“Mm, always,” I murmured sleepily, enjoying how the brush of his fingers across my rib cage and the soft caress of his lips on my shoulder chased away the ghosts of my imagination. “Good session tonight?”
“Very,” he replied with a note of pride that saw me rolling to face him. “I told my teacher about that incident we had earlier...” He raised his eyebrows, and I gave a small nod, remembering our incident clearly. Also remembering how damn tempted I’d been to push him further. “Well, she was really impressed that I’d managed to walk away and said I had come a really long way.”
My eyes widened, and I bit my lip from pressing him any further, but inside my head I was screaming. Her?
That was the closest he’d ever come to mentioning this secretive teacher of his and certainly the first time he’d confirmed it was a woman teaching him. A sick feeling pooled in my belly. Who the hell was this bitch? Call me paranoid and possessive, but my automatic reaction was jealousy. Why else would she need such secrecy? Surely if her motives were pure, she’d have no issues with me knowing her.
“Kitty Kat.” Caleb frowned, rubbing a thumb over my cheek. “You look like you’re freaking out about something, but I can’t feel anything from you. I take it the blocking worked out?”
“Um.” I cleared my throat, pushing my jealousy and paranoia down. “Yeah. Yeah it did.”
He smiled a little sadly. “I miss it.”
Trailing my gaze over his face, I forced myself not to push. Not to demand more information that I knew full well would cause him pain to try and tell me. He would try too, I already knew from experience. He wouldn’t just clam up and say nothing like how Vic had done under Bridget’s geas; Caleb genuinely tried to answer every question I asked and paid the price for it.
“I can turn it on and off, I think,” I whispered back. “Or I should be able to when I get better at it. But for now, it’ll save my sanity when I have all six of you bonded to me.”
Cal smiled and pecked a short kiss to my lips. “I can’t wait for that to happen.”
He meant for his own bonding, I knew full well. The flutter of butterflies in my belly confirmed that I, too, was excited for it. For all of my bonds... including whatever River was so damn scared of.
Closing the gap between us once more, I kissed him back just as I felt Austin stirring behind me. The butterflies inside me seemed to morph into hummingbirds when Cal made no move to stop kissing me, even though he must have known his twin was awake.
No words were spoken between the three of us, but when Austin’s hard body pressed the length of my back, I hissed a gasp against Caleb’s mouth. Austin’s mouth pressed to the bend of my neck in an echo of where Caleb had kissed me only moments earlier, and his erection ground against my butt.
“Kitty...” Caleb groaned, releasing my lips even as Austin’s hands gripped my breasts through my shirt. “We don’t have time for this; the others are already waiting downstairs.”
Despite his words, his hands gripped my thighs and pulled me closer to him, grinding his own hard length to my front, and I almost came right then and there... sandwiched between the King twins.
“Cal’s right,” Austin rumbled against my neck, then grabbed my earlobe between his teeth and nipped me sharply enough that I moaned. “This would require we not be rushed.”
I shuddered as my mind went wild on what this was going to be. It wasn’t hard to guess.
Caleb sighed and threw back the blankets. “Come on, let’s go get you bonded to some lizards; otherwise they’ll be busting down the door any moment.”
Snorting a laugh because he was totally right, I wiggled out of Austin’s way too tempting embrace and perched on the edge of my bed to rub at my eyes and assess my clothing options.
“Uh, should I like... dress up for the occasion or something?” I asked the twins and was met with baffled expressions.
Caleb picked up my black, ripped jeans from the floor and tossed them to me. “Kitty Kat, you could go down there in nothing but a thong and no one would complain. Actually... come to think of it, give those jeans back.”
“Ha ha, very funny.” I grinned as I tugged the jeans on and then hunted for a bra. I wasn’t exactly the tidiest woman alive, so my suitcase looked a little bit like a grenade had gone off in it. A couple of times Wes had offered to unpack for me, but I’d shrugged him off. Why unpack when we might need to haul ass at a second’s notice?
Once I’d located a simple red bra, I threw one of River’s shirts over the top and rolled up the sleeves. My wardrobe was almost half full of men’s clothing these days, as apparently they all had a fetish for seeing me in their shirts. Not that I was complaining; men’s shirts were comfy as hell.
“All right, let’s do it. Do we have coffee?” I asked Caleb hopefully as the three of us made our way downstairs to where my other four guardians waited in the den.
“All over it,” Wesley offered, holding a steaming mug out to me, and I beamed. My guys were actually just the most amazing, thoughtful people. “It’s Irish... seeing as it’s the middle of the night.”
My eyebrows shot up, and I took an experimental sip of my coffee, which was indeed laced with whiskey. The rich blend of smoke and honey mixed with my coffee rolled across my tongue, and I moaned my approval. Yep, Irish coffee was a win in my books.
“You ready to do this, Kitten?” River asked me seriously, his golden eyes flickering over his shirt on my body and pausing at my chest, where I hadn’t bothered buttoning the fabric over my bra.
Giving him a reassuring smile, I nodded. “Absolutely. Are you guys?” I turned to Cole and Vali, who were standing awkwardly in the middle of the den with their arms folded and mirror frowns creasing their brows. “You guys look... really worried. You don’t have to go through with this, you know? You can say no.”
“Not happening, Vixen,” Cole rumbled in his gravelly voice. “I just want you to be sure. We can’t...” He sucked in a breath, his jaw set tightly. “We can’t feel whether you’re sure or not.”
“Huh.” I cocked my head and flicked a glance at the twins. “Who’d have thought you’d all get so used to it in such a short time. I would gladly take the wall down, but I don’t know how successfully I can put it back up again and think it’s best to keep it in place for now.”
Vali gave me a small smile. “That’s understandable, Regina mea. We just worry. But if you’re sure...”
“I am.” I said it as firmly as I possibly could. All this “Are you sure?” was giving me a headache. It wasn’t like I was the kind of girl to be pressured into anything I didn’t want to do, after all. “Come on, step up. Who’s first?”
There was already a large area already cleared in the middle of the den, so I walked over to it and parked my ass down. “Uh, wait. Do either of you still have the spell thing?” I looked to Caleb and Austin—because clearly there was no way in hell I could remember it from weeks earlier when Austin and I had bonded.
“Got it.” Caleb pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it over. Unfolding it, I scanned the unfamiliar words again and found them a little less daunting, thanks to Austin’s merciless magic lessons involving their language.
Cole and Vali both joined me on the floor, and when I raised my eyebrow at each of them, Vali smirked and Cole glowered. “Let me guess, Vali first?”
The response I received was just a broader grin from the Romanian, and I nodded. Clearly they’d sorted this out in advance, and Cole was still sulking about losing whatever the bet had been. Fair was fair though, as he’d won the one to take me flying.
“Nervous?” Vali asked me quietly as I handed him the spell and my hand trembled.
“Yeah,” I admitted. “And excited.” Our gazes met, and I could clearly see he was feeling the same way.