Bitter Sweet Hell (Hell Night 2)

Remi steps forward and gives her own hug to Eden. “Let me know if you need anything. I’ll be by tomorrow, regardless, to check on you.”

“Thank you, Remi. You’re a good friend.”

She smiles and steps back. The worry that’s been lining her face the last few days is no longer present. Between being knocked out and having her son in danger, her concern over Eden, and her worry on how to handle her brother over the Diego issue, she’s been under a lot of stress. Thankfully, Eden is on the mend, Elijah doesn’t seem to have any lasting effects from his frightening ordeal, and Kian believed the story we gave him about Diego’s death being self-defense. He left a couple days after the incident, believing Diego’s body would be delivered to San Antonio and an official report would be made. Of course, none of that happened.

We talk for a couple more minutes before we leave through the rear entrance.

I parked in the back because I wanted to avoid running into anyone who would ask Eden how she was. I want to get her home and settled as soon as possible.

A few minutes later, I’m helping Eden get comfortable on the couch with a pillow behind her and a blanket over her lap.

“I’m not an invalid, you know?” she complains good-naturedly.

“You’re right, you’re not.” I finish tucking the blanket around her waist and look up at her from my kneeled position beside her. “But you very easily could have died. Give me this, Gypsy. I need to take care of you.”

Her amusement drops from her face. She takes my hand and twines our fingers together.

“You’re a good man, JW, and I’m so lucky to have you.”

I hope she feels the same way after she hears what I need to say.

I ask if she’s hungry and she says no. I ask if she’s in pain and needs a pill, and she informs me she’s fine and took one a couple of hours ago. I ask if she’d rather take a nap in bed, and again, she declines. With nothing else to do, I grab us both a bottled water and bring them back with me to the living room. I take a seat on the couch, lift her feet to my lap, and work my fingers in the arch of her foot.

She closes her eyes and moans. “That feels really good.”

And of course, the sound has my dick picking the most inappropriate time to stand at attention. What a prick.

I know she feels the growing hardness behind my zipper because her other foot is positioned directly on top of it. She confirms this when her eyes slit open and she gives me a wicked smile. Her foot gently nudges my cock.

“Someone’s missed me,” she says with a giggle and then a wince.

“No giggling if it causes you pain,” I reprimand. She rolls her eyes, her lips twitching, and then nudges me again with her foot. “And none of that either.” I grab her foot. “At least not for a month. Maybe two.” It’s my turn to wince, because a month, let alone two, without sex with Eden is going to kill me.

“I think you might be exaggerating my healing time a bit.”

“I may be damn near crazy by the time I can have you again,” I grumble. “But I’m not fucking around with your injury.”

“But we can do other things, right? Like maybe getting to my knees, and I suck you off?”

Fuck me, this woman just does it for me. And from the look she’s giving me, she knows it.

“We’ll see,” I answer huskily. I foresee many long showers in my near future.

“There’s something I need to talk to you about,” I tell her once I’m done massaging her feet.

Her brows jump up. “Sounds serious.”

“It is. There’s a question I want to ask you, but there’s something you need to know before I do.”

“Okay.” She settles back against the pillow and folds her hands over her stomach.

I rub my jaw, suddenly feeling anxious. What if I’m wrong? What if she can’t get past the way we handle things here in Malus? I have no doubt in my mind that she wouldn’t report what we do, but I need more than that. I need her to be okay with it. I need her to want to stay, because if she doesn’t, if she can’t look past what we do, I have no fucking clue how I’m going to live without her.

“You’re starting to worry me, JW,” she says, pursing her lips into a frown.

I turn to face her, cocking one of my legs up on the couch. I need to see her face when I tell her.

“SO, YOU ONLY SENTENCE people to the… Expiration Penalty—” I nod my head when she looks at me in question, “—who have hurt women and children?”