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Lucien and Calder sat on either side of him, and Calder leaned over for a kiss. He smelled freshly showered, like hotel shampoo and soap. He also smelled a little like Lucien. Maybe he’d enjoyed some stolen kisses before they came down. He loved it when they kissed, loved that they’d slipped into an easy harmony.
They were his mates, his men, and he’d do whatever it took to keep them safe.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lucien dropped onto the love seat in Baer’s room, and a grin immediately stretched across his face when Gio settled on the arm at his right while Calder sat on the open cushion to his left. He’d never been one of those clingy, touchy-feely guys. He loved his space, but for some reason, when it came to Calder and Gio, he needed to keep them close. And it was even better that they seemed to feel the exact same way.
Calder yawned beside him and laid his head against his shoulder. “I think someone forgot to put caffeine in my coffee. Can we go back to bed for a couple of hours?”
Gio snorted on the other side of him. “If we go to bed together, we won’t get any sleep and you know it.”
Calder’s eyes were closed, but a devilish smile teased his lips. “Yeah, but we could sleep after.”
Someone close by huffed a laugh, and Lucien looked up to see Clay staring down at the three of them, his fists braced on his hips. The Earth Weaver and the rest of the Circle had arrived at the hotel barely half an hour ago and were now gathering in Baer’s room for a recap of recent chaos and discoveries. “When I asked that you two find a way to get along, I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting anything quite like this.”
Lucien arched one eyebrow at him. “Is this you complaining?”
“Nope, not at all. Just surprised.”
Calder lifted his head and looked at him and Gio before turning his attention to Clay. “We’re still figuring things out. We’re not rushing Gio into anything. We’ve got time.”
Clay glanced at Gio and nodded. “Yes, we’ve got time.”
There was a knock on the door, and Wiley bounced off the bed to open it. Grey, Cort, and Dane entered. Lucien clenched his teeth and cleared his mind. Clay and Grey didn’t know about the events at Gio’s parents yet, and he was hoping to break the news gently. But the presence of Grey tended to blow those kinds of plans out of the water if people were thinking too hard.
“Whoa!” Grey stopped right past the threshold and shook his head hard as if trying to knock something loose. “What the hell have you guys been up to?”
“What?” Clay demanded, turning toward the Soul Weaver.
“There were a lot of frantic thoughts, including a strange image of Gio running around with a rolling pin, and then a bunch of mental doors slamming shut. It’s very suspicious.”
Cort nodded. “Lots of guilty feelings in the room.”
Crap. Lucien had forgotten that Cort was getting good at reading them too.
Clay slowly turned back to the rest of the room, his narrowed eyes gliding over each of them. “What happened while you were here?”
“Nothing big. Everything’s fine,” Baer replied quickly. Too quickly.
“We just encountered some pestilents, but we took care of it,” Calder added. He squeezed a little closer to Lucien’s side.
Clay wasn’t buying it. He looked them over, one by one, pausing painfully on Gio for an extra second, before moving. He finally stopped at Baer and pointed. “Him. He’ll break.”
Grey moved closer and Baer yelped. Wiley immediately straddled Baer’s lap and captured his face in both of his hands. “Think about sex, baby. Think about that dirty, sweaty sex we had last night where you had me bent over—”
“Oh, God! Stop!” Grey cried out, covering his eyes. “I don’t want to see that!” Cort was choking on a laugh as he touched Grey’s head, likely helping him purge the visuals he was getting from Baer’s filthy brain.
Dane chuckled and came to stand next to his mate. “Apparently, they’ve discovered ways around your interrogation techniques.”
Clay’s scowl softened almost instantly when he looked over at Dane. “There are definite drawbacks to mates.”
“Maybe we should start with the fact that we’re glad they’re all safe,” Dane teasingly suggested.
“And bleach,” Grey muttered. “So much fucking bleach.”
Lucien dragged in a deep breath and shifted on the sofa so he was perched on the edge. Calder placed his hand on his thigh, while Gio was rubbing his shoulder. He was seriously beginning to wonder how he’d managed to get through life without these two always there in his corner.
“Gio’s parents invited us over for dinner last night since his family had discovered he was in town. The pestilents struck while we were at their house,” Lucien carefully explained.
