Page 45 of Hunting for her Heart
“Ohhh,” he says with a nod of understanding. “We sleep naked.”
My eyes widen and my mouth goes dry as I try to picture that. “You sleep naked.Together?”
Shaking his head, he explains. “No, we each have our own bed.”
“How does that work then? With a mate? Does she rotate?” I ask, feeling a little bold since he doesn’t seem to mind my questions.
“Once we’re officially together, we would share a large bed, all four of us.”
I nod, picturing the three of them surrounding me in a giant bed, naked. “Is that normal?” I ask. “Sleeping naked?”
He shakes his head again. “I don’t think so, not on the mainland, anyway. But that reminds me, Ronan told me he found something in the supply crate for you.”
I follow him over to their packs, and he rummages through one until he pulls out some soft pink fabric. When he holds it up properly, I see it’s a simple slip, with spaghetti straps and a very short hemline.
“I think this is for you to sleep in,” he says in his usual stoic, husky voice.
“That will be much better than wearing this thing,” I say, plucking at the neckline of my dress. It feels dirty and heavy, and I’m pleased I chose the simplest dress I could find when I put this thing on for the first time. “Thank you.”
He carefully folds it up and places it back in his bag as he asks, “Would you like to go for a swim now?”
I glance at my empty firepit. “Shouldn’t I help with the fire?”
“Ronan is grabbing wood right now. We can’t do anything without it, and when he returns, hecan build the fire.”
So Bo is hunting. Ronan is on fire duty… I glance up at Hawk. “So you’re stuck with babysitting me?”
His hazel eyes spark with something that sends my belly aflutter. “Watching you is the greatest task I could have.”
I bite my lip, and he turns to his bags again, pulling out a bundle of leaves. “How about that swim?”
I take the bundle from him and look around for a private place to change. “Come here,” he says, gesturing for me to follow him along the front wall toward the corner. Near the end, a rock juts out from the wall about three feet; it’s taller than Ronan, resulting in the very corner of the cavern being blocked off from the rest of the space, unless you’re standing right in line with the gap to see in.
“You can use this as your changing room while we’re here.”
“It’s perfect, thank you,” I tell him, feeling happy there’s some sort of privacy here.
“I’m going to change by our bags. I’ll meet you over by the water.” I nod, and he leaves me on my own. I don’t waste time, quickly removing my dress and foot coverings and putting on my leaf bikini. I forgot how little it covers, and feel nervous as I step out of my hidey-hole.
Hawk is already walking toward the water but stops short when he sees me, his eyes widening as they trail up and down my body. I drop my gaze as I wrap my arms around myself and step up to his side to stare down at the water.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers after a minute of silence. “You’re just so beautiful, it’s hard not to stare.”
“Thank you,” I whisper, when what I really want to say is‘so are you.’
I don’t know why I feel so nervous, but when Hawk holdsout his hand for mine, that simple action sends my heart racing. These men are everything I never knew I wanted: protective, loyal, caring, and gentle, and I worry that if I give in to that thing inside me that’s telling me to trust them, to give myself to them, then I’ll never be able to tear myself away, and I’ll never see my sister again.
And as I stare down at his hand, I ponder the impossible question: what if finding my sister means losing out on love?
Chapter Fifteen
Hawk
She stares at my hand for so long that I start to worry something is wrong. Every other time we’ve reached for her, she’s come straight away. It’s as if her mind has gone somewhere else.
I wonder if it’s just me she’s hesitating for, but then I recall how relieved she was to see me when we found her in the woods.
I try not to clench my hand into a fist at the thought of losing her, and what almost happened. It was my fault she was taken from right under my nose. We would have found her faster if our minds had been steady. But in the panic, it was hard to figure out which direction she was being taken.
