Claiming Felicity (Ace Security #4)(44)

“You will. And you know why?”

“Why?” she whispered, loving the feel of his calloused fingers against her own.

“Because you’re with me.”

“And that’s all it takes? Do they like all your female friends?”

“I’ve never brought another woman here before, love. You’re the first.”

She gaped up at him.

“But that’s not the only reason they’ll bend over backward to do whatever it takes to put you at ease.” He didn’t give her a chance to ask why. “Every single man at that table abhors violence against women. They’d sooner hurt a puppy than do anything to make you feel uncomfortable or out of place. Trust me, Felicity.”

She swallowed visibly, then nodded.

“But, with that being said, if you feel as if the conversation gets too intense, or you don’t want to hear anything more about Joseph, all you need to do is let me know. Then you can go and sit with Dave until we’re done. He’ll make sure you’re safe.”

And that made Felicity’s back straighten. She wanted to know what they knew. Needed to know. These were Ryder’s friends. She was safe here. “I’m good. Let’s go see what they have to say.”

Ryder didn’t pull away immediately. He continued to stare down into her eyes.

“What?” Felicity whispered.

“When I made the decision to meet my half brothers, I knew my life was going to change, but I had no idea how much. I feel like I’ve waited my whole life for you. That everything I’ve done, the person I became in order to do my job as a mercenary was so I could be right here, right now, to protect you.”

“Ryder,” Felicity protested.

“I’m standing here, about to meet with a group of men I’ve known for years, trust with my life, who I haven’t seen in a while. And all I want to do is throw you over my shoulder and take you back to the gym and lock ourselves in your room and bury myself inside your body so far that neither of us will be able to remember a second we weren’t together.”

Felicity felt her body weep for the man baring his soul in front of her. “Yes,” she whispered, not able to get any other words past the lump in her throat.

“Tonight,” Ryder said firmly.

“Yes,” Felicity repeated.

He didn’t move for a long moment, but simply stood in front of her as if memorizing every feature on her face. “No matter what we find out when we go home, you’re going to be mine tonight. In every way.”

He wasn’t asking, but Felicity answered anyway. “Yes,” she said for the third time. She didn’t like the “no matter what we find” thing, but she knew that being away from the gym meant Joseph could leave another nasty surprise for her. But fuck him. For once in her life she was going to take what she wanted and damn the consequences.

Joseph Waters wasn’t going to win. No way.





Chapter Thirteen

Ryder stopped short in front of the table and gave a general chin lift to his buddies. He pulled Felicity to his side and wrapped an arm around her waist. He tugged her into him, and she stumbled, turning sideways to keep from falling, not that he would’ve let her. Her front was plastered to his side now, and he could feel her quick breaths on the skin of his neck.

“Felicity, I’d like you to meet my friends.” He nodded at each man as he introduced them. “Gray, Meat, Arrow, Black, Ball, and Ro.”

Each of the men in question smiled at Felicity and gave her a small chin lift.

“Hi,” Felicity said softly. “It’s good to meet you all.” Then she looked up at Ryder. “Please tell me those aren’t their real names.”

He chuckled. “No, love. But it’s what we call each other.”

She scrunched up her nose and looked at Meat. “I don’t care what you and Ryder call each other, but I cannot call you Meat. I just can’t.”

Meat snorted. “You can call me by my real name, Hunter.”

She pantomimed wiping her brow. “Whew.”

Ryder smiled. As the group sat back down, he introduced his friends using their given names this time. “You can call them whatever you’re most comfortable with, love. Gray is Grayson. You know Meat is Hunter. Arrow is Archer, Black is Lowell, Ball is Kannon, and Ro is Ronan.”

He watched as Felicity thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Okay, I can manage Gray, Arrow, Black, and Ro. But it’s gonna have to be Hunter and Kannon for you two, sorry.”

It was obvious his friends thought Felicity was hilarious by the grins he rarely saw on all of their faces.

Gray leaned across the table and speared Felicity with his gaze. “It’s good to finally meet you. Ace has been telling us about you since the night he met you.”

Her surprised gaze turned to Ryder. “He has?”

“Yup,” Meat said. “First call I had with him, he told me he’d met his future wife.”

Even as Felicity blushed, Ryder warned, “Enough.”

Arrow shrugged. “You have to understand, Felicity, we aren’t easily impressed. We’ve seen and done too much. So for you to have made such an immediate impact on Ace, we knew you were special.”

“I said, enough,” Ryder growled. “Fuck, you keep this up, she’ll be running screaming from here wondering what in the fuck she’s gotten herself into.”