Page 10 of Scrum Heat

“I… think I should go to my room,” I announce.

I try to walk, but it’s more of a stagger.

“Should we take bets on how long she lasts before she starts humping the pillows?” Theo whispers behind me.

“Ten minutes,” Jax mutters.

“Five,” Rory says grimly.

Finn gasps. “Guys. She hasears.”

I do, and I am using them for later revenge.

Rory clears his throat and steps forward. “Come on, Frankie: I’ll give you the tour. Let theothers—” He glances toward Finn and Theo, “—do something useful.”

“Hey!” Theo protests, flopping deeper onto the couch. “I’m morally supervising.”

I follow Rory out of the room, glad for the fresher air and the slightly less testosterone-saturated living room. He shows me the bathroom (“don’t use the third towel hook; it falls off”), the kitchen (“don’t trust the fridge”), and the upstairs hallway (“Jax doesn’t speak before 9 a.m.”).

He gestures to a door at the end of the hall. “That’s you.”

“Thanks,” I say, trying not to sound winded.

I open the door, and I have to admit: it’s notterrible.

There’s technically a bed, and four walls. The window opens, which already makes it better than my last apartment, and there's even a bookcase.

But in the corner of the room is a haphazard pile of towels, hoodies, and—

Wait, is that anoven mitt?!

I blink, trying to make sense of what on earth I'm currently looking at.

“Did someone try to… build me anest?”

Theo’s voice pipes up from behind me before Rory can answer.

“You’re welcome.”

I spin around.“You?”

“I supervised,” he says proudly. “Finn did the folding.”

“You used... gym towels?”

“Only the clean ones.”

I stare at him. He stares back.

“…Are theyactuallyclean?”

He shrugs. “Alright, so they're clean-adjacent.”

I close my eyes. “Theo, nesting is supposed to be private.Sacred, even. Not something constructed by a rugby-playing alpha with boundary issues and a protein shake addiction.”

“What? I was helping!” he protests. “You looked stressed. I figured pre-nesting stimulation wouldn’t hurt.”

Rory growls, and the noise is so deep and low that it almost sounds like he’s malfunctioning.

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