Page 31 of How to Hack a Hellhound
“No,” he answered quietly. “It was intimacy.”
I looked up at him, and his eyes were flames, but his face was calm. I might have freaked out, but he certainly wasn’t upset by my weird crying moment. In fact, he looked sort of… pleased.
“You look happy,” I accused.
“I’m holding you, and now I’ll get to stay the night and hold you, because sometimes humans want comfort after intimacy. It’s called aftercare,” he said proudly, pulling me close again.
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t need aftercare. We didn’t even do anything that needs aftercare,” I snarked.
“Maybe I need aftercare,” he murmured against my head.
I stepped back again and looked up at him. He wasn’t making fun of me.
“You look ridiculous,” I said. I knew it was totally bitchy, but I didn’t know what the hell else to say. I’d just jerked off while Liam watched, ordered him to do the same, had a breakdown in the shower, then cried into his shirt and rubbed my snot on him.
It was not my finest moment.
He just smiled and started unbuttoning his shirt. As much as I wanted to see his sexy body, I also felt weirdly vulnerable about it, even though I was naked, so I pulled the curtain aside and stepped out. I grabbed a towel, drying myself off while facing away from the shower. Liam shut the water off, and I heard the plop of wet clothes as he took them off in the shower.
I handed a towel over my shoulder, felt him take it, and muttered, “I’ll get you pants,” before fleeing the bathroom.
I threw on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, and I grabbed my loosest pair of sleep boxers for Liam. They might still be too tight, but any sweatpants I had would be way too short on him. I rummaged around for an oversized t-shirt I knew was in my drawer too.
Liam came into the room, miles of skin on display even with the towel wrapped around his waist. I threw the shirt and boxers at him and climbed into bed, facing away from him while he got dressed.
I wastotallybeing weird. I knew I was being weird, but I couldn’t help it.
I heard him getting dressed, and then he lightly touched my shoulder. “Slide over.”
I turned around and looked at him. “I sleep on this side,” I grumped, even though I usually slept wherever. I couldn’t seem to turn the snark off, though.
“I want to be between you and the door, my little hellcat. I’ll be able to get out of bed faster if there’s a need to,” he answered.
How could I argue with that? Ugh, why did he have to be so fuckingsweet. He shut off the light, shut the bedroom door, and slid into bed. I laid there stiffly until he grabbed me and pulled me close to cuddle me, his head buried in the back of my neck.
“You’re sniffing me again,” I complained, but I relaxed into his hold.
He sort of… purred? It wasn’t quite a growl, but it wasn’t really a purr like a cat either. I started petting his hand where it was wrapped around me.
“Did you watch?” I whispered.
“I did everything you told me to, my little hellcat,” he answered quietly.
I smiled into the darkness.
“And I think I did ruin my pants,” he mumbled, but that only made me smile more.
“Good,” I said, and then the warmth of his hold and his gentle grumbling put me to sleep.
I woke sometime in the night to a faint light and the feeling of Liam rolling away from me. I turned and looked up groggily to see Aiden in the doorway.
Ah, fuck. I hadn’t thought about Aiden. He looked surprised to see Liam there, and I could see him starting to turn away. Fuck.
Before I could say anything, Liam grumbled, “You have to go cuddle Quinton on that side of the bed. I sleep by the door.”
Then he pulled me over so he was on the edge of the bed and I was in the middle, and he flipped the covers off the side away from the door for Aiden to climb in.
I was still looking at the door, and Aiden hadn’t left, but he wasn’t moving to come in either.
