Page 59

I straighten off the counter, thinking about that. What it might look like. How I want it to feel. In some ways, the idea reminds me of my coffee dates with Dom. Granted, he’d done most of the sharing then, but Lucky’s right. That honesty and consistency was what started changing things between us.

And Beau, well, I had told him things when we were curled between our sheets, but then, I mostly shared the good. The little moments that made me smile and how he made me feel. At the time, I was so caught in my own head, those sweet hours with him felt precious. A balm against all my raw feelings.

And if I’m honest, there was a part of me that was so terrified of being cut out the way he’d done to Dom, I’d kept the worst to myself.

I take a deep breath. The worst of that wound is lanced now, and it’s time to heal from it.

Beau isn’t an escape. If I want him to be a partner, I need to treat him like one.

I want our promises to grow as old as parchment.

Lucky raps on the counter, and I look up.

“If you do this, it can’t just be for them, beautiful.

” His blue eyes are serious. Unusually firm.

“You have to get whatever you need, too. You can’t just make yourself uncomfortable because you want to make them happy, or because you feel like you have to.

” He drags his lower lip into his mouth, his expression grim. “That’s the last thing any of us want.”

“I know. I’ve almost finished my essay for Jasper on safety dynamics.

It was very enlightening.” I smile dryly at him but hold his gaze so he knows I’m hearing him.

“For me, I want them both to know I do trust them with the...” Quickly, I look at Kasey.

Her head is bent over her project, but I lower my voice anyway.

“I want them to know I trust them with the kink stuff too. Dom especially doesn’t think he can .

. . or should . . . I don’t know. I want him to lead. ”

Lucky’s eyes twinkle. “I bet.”

Huskily, I laugh, because Lucky always makes me laugh, but my chest aches sweetly.

He’s so painfully beautiful right now, with his hair twisted in awfully messy Viking braids he’s piled on his head. With the loose silky strands around his face that should look feminine, but only ever make me notice how comfortably masculine he is.

Mostly he’s beautiful because of who he is, and how he’s always on my side.

He strolls back around the breakfast bar, and Kasey’s clangs and hisses stop until he pauses a foot away from me, leaning against the counter.

After a moment, they resume.

Snitch.

Lucky grins at how I glower at her, but he nods his chin at me.

“Look. You have to respect the cap’s boundaries too—but if he’s especially worried about.

.. the child-unfriendly activities...

” he says cautiously, side-eyeing Kasey “... then maybe you can keep those off the table? Offer to help them get ready for the day, or to just take care of them in other ways. Maybe he’ll be okay with that, and you can all test the waters first before you dive into the filthy stuff. ”

All very sensible. Almost shockingly so, considering who I’m talking to.

I smile softly. He smells like Jasper’s sheets and something bright and spicy. I hate that I can’t touch him right now.

“How did you learn about all this?” I tease.

Lucky laughs, and after checking on Kasey, he shifts closer. “I have a very good therapist.” Another inch closer, and I can feel the heat of him. “ And I actually like listening to him, which is why I’m the best adjusted.”

My laugh spills over, low and intimate, and Lucky bites his lip, his gaze zeroing in on my mouth. I’m just about to reach out to him when I realize Kasey’s fallen silent. I look up.

She’s stopped working, she’s holding a wire in each hand, watching us suspiciously.

“Back it up, punk,” she warns.

I give her a withering look, and Lucky laughs, letting me go.

“All right, all right. Chill out, 007.” He glances back down at my gruel. “God, that reeks. How is it that we scored you flour and honey and all these delicious things, and end up with.. .” Lucky tips my abandoned cup toward him, and his nose wrinkles. “The Grinch’s spunk?”

Oh. Back to the sass.

“Spunk?” I repeat flatly, and he shrugs.

“Honestly, it might be better than ‘slop.’ Your branding needs work.”

Kasey rolls her eyes and turns her back on us, apparently uninterested in slop, too.

“Have you actually tried it, Lucky?” I ask with poisonous sweetness.

When I hold up the mug, he takes a step back, raising his arm defensively—then he coughs, changing the motion to run a hand through his hair, like that was his plan all along. His shirt lifts and his colorful biceps flash carnivals at me.

