Chapter Twenty Four
It was well into the next day before Amaryllis swam upward from unconsciousness sufficiently to have any sort of awareness and it still took all she could do to pry even one eyelid open enough to look around and discover what the heavy weight was upon her. Dante, she saw, had his head pillowed on her breasts, his long, dark hair fanned out across her and tickling her chin. Turning her head slightly, she saw that Reese was sprawled on his belly beside her, and she thought it was probably his leg pinning hers to the bed.
Sighing, she closed her eye again, drifting, feeling little prickling aftershocks all over her body from the pleasure Dante and Reese had wrung from her over and over during the night.
Small wonder she was exhausted!
When she surfaced once more, she found herself alone in the bed. A delightful scent wafted past her nose and her stomach responded immediately with a growl of hunger. She had to lift her brows to crack her eyelids. Reese, she saw, was waving a succulent piece of meat back and forth in front of her face, a faint smile curling his lips.
Amaryllis felt a smile tug at her own lips in response. She licked her lips. “Food,” she managed to say with an effort.
He chuckled. “I cooked for you. You want me to feed you, too?”
“Mmmm,” Amaryllis murmured thoughtfully. “Maybe I’ll just suck on that big piece of meat you gave me last night.”
Desire flickered in his eyes. He tamped it with an effort. “This will give you more strength.”
Chuckling, Amaryllis sat up, but she winced at the twinges of pain from strained muscles. Reese, she saw, was giving her a knowing look. He handed her the plate of food without a word, however, kissed her lightly on the lips and left again.
“Short honeymoon,” she muttered, but dug into her food with a will, realizing she was starving. When she’d finished, she leaned over the side of the bed and placed the plate on the floor, wondering if she actually felt up to getting out of bed.
She had to hobble to the bathroom. By the time she’d soaked in the tub for a while, however, most of the aches and pains had subsided. She still felt very much like she’d engaged in a full scale battle with two cyborgs instead of making love to them all night, but she could at least move with relative ease.
When she’d dried herself, she dressed and went in search of the others. She found Dante, Reese, and Cain in the main living area on the ground floor playing a game of chance.
Dante looked up as she paused in the doorway suddenly feeling oddly shy and uncertain. His eyes lit with desire as his gaze flicked over her caressingly. When he met her gaze once more, he smiled, displaying a faint dimple in one cheek that she hadn’t noticed before. Her heart executed a little flutter in response. Smiling tentatively at him, Amaryllis moved into the room.
She paused again once she’d reached the group, wondering if they would welcome another player or if she should find something else to occupy herself with. Reese glanced up from his game pieces, a slow smile of welcome lighting his face. “Would you like to join us?”
Cain flicked a glance in their direction before returning his attention to his pieces. “We’re in the middle of a game,” he said coolly.
The snub caught her completely off guard. She felt the blood rush from her face only to rush back with a vengeance. She managed a smile. “Actually, I never cared for the game,” she said a little stiffly. “I think I’ll take a walk.”
That comment grabbed the attention of all three men. They looked up at her with varying degrees of suspicion.
Her lips tightened. “In the garden—out back,” she clarified.
“I will walk with you,” Dante and Reese said almost in unison, then glared at one another.
Amaryllis couldn’t help but notice Cain didn’t offer or even look up for that matter.
She didn’t believe for one moment that he was so engrossed in the game that he couldn’t spare a few moments even to be civil.
She shook her head. “I don’t want to interrupt the game.”
“You already did,” Cain muttered.
Amaryllis glared at the crown of his head. “Well, excuse me all to hell,” she snapped, turning and stalking from the room.
The garden was beautiful, but Amaryllis wasn’t currently in the mood to appreciate it. Instead of strolling down the neatly ordered walkways, she strode up and down them like a pacing tiger. She hadn’t actually wanted to see the damn garden in the first place, but she was just as accustomed to being active as the men were and sitting around the house twiddling her thumbs held absolutely no appeal.
Obviously, she would not be allowed to leave the premises alone—possibly ever, certainly not until the dust had settled on the great mating race.
What was she to do with herself, she wondered suddenly? She’d been a soldier almost from the time she’d been released from physical therapy after the last of her operations. As often as not, it was a boring existence, but it was rare to have time on her hands and when she did that was generally filled with the search for entertainment.
Reese had said before that she could continue to be a soldier, but then he hadn’t expected the situation to be as it was and she doubted seriously he would be as willing to allow it now.
Not that she intended to let him—or any of them—tell her what she could and couldn’t do, but she was no fool. She wasn’t going to put herself in a dangerously untenable position just to show them she’d do as she pleased.
