Chapter Nineteen

Kara groaned as she tried to stretch, her ass on the floor, her legs in front of her and bent in butterfly position. The ache in her side said it wasn’t thrilled with the work, but too damn bad. She kept her back straight, her hands on her ankles, feet pressed together as she tried to inch her knees closer to the ground. The stretch in her groin both hurt and felt wonderful, the release of tension as she was able to do something, anything.

It had been a week of nothing, a week of hardly talking the alphas into letting her go to the bathroom alone. Only a threat to castrate the first one to step into that room with her had had them moving backward.

Though there had been a perverse sense of pleasure in it all that she’d never have expected or admitted to. Kara was not a damsel. She didn’t need men falling all over her to help or care for her, and yet, whenever the alarm on Damon’s watch went off, when he’d rise from whatever he was doing and retrieve her pain medication at the correct time, Kara’s cheeks heated.

She felt important. Like something worth cherishing.

That wasn’t a feeling she understood. Sure, Kane had cared for her as a child, but he’d done it by grit and determination. Softness hadn’t been a part of their lives. Torrin, Liam and Erik had cared for her, but again in that big brother, tough love, ‘suck it up’ sort of way.

The first time Cullen had dropped to a crouch in front of her and slid a pair of soft, fuzzy socks on her feet, because Kara couldn’t bend far enough to do it herself, she’d feared she was lost.

She liked being taken care of. Hell, maybe a few more injuries in the future were in order.

A soft growl had Kara lifting her gaze to find Cullen at the door of her room, the slash of his light brown eyebrow showing his displeasure with her exercising.

“I’m just stretching.”

“You shouldn’t be out of bed.”

“Marshall said yesterday I could start moving.”

“Marshall is an idiot.” Cullen crossed his arms, his gaze hard. They both knew Marshall was an amazing doctor, but the alphas would have rather he’d told her to never move again.

“You just liked giving me sponge baths,” Kara countered as she closed her eyes and slowly rolled her shoulders, twisting to ease the tightness from her back without jostling the wound in her side.

“That’s true.” Cullen’s voice came from closer that time, as though he’d come into the room and taken a seat in front of her. “Though somewhat boring since you hadn’t been cleared for sex.”

Which was odd, that after a week Kara felt no strong need. Marshall hadn’t started any treatments, but when she’d broached the topic, he’d mentioned that some of the bonding hormones had proven beneficial. Was that it? Was her nearness to the alphas enough to convince her body to start behaving?

“Blue balls?” Kara cocked her eyebrow despite not opening her eyes.

“You have no idea,” he countered.

Kara lifted a finger to tap her nose, a sly grin across her lips. “Oh, I have some idea. However, I feel like it’s only fair you all suffer. This is all your fault, after all.”

Cullen’s growl was soft and low, a sound that teased her senses. “Don’t push me. In case you’ve forgotten, he said sex was fine now.”

“I don’t recall him saying that.”

“I asked him in the hallway to be very clear. Not much moving on your part, but otherwise? Perfectly safe.”

Kara opened her eyes to meet his green ones, his hair swept back, still damp, as though he’d just gotten out of the shower. “Not moving sounds pretty boring.”

“I doubt you’d be too bored if I tied you up so you couldn’t move, then licked you until you couldn’t bitch anymore.” He smiled at her, a rare one that made her stomach flutter. “Or I’ll have Reese hold you still for me. I’d say Damon, but we both know he only listens to you, thief.”

“Damon’s a good boy. Maybe you ought to learn from him. Good boys get treats.”

A second growl brought Kara’s gaze up to find Reese there, gripping the doorframe so tight his knuckles had blanched. His long dark hair only made him look more intense, as if he were some wild animal. “You’ve kept us too wound up to tease, hellion.”

Kara didn’t break the staring, meeting Reese’s hazel eyes directly, the feeling of closeness uncomfortable enough that she almost broke it. Almost.

Instead, she dragged her tongue against her bottom lip, the dampness in her panties all the evidence of her reaction. And she liked this reaction. She liked feeling the game, feeling like she wanted them because she desired them. Not just any knot, not just any cock, but these alphas.

“You are such a brat,” Reese said, a smile across his lips. “Good thing for you I don’t mind dealing with brats.”

And Kara had to admit she didn’t mind it either.

* * * *

Kara’s wince when she went to stand was like a sky signal to Reese. Funny that despite him being involved in his own work—reviewing timelines of cases they’d been offered for after this job was done—that tiny movement of hers could break through anything. The days had moved slowly and with each one, she moved with more ease, healed more. Even better, though?

