POV: Cameron Reed
~~~
Rowan's house was as hectic as always, many of Zeke's men running around with boxes or paperwork in their hands. Then there was the group of older men sitting around a table in the dining room playing a game of cards. The only one among them I could name was Derrick's third, John, and that was only because of the cyborg tattoo on his arm.
With Mal's birthday, tomorrow and I knew that the house would be busy but with all the shit he's been giving Ro lately, I wasn't sure she was still gonna plan a big party.
Passing the white-haired man himself I smiled at Zeke on my way into the living room where I could see Candy's vibrant hair.
"I'm surprised this place isn't more of a war zone." Candy flinched away from Luke at the sound of my voice, brushing it off I looked at the tired expression on the man's face. Then I threw myself down on the loveseat next to them.
"That's because the war zone has moved to the basement with Rowan, and a sulking Mal somewhere being a teenager," Luke grumbled out and rubbed at his eyes with his hand. Candy smiled softly at him and sighed.
"His attitude has only gotten worse in the last month, Rowan and him have been going at it every day, we can hear the screaming through the whole house," Luke mumbled his agreement and leaned back on the couch.
I assume that's why I was summoned, Jack texted me about how stressed everyone's been having to walk on eggshells around Mal and Rowan. My plan was to kidnap Ro for at least an hour and get her to chill the fuck out and talk out whatever shit was going on between the two.
"So what is she planning for tomorrow? I would have thought with all the fighting she would have said fuck him and not do anything." Luke laughed, turning his head to look at me.
"This is Rowan Collins we're talking about, even if she's pissed she's not giving up the opportunity to throw a party. But it is going to be small, to her standard, Just the main group of us and a few of Mal's friends. The ones that don't cause trouble."
"And to quote Rowan, Absolutely no Andrew McBride". That was small for her standards, but considering his attitude lately this might just as well be a punishment for him.
"Cameron!"
We all looked over to see Jack in the archway to the kitchen, leaving the pair in the living room I walked over to join Jack.
"What's up?" I eyed the mass amounts of sweets sitting on the counters and snatched a cookie before he could see, he laughed and grabbed one himself.
"Rowan and Mal almost got into a screaming match again. So I locked Ro in the sparing room before they could really start." I tried not to laugh but I couldn't help it.
"Don't laugh at me! It was either that or let them deafen the whole house."
Fair
Jack and I made our way to the basement through the door in the kitchen, each nabbing a few sweets before leaving.
"So you called me to what? Calm her down? Annoy her until she forgets how much of a bitch Mal is being?"
He chuckled but shook his head, "Not quite"
I was gonna continue questioning him but I was shushed as we approached the sparring room. Which, fun fact lock's from the outside.
He pulled out a small gold key and slowly unlocked the door.
Then everything happened in a matter of seconds and I was betrayed by the evil evil man.
Once the door was open Jack shoved me so hard that I stumbled into the room. Blocking the door with his body he was gracious enough to explain why I was here.
"She needs a punching bag that talks back." And of course, this was said with that stupid fucking smirk on his face.
He tried to close the door but I kicked my foot out in time to stop it.
"You talk back."
He only smirked at me again, "Yeah, but my face is too pretty for bruises."
In my Offended and shocked state, he was able to kick my foot out of the doorway and lock it before I could throw myself at it.
"YOU MOTHERFUCKING BIT-!"
"Do you have to be so fucking loud?" The sound of her voice cut off my curses.
Looking around the room I found her in the corner opposite the full wall of mirrors. A punching bag hung from the ceiling looking very abused.
If I leave this room with a black eye Jack Winig is a dead man.
She wasn't quite dressed for the sparring room with a pair of ripped blue jeans and a loose-fitting white top. But then again Jack did say he just locked her in here to stop her and Mal from killing one another.
She looked at me in silence for a while, with a look that I couldn't quite decipher.
After another few seconds of silence, I walked to the pile of equipment and grabbed a pair of sparring pads. She looked at me questioningly but didn't say anything as she met me in the middle of the padded room, her hands still covered with white hand wraps.
