Page 84 of Five to Love Him

“We understand that, Leo, but something mild is going to help them. If you stay with them and are here when they wake up, it will allow them to get the rest they need while feeling safe.”

My eyes stung, but I forced myself to look up. “You’re a nurse?”

“Nurse practitioner, actually. We wouldn’t hurt them.”

“Okay. If you think it helps. Hive, I’m not going to leave you, I’ll be here. It’s my turn to keep you safe now, I guess.” The other hive nodded, and one of them left. “Uhm, you can make yourself at home by the way. And thank you for coming over on such short notice.”

“It’s no problem. If we don’t help our own, then where would we be?” All of the blond hivelings looked at me and my hive. “We wish we’d been there when they really needed help.”

“Yeah, me too.”

One of my hivelings grabbed my wrist, their grip still strong despite everything.

“No, Leo. You might have gotten hurt. We don’t want that. We don’t want that, ever.”

I put my hand on theirs, glad they were looking at me now. “I don’t want you to hurt either, hive. You made me fall for you, and now I want to keep you as safe as you’ve been keeping me. Comes with being in love, I guess.”

“Leo,” they said before their burst of energy fizzled out and their eyes fell shut.

“I’ll be here, my hive. I’ll watch over you.”

The blond hive made a satisfied sound. “We’ll be downstairs while we get the medication. Shout if you need anything.”

“I have everything I need here,” I said and went back to making the limp hiveling still leaning against me drink sip after sip, sip after sip.

thirty-eight

“Farr, get your sticky fingers out of my glove box.”

Conrad, wearing a sleeveless T-shirt, black board shorts, and flip-flops, readjusted the car’s climate control that I had only just set to my own preference.

“I might if you will let me have the air condition settings I desire.” I pulled a ball gag out from behind several single-use packages of lube. “Oh, this is where you keep this.”

“I know where I keep what. Will you stop going through my stuff?”

“Perhaps if you stop dressing like a vagrant.”

Conrad leaned his elbow on the window and groaned. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

“I shall not be falling for that again, you ragabash.”

“Had to try.”

“Uhmmm, Principal Farrow?”

I turned in the rather uncomfortable sports car seat. “Yes, Xander?”

“Sir, I’m not sure I should be listening to this.”

“Nonsense. And look at you, Xander. Look at Xander, Conrad.”

“I saw him, but purple ain’t my color.”

Conrad glanced back at the werewolf yogi who had folded his long limbs into the back seat of his car.

“I don’t mean the color, I mean the fact that Xander here is appropriately dressed. He is wearing proper shoes, and he does not expose me to his underarm hair growth.”

Conrad chuckled. “I know you like to sniff it and lick it.”