Page 13 of Taming the Beasts (Crooked Point #3)

Friday

Zoey

Otto kissed my forehead.

I could really get used to waking up like this. I smiled and opened my eyes.

He was standing by the bed already fully dressed. I loved the way his dress shirt hugged his lean muscles. And the way his sleeves were rolled up, showing off his forearms. I sighed. He was so freaking handsome.

“Sorry to run out on you so quickly, but I gotta go,” he said. “Do you want me to grab you something to eat before I head out? We have bagels I think.”

I shook my head. “What time is it?”

“Time for me to open up the bank before Bennett loses his shit. Text me later and we can figure out lunch.” He started walking out of the room.

“Wait.” I sat up. “Were you guys able to grab some of my things for me?” A leather catsuit in the morning wasn’t as fashionable as one at night.

“Yeah, I think we left your stuff downstairs. I’ll see you later.” He smiled and walked out of his room.

Otto said he was opening the bank this morning, so did that mean the other four guys were downstairs?

I was used to waking up to Otto. He’d spent the night at my place plenty of times.

But I wasn’t used to waking up to all of the guys.

I ran my fingers through my hair as I climbed out of bed and hurried into the bathroom.

I’d fallen asleep with my makeup on and I was actually grateful.

I had that morning-after look going on, especially since I was wearing Otto’s t-shirt.

And there was nothing sexier than looking like you just had sex. Even though Otto and I hadn’t.

I smiled. He’d just held me all night because he knew I was scared. Again I had the oddest sensation of feeling so safe here. Despite what had happened with Titan only several hours ago.

I wandered out of Otto’s room. The hardwood floor on my bare feet was cold. But my high-heeled boots did not go with my look. I heard voices as I walked down the stairs. I turned into the kitchen and was surprised by the utter chaos of their morning.

Ace accidentally bumped into Huxley and spilled some coffee onto the floor.

Otto ducked under Titan’s arm, almost knocking Titan’s plate over.

Otto had a bagel hanging out of his mouth.

He pulled his satchel over his shoulder and turned toward me.

I could tell he was smiling even though I couldn’t see his mouth.

Bennett was the only one who looked composed. He was sitting at the kitchen island reading the paper, ignoring everyone around him. He took a sip of coffee as Titan cursed under his breath.

“Morning,” I said and cocked my hip against the island.

Bennett looked up at me over his coffee mug. He set it down as his eyes trailed down my exposed legs.

“Now waking up to this I could get used to,” Huxley said.

The buttons of his shirt were undone and his tie was untied and hanging over his bare chest. “Although…” He put his hands on the bottom of my t-shirt li ke he was about to tear it.

“I think you’d look better in one of my shirts. ” He started to tug.

“Hey,” Otto said. “That’s my shirt, man. Come on.”

Huxley chuckled, but he didn’t let go of my shirt.

“Seriously,” Otto said.

I glanced over at Otto.

Even though he sounded serious, he had a playful grin on his face. “Later,” he said and winked at me. He put the bagel back in his mouth and walked out of the kitchen.

“Now, where were we?” Huxley said. He grabbed my waist and hoisted me onto the counter.

“That’s not sanitary,” Titan said and sat down at the kitchen stool right next to me.

Excuse me?

He proceeded to eat his toast without looking at me. “And get dressed.”

Seriously, excuse me? The first things he said to me after almost mauling me to death were my ass wasn’t sanitary on his counters and that I needed to change? Screw him.

Huxley must have thought Titan was talking to him instead, because he stayed between my legs but started buttoning his dress shirt. When he buttoned the last button, I grabbed the ends of his tie and started to knot it for him.

“I could really get used to this,” he said.

“Me too.” I slid the knot up to his neck and straightened it for him. “Speaking of getting dressed, where did you put my clothes that you grabbed for me last night?” Because I knew that Titan was talking to me, not Huxley .

“I think this is probably what you’re looking for,” Ace said and plopped a duffel bag onto the counter next to me.

“Thanks, Ace.” I unzipped the duffel bag and pulled out a lacy bra. And then another. And another. “Um…” I looked back up at Ace. “There is only lingerie in this bag.”

“Don’t look at me. I wasn’t there.”

I turned to Huxley who was still standing between my thighs. I raised my eyebrow at him.

“You’re cute when you do that.” He ran his thumb along my eyebrow, smoothing it back into place. “And can you blame us? Most of your drawers were filled with lingerie and other things…”

Other things as in lots of sex toys. I cleared my throat. “Well, did you check the closet?”

He nodded. “For like a second. We saw all your camming equipment in there. And Bennett was starting to get pissed so we had to go.”

Oh. I had way more lingerie and sex toys than the average girl because of my job.

Drawers and drawers full. And I’d completely forgotten about all my equipment in my closet.

My ring lights, cameras, and extra computer monitors.

I hadn’t thought about how that would make them feel.

“I gave it up,” I said. I kept my eyes on Huxley instead of Bennett. But I could feel Bennett staring at me.

“We know,” Huxley said. “Do you need to do anything to shut it down though? And the personal fitness stuff?”

I pressed my lips together. “Um…maybe like a goodbye video post? And I’ll just text my personal fitness clients.

I can wrap all that up today no problem.

” I ne eded to log on one more time to talk to King about the coin.

Not a post, but a live. I had a lot of questions and I couldn’t disappear from my account until I did.