Neither of us said anything for a while, I just held up the pads and let her jab at them. Punch after punch and I could still see the tension in her body welded too tight.
"You know talking shit about the person that's pissing you off can be therapeutic."
Punch.
"Since when are you Dr. Phill? And who said I wanted to talk?"
Jab.
"Apparently Jack seems to think so, I've heard it's healthier than starting screaming matches that could wake the dead."
Her punches seemed to hit harder and her form became just the slightest bit sloppy.
"He doesn't know shit, he only likes to think he does."
Punch.
"I think I might have to disagree with you there. He did manage to lock us both in here."
She scoffed at me this time before hitting the pad.
"Speaking of, since when does this door lock from the outside?" She laughed at this.
"Since the son of a bitch stole my key." This time her form returned to its proper state and a little of the tension eased from her body.
I let her go another couple of rounds, running through the motions of punching and jabbing at my padded hands.
"Do you want to talk about Mal and whatever he tried to start this time?" She ignored me, not that I was surprised. I was about to change the subject again when she spoke.
"It's the same old shit, that he can control his own life, that I'm an overbearing dictator. And my favorite, that I'm a control freak that has to micro-manage his life because I can't control my own." Her punches were starting to land harder once again.
"Well, in my opinion, the kid has a bit of a point."
Boy was that not the right thing to say.
I felt the next jab vibrate through my whole arm.
"Okay now, I'm just saying from what I see sometimes you do keep a short leash on the kid."
She punched again, hard.
"I didn't ask for your opinion Reed."
"But I'm offering it, Collins."
Jab.
"All I'm saying is that you should take a second and look at it from the kid's perspective. Because compared to how I've seen you treat Char he definitely has a tighter lea-"
My sentence was cut off by Rowan going for my legs instead of my hands. With a swipe of her leg mine went out from under me. I landed on my side but rolled onto my back when she swung for my face.
"Whoa there Princess, let's not bruise the masterpiece."
Apparently, she didn't agree with me because in a second she was straddling my stomach and was trying to bring her fist down on my face.
Fuck that.
I rolled us both before she could land the hit, a loud sound of protest passing through her lips.
Now I was straddling her hips and pinning her hands above her head, "I was just making my observation princess. No need to get your panties in a twist."
She didn't take too kindly to that and using as much force as she could, she managed to unbalance me enough to flip both of us back over, and then I was the one pinned to the floor. The silver chain that I always saw around her neck hanging in my face.
It was longer than I would have thought, long enough to probably sit in the middle of her chest if it wasn't swinging in my face. On it was three rings, two of them with a pinkish-colored band and light-colored stones. While the other was a simple black band with a stripe of that same pink color.
"What are those?" She was confused for a moment but then glanced down to see the chain swing in my face.
"None of your fucking business." She spat.
"Well there dangling in my face princess, excuse me for being curious." Her face told me she really wanted to hit me. But we both know that the second she let go of my hand's id flip us again.
"There rings you dipshit." She shifted her weight over me, equaling out the amount on my stomach and being used to pin my hands.
"Really, no. I thought they were tiny bird crowns." She didn't find that as amusing as I did.
"I'm one more comment away from bruising your pretty face," I smirked up at her, unable to help myself.
"You think I'm pretty?"
That did it, she loosened her grip on my hands and swung for my face. I used that momentum to flip us again while avoiding getting hit. She landed on her back with a thump and I pinned her hands above her head again while also putting weight on her legs with one of my own so she couldn't wiggle her way out again.
"Fuck you, Cameron." She tried to break out of my hold but couldn't get anywhere.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" That shut her up real quick. Shifting her wrists to one hand I used the other to carefully lift her necklace and look more closely at the rings.
"You know we never actually talked about what happened in Washington princess. Does now seem like the appropriate time for you?" She thrashed beneath me again, still trying, and failing, to get herself out of my hold.
The rings were simple but still beautifully elegant. Different than something I would imagine Rowan wearing herself.
