Page 16 of Poke the Bear

He flushed then and I worried that I’d fucked right up, but he shot me a sheepish smile.

“Never ever,” he confirmed.

“Me either.” I shrugged, figuring we were getting all of our embarrassing confessions out in one hit. “So this could be like the blind leading the blind.”

He smiled then, something carnal in with all of that sweetness.

“Yeah?” He bent his head down. “You been saving yourself for me?”

Had I? My mind rejected that idea absolutely, but my heart? It went pitter patter at that thought.

“Maybe.” My reply was my compromise between the two parts of myself. “What about you?”

“Fuck, Freya…” His voice was so deep and growly, it felt like it vibrated through my whole body. “You have no fucking idea how long I’ve waited for you and just you.” He took my hand in his, tugging me away from the wall. “This is gonna sound mad, but there was never gonna be anyone else, ever.”

He started leading me down the hall and my feet felt light as a feather as we walked away from the ballroom, out into the hotel, but right as we went to head to the lifts, Jack came running out.

“Adam!” He paused then and she shot me an apologetic look. “Sorry, Frey, but he’s gotta stay.” She turned back to Adam. “You’re in front. You’re gonna win.”

“I’ve already won,” he said and then I yelped as he picked me up and swept me into his arms. “So I’ve gotta go. Say I got food poisoning.” He walked away from Jack as she made small noises of protest. “Explosive diarrhoea. Stuck on the toilet all night.”

“Fuck… Fuck…” Jack looked on in distress, but any protests she might have were silenced by her phone.

“Jaclyn— Yes, sir. Yep, I know.” She turned towards us and then winced. “Adam’s ill. Had some bad prawns or something. I’ve got a friend of mine looking after him— Yep, he’ll be fine. Just needs to spend some time throwing up for a bit. I’ll try to get him back down for the medal count.”

“Adam,” I said as he swept me over to the lift and punched the button. “We can wait. We’ve got all night.”

“Yeah?” There was that boyish grin that had half of Adelaide swooning. “Well, then, I don’t want to waste a minute of it.”

He wouldn’t put me down for the whole elevator ride, nor when we got to the room, somehow managing to unlock it, before carrying me forward and then laying me down on the bed.

“Gonna make this so good,” he said, looming above me. “So good you’ll never want to leave.”

I chuckled then, at the insanity of this, that I could actually believe that this might be possible, but rational Freya was shoved to one side. For one night and one night only, she wasn’t in the driver’s seat, I was.

“Yeah?” I said. “Show me.”

Chapter 9

Adam

Fuck… Just fuck… I didn’t have any other coherent thoughts because there was only room for her. Freya’s perfume was growing sweeter, filling my nose with the smell of honey.

And that’s when I felt the rhythmic buzz of my phone in my pocket.

Kaine, no doubt about it. He wasn’t texting now, obviously having seen that I had deserted the ballroom and who with. I pulled away for just a second, which felt like a damn travesty, and Freya just grinned.

“Is that Jack?” she asked.

“No, someone a lot nosier.” I pulled my phone out and looked at the screen, the caller ID confirming my suspicions.

“Who?” Her hand rose and my eyes followed it, the bear roaring his fucking head off as she slid her hand inside our shirt, stroking our chest.

Fuck.

“No one,” I replied, turning the phone off and tossing it on a nearby chair. That wasn’t exactly true. If Freya was to accept the bond, she’d need to come to grips being with River and Kaine as well, but right now? I wanted to be fucking selfish for once, to put myself first. No, us. I’d share her with my sleuth, make damn sure every single one of us spent our lives making her happy.

But not right now.

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