She hums, tilts her head back against the tub. “You make it sound like I’m five.”
“Maybe you are,” Beck mutters, grinning when she flicks water at him.
I watch her, the curve of her smile, the way her chest seems to ease. And I think, yeah. This is what it means to catch her.
I want to do this for the rest of my life.
Because I love her.
Her breath hitches when I kneel on the little stool behind her. I reach into the bath and cup water in my hands, letting it pour down her shoulders. I can’t help but press a kiss to the wet skin there. She shivers. Doesn’t pull away. I do it again, slower this time, lips brushing a line toward her neck.
“Ford,” she whispers.
“I’m here,” I murmur, resting my chin lightly on her shoulder. “Always here.”
Beck snorts softly. “Now you’re just showing off.”
Hayes grabs the sponge, squeezes warm water over her chest. He leans close, grinning when Lo swats weakly at him. “You’re gonna thank us later.”
“I’m grateful now,” she admits, quiet.
The words seem to slip out before she can stop them. Beck goes still, the sponge paused in his hand. Then he sets it aside, leans in, and presses the lightest kiss to her bare knee above the waterline.
“Good,” he murmurs against her skin. “’Cause you deserve it.”
Lo’s breath catches, her cheeks pinking. She ducks her face, but Hayes tips her chin back with one finger. He smiles at her, then bends to brush his mouth over hers. She gasps, and he steals another before she can protest, grinning when she laughs against his lips.
“Cheater,” she mutters.
Hayes just shrugs, smug. “Couldn’t help myself.”
Beck rolls his eyes, but when Lo glances at him, cheeks wet from steam, eyes all wide and shining, he groans helplessly. He leans forward, catching her hand, and presses his lips to her knuckles. Then her wrist. Then higher, a trail of reverent kisses until her pulse stutters under his mouth.
“Trouble,” he rasps, “you undo me.”
She swallows hard, caught between laughter and tears. And when she turns her head over her shoulder toward me, searching, I don’t hesitate. I kiss her shoulder again, then the damp curve of her throat where Beck’s mark resides. Slow and careful, like I’m writing a promise into her skin.
Beck brushes a stray curl off her forehead, bending to kiss it. Hayes hums low in his chest, thumb stroking her cheek, mouth brushing hers once more just because he can. And I hold her steady from behind, lips pressed to her temple, letting her lean her full weight back into me from over the edge of the claw-foot tub.
She’s surrounded. Kissed. Held. Safe.
Her eyes flutter shut, lashes wet.
“You guys…” Her breath is shivery. “You make me feel?—”
“Loved,” Hayes supplies.
“Wanted,” Beck adds.
“Home,” I whisper against her hair.
Her breath catches again, but this time it’s not a sob, it’s something brighter, breaking open.
I glance around at my other two packmates, meeting their eyes over her head. Beck’s mouth is curved, Hayes’s gaze softer than I’ve ever seen it. I feel the truth solid in my bones.
This is it.
The four of us, finally, where we’re supposed to be.
