Page 43 of Make or Break

His brows rose. “No worries on that front, babe. You hitting the shower first or am I?”

I dipped my ear toward my shoulder. “We aren’t showering together?”

“No. Pretty sure you fucked me dry - and that’s not a complaint. I’m not recovered from that yet. Sad to say.”

I stared into his rich brown eyes. “Tundra, we don’t have to fuck in the shower. But I get it, you need privacy.”

“I misspoke, gorgeous. If we shower together and you put your hands on me, I’m gonna get hard again. Then I’ll be dead to the world.”

To my chagrin, Tundra was in bed when I got out of the shower. I whipped up the covers, climbed in, and snuggled right up to him.

His arm wrapped around my shoulders like he’d done it a thousand times before and the look on his face said it was a reflexive act.

I stared up at him until he met my gaze. “I’m a snuggler. I hope that doesn’t bother you.”

His body jerked with his lone chuckle. “The day having your naked body pressed tight to mine bothers me - you can lay me in a grave.”

I bit back my beaming smile. “Are you sure? It’s like a drug for me. If there’s someone around, I’ll snuggle with them - though obviously not naked. I blame it on the tight quarters in mom’s womb. Ryan has always tolerated it, and Killian claims he’s only humoring me, but I can tell he likes it. I think it’s why he’s so flirty with women compared to Ryan. Not that it matters now that Ryan has Ivy.”

I was babbling…why was I babbling?

“There a reason you’re telling me all this?” he asked, astute as ever.

Because I wanted more. I didn’t want to hide - no matter how much I knew we had to keep it secret for a little while longer.

There were no guarantees that the club wouldn’t renege on the funding they’d fronted to me (and my brothers) for the restaurant. It had Lark’s name on it, but the business plan and a fair amount of the operational details were all me - like obtaining our trademark, planning menus, and scheduling bands. Lark was great at helping me navigate the real world issues I hadn’t anticipated with distributors and such, but if the brothers tossed Tundra out - there was no way could keep working there in good conscience. It would hurt like hell, but I’d have to walk away from the bar and grille that was quickly becoming my baby.

Bottom line: I’d never betray my man.

My man wasn’t really mine yet.

But from my stand point, we definitely had sticking power.

Tundra gave me a squeeze. “Mickayla… don’t shut down on me now.”

That squeeze made me feel squishy inside - a feeling I didn’t get too frequently. “I don’t like hiding what we have - but at the same time, I get it. No need for drama if we won’t work outside of physical chemistry, though with our many chats at the bar, I have a hard time believing that’s the case with us.”

“Agreed.”

I shot him a wan grin. “Keeping secrets from my brothers is hard for me or, no, it’s something I hardly ever do.”

He pulled his head back a touch. “They knew who you were seeing every single time?”

I twisted my lips in contemplation while I drew circles on his chest. I dug a man with chest hair, and the amount he had was simply perfect.

“Not necessarily when I dated in college, but if I went on more than one date with someone, I’d tell them the man’s name at least - mainly because they’re protective. And back home when we were in high school, they knew about everyone by default. Many guys were too scared to approach me. Most who did went to Ryan or Killian first to figure out how to talk to me.”

His body jerked (and mine did too) with his laugh. “Tell me you turned those pussies down.”

I smirked. “Yeah, but there were a couple who didn’t bother with Ry or Kill.”

“Bet that bugged them.”

“No. I rejected one because he thought he was God’s gift to women, and the other one didn’t last long.”

The alarm system chimed and Tundra’s body went rock solid.

“What’s wrong?” I whispered.