Ace is lying back on his board with his hands behind his head, staring up at the sky. “She’s in my bedroom right now, pressing one of my pillows between her thighs while thinking of me. She wants me to find her scent tonight, to drive me crazy with it.”
“She did that yesterday,” Luca says with a shit-eating grin. “I saw her.”
Ace’s head pops up. “What?”
“I walked down the hall, and the door was open. I didn’t say anything.”
“You saw her humping my pillow?”
I burst out laughing at this stage, as these two never stop egging each other on. And Luca can’t even keep a straight face, just starts chuckling too.
“You bastard, getting my hopes up,” Ace states and lies back down.
I close my eyes for a moment and feel the board rocking under me, picturing her sleeping with me last night, how Luca and Ace snuck in and joined us, squished together, but fuck, I haven’t had a better night’s sleep. She’s been taking turns in each of our beds, but in truth, we just all end up following her. It’s fucking ridiculous, and I’m going to order us a huge Alpha-size bed.
“What do you actually think, North?” Ace asks again. “Not the avoidance version either.”
I take a slow breath, that nagging sensation in the pit of my gut, the one that’s been pestering me since I realized that Adelaide is ours. “We need to tell her about The Breakers and our time there.”
Luca glares at me. “Now?” he asks. “Right now? On this, the nicest week we’ve had in forever?”
“Notrightnow.”
“You just fucking said?—”
“Tonight. Tomorrow. Soon.”
“That’s not fucking sexy, North.” Luca drops back onto his board. “Way to destroy a perfectly good thing.”
“She needs to know.”
“I agree with you. I just wish you’d picked a worse moment than the one where she is genuinely accepting us as her scent matches,” Ace adds.
“So, you finally slept with her, and now it’s allwe should talk to her about our feelingsandshare our truth that might frighten her away—” Luca says.
“You both know I’m right.”
“Fuck!” Ace murmurs, while Luca pinches his lips, clearly displeased.
“IknowNorth is right, but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.”
A small wave comes in, and we let it pass beneath us.
“She’s our scent match,” I explain. “She’s going to be in this house, in our bed, in our lives. And she has something in her past that wants to harm her, that scares her, and it took her a long time to finally come clean. We owe her the same thing, and we owe it to her before, not after, she finds out from someone else.”
Luca sits quietly and nods.
Ace pushes his wet hair off his face. “Yeah. I hate it, but you’re right.”
“So we tell her. And the other thing…” I say.
They both stare at me, brows furrowing.
“I’ve got someone looking into Daniel Nixon back in LA. Another one is going through his finances and background.”
Luca’s jaw tightens. “I fucking want him in a room with me for ten minutes.”
“I don’t need ten,” Ace says, quiet, watching the horizon. “I need four.”
