Ripper groaned. “Jesus. This again? The we don’t fit bullshit?”
“Let me finish.” Ignoring the sticky heat, I wriggled closer and laid my hands on his chest. “She looks like the perfect woman for you, like she walked off the pages of one of my romance novels. But you know what? She can’t be the right woman for you, because I already have the job.”
Ripper reared back and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Nah. It can’t be that easy. You telling me you suddenly stopped fretting about us not being a good fit?”
“It wasn’t sudden. It took me a while to figure out that you were more than a walking wet dream.”
His teeth flashed white in the dim light. “Walking wet dream, huh. I’m down with that.”
I poked him in the chest. “I finally understood that despite all our differences, you, Alejandro “Ripper” Solis, are exactly the right man for me. And if that’s the case, it makes sense that the reverse could also be true. I’m exactly the right woman for you. I’m not a tattooed goddess. Not a fun-loving party girl. I’m still working on my issues.”
“Mac,” he breathed, cupping my face.
“Shhh...” I pressed a fingertip to his lips and continued. “I may not be your perfect match, but I can promise that I see the real you, your loyalty, your strength, your integrity, your sense of responsibility for your people. I saw what a good friend you were to Miles, how much better you made the final months of his life. I see it all, and I honor it. No other woman could love you, or trust you, or want you more than I do.” I shrugged. “So maybe we don’t fit, but we work. And God help any woman who tries to make a move on you, because you’re mine.”
“Well, thank fuck.” He grinned. “But I’m not gonna wear a Property of Mac necklace, if that’s what you’re thinking. I’m evolved, but I ain’t that evolved.”
“Truth be told, I like that about you,” I confessed.
He pulled me to his chest and tucked my head beneath his chin. “So we’re good?” he asked, stroking my hair as I burrowed into his side.
“We’re perfect.”
We lay in silence for a while, both too wired to fall asleep.
“Wish like hell that you and Sahdev and Nyx could climb out the bedroom window and get far away from here tonight.”
“I know, but we’ve been over that. Libby said that they see Sahdev only in the evening when they bring him dinner, but that they take Bear out to work every morning. I have to be here in the morning to slip the key back into Tuck’s pocket before he goes to get Bear.”
“Fuckers,” Ripper muttered. “Feeding Sahdev once a day.” He shifted, lifting his wrist to check his grandpa’s old watch. “Four-thirty. Another half hour I’ll go get Sahdev and bring him here. In the morning, once you return the key to Tuck, come back to the room. After Dwight, Darryl, Bear, and I head to the barn, you all go out the window and get far away.”
“And if something goes wrong, I’ve got my gun.” I repeated the plan.
“Hope to hell it doesn’t come to that.”
“Amen.” I agreed. We lapsed into silence. I brushed my fingers over Ripper’s nipple piercing. “I’d hoped that you would get at least a couple of hours of sleep.”
“I’ll be fine, darlin'.”
Another minute of silence.
“You have to go get Sahdev in less than half an hour. I don’t suppose there’s enough time for you to get any rest at all.”
“Afraid not,” he agreed.
I twisted the bar of metal back and forth and was rewarded by his sharp intake of breath. Without warning, Ripper pushed me onto my back and rolled on top of me. He rested his weight on his elbows and slanted his head to one side, contemplating me.
“Ms. Dunwitty, are you trying to seduce me?”
“If you can’t figure that out, Mr. Solis, you’re not—”
He cut my words off with a kiss. I wriggled happily, opening my legs to him, then gasped when his cock pierced my core. Wrapping my legs around his waist, I arched my hips and met him thrust for thrust.
This was better than sleeping, and Nyx’s snores confirmed that she was sleeping soundly.
Perspiration combined with friction to make the stripes on my stomach and breasts sting. With a fingertip, I traced the path of a thin welt, across my right nipple to the opposite hip. I moaned, the prickly sensation only feeding my lust.
Ripper froze, capturing my hand in one of his. “Are you all right, Mac? Did I hurt you?”
I gazed up at him through heavy-lidded eyes. “I like it. It hurts so good.”
A slow smile crept across his face and he palmed my breast, reanimating the sting.
I clung to him, pushing away all fears about the battle to come. People would probably die today, and Ripper would be at the heart of the fighting. I had to have faith that he’d survive. No member of the brigade could match his training and experience. Ripper would carry the day. I had to believe that. He was seated in my heart as deeply as his cock was seated in my sex. I couldn’t bear to think of moving forward without him.
“Stop thinking so hard,” he grunted.
“Make me.”
He did.
At precisely 5 a.m., Ripper and I dressed and stole away from our bedroom. We padded to the kitchen—if anyone spied us we’d claim we were up for an early breakfast—then I stood watch in the hall while Ripper liberated Sahdev. It was no surprise that Sahdev moved slowly and unsteadily. He’d been shackled for days and seriously underfed, but he flashed a reassuring smile when he passed me. Ripper handed me the keys and took the bottle of water, chunk of bread, and leftover piece of chicken that I’d fetched for Sahdev. Ripper and Sahdev silently made their way to our bedroom. I held my breath until they disappeared into the room, then waited a few minutes to make sure that no one else was awake before joining them.
Nyx sat against the wall, yawning, while Ripper quietly explained the plan to Sahdev.
“Wait until you hear the commotion outside. Should draw Tuck and Boyd outta the house. Then you, Mac, and Nyx climb out the window and head into the hills. I’ll find you once Valhalla is secured.”
At the opposite end of the house, a door slammed and voices came from the kitchen.
“That’s my cue.” I kissed Ripper, hugged Sahdev, then headed toward the kitchen.
I stumbled into the room, yawning. “Anybody make coffee yet?”
Dwight sat at the kitchen table using a fork to clean out the tread on a boot. A freaking fork, an implement people put in their mouths. He spent his days tromping around a cattle ranch, watching Bear work. I could only imagine what kind of gross gunk was embedded in the boot. Chips of dirt fell across the table’s surface. Bet anything he was going to walk away and leave the mess for somebody else—Libby or me—to clean up.
Tuck was leaning against the counter. “No coffee yet. We were waiting on you, sweet thang.”
“I’m on it,” I said brightly. After lighting a fire in the stove, I worked the hand-crank grinder and filled the old-fashioned enamel pot with water and coffee. “If you men can fill your own cups, I think I’ll go gather the eggs, then get breakfast started.”
Dwight didn’t look up from his boot. “Sure.”