Page 41

Slade and Finn walked out, going around to grab the car.

Apparently because I was with another man, it was safe to leave me alone.

I stood by the big double doors of the meeting hall, Aaron at my side, watching the men begin to file out.

Oddly, I felt a pang as they left. It wasn’t that I wanted any in particular, I already had one I was reasonably sure I liked.

I mentally smacked myself upside the head.

I was getting selfish, because as they went, they took with them the potential thrill of finding someone else. Until he strolled through the door.

“It’s over already?” he asked as he wove his way through the guys, a shit eating grin on his face.

I didn’t answer straight away, my eyes caught on the expanse of exposed male flesh in front of me.

He wore a pair of well-worn navy work pants that hung low on his hips, looking like they could be pulled off with ease, and I found my fingers twitched to do just that.

His chest was bare, less bulky than Aaron’s well developed one, but there was a curious cat-like elegance to his lean build.

He strolled over, green eyes boring into mine, shoving back the ragged fall of blond hair that tumbled over his shoulders.

“So who are you, baby? The lucky lady in question?”

“She’s not taking petitions, that’s who,” Aaron snapped, but my hand went out, hanging in the air for a moment in offer before the guy smirked and took it, giving it a firm shake.

“I’m Jules.”

“Jack,” he said, still holding my hand, letting his calloused palm rasp against mine before looking over his shoulder. “This is Hawk.”

Oh, god , I thought. My heart jumped into a gallop from a standing start as Jack’s friend walked up to the step.

I watched his eyes widen slightly, but his steps never faltered, until he stopped to one side of Jack.

The guy who I’d been watching doing the fencing, the one with the long brown hair, that was Hawk.

“You two know each other?” Jack said, eyes flicking between me and his mate.

“No,” Hawk replied, his voice a deep rumble.

“Jules, the car’s pulling up. We better go,” Aaron said, placing a gentle hand on the small of my back.

“Oh, right,” I said, starting a little at the sensation of the unfamiliar hand on my skin.

The singlet was brief enough that I could feel the heat of him.

It said a lot about me that the sexual mores of this place were more disorientating than the fact I could turn into a wolf made partially of smoke.

My Tirian shifted inside me, watching Jack and Hawk with a curious eye.

Jack hadn’t dropped the smirk the whole time, something she wanted to see if she could remove, or if that mouth was just as clever when it was full of me.

And with Hawk, I felt a shiver, a need to shift, run, something I hadn’t felt since the first night.

“So, this is your final choice?” Jack asked, eyeing Aaron, which drew an answering growl from him. “You’re finished, squared away, ready to move into the married quarters?”

“No, I don’t think so. This is still pretty new to me.

” Aaron’s hand slid up the back of my shirt, rubbing circles on the bare skin between my shoulder blades.

My eyes fell partially closed for a moment as I felt a rush of heat from that sure, slow caress.

“Right now, I guess I’m just enjoying myself, seeing where things take me.

” Jack grinned at the breathy tone of my voice, watching the little gasp that came as Aaron’s hand snuck around my waist and skimmed up along my ribcage.

Jack’s nostrils flared and he looked away, letting out a low groan, then laughing as he readjusted his dick in his pants.

“Well, alright then. We have to come by, check the bridal suite fence, especially as we have an unfriendly locked up on the premises thanks to the grunts. Kelly doesn’t want to take any chances with you, love.

” I nodded, trying to keep my cool as Aaron’s lips began to trail along my neck.

I shifted under his touch, the light smattering of touches somehow making me more aware of what he was doing than something harder.

“Maybe we’ll see you around?” Aaron’s teeth closed over a chunk of my skin, holding me still, triggering some sort of deep down instinct I didn’t understand, pushing me into a state of submission before releasing me.

I shook my head, all of a sudden feeling like I was drowning.

There was too much, too much pretty, too much touch, too many hot guys bamboozling me with all this bare flesh.

I took a little step away from Aaron, forcing his hand to drop, and Jack’s grin grew sharper.

“Yeah, maybe,” I said in a more even voice.

“Well, you have a…stimulating afternoon, love, if you can, and if you can’t, we’ll be by tomorrow.”

Aaron leapt forward, ready to grab the guy, but I stopped his hand, watching Jack walk away with a wink and a swagger and Hawk looking back at us for much longer, with eyes I couldn’t quite read. I schooled my face into a more pleasant expression, facing Aaron with a smile, and said, “Let’s go.”

“What happened?” Slade asked when we got in the car, turning around to look at us from the front seat.

Finn’s eyes took us in via the rear vision mirror, but he kept his mouth shut.

That was never going to happen with Slade.

“So? You look pissed, and you smell horny,” he said, looking from Aaron to me.

I propped my ankle up on the centre console, knowing that he would get a good view of my pussy up the leg of my shorts as I did so and sure enough, his eyes dropped down. “Default state, remember.”

“Oh no, something’s got you extra creamy, princess. I’d say it was soldier boy here, he sure looks stimulated, but that face. What’d you do? Tell him his dick isn’t as big as mine?”

“It was Jack,” Aaron said. “Hawk was with him, but he’s never been a problem.” I didn’t look at him, but I could hear the clench of his teeth as he said the words.

“Jack? Really, princess? Fucking outsider girls, they always fall for the bad boy schtick…”

“Enough!” Finn said, his tone pure iron. “Right now, we’re bringing Aaron back to the house for a trial, so he is the focus. As for any preferences Jules might or might not have, that’s for her to explore, as is her right.”

That killed all conversation. Finn drove us back to the compound, Slade jumping out when we got to the gate and punching in the combination.

He looked calm enough when he climbed into the car, but he did not meet my eyes.

We pulled up outside the house, Slade was out of the car the moment it stopped, ambling inside without a word.

Finn paused with his hand on the door and looked at me through the mirror.

“Take a moment, Jules, if you want. Bringing someone into the house, it has some meaning to it. Nothing for you to worry about, nothing that’s permanent, but it’s important to us.

Take a minute, and see if this is something you really want to do. ”