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Eden

Dedicate yourself to people who give you a choice.

Who listen when you speak.

Who care when you’re scared, or lonely, or hurt.

Dedicate yourself to people who dedicate themselves

to being better people.

Four Months Later

I’m tucked, freshly showered, under Dom. He’s tilting my head back on the bed, kissing me softly as Beau tries to find a way to edge onto the mattress.

“I’m not saying don’t kiss her, I’m just saying move your ass over so I can get in too,” Beau tells him, exasperated.

Dom smiles against my lips, and I cup my palm over his cheek, kissing him again.

We just got back from our first big trip out since we got home, after spending weeks investigating new towns and cities, even an abandoned military base, traveling much farther than any of us normally would have risked.

We went deep, building by building, factory after factory, clinic by clinic for supplies.

And it was more profitable than we’d expected.

We traveled back to the farmlands with medicine, weapons, gas, and tools the brutes had been unable to find for far too long.

We tracked down replacement parts for vehicles and some of Red Zone’s machines, as well as copper wire, satellite phones, and several other items they were on the lookout for.

We also found two more small communities of survivors who have set themselves up in different towns, and those we put in contact with Alastair—he and the Sinners will decide whether or not they can be trusted.

And we found several hungry families in need of a home, who cried when they finally arrived at the farmlands.

The four days we spent celebrating with our friends there were wonderful.

But we were all glad to come back home.

And not only because there is much, much more privacy back at Bristlebrook.

Jasper has given all of us free use of his private room, and we’ve been taking full advantage.

Now, hours after a delicious scene with Dom and Beau, I’m warm and sated and tingling everywhere. In our home, everything’s the way it should be.

In this room, I’m happy to the bottom of my soul.

“You two are adorable.” Beau pushes Dom over another inch, then grunts. “And heavy .”

Beau flops onto the bed, and I’m laughing as the door crashes open.

I stick my head up, already knowing who it is.

Jasper would never open a door like that, or let Lucky open his door like that, so it must be?—

“Jayk!” I exclaim.

“Did you do it?” Jayk points at the bed as he stalks into the room.

His hair is wet, and he’s bare-chested, but he’s in soft sweats, looking deliciously cranky.

Oh, good. He’s found our present, then.

“ Who? ” Jayk growls. “How the fuck did you even get that here? Who did you let into my barn? I just stepped out to check because someone left a light on. It better not actually need fixing, because I’m not fucking dealing with that shit again.”

Grinning, I pull out of Dom’s arms, bouncing off the bed to run to Jayk.

Jayk’s eyes narrow on me, but he catches my naked body as I leap on him and squeeze him in a tight hug. I wrap my legs around his waist, and his arms naturally settle under my ass as he snatches me close to him.

I tuck my face into his neck, breathing him in. “It doesn’t need fixing, I promise.”

Jayk stiffens. “You?”

I pull back enough to grin mischievously up at him, and he scowls.

“You and the?—”

“The circus rat, yes.” I laugh. “We thought, since you haven’t taken your turn at laundry in about, oh, three months, that you could use some help.”

His eyes roll.

Beau sits up on the bed, looking between us. “What’s all this?”

“Lucky had Arthur send someone out with a washing machine for us while we were away,” I say innocently, glancing over my shoulder, and Dom’s brow kicks up.

But it is innocent. Mostly.

We really did need a washing machine.

Turning, Jayk parks my bare ass on the top of one of Jasper’s glass display cabinets, and I gasp at the cold as Jayk scowls at Dom and Beau.

“It was in my workshop with the side panel dismantled and a set of rubber fucking tools on top.”

“They were cute,” I say primly, as I zero in on Jayk’s chest.

“And a sign that said, ‘Fix me, I need to take it like a good machine,’” Jayk finishes, accusation thick in his voice.

“Well, that part was Lucky,” I say absently.

We probably shouldn’t have left the light on, but Lucky was more than a little distracting at the time.

I run my hands down his bare chest, and my palms tingle over his muscles. It was hard to find comfortable places to really savor anything on the road. Just like the months camping at the farmlands, there were a lot of quick fucks and nights stolen away by one or two of them.

I’ve been walked in on mid-orgasm more times than I can count now, and everyone’s become rather lax about their state of dress or how they might find the others tangled up with me.

Just last month, Jasper had a complete conversation with Beau about the state of the dishwasher while Beau fucked me over his pretty, upholstered sofa.

I suck my lower lip into my mouth as my hands grow greedier over Jayk’s chest.

