In Wicked Chains (The Wicked) by Avril Ashton Page A

cliff in a burning car. By the time I woke up, my father was there and Niko wasn’t. He told me Niko was dead. That was that, until the day in your club.” She referred to the day she fainted dead away at his feet at the sight of Niko. Well, not really sight since he had a different face. She recognized his voice.
    “God.”
    “Yeah.”
    “I knew you’d lost your child and you’d had it tough with your father, but all this…” He shook his head. “You’ve been through so much.”
    “I’m still kicking.”
    “I’m sorry for all of it.” He stroked her cheek. “If I could change it I would.”
    “I know.” She turned and placed a kiss in his palm. “And I treasure you for saying that. At one time I’d allowed all I went through to keep me back, hold me captive. I wallowed in all my pain, feeling sorry for myself, until your sister showed up at my father’s house. He’d blackmailed her, threatened you, her family, but she didn’t blink. She turned his plan around on him, threw it back in his face, and pulled a gun on him.”
    Kingston grunted. “She’s reckless, that one.”
    “No.” Elina shook her head. “She fights for those she loves. I watched her as she held the gun on my father. Her hands were steady, her body on alert, but I was the only one close enough to see her eyes. She was on a mission and if she had to shoot him, she would have. She’d do it to protect you and the rest of the gang.”
    She crawled up his body, brought her nose to his. “I fell in love with your sister then. I wanted to be fearless like her. I wanted to belong to the family she protected so fiercely. I’d never known anyone like that before I saw her, someone devoted to the people they called family, by blood or by choice.”
    “Now you’re one of us.” Kingston kissed her nose. “We protect our own.”
    “My father’s dead. Someone beat you guys to the punch.” She shrugged. “There’s nothing to protect me from now.”
    Something flashed in Kingston’s dark eyes at the statement.
    “What?” She lifted an eyebrow. “Should I be protected from you?”
    “Maybe.”
    She waved his words away. “You’ll never hurt me. I asked for this and whatever you dish out I can take. I think tonight proved that.”
    “That you did.” He stared at her, the whites of his eyes gleaming in the dim light. “You misled me, El.”
    “What?” She pushed the hair away from her eyes and sat up. Heart in her throat, she waited for his response.
    “Yeah. You have this whole demure, untouchable exterior you show everyone and then there’s this other side. You’re stronger, more open. Even sexier. I like that side.”
    Warmth spread through her body. She forgot about worrying if he knew her true feelings and pressed her lips to his. “You thought I was untouchable?”
    “Yes.” His fingers twined in her hair, held her still when she would’ve moved away. “I still do, but those rules are suspended for a little while.”
    She opened her mouth, but his cell phone rang, cutting off her words. She scrambled away from him as he leaned over her body and grabbed it from the nightstand.
    “Hello?”
    She hoped the club didn’t have an emergency. She didn’t want to leave just yet.
    “Hello?”
    Elina pulled her knees close to her chest, tugging on her hair as Kingston frowned at the phone and mumbled under his breath.
    “Everything okay?”
    He ended the call and nodded. “Yeah, probably wrong number.”
    She raised an eyebrow at that. The sudden tension in his voice and lines of his body spoke of something else altogether, but she let it go. Not my business .
    Placing the phone back on the nightstand, Kingston asked, “How do you go back to sleep after your…uh, nightmares?”
    She shrugged. “Music usually helps. Soft music. I keep my MP3 under my pillow.”
    “Where’s it now?” He rolled off the bed and got to his feet.
    Eyes on the heavy cock swinging between his legs, she gulped. “Uh, my MP3? Um, it-it