Page 75

The echo of Lloyd and Ajax’s laughter disintegrated. “We were just getting ready to wake you with a warm bath. Are you hungry?”

“What are you wearing?”

“Oh.” Walden looked down with a laugh. “I had a few meetings while you slept. But I’m all yours now.”

He shed his suit and glasses with practiced ease and slipped into the bath. Walden tapped his thigh with an insistent arch of his eyebrow. This wasn’t an offer, but a demand. Foolish, weak—heat addled—I justified to myself as I went to him. Walden anchored his muscular arm around my back and drew me closer into his solid embrace. The longing in my chest throbbed deep as the warm water enveloped me.

Walden picked up a washcloth and ran it over my tired limbs. Lloyd and Ajax watched on with knowing smiles.

My parents had never been affectionate. I earned their praise when I put aside personal wants and lived like them. I felt a surge of delayed anger at them both, martyrs and hypocrites. For they had each other, and I had to make do with the clasp of my own thin arms around me. It left a chasm that whistled with a lonely wind.

I’d been starving for touch when Chase seduced me, and mistook his caresses for love. I didn’t want to make the same mistake. Despite that, I tucked my nose into the crook ofWalden’s neck. His alluring scent of eucalyptus cleared the tension from my limbs, but left my mind muddled.

“How many days were we…” I trailed off.Tangled in each other’s bodies. Lost to ecstasy. Confusing heat with love.

Lloyd wandered over and pressed a kiss to the side of my head.

“Three days. How are you feeling?” Walden rumbled.

I flared my nostrils. There was still a layer of me painted on his skin. Shock brought a prick to the back of my eyes. It soothed me, like the heavy grip of his arm around my waist.

“You didn’t sleep as long as I thought you would,” Lloyd said, passing Walden a small bottle of hair oil. I’d left a purple bruise on his neck. The marks Lloyd left on me were deeper than skin, though.

“Never better,” I lied with false cheer.

Walden’s eyes narrowed, and I knew he didn’t believe me.

“Eat.” He nodded to the plate Ajax laid in front of me. He’d slipped out for just a moment to the fridge in the nest. Fresh fruit took up half the plate, with nuts, crackers, and a green-colored dip. It was light enough to tempt my concave stomach. Ajax squeezed my shoulder. His coffee scent sent a jolt of energy through my veins.

“I wasn’t sure if you wanted anything substantial after your heat.”

I nibbled on a slice of apple, and the tart flavor exploded over my tongue. Walden wasn’t happy with my progress, growling and lifting a cracker with cheese for me to eat. The weight of their notice frayed my raw nerves. A scuffle by the door distracted everyone.

“There she is,” Pan sighed as he scanned the room and found me.

He arched his back and stretched his arms over his head with a satisfied sigh. He wrapped a towel around his waist, hiding the soft, swaying cock between his legs. What if he? No. My heat wasover. It was time to think with other parts of my body. But Pan sat on the edge of the bath, with his legs in the water, and ran his nimble fingers up my neck and through my damp hair. I whined until he planted a kiss on my mouth. He nipped at my lip, pulling away with another gusty sigh.

“Don’t distract her,” Walden chastised. “Tully needs to eat.”

Pan scavenged a grape, popping it in his mouth. My heart thumped against my ribcage. Being witness to their passion for each other, and having it lavished on me, was a wonder. Pan continued to run his fingers through my damp hair, and the sensation made me shiver. I fidgeted on Walden’s thigh and the water twitched around us.

“Thank you for seeing me through my heat.” My cheeks reddened.

“You don’t have to thank us, Tully,” Ajax protested.

“I know we all said some things in the heat of the, well, heat.” I cringed, wishing I could gobble the words up and pretend I’d said nothing. “If you’re worried, I don’t hold you to them.”

Walden became stone underneath me. Ajax’s mouth dropped open, and Lloyd fixed me with a horrified stare.

“Did you think we weren’t playing for keeps, angel?” Pan murmured, his fingers threaded through my damp locks, and tugged my head back.

His expression was cool, but a simmering malevolence lurked underneath it. It pulsed through me with a charge of heat. The surrounding water scorched my sensitive skin.

“Y-you don't want,” I stumbled.

Me.Not the real me. The broken, inadequate Tully they’d yet to be disappointed by.

Walden’s fingers tightened around my waist. Pan scoffed quietly. His grip on my hair stung my scalp. I swallowed hard as he stretched my head back and glared at me. I’d seen himundone during my heat, but there was no trace of the submissive Pan now.