Page 14 of Greedy Grizzly
My love?
Grizzly never spoke to me this way. We’d been keeping love and other terms of endearment out of our relationship. Sure, I knew what I felt for him. I also knew, by his actions and the way he looked at me, how much I meant to him. We just hadn’t said the words.
I blinked my eyes, trying to get a clearer look at him. Why did he look devastated?
“Grizz, what are you hiding from me?” Was I actually not okay? Were my injuries worse than I thought. Would I not live to see another day?
“The doctor wants you to rest, sweetheart.” Toby’s voice came from my other side. He was here. I hadn’t even noticed him in the room.
How awful of me. I should feel bad, but I couldn’t worry about him while I tried to read Grizzly’s expression.
“Please tell me how it went.” I locked my gaze to Grizzly’s. I wouldn’t let him brush me off. If anyone knew his moods and expressions, it was me. And right now, he was on the edge of tears.
“We got Dorian.” He exhaled and gently squeezed my hand. “Raymond and Tina are fine. You were the only one hurt at the church. Now rest.”
Rest? Why did they keep sayingrest?
“What are my injuries?” I touched my stomach with my free hand. Since I was in a hospital bed, the damage had to have been extensive, otherwise Patch could’ve treated me at the compound. Or perhaps I’d been close to dying.
“Jesus, why won’t you listen to me? Do you always have to be so stubborn?”
“Of course she does.” Toby chuckled light-heartedly as he looked across the bed at my tightly wound, Grizzly.
Whenever Grizz slipped into one of his funks, Toby and I would team up to bring him out of the dark and into the light.
Toby was Grizzly’s friend, the only male to warm up to my grumpy, introverted lover. After many years of giving more of myself to Grizz than any other member, it shocked me when he and Toby started hanging out together. It shouldn’t have beensurprising. They were both computer geeks, and Toby was fun and easygoing.
It was about a year after Storm and Angel got married that Toby started coming to town to visit his sister and new baby niece, Birdie. He’d helped Grizzly with security stuff and a friendship had slowly formed.
Truth be told, if Toby could have been around more than a few times a year, Grizzly might not have needed me as much.
Jeez, I hated thinking that way. I loved Grizzly, even though I’d tried to keep my emotions bottled up.
I’d become a Kitten because I enjoyed sex and needed a way to put myself through school to be a medical assistant.
After my certification, Storm had offered me a monthly stipend to aid Patch, the club’s doctor, any time he needed help. Of course, I had accepted his offer on the spot.
I loved KLMC and being a kitten, aka club whore.
Kittens were treated well, unless we got out of line, like Carla and Misty had. I’d become close to the old ladies, unlike Carla, who’d been a bitch to everyone.
Respecting others and earning theirs had given me the freedom to be with whoever I wanted, including Toby when he came to town.
But Grizz had become so much more to me than sex. No matter how hard I’d tried to keep my heart and emotions out of the mix, nothing could stop Grizzly from barrelling through my iron walls.
“What’s going on with you?” I raised our joined hands to my lips and kissed the top of his, hoping it would soothe whatever was bothering him.
“I could’ve lost you today.” And there it was. Grizzly released my hand and rubbed his eyes with the backs of his. “You wouldn’t listen to me and could’ve died.”
“Oh honey, I’m here though.”
“She’s too stubborn to leave us,” Toby said. “I must’ve told him a dozen times, while you were in surgery, that you will never leave us.”
“Toby’s right, honey.” I smiled at Grizzly. “I couldn’t stand to be without you, without either of you.” The truth was, Toby had found his way into my heart, too. I wasn’t sure when it had happened, but I wanted him to be around more often so I could share myself equally between him and Grizz.
Actually, I wanted us all to be together, like a throuple.
I was confident neither would mind sharing me, considering I still spent time with some of the single men in the club. I was a Kitten and proud to be one.
