Page 87 of Claimed
He just smiles and steps to the door. “I’m going to help Ruin get the bed heated. I’m right outside.”
I drop my head to Onyx’s and kiss her forehead, my chest aching.
I should’ve known. Should’ve recognized the signs for what she is.
What she could be.
God, if I hurt her—
“Would you allow me to aid her?” Horan’s voice is low outside the open door. I raise my head to find him watching me. He has removed his shirt and is clad in a pair of acid-washed jeans. The faded blue fabric is tight over his muscular frame. But securely belted.
I pause.
Shutting off the water with my elbow, I step out onto the mat. He gives me room. I hold her out and he lifts her against him so that I can find towels. I dry fast. He holds her up so I can pat dry her skin before handing her back.
I take her out into the bedroom and the bed is covered in both thick blankets and even a thin one from somewhere. Tanner sits in the chair, his powerful frame only in jeans too.
Being as gentle as I can, I climb into the bed with Onyx in my arms and curl her into my front. The bed dips and I stiffen.
“Easy,” Tanner murmurs. He drapes the blankets over both of us before climbing onto Onyx’s other side and curling his body along her back. His silver eyes are pewter in the room’s cool twilight. “Nisha sends her love, Caine.”
My lips tremor. “Wanted to verify?”
“Asked if she wanted to come join, actually.” I look at him and his smile is feral. “What? I told you. We will help however we can.”
I huff and cinch Onyx tighter to me. The silence stretches. The bed dips again and I lift my head. Horan sits at the foot, rubbing his hands up and down Onyx’s legs. He doesn’t come any further, just uses his heat through the thick fabric to help keep her warm.
Gage crowds the doorway, a tray in his hands. “Room service has soup,” he tells me, “in Summer. Who knew?”
T snorts and even my lips curve.
The Fae male deposits the tray on the nightstand on the other side of the bed. “If you can get her to wake up, it’s hot.”
I nod. “Thanks.”
He doesn’t remark, merely sits on Tanner’s other side, his natural heat nearly as strong as mine or Horan’s. But the man is a walking torch, so there’s that.
“She seems smaller when she’s asleep,” Tanner muses. “Nisha is like that too. Up and moving, she’s like a damn storm. But asleep …”
“They are all like that,” Ruin says from the doorway. “It’s like a super power.”
Tanner chuckles. “Yeah. The power to keep us all pussy whipped.”
“I do not like that word,” Horan says into the quiet.
“Fine,” T amends. “We are their doting love slaves. Better?”
Horan rolls his eyes.
“Are you complaining?” I ask Tanner.
“Hell no,” he says with force. “Have you met Nisha?”
The others chuckle.
But his smile is almost boyish. Easy. “She is the best thing to ever come into my life and for some reason she fucking tolerates my stupid shit.”
“That is it exactly,” Gage remarks. “It’s wanting to please them for the joy they bring. Wanting to give them everything inside of you. Merely because of what they mean. What they are.”