For all that they’ve been casual with each other, I haven’t really had a proper scene involving all of them. Once upon a time, even the idea of it felt too wildly ambitious for reality. Once upon a time, taking any man into my bed felt wildly ambitious... but now? After the last year?

I don’t think I’ve been ambitious enough .

Jayk looks down at me sharply, glancing between my hands and my face with thick suspicion, and I bite my lip.

At this point, I’m fairly confident I could convince my brutes to do just about anything I wanted.

“Have you assholes been in here all day?” Jayk finally mutters, the beginnings of a pout forming on his mouth. “It took me four hours to clean the gutters.”

Beau stretches out lazily beside Dom. “Eden sassed us. It was out of our hands,” he says fatalistically. “We had to?—”

“Discipline her. Hard. For hours,” Dom finishes. He lifts one brow at Jayk, and his lips curl up, drowsily satisfied. “She learned her lesson, didn’t you, pet?”

“Yes, sir,” I murmur, trying not to snort.

My sass was me asking Beau for a hug with his stethoscope around my neck.

My discipline was several orgasms and hours of cuddles from both of them.

“Yeah, she looks devastated,” Jayk mutters under his breath, sounding more than a touch sulky.

I stifle another smile. Poor Jayk. It’s been over a week for him. Which should be nothing compared to the years he spent without, but...

His abs are hot under my fingers, but it’s his little pout that decides me.

My hands drift back up to his shoulders, and I lean in to press an open-mouthed kiss to the side of his heated neck. Hungrily, I suck on him hard enough to leave a mark, and he flinches, cursing, but he presses back into my mouth like he can’t help himself.

Elation thrills through me. I can feel his pulse pounding against my tongue. His breathing is snagging as I touch him, and satisfaction makes me shiver.

I know I can break him.

Trailing my tongue down to the spot where his neck meets his collarbone, I nip hungrily at his skin, and he grips a handful of my hair, yanking my head back.

“The fuck, sugar,” he growls, but he’s panting, his eyes dropping to my mouth.

I lift my brows innocently. “You earned it.”

Jayk considers me, scanning my face, then nods. “Fine. You can suck my dick for me then. You two, you can leave now.”

“Jesus, Jayk,” Beau says from the bed, sounding amused, and he leans his tanned face on one hand, watching us.

“Is it the romance that does it for you, pet?” Dom adds dryly.

I shoot him an incredulous look.

“You spent a good portion of our first time together calling me a fuck doll, so I’m not sure you’re one to talk,” I tell him in the same tone, and Beau snorts.

Dom shakes his head at my sass.

He’s only in a pair of black briefs, and his broad shoulders manage to look intimidating against Jasper’s monumental bedframe.

Jayk’s scowl deepens, but I slip off the cabinet, letting my breasts rub over his chest on my way down.

I nudge him back against the cabinet... and then I keep going down.

Jayk’s hand tugs in my hair. “Yeah, look, Miss Manners. I didn’t bring my showgirl outfit today, I...”

I press a hot kiss to his thick abs, right over his dark, curling tattoos, and he trails off. I press another kiss to his stiffening cock through his sweats, and he leans back against the cabinet, cursing.

His chest lifts sharply, and I look up at him, a low ache starting up in me again.

This ache feels different from my maddening lust from earlier, not edged in desperate eagerness after a week of nothing more than heated kisses.

This one is rolling and lazy and slipping cheekily out of my luscious, giddy glow.

“Should I stop?” I ask Jayk, and I press my open mouth against his cock through the soft fabric, letting my hot breath soak through.

“ Fuck , Eden.”

Jayk’s hand tugs at my hair again, but this time, it’s to pin my mouth against him. His midnight eyes are dark and swirling with lust. Shifting his hips, he rubs his cock against my lips, and I meet his gaze.

And press my tongue against the fabric.

As soon as he sees the pink flash, he growls, “Okay, that’s enough. Bozo, Bimbo, get out ! Sugar, you’d better?—”

“Get out? But we just got here,” Lucky complains, strolling into the room. “Am I meant to be Bozo or Bimbo? I’m not hating the Bimbo vibes, but Jasper really doesn’t scream Bozo to me.”

“Thank you for that, at least,” Jasper murmurs tartly, shutting the door behind him. Then his steps slow. “Ah. That’s a pretty sight. Are you putting on a show for us, darling girl?”

“We’re not putting on a?—”

Kneeling up, I press another hot, sucking kiss to Jayk’s abs, and he cuts off, his head dropping back. When my tongue trails to his waistband, he shudders, his hips tilting up.

“You’re a little shit, sugar. You’re killing me.”

A show.

The idea lights me up.

Everyone’s here.

Everyone’s watching .