“Why?”
“Because you just fucked me like your goddamn life depended on it, which…fucking hell, please do that again, but not sure I would have come out in one piece if we’d started that way.”
“You’ve never complained.”
“And you won’t hear me complain,” he said, and my breath caught when his eyes opened and golden sunlight stared back at me when he smiled. “Come, lie with me a little while.”
I hesitated, not because I objected to spooning, but it was late and we should go to bed and not risk getting caught. Yet, it felt cruel to treat him so roughly, a treatment he welcomed in all fairness, and then turn him out of my bed. I wouldn’t want to treat some random someone I had only known for an hour like that, let alone someone who was…well, he was Colin.
Sighing, I did as he asked, laying down, wrapping my arms around him and drawing him back into a complete hold. He wriggled, and I rolled my eyes when I realized he was like a dog, squirming against me happily to find a position that wasjustright. The idea was cemented when he gave a heavy, contented sigh and flopped his head down, and I would be the idiot who was probably smiling too.
“Areyouokay?” he asked after a couple of minutes of silence.
“Yeah, why the fuck wouldn’t I be?”
“I dunno. I’m just checking. I mean, you’ve got pretty used to this whole…thing, for the most part. But ya know, I wouldn’tblame you if there were still a few mental hang-ups going on in that head of yours.”
“Quit worrying about stupid shit.”
“I’m just saying, that whole thing with Cait was kind of…I dunno, a reality check?”
“You should talk less.”
“You always say that.”
“Because it’s true.”
“Fine, fine,” he said and yawned. “Snuggle me a bit longer.”
COLIN
I could feeleyes on me. No, not just on me, burning into the side of my head. Momentarily abandoning my sweet treat, I glanced over to see it was Xander staring me down as I sat atop a picnic table, quietly enjoying my ice cream.
“What?” I asked, a little self-conscious because sheesh, I knew it was ‘too early’ for ice cream as he’d grumbled at me when I’d bounced out of the truck upon seeing the ice cream shop on our way back to the outpost but it wasn’t like I was taking my sweet time eating it.
“Do you have to eat it like that?” he asked, the sandwich he’d bought from the same shop held in a clenched grip that threatened to squeeze its contents out one side.
“Eat it like what?” I asked, mystified.
“Like you’re fucking eating it right now,” he said with a scowl.
I looked at the ice cream, then back at him, then back to the cone. “You’ve lost me.”
“Just…eat your fucking ice cream so we can get back and make sure those fucking idiots haven’t burned the place down,” he grumbled.
I rolled my eyes, sliding my tongue around the ice cream because I’d been licking the other side previously. Everyoneknew that when you were eating ice cream, it was important to make sure you licked in perfect balance. “Ya know, if you hadn’t insisted we leave our phones behind, you could just text Cait and make sure they haven’t tied her up somewhere and taken over the place.”
They were full-grown men of reasonable intelligence and maturity, but pointing that out would have earned me more grumbling. Better to pretend they were half-feral and in need of strict monitoring.
Xander continued to glare at me. “We shouldn’t need our phones to take a few hours to run some errands. They’re grown men.”
“Well, maybe it’s time you started thinking of them like that all the time then,” I said, not caring if it irritated him that I was laughing at his hot and cold attitudes. “You’re such a contrarian. Look, either we should have brought our phones with us because they’re little boys who need Big Boss around to keep an eye on them. Get that look off your face; I’m not being dirty for once. Or…they’re grown men capable of taking care of themselves, so that means, yes, we should be able to have a responsibility-free few hours while we run a couple of errands. You can’t have both.”
“Shows how much you know,” he said, and his eyes narrowed when I took another lick.
Squinting, I watched him as I stuck my tongue out to run it along the creamy treat and then stopped when I saw his eyes follow the motion. Suddenly, his renewed grumpiness and bitching about the ice cream made more sense.
“What?” he asked when he saw me smirking.