“Sure,” he says, looking dazed. “I, uh, have less violent games if you?—”
“Nope. I like this one,” I cut in, smiling brightly.
“She likes this one,” Wyatt murmurs faintly from behind me.
I start to get up, then stop. “I know Hunter told you to be quieter when you play, and you’re worried about scaring me, but you don’t have to be quiet. My mind knows I’m safe here. It’s just taking my body a little longer to know it too. And, uh, sorry I sweated all over your controller. I got more into it than I expected.”
Screaming “DIE!” at the TV wasn’t how I expected my day to end, but as I continue out of the living room, saying goodbye to four bemused alphas on my way, I’m surprisingly relaxed for having spent the last few minutes killing zombies.
Chapter 17
Elias
“Zombies?” Wyatt waits until Maisie has left before he crosses the room and drops into a brown leather armchair.
His tone is dry, and his raised eyebrow communicates a whole heap of what the fuck energy.
I get it. I more than get it.
Making a face, I set the controller down as Maisie’s footsteps continue up the stairs. “If I’d known she would be interested in playing, I would’ve chosen a different game.”
“She seemed to like it.” Hunter glances at the controller she handed me before she left the room. “Not sure how the controller survived, but she was definitely into it.”
I’d caught her surreptitiously wiping sweat off it with the bottom of her shirt, and I bit my tongue about her mashing buttons when I’ve screamed at Hunter for less. “She was having fun. That was the important thing.”
Hunter nods his agreement.
Knox takes the seat she vacated, stretching his long legs with a jaw-cracking yawn.
I eye him curiously. “You were out for a longer run than usual.”
His evening runs are usually thirty minutes. Today, he was out for closer to an hour.
He closes his eyes and crosses his arms over his chest. “Needed to run off some frustrations.”
I know the ones he means. We all do. All of us were prepared to give Maisie a home after her ex set fire to her apartment while she was in it. But none of us anticipated that having her under our roof would wreak havoc on our ability to function. Now, she’s close enough to touch, kiss, and hug. All things we’ve ached to do for a month now.
“Yeah,” I mutter, recalling that first morning she’d wandered down the stairs in a t-shirt and no panties. After we ate breakfast together, I walked into the shower, and not even a ten-minute cold shower had killed my erection.
I was forced to take matters into my own hands.Literally.
Wyatt hums, and Hunter lets out a groan of frustration. “You didn’t see her in those gray shorts bent over in front of the oven.Fuck. I thought I was still asleep and dreaming.”
Without opening his eyes, Knox adjusts himself in his pants and mutters. “Shutup.”
My lips twitch at the irritation in his voice. “Maybe try a cold shower,” I suggest.
Knox cracks open one eye to peer at me. “And how has that worked out for you?”
I drop my smile. “Fuck you.”
“Exactly,” he mutters and closes his one open eye.
“How’d you convince her to play?” Wyatt asks.
He must have walked in after Maisie was deep in the need to kill as many zombies as possible. When you’re in the zone, the real world falls away, and Maisie wasdeepin it, perched on the edge of the couch, drying her eyeballs out with her refusal to blink.
Hunter tells Wyatt—and Knox, who also wasn’t around for it—about me scaring the shit out of her by cursing.