"I told you I didn't want to talk." She thrashed once more trying one last time to loosen my hold but I wasn't going anywhere.
"You don't want to talk about what, Malcome or Washington?" She had stopped flailing around and had settled for glaring up at me.
"Both."
"Come on now, let's talk about how much you enjoyed having your tongue down my throat."
She scored at that and tried to bring her knee up but it was still trapped under my legs. "If I remember correctly you were the one that enjoyed sucking on my neck a little too much."
I wiggled my eyebrows at her and lowered my mouth to her ear, "Maybe I did."
She inhaled a breath as I trailed my nose along her jaw and down to her neck, "And if I wanted to do it again? Would you let me?" I held my mouth just over her pulse, hovering there waiting for her response.
All she let out was a soft hum but that wasn't what I was looking for, I nudged her jaw with my nose. "Words princess, remember."
She hummed again and moved her head to give me more access, "Maybe."
Still just hovering my lips over her skin I trailed my way up to her mouth, "That's not a yes princess."
Her pupils were dilated enough that only a small ring of hazel could be seen, and even less as she glared at me.
"Just kiss me already Cameron." I smiled over her lip, still hovering.
"Your wish is my command, princess." And finally, I brought my lips down to hers, and she matched my rhythm imminently. I brought my hand up and cupped her jaw pressing her mouth closer to mine.
Slowly I let go of her wrist and trailed my left hand down over her neck and to her waist. She moned into my mouth and her hands went around my neck where she started playing with the hair on the back of my neck.
She started to flip us and I let it happen, letting her straddle my lap while continuing to kiss me, then she starts to kiss down my neck and I let out a ground when she presses down back into my lap.
Her lips are latched on to my neck when we hear banging on the door followed by Jack's voice, "All right now you two freshen up, you're lucky I turned off the security cameras for you!"
Rowan bit down on my neck and I had to bite my tongue to keep quiet while she lifted her head only to yell back at Jack.
"Fuck off Jacky!"
~~~
POV: Rowan Collins
A week later and Mal's birthday was about as successful as we would have thought. He didn't speak a single word to me but at least with that, there were no arguments.
And as if Mal wasn't trouble enough to be dealing with, the old bags on the board have been too quiet for my liking. They go from complaining about any and anything to complete radio silence and I don't like it one bit.
"If you keep making that face you're gonna be ugly before you know it." I rolled my eyes at my sister and threw some of the popcorn at her.
"Rude, and uncalled for." She joined me in my laughter, some comedy movie on the big screen in the living room.
Char had seemed off these last few days, and I noticed that her and Mal weren't talking to each other after his party but as I've been told by many, many people, I shouldn't medal so much in their lives. So I've kept my mouth shut.
The back door swings open and Linc walks in with Jack and Matty all blowing about something that I have no care about.
"If you drag mud onto my floors I'll hurt you!"
Matty popped his head through the arch as they passed by, "Yeah, yeah".
"Matthew I swear. Go tell Mira not to fuck with the chess pieces while she's messing around in my office." He rolled my eyes but the group of them headed for the hallway that led back to my office.
Apparently, I keep things too messy and it's unbecoming, at least in Mira's opinion so when her and Candy offered to organize it for me I told them to go for it.
"So Char, what do you want for your birthday?" That perked her right up.
"Nothing too big, but I still want a sweet sixteen. A nice cake, maybe even a big poofy dress but that's still up in the air."
I'm sure she would have kept going be she was cut off by the sound of Mira Yelling my name.
"ROWAN!"
"ROWAN!"
"You need to come see this right now!"
The sound of her voice had me jumping up from the couch and running back to my office where they were all huddled around one of the computer monitors.
"What? What happened?" Mira looked concerned and that in itself scared the shit out of me. She gave me a causes look and turned the screen around to me.
On it was a news station with a picture of me with Char and my uncle in Washington on one side and on the other a picture of part of my Collins industry contract, one that was supposed to be confidential.
Along with this, the headline that read Rowan Collins revealed as the actual CEO of Collins gun manufacture.
"What the actual fuck."
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