Page 117 of Stream Heat
He came with me, spilling deep, his hips pressed flush as the knot swelled to seal every drop inside. His growl was lowand wrecked, vibrating against my skin, the sound of a man completely undone.
We stayed there, pressed to the wall, locked together, our breaths coming in ragged gasps. His lips brushed my jaw, my cheek, my mouth, softer now, reverent.
“Mine,” he whispered. Then, quieter, raw and certain: “Ours.”
He held me there long after we’d finished, breathing hard, forehead pressed to mine, like he was trying to memorize the moment.
“Wow,” I said, once my brain was more or less functional. “That was…”
“Yeah,” he agreed, speechless in a way I’d never seen before.
When he finally set me down, we both winced a little, but neither of us let go for long. We fixed our clothes in wordless tandem, a new warmth humming between us.
Eventually Theo broke the silence, mischief coming back online. “Do I get to brag to Reid that I fucked you in the kitchen while he was upstairs being all responsible?”
I barked a laugh, too happy to care about the volume. “You’re impossible.”
“You love it.” He kissed me again, this time sweeter, almost shy.
I did. I really did. His energy, his chaos, the way he could pull me back from the brink. It made Reid’s steadiness more valuable, not less. And I could already feel it: each of them would give me something I needed in a way that didn’t take from the others. Like puzzle pieces, making a whole.
That was the secret, wasn’t it? Love wasn’t a zero-sum game. You didn’t have to ration it. It could grow. It could change. There could always be more.
Theo looped his arm through mine and pulled me toward the stairs, and I knew he was already plotting out how he’d drop thenews on everyone else, as if they didn’t already know. I let him plan, because for the first time since my life flipped upside down, I felt like maybe I could belong, not just as the weak link, but as a real part of something.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Kara
There had been a weight in the room when I woke, notifications buzzing on my phone, but I hadn’t been interested. Not yet. Not with Theo’s body slotted so naturally against mine, the length of him pressed up between me and the wall, one arm thrown over my waist like he had a claim he didn’t want anyone to miss.
I let myself relish the ache between my legs. It was a good one, deep and warm, a reminder not just of what had happened the night before in the kitchen, but of everything building between the six of us since I had joined the team.
I was still deciding whether I wanted to wake Theo or let him sleep when the door slammed open like we were in a sitcom, except the tension wasn’t funny. Not even a little bit.
“Have you seen–” Reid froze halfway in the doorway. That precise Alpha energy of his twisted sharp and tight. His scent spiked, cedar and the promise of a coming storm.
Theo’s head lifted from the pillow, sleepy grin morphing instantly into cocky. “Morning, fearless leader,” he said, squeezing my waist like he was staking his territory. “You need something?”
Reid’s jaw clenched so tight it could have probably cut glass. “There’s a situation downstairs that requires attention.”
I was out of the haze and wide awake. “What kind of situation?”
“Some anonymous troll posted graphic comments about you on the group stream VOD from last week,” Reid said. “It’s picking up steam.”
Shit. I rolled my eyes and reached for my phone. “What were they saying?”
“Nothing worth repeating,” Reid growled, and the darkness in his scent was impossible to ignore.
Theo was instantly alert; that lazy-morning attitude was gone, replaced by a cold fury that poured off him like wildfire. “Who was it? I’ll dig through their digital footprint so fast they’ll wish they were a bot account.”
“Already being handled,” Reid cut him off. “Ash was tracking them. But there was something else.” The way he looked at me when he said it, I couldn’t read him, which was usually a bad sign. “We have a group stream in an hour. Tournament qualifier prep. We need to decide if we are still doing it.”
Cancel, and everyone would know the troll got to me. Go live, and the whole world would watch me eat shit from some loser who’d never seen a real fight. It wasn’t much of a decision.
“We’re doing it,” I said. My voice didn’t even shake. “I’m not hiding from trolls.”
Reid didn’t look surprised. There was a flicker in his eyes as he glanced at Theo, then back to me. “We’ll talk about… this. After the stream.”
