“I’ll go and stall him while you two get dressed. You can both owe me one later,” Cole suggested with a dirty undertone, then detached my fingers from his so he could get dressed. I stayed where I was with my face pressed into the bend of River’s neck, but I couldn’t stop myself from tilting my head to steal an indulgent look while the shredded ex-fighter pulled on his clothes. He dressed slowly enough that I knew he knew I was watching, which he confirmed with a smug wink as he left the room. Bastard.
“Come on, Kitten. You’d better shower quickly before Caleb decides to come and find you himself. Poor guy has been going out of his mind with worry for you.” River paused, his eyes sad. “We all were.” He then softened his heart-wrenching words by slapping me playfully on the ass to make me move.
“Mmm, shower sounds good right now. Care to join me?” I offered, climbing out of bed and strutting saucily, or at least that’s what I was aiming for, over toward my en suite.
“Not unless you want Caleb to come in here and find you all wet and soaped up while you ride my cock on the bathroom floor.” His words were meant as a warning, but I paused for a moment, debating if that would really be such a bad thing. Maybe Caleb would be into it…
“Go, Kitten. Before I change my mind.”
I shook off my pornographic musing, then blew him a cheeky kiss before shutting myself into the bathroom alone for a long, somewhat cool shower.
The raised voices alerted me to the fact that it was, as I’d suspected, all of the boys who had arrived. As I hurried down the stairs, I caught a snippet of their heated argument.
“—should have taken her to a hospital to get checked out!”
I paused mid-step in surprise. I couldn’t remember ever having heard Wesley raise his voice like that before.
There was a rumbled response from Cole, too low for me to hear, and I sneaked down a few more steps to try and hear a bit more before they saw me coming.
“Of course that’s what she said!” Wesley yelled. “When have you ever heard Kit admit she needs help? They could have done anything to her while they had her drugged, and you two were just okay with that? Just take her word for it that she’s fine?”
“What would you have had us do?” River barked with a little more aggression than usual. “You would have dragged her to get checked out against her will? In case you haven’t noticed, she is much stronger than us these days. We couldn’t make her do anything against her will short of sedating her, and I for one, have no intention of doing that. Do you?”
There was a tense silence for a second before Wesley replied, calmer, “No. No of course not. I would never… I just meant…” His earlier anger seemed to have run its course—he was back to quiet and fumbling—and it made me want to hug him so badly.
“We get it.” Caleb spoke in a calm voice, probably meant to smooth things over. “You’re just worried about her, Wes. We all are. But River and Cole would never have taken advantage of her. You know that.”
Hold up, Wesley accused them of taking advantage? My temper flared at the insinuation that I was some weak woman who couldn’t make her own decisions.
“I know. I’m sorry, guys. I didn’t mean to imply… I’m just a bit…” Wesley mumbled the last, and I couldn’t quite hear it.
“Jealous?” Caleb suggested, the cheeky shit. “I get it, bro. I am too… big time. I can’t believe you two assholes didn’t call until you knew you had a head start. That was not cool.”
“I didn’t call at all,” Cole corrected, sounding amused, and I heard the thud and chuckle of someone hitting him.
“I’m not jealous,” Wesley muttered defensively.
“Yeah, you are. We’ve all seen the way you look at her,” Caleb kept teasing poor Wesley, and I decided it was probably a good time for me to break the tension before things got awkward.
I knew Wesley probably didn’t like me like that, so I didn’t want him feeling uncomfortable around me just because of Caleb’s teasing. Despite my own feelings on the matter. Not to mention my imagination…
Making sure to tread a little heavier, I continued down the last of the stairs, yawning loudly as I turned the corner into the sitting room where they were all gathered. Five sets of eyes turned on me the second I entered the room, and all of a sudden I was feeling very self-conscious. After the amount of shit I had put these guys through lately, what if they were really mad at me?
No one moved or spoke for a second, and I scratched the back of my neck uncomfortably, wishing I had put more thought into my outfit choice. After my cold shower, I had pulled on a pair of comfy black sweatpants with Ugg boots then a tight, white tank top over my favorite turquoise bra. Over it all I had just tossed a zip up hoody and not zipped it up, so I was acutely aware of my girls on show for all five men staring at me. Likely my hair was still a sleep-tousled mess and my lips were still red and swollen from all the action they had seen in the night, too.
“Good morning,” I sang, awkward as hell and avoiding eye contact with everyone.
Caleb was the first to respond, standing abruptly from his seat on the couch and stalking over to me with a fierce look on his face that made me back up just a tiny step. When he reached me, he paused. A flash of uncertainty crossed his face, then he grasped my face in his palms and slammed his lips against mine, knocking the air out of me. For a second I was frozen in shock, then simply melted under his lips. The entire room and everyone in it fell away. My arms reached up around his strong neck, and his fingers tangled in my hair. I pulled myself in closer to his body until I could practically feel his heart galloping in sync with mine. After the number of times we had flirted, even came close to kissing, I should have had some idea of what I was in for, but nothing had prepared me for the sizzling heat passing between us. Not that kissing him was any better or worse than either of the men I had just woken up with. It was just different, unique and unmistakably Caleb.
“If you two are done?” Austin’s sarcasm splashed across our passionate moment like a bucket of ice water, and I jumped backwards in shock, my hand flying up to my mouth.
“Um…” Words had completely vacated my brain as my eyes remained locked on Caleb’s and his smoldered back at me like an apex predator.
“The team was just discussing whether you might like to visit a hospital and get checked out,” River diplomatically filled the silence, allowing me to snap out of my Caleb induced daze. When I glanced over to him appreciatively, I saw a heated look in his own eyes that suggested it wasn’t only Cole he was happy to share with.
Oh dear God, save me from my dirty thoughts.
“Um, sorry, what?” I shook myself a little to regain some brain power, and River smirked at me.
“Hospital,” he repeated. “Wesley thought perhaps it would be best for you to get checked out.”
“What? No! Absolutely not!” I frowned at the terrible suggestion. “I heal from pretty much anything. There is absolutely no need to go to a hospital, and even if I did, it would just cause more harm than good.”
Wesley heaved a defeated sigh and pulled off his glasses to polish them on the sleeve of his sweatshirt.