Page 96 of Choose the Bears

Was this the way it would always be? Waking up when I felt like it, only to have three hot guys vying for my attention?I hadn’t just landed on my feet; I’d landed in heaven. I turned then, Kyle keeping a tight grip on me lest I pull away, to kiss Lucas.

“Shit, morning breath,” he said, moving back at the last moment.

“We’ve both got it, so I guess we cancel each other out.”

That gave him permission to do exactly what he wanted. His sweet smile felt like it lit me up from the core, right before his lips were pressed against mine.

We’d had sex before we fell asleep and again during the night. Asher’s dream walking seemed to have taken a more sensual turn now, and when he teased me while I slept, I was forced to wake up and attack the three of them to satiate that lust. But with Kyle pressed against my butt, his hard length branding one cheek and Lucas grinding into my hip, suddenly that wasn’t enough. It was like being able to see colour for the first time or to get your sense of smell or taste back. The world had become a far more vivid, intensely sexual place, and part of me wanted to grab all this sensation with both hands.

And the other remembered I was actually employed to do a job here.

“Pancakes!” I yelped, pulling away.

“Pancakes?” Lucas looked completely confused.

“I said I’d make pancakes for the kids again this morning.”

I started to pull free, ready to scramble out of bed and into the adjoining shower when another set of arms grabbed me and pulled me back down again. I’d gone from being wedged between Lucas and Kyle to straddling Asher’s hips.

First thing in the morning, he lost that intense look of focus I quickly realised. Asher looked softer, more relaxed for once, a small smile forming as I tried to get free. That just ended up with me wriggling on his dick, something his body and mine seemed to like a whole lot.

“The job was just a pretext to keep you at HQ,” he told me. “You don’t need to cook anything unless you want to.”

“What?” I stared and watched the walls start being rebuilt rapidly, his smile fading until I shook my head. “You did that for me?”

“That and paid your rent for the next six months.” He muttered that, looking almost embarrassed by the fact.

“You what?”

I leaned closer, especially when Asher seemed determined not to look at me.

“Gave the real estate agent the new keys,” he said like a man facing down a firing squad. “She seemed put out by the fact there was an incident at the apartment already, but her concerns evaporated when I organised for the entire lease’s rent to be paid in one lump sum.” Blue eyes rolled back my way. “I knew you’d get all weird about that, so I figured if we found you a job to ‘pay’ for all of that, you’d be OK with me overstepping.”

Finding out shifters were real was no big jump for me, but this? I knew I needed to thank him, to make clear just how much I appreciated everything he’d done, but the words weren’t coming. I just couldn’t believe someone would do something like that for me.

“I…”

My voice cracked and tears filled my eyes, which was the worst reaction ever. His face fell, real fear in his eyes, right before I launched myself at him. My arms wrapped around his neck, holding him as tightly as I dared, until he took over, holding me just as closely.

“I’d do anything for you,” he rumbled, stroking my hair, my back. “Anything. I’ve waited my whole life to find you, Imogen. This was nothing. I’ve been smart with my investments, built up a nice portfolio of stocks. I could buy you the entire damn building if that’s what would make you happy.”

My head jerked back and then I let out a little bark of a laugh, part happiness, part incredulity. Asher was like a heat-seeking missile. He worked out what the hell he wanted and went for it, not allowing anything to get in his way, and I could see how that might be overwhelming for other people.

Not me, though.

I settled back down again, tucking my head up and under his chin, and his sigh of satisfaction was everything.

“Just to be clear, I don’t need you to do that,” I said, closing my eyes for a moment and breathing in his scent. “I… I’m not going back there, am I?”

That felt bad to say. The apartment was something I’d worked so hard to afford and I was discarding it without a second thought, but… It was always just the next step. The one that took me away from Mike and further towards what I wanted to become.

Happy.

I had no way of anticipating what it would really take to achieve that.

“Not if I can help it,” Kyle said, sliding in beside us. “The security on that place sucked. We did what we could, but…”

“And I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the crime stats of that suburb.” Lucas was now standing at the end of the bed, splendidly naked, and I took a nice, long look at all of him. “We don’t want you going anywhere.”

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