Page 70 of Into the Fire: After

The room melted away as I locked in to Caine again. His eyes heated my skin like physical touch as reached for the top button of my rose-pink blouse. I pushed the small plastic button through the hole, and Caine’s eyes dipped to the tiny bit of chest that exposed.

Again. And again. Until my shirt hung open, revealing the simple flesh-colored bra beneath. On the plain side, butsacrifices had to be made in the name of invisibra in the workplace.

Nothing sexier than professionalism.

NowIwas the flushed one, pink warming my cheeks and chest. Four pairs of eyes bore into me.

“Should we leave you two alone?” Brooks asked, amusement in his voice.

I licked my lips. “No.” I finally tore my gaze from his, scanning the others’ faces. Brooks, gleeful. Taryn, giddy. Lin, calm and peaceful.

Caine. Ravenous.

“Tonight’s about pack. Wherever the night takes us, it takes us all.”

“Here, here!” Taryn exclaimed as she raised an imaginary glass in the air. Brooks faux-clinked another and they took huge, fake gulps.

Caine’s eyes never left me.

We’d had plenty of sex since coming back to Farendale, but always in subgroups. Lin and Brooks. Brooks and Taryn. Lin, Taryn, and me. Yet the last time we’d all shared a bed in any sense had been our last night at the Greysmoke Cabin.

Even then, Caine’s attention had been laser-focused on Taryn. All of us had been, really. She’d needed to feel connected and close to us all, needed to feel vital and desired and in control after so many weeks spent entirely out of control.

Caine’s attention wasn’t on Taryn now, though. But me.

The question was, what did he want?

Caine

Fuckme,she’sbeautiful.

Brea being beautiful wasn’t a secret. She was a punch-you-in-the-face kind of gorgeous, features intelligent and angular with the exact right amount of softness to her edges.

Tonight, though. Tonight was different.

The five of us had been spinning in different orbits, sometimes passing through another’s for a spell before drifting off alone again. Brea had realigned us, centered us on our sunshine where we all should be.

It felt good to be in the same solar system as my packmates.

I craved closeness. To Brea. To all of them.

My eyes shuttered as I took a bracing breath. I’d been working on lowering my walls, sharing and receiving vulnerability from the ones I loved. Still filled me with a searing panic, though.

“Caine?” Brea’s voice was gentle, as was the hand she laid on my arm. I leaned into it.

“Control me.” The words were barely a breath, barely audible even to me. “I don’t want to think. I just…want…”

A warm hand caressed my cheek. Blackberry and mint flooded my senses. “You want to be close with us?” Lin whispered.

I nodded, heart pounding too hard for words.

His lips pressed against my cheek. It couldn’t have been more different than our frenzied fuck at Phoenix, or Taryn’s forced heat.

Toffee. Blackberry. Pomegranate. Citrus. Wood smoke. How did it all meld together so well? How could it make my chest and cock ache at the same time?

“Kneel for me, Caine,” Brea said in a low voice.

The rest resumed our circle as I obeyed. Knees on the rug, slightly spread, hands behind my back. Eyes on Brea.