Page 84 of What We Become

Milo’s still inside me, still twitching with aftershocks, and he laughs against my mouth, breathless and wrecked. “I think I died. I think I actually died and this is the afterlife. Odin put a hot tub and sex room in heaven, it all makes sense now.”

“You’re not dead,” I say, rolling my hips just to feel him gasp. “But you might need to carry me inside. I don’t think my legs will work.”

“That can be arranged.” He slips out gentle, hands at my hips keeping me steady, and I mourn the emptiness immediately, but he quickly gathers me back against him and I’m cradled in the middle of a Milo and Holden aftercare bundle.

Across the tub, Micah catches my eye. He smiles—that soft, devastating smile that says he saw everything and loved all of it. Eli’s watching too, his eyes still warm, still present. Knox hasn’t moved from his spot, but his hand finds mine under the water, fingers threading through mine and squeezing once.

“Okay?” he asks.

I squeeze back. “Better than okay.”

And I mean it. I didn’t disappear. Not once. I stayed inside every touch, every choice, every filthy second of it.

“You know,” Milo starts when we’re all breathing normally again. “I really hope the filtration system in this thing is industrial grade. Because right now this is less of a hot tub and more of a jizz-cuzi.”

“Oh my God,” I say, moving fully into Holden’s lap.

“I’m serious. The PPM count alone⁠—”

“Milo, shut up.”

“Chemistry doesn’t care about your feelings, kitten.”

Knox dunks him. One hand on the top of his head, pushed straight under. Milo surfaces sputtering, hair plastered flat, mouth already open with a rebuttal that dies when Knox gives him the look.

“I think I just choked on semen,” Milo says, wiping water from his eyes.

“Consider it communion,” Holden says dryly.

That does it. I laugh so hard I nearly slide right off his lap.

Every man in the tub reacts at once—hands tightening, arms bracing, Knox catching my waist before I can do something stupid and concuss myself on cedar. The whole thing only makes me laugh harder, which is unfair because my ribs are still healing and my body is one giant exposed nerve ending.

“Okay,” Micah says, smiling despite himself. “That’s enough. Everybody stop making her laugh before we end up back with Doc McStuffins and need to explain this.”

“I’m fine,” I manage.

“You sound like you swallowed a harmonica,” Holden supplies.

I turn my head just enough to bite lightly at the inside of his wrist where it rests near my shoulder. “Rude.”

“Alive,” Holden says.

That one lands in me the way it always does now. A joke with teeth. A reminder dressed as banter. My smile softens around the edges.

Alive.

I lean back and look around at all of my men.

“You know,” I say. “I’m starting to think Odin had the right idea sending us out here. We should do this every night.”

“The hot tub or the orgasms?” Milo asks.

“Both. And I’d like to start using the sex dungeon too.”

“It’s literally just a room,” Eli says.

“Motion carried,” Holden says. “Unanimously.”