Ollie huffs next to me, not happy with my answer. “Sure, but what if something happened to them?” She nibbles on her lower lip as she taps her fingers on her thighs in a pattern only she seems to understand.
“Then we help them in ten minutes.”
“But what if ten minutes is too late?”
It better fucking not be. I sigh and turn to face her. “Ollie, there’s no point in lingering onwhat ifs. You’ll only drive yourself mad.”
“But—”
I place my hands on her shoulders and cut her off. “But, nothing. Rhys is a highly trained ex-SAS officer, and Theo has been in his fair share of rough situations. They’ll befine.” At least, I hope they are. “We need to stick with the plan and trust that they’ll do their part so we can do ours.”
She blows out a long breath, still not happy about having to sit here and wait, but she nods and relaxes in my hold. “If they still haven’t signalled in ten minutes, we go down and get them.”
I nod even though I have no intention of letting her go anywhere near the camp until I know for sure that we have the prisoners on our side. I don’t care if Ollie hates me for stopping her. Hell, I’ll even tie her to a fucking tree if I have to. Her safety is my number one priority.
We fall into a strained silence as the clock ticks down.
Ollie still isn’t any calmer, bouncing on the balls of her feet, and I wonder if something else is bothering her. She’s been like this since this morning and has all but avoided me all day. Just like she did the night I jerked off in front of her.
I frown. Did something happen last night? “What’sactuallybothering you?” I ask her after another strained minute of watching her fiddle with the straps tying her quiver to her hip.
She wrenches her head toward me, eyes wide. “Why are you asking me that? There’s nothing bothering me besides the obvious.” She inclines her head toward the guarded gate.
I cock an eyebrow and stare at her, unconvinced.
She wilts under the gaze, guilt shining in her emerald eyes as she nibbles on her lower lip. “Theo finger fucked me last night.” The words come out in a rush and she claps a hand over her mouth, looking horrified.
Jealousy and rage explode inside me. “What?”That motherfucker.
She winces. “I’m sorry, it just kind of happened.”
Bloody hell, is this happening again? Is she choosing Theo over me, just like Willow did? Pain cracks across my chest as I rub my sternum. “So this is it? You’ve chosen him?” The words taste like bitter ash in my mouth. I thought I’d have more time to prove myself to her and show her I can be the man for her. Apparently I’ve failed.
Fuck!
Ollie shakes her head. “No, this isn’t me choosing. I told you before; I don’t want to ruin your friendship.”
Her words offer no relief against the pain slicing through my heart. “Then why…” I can’t even finish the sentence. It seems no matter what I do, I’m always going to come second to Theo.
She grabs my hand and squeezes it. “It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I…” She hesitates and flicks her eyes to mine. “I’ve been having trouble sleeping, mostly because of nightmares and panic attacks, and they’ve been getting worse.” She swallows hard, looking so vulnerable that it makes my heart ache.
I squeeze her hand back and she offers me a small, sad smile.
“Theo always has this sixth sense about when I’m struggling the most. He’ll come over and we’ll talk about shit to get my mind off it. Last night, I wasreallystruggling and, well… one thing led to another and he made me come.”
“And it helped?” I ask through gritted teeth.
She nods. “It’s the best sleep I’ve had in years.”
I have to tramp down on the searing jealousy rising inside me and bite back a growl of frustration. Mostly at the fact that Theo was there for her and I wasn’t. But even through my anger and envy, there’s a small spark of arousal and gratefulness that Theo could help her when I couldn’t. It’s the same thing I experienced when we were with Willow; the happiness that at least one of us was giving her what she needed.
My cock stirs in my trousers at the thought of Theo sliding his fingers into Ollie’s sweet pussy. Fuck, I can just imagine how wet she’d be and the noises she’d make as she soaked his hand with her cum…
Shit.
I’m not an idiot. I understand where Theo is coming from when he talks about sharing Ollie. It makes sense; all three of us are interested in her and she’s interested in all of us. Plus, in a world as dangerous as this, having three men looking out for her would make her so much safer.
But with that understanding comes the bone deep terror that I’d be open to being hurt again. Ollie could easily cast me aside and tear my heart from my chest, just like Willow did. I know Ollie isn’t Willow, but it’s hard to let go of past pain, especially when I can feel the echoes of it in my heart.
