Ryan was leaned against the counter in gray sweats and a Fury shirt, one hand wrapped around a mug, his expression sharpening with immediate interest the second he saw Cade’s arm low around my waist. Briggs sat on top of the counter beside the toaster like the kitchen was his personal theater, already grinning so hard I wanted to walk directly back upstairs and hide beneath Cade’s bed.
Then Charm pointed at Cade dramatically. “Oh my goodness. He’s alive.”
Cade walked straight to the counter completely unbothered. “Barely. She’s insatiable.”
Briggs slapped a hand to his chest. “From the look of him, Cap barely survived combat.”
Aura narrowed her eyes at me. “You look emotionally stable this morning.”
Ryan leaned sideways to get a better look at my face. “She does. It’s unsettling.”
“Don’t ruin it,” I warned.
Charm gasped loudly. “Wait. Was the shower before or after the kitchen counter?”
I physically choked.
Aura slammed both hands onto the counter. “There was kitchen counter sex?”
Ryan’s brows shot up. “There was loud kitchen sex. We need confirmation on the counter.”
“Oh my gosh,” I groaned, dropping my face straight into Cade’s chest while he laughed hard enough I could feel it shaking through him.
Briggs looked delighted and horrified at the same time. “Wait. In this kitchen?”
My head snapped up. “No.”
Cade’s mouth twitched. “Oh, it was definitely this kitchen.”
Briggs looked around the kitchen like he was mental-mathing every possible scenario.
“I can literally see you thinking, Briggs,” I snapped.
“Yeah, I think you were safe in the shower for the kitchen sex,” Charm said to Aura, laughing as she sipped her coffee.
Ryan looked between us and the island like he was doing measurements he absolutely did not need to do. “I’m never eating off these counters again.”
Cade wrapped one arm around my waist automatically, steadying me against him like this was just our normal morning routine now. “For the record,” he said calmly, reaching around me for the coffee pot, “the counter incident was extremely respectful.”
Charm stared at him. “Sir, there is absolutely no respectful way to phrase counter sex.”
Cade looked offended. “Wow. Way to make it sound trashy.”
Aura pointed at him with her bagel. “You folded our friend like a lawn chair in a shared mansion.”
Ryan coughed into his coffee.
Briggs pointed both hands at Aura like she’d just delivered a line on Broadway. “I love the ABCs’ vibe.”
“That is slander.”
“It is poetry,” Charm corrected.
“It’s a visual I didn’t ask for,” Ryan added.
I made a horrified sound into his chest. “I’m getting new friends.”
Cade kissed the top of my head immediately. “No, you’re not.”
