Page 98 of Knot Forgotten

My face is on fire as Cam drops his arm around me. “Look what you’ve started.”

“Me!” I squeak as Cam lifts me effortlessly into his arms and strides determinedly toward our dorm building.

“Yes you,” he says into my hair. “You’ve always been trouble.”

The rest of the school year is filled with cramming for tests, my guys making sure I’m eating, Blake showering me with trinkets, and sex. Lots and lots of sex. It’s perfect.

With summer looming on the horizon and threats of pulling us apart, I feel as if I’m clinging to each of them. But they don’t protest; in fact, I’m almost certain they are clinging to me too.

As I’m taping up another box, Riley leans against the doorframe of the room that became like my nest. It turns out two dorm room beds pushed together and covered with a mattress topper makes for a decent sized bed big enough for at least three of us to sleep comfortably. I’ll miss it.

He signs, ‘This isn’t goodbye.’

I’m sure he is reading my feelings through the bond. He seems to be the most attuned of the five of us. Or it is my body language because he also is an expert at reading that too.

I press my lips together and sign, ‘I know.’ I’m trying not to frown, but it happens anyway.

He steps into the room and pulls me into his arms. I bury my head into his chest, and a purr rumbles out of him. His bakery musk fills the space in a comforting way. And I let him feel everything I was attempting to block from the bond.

I don’t want to be apart from them, even for a single day. Missing my pack for a whole summer doesn’t sound like a summer vacation. It sounds like pure torture.

He pulls back, and his moss green eyes study mine. “I have a secret.”

My heart jumps, and I inhale before holding it.

A smile lights up his face. “Your mom was still on the title for the house, your childhood home, Rinny. She said she doesn’t want it, that it is ours if we want it.”

The breath whooshes out of my lungs. A mixture of emotions clamor for attention. Can I go back to that house? The bad memories don’t outweigh all of the positives I had with the guys, so it makes the decision easy. I can and will.

“We’ve been fixing it up. Cam and Blake tore out the flooring and replaced it downstairs. And Matt and I cleared out anything that would have been your father’s,” he says, drawing me closer. “There are a few boxes left for you to go through with some things that are yours and your mom’s.”

Tears threaten to fall from my eyes. “You guys haven’t been visiting your parents?”

He shakes his head, his smile flashing his straight white teeth. “Do you want the house? We can make it our own,” he asks.

“Do I want the house?” I repeat his words, gripping his biceps. “I want to be any place I can be with you four.”

“We were hoping you’d say that,” Blake says from the doorway.

“Yeah, I wouldn't want to kidnap you again,” Cam adds as Matt appears behind them.

“You didn’t kidnap me to begin with,” I laugh, the sound echoing off of the bare walls.

He shrugs. “But if I found out that you just ran the last time, I would have.”

Matt slips by them and picks up two of my boxes. “I’ll get these in the Bronco.”

I’m not sure how I’m leaving with more than I arrived with, except for Blake’s need to give me things.

“Cupcake, I have a confession to make,” Blake says. A playful grin spreads over his face. Then he pulls out my missing pink dildo. “I found this shortly after you moved in. And I kept it because the image of you masterbating drove me to madness.”

Warmth spreads up the side of my neck and to my ears, stopping there. Images of Cam holding it up the day I arrived flash in my mind. The day that changed my life, again.

“You know I just bought a new one, right?” I say. Digging through my tote, I pull out the replacement B.O.B. and grin. “This one is purple, though.”

“What is it with you and colored dildos?” Cam asks.

I study the soft plastic, then say, “Would you prefer a life-like one?”

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