Chapter 83 THE TRADE

Chapter 83 THE TRADE
Dominic's POV

Nobody moved when Roan said it.

I looked at him standing in that hotel doorway and he was completely calm, his hands in his pockets, and felt something go cold in my chest that had nothing to do with strategy.

"You heard the message this morning," I said.

"Yes," he said.

"And you spent the entire day deciding whether to tell me."

"Yes," he said again, and walked past me into the suite and sat down and looked at everyone else.

Adrian was standing near the window with his arms crossed and he looked at me and I looked back at him and neither of us said anything because there was nothing to say yet.

"Walk me through it," I said, sitting across from Roan.

"Kade wants me handed over," Roan said. "In exchange he stands the faction down permanently. No more hunters, no more operations, Ava lives her life without anyone coming after her again."

"And you believe him," I said.

"I believe he means it currently," Roan said. "Whether it holds after is a different question. But yes, in this moment, he means it."

"You're not going," I said.

Roan looked at me steadily. "Dominic..."

"You're not going," I said again, and my voice came out harder than I meant it to, and Ava looked at me from across the room and I felt her reading my face the way she always did.

"It solves the problem," Roan said.

"Find another solution," I said.

The room was quiet for a moment and then Elias said carefully, "it's not the worst option on the table."

"It's not an option at all," I said, and stood up and walked to the window because I needed to not be sitting across from Roan right now while I was feeling what I was feeling.

Outside New York was doing what it always did, loud and indifferent, and I stood there and breathed and tried to think past the thing sitting in my chest that was older than strategy and more complicated than logic.

My mother wasn't behind me, that was Ava who came and stood beside me and said nothing, just stood there, and honestly that was enough.

We moved rooms that night because staying in the same place after Kade's message felt wrong, and the new suite was one floor up with better sight lines and I stood at the window for a long time after everyone found somewhere to sleep and tried to put the Roan situation somewhere I could function around it.

Ava came up behind me at some point and put her arms around me from behind and pressed her face between my shoulder blades and I felt her there warm and real and the bond steady between us.

"Talk to me," she said against my back.

"I don't know what to say," I said, which was true.

"Then don't say anything," she said, and turned me around and kissed me and I let her and kissed her back and her hands went to my shirt and started on the buttons.

We moved to the bed and she pushed me down onto it and climbed over me and looked at me from above and said, "stop thinking for five minutes."

"I'll try," I said.

"Don't try," she said, and kissed me again, deeper this time, her hips settling against mine, and I put my hands on her waist and stopped trying.

She pulled her shirt over her head and unclasped her bra and I reached up and pulled her back down to me and my mouth found her breast and she exhaled and her back arched and I took my time there, tongue slow and deliberate, teeth grazing until she made the sound that meant she was past patience.

She reached between us and freed me from my jeans and wrapped her hand around me and stroked slowly and I groaned against her chest and my grip on her hips tightened.

"Inside me," she said, lifting herself and positioning and then sinking down slowly and we both went still for a moment, just breathing, her forehead dropping to mine.

She started to move and I let her set the pace and she went slow at first, deep rolling movements, her hands flat on my chest, and I watched her face and thought that she was the thing I would burn everything else down to keep and that thought was both the most human and the least human thing I had ever felt.

She went faster and I thrust up to meet her and her head fell back and she said my name and I gripped her hips and helped her move and when she came she clenched around me so hard I followed immediately, both of us breathing hard in the dark hotel room.

She lay down against my chest after and I held her and the bond between us pulsed warm and settled.

"Roan," she said quietly after a while.

"I know," I said.

"You're going to have to talk to him properly," she said. "Not like tonight where you just said no and walked to a window."

"I know that too," I said.

She was quiet for a moment and then said, "you love him."

"Yes," I said, and it cost something to say it out loud but less than I expected.

"Then figure out a way that doesn't lose him," she said simply, and pressed her face into my neck and was asleep in minutes and I lay there in the dark and tried to do exactly that.

I was still thinking about it when the knock came at the door and I didn't want to answer at first but it went on and on so I was forced to go open it.

I opened it and Roan was standing there and he said, "I need to tell you something you don't know yet. About what I promised you. And what you still owe me.”