Page 371 of Immune

“There she is,” he murmurs against her. “Making demands and setting the atmosphere on fire while you do it.”

Dakota laughs, but it quickly bleeds into a moan when his hands slide over her hips.

Kaito moves next. He drops to the floor, kneeling in front of her, and the sight almost destroys the whole room. Kaito, controlled Kaito, on his knees with his eyes lifted to hers, hands resting on his thighs like he won’t take a single thing she doesn’t offer him.

Dakota looks down at him and her breathing changes again.

“Kaito,” she whispers.

“Say stop and everything stops,” he tells her.

“Don’t stop,” she breathes.

He nods and raises his hands to the waistband of her sleep pants. He waits for her nod before he does anything. Ewanhelps her stay upright as Kaito eases the fabric down her legs, careful over her wrapped knee.

Fletcher steps closer then, offering his hand to her for support. Dakota grabs his wrist, not because she needs the balance only, but because she wants him there. He makes a rough sound at the back of his throat before he tells himself more than her, “Easy.”

Dakota’s shirt follows quickly after.

Then Ewan’s.

Then mine.

Clothes disappear in pieces, not elegantly or smoothly. Someone’s elbow slams into the table and Ewan swears. Dakota laughs into my mouth as I lean in and kiss her again. Fletcher tears his own shirt off because the buttons piss him off and Dakota makes a sound so openly appreciative against my mouth that Fletcher’s restraint almost splinters at her feet.

“Fucking hell, Scar,” she breathes when she pulls away.

His smile is slow and dangerous. “Keep talkin’ like that and I’ll forget I’m tryin’ to be careful.”

“Maybe I’m tired of careful.”

Kaito’s head lifts sharply and Dakota sees it. She touches his face, trailing a finger over the bridge of his nose as she says, “I’m not asking you to stop checking. I’m just asking you to stop treating me like I’ll shatter if the wind blows against me all wrong.”

Kaito’s eyes soften.

Fletcher bends and kisses her. Deep and slow and possessive without possession. She melts into him with a moan that drags heat through all four bonds. Ewan groans behind her and Kaito exhales harshly against her thigh. I feel her through the bond and with my hands, every pulse and flicker of pleasure, every scared edge wrapped in need and want.

We lay her down together but no one crowds her. Not really. It should be impossible with five bodies on one bed, but it somehow works because every one of us is watching her. Following the shift of her mouth. The curl of her fingers. The sound she makes when she wants more and the silence that means wait.

Dakota lies back against the pillows, hair spread around her like a halo, and Maine’s hat on the pillow above her head like a strange little guardian. Her body is bruised and marked but healing, and she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life. And not because she’s unhurt, but because she’s here. Because she’s looking at us like she wants us more than her next breath and refuses to apologize for it.

Ewan kisses down her ribs, whispering absolute shit against her beautiful olive and pale-patched skin until she’s laughing and squirming.

“Stop making me laugh while I’m lying here naked and wet,” she gasps.

“Can’t,” he tells her. “It’s one of my gifts.”

“It’s a curse.”

“Ooh, a sexy curse?”

“That’s so debatable,” she says.

Then Kaito puts his mouth between her thighs and all debates leave the room entirely.

Dakota arches with a sharp cry, her hands flying to his hair, not pushing away but rather holding on for dear life. Kaito groans against her like the taste of her is unraveling him from the seams, and the bond between them grows dark and molten-hot, control quickly turning to worship. Ewan grips her hip and sucks a mark under her breast while Fletcher takes her mouth again, swallowing the broken little sounds she keeps making.

I kneel down next to her and let her pull me down until my forehead rests against her temple. Her pleasure hits the new bond in quiet waves at first, then they grow harder and deeper.