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Ugh. “I don’t want that.”
“Humble and fierce,” Jesse said quietly against his fist where it rested on his mouth.
“I’m being serious,” I grumbled. “This is a pointless conversation.”
Michio regarded me with a thoughtful gaze. “You don’t see what everyone else sees, Evie. You have a subtle luminousness surrounding you. It’s not just one thing, but the whole of everything inside you. It’s like a tactile glow that shimmers from you and inspires others to be better. You can lift a man from his lowest point without even trying.”
“You’re biased.” I rubbed my arm, my eyes pricking. “That’s your love talking.”
Roark cleaned off the toothbrush and passed it to Jesse. Then he turned to me and pressed a kiss to my lips.
“You’re doing what ye feared ye couldn’t do.” He stroked a hand over my belly, his r’s rolling from the front of his mouth. “That alone inspires us to stand tall in the overwhelmingly large and momentous future. Do ye understand?”
I nodded as his words settled around my heart. They admired me for bringing a child into this brutal world, knowing how much the idea had terrified me. It still scared me. The Oh-Jesus-what-the-fuck-am-I-doing? kind of terror. But I wasn’t doing it alone.
Roark dipped his head and kissed my lips. Sweetly, tenderly, his mouth caressed mine. The sound of Jesse brushing his teeth faded as I sought Roark’s minty tongue, melded against his lips, and fell into his kiss.
He tasted every inch of my mouth, and I opened for him, breathing him in, licking him with devotion and yearning. His oaky scent was my elixir, embedding itself in my skin and bringing my arousal to life.
His hardening length began to rise against my belly, and I whimpered. His fingers curled around my lower back, dipping beneath the waistband of my shorts and teasing the top of my butt crack. I shuddered as a wave of need clenched between my legs. I wanted his hot mouth there. And his cock. Fuck, I’d missed him so much.
When we came up for air, Michio was rinsing our communal toothbrush, his eyes watching us intensely in the mirror. He’d seen me kiss Roark countless times, but this time was different. He knew my intimacy with Roark had moved far past foreplay.
Jesse waited by the door with our bags. A moment later, Roark and Michio joined him.
Flushed and hungry, I met three pairs of eyes. I needed food. Wanted sex. I stood there, not speaking, just staring, unsure how to breach the topic Michio might not be ready for. He’d never shared me with another man, and we still hadn’t discussed what happened with Elaine.
With a tug at the hem of my shorts, I licked my lips. “I asked Shea to set up a room for us. With one bed.” I waited for a reaction and was met with steady stares. “The four of us sharing a bed.”
Jesse and Roark glanced at Michio, who stared at me with an unreadable expression. Was his temper burning behind that hardened mask? Was he dreading sharing me with two other men? Or was he nursing the aches he couldn’t outrun? My caged captivity? Elaine’s violation? His venom in my blood and its repercussions on me and the baby?
Whatever it was hovered like a thick cloud between us, begging to be shouted.
“I don’t need skin-on-skin contact anymore, but I still need you. All three of you.” I blew out a breath, frustrated that I was the only one willing to voice what we were all thinking. “You’re going to make me spell this out, aren’t you?”
Roark crossed his arms over his chest. “I rather enjoy watching ye struggle to ask for it, love.”
The corner of Jesse’s mouth twitched, his gaze on the floor.
Michio rubbed the back of his head and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “She’s tiptoeing because she’s worried about me.” He looked directly in my eyes. “For the four months I was separated from you, I thought of nothing but them taking care of you in every way. Trust me when I say it took most of those long months to replace my resentment and jealousy with contentment. I’ve found peace in the knowledge that they were protecting you and loving you when I couldn’t.”
He looked at Jesse and Roark, and they nodded, their eyes communicating mutual respect and understanding.
I walked toward Michio and reached up to tug his face down to mine. “What happened with Elaine?”
Out of the corner of my vision, I could see the questioning looks from Jesse and Roark.
Michio gripped my hands and pulled them down. “It’s in the past. That’s where we’re leaving it.”
“Ye told Link she was compromised.” Roark narrowed his eyes at Michio. “She’s still alive, out there somewhere. Is she a threat? Wha’s her involvement with ye?”
