With a yawn, Archer steps around Callum on his way down the hallway toward us. I left Archer and Callum downstairs in the den, finishing off their drinks.
“Told you he was looking to pin her against something when he tossed her over his shoulder and carried her up the stairs like some kind of Neanderthal,” Archer mutters, shaking his head.
I’d worried Torin might drop me down the stairs, but his grip had been so secure that two steps later, I stopped worrying about being dropped on my head and started eyeing the sexy ass inches from my face. I might have grabbed it. Maybe even more than once, which is what had led to being pinned to the wall and tickled mercilessly.
Torin’s form of tickling—the tip of his tongue against the sensitive spots on my neck—is a sweet and sexy torture I’m not ready to stop yet.
He blows hot air over my pulse, which makes me gasp. After dropping a kiss on the same spot that curls my toes, he lifts his head to reveal a sexy grin. “June likes this thing I do to her with my tongue, don’t you, baby?”
I don’t immediately answer, which is all the confirmation Torin needed. His grin widens, and Archer rolls his eyes.
“You said you were taking her to bed,” Archer says.
“And I did. Isn’t her room right there, next to us?” Torin kisses me and then grunts and twists around to glare at Archer, who takes full advantage to claim my mouth.
Archer has this all-consuming way of kissing me that scrambles my brain.
“Night, beautiful. You sure you don’t want to spend it with me?” Archer asks.
I blink up at him for a couple of seconds before my brain starts working again. “Not tonight. I feel bad about kicking you so much last night.”
“I don’t care if you kick me all night, baby,” Archer says, giving me a brief, hard kiss. “I care that you didn’t get enough sleep.”
I can see that he means it. He truly doesn’t mind if I spent the entire night kicking his shins the way I did last night. But I do.
“The cocoa you made me tonight will help,” I tell him. “In case I want to kick everything around me, I’d rather it be my sheets and not you again.”
For the last two weeks, I have spent my nights either with Torin, Archer, or Callum. I’m rarely in my bed, and if I am, then I’m never alone. But tonight, I feel antsy and tired.
Callum has been watching me with a tiny frown between his brows since I started talking about my restless night. From the concern on his face, I know what’s coming, and I’m already shaking my head when he says, “Should I call a doctor?”
“I’m fine. Just tired.”
My alphas give me a long look, unconvinced.
“I’mfine,” I repeat, wanting to reassure them.
Archer furrows his brow. “Are you sure it isn’t?—”
“It’s not heat,” I interrupt him. “The doctor said it won’t happen for another week, and I’m not in pain. My scent isn’t driving you all crazy, and I don’t have any cramps or anything.”
There’s been no painful itch inside me, the usual precursor to my heat. I really do feel fine, except for my sudden restlessness at night these last couple of days, and the occasional hot flush that comes and goes so fast that I haven’t felt the need to tell my alphas.
But my alphas have a reason to be concerned.
“This is your first heat since the bond-breaking ceremony,” Callum says quietly, eyes haunted from an experience that has scarred all of us.
My blood results came back normal after Callum’s dad threatened to inject me with an unknown drug. All signs of bond sickness have gone, but none of us—the doctors included—know how I will react when I go into heat.
“Go to sleep,” Callum says and kisses me on the forehead. “If I promise to stop worrying so much, will you?”
I should have known he’d notice. I smile at him. “Okay. I love you.”
His eyes turn soft with love, and his next kiss lands on my mouth, deeper and sweeter than his forehead kiss. “I love you too, beautiful.” Stepping back, he turns to Torin. “No fucking her against the wall again. She needs to rest.”
Torin mutters, “As if you haven’t done the same.”
Callum doesn’t say a word as he walks away, and Torin laughs and shakes his head.
