Page 212 of Entangled

Friends.

I’m stung and touched all at once. Jayk hasfriends. Of course the men should count... but while I think Jayk would go to war for them, I’m not sure he would talk to them. Talking with Sloane and Ava is huge for him, and I’m glad they have his back.

But it brings my own relationship with him into sharp relief. In all the times we’ve slept together, and for all that I feel like I understand him better than I do any of my men, we’ve hardly talked.

We’re long overdue.

“Sorry for being a dick and all,” Jennifer says with a grimace. “You should have said something! I thought you did him dirty, and he was so cute over you. Watching you all the time when you weren’t looking.” She frowns thoughtfully and takes a drink. “Maybe that’s creepy, actually. Is that creepy?”

Jayk watched me?

Ava laughs, then shrugs at me. “We’re spreading the important details around the group, just, you know, so they know you’re not a cheating scumbag. You shouldn’t have a problem with anyone anymore. I mean, there might be some side-eye...”

“But they should keep it together,” Sloane finishes, then she breaks into a rueful smile. “Could really do with some more men around here though. We keep telling Madison, but I’m pretty sure she’s worried they’re going to snatch away her crown.”

“As if we’d let that happen,” Jennifer scoffs.

Reeling and caught off-guard by their turnaround on me, I jump when Ava nudges me.

“I saw him last over by the western pits,” she says. “When you’ve had enough male posturing for the night, come find us. We’re breaking out the drinking games as soon as Team Bacon gets their act together and crack out porky. Madison should be off monitoring duty by then, too.”

Sloane whistles sharply at that, and Ida lifts her whiskey into the air with a laugh. A small smile finds me. Drinking games sound like a terrible idea.

“I’ll consider it,” I laugh. I’m about to start descending the ladder again when I catch sight of Kasey, still not chattering with the others.

She’s still worried about him.

“Hey,” I say, and when she looks at me, I give her back a look just as serious. “I love him—I’m just trying to make him believe it.”

Kasey gives me a half-smile.

With their chatter re-starting behind me, I descend the ladder again and make my way to the western edge of the forest. It’s darker on this side, and I pluck one of the large solar lanterns off a tree and head toward the pit traps.

My body is slippery and tingling, the frustrated echoes of my thwarted orgasm still edging me. Being with Jayk is always a wild ride—and one that usually ends with me being ridden wildly. We can’t have a relationship based only on sex, though. Not the one I want with him.

As I get closer to the traps, I examine the ground, and in between the smaller footprints, I note several larger ones with at least three different shaped boot treads between them.

Uneasiness stirs in the pit of my stomach as a chilly breeze kicks up. They said the woods are safe, and no alarm has been tripped. These footprints are probably just from my men doing rounds over the course of the day.

Right?

I still don’t move. In the dim light, I strain to hear something, anything. Music throbs from back at the party, and I tune it out. There’s something up ahead. Someone.

They’re coming toward me.

My pulse skitters, and I quickly drag myself behind a heavy bush. The scratchy leaves scrape at my skin. Picking up a rock at my feet, I break open the lantern as quietly as possible and with a sharp smack, I crack the bulb inside.

The light dies.

I make myself as still as possible, the rock still clenched in one hand.

A large figure appears a moment later, holding a flashlight, but they’re hard to make out through the greenery and my terrible vision. He turns, looking down at the ground.

“Come out, subbie,” Jayk says, and all the tension drains out of me.

I step out from behind the bush and frown. “What gave me away?”

I can’t help but feel miffed. I’d thought I hid quite quickly.

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