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Was that Dominic? And Dallas?

And MalakaifuckingDelaney?

Yeah, he’d keep sleeping, thank you very much…

He groaned and rolled onto his stomach, his bare feet catching in starchy sheets that smelled fresh and clean.

“Rise and shine,” chimed a pleasant female voice. It was Jewels.

Wait—

Jewels was in his room?

Was he dreaming? Had he died and gone to the Fifth Dimension?

He squinted his eyes open and found her standing beside his bed.

Not reallyhisbed, though. It was one of two in a room at the Duchess Hotel, an opulent waterfront building that was so flooded with panicking evacuees, the only room they’d beenable to secure—with painstaking difficulty and hours wasted in a chaotic line-up—was this one. A single room with two beds.

It was all coming back to him now. The rock, paper, scissors match he’d won against Malakai and Max that had allowed him to sleep by himself in one of two beds. Jewels and Aspen had taken the other, while everyone else had claimed they were fine sleeping on the floor. Hardly an inch of space had remained by the time everyone got comfortable, and Travis might have stepped on Delaney on his way to the bathroom during the night. It might’ve been on purpose. Oops.

Now, Jewels was coaxing him awake with the promise of food and new clothes, a bag in one hand, a takeout container of what smelled like hot breakfast in the other. She wore faded jeans and a tight white tee that drew his attention to her pierced nipples. The shirt was another tacky souvenir made for Yveswich tourists?—

Oh gods, he was stuck in Yveswich. And if this city didn’t kill him, Roman would.

He shut his eyes again. He was in hell. And he was not ready to face this nightmare again.

But Jewels said, “Come on, Travis, wake up.” She spoke to him in a far sweeter tone than the one she reserved for Malakai. “You need to eat. I can guard it for only so long before Malakai scarfs it down.”

A grunt came from somewhere nearby. A gulping swallow. “Give it here, I already ate all of mine,” Malakai said.

Fuck this asshole.

Travis rolled onto his back?—

“Okay, whoa! Pause!” Jewels exclaimed. He froze, confused. “Stay there, don’t—don’t move. Whatever you do, donotmove.” Was there a spider on him, or something?

He squinted up at her, confused, to see that she was shielding her eyes with a hand.

“Umm. Hmm.” She threw the bag of clothes on his crotch so suddenly, he flinched. “There. Those are yours. You might want to get dressed,” she stammered, her cheeks powder-pink.

Travis lifted his head off the pillow. Peered down the length of the naked upper half of his body…and saw the reason for all the stammering and blushing.

His cock was hard. With no clean clothes to wear, his suit destroyed, he’d gone to bed with nothing on but a white towel wrapped around his waist. Now, it was slipping off, along with the sheets and the duvet. His right leg was fully exposed, the shape of his erection showing through the towel.

He grabbed the bag of clothes and held it there. Groaned and dragged a hand down his face, pulling on his eyelids.

The room was crowded. Everyone was flapping their gums and stuffing their faces and being annoying. He was in hell and he couldn’t even relieve any stress by jacking off in private.

“I’ll put your food over here,” Jewels said. She set down the takeout container on the dresser by the TV, where a bunch of their weapons had been lain out to dry. “Malakai won’t touch it.”

“Don’t make promises for me,” Delaney said.

Travis groaned again.

This…sucked. It sucked.

He secured the towel around his waist before standing. Using the bag of clothes as a privacy shield, his cock still pitching a tent, he walked to the bathroom, passing Jewels on the way. She pivoted in place, fighting to look anywherebutat him. He shut the bathroom door and locked it.