A box.
He really had come prepared.
"And you don't have to do a damn thing," he told me, reaching between us to slide the condom on. His hand stayed there, holding his cock as he shifted his hips forward and slid inside me so slowly that, by the time he was fully inside me, I felt like I was already half way there.
Then he did as he promised.
He gave me slow and deep and easy.
I didn't have to do a damn thing but hold on and let him give me what I swore I wasn't capable of again.
Afterward, we scooted under the blankets and he asked me things. Silly, little things. Like about life at Hailstorm, how I was handling training, how my grandmother was doing, if there was anything I needed.
Like yarn.
I laughed at that and slapped his arm, finding myself completely comfortable with the teasing. Which was new for me too.
"One of these days, I am going to figure out something embarrassing about you and I am never going to let you live it down," I said, small-eying him.
"Looking forward to it."
"You would."
"Penny, you digging up that kinda dirt means you stuck around long enough to do so. So yeah, I'm fucking looking forward to that. Now get some sleep because I need you rested up for when I fuck you again."
He kissed me slow and deep, but without too much heat lest we start up again.
Then we slept.
And when I woke up, I realized he was right. I needed the rest because he found himself in abundance of positions he wanted to try out. These included, but were not limited to: lotus, standing from behind, standing with legs around him against a wall, and something he called X-Marks-The-Spot in which I was on the bed sideways, butt at the edge, and he was kneeling at the edge with my legs crossed at the ankles under his chin.
And, well, let me tell you... X definitely marked the spot.
"Coffee," I grumbled when he grabbed my arms and pulled me off the bed.
"Sure thing. But I'm not sure you should head into the kitchen like this. Every time the guys see you, they'll be thinking of your tits and ass."
"Fiiiine," I said dramatically, reaching for my clothes and slowly getting dressed, managing to only stumble twice.
"Ready?" he asked, fully dressed and somehow wide awake, meanwhile I felt like my body had just gone through an eight-hour training session and all I wanted to do was crawl back into bed.
But he held his hand out to me and took mine, interlocking our fingers and giving me a squeeze.
"Yeah," I said, smiling up at him.
He brought us to the kitchen, finding it effortlessly which I found both impressive and annoying seeing as it took me days to get it right. He pushed me toward the couch and got us coffee and bagels from the supply in a giant brown bag on the counter.
That was another perk about Hailstorm. There were so many people who came and went that someone, inevitably, always brought something back for everyone else.
Then, despite there being more than enough room for both of us on the couch, he dragged me over to him, sticking me in the space between him and the arm of the couch, my legs over his. Then he handed me my coffee that I stuck between my legs so I could pick apart my bagel and eat it.
I had a feeling that the repositioning was equal parts sweetness and wanting to be near me and a show of claim, of possession as the other men milled in and out, getting food or coffee.
I found myself oddly comforted by the fact too.
I liked that he thought enough about me that he wanted to make sure that others knew I was taken. Though I knew that everyone already did since Lo would snap "She belongs to a Henchmen too," when she caught someone looking my way.
I found I liked being 'claimed'. Which, well, was a little regressive of me I guessed, but I couldn't help it. It was nice to know that the man you cared for, cared for you enough as well to show all the other men around you that you were taken.
One of the guys, who I knew only as L, came in a while later to grab coffee that he drank out of what was the coffee mug equivalent of a Big Gulp. He was in his mid-twenties, stupidly good-looking, and so smart that it was actually incredibly intimidating. And, well, he had no filter.
"You gonna pee on her too? We get it; she's yours."
With that, he left, rolling his eyes as he did.
"What?" Duke asked and I realized I was smiling.
"Nothing," I started to cover, then shook my head and looked up with him and gave him the truth. "I'm happy," I said and it sounded a little silly, a little childish even, but it was true. I was happy. I wasn't sure how long it had been since I truly felt that way. Contented? Sure. Comfortable? Usually. But not truly happy.