How easy things could be. Sure, they bickered, they fought over stupid things, but somehow during her healing they’d settled into a routine that he found more fulfilling than it should have been.

“Hurting?” He was already up and headed for the pill bottle on the kitchen counter before he finished the question.

Kara shook her head before she lowered herself slowly again. “Nope.”

Reese gritted his teeth at the lie. Why was it that he couldn’t get past that? The more time he spent with her, the more it seemed like maybe there was a future, he’d expected it to bother him less.

Instead, each time she lied—even stupid little lies that didn’t matter—his chest tightened.

He still got the pills, pouring them into his palm and getting a glass of water for her. When he set them into her hand, he went to turn.

“Why do you get so mad?”

Kara’s question stilled him. She rarely asked about them. To be fair, she seemed to be pretty good at figuring out things without needing to ask, but her questioning, her reaching out, felt like something he couldn’t ignore no matter how annoyed he was right then.

Reese turned back to her, crossing his arms. “I don’t like when you lie to me.”

“But you get that pissed, you obviously can tell I’m lying, so what does it matter?”

Her logic had a point, but that didn’t erase his hang ups. He huffed softly before sitting beside her. “I’m just not a fan of lying, okay? Consider it one of my sore spots.”

“Why, though?”

“No reason.”

She lifted her eyebrow after she swallowed the pills he’d given her. “But clearly you’ve got no problem with being the one who lies.”

He straightened his back at the accusation—no matter how right she was. Still, he wasn’t feeling all that inclined to reveal his wounds to her, not when he couldn’t trust her. He tried to keep the conversation vague. “I want people around me I can trust. How can I trust someone who never tells me the truth?”

Kara crossed her legs, eyeing him with the intensity she probably used on marks. “So, I guess the question is, who fucked you over?”

“Do I need to be fucked over to know I want honesty in my life?”

“No, but to be that angry about it? Yep. This isn’t just a random thing. It isn’t a morality point you just came up with. You want to bitch at me about honesty? You’ve torn off more than a few of my scars. Why don’t you try to do the same?”

Reese snarled softly when he couldn’t find a single good reason to say no to her. He had insisted she let them in, that she tell them her secrets. Guess that backfired.

“Let’s just say I’ve dealt with a woman who lied. I’m in no rush to repeat it.”

“What, she cheated on you?” Kara asked the question without a lot of sympathy, but that almost made it easier. He didn’t think he’d like pity.

“Among other things.”

She didn’t answer, waiting. Who the hell would have expected her to be the patient one?

The silence chipped away his resolve until he blurted out the rest in the tense silence. “I dealt with a woman who lied every other fucking word, okay? Three years with her and I lost everything. She cheated on me, nearly got me thrown in jail because she lied to me about another man stalking her and stole all my savings in the process.”

Kara pulled back, the smirk sliding from her face as if she’d just realized that maybe it wasn’t a joke.

Reese continued. “I was stupid, and I believed her. Even after I realized she was lying, I still thought we could figure it out. I lost everything and had to start over from scratch. So, yeah, when you lie to me? I see her. I see myself being taken in again and I wonder what exactly it’s going to cost me this time.”

Reese didn’t know what he wanted her to say. Did he want her to swear she’d never lie to him again? Maybe. Not that he’d believe her. Lying was like breathing to her. He just wanted her to say something to make it okay, to make it so he didn’t have to carry that fucking anger any longer.

Which was an entirely unfair weight to place on her.

“Well, I’m never going to stop lying.”

Reese growled and went to stand. It was stupid to think she’d understand, to think she might actually listen to him.

Kara caught his wrist and tugged him back down beside her. “I’m sorry, but it’s a part of me. I can’t promise that I’ll always be honest, because we both know that would be one hell of a lie right there. I can tell you I won’t betray you, though. That’s what you’re really pissed about. It was never the lies—it was the betrayal.”

“Aren’t they the same thing?”

“Nope. I might not tell you the truth, but I’ll never do it to hurt you. I’ll never be dishonest to screw you over, to take shit from you, to fuck you over.”

“And how am I supposed to know that’s true if I can’t trust anything you say?”

Kara shrugged before she slid into his lap, her weight a welcome presence, the sort that made him wonder why he ever fought against her. She brushed her lips to his. “Guess you’ll just have to trust me.”

He groaned at the almost kiss she teased him with, his cock hardening with more than a few ideas of how they could work out the little fight. There was always a give and take between them, with a small argument sparking make-up sex. That passion burned him and he loved it.

“Can I trust you?”

“Nope.”

He heard that lie loud and clear, and when he wasn’t sure what to do with it, he wrapped his fingers in her hair and pulled her tighter against him for a kiss.

He could figure it out later.