“Also, we weren’t alone. Rhys was there.”
This time, it’s Alex’s turn to stare at me with wide eyes and a gaping mouth while Ollie’s face somehow becomes even redder.
“She… you… withRhys?”
A wicked grin slowly spreads across my lips. “Oh, he didn’t take part, just watched.” I flick my eyes to Ollie, who’s slowly sinking deeper into her sleeping bag. “Something princess here seemed to enjoy very much.”
Alex’s eyebrows shoot upward as he swings his gaze to Ollie. “Ohreally? Interesting…” The embarrassment from earlier is gone, replaced with predatory heat.
There’s the outgoing exhibitionist.
Ollie hides her flushed face behind her hands. “You’re such a dick, Theo,” she says with a groan, but I can hear the amusement and excitement in her voice.
Good. After everything that’s happened today, she deserves a bit of levity.
I chuckle. “Yes, but I’myourdick.” I lean forward and press a kiss to the top of her head.
“You’re still not sleeping next to her,” Alex grumbles, breaking the moment.
I roll my eyes and sit back. “Relax. I’m not going to fuck our girl. She’s injured and needs rest.”
I feel rather than see Ollie jolt at me sayingour girl.
I bite back a grin and continue. “Besides, Harlow’s sleeping between us.” I motion to the dog in question, who’s snoozing happily between mine and Ollie’s sleeping bags without a care in the world. Must be nice.
“Fine,” Alex huffs. “I’ll sleep on her other side.” He moves to get his sleeping bag.
He makes it sound as if him being here will be a deterrent, which is absolutely not the case. Not that I’m stupid enough to tell him that. This is exactly what I want—for us to love and cherish Ollie together—so that he’s comfortable enough to sleep with her between us is huge.
“Do I get a say in any of this?” Ollie asks as she glances between us with a scowl.
I cock an eyebrow. “Do you not want us to sleep with you, princess?” I fight to keep my expression neutral.
Her eyes narrow. She knows exactly what I’m doing, wording it like that. After a moment, she sighs. “Fine. Just be on your best behaviour. I’m too tired and sore to deal with any of your shit.” She directs that to both of us, which is fair—we’ve both been pretty stubborn and heated with our stances on this relationship.
“We’ll be good,” Alex says with a nod as he rolls out his sleeping bag on her other side.
I snort at his eagerness and get comfortable in my sleeping bag, exhaustion finally overcoming me as we settle down for the night. After getting himself comfortable, Alex switches off the lamp, dousing the room in darkness. Harlow huffs at being jostled and moves to curl up at our feet, giving me the opportunity to move closer to Ollie.
“What happened to behaving?” Alex grumbles as I throw an arm over Ollie.
“Cuddling isn’t bad behaviour, right, baby?”
“No, it’s not,” she says with a sigh before rolling towards Alex, giving him the chance to snuggle closer to her. It’s like she instinctively knows to include him to soothe the raw wounds Willow left behind.
I smile in the dark as I tighten my arm around her and revel in the rightness of the situation.
One stubborn idiot down; one to go.
The Best Kind of Trouble
Alex
We spend the nextfew days holed up in the barn, waiting out the worst of the weather and giving everyone a chance to recover.
With nothing to do, gossip is rife amongst the group, with everyone having their own opinions about what went down between Rhys, Ollie, and Jerri. It’s frustrating, especially when a few people side-eye or even glare at Ollie, but she ignores it and tells me and Theo to let it go. Neither of us are happy about it, but since we don’t want to piss her off, we do as she says… mostly. We may or may not stare down and silently snarl at particularly aggressive assholes until they get the message.
The only good thing about this whole situation is that Jerri is avoiding us like the plague and the tension in the group has lessened, at least a little.
