Fox’s resolution was fucking perfect.
Colin
Colin pulled the hood of his oversize sweatshirt—one of Dane’s, actually, judging by the scent—up and over his blue hair, staring out from under it at Fox, who was using some of Jay’s fancy syrups to make Colin an iced coffee that would no doubt taste like sugary ass.
Colin narrowed his eyes at his mate’s back. Motivated by guilt, perhaps? Unlikely, though, knowing Fox. Guilt wasn’t high up there in his emotional repertoire.
Jay was next to Colin at the kitchen table, hunched over his sketchbook. Alexei and Dane had gone out for a sunrise walk and weren’t back yet. Those two were…weirdly friendly. Colin would have teased Dane about it, except Jay unwittingly did it for him, taking every opportunity to compliment them sweetly on how well they were getting along.
Dane low-key hated it, which Colin found secretly hilarious.
But Colin didn’t have the right to tease anyone at the moment, did he? By all accounts, he should be dying of shame. Alexei and Jay had walked in on him getting spit-roasted, for fuck’s sake. And he hadn’t even had the decency to wait for a private room to do it. The spare bedroom had beenright there, but he’d had to go and get nasty on Jay’s living room couch.
It was hard to muster up the appropriate embarrassment though. Maybe that had something to do with the way Jay seemed to have considered it a bonding exercise among all of them. He was glaring at Fox less than usual this morning, and he kept giving Colin spontaneous hugs, like he couldn’t help himself.
Or maybe it was the way Colin’s devil was feeling so incredibly smug and pleased with itself, leaving little roomfor anything else in Colin’s psyche. That damned beast loved claiming its mates, loved when Fox and Dane got so worked up over Colin that they couldn’t help themselves.
His devil was a horny dickhead, basically. Just like Colin’s mates. Give them an inch and they took a fucking mile.
Not that Colin was blameless. Getting overwhelmed and out of his head was exactly what he’d asked for—what he craved just as much, if not more, as the blood he needed to survive—but then sometimes that overwhelm led to stupid shit like this.
Getting caught by his best friend in flagrante.
Although, from the angle they’d been at, Jay had probably mostly gotten an eyeful of Fox’s ass.
It was a good ass too.
Colin jerked in his seat as Fox was suddenly in front of him, sliding an iced coffee into his hand. “Here you are, slayer,” he purred. He leaned in close before Colin could take a sip. “Any reason you were eyeing my butt like you wanted to take a bite out of it? Looking to give your little Jaybird another show?”
Jay glanced up from his sketch pad with hopeful eyes. “I wouldn’t mind.”
Colin sighed. He loved his friend, but Fox was right: Jay was a little perv. Or he just loved his friends so strongly he wanted to shareeverythingwith them, appropriate or not. Colin hadn’t decided fully which it was. “Short stack,” he said gently. “What happened last night isn’t going to be a regular occurrence.”
Jay’s lower lip jutted out into a pout, even as he nodded. “I know that. You’re a very private person, Colin,” he recited, the words having the cadence of a rehearsed statement. “And I respect that.” The front door opened and shut again as Jay ripped the page from his sketch pad and slid it toward Colin. “But, I thought… To commemorate the occasion…”
Colin took in the image just as Dane came up behind him, pressing a kiss to Colin’s hood, then freezing in place. “Is that…Fox’s ass?”
“Aw, Jaybird.” Fox was grinning so wide it must have hurt his cheeks. “You captured my dimples perfectly.”
Colin was too stunned to say a thing. He was staring at a perfect image of Fox on the couch, his pants pulled just below his muscled ass, which was very clearly flexed.
Of course it was flexed—he’d been pounding into Colin at the time.
Jesus fucking Christ.
“This was all I saw, I promise,” Jay told him as Alexei scooped him off the chair and then back onto his lap. “I just thought that, um, maybe you’d want that? I have quite a few nude portraits of Alexei now. I like to look at them.”
Colin still couldn’t say anything, so he just stuffed the picture into his sweatshirt pocket, hating how hot his cheeks were. He was probably blushing like crazy, wasn’t he? Fox and Dane were never going to let him live this down.
Jay turned his attention to Colin’s drink, eyeing it for a long moment and then turning to Fox. “May I have one of those?”
Fox was still grinning like a maniac at Colin, but eventually he shrugged, giving Jay a decidedly nonhostile look. “Why the hell not?” He headed back to the kitchen counter, concocting another drink for Jay.
No glaring. No sniping. Everyone was getting along splendidly, and all it had cost Colin was his dignity.
Colin took a sip of his drink, making a face at the sweetness even as he went in for more. There were worse prices to pay, he supposed.
He pulled his hoodie back down with a sigh, leaning back in his chair and turning to Jay. “Okay, short stack. Tell me all about this trip to Maine you have planned.”
