Page 113 of Cross To Bear

“For the next week…” Crash gloated, turning back to Maddie.

I got close to my mate when I went to take her plate away, waiting for the other’s chatter to die down before offering to take it. She grabbed one last empanada from the plate with an impish smile before nodding at me. I froze, unable to look away. The instincts that had me locking down my emotions rose up belatedly, masking the naked need in my eyes as I grabbed the plate, but she was already looking away at something Bjorn said. Hawk saw it though, getting to his feet and following me into the kitchen.

“Raze—”

“Nope.” I scraped the dishes clean into a food waste bucket, the silvery sound of a knife on porcelain the perfect match for the feeling of my fangs grinding together.

“Raze—”

“I said no, Hawk.” The dishes landed with a clutter into the kitchen sink, right before I hit them with the hot water, but he grabbed the next few when I went to reach for them too.

“And I like these dishes. They’re real nice, have a good heft to them and they don’t get too hot when I serve dishes on them,” he told me, placing the rest in the water in a much more sedate fashion.

“Fine, then you fucking wash them.”

I didn’t lose my shit. I didn’t snap at the man I considered my brother. I didn’t drop dishes in the sink like a petulant teen, and yet here I was, pacing back and forth across the kitchen, my hands in my hair.

“Just reach out and connect with her.” Hawk was this silent presence in our lives, always there, but not saying much, but then he’d just say a few words, and every single one of us would be paying attention. I stared at him now, my frown deepening. “Whatever you need to settle the fuck down, it’s in here.”

He meant whatever psychic bond he shared with our mate as he tapped his temple, but I saw the truth behind his words. I was known for cutting through the bullshit. Well, I needed to slice through my own this time. My hands whipped up to catch the tea towel he tossed my way, his lips twisting into a smile.

“Pretty sure you stay quiet all the time so you a make a big thing of it when you drop whatever street koan you got percolating in your head,” I told him.

“Or I like using my mouth for a whole other purpose.” He winked at me before plunging his hands in the water and starting scrubbing.

Chapter 64

The sound of the alarm had me jerking my head off the pillow, and while I blinked blindly at the wall, a warm around went around me, then a heavy body settled against me. Breath ruffled the baby hairs on the back of my neck, right before a rumbling voice spoke.

“How we feeling this morning, beautiful?”

My eyelids fluttered like a butterfly’s wings, which brought it all back. Sex toy, tattoo, fucking noisily in the tattoo studio, right as Bjorn claimed me. And tattoo. I looked down at the arm swathed in cling wrap and had a nasty realisation.

I had some time off due to my leg fracture, but today was my first day back at work, something I should’ve thought about before I decided to get a tattoo yesterday.

“I gotta get ready for work.”

I went to pull away, but Bjorn dragged me back down, pinning me to the bed and kissing me before asking again.

“Just a morning check in, then I’ll let you get ready.”

“Feeling kinda pressured,” I said between gasps. “I have no idea how long it takes to get to work on time from your place because I meant to do that last night and you…” My eyes narrowed. “Distracted me.”

“Yes, I did.” He rolled off me, which was a relief and a disappointment. “And twenty-five minutes. I worked it out on Google Maps. So we have time—”

“For me to grab a shower and a coffee.” I pulled away from him, dodging away from his grasping hands and going scooting out the door to walk into the nearby bathroom.

Only to find it occupied.

Being so pale, Crash always seemed to soak up all available light and he looked radiant right now as he scrubbed shampoo through his long hair, then flipped his head back blindly to rinse it clean.

There was something ethereal, untouchable about him, only his goofy smiles making him seem like a real boy, not a perfect marionette. And the fact he grabbed his conditioner bottle and started singing a version of Prince’s song, Kiss, in a plausibly falsetto voice.

“You don’t have to watch him.” I nearly jumped out of my skin, spinning around to find Razor standing there staring at me with that catlike smile of his. “He wouldn’t want you hanging back on his account.” Razor always spoke with such authority, as if all of us were completely transparent to him, which raised a question.

Why didn’t I hear his voice inside my head like I did Hawk’s and Bjorn’s?

“You could be in that shower, ordering him to his knees, commanding him to clean your pussy with his tongue…” My eyebrows shot up. “Or soap, if you want to be boring. It’s not the act so much that would work for him, as it is the command.” His eyes slid down, taking in the shirt of Bjorn’s I’d pulled on temporarily. “Giving him the opportunity to surrender.”

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