Despite Link’s prolific speech about me being the answer to his something more, it was possible he thought I was helpless, that he could manipulate me with words and cut me while I slept. He didn’t know that behind my blond hair, yellow eyes, and perky tits, I held the greatest power in the world. The kind of power that drove me to fight just as viciously as every man left on this hateful planet.
I held the love of three men.
One of which needed my help. I could feel it like a stabbing blade in my soul.
For Michio, I would gladly put myself in debt.
I grabbed Jesse’s hand and pulled it into my lap beside Roark’s. Squeezing their fingers, I looked at Link. “We need to move the women to a safer, bigger place. When you’re satisfied with their recovery—and you will be satisfied—you’ll give me a mechanic, a hunter, a tracker, whatever I need to find the Drone.”
Link crossed his arms over his barrel chest and narrowed his swollen eyes. “You’re going after your missing guardian.”
Of course I fucking was. “Will you do it?”
His mouth slanted in a lop-sided smile. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Daylight spilled through the window of the upstairs bathroom, illuminating the thick surface of grime and dust that clung to the non-working toilet, vanity, and tiled walls. I dropped my bow, quiver, and backpack in the tub as Roark checked the locks on the window.
My muscles and joints ached, a cramp spasmed in my back, and I couldn’t stop rubbing my gritty eyes. It must’ve been eight or nine in the morning, and the only sleep we’d gotten in two days had been the hour or so before the nymphs began scratching.
Jesse strode in, taking up too much room in the small space, and closed the door behind him. He carried multiple packs, bedrolls, and a hammer, all of which bumped and scraped the walls as he turned to face me.
“Shea wants to sleep beside her patients,” he said. “Darwin’s with her.”
Maybe it wasn’t the safest decision, but I reminded myself that we’d cured her and trained her and she was more than ready for us to set her free. And if Link and his crew hid a sinister agenda, they wouldn’t act on it right now, not while Shea was caring for their women.
Besides, Shea would be more comfortable sleeping out there. I took in the bathroom’s floor space, its width barely wide enough for three bodies. Would the length of the room even accommodate Roark’s six-foot-four height?
Jesse dropped the packs, the bow, and his tomahawk in the tub. Then, with a handful of nails from his pocket, he hammered the door shut.
When the pounding racket quieted, I rubbed my aching head. “Guess that means you don’t trust our houseguests?”
He tossed the hammer on top of our supplies and rested his tired gaze on mine. “The only people I trust are standing in this room.”
I gave him a confused look. I knew he trusted Roark, and Michio was a big if. But… “What about Shea?”
He lifted a shoulder.
Roark leaned against the window sill, grinning. “Oh, Jesse, ye make me clackers feel all tingly.”
His smile was as arresting as always, though fatigue drew it a little flat, pulling at the edges of his mouth and eyes.
“Speaking of tingles…” Jesse looked around the bathroom, his voice so low it hummed through my blood. “I told you I’d find a place.”
I looked around the room. The space was small and uncomfortable and the opposite of sexy, yet his promise from earlier rolled over me with enough heat to make me dizzy.
He toed off his boots and unfastened his jeans, dragging them down his muscular legs. My pulse swished through my veins, quickening and heating as I openly stared at six feet of sun-soaked brawn.
Standing there in his tight black boxer briefs was a sight that would make any woman tingle. All that taut skin, stretched over ridges of muscles on his abs and chest, begged for my fingers, my lips… Hell, I’d straddle his chest and grind against it if he let me.
I jerked my gaze upward, colliding with his. Caught. Yep, I was checking him out, which didn’t help with the tingly feeling. I drew a slow breath through my nose and sucked on my tongue. I really wanted to suck on his. Not just his tongue. His lips. His fingers. His cock. I wanted… Fuck, I wanted to eat him.
No. I rubbed my palms on my shorts, wiping away the building heat with urgent strokes. Jesse had locked the three of us in here to sleep in privacy, right?
So why was he just standing there and not rolling out the bedrolls?
The turquoise stone I’d loaned him lay against his chest, its purpose realized. He’d let me in, accepted my love, and returned it a thousand times over. We hadn’t had sex, but our bond transcended the limits of physical connection. We didn’t need to fuck to solidify what we meant to one another.