“I—you see all of me, and sometimes I don’t want to feel all of me.”
I suddenly knew exactly how she felt.
I rubbed at my chest, feeling her in there. It was a different sensation.
Whatever she saw in me, it got her moving. Whispering something to Cyclone and Seraphina before both ran upstairs, she began to walk my way. I ceased paying attention to the room. Payton was not my business to handle, but Matt and Bailey needed to know the extent of her connection. They did now. I hadn’t intended to put Payton on blast. She really was not a problem for me to handle, and I could’ve mentioned it to them behind closed doors, but I was glad it got handled this way. Itwas in front of Payton. It was in front of everyone, and Payton got the message.
Stand on your own if you want to stay.
For as long as I’d known Payton and Quinn, Payton came only a few times. She never stayed long. She talked to Peter a little, to Quinn a little, and to Cyclone and Seraphina most of the time. She doted on both of them. It’d been Cyclone who took to her the most in the beginning, but that seemed like it was changing since Bailey was in the picture and Seraphina was getting older.
Then Bailey was in front of me, and she touched my chest. “You okay?”
Oh yeah. She saw right through me.
I moved away from the bar, ignoring anyone paying us attention, and drew her to me. An arm around her waist, I pulled her in. She fit perfectly, just how she was supposed to. I bent down, my lips resting just above hers. “Always.” I felt her heart speeding up, it was in sync with mine, and damn I loved this girl.
Woman, I corrected myself.
I loved this woman.
She’d been through too much, dealt with too much. There was no more innocence in her. That’d been taken from her, and lifting my head, I peered at her. I touched her lip. “Could do with more time with you, though.”
My hand slid around to the back of her neck.
I felt her whole body shiver, and her lips parted. Her eyes were dilating, darkening with lust.
“How about…” Two arms came around us both.
Bailey and I went rigid, but then Matt’s head was forcing ours apart and he was smiling wide at both of us. Looking from one to the other. His arms tightened around us.
“… we all have a night together? I think we’re due. How about it, Kash? A night at Naveah? It’s been a while since we all hung out together.”
I frowned at him. “You’re interrupting some Kailey time.”
He stiffened.
Bailey tensed, and then a wide smile lit up her whole face. “I love it!” She moved even closer to me, almost letting me have her whole weight. “Yes, please.”
“What? No. I want time with you both—” Cutting himself off, Matt took my hand from Bailey. He moved in, turning his back to me and put both his hands on Bailey’s shoulders. He began backing her up, walking with her. “I’m making the decision. You. Me. My sister here. We’re heading to Naveah. I’m making it happen.” He kept walking her out of the room, saying over his shoulders, “I don’t trust both of you being alone to get ready, so I’m walking her up there. She gets the bathroom first.”
I was watching, counting exactly how long I’d give them before I followed, when I heard Payton behind me. “Why did you bring up my connection to your grandfather?”
I turned.
She was almost right behind me.
Beyond her, Peter was observing us. He remained at the pool table, a pool stick in hand.
Okay. Let’s have this talk.
“Quinn employed a group of men to try and kidnap Bailey. There was one man on their team that’s never been accounted for. There were rumors that that group of men were hoping to get into Calhoun’s good graces by hurting Peter. Since then, I’ve also learned a girl I used to date was given a job to try and seduce me for my grandfather. That girl was brought into this house on a consistent basis by Quinn. Both are gone, and now who shows up? You. I don’t think I’m being paranoid to bring up the connection and at least let Bailey and Matthew become aware of your background.”
Her mouth tightened. She was getting angry. “You know about the hotel, and you know what Bailey and Matt did to me. They blackmailed me.”
“Were they wrong to do so?”
She didn’t respond; that was her response.