Page 17 of Alive and Kicking
I turn to face him fully and start tying the strings on my shorts as I talk to him. “Well the meeting isn’t until noon, so I figured we could get some training in with Enzo before that. Then we’ll have the meeting where the announcement will be made and I’ll name my selections for promotions, followed by the after party. After that, we come back here and hold down the fort. Nobody from outside should attack while we’re here and there shouldn’t be a problem inside, but it’ll be best to keep up our guard.”
Nox swallows hard before nodding his head. He doesn’t respond to that at all as he forces himself to look away. The way he robotically walks out of the closet almost makes me laugh out loud. When I follow him, I find Zane already in his pajamas and Sloane stripping down to his boxers. Cain is nowhere to be seen, though the bathroom door is now closed, so I assume he’s in there. Zane practically skips over to me, pressing a hard kiss to my lips, and I find myself melting into him. He pulls away almost as quickly as he approached, and it takes effort not to fall on my face without his support.
“Night Viv,” he murmurs, before climbing up the ladder to his bed.
Suddenly Sloane is in his place, pressing a chaste kiss to my lips. It’s soft and gentle, unlike how he normally is whenever he has a chance to get his hands on me. And when he pulls away there’s a smirk on his lips. “Sleep tight, babe.”
I watch despondently as he gets into the top bunk of his and Nox’s bed. As I make my way toward my bed, I’m suddenly wondering if there’s any way I can talk them into a threesome. The books Zane’s been getting me have been teaching me some new positions and I’m dying to try them out. The only issue is that since all the books he gets me are reverse harems, a lot of the spicy scenes involve a group of devoted men worshiping the female main character. Nox and Cain just aren’t there yet unfortunately.
Cain exits the bathroom wearing a T-shirt and pair of boxer shorts like Zane usually wears to bed. Nox is the next one to go into the bathroom and I hear the shower turn on while Cain settles himself on his bottom bunk and I walk over to switch the light off. Climbing into bed, I settle myself in with the blankets pulled up to my chin.
My eyes close and… nothing. I roll over trying to get comfortable, but I just lay there in silence. Rolling over again, Isigh softly to myself. The bathroom door opens and Nox shuffles out on almost silent feet. He makes his way across the room, pausing near the bunk beds. I peek out at him as he looks at his bed and then over toward where I am. It takes him a couple more moments to make a decision, but eventually he turns his back on the bunk bed and makes his way to the other side of my bed.
I wait till he pulls the covers back and settles into the mattress beside me before I roll into his side. He startles at my movement, but cuddles into me. Warm breath fans across the top of my head as he buries his nose there. With his warmth sinking into me, I finally feel like I can fall asleep.
They’ve made me into a cuddler. It’s not a common thing anymore for me to sleep without at least one of them. Usually, Nox sleeps in my bed and then Zane or Sloane will sneak in after he falls asleep. A kiss is pressed to the top of my head as I drift off, and Nox mumbles something that I don’t quite hear as everything fades away.
Cain
Iglare at Nox, still sleeping in Viv’s bed. She already got up and is in the shower. Nox however, is still sound asleep in her bed even though the rest of us are awake and moving around the room. I knew that he’d been sleeping with Viv, but I didn’t realize that he had actually been going virtually comatose. Nox never sleeps well. He’s been an insomniac for as long as I’ve known him. The fact that he’s sleeping through Zane chattering about how much fun it was to sleep in bunk beds like children again is strange.
Viv exits the bathroom in a cloud of steam, her wet hair falling over one shoulder in waves. The thing that surprises me though is what she’s wearing. Skintight pants and a cropped work out shirt. Why does she always have to wear such enticing things to work out. But at least this is a little better than the sports bra she was wearing the day I accidentally walked in on her and Zane.
I watch, mesmerized as she walks over to her bed to frown down at Nox. Without even hesitating, and before I can warn her, she launches herself on top of him. Nox wakes in an instant and wraps his hand around Viv’s neck, flipping her so she’s under him. I’m not really sure what I expected Viv to do, maybestruggle or cry for help. Something someone normal would do when being choked.