“Make sure you’re clothed,” Bennett said.

I looked over at him. His paper was folded on the table and he was just staring at me.

I swallowed hard. “I’ll probably just wear this when I text my clients.” I forced a laugh.

“You know I meant while recording your goodbye post for your MyFanatics account.”

Yeah, I knew what he’d meant. But I couldn’t say goodbye to my subscribers looking unlike myself. And lingerie was technically clothing… “Clothed,” I agreed.

“Good.”

“We have to go,” Titan said and pushed his empty plate aside. “We have inventory to do.”

Inventory? So that meant they did have lists of what they’d stolen. And that Titan was trying to prove I was lying about last night. Screw me.

Huxley leaned forward, his lips brushing against my ear. “To be continued.”

My cheeks grew hot.

“You’ll be wearing my shirt tomorrow morning.” He kissed me lightly behind the ear and then pulled back.

“Don’t go snooping in your room,” Ace said and put his hand on my knee. “Your bed isn’t finished yet, and I want to see your face when I show it to you.”

I nodded. I didn’t even know where my room was.

He placed a quick kiss on my lips.

Titan just grunted and walked past me.

Bennett stopped in front of me and pulled me off the counter. “Clothed, Zoey,” he said more firmly .

Now that I saw how serious the expression on his face was, I’d do what he said. I was so tired of disappointing all of them. “I promise.”

He nodded. “And we did find one thing you could wear this morning.” He pulled out a pair of my old sweatpants and a baggy hoody I’d kept from college. He placed them in my hand.

“This is what you want me to wear?” I tried to hide my laugh.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but everyone in town is always staring at your ass. Or your tits. I thought I’d like everyone checking you out and knowing that you’re mine.”

That did seem like something he’d like.

“But I’m having a hard time…” his voice trailed off as he took a deep breath. “I don’t know what I’m trying to say. I’m not used to this feeling.”

Bennett liked kissing me in front of his friends.

Fucking me while they watched. I think I understood what was going on.

He liked being the one in charge of the situation.

And when I was out prancing around in catsuits without him, or wearing lingerie for someone other than him…

he got jealous. If I was with him when I was wearing one of my normal outfits, I had a feeling it would be fine.

But we weren’t going to be together all day today.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll wear this truly hideous outfit you picked out for me today.”

He smiled. “I have a feeling you’d look sexy in anything, baby.”

“Is that so?” I looped my arms behind his neck.

He was just about to kiss me when Titan cleared his throat. “We’re late. ”

Bennett sighed and dropped his lips to my ear. “Don’t worry about him. He’ll calm down after he checks the inventory and sees that you didn’t take anything.” He kissed my cheek and pulled back.

That did not calm me down. At all. Shit.

I pressed my lips together as I watched them leave for work. I needed to figure out what was going on with Kebe and get on the same page about the plan with Emma. And I probably only had an hour to do it. As soon as Titan figured out what I’d stolen, I was pretty sure all hell would break loose.

I sent Emma a text telling her to meet me at my house. Then I quickly changed into the frumpy outfit my boyfriends had picked out for me. Luckily they’d grabbed me a pair of sneakers too.

I laughed at how ridiculous I looked. I didn’t think I’d worn anything this baggy in public in years.

If I was going to wear sweats, I would have worn a cute matching set.

The funny thing is that I was pretty sure I’d borrowed this sweatshirt from some guy I’d went on a date with in college.

I’d purposely forgotten to give it back because it was so comfy.

If Bennett had known that, he probably would have picked out something else.

My phone buzzed. Emma said she’d be able to meet up in 30 minutes. I texted Grudge too to see if he still had eyes on Kebe.

His response came almost immediately: “Don’t worry, I have eyes all over her.”

I shook my head. “Stop ogling her.”

“Oh, I’m planning on doing way more than ogling her.”

I rolled my eyes. Grudge didn’t live anywhere near here. Or maybe he did. I had no idea where he lived. Regardless, he wasn’t going to meet up with Kebe if he’d never met up with me.

I looked around at the mess the guys had left in the kitchen.

I grabbed the plates off the counter and started to clean up.

I kicked the dishwasher door closed and opened the fridge to see if there was anything I could bring them for lunch.

Besides for beer, there wasn’t much in there.

Some boxes of leftovers, energy drinks, and a container I was pretty sure was just filled with moldy produce weren’t what belonged in a fridge. I’d go grocery shopping for them later.

I had nothing to worry about with giving them the cure. They definitely needed me.

By the time I finished cleaning everything up, it was almost time to head out.

I hurried upstairs and pulled the Anubis coin out of my pants pocket from last night.

I slid it into the front pocket of my hoodie, keeping my hand wrapped tightly around it.

There was no way I was going to let go of this coin again.

I stopped by one of the closed doors in the hallway.

Ace had told me not to snoop around my new room, but I had no idea which room was going to be mine.

And I loved doing things I wasn’t supposed to do.

I tried the knob, but it was locked. I stared at one of the other closed doors on the same side of the hall. I walked over and it was locked too.

For guys that claimed they shared everything, they sure enjoyed their privacy.

My phone buzzed with a text from Emma: “On my way.”

I pressed my lips together and then hurried down the stairs. I knew exactly what I’d be breaking into next. Maybe I could convince Emma to come back here and help me get into all their rooms.