Page 112 of This Reckless Home

Tina makes everyone’s favourite food for dinner, so we have an absolute feast and the guys eat as if they’ve been starved for the past few weeks. I can’t blame them, I bet the food was terrible and maybe they’ll talk to me about it, though today I got the feeling they just wanted to bask in being back home.

We all help put the kids to bed, each of us taking a couple to read stories and tuck in, though the kids demand the guys say goodnight to each of them which takes a while but no one minds.

I shut Sally’s door, turning and finding all three men starting at me. They take my breath away for just a moment, and then butterflies take flight in my stomach.

“I have a welcome home present of my own,” I confess, sucking my lower lip in.

“We didn’t need anything, Flower,” Steele assures me, reaching out and taking my hand in his. He brings it up to his lips and presses a kiss to the back of it. “Just you.”

“I know, but…” I trail off, taking a deep inhale. “Come with me?”

“Always, Bloom,” Ant replies, Nox giving a single nod with a look in his emerald eyes that sets my heart racing.

Keeping Steele’s hand in mine I lead them down the hallway, to my wing. I feel their confusion as I don’t stop at my door, but carry on to the end of the hall.

“Princess?” Nox asks as I stop in front of the final door, one that wasn’t here before they were arrested. “I don’t remember this door.”

“It’s new.” My hand reaches out, pausing on the handle as I take another inhale, then breathe out slowly. “I should have probably asked first. But I needed something to do with my hands while you were gone, or I was going to lose my mind.”

Steele’s hand gives mine a squeeze as I open the door and step inside.

My eyes sweep over the huge room, one made from several guest rooms and my old one. I decorated it like the rest of the house, off white walls with colourful furnishings. The crowning glory of this room is the massive bed, big enough to fit all of us every night so that we never have to be apart at night again if we don’t want to.

I turn, Steele’s hand dropping from mine as I look at them, watch them take in our space.

“I wanted us to have somewhere that was all of ours, that we shared. So that we didn’t have to sleep separately, unless of course you want to.”

“I don’t want to,” Ant states into the quiet, his gaze running round the room, noticing the door next to the one we came in from. “What’s that?”

I walk towards it, opening it up and showing him the giant closet that used to be my old room. “A closet for us all. I had your things put in there already.”

They all step closer, taking in the space where we each have our own areas, though admittedly mine is a little bigger. Nox walks in, and my cheeks heat when he immediately goes over to the drawers and pulls the top one open. He stills, then slowly lifts his head to look up at me.

“I see some of your scarves ended up in my section,” he says, his voice low and caressing. “As well as some new things.”

I give him a small smile. “Is that okay, Sir?”

One side of his lips tip up. “We’ll have to see, Princess won’t we?”

My breath stutters out of my chest, and for something to do, I point at the door at the end. “That’s our bathroom.”

Steele walks through the closet and opens the door, whistling. “Big shower and tub, Flower.”

My blush deepens as I walk up to his side. “I wanted to make sure we could all fit.”

His warm brown eyes lock with mine, a small quirk of his plush lips telling me he knows my meaning.

“I didn’t know if you’d want it,” I say, nervously wringing my hands in front of me. “I just needed something to do, something to make me feel close to you all.”

My chest tightens, my vision blurring and before I’m even fully aware of what’s happening, my knees start to buckle. I don’t fall, of course I don’t. Steele catches me, pulling me into his chest as my breaths become choppy and I cling to him like a lifeline.

He holds me like I weigh nothing, like this is the place I’m meant to be, and I bury my face into his shirt, breathing him in gulping breaths.

“I kept thinking,” I manage between rasps. “What happens if this is the room I built for men who never get to come home?”

“We’re here, Flower,” Steele assures me, his grip tightening until it almost hurts. But I welcome it, need it. To keep me tethered to him so he can never leave.

“We’re not going away, Bloom,” Ant adds from my right, his palms soothing up and down my back.