But she doesn’t do either of those things. Instead, a soft moan leaves her parted lips. Her face pinkens and slowly turns a deeper shade of red as Nox’s hand doesn’t lighten up. The idiot is still half asleep. I notice Zane approaching them with a thunderous expression on his face just as Viv smirks. I’m not sure what she does, but after some kind of maneuver with her hips, Nox is suddenly under her with his hands pinned above his head.
His eyes slowly clear and he becomes aware of what’s going on. His eyes zero in on the red marks appearing on Viv’s neck and his entire face goes ashen as horror slowly starts to spread across his features. Viv smiles down at him before leaning in and pressing her lips to his in a hard kiss. When she pulls away, her eyes are heavy lidded as she gazes down at him. “Let’s save the foreplay for another time. Okay?”
Nox swallows hard before giving her a quick nod. Viv gets off of him, leaving him on the bed breathing hard before looking over her shoulder at him. “Hurry up and get dressed. I want to watch Enzo kick all your asses.”
Sloane scoffs, “Not likely.”
The rest of us nod in agreement with him while Viv raises her brows with a twinkle in her eye. It’s the same look she gave me when I agreed to that race, the one she knew she would win. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Nox takes a moment before he gets to his feet. He doesn’t even bother taking his stuff to the bathroom as he tugs on a T-shirt and a pair of shorts over his boxer briefs. Viv grins at us as she waits by the door, and when we’ve all got our clothes on we follow her out of the room. It’s still a little jarring to walk through the elaborate house. I’ve seen similar homes belongingto criminals, but Viv never really gives off the impression that she grew up in a house like this.
Zane must be thinking similarly to me because he catches up with Viv. “When we get married, I don’t want to live in a huge house like this.”
Viv turns her head to look at him. “There’s a smaller house on the property we can stay at when we’re here. It just hasn’t been outfitted for the level of security we need yet through.”
Zane smiles brightly at her. “That’s good. This house is just way too big. How would we keep track of all the kids.”
I almost trip on my own foot. I take it back, he’s definitely not thinking similarly to me at all. I forgot that he is actually certifiably insane for a moment. Viv keeps walking, not even skipping a beat, like what he said was completely fine. She just gives him a shrug like that’s answer enough.
Viv takes us down a few flights of stairs before leading us to the back of the house. When she pushes open a heavy door that opens to a narrower staircase, I follow a little more cautiously. It’s not that I think she’s leading us to a trap, it just seems like a bad idea for an ex-FBI agent to walk willingly into the basement of a mafia family.
The stairs let us out into a wide underground room with tall ceilings. Most everything is white, except the floor, which is made of perfectly level epoxy flooring. There’s a corner filled with exercise equipment, and across the room from that is a wall covered completely with mirrors and thick matts covering the floor.
Enzo is already there. His treadmill comes to a stop as he holds both ends of a towel that’s draped across his shoulders. “Hey Vivy! Did you bring your boy toys to learn a thing or two?”
Zane bounces on the balls of his feet with a wide grin like this is the best thing that has ever happened to him. But I don’t share the sentiment. There are a million other more pleasant things Iwould rather do than spar with the fucking Slayer. The fact that he’s now picked Viv up and is spinning her in another dizzying hug has got a tick forming in my jaw. I know I don’t need to protect her from him, but there’s knowing and then there’s seeing a man with that much blood on his hands touching her.
I don’t realize I’m glaring at them until Nox jabs his elbow into my ribs. I shoot a glare at him but manage to smooth out my expression when I turn back to the others. Viv is now talking to Enzo while waving her hands in the air, and she sends a dreamy look over her shoulder at Nox as we make our way closer to them. “… just twisted his neck like it was nothing. It was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” Viv tells Enzo adamantly.
Enzo’s face scrunches up in disgust. “Eww. Don’t tell me ‘bout your weird ass kinks. There’s some things I just don’t wanna know.”
Viv rolls her eyes at him. “Well it was. Anyway I want to learn how to do that.”
