Page 42 of Fight or Fly

“We’re making a habit of this,” I told him, leading him toward the bed. “The three of us stuck in a cell together.”

“At least this time you can hold us properly, instead of sitting against the far wall with your dick out,” Kam put in. “The lack of untreated shrapnel wounds is a nice touch, too.”

I dropped Jax’s hand and toed off my shoes. The alpha pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a pained huff that might have been distantly related to a self-deprecating laugh.

“And I still can’t do a damned thing to keep you safe,” he said. “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”

Kam shrugged. “If it makes you feel better, we can’t do a damned thing to keep you safe, either. Life sucks.”

And then you die, I finished silently.

Jax raised an eyebrow at Kam. “You’re a real barrel of sunshine, you know.”

“That’s me,” he agreed.

“He’s loads of fun at parties,” I said, trying to lighten the mood. “You know, he once accidentally-on-purpose spilled a gin and tonic down my cleavage at a Foreign Office Christmas party, when we were competing for the same internship.”

Kam scowled at me. “That’s a gross mischaracterization and you know it.”

I shoved Jax into the center of the bed, pleased that he was distracted enough to allow it.

“All right, fine,” I said, squeezing in on Jax’s other side. “You only did it because my pheromone suppressor gave out early and you were trying to hide my scent before any of the betas noticed. Details, details.”

“I didn’t even want that internship!” Kam protested. “They were trying to foist it on me. I wasmorethan happy to let you have it.”

“’Let’?” I echoed, leaning into the banter even as I leaned into Jax’s side, curling a leg over his and reaching across his chest to tangle my hand with Kam’s. “You ‘let’ me have it?”

“Yes,” Kam said emphatically, mirroring my position on Jax’s other side. “Iletyou have it. You’re fabulous, Leo—but you had no idea how to employ omega wiles back then. Seriously—none.”

Jax’s arms came around our shoulders and tightened. “You’re both using them now. On me.”

I gazed up at him from beneath lowered lashes. “Is it working?”

He tugged me up far enough that he could press a kiss to my temple, and then my lips. Warmth crept through me from the point of contact, banishing some of the chill of fear that had been clinging to me. I watched as he pulled away and repeated the action with Kam, his movements tentative.

It occurred to me that this might well be the first time they’d kissed. Some of my memories were hazy, but I was pretty sure Flynn and Alex had been the ones to monopolize Kam during my heat.

Kam’s eyes fluttered closed, and his free hand came up to brush Jax’s cheek lightly. The stress-soured scent of Jax’s woodsy pheromones sweetened into musky arousal between us, and I felt an answering sensation of liquid heaviness growing within the cradle of my pelvis.

Maybe it was reckless since we had no real assurance that Irina had been telling the truth, but if this was to be our last night of privacy and togetherness, my body knewexactlyhow I wanted to spend it.

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