Breathless (The Game 3)

He snuggled up with his popsicle in River’s arms, both of them cuter than words. Shay was bringing out a softer side in my brother, something only I had been privy to in the past, and I loved seeing it. It felt right.

“Want some?” Shay held up the red popsicle for River.

He lifted his head and bit off a piece, causing Shay to splutter a laugh.

“Who bites popsicles? You’re nuts.”

River smirked and shrugged, getting comfortable again.

The dozen or so people around us, in and out of the pool, were easy to ignore when I had these two with me. Shutting out the world was another thing River and I had only shared with each other, but including Shay felt natural.

Now I just had to pace myself before we made the boy ours permanently, on every level, because that was the missing piece.“Shay and Ivy are back,” River said, leaving the spot by the window. “I’ll let them know where we are.”

“Might as well do our meeting with Shay now.” I fired off another email—only twenty-something to go.

River nodded in acknowledgment and walked out of our office. Said office as well as the kitchen were tucked away in the eastern corner behind the dressing rooms in the main house, and it wasn’t easy to find us here if you’d only explored the club area in the past.

We’d saved these two areas when we’d bought the place, so the office and the kitchen were the only rooms that didn’t look like they belonged in a haunted house. Instead, Ivy and another sub, Gretchen, had gone nuts at Pottery Barn.

River and I had instantly returned the two sofas the girls had bought for the office. For one, we didn’t fucking need decorative sofas in here. For two, they’d been uncomfortable as shit. Offices were supposed to have shelves, cabinets, a desk, a desk chair, and two visitor’s chairs. Period.

I’d lost count of how many times Ivy had tried to bring in plants. There was currently a half-dead fern in the corner by the window, and I didn’t see it surviving the summer. Ivy was going on a two-week vacation to Mexico soon, so no one would remember to water the damn thing.

“Print,” I murmured to myself. All the membership payments for August had been processed and were ready to be archived and forgotten. Fuckin’ A. Worst part of my job, definitely. I fucking hated paperwork.

While the printer behind me came to life, I opened up a new email to Colt. He was coming down alone tomorrow to help River and me with the fighting cages. Due to the lawn slanting downhill, we’d ordered two adjustable platforms for the cages to stand on, and Colt had offered to help out. Apparently, Lucas and Kit had plans to go shopping, so I had my guesses on why Colt wanted to come here instead.

The door to the office opened, and I spotted River and Shay from the corner of my eye.

Okay, let’s see… I squinted at the screen and reread what I’d written. I didn’t think Colt would mind picking up an order from Greer before he drove down. All right, good enough. I pressed send before I gave the guys my attention.

“Hi. I’m surprised you didn’t wanna inspect the truck when we got back.” Shay snuck around the desk and kissed me.

I smirked a little and leaned back in my seat. “There’s a reason you’re borrowing River’s truck and never—ever—my Impala. The truck ain’t my problem. If you scratch it, River can deal with you.”

River snorted and sat down in one of the chairs across from me.

Shay took the other and rolled his eyes. “I’m actually a good driver.”

“But evidently awful at sticking to a grocery list,” River noted. “Four items on the list, and you and Ivy come back with five bags.”

“It’s the only way I can contribute!” Shay exclaimed. “Y’all won’t let me pay for shit otherwise.”

Boy was getting mouthy again. Good. We’d had a couple fantastic days of him getting more comfortable as a Little, but as his marks had started to heal, he’d slowly began bouncing back to his natural state of a perfect, feisty little masochist. For the most part this week, his frustrations stemmed from lack of training. He and I worked out together extensively every morning now, but I’d managed to avoid the actual fighting so far, and I hoped to keep it that way till the Game on Saturday.

Thursday today. Shay was going home in a couple hours, but he’d be back tomorrow afternoon. He was even going to borrow River’s truck so he could return to us faster. Tonight, he was taking his brothers to the movies, and tomorrow they were, to my knowledge, mostly staying around the house. Final preparations before the brothers started school again next week, I recalled Shay saying.