Rowen rolled until he was able to get to his knees and crawled up the bed. He tugged at the comforter, and laughing, Vail helped him get the bedding turned down. Rowen then slid in between Cillian and me, and Vail ended up squirming until I was on my back between him and Rowen.
Rowen’s grayish-blue eyes were wide as he studied my face, and my belly flipped as he softly cupped my cheek. I definitely wasn’t ready for it when he brushed his lips to mine—Vail was always so eager, Aspen slow yet demanding, and Cillian bruised me. But Rowen? He was so gentle it curled my toes. He kissed a lot like Vail... only calmer.
“I worried so much earlier.” His brow furrowed and he looked around at everyone. “We all did. We’ve all been on edge about ye since the hospital, Fallon. Not every day or anythin’, but I keep wondering about yer health, and then it all went to hell today.” He took a deep breath, and I was shocked as Vail hugged me, and Aspen leaned over Vail to kiss my forehead and down to my cheek. His lips were so soft. Rowen was in the way, and Aspen couldn’t get to my lips, but Rowen closed in and kissed me again, so it didn’t matter anyway. I tasted the bright smoke of whiskey as he slid his tongue along my lips before he pulled back. “How are ye?”
With the way I was surrounded by a wall of protection—something I’d given to Vail before along with the guys but never experienced myself—my throat tightened, and my eyes burned and I blinked away tears. “I think I’m... I don’t know. I really don’t know, but I will be fine. Eventually.”
“Bet another kiss would make him feel better,” Vail murmured, and I glanced into his face to see a saucy smile curling the corner of his lips. He was sobadsometimes, and I loved it when he was this way.
“You know what, sweetheart, you’re onto something there. A kiss would make me feel tons better.” I winked at Vail.
“Oh? Then I’ll give ye one, shall I?” Rowen asked, smiling up at Vail, who bit his lip. Then Rowen kissed me again and this time his lips lingered.
Cillian snorted. “That’s not much of a kiss.”
I was breathing heavily and not thinking of much, except how great it felt to be snuggled between four guys, when Cillian shoved Rowen with a laugh. The jostling didn’t hurt, but my breath caught.
Vail shifted. “That was too rough,” he said, tone sharp. He almost never sounded like that.
Cillian grabbed my chin and turned my face in his direction. My first instinct was to fight being moved around, but he leaned down and covered my mouth with his. He nipped hard at my bottom lip, and I gasped, opening for him. Cillian couldn’t seem to help himself; he shoved into my mouth and swiped his tongue alongside mine, then pulled back and sucked hard on the lip he’d hurt, sending new sparks of pain through my body—although these ones were only good.
Vail crawled across me and Rowen, and when he was done moving around, he was blocking Cillian from the rest of us and glaring at him. “That was too rough right now.”
“I can be gentle.” Cillian’s brows dove and he shook his head. “I swear, bug, I won’t hurt him.”
“With me, yes, you can be gentle sometimes, when you want to be, but I’ve never seen it with anyone else. And that was too much right now.”
I wanted to say I was fine, but Vail so infrequently yelled at anyone that I decided to bask in being the special center of his attention, especially since Rowen snickered, and Aspen sighed and shook his head fondly.
Cillian puffed up his chest like a jackass and smacked it. “I can do anything I put me mind to, and if I feckin’ say I’m going to be sweet with someone I will.”
“Mm-hmm,” Vail said, sounding a hell of a lot like Aspen. I broke down and snickered, hiding my face against Rowen’s shoulder.
“So, no one’s ready to toss me out as defective?” I coughed and everyone on the bed stilled.
Cillian was still glaring at Vail but shifted his attention to me. “Guess we want ye around.” He leaned forward again, stretching to reach me across Vail and Rowen, and this time when he settled his lips on mine it didn’t hurt. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about Cillian—sometimes he scared the shit out of me, which had been worse lately because I’d been injured, but right now I couldn’t imagine why I would ever feel that way. This was really fucking nice.
Cillian leaned back and rubbed his thumb along my bottom lip. “Me bug doesn’t trust me.” He glanced over at Aspen. “Can ye believe it?” He began to chuckle and shook the whole bed.
“Aye,” Rowen snarked. “I can.”
Cillian leaned in again and gave me another soft kiss that had me curling my fingers around the collar of his shirt. The bed dipped, and when we broke apart I noticed Aspen had gotten out to walk around and crawl into the bed behind Cillian.
“Let me show you how to do this up proper,” Rowen said.
“Yes. Yes, I love practical demonstrations. Show us how to kiss Fallon,” Vail murmured, and when I glanced up at him, his eyes were sparkling with a quiet joy.
“Ye have to suck his lip. No biting, ye muppet,” Rowen said, laughing as he shook a finger at Cillian that he batted away.
Rowen sucked on my lip, and the next thing I knew Cillian stretched over and did the same thing immediately afterward. I melted into Rowen’s arms and couldn’t hold back a moan.
“Oh, you’re doing something right.” Aspen’s low, soothing voice from Cillian’s other side had me wishing I could have all of them right next to me, right now. There had to be some way to twist us all together so that was possible, but I couldn’t think.
“You were all hurt today, are you all okay? I was worried,” Vail murmured, and Rowen turned to kiss Vail. He was still wearing all his clothes, even his suit coat.
“We’re fine, angel.” He kissed him again. “Love of me life. Ye’re sweet to worry.”
Cillian sighed, and Aspen hummed in that way of his that let me know he thought Rowen was beingtoo much, but it was fucking adorable right about now, so they could all shove it. I’d had a rough fucking day.
