Rachel wrinkled her nose. “Um, I think I’ll pass, thanks.” Daryl didn’t blame her. She held out an envelope. “Asha came by and dropped off instructions for tomorrow. This was left for you two.”
Daryl took it and shoved it into his back pocket. “Thanks.”
“No problem. I was going to talk over tomorrow’s task with you, but it can wait until the morning.” She waved between him and Jason, who’d moved closer to the door. “I’ll let you get back to . . . whatever.” She turned to go, expression suddenly serious. “I won’t say anything.” When neither Daryl or Jason replied, she nodded, turned on her heel, and hurried back towards the stairs.
Daryl pushed the door closed, the click loud in the suddenly silent room.
He’d rather not have to address what they’d just done, and not done, but they had twelve more days together. It needed to be sorted. Cracking his neck from side to side, he turned to face Jason.
“Wow.” Jason’s soft laughter wasn’t what he’d been expecting, and he faltered.
“What?”
“You look like you’re about to give me the worst news ever.” He blew out a breath. “I get it, Daryl. You think what we did was a mistake and we shouldn’t do it again. Right?”
Daryl stared at him, eyes narrowing. “I do.”
“Hmm.” Jason walked towards him, stopping when only a few inches separated them. “Is that because you think it’s inappropriate behaviour for two betas? Or because you think it was all brought on by the task the council made us do, and what we’re feeling right now can’t possibly be real?”
Jason radiated heat. The scent of arousal still clung to him, making Daryl want to haul him in close and justbreathe.
He wasn’t one for lies, and he’d never been afraid of the truth. “Both. But regardless what brought this on”—he waved a hand between them—“we’re here to help Cam bring this pack together,
not potentially create more problems.”
Frowning, Jason tilted his head to one side, as though trying to work out what Daryl was really saying. “I’ll admit, circumstances may have pushed us together, Daryl, but why not let off a little steam, get rid of some tension?”
“That’s all this is to you?” Daryl’s eyebrows scrunched together when Jason shrugged. “You’d be happy to relieve a little tension here, then let things go back to how they were when we leave?” He heard the doubt in his own voice and wasn’t surprised. Jason had never hidden his feelings about bonding.
“Sure.” He offered Daryl a smile that seemed sincere enough. Daryl continued to stare at him until something in Jason’s mind seemed to click. “Ahh, you think I want to bond with everyone I have sex with?”
“No,” Daryl managed, but he knew his expression betrayed him when Jason laughed.
“Yeah, you do.” He pointed an accusatory finger at him. “You think if we have any kind of sex, then I’m going to be what? Pining after you? Is that the potential complications you’re imagining?”
Daryl blushed, knowing Jason had hit the nail on the head. “I don’t think you want to bond with everyone you fuck, no. But—” He fought to find the right words that wouldn’t make this already awkward situation any worse. “I know how you feel about bonds, Jason. I’ve seen the look you get whenever Alec talks about Mark. You want that.”
Jason shrugged. “I do. I’m not ashamed to admit it, either. But I’m neither stupid nor naive enough to think that anything like that would happen here. There’s no bond potential between us.”
The flare of hurt that statement caused was irrational, Daryl knew that, but he still had to stop himself from asking why. “Good.” The last thing Daryl needed was to make Cam two betas down because they were recovering from an uncompleted bond. Not that Daryl would ever let things get that far. He didn’t do bonds, didn’t ever let himself be that vulnerable to allow the beginnings of a potential bond to take hold.
Jason’s mouth curved up into a smirk. “Now we’ve cleared that up.” He ran a finger down Daryl’s stomach, touch no longer tentative, and cupped his surprisingly still half-hard dick. “Want to pick up where we left off.”
The temptation to say yes, to give in and take what Jason was offering, was stronger than Daryl liked to admit. But hardly surprising considering their close proximity and the myriad of scents swirling around them. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He moved out of Jason’s reach and pulled the letter out of his back pocket before sitting down on his bed. “Come on, let’s see what they’ve got in store for us tomorrow.”
A SCAVENGER HUNT.
That was what they’d spent part of the morning and most of the afternoon doing. Running around the vast forest searching for the mostly natural equipment needed to build a raft and get over the big pond not far from the lodge.
For this task, the teams had stayed within their units, with Daryl and Jason acting as moderators to check no one cheated or interfered with the other’s raft while they were out scavenging.
Daryl wasn’t exactly bored . . . well, no, that was bollocks. He was bored as fuck.
As moderators, he and Jason weren’t allowed to assist the teams in either the collecting of supplies or the raft building. He’d spent the last few hours alternating between sitting on a rock, watching Rachel’s team come and go, and pacing their section of grass.
Nathan laughed at his sour expression every time he brought something back to their spot.
Not that Daryl blamed him if his expression was anything like his mood.
