I don’t like the idea of them looking into the nesting suite I’ve used for storage since I moved in.
“That’s not going to be a problem. We have so much stuff for you, and we’re never more than fifteen minutes away from a Great Nestpectations. It’s time to build your nest with your pack, baby.” Grant leans forward, almost brushing his lips over my cheek before he jerks up straight. “Sorry, sticky lips.”
I don’t let him get away with that. Our lips crash together, and he immediately deepens the kiss as his hand grips the back of my head. I taste the sweet sticky syrup on his lips as he trails his tongue against my teeth, asking for entrance. I welcome him happily.
“I love what the two of you are doing and will require you to let me watch about a thousand more times, so I’m terribly sorry that I have to interrupt, but this episode is going to be boring as hell if we’re sucking face the whole time.”
Grant pulls away, then dives forward and presses a final quick kiss to my lips. “You think that the people won’t want to watch an hour of the two of us? Come on now. We’ll melt their screens clean off.”
As I imagine what our future together is going to look like, Grant and Ivan are exchanging barbs. Distracted by my plate, I can’t keep up with their light-hearted ribbing.
“Aren’t you worried she’s going to smell your socks and kick you out of the nest?”
My head snaps up. I never thought about the fact that three guys in my house meant three pairs of stinky socks.
Ivan throws his napkin at Grant playfully. “Your socks don’t smell much better, Beta! Just because you’re pretty doesn’t mean your feet don’t sweat.”
“I don’t wear grocery store socks. My feet can breathe. It makes a difference!”
Wait, I wear grocery store socks. What’s wrong with those? Do my feet stink?
“At least I don’t leave hair swirled on the wall of the shower!”
Whoops, I do that, too.
“And yet your chest hair clogs the drain anyway!”
My head bounces back and forth between them during their verbal tennis match, struggling to smother my laugh behind bites of pancakes.
By the time we finish breakfast and pack up our things, it’s just after eleven.
“We still have two hours? How are we supposed to be entertaining for two whole hours? What do they even showin the final episode?” Ivan’s legs are thrown over the back of the couch, and his face is turning red as he hangs his head upside down.
“A lot of it will be our exit interviews. We’ll probably all do our own, and then they’ll pile us all onto a soundstage and pepper us with questions about our week here.” I pause the game I’m playing and pull a leg up on the couch, facing my Alpha.
“I think one season they skipped the individual and did everyone together.” Grant doesn’t look up from his puzzle as he talks. He’s trying hard to finish it before we leave, but I don’t know if he’ll make it. I offered to help, but he said that he needed to do it on his own and prove he was smarter than it.
Not sure what the guy’s issue with puzzles is, but I’m not upset that he said he didn’t want me to build it with him. I hate doing them.
Before I unpause my game, I ask a question that I’ve been wondering about for days.
“Do you think that Derrick will be here when we get out?” They told us not to reveal to the audience that he wouldn’t be, but part of me hopes he’ll surprise us all.
Neither answer me, probably trying to figure out how to without revealing what the producers told us. I never asked Derrick on our calls if he was going to come back. I didn’t want it confirmed that he wasn’t. But I also didn’t tell him I wanted him to be here, so I can’t be upset if he isn’t.
Ivan shifts sideways, lying across the couch and resting his head in my lap. “Maybe. If he’s not, don’t think that’s any indication that he doesn’t want to be here. Maybe the producers didn’t want to pay to fly him in for this when there is going to be a reunion episode.”
“I think he’ll surprise us,” Grant ignores his puzzle toassure me. “Even if they didn’t want to pay to fly him up, I think he’d figure out how to make it happen.”
Okay. Hope for the best, expect the worst. If anything, maybe he told the producers at first that he didn’t want to come back, but he changed his mind.
I want him here, don’t I? Since he left, I’ve told him I love him and want him in my pack, and I’ve had phone sex with the guy. Is it going to be awkward to see him? It’s probably going to be awkward. And it’s going to be televised. That’s just great.
“There’s no pressure with him. You know that, right?” Ivan stops my hand from where I’ve been idly stroking his head, and weaves our fingers together.
“I don’t think he’ll pressure me into anything. But I don’t know how to be around him. I told him he was my pack. Isn’t that basically a promise to bite him?”
Grant leans over and pretends to chomp my thigh. “No, it isn’t. All it is is acknowledgment of who you are to each other. You take things at your pace.”
