failed.
I giggle. “Glad you worked out who was who.”
“Wasn’t hard.”
Taking the phone, I see that Lion had called four times and left a voicemail the last time. I press the play then the speaker button.
“Malia, goddamn it,” Lion growls into the phone before letting out a long breath, I scoff at the impatience of the fucker. “Akila… she was attacked. I know contact is supposed to be limited, but I need to talk to you… I—just call me back.”
I can hear the fury in the undertones of his voice and I’m on my feet pushing past Liam. He grabs my arm and twirls me around.
“What are you doing?” he asks.
Lion’s temperament is like the big red button that saysDon’t Push. Some sorry asshole pushed the big no-no button and set off a fuse in my brother. Akila is hurt and I don’t know how bad or if she’s okay.
My only thought is to get to New York immediately. Lion needs me and he’s been there for me more times than I can count.
I shrug. “New York.”
Liam drops my head and pins me with a glare. “You can’t—”
I hold up my hand, stopping him before he continues and fucks me off to the point we backtrack to when sucked between us. “I’m going to Lion, so you can come with me, or I lock you in a room and go by myself.”
Liam’s lips thin then relents a few moments later. “Okay, fine.” He runs a hand down his face.
I beam at him. “Good boy.”
It takes us no time to pack some clothes and head to the private jet my dad has here in case we need to get back to D.C. for an emergency. I have no doubt that the pilot will inform him of our adventure, but I’ll deal with him when it comes to that.
Within four hours we are standing outside of Lion’s penthouse door. He’s boosted security and if I hadn’t spent so much time here I’d never get in.
The muscle in Liam’s jaw tics as he grinds his teeth, while we wait for Lion to give clearance for us to enter.
“He’s going to be mad as hell,” I say with a smile.
Liam mumbles something under his breath that I don’t hear. Lion opens the door, his eyes narrowing on me immediately. As expected, he’s not excited to see us.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing here?” he growls at me then flicks his searing gaze at Liam just to dismiss him like he’s nothing.
I give him my most innocent smile and bat my eyelashes. “Helping. What else?”