Page 44 of Love the Way You Lion (Rise of the Resistance #3)
The Cat’s Plan Backfires
DELILAH
T alia is cracking me up—she’s a funny gal. I’m not watching the boys so much now as letting my senses guide me in relation to their emoting. ~Do you think the shoulder is okay enough to flip? ~
She stretches under me, moving her arm and shoulder, and I hear the echo of what might have been a groan. “Look, Ma, no pain.”
“Good. Do you think you can turn over now so I can do your face?” I chose those words purposefully, making sure that I said something easy to misread as an innuendo for those in the cheap seats.
“Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. Be careful around the bone because it’s sensitive; stroke it gently,” she murmurs, and I have to bite my lip to keep from giggling out loud.
The connection between me and my mates is strong.
I feel my primary getting revved up, and even though he knows we’re baiting him—or must know—he doesn’t care.
Taurus is no different, struggling to keep it on the down low, he’s hiding arousal in the room’s corner.
Perhaps he even lowered the lights when I wasn’t paying attention.
Talia takes my cue and rolls over, her moves lithe as she settles to look up at me. Her eyes are wicked, and her lips curve in a smirk as she bucks her hips a bit, as if trying to get comfortable. “Is this okay?”
Uh-oh. Perhaps I’ve made a calculated error.
I close my eyes, trying to calm everything inside and not to be the idiot I feel myself being right now.
This is complete and utter idiocy; I am a moron.
I try to buy myself a little time by making a face like I’m groaning, leading the boys on from afar.
What I’m doing is figuring out how to keep myself from getting in trouble.
We’re all amped up in this room—or at least, most of us are—and we all know that I’ve had female mates.
I have crazy hormones, though, because I’m pregnant, right?
This is all a bad timing thing, and I’m just reacting to hormones. I’d find a cantaloupe attractive.
”That’s perfect, dear. Let me lean down and look.
” I lean over, stretching up to see her face.
My torso hovers over hers with a hair’s breadth between us.
My fingertips brush her cheekbone as I pretend to look at the bruise.
It doesn’t need this much attention, but we’re torturing them and I’m trying to hold it together with band aids and duct tape.
I feel Taurus’ eyes on me, watching the whole thing, and his intensity fills our bond.
He’s dropped into the opposite armchair, and I’m sure he’s about ready to go off any second.
It’s working on them. Unfortunately, it’s also working on me, and hell if I know what I’m going to do.
I need to stop this, finish, and get the fuck home. Again, I’m an idiot.
Talia sucks in a breath, shifting us as she arches her neck and pretends to give me a better view. She’s fine, and I need to stick this out until we get home, or I’ll look stupid. “What do you think? Can you fix it, like you did the shoulder?” Her voice is husky, and I trap a groan inside.
Damnit. This is crazy. I can manage this. What is wrong with me?
~I think Taurus is going to have a coronary.
~ I murmur into her mind, eyes raking up and down her neck, watching her pulse jump.
I continue distracting myself by looking at her face, letting my hair fall over us a bit.
It helps me hide us from speaking, even a little.
“I think I can rub this the right way, though I don’t know if you’ll end up moaning. Facial bones are very delicate.”
My primary reacts to that, and it shocks me to discover that he is going crazy in the other corner. He’s watching us and growling under his breath. He’s thinking about fitting us together like toy bricks, which makes me giggle.
Talia murmurs low into my mind as she notices. ~Rafe’s going crazy. He’s got some kind of brick fantasy going. ~ Out of pique, she grins up at me in response to my audible question. “I’m sure you’ll be plenty gentle, sweets. We will have to see if I moan when you rub me.”
I groan, trying to shield myself from all our mates’ emotions and my confusion and the complete insanity of the position I now find myself in.
I’m going to screw something up, and I don’t know how to prevent that.
However, as I’ve lost my faculties, I can’t put a stop to this.
I reply without even thinking, “Let’s see if I can kiss it and make it all better.
” I brush my lips over her jawbone, all rational thought leaving the building.
The surprise filters through our bond from my primary, and he tries to keep himself from gaping.
He’s squirming in the chair and thinking many inappropriate things and making it hard to focus on not being an idiot.
She shifts beneath me, and I suck in a breath.
I try to clamp everything down inside. Her hand brushes my leg, and I dig my nails into the bed .
What the hell were we all thinking?
This was a dangerous plan—a super dangerous plan. I was being all professional and then we started this teasing thing. Now I’m drowning in everyone’s pheromones and scents, and I feel the Beast inside raising her head in interest.
Bloody hell.