Page 90 of More Than I Can Bear

“Freya…”

“C’mon, sweetheart.” That was another voice, not quite so insistent. “Big brother has to check in and make sure you’re OK.”

“Something that you should’ve been doing.”

“Don’t need to.” I blinked and then saw Adam and Kaine sitting looking down at me. “I can feel it and you’d feel it too if you shut up for long enough.” Adam rubbed his hand up and down my arm. “You’re feeling good right now, aren’t you?”

I nodded slowly, ready to turn back to River and feel more of that.

“How about a shower?”

Kaine was trying so hard to keep his tone light, to phrase it as a request, not an order, so when he held out a hand, I took it. He collected me up and I didn’t care if he carried me this time. My legs were not working and I wouldn’t have made it without him. He set me down in a very swanky looking walk-in shower and I made a sound of distress at the feel of the cold tiles on my feet. Kaine moved instantly to switch on the water, get it to temperature and then pull me under it.

“And how are you feeling?” Kaine asked.

I smiled slightly at the solicitous question. As he worked the soap between his hands and got a lather going, this felt something like a doctor’s visit, but there was no clinical calm in the way he smoothed the soap over my skin. He worked to get me clean in a series of long, sensual strokes, right up until he reached the fresh bite River had left on my neck.

“Good…” I ground out. I’d just had three orgasms, but as soon as he touched me, I felt ready for more. Not hypersensitive, not rubbed raw, but alive in a way I’m not sure I’d ever felt before.

“Good?” Kaine seemed somewhat distressed by my response. “You’re not sore or anything—?”

I choked off any other questions by grabbing him by the back of the neck and pulling him closer.

“Good, as in this,” I replied.

I kissed him because the pleasure I felt was too big for me. It needed to be shared. Because when I did, he took over, dropping the soap to the floor, those slick hands struggling to hold me tight enough against him. His cock had been soft when we walked into the shower, but it rose now, pressing insistently against us, right before Adam stepped in.

“That looks pretty damn good,” Adam said. “Got any of that for me?”

I’d gone from a virgin to a woman that was held in the arms of one brother while reaching out to kiss another and I didn’t care. Adam welcomed me just as warmly, if not more so, because there was no reticence in him. There never was. He jumped into everything feet first and anyone he was in a relationship with would be forced to jump right alongside him.

Which had me pausing for a second.

Adam watched me closely, a small frown threatening to form, but not yet there. He was waiting for something, anything, a sign to indicate he was good to go, so I just smiled for him. At that I was plucked from Kaine’s arms and carried over to the shower wall and pressed into the tiles as he held me there.

“Adam—” Kaine growled.

“Not now,” Adam said between kisses.

“Adam, you’re rushing things again.”

He pulled away despite my sound of protest, then pressed his forehead to mine.

“No, I’m not.” His eyes flicked open, staring into mine. “I’m not, am I, Freya? I know we only met a week ago and I’ve spent the whole week fucking things up, but we’re not, are we? I feel the same way as I did then, that you were right there with me, ready to jump off. It’s why…” He sighed and then grew serious. “It’s why I claimed you when I did. It felt right. You felt right and while you didn’t know what you were getting yourself into, you do now.” He grabbed my hand and placed it on his chest. “It’s me, Freya.”

There was so much in that small statement, an objective insistence that I didn’t know him at all, coupled with a feeling that far outstripped it. When I reached up to touch his face, I knew he’d push his hand into it, more insistent cat than bear. And when I was quiet, he became uncharacteristically pensive. He was bracing himself for another smackdown, I quickly realised, waiting for me to reject him all over again.

“You’re not wrong,” I told him and there it was, that brighter than the sun smile. A small look of self congratulation, then a smirk shot Kaine’s way. “And you are, all at the same time.”

“What?”

“I feel a connection to you.” I pulled free so he was no longer supporting me against the wall, standing on my own two feet. “But it’s not the same as it is with River.” All the joy seemed to leave him then and I felt like such a bitch for doing this. “That doesn’t mean it won’t. This is why Kaine’s right, too.” I grabbed Adam’s hand and he held it tight, as if worried I’d slip from his grip moments later. His brother sidled closer, moving into the space beside the both of us and I took his hand with my free one. “We need to build that between us, together.”

“Together?”

I saw then why coaches must love Adam. He took that one little crumb of hope and grabbed onto it with two hands.

“That’s what we’ve been talking about, isn’t it?” I said.

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