Page 113 of The Betrothal

ISABELLE

Iwas extremely warm, too warm. I wriggled under the heavy blanket until the blanket mumbled something.

I was encased by bodies.

Someone lay across me on one side. On the other side, hands were trying to pull me into a cuddle, but the weight on me prevented them from wrapping me up fully.

An arm around my hips squeezed me, another set of fingers curling against the softness of my belly, another arm wrapped around my chest. I had no way of knowing who was who, but my gut told me the man using me as an anchor and a pillow was Alex. The gentle hold on my chest, Ben, the possessive hand on my waist, Seb.

The space was tight, and that was why it was so hot.

The whir of automatic blinds lifted the shroud of darkness in the room.

Everyone stirred where they lay, each one exactly where I had placed them.

We were in Ben’s room, Seb’s too. Alex had stayed in here with us. Not that I remembered coming to bed. I remembered our sobering conversation becoming a hearty set of complaints about the institution running the government, our shared despair.

Before long Seb began to drink, Alex too after several reassurances from Ben, and I drank liqueur chocolate coffee, which I had been extremely unhappy to have had made for me on the last night together.

After that, I must have fallen asleep.

“Morning, Sugar,” Ben whispered. His eyes closed, he licked his lips slowly, shifting in Seb’s loose embrace. “It’s a little warm.”

“I’m hot,” I moaned. “Furnace-like levels of hot.”

I couldn’t resist; I reached over and carded my fingers through his hair, caressing his peaceful features and grazing his full lips, my heart singing at the way he let me touch him now.

Leaving was going to kill me.

“Hey, if we’re moving onto the petting section of the day’s agenda, don’t leave me out.” Seb’s sleepy voice interrupted my thoughts.

“I can’t reach you,” I complained.

Seb sat up, eyes sparkling a deep green in the half light and leaned forwards, crushing Ben beneath him to lay a peck on my nose.

I snickered.

“There’s no quiet with you lot,” the weight over my stomach grumbled.

“Nothing to do with me.” I ran my hand over the bare skin of Alex’s back.

There was a lot of exposed male skin, very naked torsos.

Someone had changed me into a large t-shirt. From the hint of aftershave, I assumed Alex’s.

When Alex shifted and half stretched, his hand ruched the fabric upwards, exposing my bare legs to his touch, which quickly slipped across my thigh and over the fabric of my underwear. One of only two pairs I seemed to have left, Seb had not been joking about keeping some. I was sure I’d had more but failed to argue.

I had found a pair of boxers amongst my belongings after I returned from my spell with Alex at the manor, and I was not intending to return those. Fair is fair.

The warmth of bodies pressed together began to morph into a different type of heat, and I wriggled fiercely. “Nope! I need a shower.”

Alex begrudgingly released me, complaining, Ben’s contact relinquished more easily. Seb was the last to let me go.

My throat tightened and I clambered over Alex – knowing he’d be far less likely to impede my exit – and I stalked as quickly as I could to the bathroom, locking myself inside to cry into the shower.

There had been no-one left in the bedroom when I returned, the blinds lifted and the bed made.

I’d turned the temperature of the shower icy to try to calm the rising redness of my cheeks, but the glassy sheen of my eyes would give me away.