Chaos Bound by Sarah Castille Page B

cheek. “You okay?”
    “Yeah. Fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”
    Maybe because her asswipe of a boyfriend hadn’t showed. Holt had a feeling there was more to the story than just his failure to be there for his girl.
    Holt lay back and tucked Naiya into his side. Without protest, she curled up against him, her head on his shoulder, one hand resting lightly on his chest. Holt let out a breath and pulled her closer. She felt right beside him. Perfect.
    Broken.
    Just like him.
    *   *   *
    “So what’s the plan?” Ally handed Naiya a box of donuts as Doug and Holt pulled chairs around the table in their motel room. Fresh from a night of very loud motel sex, Ally had been up early to find coffee and donuts so they could start their day on a sugar and caffeine high.
    “She always has a plan,” Ally said to Holt as he reached for a donut.
    “I noticed.” His lips quirked at the corners, and Naiya blushed. They’d slept together all night, and, good as his word, he hadn’t tried anything. Not that she expected him to. A man like Holt probably had women falling over themselves to spend the night in his bed. Curvy science geeks wouldn’t be on his radar.
    Naiya plucked a Bavarian cream from the box and placed it in the center of her Styrofoam plate. Knowing her quirks, Ally had brought a plastic knife and fork, and Naiya carefully cut the donut into six equal pieces. She didn’t notice the silence around the table until she lifted the first bite to her mouth.
    “What the fuck?” Holt stuffed half a jelly donut in his mouth and talked while chewing. “What did you do to that donut?”
    “I like to cut the filled ones up so there is an equal amount of filling in each piece.” She placed a sliver of donut in her mouth and chewed, overly conscious of Holt’s scrutiny.
    “Seriously?” Holt finished off his donut with a second bite, and reached for another. “Darlin’ you gotta live a little.”
    “I am living. Donuts aren’t a healthy breakfast.” She speared another piece of donut and Holt snatched the fork away.
    “Hey.”
    He held the jelly donut up to her mouth. “Bite.”
    Naiya glanced over at Ally and Doug who were watching them, rapt and unusually silent. “Fine. If it means you’ll let me eat my donut in peace.” She leaned over and nibbled on the end.
    “Bite,” he said again. “Like you really want it.”
    Her cheeks flushed and she took a big bite of the donut, her teeth sinking through the soft dough and into a pool of sweet raspberry jelly. She licked the sweetness from her lips and swallowed, desire curling in her stomach. “Good enough?”
    “Again.” His voice dropped, husky and low. Naiya looked up and blushed at the intensity of his gaze.
    This time when she bit, she kept her gaze on him, watched his eyes drop to her mouth, his nostrils flare. Her body heated, moisture pooling between her thighs. She’d never had a man look at her like that, never felt such a rush of desire, and the simple process of eating from his hand was almost … sensual.
    “More?”
    He fed her the last bit of the donut, his fingers brushing over her lips as he placed it on her tongue. He seemed fascinated by her mouth, his gaze never leaving her face despite Ally’s less-than-discrete coughing beside him.
    When she finished the last bite, he dabbed some excess jelly from the corner of her mouth with a napkin and smiled.
    “Good?”
    “Yes.” She nibbled her bottom lip, tasting the lingering sweetness. “Every bite was a surprise. Some with lots of jelly. Some—” She cut herself off. God, she sounded stupid. Everyone knew how a donut tasted.
    But Holt didn’t laugh. “Some without,” he continued for her. “Unpredictability is what makes life interesting. Kept me going in that dungeon. I’d spend hours trying to guess what Viper would do next, whether the next day would be my last, whether the Sinners would show up…” His voice trailed off and Naiya’s heart clenched. She knew that