Tingles chase over my skin, and—sensing an opportunity—I spare a quick glance at Kasey’s back before I shift closer to him, slipping into his personal space.

“Please?” Feeling brave, I slip my hand under the hem of his shirt, and he sucks in a sharp breath. His muscles lock up under my fingertips, and I look up at him through my glasses. “You need to eat, too. You need your energy.”

The dimple disappears into his beard, and his eyes lock on my mouth. “Energy?” He clears his throat, and his hand drops from his hair to the counter beside my waist. “What do I need energy for?”

His voice has turned husky, and I hide a smile. I am getting so much better at this whole flirting thing.

I shrug one shoulder, tracing the ridges of his abs, and he shudders. Lucky never had much body fat to begin with, but they’re unhealthily prominent now, and it won’t be long before his muscles start breaking down in earnest as his body searches for new sources of energy.

Everyone is really overestimating what three bags of food and a few apples can do for ninety people.

My fingers dip. “I’ll tell you exactly what for if you drink it.”

Lucky catches my wrist. He drags in an unsteady breath, his pretty blue eyes accusing—and still caught on my mouth.

“I didn’t sign up for two sadists,” he mutters, but he grabs the mug out of my hand.

Pinching his nose with one hand, he downs it in three gulps, then slams it onto the counter with a full-body shudder.

“Delicious,” he croaks.

In the next instant, Lucky’s lifted me up onto the porcelain counter, and he steps between my legs. Heat stirs low in my gut. It’s everywhere, really. With all the damaged windows, it’s impossible to escape, leaking in from outside.

We’re both damp with humidity. It just happens to look better glowing over his pretty, painted skin, and I trace the column of his throat with a soft smile.

Recipe-mocking aside, I’ve missed him.

He looks at me balefully. “I drank your poison, beautiful. Please tell me you have something sweet for me after that.”

Laughing, I twine my arms around his neck and lean up to kiss him, but he pulls back. “It’s still on my lips, so you probably shouldn’t?—”

I cut him off, kissing him thoroughly, with almost clumsy eagerness. He grips the back of my neck, laughing too, tempering the kiss. I fold my legs over his hips instead, drawing him closer, and his laughter turns into a muffled, helpless groan as he bends me backward over the counter.

The heat licks up my spine. Pools between my legs. His clever, clever mouth is waking me up, clearing out the fuzzy tiredness like a wildfire scorching through a forest.

“Whoa, hey! Nope! Warning ! None of that,” Kasey suddenly hollers from the corner. “I’ll get the spray bottle! I’ll get Jayk!”

I rip my mouth away. “Don’t you dare !”

She glares at me, and I glare back. I like Kasey. I like her a lot, even. Most of the time, she likes me too, I think. Until Lucky or Jasper comes within two feet of me, that is, and I get the galling reminder that she is Jayk’s through and through.

She takes a step backward, toward the door.

“No! Damn it, Kasey, we had a deal!” Lucky points at her. “You took the chocolate. I get twenty free minutes!” She takes another step back, and he lifts a panicked hand. “Don’t! Don’t. Come on, Freckles. All a person has is their word. You don’t want to break yours, right?”

My heart squeezes happily. Lucky gave up chocolate for twenty minutes with me? Supervised ones?

Kasey shrugs, smirking. “All you have is your word. I have chocolate, and another whole bar of it on Jayk winning this dating show.” She looks between us, wrinkling her nose. “Which makes you way too far inside the body bubble right now.”

I tap Lucky’s shoulder, narrowing my eyes on her. “Lucky. Lucky get her. Now, she’s?—”

She bolts for the door, and Lucky darts away from me, but he has to twist between the chairs. Kasey’s sly body is twisting through the door, bolting into freedom before he can grab her.

“Shit!” He grins, then turns back to me, gesturing me to follow. “ Run , Eden. Come on!”

With a screech, I jump off the counter and he grabs my hand as we race, laughing, through the house.

Not this time, Jayk.

Lucky’s hand is callused and perfect in mine.

Today, Lucky’s belongs to me.