Page 117 of Grin and Bear It

“Ah… yeah, but I’m supposed to be cooking for you, not the other way around.”

“No reason why it couldn’t be a group effort.” Nash’s voice floated over my head, letting me know he was behind me, right before his arms wrapped me tight. He rocked me against his body. “Pretty sure we can do magical things together, when we’re all cooperating.”

“But I was…”

I had thoughts, protests, ideas of them going to sit in the lounge room and watching the sport or something as I prepared a feast, but they all went out the window the moment he touched me. Being held close, treasured, it made me feel all warm inside.

And then very, very hot.

“Mm… you were saying?” Nash nudged my ear with his lips.

“I… can’t remember.” I turned then, frowning up at him. “Is this the way it’s going to work? You lot will snuggle into me and I’ll forget whatever I was going to complain about?”

“Depends,” he replied with a smirk. “Will it work?”

“You know it will.” I tried to shove him away, but the man wasn’t going anywhere unless he wanted to and then I was distracted by all that muscular strength. “You know you can’t just dickmatise me into getting what you want.”

“Dickmatise?” Cole snorted as he walked into the kitchen, setting the beer down before offering me one. I shook my head. Cans were passed around to each of the men, making me feel like a bad hostess, because I should’ve been offering them something to drink first. “And how does that work? I wave my one eyed trouser snake around and you—”

His hand went to slide his zipper down, but I stopped him.

“And you need to keep it in your pants, unless you like burnt, dry lamb for dinner,” I shot back.

“So that’s not a no.” Cole winked at me. “Afterwards then. Nice table you got there. Be a real pity not to put it to use, spread you out on top of it as we show you just how good we work together. I’ve got a brush in my back pocket, if you have anything that needs ‘touching up’.”

The four of them laughed then, that low down, chuckle thing guys do when sharing an inside joke. My hands went to my hips, my eyes narrowing.

“So this is the way it’s going to be?” I looked each one of them over. “Super bossy bear shifters, pushing their way in and taking over.”

“Making you happy,” Lin corrected. “In any way you’ll let us. From cutting up vegetables—”

“To fixing shitty wiring.” Tyson handed his peeler to Nash and then took the toolbox from his sleuthmate. “You didn’t tell me you were getting zapped by light sockets the last time I was here.”

“It doesn’t happen that often—” I started to say.

“Once is too many, now show me,” he commanded.

Which is how I came to be standing in the dark in the doorway of Colleen’s bedroom, a torch in my hand.

“You didn’t have to do this,” I told him as I watched him unscrew the light switch, then peer at the wiring inside. We’d already turned off the mains power, so he pulled the wiring out and checked the connections, nodding to himself before grabbing some small connectors from the tool box. The old switch plate was removed and the connectors changed over before a new switch was added.

“Are we only doing nice things for people when we have to?” he asked me, shooting me a sidelong look as he worked. “So what do I owe you for working with the boys.”

“Oh, I couldn’t…” My protests trailed away and then I looked at him flatly. “OK, I get it.”

“Maybe we can just be nice to each other?” he said, putting the switch back and then screwing it in. “Maybe that’s what our life can be like. Each doing good things for the other person, just because you want to, because it gives you pleasure. What do you think?”

His words had a magical effect to them, but I didn’t know if he understood their impact. All this talk about fated mates and bear shifters and forever was kinda daunting, but this? He made it sound so simple: just focussing on today and the next day when it came, then the next, doing nice things for each other. That felt like…

A future.

He smiled slowly, putting his tools down and coming over to me, massive arm going above my head as he gripped the doorframe.

“You like that. You like it a whole lot.”

“You get all that from my scent?” I asked.

“I get all that from you.” He edged in closer but stopped before the gap between us was obliterated. “The longer we spend together, the better we’ll get at working out what you want and need.”

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