“Thirty minutes,” she repeated. “That’s generous.”
Roan’s mouth twitched, but his voice was pure command. “You’ll need it.”
She tilted her head, that smile deepening—then turned and disappeared back into the bedroom, the sway of her hips doing obscene things to every nerve in my body.
The door clicked softly behind her.
For a long, heavy moment, the only sound was our breathing—ragged, uneven, charged.
Then Jay let out a quiet, almost reverent exhale.
“Well,” he murmured, lips curving. “Game on.”
Chapter
Twenty-One
WREN
The crisp morning air bit at my skin as I stepped out of the cabin, each breath sharp and cold against the heat simmering beneath. Snow crunched underfoot, the ground a blinding white canvas that seemed to stretch endlessly into the woods, the trees standing like silent sentinels.
The cold wasn’t enough to cut through the wildfire inside me, the heat that still thrummed in my veins—a constant reminder of my body’s primitive needs, the biological imperative that was currently consuming me.
The bite of the wind barely registered as I walked, boots sinking into the snow with each step, the rhythm of my pulse matching the crunching beneath me. The woods were quiet, peaceful in a way that made the tension in the air feel all the more pronounced.
They’re watching.
Roan, Rhett, Jay—each of them a force, a presence. Each of them an ache I didn’t know if I could survive. They were watching me and the weight of their regard was a physical caress against my senses. Liquid heat pooled between my thighs and soaked my panties. I had no doubt that it would soak through my leggings, but at least the snow suit was water proof.
The rub of the fabric of my bra against my nipples was a new torment. Masturbating did nothing for me now. And I tried after Roan left me in the bedroom as need vibrated through me. Vibrantly aware of them out there, I’d tried to stroke my clit to get to orgasm.
No matter how much force I applied or how I rotated my fingers against the swollen bundle of nerves, it didn’twork. I clung there, right on the edge,hearingtheir voices like the most tantalizing moments of edging, but it wasn’t enough. The orgasm wouldn’t come and all it did was leave me aching and hungry formore.
Forthem.
I was starving forthem.
My thoughts scrambled more and more as I moved deeper into the woods, my body on fire and yet socold. The storm raging inside me now was as much a battlefield as a sensation. Imagining their touch clung to me, and I couldn’t escape it. The way they'd looked at me, spoken to me—the things they'd promised, things I wanted.
But it wasn’t just about the heat anymore. It wasn’t just about the hunger that made my blood burn. It wasthem.Their connection to me, the raw, undeniable attraction. I needed to test it. Needed to know just how far it could stretch before we all broke.
Though if they’d just taken me right there…
Eyes closed, I pressed a hand against a tree and stopped to suck in icy cold gulps of air. Oh, I couldfeelhow good it would have been. At the same time, Roan told me to make them work for it. To make them capture me. It appealed to all parts of me, even the one who wanted to just lay down and spread my legs until they filled me over and over.
Shoving away from the tree, I tried to chase the images away at the same moment. The scent of them was inside of me now,I could taste their musk and their need like it was my own. I wanted more though. So, legs burning with effort and the trees closing around me like a maze, I pushed on.
I was leaving a trail a toddler could fucking follow. A glance over my shoulder revealed where I’d plodded through the snow, sinking up to my mid-calves over and over. Pausing again, I frowned. The fog clouding my thoughts parted briefly as I tilted my head and began to sweep the area around me with a studying gaze.
A trail that blazingly obvious would not provide them with a challenge. In fact, it was an open invitation that just said, here I am, come and get me. Irritation sparked off the dark, delectable voice that pointed out, “the sooner they find you, the sooner you get fucked.”
Except, I reminded both that bitchy inner monologue as well as myself, Roan made it clear if I didn’t at least attempt to give them a challenge, I wouldn’t get shit.
One of us snorted. Then I giggled. I had to slap a gloved hand over my mouth at the sound. I didn’t giggle. Or titter. Or make little girly noises of any kind. My cunt clenched on emptiness. It would continue to flex around that great, big fat nothing if I didn’t make them work for it.
Decide. I told myself.Decide if you really want them. Cause you can just give up right now, go back to the cabin and live through this hell until it’s over. It won’t kill you.
It wouldn’t.
