Page 75 of The Bonding Games: Part 2

After a humiliatingly long debate with myself last night, I decided to climb into bed at his back—no, I did not ask for help getting him into said bed, nor did I ask for help lugging him about in the shower as I attempted to wash him without being flattened. I am a fully independent woman, and I do not need anyone’s help.

In any case, I managed to do everything myself as expected in a perfectly acceptable amount of time for the task, and proceeded to fall asleep with my front plastered to his back and my arms wrapped around him.

Do not ask me what I was thinking; I do not know myself. All I know is that it felt nice, and that is what I am searching for to guide me while I figure out what to do with these men other than the obvious of keeping them and securing them to me tightly with no way to break the bindings, which I must say I have done an excellent job of. It may even be my greatest achievement to date.

“Hugging you, my pookie!” Tiger answers me brightly, grinning madly. I do like his smile very much.

I am not so sure about these ever-progressing nicknames.

“Please do not call me that,” I say without emotion.

“Okay, the love of my life, the apple of my eye, the . . . Gold to my Tiger!” The last part is no quieter than a shriek. “Oh my gawd! That one was so good, wasn’t it?!”

“Hm.”

“Ohhhh . . . you’re feeling cold this morning, Deadly Nightshade.” It is very obvious that this excites him.

“I am always cold,” I tell him.

“Even with my furnace of a body keeping you all snuggly warm?”

My lips purse, and I move on, not deigning to respond to that. “How are you . . . feeling?”

“Awww, your care is so adorab—”

I whack the back of his head.

“OW!”

He’s only rubbing at that head and pouting boyishly for a moment before he replies more safely this time with a drugged-looking lopsided smile, “Oh, Ezzy. I’m feeling on top of the moon. You see, I was deflowered last night by the love of my life”—one of those involuntary swirls of amusement slips from me, and he notably feels it through the bond as his eyes seem to become a handful of shades lighter than they already were as his bubble of happiness expands to bursting—“and now I’m all like . . . wow. Reborn.”

“I can feel all this through our connection, but I do so enjoy hearing it from your lips. Never stop talking.”

“Really?! I’ve had a few lumps of people over time who have told me I yap too much—”

“Who?” My voice is a seething lash of ice as I bolt upright.

Tiger blinks in a daze. Then he bats his thick blond lashes. “Oh, that was hooooot.”

My eyes narrow to thin slits. “I am not messing around, Tiger. I will pluck these names from your mind if I must. I will find them no matter how much you try to bury them so I cannot see—”

Shooting up, his mouth slams onto mine.

Stone still, I sit here like an idiot until he pulls away.

His expression is slightly laxer now, softer, and he says, “I really love how protective you are of me, but I really don’t care about those people anymore. I’ve got used to it, and comments hardly affect me anymore. All I care about is you and my brothers.”

I blink at him, registering what he is saying, taking his emotions from the bond, analysing and storing them all, understanding him. Then I say, “I will still be slaughtering them.”

His mouth pops open.

Before he can say anything else, I store my already-formed plans for the many future killing sprees I will go on for my wild one with the ones I will go on for the rest of my Bonds in the name of revenge, and I instruct, “Let’s go and have breakfast. I sense that my beast is not faring too well in my absence.”

***

When I round the corner in my Avri suit with Tiger bouncing along on my heels, I am met with Tate’s sullen expression and folded arms as he grouches at the dining table.

Until he looks up long enough to process the new arrivals, Scotty and Cooper pausing mid-sentence too, while Alby’s flush gradually expands to encompass the entirety of him, his fork with scrambled eggs on toast stuck to the end of it hovering in the air motionlessly.