Page 66 of Reactant

“You don’t need help keeping the cupboards stocked, Will.” Peyton absently tugged at his sling as he opened the pantry. “Between you and Parker, we’re drowning in food. You weigh 105 kilos sopping wet, and Parker is barely half your size. I don’t understand how you both go through so much food.”

“There isneverenough food,” Will countered.

“Stop playing with the sling,” Quinn said gently to Peyton. “It won’t make it heal faster.”

“I’m watching the hours until it can officially come off tomorrow,” Peyton grumbled.

“Make sure you keep it with you in case your arm gets tired.”

“I was going to burn it, but I guess that idea has merits too.” His grin was pure cheek and went straight to Jericho’s groin.

It seemed to do the same for Quinn since he pulled Peyton closer. He ran his arm down Peyton’s sling and then gave him a slow kiss that set Jericho on fire.

He should have looked away; it was a private moment. He hadn’t been invited, but they were too compelling to look away from, and if they didn’t want him to look, they should have told him to leave.

Quinn was taller than Peyton, and while he didn’t tower over him like Will did, there was still enough of a difference to be acutely noticeable. Quinn ran a hand through Peyton’s shoulder-length hair. It was straighter than Jericho’s waves and lighter, a dirty blond that was eye-catching. They were perfectly angled towards each other as they kissed, fitting seamlessly together.

Jericho found Sebastian watching him with a shrewd eye instead of the gorgeous spectacle. It was unnerving how much he saw and how much he didn’t say when he was running his mouth. The lawyer had turned misdirection into an art form.

Jericho deliberately ran his tongue across his bottom lip, slow and sensual. Sebastian tracked it, his nostrils flaring. It was a comfort to know that he wasn’t the only one being affected. Of course, at the end of the day, he’d be going to bed with only his right hand, and they’d be going to bed together, but he couldn’t always have everything. And this was too much fun for him to pass up.

“What does following me entail?” Sebastian asked flatly, looking away. Will kept handing him things from the fridge, and he put them on the counter blindly, eyes locked onto Jericho.

“It means every time you turn around, there I’ll be,” Jericho said, injecting over-the-top cheer into his tone and singing the last few words.

“Isn’t that a song?” Will asked. He checked over a package of chicken breasts and shrugged before handing it to Sebastian.

Sebastian blinked at all the ingredients he’d just put down. “What are you making?”

“Not really sure. Some kind of chicken-vegetable dish, I guess? Look, you’re not giving me a lot to work with here.”

“We could go somewhere else,” Jericho suggested. Standing in the middle of a fucking field would be more secure than this place. At leasthewould be able to see in all directions too. If they had the same advantage, then no one had an advantage.

“Is there something wrong with my house?” Sebastian asked archly. “No one is forcing you to be here.”

“Au contraire; how can I protect you if we’re not even in the same building?”

“That sounds like a ‘you’ problem,” Sebastian fired back.

“I like a challenge, but that’s a little outside of my skill set.”

“Are you admitting you aren’t some overpowered super villain?” Sebastian asked, holding a hand to his chest.

“You think I’m the villain?” Jericho asked, his mouth twitching with a smile.

“I hope you don’t think you’re the hero.”

That, Jericho had never been. He wasn’t the self-sacrificing type. He’d worked hard to turn himself into someone that didn’tneedto be. If he neutralised the threat first, then there was no need to go the martyr route.

“You think I can’t admit my flaws? Only an idiot thinks they’re infallible.” There were plenty of things he couldn’t do or couldn’t doas wellas others. That’s why they had a whole team. They filled each other’s gaps. He imagined that’s why four men would work in a relationship better than most people would think. None of them had to beeverythingto each other. They all had their strengths and weaknesses, and they complemented each other. It was a beautiful symmetry.

“You’re good with a knife, right?” Will asked Jericho.

Jericho blinked at him. “Good is relative, but yes.”

“Great.” Will beamed as he took out a large knife from the block on the bench. “You can chop the potatoes and carrots.”

That made Jericho pause. “You want me to help?”

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