“Yeah, you’re probably lucky I’m beat, or I’d be chewing your ass out.”
“There’s always tomorrow,” she says, tilting her face back to me.
With her, everything is instinctual. I honestly don’t know who I am with her but I really fucking like it. Each time we kiss, she tastes more like her sweet self. Needing more, I cup her face to deepen our kiss, and push everything I can into it, helping her know exactly what I feel for her. I’ll be whispering ‘I love you’ soon enough, for now I’ll let my body do the talking.
“You can’t say that, it’s too soon,” she whispers as she wraps her arms around my neck.
“Not going to fight the way I feel for you. Take me to bed, Lennon. And then in the morning, I need to tan your ass out.”
“You promise?”
“Yeah, I do,” I say, dropping another kiss on her.
“I made you something to eat.”
“So that’s why you took so long?”
“Don’t get too excited, it’s a plate of leftovers.”
“You spoiling me?”
“I think I am,” she whispers again before trailing her fingers over the tape on my side. I don’t like seeing her struggle as she touches where I am hurt, but at the same time I wouldn’t pretend or shelter her from the truth. My survivor would be the one kicking my ass if I did.
We’ll always be real with each other, even when the real hurts. I’ll be around to let her fall apart before I help her rebuild herself.
32
LENNON
Sadly, only Lincoln, Valak, and I fit on the air mattress. I’m surprised the thing hasn’t popped under our weight, but it’s so goddamn right we’re all together again, I’d sleep anywhere.
Sneaking out of bed and past the other camp stretchers, I leave everyone sleeping, which is hard. But the four of them are ruined and need sleep more than I need reassurance.
I desperately need a pot of tea. All night I’ve been lost in dreams about Broken Cube, and I think I know the reason for my night-terrors but am struggling to accept the reality. I go to sneak into Bailey’s house and grab a tea but hear her pack awake and talking behind the kitchen door, which means I change my plan. Pulling on a thong, because nude yoga is not cool, I do a workout.
As soon as I dip down after the first sun salute, I slam down the door of all my memories. My mind is whispering that this is the first time I’ve done this since Ares died. As if I need any more reminders of his loss. It’s like a cavernous hole inside me.
Stretching and pushing myself through a series of punishing poses, the pain in my heart is joined by an actual physical pain as my body screams at the brutality I put myself through. But it’s invigorating as fuck and leaves me with a clear mind and the awful realisation Broken Cube sold me out. I should have put it together sooner, considering one of the letters, signed by Fez, advising of my services being terminated was addressed to my home. And while I need to share that with everyone and figure our way forward in dealing with the deception, it’s almost like it’s irrelevant in the sense they’ve already done their worst.
I have more important things to attend to. With a final bow and silent namaste, I hear Gabe chuckling like a fiend as he pulls back the blanket on his bed.
“Nice morning wood, babe,” I whisper, dancing forward on light feet to feel him up. Bending over at the hips, I reach down to kiss him before I decline his invitation to hop in his bed.
I give my guy something else to occupy him, an abridged run down on how the would-be abductors discovered where I live. He growls, and it is not playful at all. Gabe’s eyes fill with glittering promises of revenge as he slides his glasses on his handsome face and reaches over for a laptop.
Knowing he has our leak sorted, I focus on solidifying existing relationships. Grabbing my laptop, I attempt a reverse wiggle into the space between Lincoln and Val and get to work while they sleep.
Gabe sits up on his stretcher bed, a slow evil smile spreading over his face the more he types. And I tap out a series of individual emails, saving them all in drafts for my clients. Starting at the ones I’m not the closest to, which is a bit shit, but it’s also easier in a sense—it’s only business to them. I copy and paste an abridged version of my coming out as an omega. I wish I had time to call all my clients, but I don’t.
A foot moves and the next moment, I’m being dragged backwards onto Lincoln’s lap. His hands fisting the skin of my ass as he sits up and rests against the wall of the tent. It’s lucky Gabe pushed it up against their garage or he’d fall out of bed.
“Pet, arms up,” his voice is so deep it makes me shiver. And he speaks into my ear so as not to wake Valak, or Noah, but Gabe watches, turning his laptop to face me.
Lincoln expects my attention with every commanding grab of my flesh. “Gabriel is recording for us to enjoy again,” Lincoln adds, his gin-botanical scent filling the air while his dick fills the space under me.
Stretching me up, he wraps his hand around my wrists, holding me with my arms up high and then he twists around and kisses my side while he fists my tit.
“My hands belong on your body,” he says as he squeezes me hard enough to make me whimper.
