Because no matter how hard I tried, I wasn’t good enough.
No. Fuck them.
If they didn’t want me, that was their fucking problem.
I killed Jed Carter, saved my father, got into med school, and survived yet another cardiac surgery.
Me.
I was smart, determined, brave, and I didn’t have to take shit from anyone ever again.
If that wasn’t good enough for them? Too fucking bad.
I slid one foot out to skate off the ice.
And then, the metallic click of heavy doors opening stopped me in my tracks.Shit!Someone was here.
“Malyshka?” Alek’s thick Russian accent came from the player tunnel, but I couldn’t see him in the dark.
“Sir?” I whispered.
A moment later, three shadows stood at the edge of the ice, tall, broad, and powerful. I’d never felt safer.
“Fuck, sparrow,” Cole whispered, his voice reverent. “You’re all my dreams come true.”
Tristan didn’t say anything, just skated out to me, wrapped his arms around me, and devoured me in a fierce kiss that left no room for doubt that he wanted me. He tangled his fingers in my curls, angling my head so he could plunder my mouth, his tongue stroking against mine.
When he finally pulled back, his eyes were hooded with desire. “I thought you were done with us,” he murmured against my neck, nibbling the sensitive skin as I dragged him closer to me, our skates sliding against one another as I pressed into him.
Right.
“Fuck you,” I snapped, pushing him away. Alek and Cole glided onto the ice to stand beside Tristan—three predators, circling their prey.
Tristan’s expression was hurt, confused, but a proud smile overtook Alek’s normally stoic face.
“You all are the ones who left me,” I snapped. “When I was in that fucking hospital bed, you told me you weren’t fucking coming back.”
“We—”
I cut Cole off with a sharp slash of my hand through the air. “We make decisionstogether,” I snapped. “Like a fucking family. You ask me to trust you, but you won’t give me the same courtesy.”
“We trust you, sparrow,” Cole said.
“No, you fucking don’t.”
Alek skated in toward me and cupped my cheek, the warmth of his hand a dramatic contrast to the cool air that blew around my bare legs. “We do,” he said. I raised an eyebrow, resisting the urge to give in, to melt against him and let him take all my worries away.
Until he decided the best way to do that was to leave me again.
“We do,” he repeated. “I trust you, Eva. I love you.” He bent down to brush his lips against my temple.
“You left me,” I cried out against his chest. “I needed you, and you told me you weren’t coming back for my own fucking good.”
“Oh, baby girl,” Alek sighed, tightening his arms around me. “I’m so fucking sorry.” Tristan spun me around so I was facing him, manhandling me like I weighed nothing. “You think we don’t care what you want?”
Was he not hearing a word I said? I lifted my chin. “Just because I get on my knees to suck your cock doesn’t mean Idon’t want autonomy in the rest of my life,” I snapped. “You left me, not the other way around.”
Tristan’s face was unreadable.