Page 26 of They Will Burn

“It’s okay, Little Menace. You’re home now,” Crew murmurs to her as he turns toward the door that leads to the house. He takes quick, measured steps through the hallway, and when he reaches her bedroom door, he hesitates and glances down at Camilla nestled against his chest. “You’re free to roam wherever you want in the compound, Camilla. We won’t lock the door anymore.”

My brows shoot up, but I feel a smile tug at the corners of my lips. She’ll never know what a concession he’s making or how the women that came before her, however few there may have been, were never given the same privileges.

Camilla nods, and he moves into the room. He places her on the edge of the bed and makes quick work of shoving the coat off her shoulders, uncovering her body to us.

She’s only wearing a silk and lace button-up shirt and shorts set, the black fabric tight against her perfect body. The sight would normally have my cock jumping for joy, but the knowledge that another man bought it for her, that he saw her wearing so little, makes my stomach churn uncomfortably.

Crew doesn’t hesitate as he reaches for the buttons and methodically moves through the motions of undressing her. The second the shirt drops from around her, she instinctively moves to cover herself, only for Crew to grasp her arms before she can.

“No,” he says simply, holding her for another beat to make sure she understands before he starts working the shorts down her thighs.

Camilla’s eyes flash up to meet mine, but I just shrug and move further into the room. I strip off my sweats until I’m down to just my boxers, and then claim my side of her bed. There’s no way I’m not spending tonight with her. I don’t care what the others do, I’m sleeping with Camilla in my arms.

Kovu strips off his shirt and hands it to Crew, who looks like he’s about to argue until he notices just how fucking unhinged he looks right now. In the last week, he’s torn apart his bedroom, right down to tearing the door from its hinges, and has beaten so many people to a bloody pulp that even I lost count.

Kaos lurks by the door, his eyes focused on her face rather than her body. His body and jaw are tense as he tries to decide whether to stay or go.

Stay, K. You need to make this up to her. Don’t leave her now, I think to myself.

Once Crew has helped her into Kovu’s shirt and the man himself has visibly relaxed at the sight of her in his clothing, I pull back the covers for her, and she crawls between them, immediately wrapping her arms around me.

Crew strips out of his suit, discarding it on the floor in the corner, which has my brows rising. I’ve never seen him not at least hang it over a chair, but clearly his need to hold Camilla is just as great as mine. He climbs in behind her and presses his body against hers, letting out a breath as soon as she’s in his arms.

Kovu shoves his sweatpants down before climbing up the bed, resting his head on Camilla’s legs with no regard for the fact that half his body is hanging off the end of the mattress.

“I missed you, love,” I whisper against her temple, trying to distract her from the fact that Kaos is still standing in the doorway, looking more uncertain than I’ve ever seen him.

“I missed you,” she admits. “All of you.”

As if the words kick him into motion, Kaos moves around to the armchair I spent that first week sleeping in and drags it to the edge of the bed.

Crew carefully tugs her onto her back, allowing Kovu to reposition with his head resting on her stomach while we keep her sandwiched between us.

It’s not until I’m about to drift off that I realize we’ve never done this before. We’ve never all spent the night with the woman we’re sharing, and the significance of that has my lips curving up as Camilla’s breathing evens out.

At least for the moment, everything is perfect.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CREW

Camilla’s soft breaths whisper across my cheek as I press closer to her. It doesn’t seem to matter how close I get, it’s not enough. As much as I struggle to admit this, even to myself, being without her, even for a few days, made me question every single decision I’ve ever made. Every single moment that led us to her being taken.

And now that I finally have her back, I’m not sure how I’m going to let her out of my sight. I’ve yet to close my eyes because I’m afraid if I do, this will all just be a dream. That she’ll still be with Davenport when I wake up, and we’ll be no closer to bringing her home.

“Are you ever going to go to sleep?” Bishop murmurs from the other side of her.

“No,” I reply, pressing a kiss to her temple.

“We should have checked she wasn’t hurt before we got her into bed. We should have had Rogers check her.”

I sigh. “It’s just the cut on her neck, I checked it when you all fell asleep. It’s dried up and is beginning to scab over, so I don’t think it needs stitches.”

“And what about the injuries we can’t see?”

Camilla chooses then to roll her head toward him and buries her face in his bare chest. It’s not lost on me that when we all filed in here after Kaos brought her home, it was the first time we’d shared a woman like this. With no sex, no touching, all of us just needing to be near her, and it just confirms what I already knew. That the little menace in our arms is everything we never knew to wish for.

“He didn’t touch her,” Kovu murmurs from his place between her legs. “She wouldn’t let all of us touch her like this if he had.”

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