Page 58 of Ours to Keep

Lily sips her wine, her eyes darting at all of us before dipping to her lap. I’d love to know what thoughts are going through her pretty little head right now.

“Penny for them?” I ask, tipping the neck of my beer bottle towards Lily.

Her grey eyes jump to mine as her teeth dig into her bottom lip. “Hmm, nothing,” she replies, but it’s a lie. For someone who manages to put on such a facade, it’s impossible to ignore her tells that I’ve come to recognise, now I know her better. I know there’s still so much about her to learn, and I look forward to exploring everything about her. Watching her open up to us and letting go of her inhibitions shows us the temptress beneath her beautifully demure disposition.

“I don’t believe you,” I reply, watching as she fidgets in herseat. “But it’s all right. You won’t be able to hide from us forever. Eventually, you’ll tell us all your truths, inner desires, wants, and needs.”

Her mouth opens in an O and then closes like she doesn’t quite know how to respond to my words, and that’s okay. I wouldn’t have expected her to either.

But then, like the night in her bedroom, she surpasses my expectations with her words.

“What makes you think that?” she asks, causing the guys to fall quiet around the table, diverting their own conversations.

I want to tell her because she’s ours as much as we are hers, but I also don’t want to scare her away either, not when she’s slowly beginning to come out of her shell where we’re all concerned. The fact that we all kissed her in front of one another, except for Tommy, should be proof enough.

“Because you care about us as much as we care about you. Even though it may not be conventional or what society deems as acceptable, whatever this is, all of us with you, this connection,” I say, glancing at each of the guys at the table before my gaze returns to her. “You feel it, too.”

She considers my words for a moment. “I do... but isn’t it weird? Does it not bother any of you?”

River turns to face her. “Did it bother you when you caught me with Elliot?”

If I thought I’d seen her flushed before, it has nothing on her at this moment. I lean forward, eager to hear her response. Although, she finds it arousing as hell, if her physical reaction is anything to go by.

“No, of course not.” Her voice comes out deeper, sultry almost.

I internally groan, watching her pupils dilate, and I’m reminded of the same reaction when she had my cock in her mouth.

“Well, then, you have your answer.”

She brings her glass of wine to her mouth, her lips closing around the rim before she tips it back and polishes it off with a wince.

“Easy, sweetheart,” Elliot says from her other side, removing the empty glass from her delicate fingers. “Pretty sure you shouldn’t be mixing alcohol with your pain meds.”

“It’s okay. I’m not taking anything, only the occasional Paracetamol and Ibuprofen,” she replies softly.

River plays with a lock of her hair, wrapping it around his finger.

“Hmm, still, I’d like to know you’re coherent for later,” he replies, his gaze locked on her face.

Her tongue darts out, swiping over her bottom lip, and he leans closer—like a sunflower drawn to the rising sun. Now more than ever, Tommy’s nickname for her makes even more sense. Not for the first time today, I watch as she kisses another man, and all it does is fuel my hunger, the need to take her, make her mine all over again.

When she finally eases out of the kiss, she stares at Elliot, tilting her head to the side. “Why do I feel like you’re trying to distract me from what’s really going on?” she asks, glancing at us all still seated at the table.She clears her throat. “Are you going to tell me?”

Elliot sighs and gently pulls her chin so she’s looking at him once more. “Firstly, kissing you would never be used as a tool or weapon to distract you, not like that—never like that. But you’re right. We do have some information. Jax,” he says, glancing in my direction.

I stand up, walk around to Lily, and hold out my hand.

“Come, let’s move somewhere more comfortable, and I’ll tell you everything.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

LILY

I take a deep breath and place my palm in Jackson’s as he pulls me to my feet, his other hand moving to the back of my neck as he leans in for a stolen kiss. It’s brief but no less powerful. If these men continue to keep kissing me the way they do, I’m pretty sure I’ll self-combust. Having them all here is sending my hormones haywire. I want to say it has nothing whatsoever to do with the sex scene I just read between four vampires and a human, but I’d be lying. River caught me mid-scene, and then they were all here, kissing me. Tommy might not have kissed me along with the others, but I feel his underlying presence, nonetheless. All these men have a visceral quality about them that I can’t help but sense and feel in tune with.

Tommy moves to start the fire as Jackson leads me to the sofa and pulls me into his lap. River sits at the other end and lifts my feet onto his legs. It feels strangely intimate.

“Is this okay?” Jackson asks, and it’s only now that I see a rare glimpse of his vulnerability. I nod because, honestly, the thought of only being around these men for less than a day and not physically touching them makes my chest physically ache with acute awareness.

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