He hadn’t changed or showered. Vigo either.
It should have turned me off — their jeans were filthy and I caught the tang of their sweat — but instead I felt the revving of my desire, like an engine in park with someone’s foot on the gas.
If not for Hawk, I might have been able to convince myself it was the primal nature of it all, the bare skin and animalistic sweat and muscles on full display.
But Hawk was obviously fresh out of the shower — his hair wet, a clean, musky scent emanating from his skin — and looking at him did nothing to tamp the flutters between my thighs.
He’d ditched the jeans he’d been wearing during the Hunt and put on a clean white T-shirt, and as hot as he’d been bare-chested, tattoos on full display, there was something even hotter about the way his shirt stretched taut across his shoulders, his muscled biceps half-covered by his sleeves, his ink seeping out from under them like an oil slick.
I swallowed the bacon I’d been chewing. “I can handle Bram. He listens to me. Usually.”
I said it with more confidence than I felt. I wasn’t sure anything was going to defuse the bomb of Bram’s temper when he found out what I’d done.
“We don’t need your help.” Hawk’s voice was cold. “You do what you’re told here. We’ll handle the rest.”
I rested my cheek on one hand, tiredness overtaking me. I had no business letting down my guard, but the food was hitting my system, the adrenaline of the previous hours replaced by exhaustion.
“How will it work?” I asked. “The… sex stuff.”
“You don’t have to be scared,” Vigo said, snatching a piece of bacon off my plate and stuffing it in his mouth. “Everything we do to you is going to feel good. And we’re going to do a lot of things to you.”
“Like the… clamps and stuff from the tunnel?” I didn’t know the Hawks at all, but I knew enough to know they weren’t going to spend three months fucking me in the missionary position.
“That’s beginner stuff.” Jagger’s voice was laced with an undercurrent of dark anticipation. “We’ll ease you in.”
I swallowed and fought against the weight of my eyelids. “And it’ll always be with… with all three of you?”
“It’ll be what we say it’ll be.” Hawk’s voice was cold, disinterested.
Vigo grinned. “I’m more than happy to warm you up, mouse. As for Bram, we could always get in front of it. Go to the loft and tell him what’s what.”
Jagger frowned and put the frying pan in the sink. “You need to chill.”
Vigo shrugged. “I’m just saying.”
“Getting in front of it isn’t a bad idea,” Hawk said, scratching at the stubble on his cheek. “When does he get back?”
I realized he was looking at me and I’d been about to doze off. “Um… a few days, I think? But you should let me talk to him first.”
Hawk glared. “We don’t need you to run interference. We can handle Bram.”
It’s your funeral,I thought.
“We should definitely reach out,” Jagger said. “Tell him…”
It was the last thing I heard before I let myself fall into the temptation of sleep. I don’t know how long I drifted before I startled awake, my body lifted into the air like a leaf on a breeze.
I flailed. “What…?”
“You’re okay,” Jagger said, pulling me tightly against his body. I realized he was carrying me through the kitchen. “You fell asleep.”
I should have insisted he put me down, should have walked on my own two feet to the bedroom they’d assigned me on the second floor. But after a split second of hesitation, I wrapped my arms around his neck, silencing all the objections raised by the last remnants of my coherent mind.
I just wanted to sleep, and I lay my head against his chest and closed my eyes as he carried me up the stairs.
When I opened my eyes again we were in my room, dappled sun streaming in through the big window.
He lowered me onto the bed and I wondered if this was where it would start, if he would take my virginity now, get it over with so they could have unfettered fun with me for the next three months.
